It seems some companies don’t enjoy free publicity. Due to legal protests from Ferrero, which owns the Nutella brand, the organizer of World Nutella Day has said she is canceling the unofficial holiday, as well as the event website and Facebook (FB) and Twitter accounts dedicated to celebrating the creamy, chocolatey, hazelnut spread.
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It always amazes me how getting a couple of big, mentally taxing projects (like, say, a major novelette commission and the Very Important Third Book Of A Trilogy) squared away opens out the horizons. There are suddenly more hours in the day, and more energy to get stuff done in those hours.
Creative work is really emotionally taxing. The more ambitious it is, the more taxing. I've been struggling, the past couple of months, to get the basics done--dishes washed, bills paid, exercise exercised. Now that the book and one of May's two novelettes are done, suddenly my head is full of room.
Case in point: after yesterday's marathon work session, I'm achy and exhausted and this morning's run was kinda brutal (and truncated by two families of geese, who I was unwilling to disturb in order to run along the trail they were hanging out on) but I still got All The Procrastinated Errands Done this morning, and more will happen this afternoon.
And I've reread what I have on the month's other novelette, which is actually probably going to be a short novella, and I like it! It's good!
I just have to figure out the twist and the rest of the caper, and I'm good to go.
Brave companions of the road: one of two families of feathered dinosaurs encountered on this morning's jog. The other was a two-parent household with younger goslings, still in the mottled yellow and brown stage. I decided to let them have the path, preferring my arms unbroken.
Excelsior!
Tags: writing craft wank Current Mood: exanimate Current Music: Tom McRae - For The Restless
Alaskan villages try “climigration” in the face of climate change — When a town turns to a perpetual disaster area, it might be time to move it. Amazing, the lengths liberals will go to. Thank God for Rush Limbaugh and the Republican party, or we might have to take these things seriously.
Discrimination and Marriage Inequality — Jim C. Hines on the real world results of anti-gay bigotry. That means you, if you oppose gay marriage, regardless of how high-minded your rationalizations.
QotD?: How'd you sleep last night?
5/21/2013 Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (workshop) Hours slept: 9.0 hours (solid) Body movement: n/a Weight: n/a Number of FEMA troops on my block covering up evidence about Benghazi: 0 Currently reading: Night Watch by Terry Pratchett
May 14th, 2013 - The day started early, as days in Washington tend to do. I was up before my alarm, already thinking about the day ahead of us: a day of meetings, events, handshakes, introductions, and effort. The Planetary Society was in D.C., and we were there to help save Planetary Science.
(To put this in perspective, the Canadian Space Agency's annual budget is something short of $500,000,000, which is why there aren't orbiters around other worlds with the Maple Leaf on one side).
Also posted at Dreamwidth, where there are comment(s); comment here or there.
When Caitlin first started to develop scoliosis, we knew this was coming. Many of the Aicardi girls develop neuromuscular scoliosis. There is nothing that will prevent it, and there are no nonsurgical cures once it starts.
Last year, the curve in Cait's spine was 49 degrees. Since then, I could see it worsening. Caitlin used to sit on the couch or big leather chair for over an hour at a time. This year, after 15 minutes she would either cry or tip over.
Then I read how two of her Aicardi cohort were getting back surgery.
Yesterday was Caitlin's appointment with her orthopedic surgeon. The curve is now between 69-76 degrees.
Cait's doctor gave us a choice. We could let it go. The scoliosis will continue until it's greater than 90 degrees. He doesn't believe that the diminished lung capacity will hurt her, but it will effectively end sitting for Caitlin. She will be bedridden or always on the floor, at an odd angle in her molded wheelchair, and hard to transport. (We would need $25,000 for a converted van at that point.) She would also likely be in some discomfort.
The alternative is surgery. We don't have the full details, but this would be a 5-6 hour surgery where the surgeon straitens her spine and inserts rods. The recovery will be very painful. It took her nine months to fully recover from hip surgery. He doesn't feel it will be that bad, but it's still back surgery.
If we choose the surgery, he wants to do it while she's in the 70s. A greater curve will be a more painful surgery for Caitlin.
The next appointment is in 6 months. We need to decide by then.
In 2001, Lawrence Santoro's novella "God Screamed and Screamed, Then I Ate Him" was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award by the Horror Writers Association. In 2002, his adaptation and audio production of Gene Wolfe's "The Tree Is My Hat," was also Stoker nominated.
In 2003, his Stoker-recommended "Catching" received Honorable Mention in Ellen Datlow's seventeenth annual Year's Best Fantasy & Horror anthology. In 2004, "So Many Tiny Mouths" was cited in the anthology's eighteenth edition. In the the twentieth, his novella "At Angels Sixteen," from the anthology A Dark and Deadly Valley, was similarly honored.
Larry's first novel, Just North of Nowhere, was published in 2007. A collection of his short fiction, Drink for the Thirst to Come, was published in December 2011. Before all that, Larry spent thirty years as a director, producer and actor in theater and television.
Since its inaugural show in January, 2012, Larry has been the host of the weekly horror podcast, Tales to Terrify, the sister show to the Hugo Award-winning StarShipSofa.
He lives in Chicago and is at work on two new novels, Griffon and the Sky Warriors and A Mississippi Traveler, or Sam Clemens Tries the Water. Stop by his blog, At Home in Bluffton.
Please join Larry and all our outstanding readers on Tuesday, June 4th, 2013, upstairs at Hopleaf at 7:30 pm. This 21-and-older event is free.
When Caitlin first started to develop scoliosis, we knew this was coming. Many of the Aicardi girls develop neuromuscular scoliosis. There is nothing that will prevent it, and there are no nonsurgical cures once it starts.
Last year, the curve in Cait's spine was 49 degrees. Since then, I could see it worsening. Caitlin used to sit on the couch or big leather chair for over an hour at a time. This year, after 15 minutes she would either cry or tip over.
Then I read how two of her Aicardi cohort were getting back surgery.
Yesterday was Caitlin's appointment with her orthopedic surgeon. The curve is now between 69-76 degrees.
Cait's doctor gave us a choice. We could let it go. The scoliosis will continue until it's greater than 90 degrees. He doesn't believe that the diminished lung capacity will hurt her, but it will effectively end sitting for Caitlin. She will be bedridden or always on the floor, at an odd angle in her molded wheelchair, and hard to transport. (We would need $25,000 for a converted van at that point.) She would also likely be in some discomfort.
The alternative is surgery. We don't have the full details, but this would be a 5-6 hour surgery where the surgeon straitens her spine and inserts rods. The recovery will be very painful. It took her nine months to fully recover from hip surgery. He doesn't feel it will be that bad, but it's still back surgery.
If we choose the surgery, he wants to do it while she's in the 70s. A greater curve will be a more painful surgery for Caitlin.
The next appointment is in 6 months. We need to decide by then.
Series Total Female Male F/T
Numbered paperback series 73 4 69 0.05
Unpublished titles 2 2 0
Hardcover titles 10 1 9 0.1
New design 62 12 50 0.19
Also posted at Dreamwidth, where there are comment(s); comment here or there.
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