First Cup of Coffee - October 30, 2018

Lots of chatty updates today on THE DRAGONS OF SUMMER, Twinstar, Sorcerous Moons, and release day for BARBAROUS, by Minerva Spencer. A bit about Saturday night's party, pic of costumes attached. The Scaper is my collaborator on Twinstar, Jim Sorenson. Some info on my travel to Dublin, Ireland, for WorldCon in August 2019. Also, I ask for some recommendations on Ireland travel and books and movies with cool strategy stuff. 

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Good morning everyone. Today is October 30th. And it is nine in the morning. I've moved up my timeline some. Still got a little distracted this morning working on some cephwa stuff, but kept it more contained. Good for me. But I'm still putting together my London fog here. Pilar mentioned that she's gone to drinking Earl Grey. I think she commented on my Facebook post about it. Um asking about my stomach. And I don't know what I did. You know, I think I just got it out of balance at some point. Probably at WorldCon. I don't know. You know, maybe too much alcohol. Maybe I picked up some kind of you know, you pick up bugs from eating in restaurants and that kind of thing. You never know what the, you know, the various kitchen workers and uh excuse me, for a sip. Slipped it more than I might take, but that's good. Um you know, there's all sorts of stuff that goes around and you don't realize that you've gotten hit with it because most of the time we have pretty good uh uh immune systems, you know, and they they knock it back so you don't actually get sick. So you notice it in these little minor side symptoms like a burning stomach that becomes sensitive to spicy food and alcohol. Um, you know, H. pylori is that bacterium that has been considered is almost certainly the cause of most ulcers. Uh my husband had it, and they gave him an antibiotic for the um bacterium, and that helped immensely. But his stomach still will go off sometimes. Um, and it once he gets it off balance, then it's off balance and very difficult to recover. So, yeah, drinking um eating and drinking essentially bland stuff, stuff that's not too acidic or too alkaline is the way to go. And yeah, so I'm actually fine now. I had uh a couple of lattes on Saturday at Clafoodis, which are they're great because they bring them to you in basically a cereal bowl. I don't know why I love that, but I love that I can sort of cop them in my hands and hold them. Uh there's just something very comforting about that. So and and it didn't hurt my stomach. Oh, sorry. That's my uh little footstool next to my chair. And there's a bunch of things piled up here. I'm not sure why. I want to blame David, but I probably did it and don't remember when I was rummaging for stuff as one does, and you're short-sighted in the moment. That's uh not easy to move this little footstool. It's uh an old wooden U-shaped chair that belonged to uh my aunt. And uh yeah, it's it's a really neat thing, but it does not have uh uh gliders. Okay, so hold yours. Okay. I'm sitting in my office chair today because it's only 50 degrees out and it's kind of breezy. We have a storm coming in. Um, I don't sit in this chair very often. When I first became a full-time writer, or when I had fantasies of being a full-time writer, that's probably more accurate. I had this idea of how my days would go. You know how you do that, right? You have this sort of very romantic idea of um, I don't know, I I have this theory that a lot of this stuff comes from us being raised with movies. Um, so we see the sort of like the movie montage version of being a writer, right? Where you know you're sort of in your sunlit studio um with bouts of furious writing and then wandering around looking pensive and then curling up in your chair and reading some book. Um so yeah, I had this idea that I would like to write for hours and that I would then curl up in my chair and read for hours. And the reality is that I very rarely sit in this chair. Although podcasting's changing that, so that's good. And I do like having it here, it's a very comfortable chair. Um I am going to have to set in to some reading because I think tomorrow I am going to start in on book five of Sorcerer's Moons. Hey, finally. So I've been rereading the books. I have not touched those books since January of 2017. Uh so we're coming up on two years since I've touched that series, and I'm sorry, you guys. I don't know where the time has gone. Uh I never intended it to be this long. But only so many hours in the day, right? So it's interesting going back and reading these books in this whole series I haven't been thinking about at all. So I don't know. I'm I'm not sure if I'm ready to start writing yet. I might have to spend a couple days reading, which sounds nice, right? I'll sit in my office chair and read and get up and make notes on the computer that would fit my fantasy writer montage. Um but yeah, so yesterday I worked on uh Dragons of Summer. I did some revising on that. I'm still cutting stuff out of the beginning. I some of my crit partners gave me feedback on things I could cut out of the beginning. So I cut quite a bit out, and then I was sort of saving it today for today for me to reread and look at it fresh and see uh see I'm I'm just it's it's hard for me to tell. It's um it's one of those things about being an author where you know all of the stuff behind the words, and being able to see what's actually on the page is difficult. Uh and I remember when I was um a newbie querying writer, you know, and they would give that advice, that terrible, terrible advice of uh you know, only send out your best work and only send out a book when it's done. Um and it's awful advice because it's entirely from the point of view of the agent or editor. Uh as a writer, you don't know when it's done. You don't know when it's your best work. Um every once in a while I meet someone who does know. Kelly Robson's always telling me she'd say, Well, this is my best story. I don't know how she knows. So that's kind of the challenge with this is uh if there's new readers, I want to make sure that they're grounded, but uh you know, it also bugs the story down. So I'm gonna reread that this morning, add in a couple of other tweaks, but I think I'll be done with that in like an hour if all goes well, unless unless this first chapter is terrible. Wish me luck. Um, I really need somebody who's uh hasn't read any of my Twelve Kingdoms Uncharted Realms books or Chronicles of Desneria to at least read the opening and tell me if they're completely lost or what. I might not get that. Uh and then I'm going to work a bit more on Twin Star, the collaboration. Uh Jim went through and uh liked what I did with the first chapter. Or if he didn't like it, he agrees with it. And we did some tweaks. So I think I'm gonna write another chapter on that and send it to Agent Sarah for a litmus test. Um, see what she thinks before we go any farther. And then tomorrow I'll start in on Sorcerer's Moons. I need to look at my notes and all of those things. And then I should be able to concentrate on that for uh the next two months. I'm hoping to spend November and December just working on Sorcerer's Moons. And I am going to try to write books five and six and get them done. Um after that, after Christmas, I'm planning to take a week off and just vegetate and hibernate and marinate all of these eights. Uh, and I'm going to start writing the sequel to the Orchid Throne, which I know almost none of you have read yet. And I think I need to really immerse myself in some good battle strategy things. Uh, either books or movies. And I think um if it's gonna be nonfiction, it needs to be not really dry nonfiction, because I hate reading basic war stuff. I'm not really into war stuff. But if you guys have recommendations for something to watch, and I'm thinking like one example would be Master and Commander, uh, which I mentioned yesterday too, so it must be on my mind. Um, I really liked that movie. And no, I haven't read any of the books, and I'm not sure I want to, so think carefully before you recommend, because I really don't like reading boy stuff or relentlessly boy stuff. And if I'm gonna read war strategy, I might not have a choice. But um I liked Master and Commander, even though it is Relentlessly Boy. I think there's like one female character in the entire movie, or maybe two. There's like the Queen and then someone else. I can't even think of who it is, right? It's really all about the men on the ships. Uh, but I liked that for the strategy, and that's the kind of thing I'm looking for. I want strategy stuff. I want troop movement stuff, um, but preferably in an interesting dramatic light. I'm not sure if I'm explaining what I'm looking for, but um, offer recommendations and I I'm going to start making a list and just spend a week or so saturating myself with that. Um so what else? Yes, um, my mother's annoyed that I didn't mention that I went to a party on Saturday night. I didn't mention it because I didn't think you guys would care. Um, but it was a fun party. Um and the decorations were spectacular, and I posted photos of it. There's really not much to tell. It was neat because they have a nice spread, and so they had a lot of outdoor spaces and a lot of cool cauldrons and campfires, and hung out and had some good conversations with a lot of people. Uh I talked to Melinda Snodgrass about her series that began with um the higher ground. And I really loved that first book, and I need to catch up with the next two. I guess the third is coming out uh in November. And um yeah, I would uh it's it I would love to have more readers for that series because it's an amazing series. And then I also so that's it on the party. I don't know what else I was supposed to say about the party. Uh I was happy with how my costume turned out. I'll put that picture on the blog post today. Or on the podcast. Both, both and. Um and so then yesterday morning, the other thing that I got kind of distracted doing was getting for ready for WorldCon in Dublin. Uh, because my assistant Corine lives in the Netherlands. She and I often interface in my morning because that is her afternoon. So she had sent me a message and saying, and I'd been hearing this from other people, that uh the hotels in Dublin are apparently super expensive and that Airbnb is the way to go. And she asked, because I'm planning on bringing David with me. We've never been to Ireland. Uh and both of us, our families pretty much come from there. I'm Irish and Scott. He's more Irish than French. But uh she asked if David and I already had plans or if we wanted to share a place with her. And so I said, that'd be great. You know, I would love to share those costs. And she offered to do the searching because she's more familiar with Europe and with Dublin and so forth. Actually, I don't know if she's actually familiar with Dublin, but I felt like she had the time and the enthusiasm. And I'd looked once before and I was completely overwhelmed. I felt like it was a a lot of stuff to take in. So she found this great cottage that's perfect for three people, two bedrooms, one of them with a big bed, and the other one with like a single bed. So great for the three of us. And so we put in for that and we got it. So now we are set for a place to stay for a week in Dublin. And I did my WorldCon membership, so I am not irrevocably committed, but more or less committed now. My eyes are watering, and now I've dropped uh I dropped my contact ones. I guess I'd better pause and find that. Hang on. Alright. I think it's funny. Didn't it? Did you think it was funny that I told you to hold on like we're on the phone? But all I did was hit the pause button. I do like this voice recorder app. It's uh much better. So for those of you interested in such a thing, it's um definitely well worth the money. I think the sound was better too. Although that's it's hard to tell if that's the phone or what. So anyway, so now we have Dublin for a week. Uh the cottage and the membership, and I'm gonna start looking at plane tickets in January or February. I think they'll be less expensive than um, and then we're gonna try to spend some other time in Ireland since we'll be over there. So I need to um start researching places I want to go. So if you guys have recommendations for things to see in Ireland, uh if you're listening to this podcast, you presumably know something about my taste. So uh ruins, cool ruins and uh mystical places. Uh that would be high on my list. So suggestions for those, suggestions of places to stay. Um ideally, what I'd like to do is move around to several different parts of Ireland and stay in, you know, like an inn Airbnb of some sort for a few days at a time and do day trips from that. Uh and I don't know if you have suggestions for uh inexpensive flights and so forth. You know, I'm thinking we might be best off flying into London, into Heathrow, and then uh hopping over to Ireland. Um so anyway, I'm gonna have to start running all those numbers. But yeah, definitely looking for ideas. This is going to be um a major trip for us. We have uh neither of us been to Europe. We did fly to we did go to Scotland um more about 10 years ago now. We went to Scotland and were there for a week, so uh saw we flew into um into Edinburgh and then went north from there. So would although we love that, um would like to do something different this time, see some other stuff. So let me know if you guys have thoughts on that, and I'm gonna start making a list and start compiling a map. Um I think it's going to be a major, major trip for us. So let's see, what else do I have to talk about? I thought I had some thoughts on amazingly oh, I know what I wanted to say is that today is release day for uh Barbarous by Minerva Spencer. So happy release day, Minerva. I hope it's uh a good one for you, as good as it can be. You all know I don't really care for release days. Uh she commented on my podcast yesterday saying that uh the things I talked about with getting your schedule blown out of the water was uh good advice and timely for her, what be with today, because boy, you know, there is nothing like a release day to totally screw up your writing schedule. And she has a couple of things due um on the first, so only a couple days away. Hope that you're doing well. And remember you can always ask for extensions. Jeez, you know, a lot of writers are months and months late. It won't kill anyone if you're like a week late. I know you don't want to do that, but sometimes that's what you have to do. I think that would probably be an addendum piece of advice for uh, you know, as much as you can try to preserve your schedule, sometimes things happen, and sometimes you just have to roll with it and realize that you know, well, you know, it's not it's not going to end the world. Uh we watched um The Big Lebowski last night. I had been wanting to watch that again. And damn, that's a funny movie. And there are just so many great lines in that movie. But um Jeff Bridges as the dude is uh just amazing. And apparently there's even like been a sort of quasi-religion that has formed around him in this movie and his life philosophy dudism. But you know, there's there's one point where, and it's at the end of the movie, and he says, We're not fucked. Nothing is fucked. And I thought, you know, that's actually that would be part of the dudism that I would follow. Nothing is fucked. We you know, we can still pull things together. It often feels that way. You might have something that's messed up in the moment, but things change and you can come back from that. So tomorrow is another day, right? The sun will come out tomorrow. Uh, as the Lord is my witness, I'll never go hungry again. Uh great movie lines. So happy release day, Minerva. Uh, happy Tuesday to all the rest of you. I hope you have a lovely day. And tomorrow's Halloween. So I'm hoping to see lots of costumes and so forth. And I will uh talk to you all. I'll probably talk to you tomorrow. We'll see. I might blog tomorrow, but maybe not. Maybe I'll just podcast. So thank you all for sharing my first cup with me. Bye bye.