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Spingle
Spingle (n.): the realization that the author of a series you rather enjoyed has lost his or her way, and is now stretching the story out, reducing its signal-to-noise ratio to within epsilon of the point where you would give up on it. Take, for example, Karen Traviss's Ally, the (quick check) fifth in the series that started with City of Pearl. ( Read more... ) -
New Plans
Our daughter is four weeks old today.
(pause)
Freaky.
(pause)
But I signed in to write up my plans for the summer:- Spend time with Madeleine and Sadie.
- Finish editing A Bottle of Light for Scholastic before May 22...
- ...when we fly to England for two weeks to introduce Madeleine to her great-grandmother and other relatives.
- Supervise this summer's students ( Read more... )
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Contract Signed
I just signed and mailed a contract with Scholastic for A Bottle of Light. It won't be available in bookstores (it's to be part of a directed reading program), and I have to finish the manuscript by the end of May (great timing, Greg), but I'm still very pleased. -
Madeleine Erica Wilson
Madeleine Erica Wilson joined us at half past midnight on March 31. We are very, very happy. -
Murgle
Murgle (n.): the feeling during recovery from a minor illness when you are well enough to be bored, but not well enough to actually do anything. -
Counting down...
The baby was due yesterday; Sadie's had a few contractions, but they're not regular enough, or intense enough, for us to be heading to the hospital. And I've been down with a cold since Thursday morning... :-( -
The Blood Knight, and macro vs. micro performance
I just finished The Blood Knight, the third installment of Greg Keyes' current fantasy series, and it left me unsatisfied. Keyes writes very well: his characters may be straight out of the catalog, but he draws them well, and keeps them moving from page to page. Where he fails (in my opinion) is in sticking too closely to a single rhythm. Put one ( Read more... ) -
Closer...
The dresser in the baby's room has been assembled. So has the crib, though it's full of Robeez (which are like moccasins for really really tiny people), and Sadie's dad finished rebuilding the closet yesterday. We own a stroller, a car seat, a nursing pillow (which really ought to be called a nursing shelf), and a bouncy seat. For the baby, that ( Read more... ) -
To-Do List for March
- Finish the baby's room.
- Have the baby (hopefully in this order)
- Learn the words to the following lullabies:
- Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star (all three verses)
- Brahms' Lullaby (yes, there are words)
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How many forms of government?
I'm doing a little worldbuilding to distract myself while waiting for the baby to arrive and rearrange my world, and I'm wondering how many different forms of government human societies have invented over the centuries. Kingship (inherited, elective, or appointive) and democracy (of many different kinds) are the best known from Western European ( Read more... )