Finally updating on a busy week

It’s been a long week, although highly productive. I’ve been working on new cover art for Blood Justice, edits for BLUM’s next release, and preparations for Readercon Committee meetings, all of which have been highly engrossing and time consuming.

The cover art is coming out much better this time, thanks to some very good and graciously proposed suggestions from the author, Mr. Burton. He was getting poor feedback–and so was I, and I did not like the way the cover initially came out. But his suggestions allowed a design to gel when it simply refused to, before–which has proven something of an object lesson for me in asking my authors for input on their covers. My workspace is currently cluttered with art model and anatomy books, but I’ve only had to pose with multiple mirrors once so far. *wry smile*

Blood Justice got a pre-publication review from Publishers Weekly, and I’ve already gotten the first purchase order from Brodart. I’ve been talking to Barnes & Noble about an author event for Mr. Burton–Barnes & Noble requires documentation that books are returnable, and they won’t have that until the book is set up with Baker & Taylor and Ingram, so I want to be sure and let Mr. Burton’s local B&N know as soon as the book is set up.

Edits are…edits, but they’re chugging along. In other publishing news, By Light Unseen Media is now accredited with the Better Business Bureau. All of our ebook editions finally have appeared in both the Sony Reader Store and Kobobooks.com. I have no idea what the holdup was and I have no idea why the logjam suddenly broke! We’re still not in Borders’ ebook store, however, and Borders is supposed to be getting their ebooks from Kobo, so I don’t know what the story is there. Book sales have slowed down a bit, it’s the August doldrums.

The main challenges with chairing Readercon meetings have been locating meeting spaces and setting up to conference call via Skype, since it’s much easier to find a meeting space with wi-fi or a network connection available than to find one with a free phone line to use with a speaker phone. In any event, speaker phones aren’t made for large meetings: we always had trouble with callers hearing the attendees at the meeting. I’ve been testing a set-up with my laptops, large USB omnidirectional microphone and speakers, and it should work very well. But it remains to be seen how it does in the actual meeting. I’m keeping my fingers crossed! But it doesn’t seem difficult to run conference calls on Skype, and you can conference Skype accounts and phone numbers together, which is really convenient. I have two Skype accounts (don’t ask) and three computers with Skype on them (don’t ask, seriously) so I had fun experimenting with conference-calling myself. 🙂 The big mic picked up loud and clear from 12 feet away.

There’s not much other news. It rained for four straight days last week, Sunday through Wednesday. Now the lawns are green and fluffing out, so I’ll have to mow pretty soon. The zucchini, which I’d thought were done for the summer, have three more little zucchini started on them. Alas, the weather is now forecast to be hot and dry into the foreseeable future, and the outdoor watering ban is still in effect. Earlier in the summer, I had been thinking of doing some fall plantings , like peas or spinach; but if I can’t water, there’s very little point. The second planting of garlic I put in the day the watering ban was implemented was a total waste of time. 🙁 Soon-to-be-Hurricane Earl is aimed our way but may be shunted off to sea.

I’ve been eating tomatoes, fresh basil, onions and zucchini from my garden, though, along with lots of produce from local farms. I’ve been making these chopped tomato and basil salads: dice fresh tomatoes and toss with finely chopped fresh basil, garlic and onion, add a dash of parmesan cheese, and let it stand for several hours so the flavors can steep. Wow, is that good!

I went to Dad’s on Thursday evening for the Patriots preseason game, which was kind of a downer. It wasn’t just that the Pats lost, ultimately, by one point; they just didn’t seem to be playing very well. But I took a shoe box full of spare sound cards with me and replaced the dead sound card in Dad’s computer, and connected a USB port expander that he bought at Staples, so that was fruitful.

I’m cycling to True Blood and enjoying it, and I’m amazed at how fast the turnaround is on the DVDs. I mailed the first one back and Blockbuster got it the next day! That’s important, because they send the next one in your queue on receipt of the return. I’m a bit worried, though, because no sooner have I started using Blockbuster’s rent-by-mail service than they announce they’re applying for bankruptcy! Only Chapter 11, they say they’re doing a “planned restructuring.” That plan includes closing hundreds of stores which will leave many people unemployed, which sucks. I signed up with Blockbuster and killed them! 🙁

I went to one of the local 24-hour convenience stores, White Hen Pantry, which has been here in Pepperell for as long as I can remember, and their shelves were all being emptied out. I asked if they were closing, and they told me that the whole chain has been bought by 7-11, and it’s going to be a 7-11 store. They will no longer be selling the deli food and sandwiches that, based on my observation, are very popular in town. We have a number of little places that sell subs, sandwiches and similar food, though, and they’re probably all cheering, heh. We have a new Italian/Tuscan restaurant opening on Main Street, taking over a former bank. This will be the second eatery on Main Street that occupies a former bank, because that’s what the Dunkin Donuts used to be. Interesting pattern to ponder…

Magda has been acting very odd for a couple of days now: she’s been hiding. I have no idea where, since she simply appears like a ghost without giving me a clue whence she came, then vanishes again just as mysteriously. I’ve tried searching the house for her without seeing so much as a flash of tail. She usually comes and gets all cuddly about once a day, and she hasn’t been doing that. I don’t have any idea what could have spooked her. I’ve vacuumed a couple of times, but this behavior started well after that, and the other cats are acting normal. It’s just plain weird.