Arrant Nonsense

...is in its final eight hours. The thing has overfunded beyond anyone's wildest dreams (it's knocking at $150,000 right now), but seriously, if you want to get in on it, now's the time. His original goal was $1800. If it went to $180,000 I think everyone would be delighted. The coins are shiny, y'all.

And Howard and Sandra are Good People. They both work super hard and still always have time for their fans. My first interaction with Howard was when he drew a picture for me, a perfect stranger and completely unasked, at my first CONduit, after my first fiction sale. Howard supports his family of six on the webcomic.

So, if you've got an extra $15 lying around, you can't go wrong by getting a "Not My Circus, Not My Monkeys" coin. $25 gets you two coins of your choice.

Come on. You know you want to. LOOK AT THEM. There's no bad there.

Still sucking at the "comfort" part of hurt/comfort. I know he needs it before I derail him under a table again (and yeah, that scene needs modification and moving), but ARGH.

And yes, that's my new default icon. Since all I'm writing about on this thing anymore is Ben, I thought it appropriate, even though Ben doesn't smoke and hasn't picked up an M-16 in this one (yet).

Sore agilebrit is sore. I mean physically, not like a guy who's angry in a movie from the 1950's. I lifted weights a couple of days ago, which is still making itself felt, and participated in a shipping party for XDM: X-treme Dungeon Mastery at the lovely and effulgent sandratayler's house. We packed and addressed about 850 boxes in the space of six hours because we were just that good. And then the PO had a massive FAIL on their part and made us come in, sort them via Priority or Parcel, and actually redate them because the postage was printed out two days ago. Well, yes. $10,000 worth of postage is not going to be printed out and stuck on packages in just one day. Not happening. Duh. I'm just glad we were still chilling at Sandra and Howard's house when she got the call and the five of us could all go and do it, because, dude.

Anyway. I've got my 250 words plus some, so I'm a happy camper.

And tomorrow, "G-Force" opens. FBI-trained guinea pigs. THERE IS NO BAD THERE. Shut up. There isn't.

Now that my "cop" is an "FBI agent" I have a whole new set of problems. However, Google is my friend, and I've discovered that it's not necessary to put periods in that particular abbreviation. If I was just publishing the thing on the web, I wouldn't care, but I'm sending it to professional editor types, and I don't want to unduly annoy them.

In other news, I received my replacement Schlock Mercenary t-shirt today (they had curing problems in the batch I bought from, which resulted in massive design fading), and they included some really nifty little buttons. Buttons make everything better.

And American Idol continues to bring the blah and the meh. Seriously not caring about these people. Some of these kids are good, and I have people I'll be sad to see go, but no one it would fill me with ragefulness if they got voted off (y, hello thar, Chris Daughtry!).

Also, Arthur C. Clarke, one of the Grand Old Masters of SF, died today. :(

I am holding, in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers, the issue of Renard's Menagerie that has my story "Affairs of Dragons" in it. And it's SHINY, y'all. *bouncybouncybouncy* *flails* IT'S SO SHINY.

I helped howardtayler and sandratayler pack and ship the new Schlock Mercenary books today. They had about two thousand books...and we got them all packed. Sandra's mad organizational skilz are PHENOMENAL, y'all. Keep in mind, people could choose to have the character of their choice sketched, and they could also choose their shipping method. Also, these got shipped out to about fifty different countries. And she had these things filed to a T. It was amazing. Mad, mad props to her.

And now I'm sitting here watching Chuck again with the Hubby, and the ibuprofen has taken the edge off my pain. Tomorrow, I'm taking the day off to sit down in the front room and WRITE. *nods firmly*

Dude, I don't know if they have this extensive of a writing track every year, but I'm so in if they do.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to go yesterday. The bug that's been making its rounds through the Hubby and Da Boy whacked my sister Friday night, and we spent five hours in the emergency room with her, getting her re-hydrated. She's much better now, and the Hubby took her to the airport today. Hopefully she'll check in soon.

I got to talk to howardtayler and buy one of his Schlock Mercenary books and get it autographed and a drawing in the back. I met him at LTUE in February and he was really nice to me then, and today I mentioned that I sold my first story, had a short conversation with him before retiring to go stare at the A&tS story. A few minutes later he hunted me down across the hall and handed me this:



Saying I'd inspired him.

HOW COOL IS THAT??? Watch this space for a change in my default user icon, because, dude.

I also get to send the rest of the CatFeet fic to Bob Defendi for an "in-depth" crit. WHEE!

I took lots of notes and got to catch up with kenrand and snarking_boojum. I got all the autographs I wanted. I still have money left.

I will call this a "win."

Especially since Howard did this for me in the back of the book I bought from him:



If anyone wants me to cut the images, I will, but they're SO PRETTY they deserve to be right there on the page, IMNSHO. :)