ISS framed by Earth

November 30th 2009 at 2:53 pm

This is an amazing shot of the ISS in orbit, from above, originally featured at Space Fellowship.com. That’s Africa in the background.
This will be my next desktop background, thank you very much NASA.

Now couple that with this visually arresting video of a shuttle launch from all the new video cameras on all the various parts [...]

Mood: contemplative and thankful

November 30th 2009 at 1:32 am

A year ago this time, I was looking at the inside of a hospital room while recovering from a pulmonary embolism, a second visit of two. I’d been admitted Thanksgiving morning, early early morning. After getting let out, I was physically shot, constantly exhausted due to meds and just being in a bed so much [...]

Dreads

November 29th 2009 at 8:27 am

Been listening to a lot of roots rock (reggae) over the last few days (different novels have different soundtracks).
Which made me remember: I was at a con a while back where someone swore they’d met me ‘back in the days when you had dreadlocks’ and nothing I could do would dissuade this person from believing [...]

Seeds of Change

November 25th 2009 at 3:58 pm

If you are a SFWA member, John Joseph Adams passed me a note saying that Seeds of Change, which includes my short Resistance, is available thanks John for all SFWA members to read free at this link.

This makes me happy

November 25th 2009 at 10:24 am

A Halo fan did a mockup of Eric Nylund’s the Fall of Reach as a Penguin Classics format. I was tickled enough to tell them if they did a Cole Protocol version I’d hang that in my office, so they obliged, and now I have to figure out how to print to the color printer…

Halo Evolutions launches today

November 24th 2009 at 1:41 am

Today is the launch of the Halo anthology Evolutions: Essential Tales of the Halo Universe, which includes my novella ‘Dirt.’
If you’re a Halo fan, you might want to check it out!

Don’t panic: the words are still there

November 19th 2009 at 1:50 pm

Lucy Lou has a great webcomic about why we shouldn’t freak out about changes coming at us and just focus on the work itself.
I think its particularly good advice. I’m thinking about ten years ago, when I first got into the field, everyone was freaking out and spending energy on webpages and how they were [...]

The hard truths of freelancing/writing

November 18th 2009 at 5:44 pm

One of my favorite websites, WebWorkerDaily, featured a look at the negatives of being a freelancer today. Of course, they’re very much similar to the downsides of being a writer.
The three things:
Every Day Off Costs Money
It’s true. If you ever meet writers, they’re always ‘on.’ Losing time to sickness costs me money. Vacation: lost money. [...]

100 words is a 100 words

November 13th 2009 at 10:35 am

Kameron Hurley writes about getting those daily words written, and gives a hat nod to the idea of just aiming for a small number of words that I wrote about here.

It’s such a weird brain trick. When I first saw the idea, I sneered a little bit. I mean, c’mon, 100 words? WTF? [...]

Ain’t nothing but a gangsta baby

November 12th 2009 at 1:40 pm

My stepdad, who was a total help in looking after Thalia while I had Calli xrayed and so forth, snapped this pic of me in the doctor’s office when she got her first breathing treatment to help with her congestion and coughing.
It cracks me up. Yes, my baby looks stoned and like she’s toking on [...]