lagilman | Recent Entries

Dreamwidth never really seemed to work for me, despite its similarities to Livejournal - my inability to get photos to load, the lack of a feed to share posts, and the fact that communities never really got a traction all worked against wooing me to making this my primary social media (or even my secondary). And I'm sorry for that, because it seemed like it should have been a slam-dunk.

Anyway. I'm trying out Pillowfort.io (same account name) if anyone's over there. And we'll see...

Read all about it (with pretty pictures!) here.

Busy day, uncertain connectivity, so here's a Q to get you started: If you had only one song to play for a prospective romantic partner to warn them what they were getting into, what would it be?

As per usual, rather than send (inevitably late) holiday cards out to folk, most of whom will look at it, maybe display it for a few days, and then recycle it, I'm making a donation or three on behalf of you all.

This year, those donations will be split between the ACLU, Northwest Harvest Food Bank, and The Art Department (aka "Random Acts" - https://www.randomacts.org). Freedom, food security, and creativity.

May your holidays be joyful and filled with healthy love.

*has day entirely perfectly planned, then two phone calls sends it all into chaos. Good chaos, but chaos*

So just a quick reminder that:

You can sign up to get your monthly fiction fix at Gumroads ($4/month for everything I produce!): https://gum.co/ZkOcr

You have 11 hours left to gift someone with a four-book fantasy noir storybundle for $5! (or $15 for all ten titles!) storybundle.com/noir

You can still get my previously-published novellas format directly from Book View Cafe! http://bookviewcafe.com/books…/bvc-author/laura-anne-gilman/

And now I *poof* disappear for the day.

*eyes schedule*

Pending a last-minute call, I... don't have to leave the apartment today. I can't remember the last time that happened.

Plans for today are to make wordcount, make lasagna, make some noise about various and sundry projects (ex: the neo-noir storybundle ends soon!), and run the dishwasher. Hey, this is all exciting stuff around here! :-)

Happy Hanukkah, everyone celebrating! May your latkes oil not splatter, and your candles burn down safely.

Today's schedule:  shelter volunteer shift, furnace repair appointment, reading over a Thing for someone, sending out a Thing for someone to read, some winery-related Stuff, making soup, updating the website, and writing All The Words.  Or, well, at least 1500.

I can do that. I may need more coffee, but I can do that.

And in things that are small scale but really screwing over a bunch of people, Patreon has changed their fee schedule in a move worthy of the GOP, claiming that creators asked for it, spinning it as "creators will take more money home!" which is true, but at the expense of patrons, who will now be hit with a higher and unexpected cost per pledge.

Which means that more of the low-level but widespread patrons will likely drop out (and I can't blame them) and the smaller creators will LOSE money, not make more, while the 1% top grossers will be fine.

We've asked Patreon to reconsider this, but there's been no response.  My patreon will continue, but we're discussing potential new platforms (or going to a direct subscription method - pay for a year's worth of stories once via paypal or similar, so minimal fees and 95% goes to the writer...

This is really not a thing I needed to be spending time and brain dealing with right now, but the universe never asks if it's convenient before it does stuff like this, does it?

Things are a little hectic around here, which is to say, situation normal. So. A quick recap?

So's not to bury the damn lede, I woke to the news that THE COLD EYE is on NPR's "Great Reads of 2017" list! Go go go little book!

Relatedly, the copyedit for RED WATERS RISING has gone back to the publisher, after a shitton of grumbling and some quick conferencing about Shit That Did Not Happen. But we think everything's in shape, now.

Currently working on a short story and a novella and a novel, all of which are coming along like molasses on the proverbial winter day. But I persevere, Because that's the job.

The furnace vent in the lounge area is making funny noises and giving off a slightly burnt smell, so I have a call in to the management company to come take a look at it. They have not gotten back to me yet (I left the message on Friday). We're staying in the other half of the apartment, where the heaters seem to be working properly. Both cats have kinda forgiven me for going away over Thanksgiving, but NOT for the roof repair going on this week. Sorry, guys.

Yesterday was the annual winery holiday shindig, which involved a trip over the pass to Leavenworth (about a 2 hour drive each way), and when you ask "is it cold enough for ya?" my answer will be "yes" when it hits 27 degrees. In case anyone wondered about that.

(snow is lovely. I have missed snow. Ice is less lovely and I have not missed that a damn).

Oh, and the storybundle sale, including my "Trouble in Double," has another 9 days to run before the offer of Good Reads Cheap is gone forever! And remember, you can gift a storybundle, too! There, I've sorted your holiday shopping for you. You're welcome. :-)

After 20+ days of fucking around and fucking me over, all hail the upper management guy who told me to call him the MOMENT I got off the plane, and who then sent out not only the guy who needed to do the work on the damaged cables, but also the installation tech, and bless them for showing up and working like a (very entertaining) well-oiled partnership to get us all hooked up.....

well, everything except the printer. The printer does not want to talk to the brand new router. But we got them to them talk to each other via manual setup.

Everyone I've been owing files to? Stand by and prepare to be boarded! (metaphorically speaking, anyway).

And now, some of that inevitable self-promotion thing we creatives are forced to do, to keep the lights on and the internet flowing...

The Neo-Noir Storybundle (of which I am part) only has 13 more days before it's gone forever!  So act now to lay hands on a digital collection of ten (10!) riveting works of speculative noir fiction!

Cross boundaries and defy expectations while exploring the noir tenets. Unreliable narrator? Check. Cynical, world-weary protagonist who’s as quick with wit as a weapon? Check. Complex plots rife with reversals and betrayals? Check, check, and check. Add a dash of snark, a jigger of suspense...  

And pay what you want (with the option to send some of that to charity!)

Wishing you had an editor to grumble with about your current (stalled) WiP? Looking for professional advice on your next publishing/writing step? Thanks to the WorldBuilders charity auction, you have 12 hours left to bid for exactly that! #EditorInYourCorner

If you were the sort of person who would be interested in a Devil's West novella (stand-alone OR within the novel's timeline), what would be the highest price point you would accept?

a)   .99

b) 1.99

c) 2.50

d) 2.99

e) 3.99

f)  4.50

Move is done, but I still have no connectivity at the apartment, which is a long ugly rant for another time. Thankfully, there's a local coffee shop with wifi....

This morning I put my media where my mouth is (that reads less sanitary than it did it my head): mastodon.social/users/LAGilman/

(for those who are tired of Twitter, or have been avoiding Twitter. It will not replace Facebook. Still looking for that alternative)

I've also managed 1500 new words on one project this morning.  Time for more coffee and a brainwash before I start the next....

"Fatae - the non-human members of the Cosa Nostradamus - fell into two basic categories: human-passing, and not-a-chance-of-passing.  Of the human-passing, most had over the centuries come to a sort of resigned co-existence with modern society.  Fatae like fast food and central heating as much as we do, and since most nulls either look right through them, or convince themselves that was just a particularly odd human walking by, there’s not much risk of exposure."

Today has been an interesting mix of moments of satisfaction and panic, with occasional flurries of competence, and ending on a sharp spike of exasperated rage that left me with a faint aching need to hit something, except I'm too tired.

And the hound puppy down the hall is singing the song of his doleful people. I hear you, little one, I hear you. Now hush. Your people will be home soon.

Weekend at the Tasting Room, and it's club release weekend, so I expect to be busy (hope so, anyway!). Busy is always better than not-busy, unless not-busy brings with it a nap....

So, noted white supremacist and general PoS Richard Spencer is giving a speech at the University of Florida, in Gainesville.  And the University, in a rather amazing show of WTFkery, has allowed Spencer's camp to screen journalists, only allowing "approved" ones press access.  Their excuse "they rented the hall, it's their event."

Apparently, University of Florida is disclaiming any responsibility for anything that happens within a rented hall on their property.  That can only end well, don't you think?  I wonder what their journalism department has to say about freedom of the press, these days?  (feel free to ask them)

But! There is a bright light in Gainesville (actually, quite a few, but one I'm showcasing in particular).  Alligator Brewing Co. 

If you bring in a (free) ticket to the abovementioned event, before the event, you can exchange it for a beer, thereby a) getting a free beer and b) leaving an empty seat in the hall, as they will dispose of said ticket.

Alligator, in the name of decent folk, beer drinking or otherwise, everywhere, we salute you.

Project 1: I was told my objection to manure was a relic of my, and I quote, ‘soft city life.” I told them to spend a summer riding the subway and get back to me on smells.

Project 2: "Only in the corner, in a small box, was there notice of unrest between several “anxious young men” over “matters political.” But it did not say what those matters had been, nor how it had been resolved."

New life goal: to make Carrie Fisher's ghost cackle with pride in me.

"Even after her death Carrie Fisher is having none of your bullshit.

Heather Ross, a friend of Fisher's, spoke to a local radio station in Tucson, AZ. about her experience with sexual assault in Hollywood. On the 94.9 Morning Mix, Ross recalled inappropriate advances from a big name producer and how Fisher made clear she had a zero-tolerance policy for that kind of behavior.

After Ross was assaulted by "an Oscar-winning producer" – not Weinstein, but another – Fisher was furious. After the initial shock and fear wore off, Fisher ran into the producer at Sony and delivered him a package.

"It was a cow tongue from Jerry’s Famous Deli with a note that said, ‘If you ever touch my darling Heather or any other woman again, the next delivery will be something of yours in a much smaller box.’”

The cow tongue was all Fisher's idea, natch, and she made sure to deliver it in person and watch him open the box."

http://mashable.com/2017/10/16/carrie-fisher-heather-ross-cow-tongue/#Hsa_I4ursmqT

Washington State's voter pamphlet has arrived. I'm preparin' to do my thing for Democracy and Sanity....

(yes, this state sends you a pamphlet a month before the election, with all the issues and candidates up for decision, so you have time to actually look at things and learn about them before you MAKE your decision....  

And then you can mail it in, and track your vote all the way to the counting pile.

Oh, and we use a Top 2 Primary system, rather than a party nominating system.  So the general election is not inevitable R vs D, but "the two candidates out of the whole pack who got the most votes in the primary."  

Washington State's not perfect, but it's got a pretty decent handle on this democracy thing, right now. 

In case - among the visual horrors of the California fires and the abandonment of Puerto Rico,  as well as the destruction of our environment for financial gain of corporations and shareholders, you missed this tidbit:

45's regime is attempting - despite there being no actual science to support it-  to define life as beginning at conception.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/10/look-at-the-junk-science-about-contraception-in-the-health-departments-new-manifesto/

Yanno, if you're going to claim religious exemptions for employers to not pay for birth control, and why abortions should be limited, then you need to either a) allow those of us whose religion ALLOWS contraception, and abortion, and protecting the health of the mother above all else - to have religiously-protected access to same, or b) admit that you're angling for a Christian theocracy, and your "freedom OF religion" really means "bow to MY religion."  

In this, as in so many other bullshit ideologies being pushed by Pence et al.

/rant

Also, Trump has apparently tweeted (what else) that NBC should lose their broadcast license for, um...being critical of him, apparently.

He seems to have forgotten (or not actually listened to) part of the oath he actually took in front of a scattering of witnesses:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.“

Including the 1st Amendment, not just the 2nd.

In response, the National Association of Broadcasters, who actually DO know their Constitution, issued the following statement:

“The founders of our nation set as a cornerstone of our democracy the First Amendment, forever enshrining and protecting freedom of the press. It is contrary to this fundamental right for any government official to threaten the revocation of an FCC license simply because of a disagreement with the reporting of a journalist.”

https://www.nab.org/documents/newsRoom/pressRelease.asp?id=4253

If you missed last month's new story on Patreon, "Trouble in Fear," you can still sign on and read it - plus the first Pietr Cholis story, "Trouble in Mind"! Otherwise you're going to have to wait until the series is complete, and then buy the full set.... (and that may not be for another 6+ months! Delayed gratification is all well and fine, but $1/month gets you satisfaction now!)

Meanwhile, we've got an exclusive "false start" excerpt from the NewBook, that nobody outside of Patreon will ever see. Hints at what's coming, and a peek into what my brain is like during first drafts. If that's your cuppa, anyway. :-)

Coming this week: October's "WTF is writing?" discussion, the monthly Rant, and more of My Youthful Folly (aka "annotated-with-snark excerpts from the first book I ever tried to write")....

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Laura Anne Gilman

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Where Personal and Professional Life Collide...

My life in 8 words: Organized chaos, by preference. Exhausting, but never boring

Recent Entries

This is me, only quiet.

THE COLD EYE is upon you (in paperback!)

bopping in, dropping a Q, bopping out...

From me to thee, where 'thee' is unknown.

I've got everything perfectly under cont- oh, drat.

on the first night of Hanukkah...

This is me, trying to post more often...

Patreon Update (and not the fun kind, alas)

OMG, hi. Long time no post?

Oh holy shit hi I'm back!

12 hours left to bid on my services!

Random question of great importance

What's Up With the Meerkat?

Friday's on my mind...

A Bright Light in Gainesville...

Writing is slow today, in-between other things, but it IS happening...

(no subject)

getting into the (political) kitchen....

In the Ongoing Dumpster Fire that is the Current White House...

Patreon Updatery