Five Things Make a Post: Sunny Monday Morning Edition

1) Completed another new spiral necklace last night. Am extremely pleased. Won't post it to Etsy until after Norwescon. If you were interested in jewelry, I'm stocking up and will have it with me at the convention, so be ready. Steampunkiness is proving tougher than I hoped as I'm low on funds for supplies--and the truth is that the pieces would be pretty darn expensive; I'm guessing everyone else's budget is fairly tight. We'll see what I can do between now and Friday. In the meanwhile, I'm focusing on earrings and other stuff.

2) Had a lovely breakfast with brumbjorn and selinker yesterday--crepes! It was so good to see them. selinker, by the way, has posted his comments on the Most Beautiful Fantasy Series. Go over and see what he has to say. I know at least some of you may have opinions about this.

3) My brother sent me a story about the cleaning of the Space Needle. The spectacular pictures will give you vertigo.

4) I think that Spanky's weight loss program is reaping results. He's looking a little less poochy. Also, he's become very attached to the idea of chasing jingle balls around the house. I throw them, he chases them. He sniffs them, sits down, and looks at me. I cross the room and throw them again. We're both getting exercise.

5) My propagation efforts appear to be slowly bearing fruit. At least two of the baby jade plants have tiny new leaves on them. The African violet cutting, however, is just sitting in its water, not rooting. ::grumble:: I must learn more patience.

Norwescon Schedule

Here's where I'll be and what I'll be doing. I'm not including the writing workshops or the parties, just the programming.

Thursday

Novelization of a Game 8:00 PM Cascade 7
Many video games today have accompanying fiction, often providing a more detailed storyline of either what was going on in the game, or what came before or after the game’s events. Many roleplaying games have series of novels expanding their worlds with characters and cities and events that become canon in that setting. Join our panelists as they discuss how a game’s setting is translated into a novel that, in turn, gives back to the game.
Janna Silverstein, Richard Baker, Jeff Grubb

Writing-for-Hire 9:00 PM Cascade 13
What do you give up when you write-for-hire? What areas of science fiction and fantasy writing will only let you work in a write-for-hire capacity and what should you do about it?
Janna Silverstein, Wolfgang Baur, Greg Cox

Friday

Writing Essentials: Common Problems with Submissions 11:00 AM Cascade 7
. . . that dismiss you as an amateur. Panelists will share common writing and submission issues that can lead to immediate rejection. Includes submission flaws, ignoring market guidelines, poor spelling/grammar, pastiches, bad/desperate attitudes. Also, how do you keep records, do follow-up, close unresponsive submissions, etc.
Janna Silverstein, LJ Bothell, Wolf Lahti, Richelle Mead

Breaking In 5:00 PM Cascade 10
Author, agent, and editor talk about how to get that first novel sold.
Lisa Mantchev, Gordon van Gelder, Janna Silverstein

Saturday

The Art of Titles 4:00 PM Cascade 6
Where do titles come from? Are they about art, or more about marketing? Who selects the title—the author or editor/publisher? Can you tell a book's content by its title—and should you? Are there great books with bad titles, and vice versa? Give examples. What are the ten best titles in SF? Why?
Janna Silverstein, Paul Melko, Greg Cox, Jeff Carlson

Proud, informed me, plus cats and food

Proud of myself: I took advantage of the sun and warmth to walk up to the top of Queen Anne Hill for coffee and groceries, then walked back. Also proud of myself for getting some solid job searching done today that resulted in an almost immediate telephone interview. Fingers crossed!

Informed me: This evening, perusing The New York Times, I found two fascinating articles:
* Brain Researchers Open Door to Editing Memory: Eternal sunshine may be just around the corner.
* Bahrain Embraces Its Jews. All 36 of Them.: Hey, it's something. I refuse to be cynical about it.

I also wish to note that I get extraordinary pleasure from watching Spanky nap in the sun. He so completely loses himself in the pleasure of it, closing his eyes, baring his belly, and curling his toes. It's hard to resist petting him when he's looking so content, but I am restrained by the knowledge that interrupting his peaceful napping will interfere with his contentment.

Speaking of contentment, congratulations to mischief_wa on the arrival of her beautiful new daughter, Victory Dora. I can't wait to meet her!

And now, I shall make dinner for myself. Note: Keep up with the mushrooms. They are gifts of the divine.