ferragus

http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=080724

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080723.html

What created this great cliff on Mars?

I officially declare this an open questions thread. Ask me anything. I make no promises about the answers, of course. (Response times may be delayed due to travel and other events.)

Originally published at jlake.com. You can comment here or there.

Well, I’m off again at the crack of doom. Heading back to Seattle for tomorrow’s signing with Brenda Cooper at University Books. (Dinner to precede, meet at 5 pm on the corner by the book store, or call me.) I’ll work from the home of the lovely and talented on Friday, then make my way toward the Clarion West party that night before returning home to Nuevo Rancho Lake on Saturday.

Got editorial feedback on “In the Forests of the Night”. Somewhat to my amazement, the feedback was positive and quite minimal. I’ll be a lot tougher on myself in the rewrite, frankly. All good. Meanwhile, Green continues apace. This is a pretty good book, truth be told.

I’m tired as heck, and the antibiotics make my mouth taste like pennies, but otherwise I feel rather myself tonight. As usual, expect continued light blogging through Sunday.

Originally published at jlake.com. You can comment here or there.

Haven't really had a chance to post for a while.  We took the kids off to Jamaica for a family vacation at Beaches Boscobel, a great family resort I highly recommend.  We'd gone to one of the Sandals resorts in Jamaica for our honeymoon, and had wanted to go back for a long time, but kept putting it off.  With our 15th anniversary on the horizon, we decided it was time.

I won't do a detailed report, but some highlights:

- Christina spending a great deal of time with the arts and crafts director, doing tie-dye, beading t-shirts, and braiding bracelets for her girlfriends back home.  The director loved having there so much that she gave Christina a huge hug and a present when we left.

- Austin and I wandering the property late one night.  We played chess on a giant chess board, played shuffleboard and shot some pool, before wandering to the bar.  It was pretty cool watching my little boy in his Hawaiian shirt hop on a barstool, and order a "Chick Magnet".  A Chick Magnet is apparently a kid's version of a Tequila Sunrise, made with layered strawberry syrup, pineapple juice and Sprite.

- Christina and I taking the shade at the pool bar, sharing a frozen virgin margarita.  As we shared it, another dad and daughter couple swam up to the seats next to us.  Dad asked, "How's things?"  I said, "Pretty good.  It's been a long time since I bought a drink for a pretty lady at a bar."  He goggled at me, and then smiled.  "I never thought about it like that." he said, "Bartender?  We'll have what they're having."

- Austin and I playing in a volleyball tournament, and watching him go from frustrated to serving and returning balls in very short order.

- Amy soaking up the tropical sun and surf, which she loves like no other environment on Earth.

- Me crashing down a straight-drop water slide to land in a very ungraceful and fairly painful manner, to the delight of my family.  Sometimes being asked for an encore is not a good thing.

Since we've been back, we visited with my youngest brother, who was in town on business.  We've attended two Brooklyn Cyclones games, at one of which Austin won a Bionicles doorprize, and Christina got to be the PA announcer for an inning.  We also attended a birthday dinner for our dear family friend, Esther Friesner.

Now I just need to complete work on SFWA's Copyright Education Website, finish the lesson plan for my first full semester teaching the Legal Issues in Publishing course at City College of New York, and finish a short story with a looming deadline.  Once that's done, I can relax from my vacation.