Catch her slideshow. 😉
I spent the morning doing error-catch work on the files: experimentally, the downloads for CC (not CC itself, so don’t worry about your bookmarks) will be coming to you from a different server. There will soon be an e-mail enabling those of you who have downloaded books to get the shiny new covers, and updated text (where we found errors.) We don’t hope to be perfect. We know there are still a few—but we have to measure the effort of recreating 3 files on the server, and of correcting the error in each file, without creating a new error in the download: translated: if it is really, really bad we’ll go after it, but right now it’s a lot like trying to exchange three saucers in a room-wide close display of china without nudging anything else in the attempt. Right now—we are just declaring it done. And you will get that e-mail when we catch our breath. Feel free, however, to report any egregious file misbehavior or, like, the book turning to gibberish on page 240. The effort to edit and move these files has been about equivalent to moving, say, a hardware store 3 blocks down the street to a storefront where there are very different sorts of shelves. It’s the stray packets of washers that drive you crazy. Where does this go? What did it fall out of?
I’m so glad you two are finished with all this exta work, and that your eye is getting better. I really hope you both can take a little time off now doing something fun and relaxing, to get back on a more balanced keel, get some sleep and rebuild some energy. Then you can start to enjoy the holiday season and hopefully get back into the creative flow with renewed gusto.
Off topic: I saw on John Scalzi’s blog that on 4 december, self-published and e-book authors can promote their books for sale in the comments on his blog. If I understand today’s post correctly 3 december is for authors promoting/linking to store-buyable books etc., and on 6 december fans are allowed to place links to places where people can buy stuff they’re enthousiastic about.
See http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/11/28/the-whatever-holiday-shopping-guide-returns-next-monday/
One of you could place a link to Closed Circle yourselves, on 4 december. His blog gets a lot of traffic (50.000 hits some days), so linking to Closed Circle on it might be a good way to get some new customers there.
I thought I* might place a link to Closed Circle on 6 december, if you allow, and no-one else beats me to it? I don’t know if we’re allowed to place multiple posts that link to the same store, and I wouldn’t want to irritate viewers with too much repeated information. Supporting someone else’s link as a good place to buy interesting books may well be allowed, so some reinforcements from others in this Wavy Navy may be a good thing.
If you want to promote the currently available official-publishers-books you could probably do so on 3 december, if you like, though I don’t know if mentioning C.J. Cherryh’s books on three days would be considered overkill by mr.Scalzi. Closed Circle may benefit more than the already well-known and publicised DAW-books from the added exposure, if we keep it to the 4th and (if allowed) 6th.
* Or (preferably) another of the commenters here, as there are a lot of readers here who are way better at writing invitingly promotional but short comments!
Thanks for reminding me of that. Odd how many of my favorite authors refer to each other in favorable terms…
Writers are really very friendly people, except for a few jerkacious idiots who are thankfully extremely few in number. I’ve hardly met anyone in the sf field or several others who isn’t extremely nice. We don’t really compete with each other, though in some sense we do, of course, but there are 12-48 slots per publisher per year, and there’s just no percentage in getting ‘dog in the manger’ about them. We don’t control that. Meanwhile we have to respect each other’s efforts and remain a pretty nice community. I mean, who else understands scrabbling after a notebook at 3am because you had an idea; or having a shower or a nap because both are productive of ideas; or what it’s like battling for your creative integrity with a just graduated college student as c/e, or what it’s like getting all your money in lumps every year or so, and knowing you’d damnwell better hurry, because the bank account is getting wheezy… You all have things in common; and picking a fight with another writer just cuts down on the number of people in the world you can cry on the shoulder of…howzzat for grammar, eh?
Please do, Hanneke! Thank you! You might just say works by me, Jane, Lynn Abbey, some of which are new and not available elsewhere, are on Closed Circle. If that doesn’t bring our readers in—what can we do, eh?
I know this whole ebook thing has been (figuratively!) like beaching a whale* while wrestling a giant squid, but look how much you (plural) have learned in the process — LOL! A great big E-HUG to you and Jane for services above and beyond. We appreciate so much your insistence on sending your “babies” out to us with clean faces, combed hair, and dressed in their Sunday best.
*No whales were harmed in the writing of this comment.
🙂 while lugging an anchor…
I thought the whale was busy contemplating the ennui of existence while falling from the sky to its doom….
Oh right, different author! :: brightens ::
I have, however, threatened my current laptop for use as a boat anchor. The lack of a boat might somewhat hamper my nefarious plan. That, and it would require getting another computer before committing the laptop to its watery demise.
(I wouldn’t actually, but I’ve been sorely tempted of late. However, this laptop has to stick around a good while longer. I get to decide this weekend if I can take the plunge and get a new computer. Even so, the laptop has to stay around a long while.)
—– Veering back on topic —–
Sincere best wishes to you and Jane and Lynn on getting things back in order again. That’s gotta be a huge relief.
Things here are a mess, literally. But I’m hoping to make some progress before Christmas and a possible brief visit by cousins. I’ll be reading more. I think I’m getting back into my old reading habits. I sure hope so. I’ll keep my eyes open for stray typos while reading. That’s hard, though. I tend to get caught up in a good story, or else I have to focus down and read as a proofer/editor rather than for enjoyment. But it’s possible to make one pass for each.
My goal is at very least to get through Invader by year end. I think I’ve been stuck in it because too much was going awry in real life all at the same time, so much that even reading went by the wayside. Last weekend, I found I had read the section I was reading already, months ago, and had completely forgotten, until I came to the end of the chapter. I’m now at chapter 15, so I’m about 2/3 or more through. Normally, that would be only two or three days’ reading, I’d guess. But life keeps getting in the way. Anyway, I’ll be reading on it and at least two other things. Next up on my To Read pile are the newest entries from Closed Circle, Jane’s Netwalkers books and your Rusalka trilogy, and then the remaining three of Lynn’s Time / Orion’s series.
I slipped and caught myself a chapter or so into Yvgenie by accidentally opening it. I’d loved Rusalka when I began reading it last year, but as with Invader and Jane’s GroundTies, set them aside. So I know I’ll be in for a treat once I get back up to speed.
I dusted off one of my old college English lit text and my old French lit texts, and want to reread some in both. But I’ve realized neither include the selections (excerpts) from at least two to four English and French utopian travel fantasies similar to Gulliver’s Travels, and I want to find the book that had those. When I was rereading Foreigner 1’s opening chapters, I was strongly reminded again of those early stories, and I really want to reread them. Yes, geeky fun. Only, what book was that and where do I have it stored? 🙂 LOL.
So see, you can be glad that, thanks to your inspiration, I’m going to reread selections or whole tracks from French and English masters of 18th and 19th century writing. They’d no doubt wonder at the course direction, but, none too shabby, the outcome.
Best wishes!
I’m off to battle my checkbook and bills, with assistance(?) from a pair of felines. I’d suggest listening to Cheryl Wheeler’s “Cat Accountant” while doing so. 😉 A ton souhait! (Yes, it’s missing the circumflex, but my laptop refuses to cooperate on that in web text boxes.)
Oh — I did discover my French is a little better than I thought. I got through most of the abridged copy of Descartes’ Discours sur la méthode without missing much, and figured nearly all of what I missed via context. Not as good as when I was in college, but better than I’d thought. Encouraging!
you might, re the computer, BCS, run malwarebytes and ccleaner, both freeware—when using CNET, be SURE you’re pushing the button for the download you want, not one of the confusingly posed ads! A disc optimization might be in order. Mine is of some years vintage, and got downright sludgy before my computer ate something Avast couldn’t deal with and I applied all the above, bit the bullet and installed Norton. Now it’s doing quite well. If you’re getting overheating, throw the hood up and make sure cat fur is not decking the fan/heatsink, or wrapping around the keys. I use an eyelash brush to clean under my keys, thanks to Seishi’s love of headbutting my computer screen and trying to roll on it. (An eyelash brush looks like an extremely miniature bottlebrush and is found in cheap cosmetic sections of a megastore.)
I will check for an eyelash brush, two, actually, that’s a great tip. I applied canned air, but haven’t yet popped the hood to clean and inspect. It’s highly probable there’s cat fur involved.
The laptop is mostly okay, but the audio problem has reached the point where I’m stumped and beyond frustrated. There are a couple of other issues, but I can deal with those. My laptop will last a while, thankfully. But for audio, I am resolved to get a new computer.
My first go ’round for keybpard cleaning is the brush attachment on the vacuum cleaner for the loose dust between the keys. I also find the “crevice tool” useful. Then Q-tips with rubbing alcohol for the grunge on the sides. (How does that get there anyway?) For system/software issues one might meet on the Quinaltine Steps for focused discussion. 😉
Hey, Paul. It will likely be the weekend before I check my laptop’s innards. I’ll likely have some comments in Shejidan’s forum once I get to it. 🙂
I’m currently waiting on some brown rice to finish cooking for tomorrow. It will go with some leftover veggies and roast beef drippings, nice and simple.
I was surprised. My cabbie said he and his wife tried herbes de Provence from a spice packet for their Thanksgiving turkey, and liked it a lot. They cooked it very low and slow. I didn’t find the packet this time, but will look for it. They’d tried it for chicken before committing to the turkey, so it was a hit. If I don’t find a packet, I’ll look in the spices and look in a cookbook or two. The blend is bound to be listed. I don’t know how I’ve managed not to fix chicken aux herbes de Provence before, but now I will soon, possibly for Christmas.
They make tiny interdental brushes that will get under keys, too. I agree with Paul, nothing beats rubbing alcohol and cotton balls for cleaning plastic surfaces. I used to clean the PC before we got a new employee. Paper towels don’t work as well as cotton balls.
Good News: I think I may be over the hump with Invader at last. Needed to wind down last night, too much stress and the feel of not quite under the weather. So I read. Got past where I’d read any before, and Bren has just managed, he thinks, to offend ‘Sidi-ma with discussion of astronomy, and Jago with more personal matters. Bren has himself in a self-critical funk, always wanting perfection of himself, and unsure of his own emotional life and relationships, however skilled with others…something that is familiar to me. …it’s odd, Bren seems to be more like me in some ways than many other fictional characters I’ve ever read. Food for thought, for sure. He’s not quite me, or me, him, but I notice it, both strengths and weaknesses. Odd, because CJC and I have never met and up until recently, rarely corresponded any. So Bren is, in some measure, part of CJC’s inner life or at least, imagination. I “get” Bren in a way closer than some other characters.
Literary or interpersonal musings aside, I’m so glad to feel like I’m making progress reading he book and can go forward at a more usual pace, enjoying reading.
And dang, there’s a lot of catching up to do, to get to Intruder. I doubt I’ll be caught up by the release of Protector, but I have some fun to look forward to, catching up.
That, besides the newest CC ebooks and others in my To Read stack.
So many books, so little time! Elizabeth Bear refers to typos as “tyops” — After I learned that, I can’t see the word “typo” without thinking about what she calls them and giggling.
Hah, I like that. Tyops or ty-oops. 🙂
I’m a lot further than I expected, only 60 more pages until I’ve finished reading Invader, so likely tomorrow.
bcs (Ben)-
I think the ability to see into the psyche of very private people and understand what drives all of us is part of CJ’s genius. I too related to Bren’s earth-shattering soul searching and his fight with personal insecurities, questioning every action and intention. In large part, I believe this ability is a function of an examined life. CJ’s aliens are so believable BECAUSE she has managed to understand humans and then do a “compare and contrast” with her aliens, thus establishing common ground to make them relateable while giving that twist of alien intention. I believe the best Sci Fi is that which makes us examine what it means to be human.