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| Tuesday, December 29th, 2009 |
retrofatale
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5:00a |
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| Monday, December 28th, 2009 |
cmpriest
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5:33p |
Home again, home again
So I’m back in Seattle, and I’ve been taking today to regroup. It was sort of a tactic of last resort; I was so wiped out from the cross-country travel and I came home to … to … so much stuff, that I hardly knew where to begin. So I didn’t begin anything. I just took a day to take down all the Christmas paraphernalia, unpack all my stuff, catch up on all my mail, do some grocery shopping, clean the apartment, charge all my electronics, pay some bills, water some plants, and the like. And now, from this afternoon vantage point, tomorrow is looking a whole lot more manageable.
The holidays were great, by the way. I went to my dad/stepmom’s place in Kentucky (Leitchfield, about 30 miles from Elizabethtown) - where my little brother likewise joined us, fresh from his Copenhagen adventures (read all about ‘em on his webpage - Edit: down for maintenance, as he prepares to move hosts.). Several sets of friends came and went, including (but not limited to) such fine folks as the Wygants and the Banks, as well as Meggo and Camron - the auxiliary son, to be deployed in case of emergency.
We played Catch Phrase for several hours. We ate lots of food, all of which was superlative. I went on a tour of Kentucky housepets - visiting such exemplary critters as this kitty in a tee shirt, the intractable Blaze, this 4-week-old puppy, as well as its siblings, and my brother’s cat, Mr. Peanut. Strangely enough, I seem to have no photos of me with any actual, yanno. People. But if you know me, you probably don’t find that terribly surprising.
And now I’m back in Seattle, with my lap currently occupied by Spain the Cat - who seems pretty happy with my return.
Speaking of the wee black monster, as I was going through the Christmas cards that had accumulated in my absence, I found one from the Pet Placement Center - which had apparently gotten my address from the paypal donation I sent them before Christmas. It was a sweet card, written by someone who seems to (possibly?) remember Spainy from her time there, back in 2001-2002.* It also mentions that in addition to all their usual full-house issues, the facilities are in rather dire need of repair - so all donations are more exceptionally welcome than usual.
Therefore, just in case any of you have leftover holiday cheer burning a hole in your digital pockets, I’m going to post a link to the donation page again. It’s right here. And remember that every little bit helps.
Anyway. Christmas was grand, but now it’s back to the grind for me. I hope everyone had a most excellent holiday season, and that the New Year holds many marvelous things in store for the lot of you.
* Spainy had been at this shelter for over a year when we adopted her in February of 2002.
[Crossposted to/from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so either here or there.] |
retrofatale
|
7:28p |
Things to do Tuesday...
So they apparently didn't shut off the water today even though I scheduled my day around that assumption which means they're now turning the water off tomorrow which means I again need to be out of the house. I didn't get most of the below list done since I ended up filling up the car with gas and going to the grocery store which took up about two hours, not including put away time. So here's my plans for tomorrow if anyone is interested in joining me: 1) Have lunch at 1pm with Fritz! YAY, I've never been to Twain's before, very excited to try it. 2) Fold and roll up the new Steampunk SoS T-shirts 3) Measure and bolt roll the fabric I am planning on selling over at the studio, going to get it all tagged and put on hangers so maybe some of it will leave if it's on the rack (this includes a bunch of satins, velvets and wools...Blastoff has first dibs on lame`s since I've already chatted with Sadie about that) Looks like Kitty and I will be working on this at a later date, which is great because I need help 4) Go through patterns to begin putting them up on eBay since no one has expressed an interest in going through any of them (lots of actual vintage patterns, not just vintage inspired) 5) Take clothes to plato's closet, psycho sisters and rag-o-rama 6) Go through more stuff in the back room to get rid of 7) Organize filing cabinets 8) Organize desk 9) Go through houses on website to possible view 10) Clean out car 11) Put up Christmas stuff (gift bags and stuff) 12) ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) weaponx_x_x and I are having dinner with thedamenoir and arcstone since we didn't get to see them at Xmess, should be fun...Lyds said she was gonna cook! |
seanpatfannon
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1:54p |
Soooo...
Yeah, in case anyone's still reading this at all, please accept my humble apologies. I've pretty much abandoned LiveJournal. All I have time for is Facebook, and it's doing what I need for the most part. Combine that with my (hopefully) upcoming radio show and the accompanying video blog that I'll be doing through Livestream, and that's about all the social networking I can manage anymore. My Shaintar muse is kicking my ass, and I am getting a lot of writing done. The day job with OneBookShelf continues to be the dominating force of my days. And I am building my new life with my new family as we enter 2010. So, yeah. I'm not shutting this down, but I really don't expect to be doing much posting here. Come find me on Facebook, gang. Cheers! |
retrofatale
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5:00a |
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| Sunday, December 27th, 2009 |
retrofatale
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11:13p |
Things to do on Monday
So, apparently the water at my apartment will be shut off tomorrow from 10:30am-5pm which means that my plans of doing laundry tomorrow are thwarted. So I have had to change my plans. I'm making a big list, and though I don't expect to get through everything tomorrow, it at least gives me options. So here's my new plans if anyone is interested in joining me: 1) Mail a bunch of head shots and resumes out, including one for The Hobbit, I doubt it'll happen, but I figured I should at least attempt it, I've never been to New Zealand before 2) Fold and roll up the new Steampunk SoS T-shirts 3) Measure and bolt roll the fabric I am planning on selling over at the studio, going to get it all tagged and put on hangers so maybe some of it will leave if it's on the rack (this includes a bunch of satins, velvets and wools...Blastoff has first dibs on lame`s since I've already chatted with Sadie about that) 4) Go through patterns to begin putting them up on eBay since no one has expressed an interest in going through any of them (lots of actual vintage patterns, not just vintage inspired) 5) Take clothes to plato's closet, psycho sisters and rag-o-rama 6) Go through more stuff in the back room to get rid of 7) Organize filing cabinets 8) Organize desk 9) Go through houses on website to possible view 10) Clean out car 11) Put up Christmas stuff (gift bags and stuff) Of course with my luck, it'll rain tomorrow just to spite me so I can't get some of this done |
retrofatale
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5:00a |
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| Saturday, December 26th, 2009 |
retrofatale
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5:00a |
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| Friday, December 25th, 2009 |
retrofatale
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5:00a |
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| Thursday, December 24th, 2009 |
retrofatale
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5:00a |
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| Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009 |
retrofatale
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5:00a |
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| Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 |
retrofatale
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5:00a |
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| Monday, December 21st, 2009 |
retrofatale
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5:00a |
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| Sunday, December 20th, 2009 |
retrofatale
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5:00a |
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| Saturday, December 19th, 2009 |
cmpriest
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11:56p |
Happy Holidays!
All right everybody — I’m about to go quasi-radio-silent for a bit. Tomorrow at the butt-crack of dawn I’ll be leaving for Kentucky, to spend Christmas with my dad (et. al.); so although I’ll have internet access once I get there, you may reasonably expect that my internet appearances will be intermittent at best.
Of course, I’ll probably Tweet.
Because it’s easy, and I’m lazy (and busy).
Anyway, have excellent and happy holidays — everybody, everywhere. Best wishes, good luck, and a superlative New Year to all. I’ll catch up with you when I can.
:)
[Crossposted to/from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so either here or there.] |
retrofatale
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5:01a |
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| Friday, December 18th, 2009 |
retrofatale
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5:01a |
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| Thursday, December 17th, 2009 |
cmpriest
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6:47p |
Real quick, why today is a day of squee
So … this morning I awoke to learn that the Czech company Triton is picking up rights on Boneshaker. This means I’ve made my first foreign rights sale! Ever! Folks, that means I have leveled up as an author. It also means that someday, people in the Czech Republic will be reading Boneshaker and that just tickles me pink :)
* No, I don’t know what they’ll call it; no, I don’t know if they’ll keep the cover art; no, I don’t know if they’ll keep the brown text; no, I don’t know when it’ll be available, etcetera.
[Crossposted to/from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so either here or there.] |
cmpriest
|
3:41p |
Thanks, Evan
Via Kyle Cassidy - (beware of heartwarming ahead) - a 7-year-old boy named Evan saved up his allowance and donated all of it ($46.75) to the animal shelter from whence he adopted his cat. Get the whole story (plus a cute shot of his letter) right here at Kyle’s blog.
Thusly inspired, I went and looked up the shelter from whence we adopted Spain the Cat, nearly eight years ago now. The Pet Placement Center in Red Bank, Tennessee, is the oldest no-kill shelter in Hamilton County* — and like all shelters pretty much everywhere, it’s kept afloat by volunteers and donations.
So in honor of Evan, seven years old in Philadelphia, I put the exact same money into the paypal pot — on behalf of Spain the Cat, who was adopted as “Jeannie” in 2002. If you’ve enjoyed the exploits and photos of Spainy over the years, you are, of course, encouraged to drop a few pence into the bucket yourself.
Or, heck, throw some change at the shelter nearest and dearest your own heart.
‘Tis the season, after all.
* And at the time we adopted Spainy, I think they were the only one.
[Crossposted to/from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so either here or there.] |
retrofatale
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5:00a |
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| Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 |
cmpriest
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6:58p |
Quickie
- Nick of Time PDF — In case you were reading quickly, be aware — that link leads to a PDF download. Nick of Time is a holiday sampler of excerpts from twelve new novels, including Laurell K. Hamilton, Cory Doctorow, Scott Sigler, and yours truly … with the first three chapters of Boneshaker. That’s right, free!
- Clementine news — Right here, via Subterranean. The last paragraph of this particular set of announcements makes me all giddy! Clementine, my short novel that serves as a sort-of-sequel to Boneshaker, will be available for preorder shortly after the new year; and it’s slated to be published at the end of May, 2010.
- NAUGHTY KITTY - Honestly. I leave her alone for HALF AN HOUR to go check in on Caitlin’s cats, and this is what I return to. She set the numbers lock, shed huge tufts of hair between the cracks, and popped off the “escape” key. Little monster. Good thing she’s so damn cute.
[Crossposted to/from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so either here or there.] |
retrofatale
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5:01a |
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cerisehaze
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12:18a |
Cat Update
We placed Smokey in a new home today. I'm really happy, because he's now with a friend of ours- and I know she'll take really good care of him. And we can visit him whenever we want! We still need to place Freddie (the maine coon), Pooh (the wire chewing calico), Anna the tabby, and Chester the large gray tabby. If anyone has any leads or is interested in adopting a cat, please let me know. We're having to write checks to cash advance places to cover food and litter costs for these guys, so we'd really like to try to place them soon. Our apartment is completely open, with only doors to the bathroom, outside, and closet. They can climb over any baby gate that we might purchase, and they walk the railing up to the bedroom on a regular basis- so there is no way to keep them out of the baby area. Smokey, Chester, and Anna were already sleeping in the crib at night, so it's clear they'd want to sleep with a baby- and that's just too hard to keep an eye on. I don't think they'd knowingly or maliciously harm the baby, but it's not a chance we can afford to take either. If I had an apartment where we could close the bedroom door, I'd have absolutely no qualms about keeping the kitties, but we just cannot possibly afford to move. I don't want people to think we're just wanting to toss aside cats for a baby. It's a matter of finances and space. We've placed upwards of 70 cats since we've lived in this apartment. So- we're certainly not the type to turn away an animal unless we were in the absolute most impossible of circumstances- and even then- we'd do everything we could to get the animal help. If anyone wants to donate money toward food/litter until these guys can be placed, we'd appreciate it beyond words. |
| Tuesday, December 15th, 2009 |
cmpriest
|
5:35p |
December 15, 2009
Things are quiet here at the homestead, by which I mean, I’m so busy that I have virtually nothing to blog about. In addition to keeping up with my day-job, I’m trying to turn a 500-page book around into something show-able by Christmas; meanwhile, I’m fielding requests for stock signings (I’ll always work ‘em in — it’s a nice problem to have) and trying to get ready for my holiday travels to Kentucky.
So. To be brief and self-promotional (’tis the season!), in case you didn’t see it — Boneshaker made Barnes & Noble’s list of top science fiction/fantasy novels from 2009! And I’m tickled pink to be in such good company on that list, I tell you what.
Anyway, if (by any chance) you’d like a personalized copy of Boneshaker — for yourself or someone special — you can always pick one up via the University Book Store (please follow directions at that link). I can’t promise you delivery by Christmas because I’m not in charge of the store’s shipping practices; but I can promise to head over there and sign mail order copies tomorrow … which makes your stocking-stuffing chances better than fair.
If you don’t care about signatures but you’d like some ordering options, here goes:
If you’re local to the Seattle area, you may expect to find signed copies at the University Book Store, Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park, and probably the Barnes & Nobles at both Northgate and Pacific Place.
Whew! I think that covers pretty much everything Boneshaker-related at the moment, and I offer sheepish apologies for this brief return to the Boneshaker Channel; but I hope this answers — in one fell swoop — some of the emailed questions I’ve been getting lately. Thanks so much for reading, everyone, and happy holidays of every sort to everyone who celebrates them.
[Crossposted to/from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so either here or there.] |
retrofatale
|
4:48p |
A Mechanical Masquerade
  “Syrens of the South’s very first Mechanical Masquerade!” Who: Syrens of the South Productions What: The Mechanical Masquerade When: January 16, 2010 Where: The Little Tree Studios 2842 Franklin Street Avondale Estates, GA 30002 *Tickets are $10* Purchase tickets in our store at www.syrensofthesouth.comCome one come all to the Syrens of the South’s Mechanical Masquerade of Marvels and Merriment! Here now marks the first in the series of semi-monthly events brought to you by the marvellous mistresses of petticoats, frills, and thrills – the Syrens of the South. Come enjoy this maiden voyage away from the standard burlesques and enter into a world of neo-Victorian anachronistic characters. An evening filled with brass, leather, steam and SCIENCE! Modelled after the fantastic sub-genre of fiction, fashion, and music often called Steampunk or Victoriana. This event series promises to highlight fine vendors, entertaining amusements, and music that would make Jules Verne proud. With song selections playing through the night by the illustrious host of the evening, the notorious Doctor Q, the evening promises to cater to all types from any time period. For those with finer tastes, there will be performances sprinkled through the evening to delight and defy the sharpest of imagination. And the lords and ladies may even wish to peruse the displays by the artists, vendors, and sponsors such as Anachrocon, the Clockwork Cabaret, Extraordinary Contraptions, Gentlemen’s Emporium, Penny Dreadful Productions and more. So hop upon your horseless carriage, time travelling machine, airship, or otherwise and be sure to attend the festivities to dance, shop, and enjoy the cavalcade of clockworks and carousing in your finest threads or scavenged and assembled attire. Your finest threads could win fabulous prizes in our costume contest with prizes donated by Abney Park, Cherie Priest, Nick Valentino and more! Contact: syrensofthesouth(at)gmail(dot)com www.syrensofthesouth.com |
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