Blogs

Thanks to all of you who voted for me in the Rose & Bay Awards. I came in second, behind Cecilia Tan's Daron's Guitar Chronicles. Considering Cecilia is an award-winning "real writer" (ie, traditionally published), it's no shame to come in second to her.

Your support dollars keep me writing. That's what YOU get. But I thought you might get a glimpse into what *I* get.

Contrary to popular belief, your support dollars don't all go to BPAL. In the last month, your support dollars have gone toward:

• Our mortgage (not all of it, but a chunk of it)
• Eggs for the month (we buy from a local farmer on subscription)
• Our Visa payment
• Groceries
• Advertising
• ...aaand BPAL.

This is the last week to vote in the Rose and Bay Fiction category. Right now, it looks like I'm tied for second with CE Murphy's "Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight" with 32 votes; in first is Cecilia Tan's "Daron's Guitar Chronicles" with 34 votes.

You do not have to have an LJ account to vote. Just leave your vote in the comments. Thank you!

You can now buy a hard copy of Scryer's Gulch Episodes 1-10: Annabelle Arrives at CreateSpace for $4.95! It's a slim volume, but nicely produced. There is one typo (that I found), but I'm not buying a second proof copy for it. So gloat when you find it.

I'm considering going to Seattle for Norwescon and/or Sakuracon. I really only want to go to the vendors' area of the latter, since both Gina Biggs, of Red String, and BPAL will be there. (EEEE! BPAL!) I would really like to drag No1 Daughter up there to see Gina, who's one of her idols.

I can't afford to go to both. (Actually, I can't afford to go to either.) But if I can combine it with a fan meet and greet, maybe I can deduct it.

Anyone?

If you haven't voted in the Rose and Bays, now might be a good time. I'm in third, way behind first place "Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight" by C.E. Murphy, and not far behind second place "Daron's Guitar Chronicles" by Cecilia Tan.

Take a gander at the cover of the Scryer's Gulch chapbook, which should be out next week:

It's going to have to retail at $4.95; that's as little as CreateSpace will let me sell it for, I fear.

Still having trouble with the stupid ebook, but I'm hoping to have that resolved in an hour or so.

It's Amma's Day, the first day of Winter's End, my friends, known in this world by us pagan folks as Candlemas, Lady's Day, Brigid, Imbolc. At some point today I want to make candles with my daughters. (Do I have wicking? I can't remember!)

Ravelry's had the story for a few days now, and so it's your turn: Vote for the History and the Gulch using the links toward the top of the page, and you'll get access to "Two Pairs of Mitts, Part One" as your reward! The pattern will follow next week.

Part 1B is up at Ravelry, including the pattern for Arta's mitts. Tomorrow I'll post a picture of them once I'm back from breakfast with the Portland WebLit Mafia. Monday all of Part 1, except for Arta's pattern, will go up as the voting incentive. Arta's pattern will go up next week. Now I'm working on Ellika's pattern.

I'm writing a story around a knitting pattern--two, actually, one set of mitts knit by Arta, one set knitted for Ellika (what, you think she knits her own things? pfft!). Part one of the story is at Ravelry. It'll pop up here as a voting incentive in the next few days, and then will be up on the site when it's all the way finished. The story parts, because they're about knitting, will appear at Ravelry first. I will, however, post pix of the mitts here as soon as they're done.

I'm knitting again! Yay! And knitting of course means Ravelry! If you're on Ravelry, we now have our own group: Intimate Knitting of the Greater Kingdom. I'll be posting patterns there for things like a pair of mitts Ellika wears (not mentioned in the story). Backstory for the pattern will be included. Once it's released on Ravelry, it'll probably become an incentive here for the non-Ravelers. Come join, and if you are on Ravelry, friend me!

Just a quick update on how the writing's going. I'm now staring at the blank page that will be chapter 12, which is actually a good thing; it means I've caught up with all the bits of chapters that I tore up late last year.

The story now stands at 86k words, or 229 pages trade paperback. This is before I go through and do a "10% edit," dropping it to 77k or so. I'm hoping I can finish the story in 30k words--I'm trying to shoehorn it all in to 100k total, but I'm thinking I might run over before Netta gets it.

There is now a "Crowdfunded Creativity" award (that's a term that's new to me, but it's apt). It's called the Rose and Bay, and among its categories is one for fiction. Anyone wanna nominate me, either for the Gulch or the History?

ETA: Cap nominated the History. Thank you!

I have to get some writing in, so again, quickly:

Hod Resurrected

Glory and Majesty, Kokab, God’s Judgement.

Yep, no individual notes. Every anniversary, Beth "resurrects" a discontinued scent, usually a wildly popular one. This year, it's Hod.