lydamorehouse | Entries tagged with shameless self-promotion

I'm sitting on my front porch trying to be very quiet so as to not scare away the very light rain that seems to actually be falling from the sky.

While I'm trying not to make any sudden moves, I thought I should catch you up on my life. First of all, there is a new interview with me up on Salon Futura. https://www.salonfutura.net/2024/09/lyda-morehouse-interview/ which you should feel free to listen to if you are curious about the upcoming re-release of Resurrection Code. There are no spoilers, even though the book is over 20 years old, but we do talk some of what it is about, my influences, and all the standard sorts of things one does in interviews like this. I am inordinately fond of Cheryl Morgan, so I think you should just listen to everything she has up on Salon Futura.

I also posted another unboxing video on all the various socials. I'm pretty sure unboxing videos are passe, which is why I've done so many of them this year.

Well, crap. I think I scared the rain away. It looked possible there for a hot minute. Ah, well. I will keep my sprinkler on, in hopes that I can fool the sky into giving the whole thing a try. It's been too long. Shawn sent me a whole article about how this is stressing out the trees, that threw me into an existential funk this afternoon.

The countdown to surgery continues. We are at T-8 days. Thanks to everyone who chimed in with some last minute things Shawn could consider preparing, especially

j00j and

abracanabra for the clothing-related thoughts. Shawn had been thinking of relying on me for all her dressing needs, but she might be happier with some tools to help her do some for herself. The things you suggested are in the Amazon chart!

I'm also about four days out from running my first stab at "Solidarity: Drunk Girls* in the Bathroom." Earlier today, I was complaining to fellow GM

tallgeese about the so-called "module" for this game. BACK IN MY DAY, a Dungeons & Dragons module contained more than vibes. It provided a game runner with literally everything they would need to run the campaign, outside of actual dice (although I'm sure some of them somewhere did come with a baggie of dice!) As enamored as I am of the concept of this game, it will be interesting to see how it functions in practice. The good news is that I have assembled a crack team of players who are ready to focus on roleplay over combat, so maybe none of it will matter as much as I worry it might. Regardless, I have spent a shocking amount of time preparing for any number of possibilities. Some of you experienced game runners out there might be arching an eyebrow a the amount of time I have devoted to fleshing out a world around the scenario that The Drunk Girl* (

lcohen ) and I are creating. Let me tell you a little story about the first time I thought I might try GMing a game....

Cast your mind back to the early 1990s. Cyberpunk was the hot thing and a bunch of different gaming companies were capitalizing on that fact. I somehow missed the popular cyberpunk game, but instead had a copy of GURPS Cyberpunk. GURPS is notorious for a number of reasons, but I wasn't actually all that fussed about the rules. Like, I figured that if I had a basic grasp of how the game went an an active imagination, I should be FINE. Except.... turns out, I, personally, need some processing time. I used to do improv theater, but GMing is actually slightly different. People expect a GM to have a generally cohesive sense of the world. They expect a semblance of a storyline. They llke.... maps. Mostly, I discovered, what players do not want is for their GM to freeze up in abject terror and not have a single thought come into their heads. I ended up doing that last bit more than once. It was BAD. A disaster, even.

Luckily, I was 21 and as I told my friend, entirely made out of ego (which was obviously a large part of the problem, but also what saved me from dying on the spot and then spending the rest of my life hiding in shame.)

Let's see... other things I've been up to. I finished listening to Someone You Can Build a Nest In (I keep getting the title of this wrong, but this is the correct one.) I have Frankenstein cued up because I think we are doing it as a deep-dive on our cyberpunk podcast. How is Frankenstein cyberpunk? HOW IS IT NOT? Artificial life! Questions of what it means to be human! SCIENCE!

Did I ever tell you all that I actually met a Dr. Frankenstein? She was a dentist. I happened to be standing in line at the vet back in the day (so long ago back in the day that I was still seeing Dr. Holly out in St. Louis Park because we were living in Uptown.) The woman in front of me said, "I'm here for [Fluffy.] It's under Frankenstein," and I laughed and said, "Well, you should really get a PhD so you can be a doctor with a name like that!" and that's when she told me she was, in fact, a doctor--a dentist. We had a very short conversation about her name and what a hassle she must find it, the details of which I no longer remember. I was trying to be polite, but I really wanted to know what it was like to walk around with such a famous name. But I was also aware that her name probably meant she must spend 80% of her time having conversations just like the one she was having with me.

Like Shawn being 6'1"--it used to be that not a day would go by without someone asking her if she played basketball. Or ask what "the weather was like up there."

It's still looking dark. Should I dare hope?

Eh, I just looked at the extended weather forecast. The short answer is: there is no hope for rain this entire week. In fact the humidity is supposed to drop really low for some reason...

JFC.

So, do you remember that I told you all that I've been feeling a weird nostalgia for crunchy granola food from the 1970s. Well, Shawn ended up having a huge lunch via a food truck at work today so we agreed we were "yoyo"-ing (you're on your own). So, I decided to make myself the most amazing tempeh parmesan. It's supposed to be like chicken parmesan, only with tempeh. And some of you are screwing up your faces right now in disgust, but you are WRONG. This was delicious! And I am inordinately excited that there are three servings leftover so that I can have this for lunch for the next several days.

hmmm, there are probably far more interesting things to catch you all up on, but that's all that's crossing my mind at the moment.

If you're following along as Kai1ban and I talk about cyberpunk, we dropped a new episode yesterday afternoon celebrating the 40th anniversary of the publication of William Gibson's Nueromancer: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1QmYty2vDu8KnA92lJ1yFx. I initially wondered if we'd have anything new to say about it, but we actually talked for almost 2 hours about just this book (well, and of course, the ideas and concepts it spawned.) For perhaps obvious reasons, I ended up talking much more about my own writing in this one than I have on previous podcasts, which always makes me feel weird, but there's simply no question that most cyberpunk writers were, in their own ways, affected by this book.

Anyway, if you are so inclined, please enjoy.

If not, carry on!

I should probably make myself a Mona Lisa Overpod icon, so you all can see at a glance when I'm hyping (or talking about) my podcast and respond accordingly. The fourth episode has dropped. https://open.spotify.com/episode/7I9RjNxKXWczWK8ZKC2J3d, in which we discuss the second Ghost in the Shell movie, Innocence.

I failed to articulate a point that I desperately tried to make during the podcast--like, I think I try twice (at least during recording) and I think I failed both times. It was one of those moments when, as I was driving to the store, immediately after we'd finished recording when I was fully hit with an "I shoulda said."

I will say that listening to part of it last night before my iPad's battery ran out, I was impressed with my co-host's editing ability, because I managed to sound pretty articulate all around.

But, so, the point I was trying to make was why Innocence fell flat for me. I managed to discuss the fact that I felt like the movie missed an opportunity for a gut-punch in the feels, despite having all the elements that should have made it possible. What I failed to articulate is this: there was a scene that was missing--not one intentionally left out by the director, but one that should have been written in.

The basic story, if you don't know it is that there are these sex bots gone wild. They are turning on their owners and murdering them. It is immediately clear that this is a cry for help (because one of the sex bots begs for help before Batou dispatches it in the LITERAL opening scene.) Through the course of the investigation, we discover that the sex bots are being "ghosted" by actual trafficked human children. In the end the children are sort of rescued, but then are admonished for "causing trouble" and murdering people. That alone is unsatisfactory, which I was able to express. But, the scene that we should have had but never got was seeing how the people who owned these sex bots treated them. I am not asking for a gross sex scene, but I would have liked to see something to show me, as the viewer, whether or not their violence was justified. As it was, we just had to imagine the worst. We had no concrete evidence that the people who died deserved their fate or whether or not it was more complicated than all that (which would have then tempered Batou's weird lecturing about the harm done by children who were trying to escape sex slavery, and worse, since the ghosting eventually killed the hosts.)

It was a kind of show don't tell. We were told by a number of people how the sex bots felt about being used and abused, but we never got to see the sex bots feel anything other than a blank-faced murder spree.

That ended up making the film seem hollow as a result.

At least for me.

Anyway, even if you skimmed this, I feel better for having had a chance to finally articulate my point! Listen, if it's your thing. if not, well, hopefully we'll hit something at some point that will be.

First of all, the obligatory reminder that if you'd like to listen to me and my co-host, Ka1iban, talk about the original Ghost in the Shell anime movie from 1995, you can do it. Here's the Spotify link: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5yZxXGcx2E6EAga4k5pmMa. You can also listen on Spreaker, iTunes, or anywhere fine podcasts can be found.

If you listen, please review and/or rate us, subscribe, and all those good things.

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This last week, I continued to keep on reading and listening to the cyberpunk stuff--so, here's what I got through:

The big standout was Feed by M.T. Anderson. I listened to this as an audiobook, which is what I would recommend as the best way to consume it, hands down. The production value on the audiobook is phenomenal. The story is, in part, about social media taking over your brain, and so there's a point where the narrative is broken up with fake advertisements, which are so well done that I initially mistook them for real ones--I thought my phone had flaked out or I'd hit some pop-up. It took several seconds before I realized that these were fake and tailored to the novel. So, that part was EXTREMELY well done. And perfectly hammered in the point of the book, because my brain is so used to being interrupted and bombarded by ads that initially I went into "don't pay attention to this" mode and didn't fully register that my audio book should NOT come with ads. And, of course, we all believe that we're SO good at multitasking, which we all know is at least partly a lie was laid bare by this whole thing. Like, we think we are so adept at tuning advertisements out, when, really, we are subconsciously absorbing them... as I was until I woke up to the fact that this was part of the narrative.

Wake up Sheeple, indeed. ;-)

I finished reading the physical book of 36 Streets by T. R. Napper and... mmmm, I loved the setting of this book a lot. It's a cyberpunk Vietnam, specifically Hanoi. But, the main character never gelled for me and the grim not only stayed grim throughout, but got WORSE. Like, people I had invested in and lied died stupid deaths. So, not what I would call a satisfying story and the text never asks any of the interesting questions of cyberpunk as far as I was concerned even though the main character, Lin, choses to erase huge portions of her memory in order to "fight unencumbered." All of which, to me, felt needlessly macho instead of some kind of treatise or reflection on personhood.

I listened to the short story "Seb Dreams of Reincarnation" by Aimee Ogden which is a great story in the vein of David Levin's "Damage." In which people's minds become space ships. Seb, the titular hero, was once a ship and now he's trying to cope with being a human again and not really doing great--at least not until he takes up the hobby of manning drones. It's a story I want people to read, so I won't spoil it, except to say that the ending is EXTREMELY heartwarming.

I also re-read the short story "Maneki Neko" by Bruce Sterling, which is a story that's sort of like Naomi Kritzer's "Better Living Through Algorithms" (though, obviously, Naomi does it better.)

I gave up on the audiobook The Electric Church by Jeff Somers as it suffered the same problem of T. R. Napper's book, which was excessive machismo. A problem, as much as I hate to admit it, at least in cyberpunk written by men.

I started to listen to the audiobook of Warcross by Marie Lu, which was liking until it became a millionaire boyfriend novel. I'm going to stick with it, but I am adjusting my expectations.

Other things in my queue:

Armada by Ernest Cline (audiobook)
Accelerando by Charles Stross (audiobook)
Jennifer Government by Max Berry

And, of course, I'm going to have to rewatch Ghost in the Shell 2.0: Innocence for the next podcast.

So, what about you? What are you reading lately? Anything good? Anything AWFUL?

So, I talked about this here, but it's now live. Our first episode can be found on Spreaker: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/mlop-count-zero--60266166, but we should be appearing on Spotify, Apple Tunes, and all your other favorite podcast streaming networks shortly.

I might be having too much fun doing these. I have secretly always wanted a podcast and now here we are. I am so, so grateful to my co-host Ka1iban for doing all the technical stuffs. I listened to the opening of this and it is so very clear that he (and all the folks at Just Enough Trope) are professionals!

Anyway, busy day today. Have to run. Talk to you tomorrow!

Image: Me, at Dreamhaven, with cake. So much cake.

So, the majority of my Saturday was occupied by thinking about my upcoming book launch at Dreamhaven and the usual worries that every author has, namely: will anyone show up?

However, despite the looming anxiety, the day started like most Saturdays. Shawn and I have this strange little habit we do. I call them our alliterative errands (should really be alliterative a-rrands, but English be like this.) We often have a lot of large cardboard that needs recycling that doesn't easily fit in our bins. St. Paul is very stingy about recycling. They insist that they will not pick up anything piled next to the bin. It has to fit or you just have to deal with it on your own. So we do. There is a recycling center that is, quite conveniently, most of the way to my favorite coffee shop on West 7th, Claddagh Coffee. So, our alliterative journey begins always: "Cardboard, coffee." Then, depending on our mood, we might stop at Brake Bread, which serves these absolutely amazing cardamon twists. Then, it becomes, "Cardboard, coffee, cardamon." Sometimes we have errands that are less easy to fit into this alliteration, but we have been known to get very clever (or lazy, depending on your point of view) and might say "commerce" if we need to go to the bank or "cart" if we just need to do some shopping.

So, yesterday, since our road trip left us without the usual cardboard stockpile, we did "Coffee, cardamon and curation." The curation part being picking up a couple of items that Shawn had scored us for the little free library off the Buy Nothing Group. We could not think of a good c-word for Menards (a local hardware store), but since they didn't have what we wanted, I am retrospectively calling that errand, "crap."

Then I settled into my anxiety.

Somewhat heightened by the fact that David L. emailed me wondering what kind (and how much) cake to bring for the book launch. I told him that cheap would do (though I am partial to chocolate) and that he should prepare for NO ONE to 6 people. I always have high hopes for signings, but as Twitter has discussed, the worst can happen to the best of us:

Image: A screenshot of Neil's tweet, "Terry Pratchett and I did a signing in Manhattan for Good Omens that nobody came to at all. So you are two up on us." Which he wrote in response to a new author's lament about two people showing up to their book signing.

I have done a lot of these events and low to no shows is actually far more typical than I think most non-writers realize. Of course, it becomes less so when you're a Big Name (which I am not, having been a mid-lister my whole career), but clearly if it can happen to Neil Gaiman and Sir Terry, it can happen to anyone.

There is, too, I think a kind of diminishing returns (perhaps counterintuitively) when an author has multiple books out. EVERYONE and your grandma shows up when your first book hits the shelf because they are so stunned that you amounted to more than a hill of beans. All your English teachers, however, have to show up and tell you that They Always Saw It in You, even if you remember clearly how Mr. C. was annoyed as f*ck that you sat in the back of the class and made bad puns.

However, as book 1 becomes book 7 then book 12... people are very ho-hum about the fact that surviving twelve books in this publishing industry is actually way more of a success story than even breaking in (which is hard enough!) Welcome to Boy. Net is my sixteenth published novel. It does represented a return to science fiction after two decades, but, you know, that's not always enough to draw much of a crowd, especially in a town where people are pretty sick of seeing me on panels, etc., etc.

As you are all well aware, even if you only follow me here, I did a LOT of advertising for this event. I opened box after box of this book, filmed it, and posted the videos EVERYWHERE. I even sent out reminders the day of on Facebook, like a right pest, as my UK friends might say. According to my friend

tallgeese . Minnesota Public Radio even ran an announcement of my launch about an hour before we were set to start. EVEN so, I worked really, really hard to keep my expectations very low.

Because I was so nervous about this, however, I asked my family to come. That way there would for sure be at LEAST two people (which is better than Neil and Terry! Haha) As we sat in the car before heading in, Shawn very seriously said, "I know you're worried, but what does success look like? How many people will it take for you to feel like it was a good event?"

I thought about this for a long time. I weighed all the times I've sat in food courts outside of B. Daltons (yes, that long ago!) literally throwing my book at passers by and the fact that, maybe, MPR was kind of big deal? I decided that my answer, as unreasonable a high number that it seemed to me, especially given my past experiences with these things, I said: "Twelve. A dozen people will make me feel like a superstar."

If you count some of the people who had to be there, including me, Shawn, Mason, and the two people who run Dreamhaven (Lisa F and Greg K), we had 21.

GODDESS.

This was a goddess-level success of a book signing. Lisa F. told me afterward that the only signing/event bigger than mine was Ursula Vernon/T. Kingfisher. I mean... that is some seriously amazing company to be in!

Even so, we had still too much cake. Not only did David not listen to me (he brought two cakes, plus cupcakes, and cherries for anyone vegan or gluten free--but to be fair to him, he was being very generous not only with his money, but also his estimation of my worth as an author) Lisa F. had spontaneously also decided to bring cake. You might think there is no such thing as too much cake, but that was a LOT of cake.

We brought some home, but at least we aren't drowning in it, so I take that as a win.

Reading (out loud)

Me (seated) reading, out loud.

If you're at all wondering what was going on in my back brain as I was writing my most recent book, here's my Big Idea article: https://whatever.scalzi.com/2024/04/29/the-big-idea-lyda-morehouse-2/

My new book is officially out today. I got the trade paperbacks in the mail yesterday. This morning I took the time to add subtitles, etc. Please feel free to watch for the silly subtitle mayhem, if nothing else.

Watch on YouTube

Okay, so if you still haven't bought it, now is the time. https://wizardstowerpress.com/books-2/books-by-lyda-morehouse/welcome-to-boy-net/

Image: My new book cover

The book will be coming out officially on April 24 and pre-orders are available: https://wizardstowerpress.com/books-2/books-by-lyda-morehouse/welcome-to-boy-net/

Whoot!!

My TBR pile has not gotten measurably shorter.

I did, at least, on the recommendation of

hippogriff13 read the amazing seinen manga The Summer Hikaru Died by Mokumoku Ren. I only had the first volume out from the library and I loved it so much that I had to go find everything else that was available online. Then I also read literally everything else that Mokumoku-sensei has had published. I'm not sure I can recommend this manga enough, though it comes with a lot of caveats, namely that hauntingly sad. Also, I was expecting slice-of-life from the title? Nope. It's full-on supernatural/supernatural-horror. Because, as we learn on page one, Hikaru is dead, but something else comes back wearing his body.

Also, the art is amazing. Like, truly.

Otherwise, my pile remains static. It's been a strangely busy time for me. I find publicity for book releases to be as tiring as it is necessary. I am deeply excited to see these books in print, however. I made a little video of my unboxing, if you all want to see it. I probably should have combed my hair before filming, but I WAS JUST THAT EXCITED.

Also, Shawn continues to have a number of doctor appointments--all of which are follow-ups, but it still require me to play taxi and drive all around town.

Mason is coming home on Friday night, so Shawn and I had a "date night observed" last night. We got some hamburgers to go and sat in front of the computer and streamed The Voyagers, which was, as its Rotten Tomato scores suggest, OKAY. As I told Shawn halfway through, it's a bit like "What if Lord of the Flies, but Space... and also they work it out (possibly because there are women)?"

Hey, everybody, this is your friendly neighborhood author just popping in to tell the GOOD NEWS....

*foot goes into door quickly*

Not so fast there, friend! I can promise you this a Good Deal. *talks really fast, as you are crushing her foot trying to get the door shut in her face* SoMyAngeLINKBooksAreAvailableInPaperAgain! Including HARDCOVER!!! PleasebuythemPleasebuythem! Okay, Thanks!

Also Available Here!

*limps away to try another unsuspecting customer*

Once again, apologies for this, but the kickstarter for the anthology that my emotional support dragon story was written for is going live: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wolfinmybeard/a-day-at-the-dragon-shelter. Obviously, I'd love to see this funded, if for no other reason than that this story is close to my heart. As I said, I wrote it at least partly based on my real life experience as a library circulation staff in the Ramsey County Library system, and I mean... in the end Nazi bullies are defeated, so what's not to love???

Anyway, if you feel so inclined, please contribute?

Thanks!
Hopefully this isn't the final cover??

//end advertisement

Sorry, you've subscribed to the blog of a writer, so occasionally I have to do these things.

First off... are you looking for something to get you out of the house that's fun and nerdy? Why not come and see me read at Dreamhaven Books and Comics tomorrow (Wednesday, May 3rd) from 6:30-7:45 pm as part of the Speculations Reading Group? I have already confessed to you all how much I kind of dislike these events, but YOUR PRESENCE will make it all that much better for me! :-) :-) !!

I've decided that I'm probably going to read a story I wrote for a hopefully forthcoming (a Kickstarter is soon to be underway) shared world anthology. Here's what I've been posting about that elsewhere--yoinked from my Pateron page:

***

In the next week, expect some news about a Kickstarter for a shared-world anthology that I will be part of edited by Steven Brust and Chris ‘Fox’ Wallace. Among the contributors are not only myself, but also Jane Yolen, Adam Stemple, and Emma Bull.

Just to whet your whet your appetite, here's a hint as to what it will all be about..

---

You probably remember where you were when you heard the dragons had returned. No doubt, unless you were one of the first to see one, you thought it was a hoax, and I'm sure it took you a while to be convinced. And you have certainly seen how it has changed things--destroying some businesses, creating others, but in one way or another, having an effect on almost everyone.

For us, here at the shelter, it's seasonal. Every Christmas, parents see a cute little hatchling and think what a wonderful present it would be. And, in many cases, they're right. But too many don't even bother looking up even the most basic information about whatever breed they've settled on, and there are too many unscrupulous breeders who don't bother telling them to. Many of these well-intentioned dragon owners somehow miss the two most important facts about a dragonling – It will grow, sometimes very large, and it may not choose you.

That's why, every spring, things start to really pick up here at the City of Lakes Dragon Shelter.

---

I really had a great time writing the story for this anthology. I got inspired, in part, by my work at the Ramsey County public library... and, of course, drag queen story hour.

//self-promotion

For those of you worried about my acid reflux, I tried just drinking some milk with diner last night and I had surprising results. Also, since I was stuck outside of the Moundsview Elementary School while Shawn attended an emergency Friends of the Ramsey County Libraries meeting, I ended up doing an e-appointment? I seem to have a prescription for some GERD meds on their way to my pharmacy, thanks to that. So, we'll see if a combination of dietary changes and meds will help.

Watch on YouTube

A video of the podcast, Written Well. If you'd rather listen, you can do so here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/53Er1jeTXgXaVEN3bNzQK3

So, my friend Adam Stemple is starting up a podcast with his friend Chris "Fox" Wallace. They are mostly focused on self-publishing, but they also talk a bit about the craft of writing, etc. I was invited on to their show and this is the result. As Adam's blurb reads, we talk about paranormal romance, quirky writers, and process, among other things. I like Adam? So, we always have a great time talking. Hopefully, this is as enjoyable to listen to as it was to record.

I had been slated to attend WorldCON in-person, but a month or so ago, when COVID numbers began to spike, I requested to be shifted to fully virtual. I must have gotten my request in in early enough because I am still on a fair amount of programming. Whoot! So, if you are attending WorldCON/Chicon8 this weekend and have virtual access, here's where I will be:

Thursday, September 1, 2022

5:30 PM Virtual Table Talk - Lyda Morehouse / Tate Hallaway (Airmeet Tables,) Duration: 60 mins

7:30 PM Reading - Lyda Morehouse / Tate Hallaway (Airmeet Readings,) Duration: 20 mins

Saturday, September 3, 2022

10:00 AM The Legacy and Influence of Satoshi Kon (Airmeet 5,) Duration: 60 mins
Alina Sidorova (moderator), Osawa Hirotaka, Lyda Morehouse / Tate Hallaway, Nick Mamatas

Come explore this retrospective on the maker of films like Paprika, Millennium Actress, and Tokyo Godfathers, Satoshi Kon. Often exploring themes of performance, social stigma, and the human psyche, Satoshi's stories have left an indelible mark upon media though focus on the synergy between dreams and reality.

7:00 PM Noir and SFF (Airmeet 2,)Duration: 60 mins
Lyda Morehouse / Tate Hallaway, Marissa James, Nick Mamatas, T. C. Weber (moderator)

Noir fiction and SFF have similar roots in the pulps, and speculative fiction often uses noir themes—or at least its surface appearance. Our panelists will consider noir's influence on cyberpunk and novels like Miéville's The City and the City or Khaw's Hammers on Bone, and ponder the best uses of the fedora. . . in space! Let's talk about our favorite SFF hardboiled detectives, existential dread, and French cinema.

The Reinvented Heart Anthology is out in e-book!!!

My short story "Sincerely Yours" is in this anthology. I am extremely proud of this one. It's a kind of pandemic story, but it's really about female friendship through letter-writing, only space-age. Oh, and Fandom. It was very much inspired by my long distance fan friendships as well as ways that I coped (and still cope) in the early days of the pandemic. It's also about social anxiety and how extroverts can respect that as a friend.

So, at any rate, here are the details:

The Reinvented Heart is released in eBook form now.

The print copy will be released on May 31st.

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I will post something about the rest of my life later today, because as a Midwesterner I know I'm not supposed to run around yelling about how awesome I am and asking you to buy my things. (Although did you see all the other cool people who are in this anthology, holy crap!!)

This upcoming weekend, I'll be at ConFABulous, virtually-speaking. I have one panel there, on Nov. 6 at 1:30 pm (CT), I'll be talking about "Hot Robin Covers - and Loki," only one of which I really know anything about. I also plan to joining the gaming session of Thirsty Sword Lesbians, because of COURSE I will. The event is free, so you can still sign up!

I'm also virtually attending WindyCon which happens the next weekend, Nov. 12-14, 2021. My schedule there is:

5:00 PM Friday: Reading
10:00 AM Saturday: Creativity during a Pandemic
11:00 AM Sunday: Storytelling Post-Covid

Virtual attendance at WindyCon is not free, but the cost is fairly inexpensive--ten dollars (US). So, if you have the time and the money, feel free to join me virtually for that one as well!

Speaking of pandemic creativity, I am starting a new quilt because my nephew John just had a baby! Shawn and I are grand-aunts!! How cool is that?

It's Monday. I've been having a pretty decent day, perhaps DESPITE that fact?

It started out with a lovely chat with

jiawen, which I had to unfortunately cut short because our internet at home gets throttled now and again and suddenly it couldn't handle both my convo and my wife's work Zoom meeting. Of course, I had to bow out because... work, but, dang it, we were right in the middle of SOLVING THE WORLD'S PROBLEMS.

This is why we can't have nice things.

If women could just get to finish their conversations, all the answers would be made clear. ;-)

Then, I had to quick eat a little lunch (as we say here in Minnesota) because I had a telephone interview scheduled with a journalist in Montevideo, MN. I have an upcoming workshop there with a mentee of mine who is the recipient of a Minnesota State Arts Board grant. (If you're curious about the event, it is here: https://mefullerwords.com/feedback-matters-workshop/) We talked about my writing and about what I enjoy about mentoring. I will link to the article when it comes out, if people are at all curious.

You know, when people talk about doing things "for the exposure," I mostly roll my eyes. But, I am really hoping that an article in a local newspaper might actually cause one or two people to look me up and buy a few books. Sad, innit?

Otherwise, we are just back from a weekend up at our friends' cabin in Siren, Wisconsin. They have a lovely property and have worked extensively to naturalize the shoreline with native plants. We, of course, have not seen them since the pandemic so there was a lot to catch-up on. We took a number of pontoon rides around Crooked Lake and, during one of them, we got to see an eagle snagging dinner right out of the lake. Fairly majestic. The weather was rainy? But, we needed the rain so I am not complaining!

Image: Gerriann told me the name of this flower, but I have forgotten. It was in bloom all along the shore.

Of course, the other excitement in my life is that Kubo Tite just dropped a new one-shot chapter of Bleach in honor of the 20th anniversary. Here's a link both to my review of it (with SPOILERS) and a link to the pirate scanlators that have it up already: https://mangakast.wordpress.com/2021/08/08/bleach-no-breathes-from-hell-by-kubo-tite/

This has required my return to Tumblr to see what people are saying! So, you know, busy! Busy!

How's you on this fine beginning of a week??

I'm a little distracted today because when I was going through my email this morning, I found a open mic invite to a digital event called, Cymera 2021.

I have a vague memory of asking to be on the mailing list. It's Scottish, but, you know, virtual, and they were looking for five minute readings. I thought to myself, "My UK publisher would probably really love it if I submitted something to this, eh?"

Thus, I spent the morning recording and editing this thing and sending it off along with a short bio, etc. I have never been more grateful that, early in the pandemic, I just broke down and bought myself a video editing program. I initially bought it to make recording lectures for my remote classes the Loft easier, but this will be the second--maybe third time?--I've used it to send off recorded readings for various online events.

There was nothing particularly difficult about this? But, it still managed to eat my morning. I'm sure you know how that goes.

I don't know if anyone else is planning on going, but I signed up for the low-key gathering WisCON: https://wiscon.net/2021/05/08/announcing-visioning-wiscon/ I had fun last year? And I kind of enjoy these digital events? If you are, I'll see you there. I am technically also signed up for the Nebula weekend, the same weekend, but that's the joy of virtual, right? I can be in two places at the same time.

Speaking of lowkey, the big thing we did this weekend was go rummage sale-ing. Hamline-Midway does one of those big neighborhood things. After being reminded about it by a friend, Shawn and I hit the road. I normally love these kinds of things because I'm easily amused by sifting through other people's detritus. Twin Cities Geek had posted about one that looked promising, too, so we headed there. I was excited by the look of that one because two neighbors had joined together and had both front yards were full of tables. The geeks had mentioned it because the corner house had a bunch of geeky collectibles. I pawed through those, but I'm not big on action figures? There were some Hello Kitty pins? But I'm only moderately a fan of Hello, Kitty. But, from there we were able to walk over to another sale, and from that one we could see another down the street.

Unfortunately, that was the closest cluster I found? And a lot of people seemed to actually take the GARAGE part of garage sale seriously, which was a bummer? Shawn and I like to do the slow cruise past the address to see whether or not we can just tell by looking if it's going to be tables full of baby clothes and nothing else, you know? And, you can't always do that in alleys. The first couple of times we parked and walked down to the alley only to find it to be a bust, we decided that with everything so spread out, alley ones weren't worth the minimum effort it took to park somewhere and walk. We're lazy garage salers, what can I say?

I did end up bringing a Chinese ox shaped butter dish home...

image: My garage sale find: cow/ox shaped butter dish, in classic blue and white china colors.

...and Shawn found a weird (but compelling!) cat statue for our collection of oddities on the porch. So, it wasn't all a bust. How was your weekend?

First of all, I want to let people know that I now have a publication date for that anthology with the awesome cover: February 2022. But, you can pre-order The Reinvented Heart NOW. TODAY. EVEN AS WE SPEAK.

Hardcover:

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-reinvented-heart-caezik/1139312391
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=9781647100421

E-Book:

Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Reinvented-Heart-Jane-Yolen-ebook/dp/B092JNGX85/
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-reinvented-heart-jane-yolen/1139229735
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-reinvented-heart
Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/id1562923075

Even though, it's a long way off, I thought I would give you all a chance to get that into your wish list RIGHT NOW. :-)

The second big announcement is that today is launch day for the publishing house that is releasing my lesbian space opera later this year.

rachelmanija has an excellent write up about it on her blog today, which you can read here: https://rachelmanija.dreamwidth.org/2442911.html. My personal suggestion is that you rush right now to sign up for the newsletter because there is a free short story available for you, if you do: https://www.kalikoi.com/join-our-mailing-list/ We also have a Twitter account you can follow @KalikoiB and a Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/kalikoibooks

So, there you go! That's a lot of information to throw at you on a Monday morning, so I hope that you all are otherwise fine. I promise that tomorrow I will be back to the usual updatery about my gardens, cats, and life and such.

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lydamorehouse

www.lydamorehouse.com

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Day in the Life of an Idiot

Journal of Lyda Morehouse

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Monday, Life and Existential Dread

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New Cyberpunk Podcast!

Saturday and Signing

Big Idea: Resistance

Book Birthday!!

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A Late Wednesday Reading

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