periscope posting
In the sense that I am not really surfacing -- but today is the UK release of the hardcover of Throne of Jade and the paperback of Temeraire, so I thought I should at least post that, and having done so, I may as well ramble at you all a little more. *g*
Having picked up a nasty cold at comic-con (which was a blast despite being alternately sick and hopped up on cold medicine -- *waves to matociquala and rachelmanija and apologizes again for flaking out Saturday morning*), I spent the first week back recovering and the second in that pleasant state where one feels well enough to do easy and enjoyable things but not enough to actually be productive. The approaching deadline fills me with terror, though, especially as most of this month is also about to be lost to con-going, and I am trying to buckle down again. I apologize in advance for neglecting comments and questions -- I am still reading all of them, but I will be posting only in the most sporadic kind of way from now until book 4 is done.
Speaking of which, 1500 words today, written since I started this post in the morning. Which makes a good day, even though I do not have an exploded cat.
blazingwolf77 asks about the sword in Throne of Jade. It is indeed a chinese rather than a european saber; the main inspiration was the sword labeled "Qinwang-Junwang Pei Dao", the fourth one down on this page.
The nature of the monkey in my recent post (which, er, was uninterested rather than disinterested, really, although I suppose it could have made a case for the latter also) has been discussed in this thread with contributions from gwangi and mythusmage. I can only contribute the hearsay that the hotel staff informed us that they were Barbary apes (aka Barbary Macaques), which made me happy as a Patrick O'Brian fan. However, as Wikipedia informs me that this species is tailless, the staff appear to have been mistaken, as these particular monkeys were very much tailed. (They were definitely not baboons, however, although those were also present at the Falls.)
Having picked up a nasty cold at comic-con (which was a blast despite being alternately sick and hopped up on cold medicine -- *waves to matociquala and rachelmanija and apologizes again for flaking out Saturday morning*), I spent the first week back recovering and the second in that pleasant state where one feels well enough to do easy and enjoyable things but not enough to actually be productive. The approaching deadline fills me with terror, though, especially as most of this month is also about to be lost to con-going, and I am trying to buckle down again. I apologize in advance for neglecting comments and questions -- I am still reading all of them, but I will be posting only in the most sporadic kind of way from now until book 4 is done.
Speaking of which, 1500 words today, written since I started this post in the morning. Which makes a good day, even though I do not have an exploded cat.
blazingwolf77 asks about the sword in Throne of Jade. It is indeed a chinese rather than a european saber; the main inspiration was the sword labeled "Qinwang-Junwang Pei Dao", the fourth one down on this page.
The nature of the monkey in my recent post (which, er, was uninterested rather than disinterested, really, although I suppose it could have made a case for the latter also) has been discussed in this thread with contributions from gwangi and mythusmage. I can only contribute the hearsay that the hotel staff informed us that they were Barbary apes (aka Barbary Macaques), which made me happy as a Patrick O'Brian fan. However, as Wikipedia informs me that this species is tailless, the staff appear to have been mistaken, as these particular monkeys were very much tailed. (They were definitely not baboons, however, although those were also present at the Falls.)