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Tired me. Bed soon. Entry is mostly mileage.

miles to Rauros Falls: 311.5
miles to Hobbiton: 239.6
ytd wordcount: 146,600

but oh! I got email from the brown-haired, pony-tailed young woman at Pandemonium in Bostom, hee hee hee! She got the book and seemed quite pleased and amused by it. That was totally worth it. :) Turns out she's a manager there and she said if I was ever in Boston to let her know ahead of time so we could schedule a signing. And she said she'd been selling lots of copies of the book, a lot of them to guys, which was unusual for the Lunas. So go me. :)

Shaun got a mustard stain on his new shirt the other day. His subsequent triumph over the stain had me going around singing, "He got the mustard OOOOOUT!" for a couple of days. :)

Ted and I have been watching Dark Angel. While it is by no means a good show, some of these episodes are better than I expect/remember. It's entertaining, anyway, and there haven't been any of the truly brain-numbingly dumb episodes like there were in the first half dozen. (There was one that seemed to be the break point, in fact. It was god-awful, but everything after it's been quite a lot better. I think it's better even not-by-comparison, but ye gods, by comparison they're gems of cinematic genius.) Anyway, I'm enjoying it. Jessica Alba's a cutie. :)

And now I'm going to bed so I can try to get up at a reasonable hour and work tomorrow before Emily comes over. *zoof*

(I sure use a lot of smilies. Of course, I smile a lot, too.)

Ted and Shaun have gotten their weekends aligned, so now weekends at my house are Thursday and Friday, which is better than the Tuesday-Friday weekends that I was experiencing with them being on different schedules. However, it meant I stayed up much too late last night and slept in too late this morning and don't want to do anything of consequence today.

Add to that the fact that my parents got burgled last night and I'm definitely out of sorts. :P

We went to see War of the Worlds last night, 'cause it was the household's Friday night, and it was better than I expected it to be. I actually thought it was probably the best *acting* job I've ever seen Tom Cruise do. (Ted said, "Well, he was up against Dakota Fanning. He had to do something.")

Poor Zilli. Last night he was running around the house like a mad thing and he came charging into the computer room, leapt up on my desk and lunged for my monitor. Unfortunately, my monitor is now about an inch deep instead of eighteen inches deep, so there was nothing for him to land on. I have never seen a cat look so completely WHAT THE FUCK!?! as he did. He managed to use the one paw that had any leverage on the monitor to jolt off to the side where he could land on my scanner instead of crashing ignominiously to the desk behind the monitor, but the poor, *poor* cat. It was very funny. :)

I think I'm going to go take a walk and try to get my sorts back in order.

miles to Rauros Falls: 308.5

Oops. I should be working again by now, but I'm going to make a post anyway. :) Just got back from swimming, and for some reason, about 1350 yards into the workout, I suddenly decided I needed to start *kicking*, for Christ's sake.

I so totally blew through that last 750 yards. It rocked. My strength is in my legs, and it's easy easy easy to be lazy with them when I don't have a coach yelling at me or somebody to compete against in my lane or the lane next to me. I mean, even at my laziest I kick harder than most people do, but actually putting some thought/concentration into it was all BRRRRNEEEEROOOOOOW! *Major* propulsion. It *totally* rocked. NEEEEEEEEEEROW!

I now feel bright and insanely perky. You may all hate me.

Wow. Hungry. And I already ate lunch. o.o WATER!

ytd yards swum: 20,200
miles to Hobbiton: 230.8

Yesterday as I was out walking, I thought how nice it was that there hadn't been any fires and that the sky was clear and blue and beautiful without the heavy scent of smoke or the orange shadows of summertime wildfires hanging over it all.

This morning I got up and went downstairs and took a breath and tasted wood smoke on the air.

I think I jinxed us!

Back to work now.

Apparently there's some kind of problem with this new layout and some versions of IE browsers. I can't see it myself, but the nav bar is evidently overlaying the text area. It has something to do with the CSS margin settings I'm using, I'm pretty sure, but I have no idea how to both fix it and maintain the look of the site, which I like, dammit. So I don't know what I'm going to do about it right now, but if you're having trouble reading my site, try the barebones version. :P

Oh, and Starbucks is giving out free ice cream Wednesday. Just so you know.

Just got back from my RWA meeting, which was a nice evening, as usual. A couple people had books for me sign. :) And I evidently have a fan at the Waldenbooks in the Northway Mall, so I'll need to go over there on Thursday or Friday and say hi. :)

But now I'm going to unplug my monitor and replace it with the new flat panel I just bought. Ted got one too. :)

(Ok, Ted accidentally unplugged the internet, so this is being posted after the new monitor is installed. It's v. small. V. But nifty!)

Also, I got about 1200 new better words written today, so that was good too.

miles to Hobbiton: 225.8
miles to Rauros Falls: 306.5
ytd wordcount: 144,600

I think I'm going to have to start weight lifting to really take more weight off. I could, in theory, weight lift on the 4 days a week when I don't swim. I have the equipment in my garage. And I _like_ weight lifting. And I work at home. It's not like I can't find the time.

Actually *doing it*, however...

I don't know why I have a problem with actually doing it. (Because it's *work*, she whined. Because it's *hot* in the garage. Because because because because because.) It's way the holy living hell easier to work out if I've got somebody to meet up with, but I don't, and my motivation for doing so on my own seems to be utterly flat. I know it's one of those Nike things, but apparently I don't have enough belief that I need/want/whatever to weight lift to get myself to Just Do It.

Mutter.

My grandfather was born in Pomroy, a village of about 300 in County Tyrone. He stood to inherit his family's farm, but didn't want to be a farmer, and so emigrated to the United States in his early twenties--around 1928, I believe. There he married, had children, and moved about, eventually settling in Alaska, but by the forties or fifties, he'd lost contact with the family in Ireland.

In the early 1970's, after his wife died, the Old Man, as we called him, went back East to visit New York City. While he was there, he stopped in an Irish bookstore to ask after a specific book. The woman running the place, who had an Irish accent herself, said she didn't have it, but that she went back to the old country regularly and could get a copy.

No, my grandfather said, I live in Alaska, it's too much trouble.

Not at all, the woman said. Just give me your address, and I'll ship it to you. So Grandpa wrote down his name and address and handed the woman the slip of paper. She took it, looked at it, and said, very slowly, "Your father was a schoolmaster, and you left home when you were very young."

Her name was Annie, and she had been eight years old when Grandpa left Pomroy for America. She remembered it vividly; it had been an enormous occasion, for the son of the schoolmaster to go away, and the whole village had marked it.

"Do you mind," she asked, "if I say that I saw you, when I go home again?"

The Old Man didn't mind, and went back to Alaska, where he related this story to his befuddled family, who thought it was astonishing that in a city of eight million, he should happen on a woman who'd come from his own tiny Irish village of three hundred. He himself shrugged it off with, "It was an Irish bookstore."

Fast-forward to 1989.

My uncle Hugh, Grandpa's oldest son, was walking down the beach in Juneau, where he lived. He heard a woman calling her dog, and because the woman had an Irish accent, stopped to talk to her. She spent several months a year visiting County Mayo, and they exchanged names and chatted a while, then went their separate ways.

Some time later, this same woman flagged Hughie down in a grocery store parking lot, shouting that she'd been looking all over for him. She'd just returned from Ireland, where she'd been visiting her mother. One afternoon her mother had a visitor over, a woman named Maureen McAleer, who, upon hearing that she lived in Alaska, inquired if she knew any Malones, "because the last she'd heard of her brother, he was in Alaska."

As a matter of fact, the woman said, she'd just met a man named Hugh Malone.

Maureen clapped her hands together and said, "That must be them. My father's name was James Hugh Malone."

Hughie called my mother, and my mother called Maureen that night. She was, indeed, my grandpa's youngest sister, who'd married and moved to the west of Ireland.

The next spring, my mother and grandfather flew to Ireland, sixty years after Grandpa had left, to be reunited with the old family. Grandpa said, quite seriously, to my mother, "Maureen's changed," as if in sixty years he hadn't changed at all.

Maureen wasn't the only thing that had changed. His brother and other sister, Peter and Eileen, had died, and Ireland itself had changed dramatically. Grandpa was astonished at how liberal it had become, and how little daily effect the Church seemed to have on the country anymore. He grew up during the Easter Rebellion years, and wasn't prepared for the lack of passion regarding the ongoing problem in the north. For a man who'd grown up Catholic in Protestant Tyrone, in a time when Catholics literally were not permitted education and met in secret to do their learning, it was an entirely different world.

But his brogue got thicker as they drove across the country, and by the time they reached Westport, where my family now lives, Mom said you'd think he'd never left.

There's a song that was sung when the Old Man left Ireland, called The Parting Glass. The lyrics without the music don't do it justice, but I imagine it'll be sung at Maureen's wake, as it was at Grandpa's, and as I'd like it to be someday at my own.

Of all the money that e'er I spent
I've spent it in good company
And all the harm that ever I did
Alas it was to none but me
And all I've done for want of wit
To memory now I can't recall
So fill to me the parting glass
Good night and joy be with you all

If I had money enough to spend
And leisure to sit awhile
There is a fair maid in the town
That sorely has my heart beguiled
Her rosy cheeks and ruby lips
I own she has my heart enthralled
So fill to me the parting glass
Good night and joy be with you all

Oh, all the comrades that e'er I had
They're sorry for my going away
And all the sweethearts that e'er I had
They'd wish me one more day to stay
But since it falls unto my lot
That I should rise and you should not
I'll gently rise and softly call
Good night and joy be with you all

Wow. That was more of a workout than I expected. 2K yards swimming, and I'd figured like 6 or 7 miles biking to get there and back, except I went tot he post office while I was out, so I ended up with a 10.5 mile bike ride as well as the swimming. And I still haven't walked the dog. (Who knows it, and who is pacing back and forth Waiting For Me. "I'm POOPED" doesn't qualify as an excuse, in her book. Even, "Later," gets me mournful looks.)

I think I've figured out all the bugs in the manuscript.

I think I would kill for a massage right about now, too. Ooof.

miles to Hobbiton: 213.9
ytd yards swum: 18,200

Got the extension (and then some), so I am no longer Freaked Out about the book. Actually, I spent quite a bit of time yesterday working out notes and I think I've gotten the bugs worked out anyway, so I'm going to plunge ahead and see what I can pull together this week. I don't expect I'll turn it in on Friday anyway, but I'm feeling much more solid about it. Whew. :)

It does occur to me to mention that it's a lot nicer to have 15 pounds to lose than the 50 I've previously been miserable about. Although the scale, she is v. stubborn this week. Hrmph.

My great-aunt Maureen, my grandfather's youngest sister and the last of his immediate family, died yesterday. I'm a little sad about that, but I'd only met her twice and she *was* 95 years old, which is a pretty good run. And Mom and Dad will be able to go to the funeral, which is, if you understand where I'm coming from, kind of nice.

The coolest thing about meeting Maureen, for me, was that I met her with a friend of mine, who sat there and gaped at us for hours while we talked, because while I had grown up in a different country and had never met any of the Irish family before and she was, what, 63 years older than me, we used the same vocal inflections and physical gestures and body language and everything. Liz said it was completely astonishing to watch.

Later on today I'm going to write about how we got back in touch with the Irish family, but now I'm going to go get some work done.

miles to Hobbiton: 203.4
miles to Rauros Falls: 302

Redesigning my webpage has not made me fifteen pounds lighter or finished the book, but aside from the fact that there's a bunch of detail work I still need to do, it's made me somewhat happier.

So, too, did Deborah and Lisa making me go swim yesterday morning. 2000 or 2200 yards (I lost count a little) and then walking home restored my equalibrium a bit. There's lap swim Monday and Wednesday from 11-12 and Saturday from 10-11. Given how much better it made me feel, I am now committed to going there 3 times a week. Good thing I redesigned my webpage instead of bleaching my hair.

Jai and her mom and daughter and I went to see Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants yesterday. "Yaya for the younger generation?" Deborah asked, and yeah, basically, except I think it was better than Divine Secrets. I did not expect it to be a crying movie, but the last third was one emotional trauma after another. Really good, though.

Everybody was very, very tentative around me yesterday. You'd think I'd had a temper tantrum in my publically readable journal, or something.

All right. Lunch, walk, and work. *scoots*

ytd yards swum: 16,200
miles to Rauros Falls: 300

Bleaching my hair will not make me fifteen pounds thinner.

Redesigning my webpage will not finish this book.

I can't decide if it's good or just annoying that I can recognize avoidance techniques/displacement issues like that.

*Especially* because recognizing them doesn't make me any less desirous of redesigning my webpage (yes, I *know* I just did it; you see my point?) or bleaching my hair. It just makes me crabby.

I'm feeling very crabby right now. I've blown my no-sugar thing, and if I start again now I won't be able to go get ice cream at Hot Licks with Emily while she's in town, and that seems really suckful. Especially since I've got a birthday coupon to use there and I have to use it by August 1 or I lose it. *sigh* I'm tired of *dieting*, of being bloody *hungry* all the time, and not feeling like I'm knocking off the pounds. (Yeah, I know I just mentioned yesterday having lost a pound and a half. Not the point.) I'm tired of being overweight, and while I've lost 30 pounds and am within a few pounds of my lowest adult weight ever, I still have a lot of jiggle to get rid of. But I'm sick to death of being hungry every twenty goddamned minutes and I'm miserable at how grumpy it's making me.

Combine that with being stressed over the freaking *book*, which I bit the bullet and emailed my editor to ask for a week's extension on today, and I'm just completely on edge. I know I eat when I'm stressy, so I'm working *really hard* on not doing that, and it's only adding to my general bad mood. And somewhat ironically, the idea of pigging out just makes me even *more* grumpy, because I've at least got enough self-awareness to know that doing so will in the long term make me that much unhappier. So I'm not shoveling junk down my throat, but there's only so much goddamned broccoli a girl can eat, and just )(#$@#@$!!)#(@#

Furthermore, if Ursula had written this post, it would be funny, and right now I'm grumpy about that, too. :P

miles to Rauros Falls: 296

Ok, that was cool. The Forbeses just came by with copies of URBAN SHAMAN for me to sign for them. I hadn't seen Rene since last summer and I don't think I'd seen Liam or Lisa since David's wake. That was just...good. It's good to see family.

My goodness, what a lot of little boys!

Ted and I drove out to Big Lake tonight to see my family, who were in town in droves. Johnny and his two oldest boys, Jacob who is befreckled and Joshua who is a dead ringer for his daddy (not that Jacob doesn't look like him, but Joshua looks startlingly like him); Maggie and her three boys, Louis, Derek and Ian, who all have their mommy's eyes (she appears to still have them too, which is a relief) and also her nephew from the other side of the family, Eric, and Moira Ru with her two boys, Eddie and Calen, as well as Erik (Maggie and Johnny's brother), and of course Aunt Eileen and Uncle Pete, the parents (and grandparents) of all that lot. *Lots* of family. It was wonderful.

*Lovely* little boys. Eight of them, ranging from two to thirteen, and all of them very pretty kids. And noisy. :) And energetic. And did I mention gorgeous? Because they all are. Derek may be the most beautiful child I've ever laid eyes on.

(UH, I MEAN, UH, EXCEPT MY NEPHEW BREIC, OF COURSE! (I don't know about Seirid, because I haven't seen a picture of him since he was three days old, HINT HINT HINT.))

Of course, I think Derek's the one with the devil in him. He was one of the ones they kept trying to get us to take home with us. :)

And in completely other news, Henry has a nice story to tell about an exciting debut novel somebody wrote. :)

What a difference getting up at 6:45 and getting up at 7:45 makes to my mindset. Earlier is better. I feel more like I can tackle things, or something. Like I haven't already wasted a big chunk of the day. Writing's hard enough in the summer (I just want to be outside PLAYING), but boy, get me started an hour later and I just feel like everything's shot to shit. Combine that with the whole "why isn't this book done yet, I've already put lots of work into it" feeling that I tend to get in the last chapters of a novel, and I'm sort of a grump. Eh. Not really a grump. Just a lump. :)

The other annoying thing about summer is that who wants to *sleep* when it's light out? So I stay up too late, which feeds the getting up later thing. Feh. I think I'll move to Ireland, where the light is somewhat less extreme. :)

But first I have to write.

*stares at the wall* There was something I forgot to mention yesterday that I was going to mention today, but I can't remember what it was. Oh, I remember.

Dark chocolate M&Ms are a *good* thing. The dark side is strong in me. Man. Shaun gave me about 12 at the movie last night (I'm off sugar again, another 40 day Lent. Today begins week 2.) and hoo boy. O.O She likes those candies. O.O

She has also re-lost the pound and a half she'd put back on over the first three weeks of June, so the dark side better stay the fuck away from her, or she'll get medieval on its ass. -.-

'twas a good day. I got my 3K in, walked, and Shaun and I had a nice bonding experience of scraping wallpaper together. Well, at the same time, anyway. And the bonding was the wallpaper glue. But the kitchen wall is now *clear* of wallpaper. Next step: strip the paint from one or more of the cabinet doors and see what kind of condition the wood beneath is in. I'm hoping it looks nice enough that we can strip them, give 'em a light sanding and a coat of stain all around and make the entire kitchen look totally different. That and new handles will go miles in making the place look muuuuch nicer. And then we're going to change the light fixture in there, because it's awful. Muahahaha.

This evening we went to see "Howl's Moving Castle", which we were all charmed by. As Marith said, for an anime hero, Howl is positively *dripping* with masculinity. Of course, it's rather helped, I think, by the fact that he's voiced by Batman actor Christian Bale. (I *thought* that was Bale! Smug me!)

Bedtime now. Must get up and churn out more words. Churn churn churn.

miles to Rauros Falls: 292
ytd wordcount: 143,400
music in my head: Wilson Phillips, "You're in love" (Why, God, why?)

Ah, the glamorous life of a full-time writer. I was working yesterday and Chanti wanted out, so I got up and put her out. Two minutes later she wanted in, so I got up and brought her in. Shaun was in the kitchen as I said, "You want in, you want out, you want in, you want out," and then I said to him, "Welcome to my life," which made him laugh out loud.

This morning my cousin Erik called to check up on whether I still wanted to work on his company's website, and I sounded a bit groggy, 'cause I'd been at the computer all morning, and he said, "Did I wake you up?" I said no, I'd been writing, and he said, "Oh no, and I interrupted the flow of thought!" Well, no, I confessed, actually at that very moment I'd been in the middle of a game of solitaire. *laugh* He felt better after that. :)

I completely blew two batches of bread. Apparently I wrote the recipe down wrong, so I'm going to have to get it again. :P Now a third (different recipe) is baking and it smells delicious and I'm starving to death. Need to drink more water, as I just had a snack.

I'm on the downward end of this book. I wonder how other novelists I know feel when they finish writing a book. I seem to recall a lot of triumph when I finished my first one, and being pretty pleased when I finished my second, especially as I'd given myself a deadline and stuck to it. I was astonished and extremely satisfied when I finished ANGLES, because it's got a complicated structure and it all wove together really, really well, and I finished the first draft of HEART OF STONE faster than I expected to have to, so I was pleased with getting it done.

But I think the predominant emotion I feel upon finishing a novel these days is relief. Not like I didn't think I could do it, but rather more like...I'm glad it's done, but not sufficiently happy to call it happy. Just relieved. Pleased, but not gleeful. Sometimes cheerful (I'm feeling pretty cheery right now, and I'm not even done yet!) but mostly just ... satisfied. There: that's done. That sort of thing.

FIREBIRD DECEPTION is my 8th solo novel and my 9th overall. (10th, if you count Banshee Cries, which is technically a novella. Does it count?) Possibly one becomes jaded to having finished the thing after you've done it half a dozen times or so.

I think right now the part I really *like* is going back and reading the manuscript several weeks later, after I've gotten agent/editorial comments, and seeing where it can be improved and seeing that overall, hey, you know, that turned out to be a pretty good story after all! I'm almost always lots happier with having finished it at that point, which no doubt is due to the distance.

1700 words so far this morning. I have as few as 3 and as many as 5 chapters left, I believe. Almost there! *chugga chugga chugga*

miles to Rauros Falls: 290
miles to Hobbiton: 192.3

(ETA: I just got fan mail for IMMORTAL BELOVED, which happens to be the afore-mentioned second book. I am unconscionably fond of that book, and *love* getting fan mail about it. Someday, *someday*, I will write my other two Methos novels...)

Today I would rather wash windows than write. However, despite that, I have gotten 1100 words written, and now I'm going to go take a shower and then wash windows. :) Hopefully I'll feel like writing more after that's done. :)

Mom and Dad have made it safely to Ireland. Yay!

Okee. Shower now.

3600 words today, although 2500 to 3K just about slew me. It wasn't even a hard scene. I was just being all lazy. Bah. But anyway, I wrote, and it was good.

I did get myself together to go for a bike ride this afternoon, which was particularly good. It made me feel like less of a slug. That's one of the problems with being a writer, is there is so much time spent in front of a computer screen that even when I know I've been exercising and stuff I just start to feel like a lower life form. And that feeling's particularly bad this month because I'm not very likely to make my exercise goal for June, and I exceeded it for the last 3 months, so I feel extra blah about it. :/

I even scraped a little wallpaper. *waves a little flag*

I'm feeling whiny. I suspect most of that will go away when this book is done and I don't have another deadline for 9 months, but man, right now, *whine*.

However, because I assume nobody actually wants to read about my whining, that's all I'll say. :)

ytd wordcount: 138,500

Could one of my medically inclined friends explain to me why losing 30 pounds has had a positive effect on my allergies? As in, I'm barely suffering from them at all. My working theory is that fat cells store all the little nasties I'm allergic to, but, y'know, I'm just making that up, 'cause what the hell do I know. :) I assume it's not that the allergy season is particularly mild this year, because Ted seems to be having his usual snuffly nose.

Oh! We saw the Serenity trailer when we went to Batman Begins again. I haven't watched Firefly, but the Serenity trailer convinced Ted and me to watch it. :) Also, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory looks like it might have been done right. I could tell, because I watched the new trailer and felt rather hopeful and pleased with what I saw, while Ted, who has never read the book and loves the (in my opinion god-awful) Gene Wilder version, looked completely horrified.

When Emily gets here, Jai and I decided that we need to snag her and Melissa and have a Girls Evening of watching 80s Brat Pack movies. Specifically 16 Candles, Pretty in Pink, and The Breakfast Club. I think that sounds like a total blast. :)

All right. I need another 800 words before I can consider myself done for the day (although I intend to WAR again tonight, so hopefully I'll come in around 5K again, rilly).

*zoom*

miles to Rauros Falls: 288

Not a bad day. Not a bad day at all, in fact. I got about 4800 words written, thanks in definite part to the wonderful people at Forward Motion, who did a couple of word wars with me this evening and helped me get the last chapter I needed to write written.

Someone died unexpectedly in this chapter. Can't wait to watch the fallout of *that*. Writing is so fun. :)

*Also* went out with Jai to a *hat shop*, where I found a completely smashing fedora that I Had To Have, and she bought a fantastic straw hat with a wonderful velvet band and a tulle (I think it's tulle) flower. It looks brilliant on her. I think between her and me and Tori we tried on every hat in the shop. :) Lots of fun! Then we went off to Title Wave to have coffee (or actually tea and water, but who's counting) and talked for an hour. Jai is good and thoroughly hooked on Buffy. Ahahaha. :)

Then I went to see "Diary of a Mad Black Woman", which was completely wonderful, and my darling husband picked me up so I didn't have to walk home, and indeed, it has been a most satisfactory day.

ytd wordcount: 134,900
miles to Rauros Falls: 286

We went to see Batman again last night. I think I have to watch the Michael Keaton Batman again, just to compare 'em. But I liked it just as well the second time through, although I will discuss behind the cut tag the one thing that's got me going back and forth on whether I approve or not.

I also watched the last hour of "Legends of the Fall" on tv last night, and learned it's one of Ted's favorite movies ever. This surprised me, because I think it's really depressing (it's *good*. I just don't like it very much.), and normally Ted's the one who doesn't like depressing movies and I do. In fact, I wanted to know who'd switched our brains. :) Depressing or not, *God* it's got a good title. I want to use that title. Hrmph.

miles to Rauros Falls: 285

Here be Batman Begins spoilers!

If you're still reading, it's your own fault if you get spoiled.

Just sayin'. I warned you. That's all I'm sayin'.

Okay then.

In the climactic fight scene in the train, Batman has Ra's al Ghul down and Ra's is actually very pleased because he thinks Bruce has finally learned to do what must be done. Batman says, "I won't kill you. But I don't have to save you," before leaping from the train himself and leaving Ra's to die.

...

*gnrghght*

On the one hand: I think it's quite wonderfully grey and questionable and dark, all of which is good Batman material. I can't *blame* him. Ra's is trying to destroy his beloved Gotham, and has left him for dead once already and yadda yadda yadda. I see where he's coming from.

But on the other hand, he's Batman. Batman doesn't kill people. Okay, okay, yeah, *technically* he didn't kill him (and it's Ra's al Ghul, so we all know he's not really dead, but that's not the POINT), but hoo boy that is one fine line to walk. And I'm always uncomfortable with that line, because I'm always *really badly* disappointed in my heroes when they cross it. (The Mummy Returns particularly infuriated me, because dammit, a hero would have tried to save Imhotep, even if he was horrible and evil, because that's what heroes do, and I felt very similarly about Obiwan at the end of RotS. The *good guys* do *not leave people dying on the edges of lava pits, god damn it!*)

So *man* did they skirt that line, and I'm *still* not sure how I come down on it. It was good, it was morally ambiguous, it was grey, but ... it was Batman, and I really can't decide if I think he should have been better than that. I really can't decide.

Which, when you get right down to it, means it's some pretty damned good storytelling.

It is pouring rain, as the weather report said it would all day. I rather hope it does (two well-timed breaks for me to take walks would be okay), because that means it won't get so hot in the house, which will make it much easier to write. Also, of course, one feels less like a waste of space if one is spending a rainy day staring at a computer screen, as opposed to a stunningly beautiful day like the last several have been staring at a computer screen.

Off to have breakfast and take this bitch by the throat.

miles to Rauros Falls: 282
ytd wordcount: 129,200

Crap. Just re-read the second half of my synopsis and I think it's better than what I've been writing for the last two days. I /think/ I can pull it back in to fit the synopsis, but dammit. Wretched writer, shoulda looked at the synopsis again yesterday before I started writing.

Maybe if I turn this current scene into a setup...

miles to Rauros Falls: 280

I think I need to switch my times around, and take the dog for a walk in the evening and bike earlier in the day. This is because I often find myself willing to go for a nice pleasant quiet walk after dinner, but I don't do it 'cause I've already walked, whereas getting geared up to go biking seems like too much trouble, and it seems less bothersome to do that at, say, 11am.

The dog will be mortally offended by this for a few days, but there's also the plus of getting the evening exercise in because I'll feel too guilty to *not* take her for a walk, so I think overall it's a good plan.

*This* evening I watched a couple of (actually pretty good) episodes of Dark Angel with Ted, and now I'm going to bed because I'm yawning my brain out. *yawn*

3300 words. Not bad. Not great, but not bad.

Tonight I get to scrape more wallpaper. Boy, do I know how to have fun, or what? But I'm going to go biking, and maybe I'll watch a movie or a tv show or something, too, because I want some kind of reward.

miles to Rauros Falls: 279
ytd wordcount: 127,300

Writing is hard. Actually, it's not so much writing is hard as getting back into writing after what's effectively although not deliberately been about a month off. I know what I'm doing with the story, I've got the beginning scraps of this chapter started, and so far this morning I've opened all my files, looked them over, played enough games of solitaire to win, and had breakfast.

However, the weather report says it's supposed to be in the mid-seventies today, it's beautiful out already, and I must write 3K because this book is due in 15 days. So off I go to wrestle my brain into submission and to make the words come whether they want to or not. :)

And hey, I had two pieces of fan mail this morning, so life can't be all bad!

thinks to do today:

1. write
2. post office
3. bonk
4. chiro
5. laundry
6. walk

Okay, here's the hurtful truth of the matter.

I didn't even go in with the painful spark of inevitable doom that I had with X-Men, the one that knew it was just going to suck but knowing that I had to see it anyway, and that all my hopes and dreams were going to be crushed like the pathetic bugs they were.

It was *worse* than that: I went in not caring. The only reason I went to see it was because Ted really really wanted to, but I mean, come on, Bruce Wayne's origin story, BFD, I KNOW how he got to be Batman, could we PLEASE just skip this shit? I've had ENOUGH of the origin stories already. I just didn't care.

And I came out a believer.

I think they really had me at Gary Oldman as Gordon. I knew, the moment he came on the screen, that he was Gordon; I was less certain he was Gary Oldman. Before that, I was pretty pleased with the movie, but from there on out I was theirs.

I still don't think Bale's got the jaw for it. I thought Katie Holmes looked like a stroke victim for half the film. But I didn't care. By the climactic scene, I was slavering for a Batman and Superman movie, and hell, Superman doesn't even come *out* until next summer. I loved it. I will see it again. I can't believe it. They actually pulled it off. And pulled me in. And as Ted said of the Batmobile, "It may not be sexy, but it has *balls*!"

Dear Lord but Cillian Murphy is a beautiful boy.

Wow. So *totally* pleased. Can't stand it, will discuss spoilers behind the cut tag.

current music: ~I'm a Believer~

The one mistake I thought they made was in shattering the graphite cowl and then not having it shatter in the climactic fight with Ra's Al Ghul. That was the classic gun in the first act setup, and they didn't use it in the final act. Yeah, yeah, they said it'd be fixed in the next batch of 10K, but we didn't get notice that the next batch had come in, so that was my only bitch about it.

And speaking of Ra's Al Ghul--ahahahahah! (Sorry, that's too big a spoiler to spell out!)

Do you suppose they cast the Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy) to look like Superman on *purpose*?

Very pleased with the circular lines: Rachel's to Bruce, fed back to her by Batman; Fox and Earle; Bruce and Ducard. Very nice; I like that kind of thing.

The little boy--Robin?

my livejournal haiku:

betide the fool who
crosses her path if there were not
invisible steps

I have just seen my parents off to Ireland. Eee! What an adventure for them! I want to gooooo! EVERYBODY will be in Ireland now! *hops around*!

Ted made an unbelievably good going-away dinner last night, too. Sheesh. I mean, sheesh. An appetizer of shrimp-stuffed mushrooms followed by crab legs in butter, and topped off with rockfish au papier on a risotto with string beans. It was *ridiculously* good. Aunt Eileen and Uncle Pete came over, and we all ate until we were stuffed silly, and then had cheesecake for dessert. Very very nice evening. :)

Scraping wallpaper off walls isn't very much fun.

miles to Rauros Falls: 277

Saturday morning I was dashing through the snow in a one horse open sleigh, when^H^H^H

Saturday morning I was dashing through the breakfast line when I saw, all unexpectedly, Winifred Halsey, who was the judging editor at the 2002 RMFW conference--the conference that lit a fire under my ass to get this whole writing thing going. I went to that conference to talk to Winifred, because I wanted to talk to an editor about my work, and having placed in the contest (which I knew I would), there was my opportunity. (And she told me that my writing was too good to sell to her small press and that I wanted to send MANIFEST DESTINY to Tor. Anyway.)

So at the earliest opportunity (after breakfast with Jim and Shannon) I flagged her down and found out what her morning schedule was, and arranged to talk to her a little later that morning.

A *great deal* of the morning was spent seizing or being seized by people who had had successful editor or agent appointments (Anna, Scott, Cal, Winifred, Liz...!) I did get to catch up with Winifred, who is still running Speculation Press, but who's really focusing on her own writing career now (she was there pitching 3 different manuscripts!) and she was just about beside herself with excitement over URBAN SHAMAN and the upcoming Dermody books (she really liked the Strongbox Chronicles concept!), so that was just *really* fun.

I broke with Winifred to go have lunch with my Dad's cousin Denny, which was possibly more fun than two people are supposed to have together, period. We had a *ridiculously* good time. We had no idea where we were going, to start with, and eventually ended up downtown at the Cheesecake Factory, where neither of had been before, and while we found the parking garage, we could not then find the restaurant. After walking up and down the block, we asked three guys on the corner if they could answer a question for us, and they said, "We don't know!" Denny said, "Can you tell us where the Cheesecake Factory is?"

And it was literally right behind us, so they pointed with both hands, fingers spread wide, and said, "There!" We complimented them on a job well done, and went in. (The Cheesecake Factory's sign is on the 2nd story, and set back behind an overhang, so in fact even when we knew it was there above us, we could still barely see it, so I didn't feel too silly for not being able to find it!)

Lunch was surprisingly good, and Denny told me stories from his life and I told him stories from mine, and we discovered we were enormously copacetic, and agreed that the way to live life was through competition with oneself and a great deal of joy, and man, we just had a riot. :) He told the waitress I was a famous writer and she nearly dropped her teeth, and said, "Really?" So I whipped out one of my business cards (which say "C.E. Murphy, famous writer" on them!) and she was pretty excited over that, and then someone came by to do a Cheesecake Factory survey (they're trying to decide where they should build more CF's) and Denny treated her to a history of Port Tobacco, where he doesn't really live anymore, and the poor girl handled it all pretty well. *laugh* It was just a really excellent time. *beam*

I got back to the hotel just in time for the book signing--Karen said, "There you are! You have fans waiting for you!", which was true (Anna, at least, was waiting for me!), and Jim and I sat down at the end of one of the tables and hung out and chattered and had a great time for a couple of hours.

Duane, the guy from the University Bookstore who was doing the WW book sale, told me that he hadn't gotten the 5 or 8 books in that he'd ordered to bring to the signing, and he'd sold 5 of the 8 copies he had *at* the store, and he thought it would be embarrassing to bring just 3 books to the signing, so he'd gotten a box of twenty books from the distributor.

AND THEY SOLD OUT!!!!!!

*Lots* of people got copies, and one woman from Canada already had a copy at home but didn't know I was going to be there, so she hadn't brought it, so she bought a *second* copy for me to sign, and Ann and Josh from Forward Motion came up from wherever it is that they live in Washington to see me, and we hung out, and Winifred bought a copy of the book and just about popped with glee over it, and people kept coming over to tell me that the pile of books was diminishing at a wonderfully rapid rate, and Cal was very funny when she handed me her copy to sign; she was deliberately all shaky-voiced and shaky-handed and quavered, "M-m-ms. Mu-ur-urphy, c-c-could you sign m-m-my b-b-book p-please?" (Which was what I'd done to Jim last year, in fact.) So I got a very good laugh out of that. *laugh* It was fantastic. :) I forced my card on a woman named Alisha, saying, "You'll want to read my action-adventure romance series that's starting in December, because my main character's name is Alisha!" *laugh*

Jim got to see ACADEM'S FURY, which Duane had gotten advance copies of (on pain of death if he sold them anywhere but at the booksigning before its release date) *and* the paperback version of FURIES OF CALDERON, neither of which he'd seen before, so he kept snatching them out of people's hands and eeking over them *laugh* Oh, and Jaime whom I'd had lunch with came to the signing, and she was wearing her Bookstore Commando t-shirt (and had with her her two *adorable* daughters), and asked Jim to sign the t-shirt, so Jim was thrilled and kept saying, "My first t-shirt! My first shirt!"

The whole thing was absolutely brilliant. Duane was *so smug* over selling out, and wanted me to let him know the *minute* I knew when I'd be back through Seattle, so we could arrange a booksigning. Now I just have to figure out when I'll be back through Seattle. :)

The rest of the evening was spent--I went out to dinner on my own, then retoined for hanging out with more or less anybody I could track down for the next few hours, and then to bed again.

Sunday morning was more wonderful socializing, and then I climbed onto an aeroplane and flew HOME.

miles to Rauros Falls: 275

Friday: family, friends, sf museum, space needle :)

I woke up ridiculously early on Friday, having gone to bed at like 8:15. Or maybe 9:15. Anyway, it was early, and I got a lot of sleep, so I got up at 7 or something. All stiff and sore. Nasty beds. (I was relieved on Sunday, when Michael, Scott's 17 year old son, was complaining bitterly of being stiff and achy from the beds, too. It gave me great confidence that I was not having another horrible back pain attack.)

The rest is cut to spare the innocent, because one nearly-thousand-word post in one day is enough, and this one's longer. :)

But getting up early meant plenty of time to have breakfast and hang out before going off to do things with my day, so that was good. Jim muttered at me (Jim is so not a morning person) because I was so cheerful, and I think I hung out and talked with Cal-who-was-there-last-year for quite a while that morning. I forget, but I do know that she'd said she'd bring me chocolate as a celebration for having my first book published, and indeed, she brought me a bag of dark chocolate Hershey's kisses! *swoon*! I went around sharing them with everyone and generally having a swell time with that. :)

And Evan Fogleman accosted Cal Thursday night (her word, not mine) and so she ended up pitching her story then, and he wants to see it, and furthermore he told her what was wrong with the story he'd turned down, and so she was all NEEROW ZOOM JIT JIT JIT with excitement, because she could fix what was wrong with it, which is always a good thing. It was so cool to see her again. :) I also met (Thursday, I think, not Friday morning, but that's not the point) Ann from Forward Motion, who was completely delightful and had awesome t-shirts (one was something to the effect of, "Hug me or I will destroy the world"), and ... and I have no sense of when things were happening, really, but by gosh I was having fun!

Left the hotel around 9:15 and didn't go back until shortly after 5, and then only long enough to be collected by lj-user lithera for a movie date, but *between* that I met up with Jaime from McAnally's, Jim's email list, and we hung out and had coffee and talked for over an hour, I think. Lots of fun. Very nice lady. It was a really nice way to spend the morning. :)

When I broke with her, I went to the Science Fiction Museum, which I hadn't gotten to go to last year, and *man*. It was SO COOL. I could've spent 3 hours there easily, but I only had about 1, so while I gave the first room all the heed it deserved, I kinda skimped on the rest. I had no idea Neal Stephenson handwrote all his HUGE ENORMOUS MANUSCRIPTS. They had the original draft for the 3-book Baroque Cycle, which was literally reams and reams of papers, and ye gods. Ye gods. Did I say ye gods? Because ye gods.

They had original Star Trek scripts and props and Sean Young's costume from Bladerunner (which, to my surprise, I bet I would fit in, in another 20 pounds. And my God the shoulders on that thing. I really wanted to try it on.) and I was looking at one of the ST:TOS communicators, and just *tell* me that wasn't a cellphone, because it totally was. And just...it was REALLY COOL and it made the geek in me very happy. I must go back with more time, because I only kinda got to skim a lot of the stuff in the later rooms, and it was well worth visiting. As Lithera said later, "Don't you get the feeling they have just *huge* amounts of stuff they don't have room to display?" And yeah, totally. I so want to see the rest of the loot. :)

I was freezing to death after sitting outside for more than an hour, and I didn't really warm up in the museum, so I bought a long-sleeved shirt for myself (this is unheard of) at the tourist trap gift shop, and bought t-shirts for the boys, and put my shirt on right away. Warm good. Plus, shirt cute; Jacquie, a girl working at the hotel, commented on its cuteness. :) (Jacquie had, the night previously, stood up very well to Scott's overblown choice of words as he requested a cable so we could hook up Michael's laptop to the internet, so I was predisposed to like her even if she wasn't complimenting me on my clothing!)

Then I got together with my cousin Alanna, who'd even managed to get off work a little early, so we went out to lunch and talked about writing and theatre (our respective careers) and about my parents moving to Ireland and basically hung out for two or three hours. We even went up the Space Needle, which I hadn't done since I was about 11. *laugh* Turns out Alanna doesn't like elevators, and *I* don't like heights, so we were a pretty funny pair in the elevator. Once we were up top it was fine, but in the elevator itself we were staring at each other with these glassy-eyed rictuses that were periodically broken (in the 41 second lift ride) by giggles because we were so melodramatic. It was *awesome*. :)

I got back to the hotel in plenty of time for Lithera (Kat) to pick me up, and mostly hung around outdoors smiling at nothing in particular while I waited for her. Just in a good mood all around. Once she'd collected me, we went downtown, where she brought me to a fountain which has a walkway through it. She claimed somewhere on the fountain is a plaque which says if you run through the fountain shouting, "I'm a Seattle superhero!" when you come out the other end, you will be! So we did that, and I don't know if we came out superheroes, but we certainly came out sopping wet and full of laughter, so it was a grand thing to do. *beam* *laugh* And then, soaking wet, we went to see Mr. & Mrs. Smith, which was very enjoyable. My favorite line is still the one from the previews, where Brad says, "Come to Daddy," and Angelina kicks his ass and then tosses her hair and in this perfectly vicious smug *wonderful* purr says, "Who's your daddy now?" I luff luff *luff* it.

And after the movie I went back to the hotel and went to bed early *again*!

Redesigning tells me that I clearly need to shorten my list of thinks to do. :)

But not right now. Right now I'm going for a *walk*, because it's unbelieveably gorgeous outside and I've been punking around at the computer all bloody day.

*neerow*!

Thursday: Christ, what happened on Thursday?

Thursday morning I got an extra interview. Bonus interview, yay! :) And, in fact, there's a copy of that interview here. To my delight, I actually think it sounds pretty good! (It's a big file, 5 megs, but the link isn't to it directly).

I think I had vague plans to go back to sleep after the interview, but because it was at such a reasonable hour (8am!) I just stayed up. I was going to go shopping, but I got drawn into reading Gail's THE COMPASS ROSE, so I spent most of the morning in my hotel room curled up with a book, which was really awfully nice.

Once I was done reading, I went down to the Borders and found they had three copies of my book in, so I signed them and went away very pleased. The pen ran out on the second book (I was having the *worst* luck with pens!) and so I wrote "Oops! The pen ran out!" and re-signed it, which amused the snot out of me. :)

Wandered around Pike Place Market, discovering why I think Seattle isn't hilly--Pike and Pine are the two streets I'm usually on when I'm in Seattle, and they're relatively flat. It's the streets on either side of them that suddenly go zooming up like a miniature San Francisco. But now I have learned, and next time I go to Seattle I won't be surprised that it's all hilly. :)

Got checked out of the hotel around 2pm so I could go do a major downgrade by checking into the Quality Inn Suites. :) But as I was in the process of checking in, Rill came down the stairs, so I yelled gleefully and got hugs, which was an excellent way to begin the remainder of the week!

I actually spent most of Thursday hanging out. I'd been going to have dinner with my cousin Alanna, but she had to work, so I hung about, caught up with Liz Wolfe, greeted Karen (who spent all weekend saying, "There's the invisible guest!" when she saw me), was descended upon by Emily, Emily's friend Scott, and Scott's wife and son Shannon and Michael, whom I had not met previously, as well as Chris Cooper, who's the guy who'd bought my WW membership and who was *very* confused as to my presence there.

It turned out Emily, Scott, Shannon and Michael had GONE TO THE BORDERS I'D BEEN AT A FEW HOURS EARLIER AND BOUGHT ALL THREE COPIES OF MY BOOK THAT THEY HAD. *laugh* Evidently they'd been in a mall and saw someone reading a paper and there was a half-page ad for my book in it, and they went rushing over to the guy and excused themselves but please could he tell them what paper he was reading (I should find out and get copies myself) and then they got a copy of the paper and ran to Borders and Emily went to the information desk clutching the paper with the ad turned out and said, "Do you have this book?!?!" with terrible urgency, and the woman behind the counter said, "You're so CUTE!!!" *laughs and laughs*

Of course, they only had three copies, so she came back and said the four of them were going to have to fight over it, but Shannon said that since two of the three copies were going to her house anyway, it was okay if she didn't *actually* have a copy of her own. :) And Michael got the one the pen'd run out on, which he was terribly pleased about that. :) I re-signed all of them for them, and we decided perhaps we should move out of the line of traffic. Somewhere in there Jim and Shannon Butcher arrived, and we ended up all sitting around in one of the conference rooms just catching up and chatting and having a grand old time.

Now, because I wasn't officially there for the weekend, I didn't want to be eating the conference food or anything (all I'd paid for was the banquet Saturday night, which I ended up not going to anyway because it'd been sold out and I didn't know until I got there that a few seats had come open, and by then I'd made other plans; but *anyway*, basically I was there for the booksigning), I went away for dinner, and as it happened I went away with Emily and Scott and Shannon and Michael and Chris. We went around the corner to a pizza place, where the waitress handled our silliness VERY WELL INDEED (she got an enormous tip), and there was a sax player across the street whose music was a wonderful accompaniment to dinner (he got all the cash we had left, I think).

And then in a fit of sheer sanity, I went back to the hotel and went to bed!

I'm still a combination of TOTALLY WIRED and TOTALLY TIRED. But dear God sleeping in my own bed was nice. I'm going to go out and get thank you notes and write those this morning, and finish my writeup and post pictures, and ... do whatever other zillion things need doing today. Mom and Dad leave on Wednesday. I figure I'm probably not going to get much real work done until then, but that's okay. A couple of days to wind down and get back into the groove is probably what I need, and then I will CONQUER THE UNIVERSE! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHH!

Ahem.

I now know that TBF revisions will be due back mid-August, so that's really nice and helpful to know in shaping the summer. Yay! And and and! I'm just a spazz. *flop*!

God! I have so much to write about I don't hardly know where to begin! *runs around frantically!* :) I'll just put these behind cut tags, because they're loooong and there are three of them now and more to come later. :)

...

So the Monday interview with Jack Frost went very well, I thought. Dad and I had brought him a copy of the book and a press release and things the Thursday previous, and he'd read at least the first five or six chapters by the interview, 'cause he had specific questions that he couldn't have asked without reading the book. :) Among other things, when I gave my spiel on what the book was about--"A Seattle cop with no use for the mystical is given a choice between death or life as a shaman; when she takes life, she finds herself involved in a murder mystery and up against a couple of old Irish gods"--he protested with, "Well, she's actually *dying* when she's given that choice, isn't she?"

I said, "I didn't say it was a *good* choice!", which made him laugh. :) And it turned out he's part Cherokee himself, and so took issue with Coyote, who is not a part of the Cherokee mythos, but I promised all would be revealed in later books, so that got us off on being able to discuss that it was the first in a series, and that was good. I can't remember if I plugged the website and the first chapter being online or not.

Part of the press release thing that Dad did talks about how although it's a fantasy novel, it's likely to appeal to readers of such mystery novels as those by Tony Hillerman or Margaret Coel, and Jack said Hillerman happened to be one of his favorite novelists, so where was I coming from on that being something Hillerman fans would like. I said that those books, being about Native American characters, often had mystical elements that really affected how the story went, and so if that appealed to the reader, then almost certainly so would URBAN SHAMAN. So it all went very well.

I met up with Christine Saunders, my PR person, after the interview (she was a little taken aback by my costuming; Tuesday, when I reappeared for dinner wearing jeans and tennies instead of a skirt and heels she said, "Now that's more like what I was expecting!"), and we went to dinner at a very fine restaurant just down the street, and got on like a house on fire. Turned out we're both entertainment rag geeks, so we had a good ol' time talking about Angelina and Brad, and we talked about writing and PR and our respective careers and it really was a great time. She (like everyone) said that it was her job to make sure I was happy, and I was like, "Jeez, and here I'm figuring it's my job to make sure you like me!" So it went well. *laugh*

I staggered back to the VERY NICE hotel room and was in one of the most comfy beds I've ever slept in before ten, but I didn't sleep all that well, due to being afraid of oversleeping. Not so much with the nerves, though--I was nervous with the mock interview that I did with Jenn Novak a couple-three weeks ago, but I wasn't nervous at all calling a zillion radio stations to talk to total strangers about my book. So that was good.

I was at the Alexis Hotel in downtown Seattle, which, when I told my parents where I was staying, caused my Dad to say, "Whooo-hoo-hoo-hoo!", 'cause it turns out that's the nicest hotel in Seattle. And damned if it isn't a very, very nice hotel. The room was about the size of my downstairs minus the kitchen area (like 400 square feet), which was PERFECT, because I pace when I'm on the phone (an old Malone tradition), so I was pacing back and forth and back and forth while doing my interviews, and I had plenty of room to do it in. V. nice. And the comforter and pillows, omg. Down duvet, down pillows. You can actually buy them online and I'm seriously coveting them. :)

Anyway, crashed out and I'll continue with...

Tuesday:

I woke up about 1:45 in the morning my time, 'cause I was afraid of oversleeping, and I hadn't slept all that well anyway. Got up at 2:30 (I've pretty much not switched to PT, not that it's a big switch, but I pretty much haven't), showered, debated whether or not I could not dress up, decided I couldn't not dress up, and so by, y'know, like, a quarter after three in the morning I was hanging around my hotel room looking like a million dollars. :)

...

First interview was the one they double-booked, so I ended up not being on the air until about 5 to 5 PT, and only talked to them for a few minutes, but it was fun anyway. They asked more Alaska questions than I'd wanted, but they got back on track and we generally had a good time and I can't remember a damned thing that really got talked about, except I'm pretty sure I at least plugged the website. And evidently they called the PR people and said I was delightful, so go me. :)

I think the second interview was the one with Jerry, except Jerry had left the station in the two or three weeks between the interview being set up and the interview happening, so the woman I talked with (Teri? Toni? I have to find out what her name was) didn't really seem to know I was going to call, but she winged it nicely and it was another fun talk. (I mean, they're asking questions about me and my writing. How could it not be fun?)

The most memorable Tuesday interview was the Louisiana one. The interviewer had both read and thoroughly enjoyed the book, and she was very excited about the whole thing. Plus, she started out (while I was on the phone listening, but not participating yet) plugging some local java joint and talking about their cinnamon rolls and stuff, so by the time she got to me and asked how I was doing I was like, "Hungry! And you were teasing me with all that talk about cinnamon rolls!" So we got off to a good start, and she had not only read the book, but also my webpage, where it says things like my hobbies include moose-wrestling. That made her laugh a lot, and she wanted to know if we really saw moose a lot, and she had good questions about the book (none of which I remember right now, of course...usually I'm better at remembering conversations in detail, but it *was* awfully early in the morning), and later when I talked to the PR people they said she wanted to do listener give-aways for the book, so she really was pretty gung-ho on it. That was neat. And her daughter, who had also read the book, was disappointed she couldn't be at the studio that morning, but she'd gotten sick so missed out. She was listening on the radio, though, Louise said. :)

Well, I do know some of what she asked--these were some of the pretty typical questions:

How'd you come up with the idea for the story?

Ted and I were flying into Seattle and he looked out the airplane window and said, all thoughtfully, "Wouldn't it be interesting if you were flying into a city and you looked out the window and saw someone running down the street with a pack of dogs or something after her? What would you do?"

And that essentially became the opening scene for URBAN SHAMAN. (I also said to Louise, "When we got the first copies of the book, Ted said, "I feel like I'm holding our first child! I had the idea, and you did all the work!" which made her laugh very hard indeed. Hee hee! *She* said that she would never look out the window as she flew into a city the same way again.)

How was Jo's background developed?

I took my own Irish heritage and Ted's strain of Cherokee and used those as my basis for creating Jo. I also wanted her to be involved in a police department without actually being a cop, and in a position of being a kind of tough girl, so she became a mechanic in the motor pool at a police station, so that gave me plenty to play with.

What's a shaman?

From my reading, what I understand is that a shaman's primary function in his society is as a healer. He's a wise man, a medicine man, someone who can guide a person through the steps necessary for both mental and physical healing, though he can't force healing on anyone.

How do you do your research/are you a shaman?

I'm not a shaman, and I did my research by reading books about shamanism and shamanic cultures literally all over the world. It was fascinating, because there are elements that really are very similar from one end of the world to the other, from the Australian aboriginals to Native Americans, from South America to Mongolia. So after reading all these books, I started taking bits that I liked and working them together into a magic system of my own. I don't claim it's "real" shamanism, but then, that's why I'm writing fiction!

(Fortunately, before I left, Dad said, "Don't be afraid to say the same things over and over," and while I don't think I would've been anyway, that reminder was certainly helpful.)

There were also some of the, "How'd you get to be a writer," kinds of questions, and she asked if I thought there were more readers today than there were, say, ten years ago. I said that thanks to a wonderful fellow named Harry Potter I certainly thought there were more fantasy readers than there'd been ten years ago, and bless him for bringing so many new readers into the genre. I got that kind of question more than once, in fact, and I thought it was pretty cool to kind of be able to talk about the state of the industry a little.

Oh, and also, "What should people do if they want to get where you are?" questions. And, y'know, I quoted Yoda again: there is no try, only do. The hardest part is developing the discipline to sit down and *write*.

...which reminds me that I don't think I posted the discipline essay on cemurphy.net before I left. I'm going to have to do that when I get home (I'm on the airplane right now).

God, it was all so much fun. I remember that the Minnesota guy didn't say so in so many words, but fantasy wasn't really his genre. He thought I'd put together an "interesting story", which is kind of what Ted's grandmother said, too. Polite way of saying not my cup of tea. :) However, he said that off the air, and on the air he said all the right sorts of things, and because I know eight zillion people in the MN area I was able to say if you wanted to buy at local bookstores, Dreamhaven and Uncle Edgar's (I really shoulda said Uncle Hugo's, but my brain went flat) would definitely carry the book, so that was kind of nice. That's something else I need to do--email Uncle Hugo's and offer to send bookplates.

By the time I was done I was 'zhausted. I ate some breakfast and took a two hour nap, interrupted by cell phone callsin the early part of it, then met Christine for lunch and got to reiterate how things had gone. :) Then Susan whose last name I didn't get, our media escort, arrived, and more or less the first thing she said to me was, "Don't tell me how it ends!" *laugh* She said one of the great things about being a media escort was that it made her read books that she probably never ever would have read otherwise (including URBAN SHAMAN) and she was *thoroughly* enjoying the book, so she was awfully glad to have been made to read it. :)

Susan was completely awesome. It turned out she'd lived in Anchorage for several years, so we talked and talked and *talked* about Alaska (poor Christine!), and just yammered on about all sorts of things. The drive out to Tacoma didn't take as long as anybody expected it to, so we arrived ahead of schedule and as we were getting out of the car they told me that I was *really* going to have to work on my diva author attitude, because I was *much* too friendly and laughing way too much. *laugh* So for the rest of the afternoon I kept saying, "Oops, I shouldn't have said thank you, right?" and stuff like that. *laugh*

They told me stories about other authors, including one woman who'd been set up with a media escort that Christine had used before, and the escort called Christine and said, "So what is *with* this woman?" Christine said, "What, is she a bitch?" and the escort said, "No, she's *mute*!" Apparently the escort had shown up, done her spiel, introduced herself, all of that, and the woman hadn't said a word. Not a word in the car, not a word at the station, nothing, until the on-air light came on, and then for 25 minutes she was the most charming, vivacious person you'd ever seen. The on-air light went off, and she went mute again. And, I mean, they weren't naming names or anything, but I was thinking: don't you realize these people *talk* to one another? Very strange! Very strange indeed!

Of course, Seattle's often the last or one of the last stops on an author tour, so people are tired out, but still, an "I don't feel much like talking," just seems so much nicer than not talking at all...!

At the Redmond Town Center, the manager at the Borders we stopped at had left me a *fan letter* in the pile of books she'd set out for me to sign. She said she was off shift by the time I'd be there, but she'd read the first chapter during her break and that she absolutely loved the voice and the protagonist and that she couldn't wait to finish reading the book! *falls right over*! And Christine said she'd never seen that happen before! *falls over some more*! Isn't that *cool*!?

And finally we went to the University Bookstore, which--let me take a moment to do a very happy dance about that indeed. Two years ago at Writer's Weekend, there was talk from people from the University Bookstore saying they wouldn't be carrying the Luna line, because it was a Harlequin imprint and they Didn't Carry Romance. Even though the Luna line is a fantasy imprint, they weren't going there--it was Harlequin and Therefore It Was Romance. So the fact that they *are* carrying them makes me *very* pleased indeed. I was thrilled beyond belief to have it in my lineup of stores for stock signings. (So was Christine, who'd been sending authors there for years but had never been there herself!)

So we got there and we found Duane, who is the SF/F guy. Duan is a very tall man indeed, whose height does nothing at all to make him imposing because he has that particularly self-effacing manner that is found in many shy geeky types. He was somewhat embarrassed, because there were only three copies of the book on the shelves (table, actually; it had a table display), "But," he said, "there were five here earlier today!" I assured him that it really was okay if there were only three copies on the shelves because the rest had sold. :)

He actually brought us up into the stock room while he collected the rest of the books they had in the store, which was pretty cool! None of us had ever been in a bookstore stock room, so it was like seeing the Inner Sanctum. They had about five more copies of the book there, and he said he had five or eight on order for the booksigning at Writer's Weekend on Saturday, and did I think 15 or so books would be enough? ("How many of your friends are going to be there?") I said I thought it'd probably be enough, and sat down to sign the books while he asked a bunch of questions, many of which Christine didn't know the answers to.

Fortunately, I *did* know the answers--he was asking about when the Luna titles would be coming out in mass market paperback, and ... other things I don't remember right now, and I was able to tell him the four that were coming out this summer and the strategy that I understand Luna to be taking with what books they're releasing in mmpb first, so on and so forth, and Christine's sitting there in amazement while I'm answering and she finally said, "I need to be on whatever email list *you're* on!", which I thought was pretty funny. :) (that was a very long sentence.) But afterward Christine was quite pleased, because it was her opinion that *I* was the one who needed to make the connection with the bookseller, and since I was the one who actually knew all the answers and was carrying on the conversation with him pretty much by myself, she rather thought that had happened. :)

So I got the books signed and they got put out on the table, and I told Duane I looked forward to seeing him at the conference that weekend, and we took our leave. Susan asked if it'd be okay if we picked up her husband (I *must* have been nice--I thought the idea of her asking that of some of the other authors she'd talked about was just Right Out) so they could catch a movie at the Seattle International Film Festival that was going on. We went by their house (she apologized for it being such a mess. Christine and I were gaping around at it and saying, "Would you please come to *our* houses and mess them up?" *Beautiful* house, and if that was a mess, then when it's clean then it'd probably be too rarified for me to breathe in there!), we got her husband, and we headed downtown again, where she admitted the real reason she'd wanted to get her husband early (I cannot remember his name right now, darn it) was because the Alexis had cocktails and hor d'ouerves for $15 and she could park for free 'cause she was with me! *laugh*! "This is what it's like to be used for your fame!" she said to me. I told her I thought I could live with that. *laugh* Actually, she asked if I minded if she took advantage, and I was like, "Er, no, it's not exactly any skin off my back!" So that was funny. *laugh* I met good people on this trip!

I went up to the hotel room and called Ted and Mom and Dad and told them all about my day before dinner, and when I met up with Christine she said she'd taken a nap, which I said was probably much more sensible than having spent the hour and something on the phone. She said, "No, no, that's just what you should have done, telling everybody about your rock star day!"

And that's exactly what it was. *beam* A rock star day. I loved it. *beams more*

I have got like 204 swollen tastebuds and a bitten lower lip that's going to turn into a canker sore. This has nothing to do with the Wednesday writeup. I'm just sniveling about them, because they really hurt.

...

The first interview Wednesday morning ran short, I'm pretty sure. I remember this largely because it didn't seem quite worth getting up at 3 in the morning for (although at least it was 3, and not 2:30!) because it'd run short. But that's ok. The second one, which was the long one (42 minutes!) went *really* well. The guy, Ron, had read the book (I think 7 of the 11 had, actually, which made me really happy) and he had about a million good questions. He asked about shamanism and he asked if I'd ever done any shamanic questing and he asked about the writing process and he asked about Coyote and about the website--he's web-savvy and they do a streaming broadcast of their station, so I got to hit the whole website thing like three times during that interview, which was great. He was very laid back, a real Southern gentleman, and the interview just flowed really nicely. I wish particularly that that one'd been recorded, but I doubt it was. I'm going to find out, though, just in case. He invited me back, as did several of the others, in fact. Yay!

Then the third one on Wednesday was the one with the guy who was a sf/f reader, so that was actually really kind of exciting, because he knew the genre and *he* was all excited about the book, because he said he'd never read anything like it before, and he really got drawn into the character as she discovered her own powers, which was just *exactly* what I was hoping for, so wow, what a great response to get, just as a writer. He was all enthusiastic and very, very hopeful about the prospect of Luna sending him the next books and me coming back to talk more, because he was way into it all. *grin* So that pretty much rocked. :)

And because we'd been so efficient on Tuesday and done all the stock signings, I ended up with the entire afternoon free. Aunt Kathy came and picked me up and we drove out to Redmond to see Grandma and Aunt Mabel and took them to lunch, which was just a completely wonderful way to spend the afternoon. Grandma was very excited over the book (I'd brought her a copy, signed to her, and when Mabel read her the dedication I'd written to her she just beamed for about five minutes straight), and Kathy kept accosting random strangers (our waitresses, for example) and telling them that her niece had written this book! *laugh* We spent a good couple of hours with them, which just made me tremendously happy, and then Kathy and I drove back down into the city. It was really the first time she and I had ever spent any one-on-one time together, and we had a great time. Just lots and lots of fun. It's good to see family.

Know what I like about flying, I asked suddenly and randomly? I like that the sun is always shining above the clouds. :)

I caught Christine on her way out--she was flying back to New York on Wednesday night--and I *didn't get a picture* of us together, argh! (Clearly, we will have to do this again soon!) But man, it was neat to meet her and just to be part of this whole promotional thing. It'd all gone so well. :) Then I went out to dinner, went to B&N and discovered the book was sold out (say it with me: OH DARN!) and went home and fell into bed.

I have now written like 4000 words worth of writeup and I've only made it halfway through the week. Ai! But the plane's starting to descend and I'm tired of typing, so I think I'll leave the rest of it for a little later. It's what, the 12th? 18 days until FIREBIRD DECEPTION is due. I better get this writeup done tonight if I want to get it done at all.

I'd been going to write an entry about how BLOODY FANTASTIC the last two days have been, but evidently this Kinko's is closing, so apparently I'm not going to do that, after all.

In summary, the last two days have been BLOODY FANTASTIC! :)

K, gonna go check into the other hotel now. I imagine I won't be posting as much, 'cause I doubt they've got free internet service. But hey, hope springs eternal. :)

*zoom*

The last interview this morning went well. It'll be aired early tomorrow morning, apparently, but best of all, I had time to talk to the guy for a few minutes before and after the actual interview, and he said he could very easily send me a copy of it, so I'll have at least *that* interview to post on cemurphy.net when I get home next week. There are at least 3 others that were taped, so I'm going to ask my PR people if I can get copies of those ones, too, and if I'm really lucky some of the others will have been taped as well. Probably not, but hope springs eternal! :)

I'm halfway through reading Gail's THE COMPASS ROSE, and I'm enjoying it. Reading is so nice...

I had dinner, then because it'd stopped raining, decided to go ahead and walk up to the B&N that I knew was on Pine & 7th because the nice concierge told me so (actually, I knew it was on Pike & 7th, but it turned out my knowing was a little wrong) to see if they had any copies of URBAN SHAMAN for me to sign. I went and looked at the new fiction, then looked in the SF section, then thought to check the new books in the SF section, where Annie Kelleher's SILVER'S BANE was, but no URBAN SHAMAN. Because somebody'd found it in mystery at a B&N, I checked there too. No luck.

So went I to the customer service desk and said I, "Do you have any copies of URBAN SHAMAN by C.E. Murphy?" And the nice lady behind the counter looked it up and said, "No, I'm sorry, it looks like we've SOLD OUT. (emphasis may be mine) Would you like me to order you a copy?"

I said, "No, actually, I *am* C.E. Murphy," and she did a very credible ! face, and I went on to say I'd been going to offer to sign copies if they had any in the store. She said they'd had five copies, and they'd ordered six more.

*beam*

Tomorrow I shall go to the downtown Borders (blast it, I just looked it up on the internet and I could've gone by there very easily on my way back from B&N, had I known where it was) and see if they've got any copies. Elliott Bay Books didn't, but they didn't look like they had any Luna books at all. Hrmph.

Am I the only person who thinks being hit on by cheerful drunks on the street is funny? I was on the way back to the hotel and a guy whose voice sounded like he'd been gargling glass called, "I'll try real hard to be home tonight, honey, you know I will. Just give me the address and I'll be there!" I thought it was funny. :) And one of the guys with him said, "At least the phone number..." *laugh*

Arright, I'm off to bed now, not because I have to get up early (because I DON'T, thank GOD), but because I got up early today and I'm tiiiired.

*zoom*

Tonight I'll probably have more time to sit down and write up more cohesive thoughts about the interviews and whatnot, but for the moment I've just staggered back out of bed and I'm trundling off to do family things in not very many minutes here. (Yay!) An amusing highlight from yesterday morning, though:

Got done with interviews at about 8:15 and wobbled around getting ready to take a nap. Collapsed into bed.

Two minutes later, the phone rang. It was one of the PR people, calling to check up on me, to make sure everything had gone well, and that I was happy. I assured her everything had gone well and that I was happy. Fell back into bed.

Two minutes later, the phone rang. It was another of the PR people, calling to check up on me, to make sure everything had gone well, and that I was happy. I assured him everything had gone well and that I was happy. Fell back into bed.

Two minutes later, the phone rang! I said, "Jesus, Mary and Joseph," answered the phone, and you guessed it: It was yet another of the PR people, calling to check up on me, to make sure everything had gone well, and that I was happy. I said, "You're the third person to call and ask me that in the last ten minutes," and then assured her everything had gone well and that I was happy.

Then I sat around for ten minutes, eyeing the phone suspiciously, but nobody else called. I went back to bed. :)

(This morning, the PR person--a *fourth* one, mind you--called before I'd managed to get back to bed, mostly because I figured I'd wait this time and have some breakfast while I waited for the phone to ring. And then it took a whole twenty minutes for another (though one of the same ones as yesterday) PR person to call after I'd gone back to bed, and then the third call was from a family member, ten minutes after that. *laugh*)

This morning's first two interviews were great. Apparently the first one was webcast, but I didn't know that until I was on the phone, so I couldn't post about it. I'll try to find out if they've got any kind of archives. Anyway, it was the one in South Carolina, and the host was all laid back and had lots and lots of good questions, and I talked more about shamanism than I expected, but fortunately I've read rather a lot about it, so I was pretty well prepared for that. :) It was lots and lots of fun. He'd read the book and enjoyed it (yay!) and it just went really well.

Then the second one got moved back half an hour and was another of the "someone other than the scheduled interviewer", so the guy hadn't read the book but had read at least the press material and he had LOTS of questions because he thought it sounded interesting but since he hadn't read it he didn't know anything *about* it, really, and I talked more about shamanism there, too, and really, I thought they both went really well.

One more in 40 minutes, and then I get to take a nap. We did all the stock signings yesterday (how efficient of us!) so today's schedule is actually totally empty after this last interview. Sleep goooood.

Oh! But I've got another interview scheduled for tomorrow morning that only just got set up. It's an Oklahoma interview, so maybe Russ can listen in. I'll get the station call letters and setting later this morning. :)

Food now.

Ok, that was fun. :) Irene, the New Orleans interviewer, had read the book and was very enthusiastic about it (yay!) and delighted to hear there are going to be more books in the series. *laugh* She asked some good questions about how I got started writing and how the idea for the book came about and that kind of thing, and said her daughter was disappointed to not be there 'cause she'd read it too, so it was all around a lot of fun. :)

Then the second call, to Wichita Falls, the guy I'd been scheduled with was no longer with the station (!) and so the woman I interviewed with didn't even know I was going to call, I think, but we winged it and it went pretty well. I told her a few key things about the book before we went on the air, and she ran with it very nicely. So that was fun, too, if not quite what was expected. :)

Next interview in 30 minutes. This is fun. :)

First interview this morning didn't go quite as well as last night's Anchorage interview, which I thought went quite well. The station this morning double-booked, so I ended up with only about 5 minutes, which I'm not exactly sure was worth getting up at 2:30 in the morning for. OTOH, it was five minutes of exposure I wouldn't have otherwise had, and it was right at the end of their hour, so people tuning in for the next segment might've caught it, so that's cool.

Last night's interview was fun. Jack Frost had clearly read at least several chapters of URBAN SHAMAN, and because he was in Alaska he didn't ask me any questions about it. :)

I thought I might be able to talk myself into sluffing around and doing the interviews in sweat pants and a t-shirt, but it was not to be. One has to be mentally prepared, and part of that is the costuming. So it's going on 5 in the morning and I look like a million dollars, if I do say so myself. Pity nobody else can see me. :)

Airplane yesterday was successful in that I both upgraded to first class (yay!) and got a couple thousand words written. Yay!

And dinner last night with Christine from Harlequin's PR was a blast. She's very cool and a lot of fun, so we hung out and ate and then I even got to bed at a reasonable hour. Which equates to about four and a half or five hours of sleep. Woke up around 1:45 and didn't *really* go back to sleep after that. Didn't want to oversleep. Hate that.

Ok. Going back to the room to call New Orleans.

ytd wordcount: 124,000

Made it to Seattle safe and sound. Almost immediately managed to convince my laptop that it had no wireless card, so I'm in their computer lab where I can't do useful things like send a file to somebody, dang nib it. Interview in half an hour, then dinner and bed. I suspect I'm going to go try to bring the wireless card back to life (it's saying it's not installed, now. sigh.) and see if I can't get it to connect.

Anyway! Here I am! :)

I got permission to post the Otherworlds material I wrote for the LUNA site on my own webpage, 'cause the LUNA site is down. Check it out over at cemurphy.net. :)

All right. Now to finish packing, to make lunch, to get dressed, to go to the post office, to get on the plane.

Ai.

Copy edits and revisions done. DONE. *DONE*. I think I'll mail them instead of faxing them, just because the ms is double-sided and my fax machine isn't that smart. It'll be easier to mail them.

Not really panicking, despite the earlier assertion. I don't have time to panic. I'm just being incredibly methodical, at this point. People keep asking if I'm excited about the radio tour, and no, right now, I'm not. I expect when it's showtime I will be, but right now it's just the next thing on my list of things to do (except the stuff I intend to do on the airplane tomorrow, which may just be READING), because if I start getting all excited and antsy I'm going to forget something else important that I need to do.

Hey, those of you in Anchorage, don't forget I've got a radio interview at 5pm tomorrow on KUDO-AM, 1080 on your dial. Tune in if you can!

Ok. Going to finish packing now, and then to sleep. Gotta get up relatively early to get all this stuff off.

miles to Rauros Falls: 269.5

thinks to do today:

1. pack
2. wire Little up
3. finish CR revisions
4. SEND CR revisions
5. laundry
6. coffee with jai
7. notify everyone that the way to email me is mizkit73 AT yahoo DOT com for the next 7 days (consider yourselves notified)
8. transfer Mysterious Project files to Little
9. transfer FD files to Little
10. test Little's wireless
11. respond to Matrice's BC comments
12. do anything I've forgotten

I'm about to start panicking. I feel quite convinced of it.

miles to Hobbiton: 173.6

My, that was easy. One stet in 80K. Copy edits are done, now to deal with the revisions, which I think are actually going to be pretty minor. I figure it'll take two or three passes to do them properly (by which time I'll never want to look at the book again), but then they'll be done and I'll be able to send them *before* I go to Seattle, which would be awfully good.

*Man* it's gorgeous out there. Chanti and I walked three miles (at about 2.5 miles she looked at me like, "Aren't we home yet?") and I can't wait to go biking this afternoon. Yay!

Ok, some kind of lunch thing, then a revisions pass. *scoot*

miles to Rauros Falls: 264.5

V. seepy this morning. Got up to make Ted's lunch and have gotten some copy edits done so far (about 100 pages total--I *did* get 50 pages done last night, go me!), and it's a very light copy edit. I've fixed a couple things, including a bit that Trip pointed out that I really should have known better about, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to want to go back through and do some clarification stuff, and there's some bits Matrice asked me to work in that I'll do my best to, but I think if I don't dilly-dally I should get this done this weekend. Yay!

Once more, having come back to the manuscript after not looking at it for several weeks, I find myself thinking, "Huh, this is pretty good." Ted, as usual, laughed at me when I said as much. :)

Ok, goal for the morning: get through the first pass of copy edits so I can go for a walk. Goal for the afternoon: get through 1/2 a manuscript's worth of revisiony things so I can GO BIKING. It's SO BEAUTIFUL out!

'k, back to the grindstone.

Nearly my entire family who are in Alaska were at our house tonight for a book/birthday/general celebration. Unka Packy and my cousin Moira Bu were up from Kenai, the latter of whom I didn't expect and whom I hadn't seen since she had her babies, the oldest of whom is THREE! and the youngest is like 18 months. So it was lots of fun to see them and meet the boys. And Aunt Eileen and Uncle Pete came out from the Valley, and so did my cousin Erik and his wife Janelle, and my parents came over, and so did our gaming group, so we had quite the full house! It was very noisy. :)

*yawn* And I did (exactly) 50 pages of copy edits, so I don't feel like a total slacker, and I bought two new pairs of shoes which are pretty cute and which will certainly do for interview things. So that's good.

I have eaten enormous amounts of junk food, and I am gratefully done with sugar for the next 40 days. So Mote It Be.

Thinks to do today:

1. make cheesecake
2. go to chiro
3. do 50 pages of copy edits

I have to make with the small steps today, or it'll be TRIBBLES EVERYWHERE!

(It would be Kitlings, but frankly, Kitlings don't have the panic-stricken mode that I'm associating with electrocuted tribbles. Nothing intimidates Kitlings. Nothing.)

(I really need somebody to do a page full of Kitlings for me, someday.)

I feel like an electrocuted tribble. I feel like I've gone *PFFFT* with all my hairs on end and now I'm just sitting here all O.O waiting to figure out what to do next.

I don't feel like I've *done* anything today, but in fact I've spent the entire day doing PR things. What I have not spent the day doing is working on my copy edits, which is what "doing something" would be.

Thank *God* I at least went for a two mile walk with the dog. That helped, some.

*PFFFFT*!

miles to Rauros Falls: 261.5

And last but not least (busy posting morning), I will be in Seattle June 9-11 to visit family and friends. Saturday is booked, but if you're in Seattle and would like to hook up with me on Thursday or Friday, please drop me an email at catie AT cemurphy DOT net with a subject line of Seattle (so if my spam filter catches it, I can catch it back), and I will do my best to arrange visitation rights!

Whew.

URBAN SHAMAN radio interview itinerary (all times are Pacific Time):

Monday, June 6

6 p.m.
KUDO-AM
Anchorage, AK
Host: Jack Frost
Show: "Frost & Friends"
*Live interview
Length: 15 minutes

Tuesday, June 7

4:36 a.m.
WBHP-AM and WHOS-FM
Huntsville, AL
Hosts: Toni and Gary
Show: "Toni and Gary Live"
*Live interview
Length: 18 minutes

6:05 a.m.
KWCL-FM
New Orleans, LA
Host: Irene
Show: "Mighty Mess"
*Live interview
Length: 20 minutes

6:25 a.m.
KEYB-FM/AM
Wichita Falls, TX
Host: Jerry
Show: "KEYB Morning Show"
*Live interview
Length: 10 minutes

7:10 a.m.
KWLM-AM
Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN
Host: Bill
Show: "Bill Dean in the Morning"
*Live interview
Length: 20 minutes

9 a.m.
KSMA-AM
Santa Barbara
Host: Doug & Hoot
Show: "First News"
*Live interview
Length: 15 minutes

9:20 a.m.
FOX News Radio
National Radio Network
Host: Dave Dee
Show: News
*Taped interview
Length: 10 minutes

Wednesday, June 8

4:48 a.m.
WLMA-AM
Greenville, SC
Host: Ron
Show: "The Morning Mayor"
*Live interview
Length: 42 minutes

6 a.m.
WFAD-AM
Plattsburgh, NY
Host: Jerry
Show: "WFAD Morning Show"
*Live Interview
Length: 25 minutes

7 a.m.
KJFF-AM
St. Louis, MO
Host: Jimmy Taylor
*Live Interview
Length: 10 minutes

Seattle stock-signing schedule:

Tuesday, June 7

2:30 p.m.
Stock Signing:
Borders
2508 S. 38th Street
Tacoma, WA 98409

4 p.m.
Stock Signing:
B. Dalton
401 N E North Gate Way
Seattle, WA 98125

5pm
Stock Signing:
University Bookstore
4326 University Way NE
Seattle, WA 98105

Wednesday, June 8

2pm
Stock Signing:
Borders
Redmond Town Center
16549 N E 74th
Redmond, WA 98052

3:30 p.m.
Stock Signing:
Barnes & Noble
2675 N E University Village Street
Seattle, WA 98109

I had a very, very nice birthday. My boys got me some sapphire earrings and Phantom and a gift certificate to the comic shop, and my mumbly and dadbly got me the first season of La Femme Nikita, which I've wanted for years, and Shaun's mumbly and dadbly got me a B&N gift certificate and Ted's mumbly and dadbly got me a *gorgeous* flower bouquet, and Deirdre got the copy of the book that I sent her and laughed so hard she cried at page 75. :)

Mom made roast chicken and we all got together for dinner and it was deeelicious and I made a german chocolate cake and it was deeeelicious and I really got nothing practical done all day, but I had a very good time.

I also got the copy edits on CARDINAL RULE, and I expect another copy of the ms today with Matrice's notes copied more legibly, so I know what I'll be doing for the next three or four days.

I also now know what I'll be doing in Seattle. I'll post that in the next entry. :)

I hear it's your birthday!
It's my birthday too!

I'm not a real introspective birthday sort of person, but I gotta say, in the last year, I've lost thirty pounds (which has positively impacted my allergies, of all things), gotten a book on the shelves with two more due out this year, and next week I'm going to Seattle for a nationally publicized radio tour to promote my book.

It's a *good* life. :)

miles to Rauros Falls: 259.5