Day in the Life of an Idiot

So, Rachel and I are trying a thing. For part of this month and next, our book Song of Secrets is going on a blog tour/blog roll. There have been three reviews so far and each one comes with an opportunity to win an autographed copy of the book.

Here's where we've been featured so far (in reverse order):
Song of Secrets: How Fiction Helps us Cope
Natural Bri
Rocking out to Song of Secrets


Please note, that because the blog tour is called Calish Couple, the reviewers are giving all of the kudos and praise to Rachel. This was, however, a book we wrote TOGETHER (and it was wonderfully illustrated by Mandie Brasington and Alexis Cooke). If you feel so-inclined, I would deeply appreciate you going to one or two of these sites and letting them know how much you love my work and ask them to please edit their reviews to reflect that fact that the book they seem to enjoy so much was actually also written by me.

Anyway, it will be curious to see how this works out for us!

 I have some VERY AMAZING cover art design to share with you guys for the book that Rachel Calish/Gold and I have written.  This is the story that we've been publishing in serial form over at http://entertheunseen (and re-issuing, as it were, on WattPad as well).  The cover art was designed by Rachel's friend Kristin Smith, and I really love it:

This is, at the moment, a GIANT TEASE because we're still in the production phase.  The book, however, will (baring acts of god[s]) be available for purchase at MarCON (March 6 -8).  Kristin did an amazing job with the interior as well and there will be illustrations through out from our artists Alexis Cooke and Mandie Brasington.  There will be an ebook version, as well, but I have no idea when that will be available.  Of course, as soon as it is, I'll link it here.  I'm assuming we'll sell the print version via the usual e-bookstores, too.  (This is where, once again, I'm SUPER-GRATEFUL not to have to be the only one in charge of dealing with all this, because the dealing with Amazon.com, etc. is never fun.)

In other news, Happy Friday the 13th.

My day started out pretty crappy, but I think it's turning around (fingers crossed).  But, it was just that we had Wyrdsmiths last night, which is always great--though it's being made more awesome by the fact that we've successfully shifted the group so that it's working better for everyone involved (at least in my opinion). But, Wyrdsmiths keeps me out late.  I was out until after 10 pm, which isn't late for most people, but I have to get up and moving at 5:30 am in order to get everyone in the house off to where they need to be.  Honestly?  Shawn gets up at 5:30 and I lay there complaining about it until closer to 6:00 am, but it's still rough when you didn't manage to get to sleep until nearly midnight because you foolishly had a cup of coffee and thus needed a bath and a bit of reading to settle down.  

Speaking of reading, I finally got my hands on a copy of THE BOOK OF THE UNNAMED MIDWIFE by Meg Elison.  As I've said many times before, I'm trying to read my way through the books that were nominated for the Philip K. Dick award this year. This one will be number four, since I've already read MAPLECROFT: THE BORDEN DISPATCHES by Cherie Priest, THE BULLET-CATCHER'S DAUGHTER by Rod Duncan, and MEMORY OF WATER by Emmi Itäarnta.  The current book THE BOOK OF THE UNNAMED MIDWIFE is also science fiction (which MEMORY OF WATER was) and, like that book, is also an after-the-fall story, though BOOK OF THE UNNAMED MIDWIFE follows much closer on the fall of civilization.  It's also told in several "frames"--there's a bit at the beginning which is further in the future, where we see a school of scribes who's job it is to copy this book... and then we get the story that they're presumably copying, but both in journal entries and in storytelling, so that part is a bit odd, and takes some getting used to. But, despite the clunkiness of the device, I'm enjoying the story... in so much as one can "enjoy" a story that is basically every woman's worst nightmare for the end of the world ever--most of the women died of a mysterious plague and so what is left are roving bands of men who are basically looking to capture, rape, and own any woman they can find. Our hero is a cross dresser (another repeated theme---as the hero of THE BULLET-CATCHER'S DAUGHTER did the same, though for very different reasons.)  

So I don't know if that's affecting my mood, but it might be.  Because it's pretty intense.  

It probably doesn't help matters that I'm also watching a somewhat disturbing anime called Zenkyou no Terror, the "heroes" of which are actually terrorists bent on blowing things up.  

:-)

So, stay safe and well everyone!

 Just when you think the editing process is over, it isn't.

Rachel and I are STILL going through the book version of School for Wayward Demons (now with help from a third beta reader, my friend Josey).  But, in the mean time, you can keep reading here:  "Broken but Strong."

On the flip side, I do think we'll get through it by the 30th, which is our deadline to get it off to the professional copy-editor as part of the whole trying to have a book-type thing before MarsCON 2015.  This is all very crazy, honestly.  But, it's been a ton of fun and... we'll call them "learning experiences."

In other news, I started Intermediate Japanese on Tuesday night.  It's being taught by the same instructor, Tetsuya-sensei.  It's pretty much all women, except this one guy (Mint, who I will forever think of as Mint-san), all of whom took it before.  Also, most of them have actual plans to go to Japan, Idyel-san is actually leaving for Tokyo before the class is over.  So it was kind of amazing that, when we were asked to introduce ourselves to the ONE new student, I was the only one to have practiced full introductions. I seemed to be the only one who studied at all during the break.  Which only underscores for me that 1) otaku rule and 2) learning something for fun is far better motivation that even NEEDING TO KNOW IT BECAUSE YOU ARE GOING THERE.

Yesterday I had a wicked headache.  It was so bad that even after medicine and a bath, I really didn't even feel up to reading, my eyes hurt that much, so I plugged into my JapanPOD101.com account and listened to several more Japanese language instruction podcasts. In fact, I learned an easier way to say "Please repeat."  Tetsuya-sensei taught us, "Mo ichido itte kudasai" which isn't terribly hard, but the podcast's version was shorter and had no real verb, which I appreciated: "Mo ichido onigaishimasu."  Which is basically the difference between, "Say it again, please." and "Again, if you would." And believe it or not, considering how often you are expected to say that super-long looking word, "onigaishimasu," it's actually much easier to say that than to verb, as the kids might say these days.  And just like in my English version, the second phrase more compact and feels less cumbersome.  So that was a cool revelation.

The only problem with listening to the podcasts right before bed is that the migraine relief aspirin stuff I took had a dose of caffeine, so I slept really fitfully for the first couple hours, and I kept drifting in and out of consciousness repeating these phrases and the more irritating one, "O-genki desuka?" over and over and over.

AND OVER.

Anyway, I'll be ready to ask someone how they are... :-)

 As you know, Bob, I'm attempting to get myself back on track this year.

The reason you haven't heard from me in the last few days is because I've been revising (maybe even, one could say "reshaping") the web serial that Rachel Gold/Calish and I wrote called "School for Wayward Demons" into book form.  We're planning on having it available for MarsCON 2015, where I will be a guest of honor.  If I dare say so?  After all that work (and knowing that it's not even done yet, that Rachel will be going over it again), I think it's pretty damn good.  

I'm little nervous about next steps.  We're talking about doing a Kickstarter for this series--something I've thought about a lot, but never dared. We're only just sitting down to figure out how we might do that, because... well, because it's a big undertaking.  Do we ask people to fund the production of this book in its print form?  Do we ask people to fund the next book(s) and use this one as a premium?  Both?  Something else entirely?  

If any of you out there have Kickstarter/Indigogo experience, advice, or even just strident opinions, please let me know. You can comment here, or email me (lyda.morehouse@gmail.com).  Rachel and I are meeting tomorrow, but we'll be gathering information for a little while, for sure.

I'll frank, too, the nervous part has to do with how much I worry that Kickstarters and Indigogo things are popularity contests to some extent, and the nerd in me fears that the only award I'd get in such a contest would be "least likely to succeed."  This fear of mine is currently being feed by the fact that I failed to reach critical mass for my Loft Fan Fiction class.  Now I have theories about why that class didn't go and at least one of them falls squarely on Rachel and my shoulders.  The title and the description were a little bland, not very snappy.  We were trying to figure out how to appeal to the type of Loft student who can afford in-house classes and, in doing that, I think we went a little broad.  If we were to offer this in the future, I think we shouldn't bother with that imaginary student and just try to hook the friendly neighborhood geek.  We pushed the class as kind of the: so you want to do that 50 Shades of Gray thing and turn your fic into pro work, eh? angle.  

The only problem with just embracing the geek is that I think the Loft's prices are a big stumbling block for a lot of people. (They would be for me.  Frankly, I just signed up for 8 weeks Japanese Intermediate at Community Ed. and I nearly baulked at the 60 bucks.  The Loft charges  $300 or more for 6 weeks.)

So maybe the lesson here (and for the Kickstarter?) might be: scale costs to your audience.

We'll have to see.  I'm a big proponent of the impulse buy, which is why I talked my editor/publisher at Wizard's Tower Press into such low costs for my e-books.  In my case (and which will be the case with School for Wayward Demons) a lot of people already owned my books.  With School... a  lot of content is on-line and free.  The book is significantly deeper and, in a few cases, different, but we're going to have to be sure to keep that in mind when we think about how we're going about this.

I don't know.

It's going to be interesting, if nothing else.

Meanwhile, did I say I signed up for Intermediate Japanese?  I'm so psyched!  It's going to be a blast (I hope.)  Same teacher: Tetsuya-sensei, whom I really grew to love, so that will be good.  I've been supplementing in the meantime by listening to JapanPod101.com.  All that really means is that I now remember how to introduce myself to someone for the first time!  (The most basic thing ever. Still. I am practicing, which is IMPORTANT.)

Also, I should do a blog post tomorrow about all my reading.  I finished MAPLECROFT: The Borden Dispatches by Cherie Priest.  I also got tapped to read and blurb a book by a new author who seems to be writing New Adult SF Dystopia--though I can't really say for sure, because so far, I only opened up the document long enough to make sure it came through all right.  I'm going to try to read through that this weekend, and then start up on the second of the Philip K. Dick award nominees, BULLET CATCHER'S DAUGHTER by Rod Duncan.  

At the library on Tuesday night, I noticed that Arden Hills had the third Hawkeye collection: HAWKEYE: L.A. WOMAN (Fraction/Wu, Pulido).  This one seems to follow Kate Bishop (aka Hawkeye--yes, folks, there are two) when she gets fed up with Clint and goes to Los Angeles.  She apparently takes the Dog, who is, BY FAR, the fan favorite if fic requests during Yuletide are any indication.

So that's me.  You?

Also, Wyrdsmiths has a new member, Theo Lorenz.  

 Yeah, okay, I don't think 2015 has started off very... organized, given that today is the first day I thought to sit down to write to y'all.

I blame my dreams.  Had a nightmare that I just couldn't shake last night.  I woke up a couple time from it, thinking, "Damn, glad that's over," only to fall asleep and go right back to it.  It was a strange one.  You know that video that went viral several years ago about the woman who was supposedly living in some guy's cabinet?  A web cam supposedly caught her coming out at night to raid his fridge?

I think it's turned out that this is faked, but my dream was loosely based on something like this.  I dreamed my friend Naomi came over and showed me a picture she'd taken in one of her daughter's bedrooms.  It clearly showed someone lying under her daughter's bed.  The dream continued on where Naomi told me that they finally caught this guy and he'd been living with them, undetected for DECADES.  Okay, brain, here is where I should have stopped to consider the fact that Naomi hasn't even lived in their current house that long, but you know: dreams.  Anyway, it was super creepy, but I think because my subconscious decided this wasn't at MY house, but someone else's, it was OKAY TO KEEP GOING BACK.

No, brain, just NO.

Needless to say, I woke up a lot.

This was a bummer on many levels, not the least of which is that today is the day everyone goes back to school and work.  The alarm in our house went off at 5:30 A-f*cking-M and we all struggled awake, got lunches together, had breakfast, and bundled out the door into -22 degree F wind chills.

Damn you, Minnesota!

I will say, though, as I chatted up a storm on the way into school and work, the sky was beautiful. When I was a kid, I used to get up before the rest of the household on purpose.  I was a weird, emo kid, who happened to be a lark, so instead of being a normal teenager who stayed up too late, I got up too early and went for long walks while the coffee brewed.  The sky this morning was the color of those pre-dawn skies I loved.  It a "backlit" blue that so deep to be almost indigo.  It's that very odd, "the sun is about to rise" quality of the light that I adore most about it, I think, because its vaguely reminiscent of those deep blue Christmas lights shining in the dark.

Otherwise, I spent much of the day so far working the the Demon School novel.  I'm really making progress, though.  I've at least made one pass through the first 275 pages.  The book, currently, doesn't have many more pages than that, so there's actually still a lot to be written, alas.  BUT, I'm filling in some gaps and formatting everything to look the same.  I think, actually, I'll have a fairly decent draft at the end of this week to send out to my beta readers.  That'll give me next week to go through their comments, make corrections, additions and adjustments, before it goes back to my collaborator, Rachel, on the 15th.

This week I return to writing UnJust Cause, too.

It's going to be a busy 2015...

Now if I can just get more organized. 

 Wayward is just a fun word, isn't it? 

Anyway, there's a new installment of the School for Wayward Demons up, called "Magical In-Take Exams."  Go check it out.  

As I think I MAY have mentioned here, I'm going to be one of the Guests of Honor at this next year (2015)'s MarsCON.  They're currently soliciting ideas, and I've been wracking my brains trying to come up with things I want to talk about.  It's weird, because this not usually an issue... me, having trouble rambling on about any old subject.  But, I guess the problem I'm having is, what do I know that's not just super-detailed fannish squee about the latest chapter of Bleach or whatever. I mean, I could totally talk about how awesome all the things I'm watching and reading are, but... do people really want an entire hour about Barakamon?  And is anyone else in the entire Twin Cities watching it?

So, you know, if you can think of anything I might be good at talking about, let me (or MarsCON) know.   

Rachel and I published our next episode last Thursday to the School of Wayward Demon's site:  "Aftershocks Run Deep."

Check it out.  We're pretty deep into the story now and a lot of the ensemble cast is really starting to show off their personalities and the world around them is deepening.  It's that part of the story that starts to feel lived in.

In other news, Shawn and I spent the day yesterday baking.  Shawn likes to get ahead of the holidays by baking cookies and freezing half of them. so we have lots of nosh around for our Thanksgiving guests, and stuff set aside for Christmas.  We made biscotti, honey caramels, and sand tarts (a kind of butter-sugar cookie cut-out, but with an egg-wash which makes them kind of chewy in a really yummy way.)  Then, because Mason is a fan of it, we made steak for dinner and I baked homemade bread.  So pretty much the oven was on and the kitchen was busting all day.

Today we're starting to do the holiday cleaning and all of that.

I'm finished with my Yuletide assignment, but I haven't posted it yet because I'm still not sure about the voice of it.  So, I'm letting it sit for a while and then I'll re-read to see how it "sounds."

I also did a really fun back-and-forth via email interview with Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith, the authors of a new YA dystopian novel called, Stranger that will eventually be published on Gay YA.  I'll post a link here when that happens.

Otherwise, I'm fighting off a headache which I blame on this really weird, warm weather we're having....

I managed NOT to get a Tate chapter out this week, BUT, for those of you reading the School for Wayward Demons, there is a new installment out today--and it's a doozie!  It's called Bad Jaguar! and it's up now.  It also comes with some AMAZING, knock your socks off art by Mandie Brasington.

Meanwhile, in the continuing Requires Hate debate, Daily Dot has written one of its exhaustive articles about the whole event: "Acclaimed Sci-Fi Writer Exposed as Notorious Internet Troll."

They ask a really troubling question, which is, is there a double-standard here?  Are there toxic personalities in the SF community who are more readily tolerated because they are (white) men? (I put the white part in parentheses because Chip Delany is mentioned.)  

I don't know what to make of that.  

I feel there are things I could say, but I won't.  I won't partly because I don't want to go on record saying anything that could be construed as being apologist for any of the behavior of the men cited--not because I secretly agree with any of it, but the opposite. I refuse to even *accidentally* seem like I would condone any of it.  

I also am backing away from an opinion about this because I think the issue of hate and who owns the right to be angry is, in this case in particular, ultimately an argument best spoken to by the communities of color who were hit hardest by RH.  As a lesbian, I get the usefulness of being the "angry lesbian" (or having one in your community), but I also think there is a REAL difference between writing a snarky, strident opinion piece and actively harassing someone/using hate-speech to silence opposing opinions, and internet stalking--all of which RH/winterfox/et al. has, according to many very reliable sources, actively engaged in.  It is problematic that she's a woman, PoC, and queer, but the hatefulness she's being accused of I would tolerate from no one.  It's completely inexcusable by race, creed, sexual orientation, or... really, anything.

So that's me... I have a lot more to say, but I'm going to make good on the backing away and leaving this for other people, particularly RH's victims and the communities she's been a part of, to argue.

If you want something happier, there is that chapter I posted!  :-)

So, I've got some fiction for 'ya! Come get your pipping hot fiction!

First up is the continuing saga of UnJust Cause. This episode is called, "Why Did the Centaur Cross the Road?" The answer is: he didn't. He started to, but got hit by a car before he made it. Now, Jack and Alex (who, if you recall, were taken off the jumper/drop-victim case) are sent to investigate what happened.

After reading that, you can make your way over to the Enter the Unseen website and read: Theo Uncovers Secrets! with a lovely illustration by Mandie:

Because I forgot to come back and post our podcast link, "30: Still No Aizen" and my link to the Gangsta manga review: Gangsta by Kosuke, A Review, you are now inundated with the linky-links.

Also, today is a new Tate chapter. I'm rather proud of the opening line this time. It goes like this: "After being told I was off the case, I did what any well-adjusted grown-up would do: I sat at my desk and sulked." You can find this gem (and others) in Part 27: With a Little Help from Friends.

Later today, there will also be a new School for Wayward Demons chapter for you, but I think that Rachel has those set to go up around 1 pm. If you go there, be sure to check out all the little improvements we've been making around the site. We have a lovely new Table of Contents page, which you can go to to check out any chapters you may have missed (or want to re-read!) We also have link to our Patreon page, so you know, if you feel like supporting our work, you should go for it.

I support you supporting us.

In other news, I'm starting to get excited about Yuletide. I checked out the Sign-Up Summary and I found out that someone actually requested that funky little food manga I adored called, "Kinou Nani Tabeta?/What Did You Eat Yesterday?" and I'm super-duper hoping that I get assigned to write that one.  But, seriously, OMG, if I don't get this one, I'm SO writing someone a treat in that universe.  Because: food!  Because: gay men! Because: ridiculously boring slice-of-life.  IT IS ALL THE THINGS I LOVE.

Yesterday, as Mason and I were headed to school about a zillion police cars raced past us on Rice Street.  An ambulance raced up and then back down the street, faster than I have ever imagined an ambulance would go.  Police had blocked the road off near school, and a cop directed traffic.  It was crazy.  We speculated about what might have happened as we made our way to school.  Only once I was home an scouring the new sites did I find out that a boy, 11 years old, was hit by a car while walking to Mason's school.  I spent much of the day yesterday worrying that it was Mason's friend Donte, who I've written about on my LJ, because he's a frequent guest for sleepovers.  He walks to school every day, along that exact same route.  I was briefly relieved to find out it was not, but then I spent the rest of the day feeling sad about this recent Napali immigrant who has yet to regain consciousness and who wants to be a policeman when he grows up. (Please, goddess, let him grow up.  Because there but for the grace of fate... go we all.)

So, yeah, Monday kind of sucked.

Here's hoping today will be better for everyone.