People are pointing at the sky and asking what that object is.
It’s still supposed to rain…but the sun is out.
I got Jane to the chiropractor Monday, —our favorite latte stand had a new employee who had to be told to put a hot-holder on the cups; and then didn’t fasten Jane’s lid properly on her chai. I’m leaving Hwy2 and exiting the curve on the bridge that leads onto the Pullman road, when Jane starts screaming as one does when scalding liquid is dumped into one’s lap—and I had no clue. She has occasional muscle spasms in one hand, a known condition, which are quite painful, but she finally got out the info, in a few seconds, that she had chai in her lap, and I was able to get to the shoulder and let her get out and cool down.
Well, her seat is soaked. And she’s not happy. She decided to sit in the back seat, which she did, and I opened the moonroof, because it’s claustrophobic back there; but occasion rain counseled we close it. Plus I was trying to make time because of the delay, and I had to shout to be heard. It was a strange ride down.
Jane had a successful adjustment while I went down to the grocery and bought a towel for the seat on return journey. She will now have her shoulder in the shoulder brace. But I began having shoulder spasms of my own, such misery I gave up and took prescription meds to try to stop it…dunno why it happened, but I didn’t see the doc; maybe I should’ve.
Our favorite hamburger joint was indeed open. It was shut for repairs last week. So that was good: I had a burger and didn’t have to cook. And Jane was on no-food because she has a pre-appointment blood test: she’s going back to the endocrinologist, too. And is doing basically pretty much better. I slept until 6.
She’s in the bathroom trying to put together a Chinese-made bargain mailbox we got that didn’t fit where our box is, and we’ve decided to use it to hold fishfood outside, but in the meanwhile I probably threw away the little packet of screws that went with it: if I’m cleaning without my glasses it’s a pain, because I can’t see what’s at counter level, and if I wear my glasses I can’t see what’s at floor level. So wherever they went, it was a small packet, could have gotten in with papers, and there’s no knowing where it did go.
So…situation normal around here. At least Jane didn’t take any injury she’s admitting to re the chai incident and her neck seems better.
Foreigner an underrated series – I hope not.
I sometimes think that Ms. Cherryh and Ms. Fancher have a secret death wish with all their collective accidents and illnesses. You have to be positive – life is good.
Golden Age, try Gutenberg #32759 to see what the dark age preceding was all about.
I think CJ is right about there being a niche for an editor in the epublishing and
POD book world. The qualifications are pretty daunting (read Janes workshop thread)
imagine all those aspiring writers and their prize work. One of the reasons John W.
was so good is that he could write/had written well. But you have to be able to
read proof, read slushpile, give advice that sticks, and maintain a business sense.
Other than that the job is really easy. As I see it there wasn’t a coincidence in
Baen, Wollheim, Del Rey and other SF editors coming from the ranks of SF to do the
editor job. Staying in the editor job takes some real leadership quality, because
you never get any credit for it.
@Xenophon Wait til you meet Tiresio Rael an unforgettable character. (Morphodite,
Transformer by Foster).
I suspect that the publishing business has been lead down the path of a lot of the
world into a false belief in management as the way to accomplish things. Without a
leader somewhere in the organization, management becomes a day to day exercise in
dealing with crisis, most of them created deliberately so that the management
training can be used. No one teaches how to keep an eye on the normal flow of an
activity and give the tiny push that keeps the desired direction toward a goal.
Closed Circle needs to receive a tiny bit of regular attention, like cleaning a
catbox is a regular activity, because it has your names on it and that means it
is part of your reputation in the world. Just remember the old joke about swamp
draining and the alligators of fish, garden, ills, broken cars, skating and
roistering with low companions while drinking toxic waste. ( I need the recipe
since I seem to be healed ).
GRIN ? So who wants that editor job ?
I know who COULD do it. Pat LoBrutto, former chief editor at Ace, who is now doing ‘book fix’ editing for various publishing companies.
Thanks, I will. Between work and writing I still manage to keep a steady flow of reading material crossing my nightstand and hammock.(It really helps when Hollywood keeps pumping out badly written movies and TV shows.) Last year I inherited several hundred paperbacks from the 60’s, 70’s, and early 80’s and have been sorting through them to find the gems and complete series. Here is what I have gotten through in the last year. http://xenophon.page.tl/What-I-h-m-Reading.htm
Right back at ya. Dug through the pile last night. Is the character you spoke of in a book simply titled The Morphodite?
That’s one of the MA Foster novels with Rael, the other book is Transformer.
You don’t need both to read one, a difficult trick since series is the
buzzword now.
The core conceptual material is pretty rough on those who prefer a nice
tidy clockwork universe, but stretching a bit makes for a great story.
Foster died having written far too few books. Waves is another good one.
The avoidance of the neat solution ending makes it very enjoyable.
I’m on the rollercoaster of Jane’s Ring books, having a great time.
So how do we talk Pat LoBrutto into the arena, to be set upon by the
aspiring literary lions of century 21st ?
One other disadvantage, hanging out a shingle in cyberspace, it lacks
the traditional buffer of lagtime using paper and snailmail that gave
an editor some time between the bouts. The only way to get that would
be to set aside only one day a week to check the comp for Net stuff.
Emails, submissions, etc.
We’ve managed to create a truly alien environment for interactions.
It also functions as a conditioning system (in the behaviorist sense),
but no one knows what the conditioning is doing. Like TV it took more
than a generation to see the effects and then it was too late to decide
if it was good or bad.
On the bright side we’re not wandering in the cratered radioactive
wasteland that was the future we were promised in my teenaged years.
GRIN
Appreciate the thorough response. Wouldn’t call MA prolific, but he made an impressive showing, based on what I’ve read so far. Think I only have one more, the Gamester of something or other. I have immersed myself in the older classics, and yes, I’ve noticed series aren’t as prevalent. I also noticed they could do allot more with less, most are around 300 pages.
So, The Morphodite it is. Sorry CJ, Merchanter’s Luck gets bumped til next month.