ConDFW was a lot of fun but has left me a little worn out and, of course, way behind on a lot of things that needed doing. I avoided the illness that was steadily felling the guests, but now I’m surrounded by sick people at work. I expect I’ll become dreadfully sick just as several large projects are due.
Work is making me crankier than usual, by the way, so if you’re not hearing from me it’s probably because I’m just in a really foul mood. The Book of Bunny Suicides cheered me up briefly but then I had to go to work the next morning.
Mike has just pointed out accessTunes, a web streaming gizmo for iTunes. Cool.
If you’ve noticed that this site is really slow to respond or occasionally gives MySQL errors, you’re not alone. The problem is primarily the endless Movable Type spam attacks on other sites hosted on the same server. My host is moving me to a new box soonish and all will be well.
An ARC of Prime was waiting for me when I got home from Dallas. (Yes, I know buying ARCs off eBay is somewhat illicit. No, I don’t much care if it means I get to read the book faster. I’ve preordered a real copy like a good little fangirl.) It’s delightful, as all the Rickey and G-man stories have been so far, and it’s dead-on about Texas restaurants. I can now properly appreciate the magnitude of the spoiler on the back cover; it’s truly appalling. Is someone teaching the blurb writers that they should summarize the plot up to the last ten pages of the novel? Anyway, if you want this copy, speak up. I’d rather give this away and spread the good cheer than turn around and sell it again online.
I had just started reading A Thread of Grace when Prime arrived and now I’m back to it. It’s excellent so far, although filled with the kind of backstory tangents that make my writer-mind twitch. My copy of Crystal Soldier has still not shipped for some reason. I’m becoming annoyed. On the other hand, I have A Thread of Grace. Amazon, you have another 320 pages in which to pull your act together.
I need to write an argument for the short story, and I’m not quite sure yet how it should go. And as I’m typing this, I think I’ve figured out why I’m stuck… a character who isn’t an antagonist in the novel is one for the purposes of this story. Hmm. Off to mull over the implications of that.
ConDFW… I’m jealous. I really would have liked to see Steven Brust.
Let me see if I can remember any tidbits… I’ve slept since then.
He says the next Vlad book is almost done and will probably be called Dzur — unless someone at Tor convinces him to break with the pattern, because even people in the audience who are presumably familiar with the world said “huh?” when he said the name. Anyway, he says it begins about thirty seconds after Issola ends. Someone asked, “So what does Vlad order?” and he replied that he wasn’t going to give the whole book away.
He says there’s a lot of food in this one.
There was a lot of discussion about the Khaavren books, but it went over my head because I haven’t read those yet. I’ve been warned repeatedly that Paarfi’s style is infectious, and I’m writing contemporary stuff at the moment.
Hey, I want the book. You knew that, right? I’m a greedy little person.