Arwen is dead. Long live Mithrien. (Or, my hellishly crappy day.)
Cut to the chase. This morning my ailing iMac (vintage 2007) finally, after months of coughing, hacking, and unsightly effluvial discharge, gave up the fucking ghost. Crash. Crash. Crash. Finally, I got in via safe mode, backed up everything to Spooky's Toshiba external hard drive, and, then, managed to simultaneously sigh in relief and spew every scrap of profanity known to sentient earth creatures.
Sure, we're not as broke as we were a few months ago. But we're not in a position to buy a goddamn new Mac. There's flush, and there's flush, and we are not that flush. Spooky reluctantly called her Mom, who loaned us the money. Because she is one of the most bow-tie women on earth.
But we have to pay her back ASAP, because anything else is indecent, and it's going to be a while before my next bunch of cheques come slithering in from various publishers. SO, we are beginning a monstrous eBay extravaganza to reimburse Spooky's Mom. Many one of a kind items will be offered (well, several), along with books. We hope to make $1,550 in no less than three weeks. So. The auctions will begin in earnest tomorrow. Right now, there's only one chapbook up and a copy of the oop tpb of Alabaster).. Every penny helps (and I wish I had a penny for every time I've had to say that.) Please stay tuned. And thanks.
But, one trip to the Apple Store later, here's the shiny new iMac. I've named her Mithrien, the Grey Lady (in Sindarin), which is entirely appropriate for a number of reasons. She is my fourth Mac since July 1993.
---
A long and rather wonderful phone conversation tonight with Suzy Jackson, who will be doing the Neil Gaiman Presents audiobook of The Drowning Girl, my doing my lousy best to help her with a long, long list of pronunciations in various languages (Italian, Latin, Greek, Japanese, Gaelic, Narragansett, etc.). Finally, I referred her to Sonya for further assistance. Oh, and how to read "7/7/7"? And how to read the struck-out passages? I was planning to make it down to Manhattan for one day of the taping (and to have lunch with my agent), but the computer shenanigans may have put the kibosh on that plan.
Also, I will soon - very soon - be making an announcement that will make a whole lot of folks who've hoped for hardback editions of The Red Tree and The Drowning Girl: A Memoir very, very, very happy. And no, it's even better than you think.
Okay...fuck it. Drugs and Rift. Tomorrow, I have to finish my story for Sirenia Digest #75.
Sure, we're not as broke as we were a few months ago. But we're not in a position to buy a goddamn new Mac. There's flush, and there's flush, and we are not that flush. Spooky reluctantly called her Mom, who loaned us the money. Because she is one of the most bow-tie women on earth.
But we have to pay her back ASAP, because anything else is indecent, and it's going to be a while before my next bunch of cheques come slithering in from various publishers. SO, we are beginning a monstrous eBay extravaganza to reimburse Spooky's Mom. Many one of a kind items will be offered (well, several), along with books. We hope to make $1,550 in no less than three weeks. So. The auctions will begin in earnest tomorrow. Right now, there's only one chapbook up and a copy of the oop tpb of Alabaster).. Every penny helps (and I wish I had a penny for every time I've had to say that.) Please stay tuned. And thanks.
But, one trip to the Apple Store later, here's the shiny new iMac. I've named her Mithrien, the Grey Lady (in Sindarin), which is entirely appropriate for a number of reasons. She is my fourth Mac since July 1993.
---
A long and rather wonderful phone conversation tonight with Suzy Jackson, who will be doing the Neil Gaiman Presents audiobook of The Drowning Girl, my doing my lousy best to help her with a long, long list of pronunciations in various languages (Italian, Latin, Greek, Japanese, Gaelic, Narragansett, etc.). Finally, I referred her to Sonya for further assistance. Oh, and how to read "7/7/7"? And how to read the struck-out passages? I was planning to make it down to Manhattan for one day of the taping (and to have lunch with my agent), but the computer shenanigans may have put the kibosh on that plan.
Also, I will soon - very soon - be making an announcement that will make a whole lot of folks who've hoped for hardback editions of The Red Tree and The Drowning Girl: A Memoir very, very, very happy. And no, it's even better than you think.
Okay...fuck it. Drugs and Rift. Tomorrow, I have to finish my story for Sirenia Digest #75.