I received an email from my publisher last night, and got my first look at the preliminary cover art for my forthcoming novel Bufalito Contingency. The brilliant Rachael Mayo has done it again. But don’t take my word for it,take a peak yourself:
Titling and such will likely be coming in a few days. I promise to post again when I have it.
And Rachael, if you’re reading this, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!
Although the deadline for submitting your nominations for this year’s Hugo (and Campbell) Awards is not until Saturday, March 26th*, I am reminded that in order to be eligible to nominate you must either have been a member of Aussiecon or be either “an attending or supporting member of Renovation as of 31 January 2011”**, i.e., tomorrow.
This deadline seems odd to me, if for no other reason than that it’s not tied to the next price increase for membership, which happens four weeks later on the last day of February. But what do I know? I’m a Pro, not a SMOF.
Having done my public service by reminding all readers of this, important deadline I will now cheerfully revert to my usual self-serving nature and remind you to consider one or both of the following for your Hugo nominating pleasure:
“The Wrestler and the Spearfisher” – My Polynesian fantasy about two young men who both have legitimate claims to lead their community and the resulting conflict that gets muddled by intervention of magical spirits. The story originally saw print in The Stories in Between, published in January of 2010, and was reprinted in my collection Sweet Potato Pie and Other Surrealities from Hadley Rille Books.
“Mars Needs Baby Seals” – A fluffy bit of SF silliness involving interplanetary time travel, ecological restoration, flipperball, and paradox. This story appeared in the anthology Destination: Future, edited by Z.S. Adani and Eric T. Reynolds, and published in February 2010 by Hadley Rille Books.
If you need a copy of either story, leave me a comment requesting one, and I’ll pop it off to you via email.
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Like many of us, I wear a lot of hats. In addition to the Day Job, I’m a writer. And a publisher. And then there’s that whole Klingon thing that also takes up time. Finding time to spend with my wife was getting harder and harder.
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Twenty-five years ago today the space shuttle Challenger exploded, claiming the lives of its seven member crew: Francis R. (Dick) Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Judith A. Resnik, Ronald E. McNair, Ellison S. Onizuka, Gregory B. Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe.
On the drive in to work this morning, I was listening to NPR. As they do every Friday, they played a recording from their Storycorps project. This particular recording was about astronaut Ron McNair, made by his brother Carl. I found it deeply inspiring and I suspect many of you will as well. I encourage you to take a moment out of your day to click the link and give it a listen.
What with traveling, weather, and a general lack of interst, I didn’t get to the gym much last week. That’s not a habit I want to promote, so dark and early this morning I was out the door and on my way to the Y. Ugh.
At 6:00 a.m. I was on the road. The car has a temperature display and as I drove I watched it drop from the brisk 24 degrees that the car had been at in the garage all the way down to ZERO by the time I reached Ambler.
I put in a bit over an hour on the elliptical this morning for a grand total of four and a half miles moved and 800 calories burned. A good beginning to the day.
I’m still fat, but I feel stronger than I can ever remember feeling, with improved posture and flexibility (thank you, Pilates!). My blood pressure is down where it’s supposed to be. My blood sugar is down where it’s supposed to be. My weight, well, it’s plateaued again, but I’ll keep working on that. I continue to eat little refined sugar or bread, though I have loosened up from my previous zero tolerance policy. Quantity continues to be an issue, but with the stress of the last novel off my back I’m managing that a bit better too.
All in all, my life is extraordinarily good. Hoping you are the same.
I’m all packed, and in a few hours V. and I will board a plane and wing our way off to Arizona for a combination of mini-vacation in restful Scottdale and a visit with my mother in a neighboring retirement community.
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This post is mainly aimed at those of you who have been following my daily audio posts on the Klingon language, but anyone else who’s interested should feel free to chime in.
For the most part, I write up a script (of sorts) before I record each day’s audio. I’m wondering if it would be useful or even remotely worthwhile for me to include that text in the daily post here, along with the link to the audio file.
Opinions?
Now at last it can be told:
Buffalito Destiny, my novel that was released in 2009 from Hadley Rille Books, will soon be available as an AUDIO BOOK!
I’ve just signed a contract with Eloquent Voice LLC, and the recording begins this weekend. There’s a very high probability that the work will be completed in time to debut in March at Lunacon where I am the author GoH (and where HRB is anticipating the launch of the next book in the series, Buffalito Contingency).
I am very excited about this as it moves the plans for World Conquest into a new modality.
It also sets the stage for a new medical condition: Buffalito Ear.
