Which means we’re also almost halfway through 2008, which is a sobering thought.
I heard the owls again last night. I hadn’t heard them since that first time, so I don’t know if this proves they’re nesting over there, or they were just passing through again. I have no idea what inspires owls to vocalize outside of mating/territory-establishing season. Gods, it was cool to hear them, though!
The natural world is thriving here. On Thursday, I needed to open the crawl space hatch to get out a cooler. I left the hatch open and let the cats go into the crawl space, because they can’t get outside from there and it livens up their indoor-cat boredom a bit. Cerridwen, Vincent and Giles, at least, went sniffing around in the crawl space–and within five minutes they were all right back in the kitchen. Cerridwen had caught a chipmunk–in the crawl space.
I’d noticed that we’re knee-deep in chipmunks this year, but I’m not sure what one was doing in the crawl space. For one thing, although it’s not exactly hermetically sealed, there shouldn’t be any chipmunk-sized holes to the outside. There are four small windows, two of which I need to do some repairs on before winter. But right now, they’re blocked up–or so I thought!
Cerridwen was not about to let me or anyone else get near her chipmunk, which died an agonizing death, poor little guy. She played with it until she got bored, then Giles had it, and when he got bored I finally retrieved it and tossed it outside. “You can explain to Cerridwen how you lost her chipmunk,” I told Giles.
I’ve also seen the groundhog foraging for food in broad daylight–which means she’s probably a nursing female with babies somewhere. I’m going to try and get a video of her next time.
The peonies, blackberries and poppies are all blooming away.
I spent a chunk of time yesterday revising the “sell sheet” for Mortal Touch. The author of one of the well-known and popular book marketing guides for writers and self-publishers will be using it in her next edition as an example. However, she wanted to show a one-sheet with an order form, so I adapted my sheet accordingly. But this means that my sell sheet will be seen by everyone who buys this marketing book, which is no small deal.
Today I’ve spent a chunk of time on the programming sign-up for Readercon. My program status with this year’s Readercon is more-or-less, “back-up–we hope to add you to something if possible.” But they’re sending me all the e-mails and sign-up procedures for their program, so I am dutifully going over everything and signing up and filling in the information they need. We’ll see! I’m doing the same with Pi-Con, although I am definitely on their program. And as of now, I’m planning to exhibit with IPNE at the New England Independent Booksellers Association event and the Big-E expo in central Massachusetts in September. September is going to be a crazy month.
I’ve had some very interesting queries to look at. And I just sent off my very first set of author contracts. That was just a bit scary. I worked for several days on those. Still, it was easier than sending out my first rejection letter! (Or any rejection letter. Gods, I understand why editors drink! 🙁 )