Because he liked my hair and because I had a gigglefit when he fumbled my order, the barista told me he was "totally putting this on your cup and I mean it, they're gonna call you up this way."
And they did. So I rarred at them.
(The barista who made the drink nodded in satisfaction. "If you hadn't rarred we wouldn't have given it to you.")
A++ for sense of humor. Would come again. 😆
Blueberry season is peaking here, so we went to the farm in the morning and picked and picked (and ate) and picked. We picked up a batch of Florida (!) peaches as well. "There are peaches that grow in Florida?" I asked, eyeing the little globes... about half the size of a commercial peach. "There are," the farmer said. "This strain was bred for Florida in particular, and we grow them right here across the street."
They were sweet, sweet, sweet. Bright yellow flesh. Tiny but delicious.
Co...
2017-05-06 17:27:32 +0000 UTC View Post
I might do some nitpick clean-up here and there, but this is it.
2017-05-05 21:50:48 +0000 UTC View Post
Flipping through the proof here. Look how tiny and adorable it is! I wasn't sure a novella would make a stout enough book, but I was wrong. The smallness of it is enticing.
Anyway, I okayed this one so it should pop up at retailers soon.
Needs moar black
And red
Also, black
As time goes by my grip on my vocabulary gets more tenuous, so I'm always up for reminders of useful, interesting, or forgettable words.
What are some of your favorite words? What about ones you often forget or mix up with others? Share your treasures!
About a week of tweaking and it'll be ready for first readers! (First Readers, you ready??)
(Are you having 80's color flashbacks yet, also?)
(SHOULD I ADD MORE NEON)
2017-05-03 20:07:46 +0000 UTC View Post
Wow, so, here's the whole spreadsheet. (I don't think I've ever released all my numbers quite this openly before. It feels weird. Hold me. >.> ) For people who don't want to peer at it (you'll have to open the image in a new tab to see it clearly), I'll summarize:
Free downloads of Earthrise halved again in April (which is our second month out from the Bookbub promotion, which was in early February). All the follow-ons suffered accordingly--sales of the rest of the series fell f...
2017-05-03 15:14:27 +0000 UTC View Post
So, to wrap up April's writing progress and writing news! (You can see March's here.)
*stares at bars* Okay, so, yeah. This is what happens when I once again put my nose to the grindstone on a single project. PG5 went up 64,806 words in April and is only a few days from completion (giving us a late May release date!). But I also added another 10,295 words to Coracle, for a total of 75,101 ...
2017-05-01 17:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
I gotta badge, hotel, and plane tickets! More info on my schedule once I know it. There will definitely be a Jaguar Clan meet-up. :D
2017-05-01 14:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Seriously I had to drive around him. I failed to win chicken against a bird. >.>
2017-04-30 20:17:09 +0000 UTC View Post
...print editions of the two Alysha novellas. I am trying to decide now whether to illustrate them (which would significantly delay their publication, since I am running a million miles a minute on other projects).
I guess I could also hire someone else to illustrate them? I'd have to find a good B&W artist who can turn things around on time and is capable of drawing on-model human faces, though...
2017-04-29 23:14:07 +0000 UTC View Post
Blocking out the cover so I can do the painting...
2017-04-29 18:00:17 +0000 UTC View Post
All right, folks, today's our "take care of one another" day. If you have a need for yourself or others, mention it (in as much detail as you want to share).
Folks on candle duty (helping by praying or holding others in your thoughts), raise your hands too--I'll list you here.
If you're on my core first reader team for the Princes' Game series, this is your official notification that I am about two weeks from asking for your help! (It may be less; it almost certainly won't be more.) If you want to re-read the series in preparation, plan accordingly!
If you want to volunteer for the First Reader corps for this particular series, then I guess you can start your re-reads too! No guarantees that I'll need extra folks, but if I do, I'll say so.
*falls back into...
2017-04-27 22:02:48 +0000 UTC View Post
I think we've all had days like this, if not books.
Also, I'm going to be waaaaaaaay over there. Where she's not.
>.>
2017-04-26 20:41:26 +0000 UTC View Post
And given that since the announcement yesterday, I've had all of one person say 'you're leaving, oh no, thank you for what you've done and good luck!' it was the right thing. (I think Morlith's going to win the Chat betting pool on how many people were going to contact me about my resignation after the formal announcement--he guessed 'under two'. Even I said there might be as many as 5!)
(I guess I should also say that I didn't get asked to resign because I did something exciting and scandalou...
2017-04-26 14:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Sediryl is not impressed by how much my bands with female lead singers whine about men.
2017-04-25 21:42:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Interestingly, when I mirrored the wings to make them exact copies, it looked LESS symmetrical... probably because the pawprint isn't. (But the pawprint is modeled on a photo of an actual jaguar's, and of course the right and left paws are different. I'm not willing to give up that verisimilitude!)
I am pondering colors now, and whether I need to start over and make the outlines thicker. (*grumble*)
2017-04-25 14:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
Lots of you have volunteered for stuff, which is fantastic! I'm going to try to get back to each of you individually, but my basic advice is 'if there's something on the list you want to do now that you can do now, go for it!' People I need to talk to in order to utilize (like first readers and Advanced Review folks) I'll get to as soon as I can. I'm running on maybe half a cylinder here because my brain is full of book and (as you can see) my hair is practically on fire trying to get it down. I...
2017-04-24 23:21:41 +0000 UTC View Post
With the dragon preoccupied, Evie turned her attention to Marda. “So another early bird! Just like me! Where’s your coracle? Oh, I see.” The girl jogged to it and crouched, touching its rim. “Wow, it’s pretty. I didn’t think to stick flowers in mine.”
“Mama said they’d bloom if I did. Do you know where I’m supposed to put it?”
“Oh, sure. Here, give me that blanket and the basket, and you can carry it up with you. Don’t worry, it’s not far.”
“All righ...
2017-04-24 13:37:17 +0000 UTC View Post
So back to thinking out loud! I already batted some of this around with the folks in the chat, but more heads are better! My goal is twofold: first, I'd like to maintain my business; and second, I'd like to maintain my community. There's not a whole lot I can think of for #1 there, because of how packed down my business model is (maybe y'all can suggest things?), but #2 is wide open.
First, the volunteer duties I need for the business:
By request...smol dragon child with braids and Flitzbe friend. 😁
2017-04-19 18:37:22 +0000 UTC View Post
Not for me... for us! I thought it would be cool if we had a logo we could use on our con badges/backpacks/laptops/etc as a way of saying 'hey! A fellow jaguar clanmate!'
My plan is to make patches (or stickers?), and everyone gets one (if they want it) once they've hit some milestone. Patrons who've been with me for a year, community helpers like Grey who pitch in for things like the grant fund, people who've been with me since the Livejournal days, etc. Alinsa also suggested vinyl stic...
2017-04-18 14:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostThe chat is up and rambling and several people have mentioned missing the old Livejournal meta-conversations, where I talked to the characters and they talked back. (And sometimes some of you talked to them in comments, and they answered!) I admit, I assumed this to be something that only works for a very few people, because it can make the canonical narrative feel contrived or fake (if the character is off fighting a war elsewhere, how can he be hanging out with me, chatting?). Or if it did wor...
2017-04-17 16:21:14 +0000 UTC View Post
