First-Person Narrator

Oh, dear internet friends! Hello! I have missed you! And it's all my own damn fault, but I'm determined to actually be around more now, and both of my kids are in school (WHAT) part of the day four days a week now, so I think it is actually possible this time. I've been pretty busy, guys! But Thorin starting school in August was pretty amazing, as it gave me some breathing space - and, like, thinking space - during the week that I haven't had for over four years, and all of a sudden I can Get Stuff Done. Or at least some stuff - it still took me until now to get on DW, after all. But, you know.

My non-mom life has been re-emerging after the fallow period that is The Diaper-Changing Years in fits and starts, but I lucked out around the time that my mental energy and creativity started recharging and found a great space where I can get writing done and my children can't get to me. Jameson is totally willing to be the "on call" parent so I can write, but if I'm in the actual house the kids will demand me anyway, so escape has been necessary if I want to be productive. I stumbled upon a co-working space that has been so, so perfect: Story Land. If you're ever a laptop user in the Tucson area who needs a place to get work done, I can't recommend it highly enough.

I've been working on some short stories and stuff there, but the biggest thing has been a co-written novel with karenhealey, which, and here's the awesome part, we have finished. It's a doorstopper-length high fantasy novel for adults with child protagonists, which makes it a tough sell in terms of marketing categories, but we really love it and want people to be able to read it, so we decided to go the self-publishing route on this one. We started a Kickstarter campaign last month to fund a professional cover and layout and all, which has been amazing. We met our goal within the first few days! Eeee! We have hit a couple of stretch goals already, too, and there's still time left, so I'm hoping we'll get enough backers to be able to afford to commission a map for the front of the book. But even if we don't, we can do the cover! It's gonna be great. I'm going to do a link here, in case you want to check it out:



Annnnd here are my ridiculously cute kids, all dressed up and fancy:

Tonight at Target I saw a My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic board book. I flipped through it while Jameson hovered impatiently over my shoulder, then put it in my basket.



Jimmy made a disgusted face.

"What?" I said defensively. "We're planning on having a kid!"

"And this book will teach it wrong things!" he replied.



He turned to the page where Twilight Sparkle brings a cake to the party. "Why would Twilight Sparkle bring a cake? Pinkie Pie is the one who works in a bakery!"

He has a point. Maybe I can spin it as being an ice cream cake or something?

Jimmy and I finished our first run-through of Mass Effect 3. I am full of feelings, mostly of the "augh story in which I was very emotionally invested has now ended" variety. We only did one ending (I bet anyone who knows me can guess which one!), but I am totally open for SPOILERY DISCUSSION of any of them, if any of y'all have played and want to chat.
( Spoilers! Also probably in comments if there are any! )

So I made some bread today! The recipe indicated that it'd take up to fourteen hours for the first rise, and our sourdough culture laughed in the face of that estimate. Then I punched it down and made pan loaves, and then let it rise again, and then slashed (somewhat inexpertly, as you will see) and baked and...it is mediocre, alas. The texture is excellent, go me! The flavor is pretty bland. I can taste what will be a very nice sourness, when the culture is a bit older, but it's barely there. However, it will be good sandwich bread, or nice for toast with butter and jam, and I am content.

( Behold, pictures! )

In accordance with my sort-of resolution thingy, I have been reading from my TBR collection. Go me! Also, not buying any new books. Go me some more!

I read (among other things) Primary Inversion by Catherine Asaro, which I liked very much indeed, though the copy I have on my e-reader is full of copy-editing-type errors. Extra or missing words, slight misspellings, etc. Boo. But I got it via the Baen Free Library, and the "free" aspect made it less frustrating than it could have been. When I am allowing myself to buy books again, I'll see about getting my hands on the sequel(s) and hope for better editing.

Another thing I've been doing the past little while is working on a few dolls. I finished two that are clothed in comic book panels - which was really fun to do, though also really sticky - and they're up in my Etsy shop if you want to take a look. Or, y'know, buy one. Please do share links to anything there if you think a friend would get a kick out of 'em, btw. I would love to sell some dolls, not so much for the money (though money is nice) but because I enjoy making them a lot, but I enjoy it even more when someone else gets to have one that makes them smile.

I've seen this one going around, and haven't been able to answer anyone's yet (I'm thinking it over!), but I figured I'd repost it anyway, because the results promise to be entertaining:

"If I made Cinderella, the audience would immediately be looking for a body in the coach." -- Alfred Hitchcock

If I wrote a story today, what would the readers immediately look for?

Me, when Jimmy came home this afternoon: I accidentally slept almost all day.

Jimmy: Well, it could be worse.

Me: Yeah?

Jimmy: You could have been on fire that whole time.

Me: *laughs, concedes the point*

Me, suddenly remembering: Oh, can you do me a favor?

Jimmy, looking horrified: You want me to set you on fire??

Me: ...I was gonna ask you to take out the recycling, actually.

Tucson Chayon-Ryu is having a yard sale to raise money so that a couple of my students can go to Houston to test for their black belts. We started today, and did pretty well despite it being miserably hot out. I got sunburned on my forearms, which I always forget to protect (you'd think I'd learn), but I wore my hat all day and the rest of me is fine.

My calculator, however, MELTED.



Guys, it wasn't even in direct sunlight! It was in a little box under the table where we had all the books, in the shade.

I was pretty fond of that one, too. :(

My second column for Strange Horizons is up: "Dice and D-Pads: Fannish Enthusiasm."

Also available for your reading pleasure is the latest in the Hathor Watch-Along series for Firefly, for "Safe." Again, I'm really pleased with the discussion. I'd hoped that doing this series would be both fun and thought-provoking, and so far it really has. Hooray!

Okay, so I just saw Thor.
( Spoilers! Kinda. )