Prepping for DASFA

As mentioned previously, I will be speaking to DASFA next month. This will be a 30-45 minute presentation about myself, my writing, my editing, and the Ephemeris RPG. I'm not really one for talking about myself a lot, so I'm already trying to put together some notes on some of the things I might want to say. More than anything, I'm hoping I don't put anyone to sleep, but I think I should have some interesting things to say.

I think more than anything, I'll focus on myself and on the game, since they've had a lot of writers speak to them...many of them more successful than me, so talking about the things they may not have heard in the past seems to be the best route to go...

Pregnancy is Tiring

I'm finding Rebecca's pregnancy to be very tiring. Under normal circumstances, I (with some help from the girls) do quite a bit of the work around the house. I work at home, so it's just easier if I do it. However, since Rebecca has developed some seriously horrid morning sickness, I've taken on a lot more of the responsibilities. Normally on her days off, she'll cook, but I'm doing all of that now, and since there are only a few things she can eat, I usually have to make something different for her than what we're happening. She usually tries to help with the cleaning, but since she's feeling so bad, I don't want her to, and she usually doesn't have the energy to do it anyway.

Also, because of the person I am, I try to insist that she rest most of the time, and I wait on her for whatever she needs.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. Under normal circumstances, I would walk to the ends of the universe for her, and now that she's carrying my child, I'd walk to the ends of the multiverse for her. I'm just saying that I've been even busier than normal lately, and I'm feeling quite tired, and I now have zero free time for fun...but it will all be worth it in the end, so I'd be an idiot to complain.

And a note to any guy that thinks their stay at home mom and wife doesn't do anything while they're at work...you're out of your mind. Taking care of a household is at least as hard, if not harder, than working a 9-5 job...

Ultrasound

We went for our second ultrasound today. The one we had two weeks ago was inconclusive, and there was a lot of worry that we'd lost the baby. Today's scan, however, showed that everything is good, and the baby is developing just as it should. Although it was still too early to actually hear the heartbeat, we were able to see it.

The last two weeks have been very stressful, and we're very happy to have a positive outcome on this one!

DASFA update

As mentioned in a previous post, I will be speaking at the monthly DASFA meeting on April 17th. The event has had a change of venue. The meeting will be at the Broadway Book Mall at 200 S. Broadway in Denver.

I will be speaking about writing, editing, and game design, and it should be a good time, so anyone in the area should please feel free to join us...

A little wedding updatery

It's now 64 days until our wedding, and we are still getting ready. This month has been a little less productive than we would have liked, mostly because Rebecca has been stricken with some heinous morning sickness. Let's just say that morning sickness isn't just for mornings anymore...

We did buy our rings, and we should have those in the next week or two. It's hard for me to imagine that I'm going to be wearing such an expensive piece of jewelery. I don't think I've ever worn anything that cost me more than $20...and this, this was definitely more.

In order to stay on track, we still need to buy my suit and order the cake...luckily those aren't too time consuming, and hopefully we'll be able to find the time and health to take care of both of those next week.

The RSVPs aren't coming in as fast as we'd hoped, so we will probably have to take the time to start querying people early next month. We really need those numbers for the restaurant. I know a lot of our guests are readers of this blog, so for those who keep asking, we're registered at Target, but you might have to use her name to find the list...because Target doesn't seem to want to accept J. as a first name...go figure...

For the most part, we're ready for this to be over with so we can just get on with life. Weddings should not be such a pain...

A quick reminder

I just wanted to remind everyone that my flash fiction story "Nobody's Home" appears in the latest issue of Aoife's Kiss.

Also, The Martian Wave issue 1, which I edited, is also now available. The zine focuses on the exploration and colonization of space...a subject that is very important to me.

Both of these zines are produced by the fine folks at Sam's Dot Publishing.

Ephemeris on Kindle

The Ephemeris RPG is now available for the Kindle. I'm not sure how pairing an RPG with e-book technology will work, but it seems like it's at least worth the effort. To order your copy today, go to http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003BEEA0S

And of course, while you're there, don't forget that two of my books are also available for the Kindle, and those are only 99 cents...

Seedlings on the Solar Winds

The Opium of the People

Back to A Problem in Translation

Now that Red Moon Rising has found a home (to be released by Sam's Dot Publishing this fall), I'm getting back to work on the novelization of A Problem in Translation. For those of you not familiar with the story behind the book, I'll explain...

I originally had envisioned doing a short story collection centered around the crew of the Astrid. I wrote the first story, which appeared in Alternate Realities. Later, it was turned into an illustrated chapbook by Sam's Dot Publishing, and is still available from The Genre Mall. The second story appeared in Hadrosaur Tales. At that point, it was pretty obvious that I could combine the two stories, and then expand everything into a novel...and that's what I started doing. I've been through a few rewrites, but it's not quite there yet...but it is close.

Since this is a space opera, I've even done a little bit of a work on a screenplay for it. Normally, my work doesn't really lend itself to a screenplay, but this story seems to scream out for dramatization.

For now, I'll get back to work on the novel, and hopefully I'll make some good progress on it over the next couple of months...going to have a baby to feed, after all...

A Mosi update

I've had a few queries about Mosi. She seems to be recovering. She's once again eating and drinking on her own, and she's starting to put some of the weight back on that she lost, and she's once again growling and hissing at Rebecca, so it looks like she's beaten whatever it was...at least for now. If it turns out that she had cancer or heart disease, there will still be more illnesses ahead of us. If it was just an infection or pancreatitis, then she should be good for a while.

At least she'll get to celebrate her 11th birthday.

Nobody's Home in Aoife's Kiss

My flash fiction story, "Nobody's Home," appears in the latest issue of Aoife's Kiss. When I first started writing the story, it wasn't supposed to be a flash piece. I'd envisioned a dramatic look at one man's struggle with loneliness in an empty world...what I got was something completely different.

This is one of those stories that got away from me...but I like what I ended up with...

The Martian Wave

Since I first started editing...a long...long...long time ago, I've edited an on-line zine called The Martian Wave. Last year, Tyree Campbell (of Sam's Dot Publishing) and I decided to turn the on-line zine into a print zine, and we are now thrilled to announce that the first issue is now available. You can order it at http://www.genremall.com/zinesr.htm#tmw.


The first issue contains the following:
stories
Steve De Beer: Adaptor
Tyree Campbell: Somewhere With Mornings
Dan Thompson: Prize Crew
Keith P. Graham: The Reefs of Jove
Patty Jansen: Luminescence
Bret Tallman: Into the Silence Flies a Moth
Rick Novy: The Pillars of Europa
Lawrence Dagstine: The Great Martian Depression
poems
Shelly Bryant: Bypassed
Justin Bohardt: The Barren Wastes
s.c. virtes: another pit for sale
Marge Simon: A Hollander's Secret Weapon: 1609
Marge Simon: Hindsight

A new nerd is coming

Rebecca and I are thrilled to announce that we are expecting a baby...our third child. We are expecting an arrival date of early November.

Stay tuned for more as we have it...

Red Moon Will be Rising

With all of the cat drama we've been dealing with, I haven't been able to focus on my writing, editing, or game design, but I did get one huge piece of news last week....my novel, Red Moon Rising, which I have been working on off and on for more than a decade, will be published by Sam's Dot Publishing, with an expected release date of Septemeber.

The book centers around a young man trying to come to terms with the death of his brother, while at the same time trying to save the Earth from the ecological catastrophe it's facing.

The book is set roughly 40 years in the future, and things have gotten very bad. The main character, Erik Singer, finds himself going up against a major corporation that has only one goal in mind...make as much money as possible, and don't worry about who gets hurt in the process (including Erik's brother.) Along the way, Erik is joined by an interesting group of associates, including the Native American activist Charlie Chases Crows.

Look for more as the release date approaches...

A rough couple of weeks

A few days after we lost K.J. things seemed to go from bad to worse. We realized that my cat, Mosi, was no longer eating or drinking and was declining very fast. Her symptoms seemed to suggest constipation (which can be fairly common in older cats...she's almost 11), so we began to treat that by force feeding and force watering, but that didn't help, and she continued to decline.

We took her to the vet, and she determined that she had a lung infection with fluid on the pleura...plus she had a very high white blood cell count. A few possible diagnoses were just a severe infection, pancreatits, heart disease or cancer. The first two are treatable (usually), the last...not so much.

So, three days ago we started her on twice daily antibiotics, and we've also been infusing her with fluids twice a day. That's very hard for me to deal with, because I'm horribly terrified of needles, and the idea of someone poking my little baby is very disturbing...but it has to be done...

Yesterday she started eating on her own, and she's spent most of today cleaning herself. She'd gotten quite dirty from all of the force feedings, and she was just too fatigued to do anything about it. She also has started acting a little more like herself today as well. She follows me around meowing, and she hisses and growls at Rebecca...this is all pretty normal for her.

We still haven't seen her drinking on her own, and if she doesn't start before we go to bed, we'll have to infuse her with fluids again. Her breathing is also a still labored, but it's not as bad as it was.

We still don't have a diagnosis, and we don't know if she's going to make it, but she does seem to be doing better...and that at least is giving us some hope.

An update

We're still trying to do our best to cope with the loss of K.J. It's amazing how much an animal can touch your life, but he really did. This is one of my favorite pictures of him. He loved to lay in my lap, and seemed to do it every chance he got.

Everywhere we look around our place, we see things that remind us of him. Places where he'd lay, or play, or be K.J....which took a lot of work on his part, because he had a VERY unique personality. It's still very hard for us to believe that we lost him, especially since he wasn't quite 11. We always figured that we'd have at least another five years with him.

It may sound strange to non-animal lovers, but because he meant so much to us, we've decided that when we buy our wedding bands in the next month or two, we're going to have both of them engraved with his name, that way he will always be with us in some way.

Last night I had a very strange dream. In the dream, I woke up in the middle of the night having a lot of chest pain. Rebecca called the paramedics, and they rushed me to the hospital, but I died of a heart attack while they were trying to work on me. Quite surprising to my dream personality, I came back as a ghost in the hospital. I quickly left the hospital and headed home.

As I came through our door (literally), I saw K.J. laying on the back of the couch in his favorite spot. I said, "Bubu," and he looked up at me with this expression that seemed to say, "You can see me?" I picked him up and hugged him close, but then we realized that Rebecca and the girls were devastated, and there was nothing we could do for them.

A quick jump in dream time, and Rebecca and the girls were packing to move to Texas to live with her mom. As they were leaving, I picked K.J. up and carried him down to our van. We then rode with them all the way to Texas so that we could be with them.

Like I said, very strange...

KJ

Last night our beloved cat, KJ, passed away. It was sudden and completely unexpected. We're still not sure what happened, and we're both completely devastated.

KJ would have been 11 this April, and Rebecca has had him since he was just a couple of months old, so he was a huge part of our family.

Bubu, as he was also known, was a very friendly cat. He loved to play with people, and he was always more than ready to curl up on someones stomach or on their lap. Every morning when the alarm would go off, he would come into our room and jump up on the bed, and then proceed to lay down on Rebecca so she couldn't get up.

Whenever she'd be eating cereal, he'd sit and watch her, and as soon as she would put the bowl to her lips, he'd jump onto the couch cushion next to her, raising his paw in anticipation. Because he always knew that the last couple of drops of milk would be for him.

When she'd get home from work at night, he'd be ready to play, knocking toys over, biting elbows, and generally acting like a kitten. No one would have guessed his age, and we certainly wouldn't have guessed that he was sick in any way.


He would always sleep in some of the funniest positions, and a lot of our pictures are of him sprawled on his back, or curled up in a way that would look awkward even for a cat. Whenever we'd get home from the store, we'd always have to put the bag with the bread up on the counter, because if we left it on the floor, he would try to sneak over and bite his way into it. He had a thing for bread.

There were many times when I'd be working at the computer, just as I'm doing now, that he'd come in and sit down next to my chair. He'd then reach up with his big white paw and pull on my arm until I'd reach down and pet him. Once he was satisfied with the petting, he would either lay down next to my chair, or he'd jump up into my lap...either way, you could hear his purr from several feet away.

Our Bubu Luvs was a wonderful cat, but he was also one of our best friends. He always knew when we needed attention, and he was always ready to give it. To say that he will be missed is an understatement. His absence leaves a big hole in our hearts that we will carry with us forever...

DASFA

For those SF fans in the Denver area, I've been asked to speak at the April meeting of DASFA. I'll be talking about writing science fiction as well as editing, and of course, I'll be talking quite a bit about the Ephemeris RPG.

The meeting will be April 17th at 7:00 pm at the Whole Foods Market at 1111 South Washington Street in Denver. I hope to see quite a few of you there.

An early February update

The first week of February has been a crazy one. We finished up our wedding invitations, and got those sent off on Thursday. We probably could have come up with more than 100 people that we would have liked to invite, but with money being what it is, we had to cut that list down quite a bit. Of all the planning we've done so far, I think deciding who had to be there was the hardest thing yet.

Sunday will be our youngest's 5th birthday, but because Rebecca doesn't want to take vacation time (saving that for the wedding and honeymoon), we had to take her to her birthday movie on Thursday and then we had her party last night. We went to see "The Princess and the Frog," which overall wasn't that great of a movie...but it was nice for the girls to see a princess of color. Our oldest has some self-esteem issues about her racial background, so hopefully these kinds of things will help. The youngest seems to have gotten the idea that now that she's five, she's some kind of princess and has been quite a handful behaviorally, so we need to convince her she's not before she starts kindergarten in the fall.

Meanwhile, still working on Ephemeris stuff, and should have an announcement to make about an appearance...probably later today...

2010 Million Writers Award

I mentioned this on my Facebook, but I also wanted to mention it on my blogs as well. I'd like to extend a thank you to Karen Newman of Afterburn SF for nominating my story "Forgive Men their Trespasses" for the 2010 Million Writers Award. It looks like it might be a bit of a literary award, so the odds of a genre story doing well might not be that good, but I certainly do appreciate the nomination.

If you're interested in reading the story, you can find it at http://www.afterburnsf.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=29171e81-5511-46dd-b860-fa263a1bb2f0.

The story is set in the same "world" as my novel, The Opium of the People, which can be found at http://www.amazon.com/dp/1419625888.

The Ephemeris Species Compendium

The Ephemeris Species Compendium was released today. This is the compilation of the six species sourcebooks that I wrote. At the moment, the Compendium is available as a PDF download at http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=78417. The Compendium will also be released as a trade paperback in the coming weeks. Everyone associated with the game is very excited that we're going to be able to do some print supplements in addition to the PDF files.

Downloads are great, but I really love the feel of a book in my hands, so I'm glad to see the game going in this direction.