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Yes, cruise ships are like giant malls in the ocean. And a Disney cruise ship is like Downtown Disney in the ocean. On a Disney cruise, you can ride a water slide around the deck of a ship, even going out over the ocean. There’s a few stores, and they drive you to a few more. There are three nice restaurants, two elegant restaurants, fast food establishments, and room service. You can OD on Disney movies, even though you can’t seem The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes or That Darned Cat!. You know, maybe you don’t want to.

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Bryon and I went on our first Disney cruise for our anniversary 3 years ago. Our original plan was to go to Paris, but that didn’t work out. We could afford like 3 days, and it was a challenge to get everything to line up in a row. Our travel agent asked, “Cruise?” We were the kind of people who cram in every freaking attraction we can on our usual vacation, so we thought we’d be bored. Then we discovered on the ship that we liked relaxing. Maybe it was our middle age talking, or just the fact that we’d never been in a deck chair before, but we were sold.

This time, for my fiftieth birthday, I didn’t hesitate. I was the one who bought up a cruise.

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It’s not the tropics I love. Honestly, it’s the ship. I love being on a floating hotel. There’s a movie theater, three stage shows, a luxurious room, and cool places to just sit and be. This time around we bought all cruise passes to the rain forest room, rather than use spa treatments, so you could sit on a heated couch or in a private hot tub whenever you wanted. Very worth it.

In addition to these sorts of luxury hotel features, there’s an awesome family track. While we aren’t kids and can’t play at some of the cooler pursuits (come on! Why wasn’t there an Avengers academy when I was 12???), we could participate in some of the family oriented programming, like learning to fold towels like our housekeeping staff, and drawing Disney characters. Yes, I can make a mean towel monkey now. That’s a skill I’ll probably use in every day life. 🙂

I would really recommend this cruise for kids, but it’s awesome for adults alone too. There’s booze tasting. Sports. Cooking. Tips on buying jewelry in the Bahamas. Endless trivia. Dancing. Shuffleboard! Next time my goal is to play shuffleboard.

And here’s the thing. I don’t know if I will ever take a trip with another cruise line. Yes, I’ve heard good things about other cruise lines. But, like Disney World spoiled me for Universal, in spite of the allure of Harry Potter, the other boats look kind of dingy in comparison. So, there’s that.

At any rate, I’d love to hear about your cruise experiences.

Next up: SFWA. Or how on Monday, I stopped being a puppet, and became a real writer? Or maybe how I stopped being a real writer and became a puppet? We’ll see.

Work begins again. We are getting to the weeks where I prep for the new semester as both a teacher and an admin, but having just completed catching up on phone messages and emails, I figured I would take a break to write to you all. Whoops. Phone. BRB.

That was the husband calling about which Monster High lunch box he should buy for me. Which makes sense, because since Domo died the death, I have been using a Weight Watchers lunch bag, and that’s a decidedly too adult, not so fun thing.

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I’m looking over my list of things that I have to write about, and it looks like while some of that material is dated, it might still be interesting to you nevertheless, and that in theory I shouldn’t be running out of material for a while. SO, maybe what I’ll do here is just start in with the most recent first, and go backwards.

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After my Caribbean cruise (yes, it was excellent, thank you, and since I am regressing in time, you can’t know about it yet), I washed my clothes, packed up my gear, and headed out to Writer’s Digest in New York, where I was the house guest of Miranda Suri, awesome author, and her husband Sid, awesome author consort. George Galuschak completed the hosting triumvirate. Chia Evers ran into town to goof off with us on Thursday, and Chris Cornell made our fourth musketeer for the conference. It was a veritable Who’s Who of VP XIII. As you see.

We walked to oblivion. We were soaked and dried and soaked again. We walked the High Line and visited China Town and ate at The Spotted Pig, and visited shops and talked. Yeah, it was good. It goes without saying that we talked about writing and cool things.

I don’t know what to tell you about New York. Part of me likes that culture is around every corner and that you can find just about anything. Part of me dislikes mountains of garbage, crowds of people, and ubiquitous rats (okay, two, but for me that’s ubiquitous). The subway is an experience unto itself. At no point did I feel unsafe, but I felt pretty much like I needed to be hosed down with antiseptic at the end of the days there. I was amazingly impressed by the bits of New Jersey George took me to. Hoboken is pretty swanky, and I can add a cool new awkwardly named city to my list, right up there with Kalamazoo.

Now, what about Writers Digest?

Continue reading “…and we’re back. With Writer’s Digest.”

The final book of the Golden City series, J. Kathleen Cheney finishes a perfect blend of historical fiction with believable fantasy elements in combining Portugal at the turn of the 20th century with myths about sirens, selkies, and other sea creatures. This book finds Oriana and her husband Dulio living among the sereina as diplomats in a sticky political situation.

What is interesting about the society is that the sereina society is one where men are the repressed sex. Cheney uses this societal aspect as a strong counterpoint to the gender roles in the first two books of her series, which take place in Portugal. The book focuses on Joaquim, Dulio’s brother, and Oriana’s sister Marina as their romance blossoms against a background of investigating sereina influence in Spain.

As usual, Cheney’s writing is full of imagery, strong and tight. The characters are well-painted and different, believable as multi-faceted human beings, rather than just token male and female characters. Gender is well explored in the book, as well as issues of class and parenthood.

It’s easy to be swept up in Cheney’s world. Her writing seems effortless, and her research is impeccable. I strongly encourage you to check out all 3 of the Golden City books.

Poor, neglected blog. Let me wipe away some of these cobwebs…oh. There you are!

My apologies. There’s been travel. There’s been the death of the most beloved Queen of Cats. There’s been one kick ass acid reflux attack that took me to a foreign emergency room (love you, Minneapolis! Your emergency room is the fastest I’ve ever been in). And…there’s been this book I’m finishing.

It’s a mixed bag, that stuff. Some really, really good. This book, I like this book. It’s getting good feedback from the fine folks reading it for me. I am in the final editing stage. It’s solid. I have hopes for it.

I can’t say enough good things about 4th Street Fantasy in Minneapolis, usually the last weekend in June. Elizabeth Bear has been trying to get me to go ever since I met her in 2009, and I kept having things come up. Schools in Viet Nam, other conferences, fake family reunions, cruises… Plus, there’s it’s proximity to Convergence, which is the main venue I play geek at with Bryon and some geeky friends. However, I finally decided enough is enough and that I was going this year.

And what a trip! I drove up to Minneapolis all by myself (I have great friends, but I’m not sure any of them would have really appreciated this unique alchemy of creation convention and full hall discussion), and then stayed at the hotel. Before festivities began on Friday, the wonderful Caroline Stevermer took me around Minneapolis and showed me some beautiful natural spaces that I’d never been to. Plus, she could be a real tour guide if she needed to be. I learned a lot. I had the opportunity to hang out with Caroline a lot at 4th Street and she is just as wonderful for a whole weekend as she is for a get together.

A real treat was the number of folks I’d met before at Paradise Lost or at Viable Paradise, or because of Viable Paradise. Man, it was wonderful getting to see folks and talk to them. There was dinner and good conversation, so even though none of the rest of the fighting 13 were there, still it felt like coming home.

And you kind of got to hang out with every one. I had breakfast with Beth Meacham two days in a row. That’s a Tor editor, and we were just hanging out. And no one was schmoozing. We were eating oatmeal.

I met some wonderful new people as well, and I hope they stay in touch. Sherri in particular comes to mind. She got my email, but because of cat worries, I was not cognizant enough to get hers.

Cat worries. It was no secret that Bastet was ill, and that I might have to leave. As fate would have it, at that first breakfast, we had all been talking about our wonderful pets. Then I took a voice message from Bryon and had to tell a table full of cat enthusiasts that the cat I had just talked about was very ill. So, many, many people were very supportive at the con.

I will be going back next year. I will be making room for it. I loved it. And if you’re a writer, and you’re not going, trust me, you might want to rethink that. These are amazingly friendly, smart, literate writers and readers who are exceeding friendly.

Okay. Next time. Convergence. Yeah.

While I was at Fourth Street Fantasy over the weekend, Bryon called me to let me know that Bastet had become very ill. Her deterioration was very fast. We had some blood tests done on her for fear it was her kidneys. It was not. The last three days, however, she had not been eating or drinking, and had a great many mobility problems.

We made the responsible decision and put her down today. She died an old lady, loved and spoiled.

Since she had been part of our life for 15 years, we have very few words. I want to tell you all about the terrific convention 4th Street is, but that will have to wait a while.

Here are some pictures of the mighty Bastet, Queen of Cats. Her like will never come again. My heart is broken.

I’m about to hit the road again. This is a day at work, as my boss and one of our office assistance are leaving us for retirement, and I wanted to work with them one last day.

Tomorrow, I’m off to 4th Street in Minnesota. Bryon will remain at home with the cat. Maybe I will see some of you at 4th Street? Next week is Convergence. Maybe I will see some of you at Convergence?

There has been much red-penning of the last read through of the novel. The middle doesn’t seem slow and saggy. Good sign.

And that’s a wrap for status.

Once upon a time, in 2001, a young professor, fresh out of graduate school, decided to see if she could still write fiction.

She could, and the writing that resulted from her experiment then grew into a very large, very elongated, very complicated story. She wrote one of the middle ones first, but she didn’t do it quite right. This wise man on top of a mountain told her to write the first one first. She stammered and stuttered a bit, but realized that there was wisdom in this. So she did.

Because writers are what they are, she had another couple of projects to finish, and a novella to take yet another crack at, and some short stories to make her feel less of a hermit to write and send out. She did these things too, and maybe that’s why she took 3 years from the time of the wise man’s words to the time she had actually finished the first book, almost exactly three years to the day she received that advice.

Today, I finished The Vessel of Ra, which is the first book of the Klaereon series. Oh, there’s still work to be done. Tomorrow I begin an out loud reading, followed by an application of the 10 percent solution, all the while looking for as many mistakes as I can. The book is there, finally, and I can make these kinds of changes.

Today, after 1:30, I took the rest of the day to walk and reflect. I’ve finished books before, but this book? These characters twisted me in all sorts of ways, and made me work hard. I am proud of this book. It is Gothic and the mythology is interesting. This is a story I wanted to tell, in my own voice. I am proud to put my name on this book.

Today, I am a satisfied and happy writer.

Closing in on finishing that novel, if you’ve been wondering.

Too hot on the trail to write much of anything here at the moment. Details to come soon.

Today is my last day at Kirkwood. Tomorrow begins my summer vacation.

Yes, teachers do get a summer vacation. It’s the nature of our biz. No students=no work. Technically, it could also mean no pay, but most of us are wise enough to divvy up our salaries over the entire year. There are pros and cons to this system. I mean, we get a lot of vacation, unlike most of you. Unfortunately, we do not command corporate salaries, and we cannot vacation when we want to. It’s all about the tradeoffs.

Unlike most teachers, I have an additional six weeks in my contract, due to the nature of my administrative position. We need someone to orient and organize our classes for the upcoming semesters. That’s me. So, most of my college colleagues have already been on vacation since mid-May. I have more vacation this summer than I usually do, because Christmas break is now five weeks, and I have to work all of it save the 10 or so days the college is closed for everyone. So, I get 8 weeks off this year. This is unprecedented since I’ve become coordinator.

And you know what I’m gonna do with those 8 weeks. I’m gonna travel like a world class Type A workaholic. AND I’m gonna finish Klaereon #1. For you, Walter Jon Williams. Because you told me to. And not just for Walter, of course. For many, many supportive readers and friends and most importantly, for myself. A complete Klaereon book, which I hope publishers will love, but if not so, then which will be self-published when I am retired and can do that sort of thing.

There are a lot of Klaereon books, and they are not all interconnected, but kind of independent beings that exist alone, so I will write them as long as I have life and breath. But after this book, I’m going to try to fix my flawed werewolf novella. If I can’t get it to work this time, I trunk the beast. Too bad too, because it’s got some beautiful Southern Iowa decay in it. But if I can make it work, I think I’ll get a writer merit badge.

And then, a brief stop to create Abigail Rath into an Oni Press comics proposal. She might work well that way and she hasn’t received any lasting agent love. Yet. There’s still a handful of agents that I want to look at her.

And then, the question is: do I write the next Klaereon book, or do I go back to Grant, David, and Hild in Decorah? Let’s just see what I feel like. And if the aforementioned publishers like that first demon binding book.

Wow. Look I’ve put all the horses at the back of that cart there. You see what I just did?

Anyway, I gotta get some work done today. This week’s been kind of a bust. If you don’t know why, see yesterday’s post. Nothing says goodbye to Kirkwood like trying to get hold of an ACT testing rep. Go, me.

Hey. As soon as I finished writing yesterday, my life became someone else’s, as I assisted one of our new students with a sexual assault case. That was 5 hours yesterday, and looks to be a couple more today. Yesterday was about reporting the incident and helping the victim. Today is about clarifying issues with the alleged assaulter. I say alleged not because we don’t believe yesterday’s student. Rather, that’s the official term we use at the college until a decision is made by the Dean of Students.

This is the first one of these I’ve had to do in 10 years of being a coordinator. I have worked on sexual harassment before, as well as a domestic situation when a wife wanted to leave her home. But this is new turf.

Last night I was empty like a vacuum jar. Not angry, not sad, but empty. I slept a lot and stared at the ceiling a lot. Apparently, it takes a lot out of you to be moral and language support in this kind of case.

The people involved were older people, not traditional college age students. This situation is everywhere, in every culture. I was very impressed with my college’s machine for dealing with such things. Within minutes, this student had a counselor, a dean of students, a safety office and a police officer working on her case. And everything was brilliantly handled. Color me impressed. Good job, college of mine.

AND somewhere out there are two Sudanese men who approached the woman after the incident to try to take care of her. When she wanted nothing to do with them, they went and found a female friend of theirs who talked the woman into spending the night with her, not outside. These Samaritans’ names were forgotten in the wake of shock, but I am so proud of them, and grateful.

So, listen up. You’ve heard me rant about abuse and sexual violence. Take all those things I’ve said before as given. Realize that no woman is immune. This woman was staying with trusted friends and things went pear-shaped. Shame on any of you who try to minimize the issue of harassment and assault. You can pretend to yourself that reality is different than it is. Those of you, men and women, who minimize it are as bad as the criminals that commit these offenses, because you enable them to exist. This is everyone’s issue, my brothers and sisters who are victims, my brothers and sisters who are allies, my brothers and sisters from all over the world.

Get with the program, people. I really, really don’t ever want to do this again.