I’ve been more than remiss in communication.
As you may know I had round #2 with cancer–breast cancer—which I got out of with a lumpectomy and no complications, but — radiation, etc. and as many as 8 doctor visits a month….which kind of takes the starch out of you. Just not enough energy to get to things….
And ‘things’ have sadly included WWAS….FB’s been a little easier, because there I just react.
But WWAS has been, well, — I haven’t had the energy to spare. I was going great guns on the next book until the second cancer round, and I’m ABOUT getting enough energy to take it up again—but—
Anyway, still love you all. It’s just been weird. I’ve always had energy to spare, and it’s hard to pace myself when I don’t.
Not for want of caring.
Best to all of you. Profound apologies for those who’ve tried to get onto this page that I haven’t had the strength to go through (literally: I’m not kidding: 14,000 emails (most from Russia and Albania) to try to sort out legitimate new members. I hate loose bots! Anyway, I’m doing all right, trying to bounce back from the second bout and the radiation, just not as much spring in the bounce as I used to have; and hoping that I won’t have a third. Genetics says I have a proclivity to this kind of problem—but I think I’ve had my statistical share now, if you please!
Love you all.
—CJ
And while I’m copying & pasting between CJ’s Blog & CJ’s Facebook page. Here’s the latest on her and Jane’s… & especially Finity’s saga “What’s that new kitten doing HERE?” — posted earlier this afternoon by CJ:
“A milestone in the household. Finity (neut.fem.) is the one you think MIGHT accept the kitten. Nope. My gentle Scottish Fold allows the little black imp to eat his ears and bare claws and crawl all over him. Finity has chased him under the furniture to much howling and emergence of kitten with many damp patches on fur.
Lately, however, it’s gotten better—rushes but no chewing on the plushie-toy.
Then today we took the kitten out into the garden —and Finity decided to go out. She stalked, she followed, she was clearly out There on the kitten’s case.
But then, under the garden table, amongst the chair legs, a meeting with both extending curious noses….
Noses met, just briefly. No violence. No threats. They separated immediately.
But that was Well, I Guess You’re Staying and I Promise To Be Mostly Good, all in one little nose-bump.
Relief. We can pretty well trust the situation up to a point. She’ll still bowl him over when he runs full tilt past her, but just Because He Gets On Her Nerves, not that she’ll do more than knock him sideways, like any subordinate. She can be trusted unless he does something to provoke her, and he can be trusted not to be an idiot: he’s a pretty savvy little kitten.”
Happy Independence Day, to those in the US who celebrate it. This year we have a lot to consider about the direction the US is going, and to act accordingly. Last year, our one older outside cat was intensely unhappy with the fireworks and smoke (the humans had to retreat inside the house and activate a/c life support), so we opened the laundry room for her to hide in overnight. This year with so many extra cats, it may be standing room only in there!
Dusk has fallen on an absolutely beautiful summer day (no rain: first time in 16 weekends!) here in Malden outside Boston… and the various crackles, booms & whooshes are starting up around the neighborhood. Luckily our cats don’t seem to mind… well, that big whoosh BOOM got Mousie to look up, me too! (I am typing “in real time” here.) I’ve been baking up a storm here today: hamburger rolls; pain de campagne; biscuits for peach & blueberry (from our bushes!!!) shortcake once we get back from an evening walk we’re about to go out on. We’re heading over to a big, outdoor gathering at some friends the next town over tomorrow afternoon with all but the shortcake. My spouse is also request —wow, that one was loud just outside the house!—ing hotdog rolls for tomorrow’s barbecue. I’m really looking forward to seeing friends. This week’s US politics have me intensely anxious. I do anti-poverty work. I need laughter & good food to push away the existential dread. So, off for an evening walk (exercise helps too): should be bright & sparkly; then biscuits followed by shortcake. Happy Fourth, US folks!
Something to consider while you’re laid up (although if incorrect may rile you up), an interesting video about the Western world’s fantasy genre. The narrator’s thesis is
“Lester Del Ray’s formulaic stylizing of Tolkein (not Tolkein himself) popularized the genre, then destroyed it.”
Or so the OP says. youtu(dot)be/watch?v=_BBrDhgGz1k
The Del Ray formula was slavishly followed until GoT. George R. R. Martin is literally the anti-Tolkein, whatever Tolkein does, GRRM does the exact opposite; not at all unique, just another formula. Which was then slavishly followed by editors & corporate mega-publishing houses to make a quick buck. We’re finally getting into counter-counter formulas. But however many times it’s inverted or re-inverted, it’s still >that formula< dominating things. It makes a certain amount of sense to me. Discuss.
Del Rey? He isn’t around to comment.
Now if they’re basing it on marketing (“the next Tolkien” etc), that’s not the publisher. Or the editors.
Sounds a bit like when Hilfy found herself saddled with Hallan.
Haven’t been checking-in much in recent months. Been seeing a lot of contemporaries and youngers checking-out in recent weeks too! Find myself halfway through cataract surgery, and another year older last month. Nothing major going on.
Good luck with that cataract surgery, Paul! I remember when CJ had it and emerged, when all was said & done, quite pleased. Separately, how goes your garden and bushes?
I also am quite happy with it. My second eye was done a few days ago. I’ve yet got more than two weeks of eyedrops to do. Even the first, done almost a month ago, not long enough to have forgotten my habits of reaching for glasses, gives me a dull pain if I squeeze my eyes shut as when scrunching up my face just before sneezing.
How does my garden grow? It’s been very dry, severe drought, on the rainy side of the PNW. I am already preparing for next season. I can’t dig my hard-neck garlic bed for a while because of my eye surgeries, but had a “proper” harvest and consider I’ve recovered from my ’22-’23 crop failure. That year was tough on my (native) Iris tenax seed germination too, and I’ve finally given up on some of the pots. (Tenax is notoriously slow germinating anyhow.) I’ve collected my Iris tenax seed, most going to the SPCNI seed exchange, but I’ll pot seed from 8. I’ve tipped-out the Iris reticulata pots and collected more bulbs than expected, a surprizing recovery from same ’22-’23. Some Acer palmatum succumed to drought, and rhododendrons are still over-crowded. More to do than I have energy for now.
Very glad to hear that the cataract surgery has been a success, even if you have some more “be careful and don’t overdo it” time to come. Sorry to hear that you’re in a severe drought! That’s tough on a garden! (We had one last year from mid-July through November or so here in coastal New England but so far seem to be pretty “normal” this summer, assuming it rains next week: Late July and August is always pretty dry). Your energy will return.
Tell me more about how you produce/multiple iris reticulata bulbs: when I plant them, they just come up for a year or two.
I grow them in containers.
The real problem is potato mosaic virus that infests many (most?) growers’ fields. It causes dark streaks in lighter colored varieties, also darker ones but its not visible. It’s transferred by “injection” in the first place, then all daughter bulbs.
The yellow I. danfordiae are also problematic. Its bulbs “fracture” into many tiny “popcorn” and “rice” sized bulblets rather than divide. They’re precocious, even the popcorns will produce multiple ricers.
Many suppliers cannot be trusted to supply what they advertize!
Yes, very good to hear the eye surgery went well. One of my people at work had a detached retina (gah!) a few months ago; fortunately, the surgeries to repair it went smoothly and aside from the lingering aches and pains, is recovering nicely. After this surgery is recovered from, she expects to tackle cataracts next. My latest eye exam noted that in 5-10 years I may need to consider cataract surgery as well, but that is a way away.
I am jealous that you are able to have irises where you are; they are one thing I miss about living in Hawaii where I am. We are also having drought conditions in areas across the islands. Last week we had a scare where another area by Lahaina caught fire, but the fire fighters caught it before it spread more than a few acres. We apparently learned something from 2023; now they just need to make sure that the acres of fallow cane fields are properly tended and not covered in tinder.
Now that my mother has gone home, my sister-in-law and family are coming tomorrow, so wash rinse repeat on the activities!
Missing Irises? It’s a tradeoff most would likely make (if they could even afford Hawaii).
There’s a real estate agent there that periodically flies a drone over Lahaina and posts it on YouTube. It seems
to be going as well as can be reasonably expected. We’ll just have to be forgiving about the loss of its historical presence, and Disneyesque attempts to make things appear to be exactly as they were. No, it won’t be the same, but what’s done is done.
My mom is visiting right now, so naturally a lot of stuff has come up that needs my attention. The through-wall a/c unit at DH’s shop has died the true death after 9 years of service, so replacing it is on today’s agenda. I also need to put our sliding screen door back on its track after a friend strongarmed it off the slides (“oops!” they said.) Friday I did a lot of cooking: pretzel rolls, creamsicle cheesecake, key lime pie, and lamb chops with salad for dinner. One of my feet apparently did something bad and has been hurting on and off for the last 2 months. It’s improving but slowly; I wear a brace at night. I have too much on my plate and just hope I can hold out until my planned vacation in September.
Yeah, I recognize having too much on one’s plate and trying to take care of too many things. That AC sounds a bear. I was generally the one who took my Mom’s AC in and out at her house each Spring/Fall. Now she’s living in senior housing and luckily it just needs covering each year. They’re heavy! The cooking (and eating) sounds fun… but takes a lot of your energy!
One apt I lived in had manual gates on the alley-side parking. I’d go out, or get home, and discover mine was off the track. 120-pound me lifting 20-foot-long steel gate at my end and putting it back on the track… (Turn back to it, grab, lift a couple of inches, move it over the track and let it down.)
“Jones fracture” possible? Those are notorious!
No; this appears to be closer to plantar fasciitis, with the characteristic sharp heel pain on first waking/walking. After several weeks of foot brace, Tylenol and rolling a golf ball under my foot whenever I am sitting at my desk, the symptoms seem to be abating. I did have a Jones fracture scare several years back, when I kicked a misplaced chair and broke my pinky toe. Fortunately it wasn’t.
Boy was replacing that a/c unit painful! It’s the first time I had encountered an a/c that came in 2 parts: the case that attaches to the window or opening frame, and the operating guts of the thing. We didn’t realize that the preceding unit also was a 2 parter, and spent nearly an hour trying to figure out how to remove it from the opening before realizing the innards had to be removed before we could unscrew the mounting box, and that only by breaking the front off the old unit. Le sigh.
The through-wall AC/heater at my current apt died some years back, and it’s similar. They got it down reasonably quickly, and I haven’t had problems since. (They check a couple of times a year. Maintenance here is *effective*.)
And furthermore…! We are in the midst of a tsunami warning. So far *touch wood*, although our local harbor has ‘won the prize’ for having the biggest wave so far at 6 feet, we are all safe, despite the ninnies who have gone to the shore to look for the tsunami. Now my mom can say she has experienced a tsunami, although that’s not really what you want to say about your vacation!
“Ninnies” might be describing folks who go to the beach hoping to a tsunami a little mildly. (“Idiots,” “fools,” “Evolution in Action examples” and more come to mind.). Sounds like your Mom is having a good vacation, though. Hope you are getting some relaxation time in too.
happy birthday!
I was checking on YouTube feeds this morning, and was presented with a new (September 2025) driving tour of Lahaina. It’s an “on the ground” tour that he has been previously presenting with drone flyovers.
Kitty people here: Yesterday on the other side of town I saw a “Ghost Cat”! It was all white of course, but it had white eyes! (OK, possible if I’d been closer to it they might have been a very light pale blue, if that’s possible. Not albino I think, the pupils didn’t look pink, normal black.) The other notable thing about it is its owner had tied a floral, hand-painted plaque about 5″ square, with rounded corners, to its collar, hanging down in front. I could discern no name. It did have a little difficulty with it, climbing up on a step and going into a front yard. Perhaps it had a penchant for climbing? It would have protected the local avians! Very bizarre on a couple of counts!
In case you folks (CJ and Jane) aren’t already aware of it, Anthropic is settling a lawsuit for essentially using a metric ton of writers’ works to train their AI without proper authorizations. I did a quick look, and at least 10 of CJ’s works were scraped for this project, and Jane’s might be in there as well. You can go here
( https://secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/lookup )
to verify which of your works are eligible for compensation for the suit, and apply to be included. You may only get a few hundred bucks out of it, but that’s a few hundred more than you had previously! I found out about it from a posting on John Scalzi’s blog, and discovered that DH’s grandfather was included in the settlement because they used some of his books without permission. We have the rights to the books, so we applied.
They scraped science journals, too. Four of my brother’s papers are in there.
Chondrite, I’ll see if I can post this as a comment to CJ’s Facebook page when she makes a fresh entry.
Thank you so much; I’m at a loss as to how to bring things to CJ and or Jane’s attention since I’m not on FB and this blog appears to have gone static.
I posted your original comment about AnthroPic’s lawsuit on AI Training Content in a (totally unrelated) Facebook Post that CJ had just made… and I was the first comment. She hasn’t, to the best of my knowledge, responded/acknowledged formally but should have read it.
From CJ on Facebook about an hour ago, a useful little catch-up on her physical health:
“Well, the old Oculus finally died. We’re biting the bullet to get a Meta version 3s, which doesn’t have all the whizbangs of the plain 3, but we only use it for one program—Supernatural Fitness. And we are replacing it because—health. If not for it, I wouldn’t have the agility I have—which is pretty good. When I started it, I was just after gut surgery, not sure I’d regain much walking outside of chair to bed; and a lot I’ve gained has been recommended therapy—but I started the Supernatural program seated; and within a week had gotten the nerve to do it standing. Then full 360 instead of 180. (All things you can set in the controls)—and since then I’m 173 weeks into exercise without a miss—the unit travels with us; and I credit it for my being able to move about the garden paths and do things generally without a cane. I use the cane when tired, when the exertion is unusual, when ground is uneven; or when buffeted by crowds, but in terms of just the steadiness and flexibility for daily life and activity, I’m really, really grateful to this program, and Jane is much the same. It’s not just strength, it’s balance and flexibility, and since you do only what you can, but just keep going, what you can tends to increase over time. Big, big gratitude to this company. They want me to stand on one foot and grab the other ankle, behind,—noooope. But what I CAN do is gingerly test my balance first by putting my weight more on one foot; in another week, by standing briefly on one foot. So I do that. And then I get a little bolder. Still can’t do it all, but I can do most of it. At least a hundred routines, all swatting at targets, discriminating black from white—mental exercise as well as physical, and always that little cool-down exercise at the end. Love this thing. So yep, it’s essential.”
Happy post-Thanksgiving to all! We had a couple of friends over to help us eat turkey and many side dishes. The squadron of cats outside got the giblets that were simmered for gravy, and will assist in cleaning out the carcass that was cooked overnight in the same crockpot that made the gravy; I got about 2 quarts of high grade turkey broth out of that project. The refrigerator is still packed, but it’s all processed leftovers that we can nibble for the next week. I’m debating the need to go shopping for anything but the bare essentials, although I now have to start packing the gift boxes being shipped around the country to friends and family.
Indeed, Happy post-Thanksgiving to all too! I cooked a small=12lb Turkey yesterday at my Mom’s for her, my visiting from Wyoming brother and myself, with a small number of sides (potatoes from Wyoming, mashed; Swiss chard steamed; gluten-free biscuits and surprisingly successful gravy). The carcass is in my Mom’s freezer for me to turn into soup at some after visit.
CJ made brisket. Here is her Facebook post:
“The brisket roast was a grand success, with one more meal to be had out of it, which sort of brings the extravagant cost of it down out of the stratosphere.
a) I decided on the Crockpot as producing less mess.
b) I seared the 2.5 pound roast in a skillet, on all sides, using cooking oil instead of olive oil to get a harder crust on the sear.
c) I started at about 8 AM, on low. I added: about a tablespoon of each: basil, oregano, black pepper, thyme, bay leaf (chopped,) and a teaspoon of salt and a dash of celery salt. And really thought I might have overdone it. I added potatoes cut in sixths, a couple of small tomatoes, a lot of baby carrots, with water, and just left it, lidded of course.
c) all along I worried about overspicing and also on the fact it was the texture of shoe leather—couldn’t get the cooking fork into it, even at noon, so I tested it with sharp toothpicks to reassure myself it was actually getting done-er.
d) cooked it until 3:30 pm, and by then it was really well-cooked and very nice, and the spicing was spot-on.
Yay us! Veggies, green beans, roast, pecan pie for dessert. We are well and truly Thanksgiving-ed. With another serving of roast and roast veggies and even pie for a day or so on.”
I’ve bookmarked what I thought was CJ’s primary Facebook page so I can at least read along (although I don’t post with no Facebook account), but it hasn’t updated for the hoi polloi since 2024. Would you mind terribly verifying the correct page?
And to add aggravation to the Thanksgiving chaos, my oven decided that it was time to get cranky. I put in our turkey at 8 a.m., planning on lunch around 1. I checked on it at 10, because I wasn’t starting to smell roast turkey yet, but when I prodded the bird, it seemed not to be cooking properly. I messed with the oven and eventually got it going again and we were mostly on time for dinner, but that was a hassle I didn’t need. I warned our guests we were running late, and they told me of power outages around our town, so I didn’t disabuse them of the notion we had been victims. Baked more stuff yesterday and it seems to be behaving, but I really don’t want to have to repair or replace the darn thing during the holidays!
Oh no, wonky oven—not good! On Thanksgiving, even worse!
CJ’s Facebook page is at:
https://www.facebook.com/cj.cherryh
Visiting that address, I only get an error message (not public).
Hmmm… you may need to be a member of Facebook to view Facebook accounts and posts?
Probably, at least for some messages. I’m not a member there and I’m not going to change that.
Merry Winter Solstice, or whatever it is that seems proper for you to celebrate, all.
We’ve been recipients of Chondrite’s “Pineapple Expresses” here on the rainy side of the “Ring”. We were 8.2″ in November, 10.3′ so far this month. (Chondrite, you can turn down the spigot for a while, if you please.) Cold and snow has been conspicuous by its absence, as they say. Possibly herself had dustings on the dry side, nothing to talk about I expect.
It seems we dodged a bullet today. There was a low running up the coast predicted to bring 70MPH winds coming up the valley and all the way to the Sound, unimpeded by the coast ranges. But thankfully it failed to appear!
INCHES, NOT FEET!!!!!
Apologies, we ourselves were busy with Madame Pele’s latest works in progress. Mele Kalikimaka e ka Hauoli Makahiki Hou to all!
I saw that! 1400′ lava fountains! I’m reminded if an old butter commercial on TV: “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature!” She can be a right nasty old bitch.
In 2014, when I took a lady friend on the cruise, we did the “doors off” chopper flight over Puu-Oo when it was threatening Pahoa. The cone had collapsed; I was impressed anyway. And then there was the east rift zone! That would’ve been something to see (if one wasn’t thinking of where most of Molokai actually is).
Wind hit farther south, I understand. 114mph at the top of Mt Hamilton, and Lick Observatory took some damage.
[ https://www.sfgate.com/news/bayarea/article/santa-clara-co-famed-lick-observatory-is-21263361.php ]
(We got a total of 5.8 inches over 3 days, in my neighborhood in L.A., half of it on Wednesday. Another one coming in Wednesday, with rain on their parade and on Friday.)
Paul—I like your Merry Solstice! The winter solstice is our anniversary so it is doubly special for my spouse and myself.
Here just outside of Boston, it is 18 F. right now this evening (around -7 C?). We don’t really have any snow but a dusting. 8 feet of rain would be really impressive as snow!
Merry Solstice to all and may the light returning to the New Year bring peace and justice!
It’s clear enough the early Christian Church was suborning ancient “mid-winter” celebrations at the solstice to their own cause, if people were going to celebrate no matter what anyhow. So back in my 20’s, I “hired” an art student to make an oblique overhead-view drawing of Stonehenge, and some vaguely runish looking lettering “Merry Solstice”. Then I had it printed on some yellow-brownish old-looking paper so single-folded it’d go into a standard business envelope. It’s my “Christmas card” when I so wish, which hasn’t been that often. I still have some.
Paul, your Solstice card sounds great! We deliberately married on the solstice (years ago) and my spouse and exchange solstice gifts rather than Christmas Day ones… although we d do stockings on Christmas Day itself.
Contratulations to CJ on her new award: the Forry for Lifetime Achievement.
[ https://file770.com/cherryh-wins-lasfs-forry-award/ ]
You know, I’m not certain CJ knows about this award. At least, she didn’t post about it on FaceBook (I just went back through her posts to Thanksgiving)… and I remember how proud – and posting – she was of her Grand Master award.
One hopes she knows, and decided not to toot her own horn; one would think the LASFS would notify her of the honor. It’s the holiday season, and I hope it’s simply that she and Jane are busy with holiday happenings.
Aside from Facebook, has anyone heard anything from CJ and Jane? This blog is starting to feel abandoned 🙁
Yeah, it’s just us fans here.
I agree, CJ does appear to not be posting here (I wonder if she can’t access the WordPress controls to make a new post or has been fully seduced to the dark, FaceBook side to the loss of here). It is nice to chat with folks here anyways, whom I have gotten to know over the years. We have good conversations here still.
A good update from CJ on her FaceBook page that I thought folks would appreciate:
“Cancer survivor. Just passed the 6-month blood test, 3-4 years post-surgery: the blood test that would turn up any return as been rock steady and low (good) for the past half dozen tests.
My doc has put me on twice-annual check, as opposed to 4x a year.
Yay. Genetic screening tells me I have (lucky me) two problem genes. At least they waited to cause trouble until science has a REAL good protocol for treatment of same. Granted you get tested.
DO get those regularly recommended tests, people. Including a colonoscopy. Painless. You’re out cold. It actually removes any future problems without a need for surgery. Talk to your gp about getting scheduled.”