If you're interested . . .

I just posted on my LJ. It's a sensitive issue, though, so I had to friend-lock it, which means I can't post it here. No, my family and I are okay, it's not that--just something pissing me off and I needed to vent. If you're curious and you're a friend and you're not on LJ, email me privately and I'll tell you about it. Or sign on to LJ, friend me, and let me know so I can friend you back.

Chat it up!

So I did my Blizzplanet chat Saturday.
It was a lot of fun! It ran for two-and-a-half hours, and probably could have continued but I felt bad about leaving the wife alone with the kids that long. There were a lot of good questions, and it was very cool knowing that people from all over the world were interested in the book and in hearing me talk about it.
For those who missed it, you can find the transcript here.
Hm. Experiences like this make me think that perhaps I should do the PR thing more often. :)
Oh, and they posted the URL for this blog at the end, so anyone who's wandered over here from that, welcome!

Look what my wife did to me!

Is this how she sees me?



Oh, and if it's not scary enough now, click on it. I dare you.

Anyone up for a little Chat?

Okay, I have to geeble a bit.
The people at Blizzplanet have asked me to do a Q&A about Queen of Blades. The info is here.
They’ve also posted a page about me, including a headshot, bio, and bibliography. The chat is next Saturday, February 18, at 4pm, so feel free to stop by.
I’m excited. It’s very cool to be asked to do something like this, and Tom Hern at Blizzplanet tells me the response so far has been tremendous, and the chat’s going to be mirrored and distributed all over the place. It doesn’t hurt that Blizzard’s actually announced the Q&A on their site as well.
I’m usually pretty self-effacing about my work, so it’s extremely cool to hear and see that so many people are looking forward to something I’ve written, and to talking to me about it.

Recent events

Sorry I haven’t posted lately. Not much to report, really--well, lots going on but nothing terribly exciting or utterly horrendous, so not much that would make a fun and interesting post.

My dad was up the other week to visit, which was nice but also frustrating. He doesn’t like to plan his activities and just decides as he goes, including where he’ll sleep that night (since he has a choice between staying with us and staying out at the beach). Makes it extremely hard to schedule anything or get much done, especially if it’s something that involves him (or his car).

I built our son’s crib last weekend and we’re slowly getting him used to it so we can make the switch from bassinet to crib. That’ll be nice.

This weekend he decided that maybe I wasn’t so bad after all, and let me hold him several times without crying immediately. Most of them, actually, he just stared at me--but not in a bad way--or fell asleep on me. I’m thrilled. That "if you are not lactating you are less than useless" phase is always really hard on me. At least this time I knew it was temporary, unlike with our daughter.

She has been very good, btw, though a bit more demanding. She loves her little brother and is incredibly sweet with him. I’ve also discovered the secret of getting her to share. Rather than say "Can I have a cracker?" if I say "Will you give me a cracker, please?" she’ll start handing them to me. It’s all about the word choice for her--I’m so proud.

Work is fine, and moderately quiet, though my stress levels remain high.

Writing is in prep mode and touchup mode. I just finished going over the manuscript for my StarCraft novel, which is cool, and I’m finalizing outlines for two other projects which should keep me busy for the next two or three months. Of course I’m working on lining up more down the road, as usual.
I’ve decided, based on a few friends’ recent activities, to clean up a bit. I finally realized that I don’t need 3+ copies of every book I’ve written, just one, so I’m going to be offering the extras to friends. Local first, but if anyone’s interested in copies of stuff I’ve written, email me.

I’m planning to hang curtains in the living room tonight. Which will be nice, since our blinds have been busted for a while now. I also replaced many of our light bulbs with natural-light bulbs last week--they’re very cool, use less power, and make the house considerably less yellowish. Oh, and we love the new slop sink in the laundry room--did I ever post about that? We finally got rid of the old one, which was probably original to the house (circa 1945) and made of soapstone and cracked clean through and disintegrating around the drain, and got a nice new one. It’s excellent, works beautifully, takes up less room, etc. Well worth it. And now we have a plumber we know we can call if we need one.

Hm, I’m trying to think if there’s anything else going on. I’m drawing a blank, though that may be the lack of sleep talking. Well, that at least gives you an idea of what I’ve been up to lately. :)