Archive for May, 2009

• Back to the Rain Wilds again

  Date: 2009.05.29 | Category: News | Response: 13

  Another busy day.  I have writing to do, weeding to do, a house to tidy and an airport run to make.

  So, of course, I’m here, doodling around when I should be working!

  As you may have noticed, I’ve changed the userpic for the journal.  The above shot is from the book trailer for The Dragon Keeper.  It’s a closeup of Thymara.  Makeup is by Cast of Thousands, operated by Tacoma artist Tim Peirson.  I’ve been very impressed with his work, and he has been a pleasure to work with.  There will be more on this later when the trailer is completed and uploaded.  For now, I will add only that I was incensed by a chance remark:  "You can’t do film in Tacoma. There’s no talent pool." 

  What?!

  So, the book trailer is definitely a very Tacoman production, featuring Tacoma talent exclusively. Not that I have anything against Seattle or Olympia or any other pool of talent.  I think that creative people everywhere ought to be given a chance to succeed.  I especially enjoy, however, working with local people on things like this.

  Progress on The Dragon Keeper?  It will come out from Voyager in the UK and  Australia in late June, early July.  I’m also now scheduled to do a book tour of the UK from July 4 to July 12. And I’ll be spending an extra week afterwards just to wander around London a bit and see the sights.  Scroll down slowly and with great pleasure, enjoying the scenery along the way, to see Jackie Morris’ cover art for The Dragon Keeper.

  Dragon Haven, the concluding volume, has been turned in, but not yet edited. At the current time, I’m working on a story collection that is due December 2009, and on a longish story for the anthology Star Crossed Lovers, edited by George RR Martin and Gardner Dozois.

  More later, and in a more timely fashion.

  It has come to my attention that I am apparently ‘twittering.’

  Heads will roll!

  Robin

• Peculiar day

  Date: 2009.05.16 | Category: News | Response: 6

  It was such a strange mix of things.

  Perhaps, since I haven’t posted here for awhile, I should explain what I’ve been up to.

  Dragon Keeper turned in.

  Too long.  Split it into two books.

  Dragon Keeper turned in again, then copyedited and turned in yet again, to both US and UK editors.

  Second half of Dragon Keeper, now titled Dragon Haven, with new opening chapter and much more detail added turned in again to both editors.  Now hard at work on creating the ‘book trailer’ for Dragon Keeper, writing a short story called Dog Years for the story collection and somewhat having a life.

  So.  Somewhat having a life means that this week I’ve seen both Wolverine and Star Trek.  And that I weeded a big section of my garden.  And that today we went down to the old house to mow the field/lawn before it gets too high as the Spousal Unit ships out on Monday to return to Texas and fixing the Sea Trader.   

  Well, almost every time I go down to my old house, I discover that we’ve been broken into, yet again.  This time, all seemed well, until we discovered that the little boat from the pond had been carried up from the pond and set at the end of the house, obviously all ready to load into someone’s vehicle.  The peculiar part of this was that the day was very warm and dry, but the painter on the boat was still dripping wet.  So I we must have missed intersecting with out thieves by only a matter of minutes.  I still can’t decide if that is the good news or the bad news.

  We mowed a good part of the lower field, with me running frantically about and saying, "No, look, there is a baby tree here, the little flourescent flag just slipped!"  So Fred missed all my trees, which I am very happy about. And I’m happy to say that almost all of them came through the winter just fine, and that the plum trees have already set some fruit. 

  Then we hookedup the water pump and pressure tank for the house again, so that we will have running water for the summer.  And I did some tidying inside and made a mental list of things we need to restock.  The last break in, the thieves took the microwave, the little hibachi, my electric drill and charging base (that was my favorite tool!), my flame-thrower/weed burner, the big cooler, the cots for kids staying the night down there, and . . . well, I’m going to stop listing it all.  It’s too depressing. Most of it, I’m not going to replace.  There’s no point to it.  I feel bad about the microwave.  Last summer, we had a batch of kids down for a judo seminar. Travis Stevens, our local Judo Olympian, came down to do a workshop with the kids, and the kids ran all over the acreage and had a good time. The parents came down and helped with cooking and kid minding.  One of the families brought the microwave down and left it there so we could use it again this summer.  Only, well, we won’t.  So.  Blah.  Fred says I should assume that whoever stole it needed it a lot more than we did.  

  Fred is a much better person than I am.

   I do have a new flame thrower/ weed-burner now, so I can resume my eternal battle against the himalayan blackberries and the tansy ragwort.  They are noxious weeds, both officially and in my opinion.  Tansy is a cumulative poison for horses and cattles.  Himalayan blackberries devour the land and climb up the trees and choke off everything underneath them.  They grow really fast, too.  So the battle is to keep them cut back so they can’t flower, fruit and seed.  They spread fast enough just with runners.

  The thieves did leave my coffee pot, so I try to be grateful for small mercies. They also did not steal my lawnmower or rototiller. More things to be thankful for.  And I chained the boat to a tree before I left.  They will probably come back and steal it anyway, but at least they’ll have to work for it. Work is good for the soul.

  On the way home, we stopped at the Roy Steak House for food.  Because Fred is running away to sea on Monday, we consoled ourselves with prime rib. The small serving, which was still twice as much as I could eat. The serendipity of stopping there was that they were giving country western dance lessons to several couples. We watched that as we ate, and then Renegade came in and took over the bandstand and started playing.  And the dancers claimed the floor and it was really nice to sit there and listen to live music and watch the cowboys and the ladies.  Fancy boots and hats.  Young couples and old couples.  There’s an old fashioned grace to that style of dancing, one that I envy when I see it.  But I can enjoy watching what I cannot do myself, and it was really a very nice evening.

  And now it’s late. So I’m off to bed. Tomorrow there are more fields to mow.  I still have about a dozen native trees to get into the ground down there.

  Saw lots of snakes today, many frogs, and my red-wing blackbirds are nesting in the cat tails again.

  Life is good, really.  Can’t let the small disasters get you down.

  RH