You'll Be a Song I'll Sing

wikipedia

Poll #1499512
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 3

Have you read this book?

If Yes, how do you rate this book?

If No, do you intend to read this book?

*2 years ago: Nova*

So I've been playing Lord of the Rings Online for the last three or so weeks. I have enjoyed it thoroughly and they I hit 30 and geezus, the wheels just fly off the game. You go from these wonderfully crafted and familiar places in Middle Earth into, well, some of the worst zones I can think of in any game. I will try to continue to slog through, at least through to the first expansion and see if they've learned anything.

WoW remains kind of dull to me. I have a half dozen or so people I really enjoy working with on my server, but they're all in a guild that I really kind of actively dislike. It's not bad, just foreign. And I remain guildless. BTW you get a lot of tells if you're an unguilded 80th healer with good gear.

The new LFG tool in WoW is pretty impressive. I press a button and I am in an instance with a group. I've only done one group, but for giggles I checked various characters to see how fast I might get groups and really, it's almost instant with any healer. I waited a few minutes for a DPS role for my 63 druid and got no nibbles, but it's instantaneous if I want to tank or heal. The tanking part is tempting as my gnome is 60. I might use the druid as a healer to "scout" the instances so I can remember them, then tank them on Numtini. I love to tank, but I just don't play any game enough to just "know" all the instances.

Check out the review.

...with Blanket of White.

From scottish_like, a new entry in Our Terrifying Future: octopi are now using tools. More alarmingly: they are specifically capable of manipulating coconut shells, which allows them to access a dizzying array of human technology. What I'm saying is, we need to get the dolphins back on our side now.

So my six turquoise rainbowfish have settled in and broken out into wonderful blues and yellows. I have gone a little heavy on the feeding, figuring it would make up for any lack of "waste" in getting the nitrogen cycle started. But nothing. My ammonia is absolutely zero, which is good for the fish, but confusing. Nitrites and nitrates are also zero. Even if the cycle is fully established, the nitrates should be going up.

For those who don't know aquaria, waste either rotting food or fish waste produces ammonia, bacteria convert the ammonia into nitrites, and then other bacteria convert that into nitrates, then plants eat the nitrates. Or more likely, if you don't have live plants, water changes keep the nitrates down. So with a new tank, your ammonia should spike, then go down while your nitrite spikes, then that should go down and nitrate should go up. With the fish and no water changes and some bits of rotting food (they're horribly sloppy eaters) I should be having a major ammonia spike, but I'm getting nothing. I did add a batch of bacteria filled water when I started the tank, but even if it was established, I should be getting nitrate since I have no plants.

The best I can think of is there are some little sproutlings of plants in the tank from millet seeds which had fallen into it during shipping or at the pet shop or wherever. Maybe they're eating the nitrates in their heavy growth phase?

So one of the things we did this weekend was go through a lot of house plans and look at what we liked and didn't like, particularly from local builders. While we're still not even sure we're staying, we're starting to think about building on Janna's parents place and if we do that, what exatly do we want? And what exactly can we afford?

This so far is a local builder's model that I'm very very fond of. We found it two places, the PDF of the specs from the builder, and also a completed model that's up as a rental house. It's it's about the right size that we were thinking of at 1700sq feet--which would bring the total between the two houses to only 2500 sq feet which hopefully will keep the zoning board of appeals happy.

The funny part is before we'd seen the rental model, I'd already picked out a change I wanted to make which was to add skylights, exactly where they're located in the rental. We'd also want to lose the deck and probably the fireplace which is way too dominant in a room that size. But the house has almost everything we're really looking for. We want a two floor house with the bedrooms upstairs. We want a den or office on the main floor. We want some architectural highlights, which the knee walls create for us. And we want a casual but reasonably sized dining area directly off the kitchen and filled with light. And yes, on that kitchen/dining area, we are in fact children of the 1970s. Any other snarky questions?

We need to find some other places and look at options and we still need to figure out the hoops we need to jump through, probably talking to an attorney. But it's at least a start.

I just heard back from Tyree at Sam’s Dot Publishing and Shades of Green has had its release date bumped a little bit to February 1st, 2010. What’s a bit more exciting is that it also has a cover now.

Mitch Bentley was the cover artist.

I think it says something about my geekiness that I was all like ‘Squee! I love that font, where can I find it?’. Because I do, and I was.

Originally published at Rhonda Parrish. You can comment here or there.

I had kind of an odd dream last night ... Alice Henderson and I were recruited to co-write a media tie-in novel. The thing was, the tie-in was to be based on a 2009 video game that was based on a 2007 horror movie that was a re-make of an 80s horror movie that was based on a 1970 novel that was an expansion/retelling of a 1960s short story.

Because of convoluted rights issues, we were specifically supposed to base our novel on just the elements of the game and ignore everything else that had come before. And they were offering us a wacky amount of money to do this, because the game had gotten super-popular. We were both terribly conflicted, because we had both read and loved the original 1970 book and ethically felt that the company should simply acquire the rights and re-release it instead, but on the other hand we really needed the work.

And then we were attacked by opera-singing bears.

• 09:30 DEXTER really surprised me! Amazing episode! #
• 09:30 TERMINATOR SALVATION: Meh. #
• 09:33 Hurt my wrist and back lugging my 27" iMac up one flight of stairs... *sigh* Won't have time to switch computers until Thursday... #
• 10:41 BLANKET OF WHITE: The perfect Holiday Gift: www.crimsonscreams.com/collection.htm #
• 11:04 Win a Macbook Pro from @DealsPlus. Details here: bit.ly/7kMWCB #
• 14:09 My new avatar is my cat Scooter posing in the Christmas Tree! #
• 14:52 Am hammering out the details with a new SEO client. #seo #
• 16:02 Sometimes I think the universe hates me...Prospective Web Client sent me an Excel doc in 2008 format. #
• 16:03 Can't view it until I set up the new iMac. Should try to do that tomorrow... #
• 16:32 D'oh! My COBRA payments just shot up to $718.47!!! Merry Christmas... #
• 17:23 2 million people tuned in for DEXTER last night! A new record for Showtime! #
• 18:35 5 Behaviors of Manipulative People: shine.yahoo.com/channel/life/5-behaviors-of-manipulative-people-549848/ #
• 21:30 Your creativity knows no bounds today, but the trick is going ... More for Leo twittascope.com/twittascope/?sign=5 #
• 07:18 Everyone may want to know what your secret is today because yo... More for Leo twittascope.com/twittascope/?sign=5 #

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From time to time, I get an e-mail or a comment from male readers who enjoyed my goblin books, but are hesitant to pick up Stepsister Scheme or Mermaid’s Madness because they look like they’re for girls.

My reaction to this is all over the place.  The goblin books went over well with younger boys, and I can understand why a teenage boy might be hesitant to walk around with a book that has three women surrounded by swirling pastels on the cover.  I also think it sucks that we’re still raising boys to think it’s shameful to be caught reading something “feminine,” but having been a teenage male myself, I can understand that reluctance.

I like the cover for Mermaid better, less because we lost the pastels, and more because I think it’s just a great image.  But I still get the questions.  This is obviously a book about three girls, so doesn’t that mean it’s written for girls?  (Much as Name of the Wind was written for red-haired boys, and the Zombie Raccoons anthology was written for decaying scavengers.)

I’ve said in multiple interviews that I wrote Stepsister for my daughter, in response to the Disney/Barbie princess infestation we went through at the house.  So in a way, these books are written for girls.  Or at least for one girl.  Which means … what, exactly?  I don’t even know what a “girly book” is.  I assume it’s shorthand along the lines of:

Boy Books = Action/Adventure; Girl Books = Romance
Boy Books = Plot/Idea-centric; Girl Books = Character-centric
Boy Books = Explody things on the cover; Girl Books = Chicks and pastels

There’s value in being able to find the kind of books you want.  If you’re into character-oriented fiction, you want to be able to discover those books in the store.  You don’t want to buy a book, take it home, and discover that what you thought was an action-packed vampire adventure is actually a 400-page relationship angst-fest.  I get that.  But trying to classify those preferences by gender, with all of the stereotyping and judgement that goes with that?  It doesn’t work for me.

Josh Jasper wrote a piece over at Genreville about genre shame, and about being male and reading romance novels.  “Why should I be ashamed of reading something fun when women aren’t?  The answer is that I’m afraid of being judged by people I don’t know, whose opinions don’t really matter, about something they have no real business judging me over.  Social conditioning is strange and stupid.”

When you ask me if Mermaid and Stepsister are girly books, the answer is that I don’t even know what that means.  I don’t want to know.  I can’t tell you whether or not you’ll like the books, but I can try to give you an idea what they’re about and let you make your own decision.  In a nutshell, the princess series is about:

Fighting and magic and family and fairies and revenge and unrequited love and requited love and hairy trolls and sailing and a three-legged cat and flying horses and wolves and drunk pixies and sewer goblins and enchanted swords and mermaids and friendship and ghosts and strong women and not-so-strong women and also some men and birds and rats and lots of ass-kicking.

It’s bad enough we still try to force people into fairly rigid gender roles.  Do we really have to do it to books too?

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

OK, so holiday shopping is upon us, so I thought I'd reiterate some of the holiday deals I mentioned earlier this year.

First, I thought I should remention that all three of the books are available on Kindle now, for all of the Kindle lovers out there. Here are the links to the kindle versions: The Skewed Throne, The Cracked Throne, and The Vacant Throne.

All of the books are now, as far as I know, available in all other electronic formats as well. Go forth and download them!

And now for the dead tree versions. I'm currently running a few holiday specials, one for hardcovers and one for paperbacks:

Hardcover Deal: You can buy all three hardcovers of the books for a total of $30! That includes shipping.

Paperback Deal: You can buy all three paperbacks of the books for a total of $20! That includes shipping as well.

If you're interested in any of these deals, contact me at jpalmatier@sff.net and we can arrange payment and get address info, etc. Individual hardcovers and paperbacks are available as well at $15 and $8 respectively (shipping included). Just let me know what you're interested in! All prices are for the US shipping only. I can give you a quote for international shipping if you get in touch with me.

Happy holiday shopping everyone!

*********************

MadLab
105 N Grant Ave
Columbus OH 43215
madlab.net

( In this We're Moving On Up issue: 1. This Is Our House 2. I Will Miss The Abyss (and putting tape over it) )

From the Dispatch:

For the first time, the region's planners are asking residents of 12 counties to participate in planning for transportation, land use, economic-development and environmental and energy issues.

The Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission aims to finish its "Shaping our Future" plan by 2012. Included are the usual Franklin, Delaware, Licking, Fairfield, Pickaway, Madison, Union counties

And this time, it is adding Morrow, Marion, Knox, Ross and Fayette counties.

Short survey for Central Ohio residents.

I feel that my entry rocks this year, so I asking you to read and if you like it, click on the link below and vote for me!
http://community.livejournal.com/therealljidol/280542.html.
The poll ends Tuesday at 8pm EST!

wikipedia

Poll #1499011
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 11

Have you read this book?

If Yes, how do you rate this book?

If No, do you intend to read this book?

*2 years ago: Modesty Blaise*

• 12:18 Got a Christmas outflt last night and had a nice dinner with my parents at a Chinese/Japanse Buffet. #
• 12:19 Scooter posed for me in the Christmas Tree this morning! Will make it my avatar tomorrow! #
• 12:39 Am heading back to Brooklyn later on this afternoon. Can't wait for the final DEXTER of the season tonight! #
• 07:10 Your creativity knows no bounds today, but the trick is going ... More for Leo twittascope.com/twittascope/?sign=5 #

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Saturday was my wife’s birthday, so much of the weekend was spent doing things like making breakfast for her and the family, going out to birthday dinner with my parents, then going out to lunch the next day and watching a movie with just the two of us.  As a result, I spent zero time on things writing-related.  Nothing on Snow Queen, nothing on the new series proposal, and nothing for the blog.

Instead, have a picture of Flit with multicolored eyes beneath the Snoopy-infested Christmas tree.  (Is anyone really surprised by the Snoopy addiction?)

And as long as I’m posting pics, here’s the artwork Socchan did from my story “The Creature in Your Neighborhood.”  She drew this during my reading at Icon, and I’m most impressed.  That’s Rolly (after his breakdown), the Mall Rats, Peter the Pretendisaurus, and poor Tommy the Tuba.

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

We want to get a Frazer Fir tree. Lowe's has them for $35, but those ones are a bit large for our taste. Anyone know of a lot or other place where we could get a better deal? Thanks!