I will be arriving at Wiscon on Friday afternoon/early evening. I have many things to say beforehand!

So.

1. If y'all still want to go on a piercing expedition, speak up now! Sunday is a good day for me right now.

2. If anyone still wants to do an Omikuji Party, speak up now!

3. I FINALLY have copies of The Grass-Cutting Sword, my remaindered book! Rather a lot of them, really. So, if you find me at Wiscon, you can buy any of my books you lack from the dealer's room or me, and especially that one. If you've contacted me about mailing you copies, please re-contact me. (I also believe in barter. My heart's work for yours--taking offers.)

4. My reading, with Dora Goss, Pat Rothfuss, and Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu is on Saturday at 2:30 at the Fair Trade Coffee Shop--this is a great time to find me. I even have time for coffee afterwards.

5. If you want a dinner/lunch/breakfast with me, speak up now, and reserve a meal. Saturday breakfast is taken.

I think that's it. I will be there. You should be too.

Current Mood: busy

I am currently spelling "bliss" N-E-W-M-E-X-I-C-O.

In addition to Rio Hondo being full of wonderful people, amazing food, snowy mountains, great writing and goofy Japanese movies, I spent my last extra day in the Southwest at Melinda Snodgrass's jaw-droppingly gorgeous house, eating Mexican food I had forgotten I loved so much, talking about folklore and family and screenwriting (and oddly saying "Hey, wouldn't it be great if RTD quit and gave the series to Moffat?" Here's to everything else we said coming true!)

The Rio Hondo kids fixed my book. No joke. (Which book? Check icon.) I went from deeply depressed about it to deeply excited. And as if a fabulous, productive critique by people at the top of their game wasn't enough, Melinda and bram452 (a god among men, who has such a precise way of talking everything that I could listen to him for hours) and I broke down the plot into itty-bitty glittery pieces and built it up again at a cafe before my flight, and it rocks so hard now it could cut glass.

It's almost enough to make me move there--I never knew how great it could be to hang out with other awesome writers, to work on snarly things together, without ego or competitiveness, just the desire for great books to be in the world. Too bad about the total lack of water.

*wheels about and squees*

Current Mood: accomplished

It would seem that while I was gone, the world went crazy and decided to give us all a big slice of awesome cake.

RTD quit. And gave the series to Moffat. My faith in God and Man is restored. Halle-fucking-lujah.

It was sheeting snow this morning in the Sangre de Christo mountains, so we are all of us wrapped up warm in the highest room in the lodge, where the remaining wireless network is still working, watching the frozen waterfall and making the Lunch of Champions: Swiss Miss and Ruffles. It's like a late birthday present--snow in May!

The ice came banging off the roof in about 30 seconds of consecutive rows of solid snow falling like Tetris pieces. To the soft thud of the snow-bars, I learned about Jack Vance, why too many colors is bad, and not to forget your notebook when listening to geniuses talk.

Also, via workshop this morning, I was introduced to the work of one of my new favorite writers, Ian Tregillis. Check it, kids. He rocks. Also his website is retardedly gorgeous.

Things have been quiet. I keep wanting to work on the new novel, but staring at the mountain seems so much more productive.

In conclusion, I present you with a picture of our current outside (via Maureen McHugh) and a question:

Should I just chuck caution (and other things) to the wind and write an epic fantasy with a magical sword and a Dark Lord? 8 Ball says...

Current Mood: cold

I haven't had a hotel room to myself in ages. At a con, if I'm not with justbeast, I'm rooming with someone to save money. It's so strange, to be alone in this clean room that isn't really mine, but temporarily tolerates my presence. It's a calming thing, though isolating. I miss my beast, his constant presence, even when I am off arguing silly things on panels--the hotel room is where I am always grounded, always loved and known. So I have an instinctual response to such conglomerations of bed + table + desk + TV, but now the source of the love and grounding and knowing is not here, and it is just a strange space. But I still feel a little of that grace, even alone.

There is a little waterfall outside my window, and a river in the canyon below. I can hear rushing water all the time. We lost power today, and so I spent most of the afternoon reading and sleeping. I'm cooking for the lot tomorrow, and am slightly nervous, as Walter Jon Williams and Maureen McHugh have been on dinner duty so far, and produced kingly feasts. I hope I can not screw it up.

Many long conversations on books, the writing of them and the reading of them, have spooled out already. And when they stop, I feel like a poor kid at the candy store window who saved up all her money for one little toffee, but is still so hungry. I miss this. There was a time when this was a daily part of my life, talking about literature and criticism and what books should be and do and what we settle for and why. A time when books mattered so much to everyone I knew that to love them--more than love, to be devoted to them--was not an idiosyncrasy. It doesn't happen offline (the online world is wonderful, but it doesn't really satisfy, ultimately) too much these days, except with justbeast, or the occasional manifestation of an online person in the too-brief flesh. I hang with people who love books, but not really the kind of books I love, not the way I love them, and the joy I take in criticism and the apparatus of studying books is something I don't get to let out play at all anymore.  Geekdom comes in many flavors, and I have broadened my horizons in the last few years...and lost the sandbox, lost the safe and vibrant spaces I used to love to play in myself. This week is like being thrown into a mountain pool after being allowed one drop of water every day for five years. I'm just so stupidly grateful.

Current Mood: awake

I have arrived in Taos, New Mexico, rather far above Taos, actually, and am firmly ensconced in the Snow Bear Lodge with the rest of the Rio Hondo writing workshop. I have a lovely room all to myself in which to work, a fabulous multi-head (is there anything which could not be improved by the addition of "multi-head") shower, and wonderful, brilliant people. I feel remarkably peaceful and ready to have my work torn up and to make more in this not-very-little room.

Which came with its very own faceless stone neolithic Bear statue on the writing desk. I take this as an excellent omen, and I have named him Augustine, and he has assured me that he can help me with structure.

I also have Reliable Internet Access, and so vow to post frequently. If my car-conversation with bram452 on the way up is any indication, this will be a fascinating week, and like the dork I am, I can't wait to learn! It's like the first day of school, only without math.

It is beautiful here, to say the least. The mountains remind me of the Sierras, and all the trips we used to take to Boreal and Strawberry Valley when I was a wee one. It's not exactly the same climate, but the smells are similar, and the feel of sitting on the roof of the world. There is still snow on the ground, and it is quite cold. Nevertheless, I'm already going barefoot. I am a more comfortable human without shoes.

When I landed in Jamaica, I felt absurdly like Johnny 5 in Short Circuit: all my dishes and antennae out, eager for input. Same thing here, but with brisk winds and mountain stars instead of hibiscus and turquoise water. But it makes me prickle and thrill and feel alive.

I'm so glad I came.

 

Current Mood: thankful

Incidentally, the IAF, the wonderful people who brought you Interfictions and the Orphan's Tales Road Show, are having an auction.

In it, there are a few fabulous necklaces based on my Interfictions story, "A Dirge for Prester John." Which will one day be a novel, maybe even a series, if anyone ever gives it enough love.

Go check it out--it is of the awesome.

Thank you to everyone for making my 29th special, most particularly vrax, s00j, omnisti, tithenai, and passionandsoul. Sisters and shipmates, you know?

There are pictures of the Epic Sooj Birthday Concert of Ninja Doom here.

I felt like quite the Mama Orca, feeding my pod with meatloaf--turns out that what you feed the jet-setting Lebanese-Canadian girl who has eaten everything are the exotic dishes of the "loaf" school of cuisine--and cuddling with everyone. It was a lovely time. Thank you to everyone who sent their wishes, and to blazepoet, yakavenger, and earthenwood for sending pretty presents! earthenwood, how did you know I'm obsessed with keys? ;)

Unfortunately I followed that right up by losing my brand-new purse. Perhaps this is a cosmic message to get an Ohio license already. Urrrrgh.

I'm in Columbus Saturday for the Ohioana Festival, and leaving for Taos on Sunday for the Rio Hondo workshop. Hopefully there will be internet access there so I can post at leisure about what I learn--I'm really looking forward to this, as it is my first serious workshop experience.

Until then, I work and work. No rest for me, wicked or no.

Current Mood: exanimate

So it's my birthday, and there isn't a better time for announcements. In this case, announcing Happiness with a capital H.

justbeast and I are getting married on November 1st, 2009.

I can still hardly believe I have stumbled onto such grace as my life with him, and I know that this is the right path, without reservation. That is quite a feeling.

It is very important to me to have a Tribal wedding--we have such a vast network of love and connection in this world. To that end, since Livejournal has been such a major part of our lives and was, in fact, how we met, I would like to have as much of the wedding stuff supplied by my massively talented LJ tribe. So, please, if you have a skill that might lend itself to a wedding--photography, dressmaking, floristry, ritual planning, food, craftiness of any kind, please contact me via the comments on this entry or by email. A year and a half is not so long as it seems! (We certainly don't expect such help for free. We'd just rather pay Our People than strangers.)

My first wedding was a small nightmare, one of the worst days of my life. While I will absolutely not get stupid or crazy about this one, I want it to be special and sweet, and involve everyone we love. I hope a goodly number of you will be a part of it.

I love you, Beast. We go together like Grease and awkward Jamaican lip syncing. Here's to the rest of our lives.

Current Mood: loved

I am now a 29th level paladin. Ph33r.

I want to take a page from sheryl67. If you would like to get me a birthday present, send me your art. Anything that you Do, that is your peculiar Thing. Knitting, jewelry, stories, photography, whatever it is that you can do. I can't think of a better present.

Email me and I'll send you my snail mail address.

Thank you! Last chance for loot before level 30!

(Also, I have a tithenai in my house. And will soon have a s00j and an omnisti and a passionandsoul. There is nothing that makes me happier than a house full of shining bodhisattva like this. O, bliss.)

Current Mood: loved

Am back. Had a great time and will post--no internet access in the hotel meant I was away from everything for a week, and now I pay the price.

I am absolutely deluged with work. On top of which I must clean the house for my birthday party on Saturday. On top of which, Omikuji. (The PDFs will go out within the hour, but I may be stuck mailing on the 2nd again. Still working out the kinks in the system. Sorry!)

In the meantime, please do have a read--the wheel turns and I'm in Clarkesworld again! A Buyer's Guide to Maps of Antarctica. I'm rather fond of it--I hope you enjoy it. There's also a cool article on RPGs in which I discuss a bit of our campaign.

I will make an attempt at a real post before my birthday, I promise.

Current Mood: omgwork

If I read one more book that involves a mystical society bent on liberating Dark Gods from Beyond Time (tm) for no particular reason except to be assholes, I will bust. heads. Lovecraft: ur doin it wrong.

In other news, my nose is be-grindstoned, frantically trying to finish all my work before departing for Jamaica tomorrow with justbeast, darlox, gieves, and the rest of the People What Work with My People. An actual, real-live vacation. I haven't had one of those in forever.

I will most certainly blog about it, so stay tuned, but right now I'm in scramblemode.

And also a werefrog. Ribbit.

Current Mood: rushed

Getting ready for the Penguicon-Jamaica-birthday triple header--and please if you haven't answered the Evite yet, do so, so I know how much food to make. It's going to be an amazing couple of weeks in the CatHaus.

If anyone wants to send cards or suchlike, I'll happily provide an address, as birthdays are one of those Important Things to me. Too many forgotten in childhood for them not to be. There's a wishlist in the sidebar, though I feel odd about pointing that out. Enough Christian Science guilt has crept in, I suppose.

Also writing the new Omikuji and various other deadliney things. So am a bit busy.

In the meantime--my  Doctor Who review is up!

Oh...and I got a tattoo last night. *winks*

Current Mood: busy