Good morning, Readers!

So I have been a busy bee these past few days.  Most of it hasn't been writing related, unfortunately.  I think at the end of this year, I'm going to have to sit down, take stock and make a list of priorities.  Writing should always get priority.  It feels like, however, that everything else seems to have lapped it.  Hmph.

Still, not all of it wasn't writing related.  I did manage to finish the final editing pass on Daughters of Britain yesterday.  I had promised first look at the manuscript to a local area publisher, so that has been sent off to them.  I hope they like it!  Wish me luck!

I also did a lot of work for the Patreon page I've created for Nights at the Round Table, the discussion group that talks about books and film on YouTube.  There's much more to do there, as well as a number of administrative things related to Nights at the Round Table.  I've reserved that for today.  I imagine it would take most of today to get done.

I also have to ensure that I am prepared for Can Con 2016, Ottawa's own and always very excellent speculative fiction convention.  I have a table, and I am on many panels, and I need to get books ordered and sent to me, and it's all very stressful.  I don't have much money spare, so I'm worried that I won't have enough stock for the convention.  Hopefully it'll be alright.  Hopefully.  Everything should be ordered and on its way tomorrow.  Gah! It's stressful!

There is still so much to do!  I won't bore you with a laundry list of things I need to get done.  Instead, how about some excited.  I thought the Assassin's Creed film was scheduled for a 2017 release.  Turns out, it's been released in December.  I cannot tell you how excited I am to see this film.  It looks amazing.

It better be good.  I'm tired of mediocre film adaptions of games.

Right, I have to go and do things.  Lots of things.  Work things.

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

How busy have I been since I got back?

Answer: stupid busy.

There are so many things that I need to get done and I'm rushing around like mad to do it.  So, this is necessarily going to be a short blog post.  I have a lot of shit to get done.

Naturally, I'm procrastinating by watching YouTube.  Le sigh.

In other news, holy mackerel, have you guys watched any game play of No Man's Sky?  Er mah gerd!  It looks amazing!  That's a game I would like to play - not for YouTube as I do with other games - but just for me.  Just a couple of hours exploring the universe, interacting with aliens, discovering and cataloguing and OH MY GOD THEY HAVE ANCIENT STRUCTURES TO EXPLORE AND HOLY SHIT I WANT THIS GAME!

Ahem.  So, I shall be saving up for a PS4, just so I can play this game, since it's an exclusive.  It appeals to my anthropological heart.

And that's all I have time for folks.  I have a lot to do today, so please excuse me.

What plans have you for today?

#ArchaicSentenceStructures

Ugh.  I'm getting silly now.  I must be tired.

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

I totally forgot to schedule a post on Monday.  I'm sorry.  But I'm back!  And I'm here!  And I'm writing a blog!

To be honest, my brain is still a little bit in away mode, so this blog post is likely to be all over the place.  Sorry about that (long time readers will know that this is just my default mode.  Hush you lot.  Let the newbies find out for themselves!).

I was, of course, at When World's Collide in Calgary this weekend.  It was a fantastic convention, very well run and the hotel, the Delta Calgary South, proved to be an exceptional host.  Seriously, though.  Not only did they give convention goers a special rate for their rooms, BUT also discounted their breakfasts considerably each day.  The staff was friendly and helpful and lovely to be around.  The facility was gorgeous.  There were plenty of rooms for the panels and presentations, and the volunteers were lovely.

Oh, and the dealer's room... THE DEALER'S ROOM!

The programming was also fantastic, though I might be a little biased in thinking that I think the programming at Can-Con is far superior.  There aren't as many things on Can-Con's programming, but I often have a difficult time trying to choose which panel to attend in any given time slot.  It wasn't the same at When World's Collide. I decided to attend the technical panels at When World's Collide.  So I attended a panel that discussed the difference between Space Opera and Military Science Fiction.  I was not any the wiser about the distinction after that panel, but it was a fiercely interesting discussion.

I also took the time to learn how to pitch to Hollywood.  You know, just in case.

I can't remember what else I attended, other than the Aurora Awards banquet and ceremony, because it was all something of a blur.

But yes, the Aurora Awards banquet and ceremony... They were fun!  Julie Czerneda proved to be a fantastic Master of Ceremonies, and it was great to sit and listen to all the winners, and the people accepting on the winner's behalf.  If you want photos from the ceremony, I have compiled a photo album on my Facebook page, with the award presenters and winners.

I spent Sunday pitching.  Pitching, for the record, is painfully difficult for me.  I'm not great at selling myself.  Easier by far is it to send a book into the world and pray that it somehow finds a home.  Talking about the book is fine, but a five minute sell-fest is awful and I'm really, really bad at it.  Still, I really need the practice, so pitch I did.

Do one thing that scares you, they say.  Well, pitching TERRIFIES me, so I can check that off my list.  Repeatedly.

I flew into Calgary the day before the convention, and spent the day wandering around the downtown core of Calgary.  Calgary, you have a very beautiful city.  If you'd like to see the pictures I took from around the city, I have another photo album on my Facebook page.  I was able to also sit and read a lot, which was absolutely lovely.  I made it halfway through Reaper's Gale book seven (I think) of The Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson.  Gods I love that man's writing.  I'm so happy I was able to dig into a book that wasn't for anything but my own enjoyment.  Oh reading, I missed you.

Also worth noting, Calgary's weather was my kind of weather.  There was very little humidity and an incredibly lovely cool breeze (there were times when I needed to wrap myself up in my lovely scarf to keep warm), and enough shade to hide from the sun when necessary.

Anyway, I have a tonne of post-con work to do, so I'm off to go do it, not least of all ordering books, booking a table and that kind of stuff.

How was your weekend?

Good morning, Readers!

I am currently in the air.  Or possibly descending.  I don't know.  I'm writing this in the past.

Calgary, here I come!

There isn't much else to report, since I can't really report on anything before it happens.  That's less a report than it is a prediction.  I predict that I land okay.  I predict that I find my way to the hostel just fine.  I predict that I am probably very hungry.  I likely stopped at a Tim Horton's for some breakfast.  I predict that I really wish I had Vegemite to spread on that bagel.

I predict that I forgot to pack something and I am currently quite annoyed with myself.  I'm thinking that I will have a list of cool places to visit in Calgary, but will likely just end up in a park reading... Assuming the thing I forgot to pack wasn't a book.

I expect that I'll be looking for a cheap place to eat lunch in Calgary, and hope against hope I'll be able to find some pho.  I love pho.  I will probably have it for dinner as well... if I can find it.  I suspect I will spend considerable time 

Of course, there's no way to tell if I will be doing any of that at at all.  I'll let you know when I get back.  I predict that I will be ridiculously happy when the Amazing Flatmate arrives on Friday and then everything will be so much better because I'll have my awesome friend with me.

I'm hoping that this is going to be a blast.  I'll report on that when I get back as well.

Just a quick reminder, because of When World's Collide, I will not be able to write the next section of the Skara Braens this Friday.  For that reason, I've given last week's episode two things to vote on.  Go and read it.  And then vote.  And I'll write the next section of Skara Braens the following Friday.

Right, now I'm off to try and figure out how to get to where I'm supposed to be.

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

Guess who has a fever?

This girl!

Yay!

But seriously.  I'm so unimpressed.  I also know why it happened.  I've been very stressed about When Worlds Collide, about the amount of money I've spent and will have to spend (and whether or not I actually have that money) on it.  I've been incredibly stressed about the pitching I will be doing there, about how I'm going to feed myself while I'm there.

The idea of being in a new place surrounded by strangers is very vexing.  I know it seems stupid, particularly since there will be people I know there so I won't actually be stranded in a new land with new people, but anxiety isn't logical.

Then there's the weather.  It's been so hot I've had heat stroke this summer (a privilege that was once reserved for Australia), and then it's been cool, and then scorching again, then cooled off, and now it's back to scorching.  I cannot sleep well when it's hot, so lack of sleep has played its part.  Also playing its part is the work air-conditioning, which is set so high I am always wrapped in jumpers (sweaters for you North American folk)... and I deal with cold well.  In and out of the air-conditioning, the heat waves that come and go...

It's all worn down my immune system.

Yesterday, I got a sudden, really painful sore throat.  It only lasted for a few hours (but was really painful).  This morning, I woke up exhausted and miserable, with a fever.  Also, my lungs aren't working well.  I took the bus into work this morning because after a block of walking, I started to feel like I was breathing water.

So... this is a good time to get sick, obviously.  I'm so thrilled about it.

Anyway, I'm done complaining about my lot now.  I'm going to schedule tomorrow's blog post, make sure I have all my documents ready for the pitching session, and then try to meditate this illness away.

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

My brain is a weird place at the best of times.  When I'm stressed or anxious about something, though, it goes off the chain.

I'm anxious about heading off to Calgary in a couple of day's time.  So, naturally, my brain decided to fuck with my dreams.

In my dreams, I arrived in Calgary, and headed to the hotel.  Of course, though, I arrived a day early because I'm an idiot and don't know how calendars work (this is actually very accurate.  I will be arriving in Calgary a day early), so in my dream, I met up with Jasmine and we sat down for a bit.  In my dream, the youth hostel I'm staying in the first night was right beside the hotel that was hosting the convention, so I left my suitcase with Jasmine and went to check in.

This hotel was in a pedestrian mall. Beneath it was a fun, hip Asian fusion restaurant.  Up the stairs I went, to find a Vegas-style hotel (you know, the ones that try to make it like you're outside, when really all they've done is pain clouds on the ceiling and paved the floor), but it was absolutely deserted.  There was no one.  I went to the reception desk, and there was no one there.

I wandered deeper into this weird place.  I found a side room which was a guest computer room, but it was full of guys playing games.  I ended up walking out again, and going around the back, where I was faced with a muddy yard, with a rusted iron fence.  Television screens were dotted along that fence each displaying the face of John Malkovich.  I don't know why.

So I go back around and search some more.  Where do I check in, damn it?!  I keep searching this apparently abandoned place when I run into a couple holding hands.  They kindly point me back out to the yard with the television-strewn fence.  Apparently I need to talk to the televisions.

That's precisely what I did.  I told the John Malkovichs that I needed to check in.  Then a slender, elderly man appeared out of nowhere and said that all I needed to do was come in and claim a bed.  He'd show me where they are.  He opened the gate.

I stepped into the yard and the old man led me to a side entrance that should have had stairs, but instead it was just more dirt and rocks and grass.  It was quite steep, and washed away near the bottom, so I had to slide down before I hit the paved ground of what looked like an ordinary hall with doors at regular intervals going down each wall.

The old man needed help getting down, so I turned and offered my hand.  He took it and took a step and then the cat jumped on my bed and I woke up.

That was my dream.

My brain is weird.  I'm off to make preparations for my trip.

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

So I arrived to work this morning to an email from the organisers of Can Con.  They've sent out a very tentative schedule of panels to panellists to see if it works for us all.

I have to tell you, I'm so excited for this Can Con!  The panels looks amazing!  AND I'll be talking unarmed combat in one, which makes me really happy.  Seriously, guys, Can Con continually outdoes itself with its panels each year.  I'm super excited to be going this year.

If you haven't yet registered to come, I cannot stress enough that you are seriously missing out.  Go to the website now for all the details.  I hope to see you there.  It's going to be wonderful!

Oh, I have to tell you a funny story.  Many of you know that I game a little bit.  More now that I deliberately schedule time for it.  I'm currently playing (and recording for your viewing pleasure) Borderlands with my Kung Fu brother Jon.  Well, on the planet Pandora, there live these flying reptile thingies called Rakks.  Rakks are basically death snake bats that swarm you from the sky, often striking when you wouldn't expect.

There were a couple of times this latest gaming session with Jon (Sunday), when we got swarmed by Rakks quite unexpectedly.  There was a lot of jumping on my part.  In any case, it seemed to condition my brain to be on the lookout for these squeaking death wyrms, because I very nearly had a heart attack on the way to do groceries Sunday.

As I walked to the grocery store, a seagull did a lazy turn, catching the very edge of my vision.

I jumped and my heart stopped beating for a bit.

Because my lizard brain screamed, "Rakk!"

No.  No, it was just a seagull.  Just a seagull.

It did make for a good giggle after the fact, but I'm not sure my heart can take it too often!

Right.  I have to go do things.  How was your weekend?