What’s Up?

Reroofing Races Impending Rain

This week, the common phrase “What’s up?” is taking on a whole new significance at our little abode.  What’s up is work on the roof.

Friday we had a call from the roofing company we’d contracted with when our roof suffered wind damage back in March.  For various reasons, including changes to building codes, a complete re-roof was deemed necessary.  This was originally scheduled for May, then changed to June when the roofing company had weather delays.  Then shifted again to early July because of more weather delays.  (Remember all that hail?)

Anyhow, Friday’s call was to let us know that they’d had a delay with another job.  If we could be available, they could start our re-roof on Monday.

This shift was our third, but at least it was back in the direction of getting the job done.  Monday began with roofers overhead at just after 7:00 a.m.  The cats migrated to hiding, with Mei-Ling and Roary in the bedroom closet and Persephone under the bedspread.

Background soundtrack also included predictions of rain….  Happily, we didn’t get any while they were working, but we did get high winds.  The roofing foreman told Jim that being hit in the face by a windblown shingle feels like getting slapped with sandpaper.

The reroofing won’t be the end of work up atop the house.  When Jim went aloft to set up the swamp cooler (aka evaporative cooler) on Wednesday, he saw what he thought was a leak near a drain plug.  We called in the experts (a company we absolutely trust), and received the unwelcome news that we need a whole new unit.  This should go into place on Friday.

Last week, I finished up my work on SK5 (my latest Star Kingdom collaboration with David Weber).  I turned it over to him, and the very next day the mail brought the page proofs for my forthcoming solo novel, House of Rough Diamonds, the third Over Where novel, sequel to Library of the Sapphire Wind and Aurora Borealis Bridge.

So, I’ll be reviewing those while overhead mariachi music plays and hard-working roofers and plumbers thump about in the erratic dances of their trade.

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FF: Proofs and Promises

Mei-Ling Catches the Scent

Late this week, the page proofs arrived for the next Over Where novel, House of Rough Diamonds.  This follows close upon the events in Library of the Sapphire Wind and Aurora Borealis Bridge. All I’ll say for now is that those of you who wanted to see more of the interior of the Library will get your wish!

For those of you unfamiliar with this column, the Friday Fragments lists what I’ve read over the past week.  Most of the time I don’t include details of either short fiction (unless part of a book-length collection) or magazines.  The Fragments are not meant to be a recommendation list.  If you’re interested in a not-at-all-inclusive recommendation list, you can look on my website under Neat Stuff.

Once again, this is not a book review column.  It’s just a list with, maybe, a bit of description or a few opinions tossed in.  And it’s also a great place to tell me what you’re reading.  I love seeing the tapestry of what people choose.

Completed:

Diplomatic Immunity by Lois McMaster Bujold.  Audiobook.  Miles has a very difficult incident to unravel, especially as no one seems to want to tell him the whole story about anything.

False Scent by Ngaio Marsh.  Vivid characters and some nice twists and turns.  Her use of “theater people” always rings true.

In Progress:

My Brother’s Keeper by Tim Powers.  Nope.  You haven’t read this, because it isn’t out yet.  I have an advanced copy.  Powers moves the secret history of various literary figures to embrace the Bronte sisters and their very difficult brother.  So far, creepy and engrossing.  If you like this sort of thing, you might want to try his novel The Stress of Her Regard.

Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance by Lois McMaster Bujold.  I listened to this one not all that long ago, but am listening as part of my listen to the series in order.  The wedding scene made me laugh aloud, repeatedly.

Also:

Proofs for my own House of Rough Diamonds.  Look for it in September.

Hail and Fairing Well?

Hail-Damaged Lily Pads

Before I give you an update on our hail-battered yard and garden, I have a bit of news.  Last week I learned that my three Over Where books (Library of the Sapphire Wind; Aurora Borealis Bridge; House of Rough Diamonds) will be coming out as audiobooks from Trantor Media.

I haven’t been told which reader has been assigned so, obviously, I can’t give you a release date.  What I can tell you is that I’m delighted.  I’m a long-time audiobook junkie, and Trantor has been one of my favorite studios for quite a long time.

Now for our hail-battered garden…  We’re still finding little pockets of damage, but overall we got off lightly, especially given how hard we were hit.  The hardest hit was the tomato I’d been growing indoors, that I’d just moved outside to start the “hardening off” process.  Needless to say, this was a bit more hard hardening that had been intended.  We’re still not certain if it will pull through.

Second candidate were the peppers we’d finally transplanted from their containers into the garden.  At this point, we think they’ll all come through, but they’re very fragile.  A few had all their leaves beaten off and are coming back from the stems.  This will doubtlessly slow down their producing fruit, but I doubt you need to ask why I’m not just pulling them and getting new plants.

(Hint: It has nothing to do with availability or cost of new plants.)

Numerous other plants have holes in their leaves, and it will be a while before the lily pads in our teeny little pond look nearly as pretty as they did.  Also, without the cover they were giving, we’re getting another run of algae.

The snapdragons that were featured last week with their planters full of hail lost some blossoms, but are making a comeback.

We also may need to replant squash seeds in some areas, as we’re not seeing the germination we would expect.  It’s possible they were exposed by the hail and birds got to them.

But the view out of my window shows lots of promise, and that inspires me to keep going.  This week I’m working on the final touches of my part of SK5 (the fifth Star Kingdom novel, which I co-write with David Weber) although I may need to put this aside to work on the proofs of House of Rough Diamonds.  Better get to it!  Catch you later…

FF: Spared By Bad Luck

Late Bloomer

Sometimes what seems like bad luck turns out to be not so bad.  This week, as we enjoy our richly blossoming catalpa tree, I’m appreciating the irony.  Normally, our catalpa begins blooming early in the second week in May.  However, the cooler temperatures (which have played havoc with my schedule for growing tomatoes from seed and other things) meant that the tree was just beginning to flower when we were hammered by hail storms last Saturday and Sunday.  (See this week’s WW for pictures.)  So, that was bad luck that turned out to be good…  Or something like that.

For those of you unfamiliar with this column, the Friday Fragments lists what I’ve read over the past week.  Most of the time I don’t include details of either short fiction (unless part of a book-length collection) or magazines.  The Fragments are not meant to be a recommendation list.  If you’re interested in a not-at-all-inclusive recommendation list, you can look on my website under Neat Stuff.

Once again, this is not a book review column.  It’s just a list with, maybe, a bit of description or a few opinions tossed in.  And it’s also a great place to tell me what you’re reading.  I love seeing the tapestry of what people choose.

Completed:

Boundaries of Infinity by Lois McMaster Bujold.  Audiobook.  A collection of short stories (some quite long), filling in key events between the novels.

Princess Holy Aura by Ryk E. Spoor.

In Progress:

Diplomatic Immunity by Lois McMaster Bujold.  Audiobook.  Miles has a very difficult incident to unravel, especially as no one seems to want to tell him the whole story about anything.

My Brother’s Keeper by Tim Powers.  Nope.  You haven’t read this, because it isn’t out yet.  I have an advanced copy.  Powers moves the secret history of various literary figures to embrace the Bronte sisters and their very difficult brother.  So far, creepy and engrossing.  If you like this sort of thing, you might want to try his novel The Stress of Her Regard.

Also:

The new Smithsonian. 

Crushed!

Our Hail Bombarded Yard

This past weekend, we had hail on both Saturday and Sunday.  Saturday’s hail pummeled our garden.  Sunday…  Well, the pictures are from Sunday.  We’re still waiting to find out whether certain plants made it.  It might take at least a week to be sure.

We were lucky this happened early enough in the season that most of the plants are on the small side.  The ones that were hit hardest were eight pepper plants, and as these came from a greenhouse, they may also be the most difficult to replace.

The second hardest hit were some alyssum I’d put in along one side of our patio.  However, I have extra of those, so if we lose them, I can replace.  I hope.  If temperatures spike, that adds in a whole new factor.

This is yet another way that gardening and writing are similar.  The writerly version of hail takes many forms: from illness, to family crisis, to catastrophic events that get between the writer and the ability to write.

Whether writerly hail crushes the writer (or the work in process) has absolutely nothing to do with how good the writer is, or how committed, or anything else.  As with what we’re going to be doing with our bruised and battered yard, the only thing a writer can do is look at the damage, decide what can be saved, what needs replanting, and what needs to be abandoned in favor a new approach or a new work entirely.

Probably my worst writerly “hail storm,” occurred after the death of Roger Zelazny, with whom I was living at the time, and who I loved very much.  I was only 32 and the idea that this would be the end of our story hadn’t really been on my mind.  I’d been too busy dealing with the day to day.  And that included writing a book that was then called Raven/Changer.

Roger’s death irrevocably battered that book out of the form it was then in.  However, after the passage of some time, and writing some other work (including the computer game Chronomaster and related works, as well as completing one of Roger’s works, Donnerjack, and doing a fair amount of short work), I went back to Raven/Changer.

Two hundred pages were discarded in favor of a fresh start entirely.  It became what is now out in the world as Changer.  I’m happy to say, it was very well-received and, to this day, remains for many people their favorite of my works. 

But the destruction was real.  So was being crushed.  But my choice to abandon my former work in favor of a new approach is not one I have ever regretted.

Next week, I’ll let you know how the peppers did, whether we got more hail, or wind or extreme heat, and how the writing (currently working on finishing off my parts of SK5) is going!

Windowboxes With Snapdragons and Hail

FF: Haven’t Decided

Princess Persephone Knows Her Job

I finished what I was reading just as the time came for me to write this, and I haven’t chosen my next one.  I’m not sure what my mood for pleasure reading it, and that’s probably influenced by how tight my focus is on my writing right now.

For those of you unfamiliar with this column, the Friday Fragments lists what I’ve read over the past week.  Most of the time I don’t include details of either short fiction (unless part of a book-length collection) or magazines.  The Fragments are not meant to be a recommendation list.  If you’re interested in a not-at-all-inclusive recommendation list, you can look on my website under Neat Stuff.

Once again, this is not a book review column.  It’s just a list with, maybe, a bit of description or a few opinions tossed in.  And it’s also a great place to tell me what you’re reading.  I love seeing the tapestry of what people choose.

Completed:

A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold.  Audiobook.  Bujold does an amazing job playing a variety of plotlines off each other.  This novel is as complex and elegant as an elaborate Regency dance.  And, in case you’re wondering, what I thought of the butter bugs, I only wish they were real and I could have a colony, even if only the ostensibly “ugly” early version..

Between Princesses and Other Jobs by D.J. Butler.  A collection of short stories featuring Indrajit and Fix, the amiable would-be heroes of In the Palace of shadow and Joy.  I preferred this to the novel, as it had more plot and fewer chase scenes.

In Progress:

Boundaries of Infinity by Lois McMaster Bujold.  Audiobook.  A collection of short stories (some quite long), filling in key events between the novels. 

Also:

Some books on kumihimo I was “handed down.”  Definitely stimulating.

Pecking the Fat

Ladderback Woodpecker Visits With White-Winged Dove

Last week, we had high enough winds that I was grateful I hadn’t transplanted tomatoes from my starter bed, or the pimento peppers we have in the shed to the outdoor bed.  They would have been shredded!

I have continued getting plants into containers, because I can move those to more sheltered areas.   The mad mixture of basil seeds I started about ten days ago are sprouting, but it will be a while before I know what I’ve got.

We’re also doing a changeover from our winter birds to the warmer weather residents.  We’ve had adult quail by, considering our yard as a potential nesting place and a definite foraging location.  The spectacle pod I mentioned a few weeks back is starting to put out seed pods, to the delight of the finches.

However, we do continue to put out food for the birds, to help them along as they’re settling in to raise their families.  We were delighted to see the male ladderback woodpecker at the suet feeder, along with a dove.  The ladderback is pretty certain that we put that suet out for him and his lady.  The other day, I saw him pecking the feet of some aggressive starlings.

Even more important than food is water.  Our birdbath needs to be filled at least once a day, and our tiny pond is not only a source of water, but a place some of the birds raid for wet material for their nests.  At night, the toads drop in for a soak and maybe to visit the tadpoles.  Who knows?

But duty calls, no matter how much I’d like to be out puttering there’s writing to be done!

FF: Business Done

Roary Ears a Good Book

With the copyedit of House of Rough Diamonds turned in, I’ve returned to working on SK5 (the yet-untitled next book in the Star Kingdom series).  I’ve also had some time to read for pleasure.

For those of you unfamiliar with this column, the Friday Fragments lists what I’ve read over the past week.  Most of the time I don’t include details of either short fiction (unless part of a book-length collection) or magazines.  The Fragments are not meant to be a recommendation list.  If you’re interested in a not-at-all-inclusive recommendation list, you can look on my website under Neat Stuff.

Once again, this is not a book review column.  It’s just a list with, maybe, a bit of description or a few opinions tossed in.  And it’s also a great place to tell me what you’re reading.  I love seeing the tapestry of what people choose.

Completed:

Singing the Shrouds by Ngaio Marsh.  A nice variation on the “country house” murder mystery, with the setting shifted to a cargo ship.  Another I hadn’t read.

In the Palace of Shadow and Joy by D. J. Butler.  If you like old-fashioned sword and sorcery with lots of action, wild description, and two amiable—if occasionally clueless—protagonists, I think you’ll like this book.

In Progress:

A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold.  Audiobook.  Bujold does an amazing job playing a variety of plotlines off each other.  This novel is as complex and elegant as an elaborate Regency Dance.  And, in case you’re wondering, what I thought of the butter bugs, I only wish they were real and I could have a colony, even if only the ostensibly “ugly” early version..

Between Princesses and Other Jobs by D.J. Butler.  A collection of short stories featuring Indrajit and Fix, the amiable would-be heroes of In the Palace of shadow and Joy.

Also:

“Gorgopotomos Bridge” by Harry Turtledove.  A short story with a very interesting narrator.

“Best Laid Plans” by David Weber.  Honor meets Nimitz.

The most recent Vogue.

Growing Inspiration

Snapdragons!

Tomato seedlings are finally becoming tiny plants.  That’s the good news.  The weird/odd news is that the majority of the germination is happening on the opposite side of the bed where we’ve had the best luck in the past.  And, I didn’t even plant these seeds.  These came from my habit of watering with grey water from the kitchen, which in the summer contains quite a few tomato seeds.

So, we’ll definitely have tomato plants, but except for those I planted this year, which are maturing more slowly, who know what type they’ll be?  (I’ll try to remember to tell you!)

Over the last few weeks, we’ve started grooming the garden beds, but we’re waiting until nighttime temperatures stabilize in the 50’s to do most of the planting.  We might start some zucchini, radish, carrots, and Swiss chard sooner, especially if the wind lets up.

I’ve started container plants, some with seeds, some from seedlings that need thinning, a few with plants I purchased.  This year our window boxes will feature snapdragons that we bought on cheerful impulse.  I love snapdragons, but these last few years all we’ve seen were a pale yellow.  Since our native plants do a lot of yellows, these weren’t tempting.  However, deep velvet red won the day.

I was recently asked if my gardening had ever inspired a story.  The answer was “definitely, yes.”  In fact, my second published short story “Between Tomatoes and Snapdragons” (originally in Dragon Fantastic, reissued in my collection Curiosities) would not have been written if I didn’t garden.

Off to work on a few more aspects of my life as a writer.  Then maybe I’ll rehab a few more of my containers.  I have more zinnias to thin, and portulaca seeds to plant.

FF: Tired Eyes

Persephone Poses

This week I’m reviewing the copy edit for House of Rough Diamonds.  Between peering at a computer monitor, trying to pull apart the layers in Word’s Review function, and allergies, my eyes are so very, very tired!

For those of you unfamiliar with this column, the Friday Fragments lists what I’ve read over the past week.  Most of the time I don’t include details of either short fiction (unless part of a book-length collection) or magazines.  The Fragments are not meant to be a recommendation list.  If you’re interested in a not-at-all-inclusive recommendation list, you can look on my website under Neat Stuff.

Once again, this is not a book review column.  It’s just a list with, maybe, a bit of description or a few opinions tossed in.  And it’s also a great place to tell me what you’re reading.  I love seeing the tapestry of what people choose.

Completed:

Komarr by Lois McMaster Bujold.  Audiobook.  Nice use of two different narrators, each of whom has information the other would really like to have. 

Death and the Dancing Footman by Ngaio Marsh.  I think I read this one a long, long time ago.  Nonetheless, quite enjoying. 

Night at the Vulcan by Ngaio Marsh.  The second novel set at the same theater.  Changing the theater’s name didn’t remove the memory of past tragedies.

In Progress:

Singing the Shrouds by Ngaio Marsh.  A nice variation on the “country house” murder mystery, with the setting a cargo ship.  Another I hadn’t read.

A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold.  Audiobook.  Just starting.

Also:

Copy edit for House of Rough Diamonds as mentioned above.  A few small articles.