Here's hoping all my friends and readers have a merry Christmas.

And you other people too.

• 11:02 Shoer is here. Sister en route. Shelter tarp wrong size but will try to fix. Not packed yet. But bread made. AAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!! #

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Yesterday it was 70, humid, rainy, and then there were huge gusts of wind, and then a tornado warning. This morning it's down below 50 and dropping, and earlier I could see the blue line of the cold front moving in. Now it's completely overcast.

morfin went out to get a part to fix the toilet (because our house is still falling apart), we're expecting belleps to arrive, and I need to make an apple pie at some point. I'll probably make potato soup and candied baked beans (it's an old recipe of my mother's that involves bacon, brown sugar, and cinnamon) for tonight. We'll have a fire and watch movies. Tomorrow we'll be having ham, nom nom nom.

Happy holidays to everybody who's celebrating!

Hilariously weird new KlezNut review up on Show Business Weekly: the reviewer & the entire audience clearly loved the show, but she lambastes it (right at the top, too, so we know she was not seduced by the dancing & the story, no, not she!) for being too "over-thought in a very public-radio way."

Actual content is a crime in children's theatre - who knew? Maybe she just needed a nap.

Because why should Merry have all the fun?

(I really need a new joke............)

Anyhow, today, as ever, is Christmas Eve with Da Family, as uncles, aunts, and cousins, as well as various and sundry significant others, descend on the Yellow Submarine (it's called that because they all live in it ("they" being the Forebearance (that's "four parents," as in the four folks who raised me, my biological parents (girasole and bronxbob350) and the other two (helgabee and the LJ-less Infomancer) (wow, this is a lot of nested parentheticals...)))) for appetizers, chicken soup, lasagne, and many desserts. Plus booze. Lots of booze.

A merry happy to you all!

Merry/Happy Christmas, to those who observe. I hope your day is filled with Christmassy delight (and no obnoxious relatives, drunken or otherwise)


Me, I'm off to go dancing/socializing tonight, followed by the Obligatory Movie & Chinese food tomorrow. Twenty-four hours of Social Behavior, and no writing. My wrist -- after 48 hours and thirty+ pages of new material -- will be grateful to do the raise drink/lower drink movement instead....

[and for those of you who need to reach me about ongoing social plans, the phone will be faster than texting/e-mail for the next 36+ hours.  Yes, shocking, I know...]




*taken from one of my favorite-this-year holiday cards, because it really does sum up my feelings about people who insist that everyone is Just Like Them, or unhappy that they're not 
EtA: I note that the number of e-cards vs traditional cards was about even this year, but it was only a few of the e-cards that had an overtly Christmas feel (incl Christmas trees, Santas, angels and etc).  And those came from people who really should have known better.  The traditonal carsd were all seasonal, not holiday-specific.  Indicative of the people, or the availability of season-general e-cards?  I

1) am too busy to attempt any writing anything, or reading, or anything except a quick check once a day of email, certainly not all my fine plans to write 1000 words a day or anything like that

2) my gosh, I am eating too much, and actually more than I want to (and far more than I usually do), and yet IT IS ALL SO TASTY AND GOOD that I keep eating more. I'm glad the dayafterdayofeating holidays come only once a year.

Exile in Geeksville gives #2 a B+.

Money quote:

It’s great to be back in the Uncharted Territories, it’s been too long. O’Bannon, DeCandido and Sliney (and the rest of the fine folks working on this book) are putting out a product that looks great and is a fun read. It almost makes up for the fact that the webseries that was announced 3 years ago has not happened yet. I really think this book should carry a “Season 5″ title (Like Buffy’s season 8.)

Also, Andrea Speed at comiXtreme is slightly disappointed with #2, but gives it a 3/5 anyhow.

The script for Farscape #7 -- which I really wanted to get done before Christmas -- has gone off to Rockne for his okee dokee. I'm going to give yet another once-over to Chapter 1 of the urban fantasy, then to bed, and then Christmasy things for a few days....

A wonderful music video by a Japanese group called Sour. The words are Japanese, but the words are of far less import than the amazing visuals. It's a masterpiece of coordination.

Thanks to louiseroho for the link....

Ursula K. Le Guin's letter of resignation from the Author's Guild:

18 December 2009

To Whom it may concern at the Authors Guild:

I have been a member of the Authors Guild since 1972.

At no time during those thirty-seven years was I able to attend the functions, parties, and so forth offered by the Guild to members who happen to live on the other side of the continent. I have naturally resented this geographical discrimination, reflected also in the officership of the Guild, always almost all Easterners. But it was a petty gripe when I compared it to my gratitude to the Guild for the work you were doing in defending writers’ rights. I went on paying top dues and thought it worth it.

And now you have sold us down the river.

I am not going to rehearse any arguments pro and anti the "Google settlement." You decided to deal with the devil, as it were, and have presented your arguments for doing so. I wish I could accept them. I can’t. There are principles involved, above all the whole concept of copyright; and these you have seen fit to abandon to a corporation, on their terms, without a struggle.

So, after being a loyal if invisible member for so long, I am resigning from the Guild. I am, however, retaining membership in the National Writers Union and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, both of which opposed the "Google settlement." They don’t have your clout, but their judgment, I think, is sounder, and their courage greater.

Yours truly,

Ursula K. Le Guin


[This letter may be quoted or copied, with attribution.]

Brava!

(Thanks to suricattus for the link....)

• 21:01 @bethmeacham Have replacements. Not putting them on tonight. Pooka is calmer--Carrma's in run next to him. Rain is coming. I hit it in town. #
• 21:09 @patinagle You just made ME smile. Thank you. :) #
• 08:53 @ceffyl1 Thank you. Won't be able to fix them today--no help--but one can get fixed tomorrow. I hope. Thank goodness for blankets! #
• 10:36 Oh, do I need a break. Have hit the WHAT-EVER stage. And pies to bake, presents to wrap, horses to de-blanket and feed... One. More. Day. #
• 11:36 @tcastleb Bless you. Yesterday was...interesting. #
• 16:17 RT @FakeAPStylebook I before E except after midnight, or the word will turn into a gremlin. #
• 16:18 And FSM said, Let there be Pie. And there was Pie. #
• 16:19 Also, chutney. #
• 16:46 @equestrienne_em Mango. :) #

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The controversial community organizing group Acorn has not broken any laws in the last five years, according to a Congressional Research Service report released Tuesday evening....

The report found no evidence that voters attempting to cast ballots at the polls had been improperly registered by Acorn, a chief Republican accusation. The report also said that a sting-style effort to publicize the group’s allegedly illegal activities, may have broken state laws

The report is available here

True? False? More political back-and-forth, with journos the willing ball-boys? The citizen-voter can only make their best guess, and hope, someday, we learn to wait for all the facts before jumping in for the kill.


My thanks to realthog for the heads-up.

writing things:

4,000 words yesterday, total, plus interview questions, and the first half of a freelance gig. Only 2700 new words written so far today. I know I'll be able to put away another thousand or so later today, but mid-day is not good crafting time for me. So I give it over to the Other Stuff that fills every life, and hope to get back to it when my creative brain wakes up again.

Understanding how my brain worked -- what the most productive writing hours were, and when I simply wasn't going to do my best work, was a major breakthrough for me. I write best from 6am to about 11am, and then again from 4pm through to about 9pm. Mid-day is good for taking care of paperwork and chores, thinking-not-writing, etc. But it can be frustrating, sitting here at 2pm, wanting to write, but knowing that odds are good I'll just get frustrated and force 500 words -- while if I wait a while longer, those 500 and more will flow.

This is why I like doing freelance editing and copywriting. It fills the space between 11am and 4 pm so nicely.

EtA: 4,100 words, and back in a wrist brace for my efforts. Calling it a night.

non-writing things:

For my fellow Leverage fans: http://popculturezoo.com/archives/5049 You're welcome. :-D

This is exciting for me on a fangirl level. Squee!

McIntyre Quartet Debuts at BookViewCafe.com

The STARFARERS quartet debuted at Book View Cafe on 20
December 2009. The four novels -- Starfarers, Transition,
Metaphase, Nautilus -- will be serialized one chapter per
week, and the full ebook versions made available for $4.99
each.

The episodes will be launched on Sundays at http://www.bookviewcafe.com/ and also available daily at McIntyre's bookshelf:
http://www.bookviewcafe.com/index.php/Vonda-N.-McIntyre/Novels/


The Book View Cafe Blog conducted a spirited discussion of
the unique genesis of Starfarers as "the best sf miniseries
never made," and speculated about who might play the main
characters. You can add your suggestions for the cast at "Casting
Starfarers."
http://blog.bookviewcafe.com/2009/10/18/casting-starfarers/

Click on this link, enter (almost) any Christmas song, and the two puppets will sing it.

They didn't know "Lord of the Dance," but they do know "Carol of the Bells," and their rendition of "Jingle Bell Rock" is particularly amusing.

And so, sitting here at the desk, having fed the cats, drinking my coffee, waiting to pull up the file and start writing, I end up filling two sheets with handwritten scrawls about a new story (short story, please gods) about choices and responsibility and the intermingling of guilt and conscience...

And I'm writing this when exactly, brain?