Yes, as I was walking today on the path along the east side of the clear ditch north of the Río Grande Nature Center about half a mile south of Montaño, at 4:53 PM I saw a bald eagle fly in front of me, maybe 50-100 feet up and perhaps 100 yards off. Big dark bird, white tail, white head - only one bird of I know in North America looks like that. And I just confirmed the identification with the suave Kaufman Field Guide to Birds of North America which Santa brought me for Christmas (which is to say, I foresightfully bought myself and put under the tree late Christmas Eve.)
Now, this may be No Big Deal for those in some parts of the country -
Every night after I give Emma her dinner I bring her in and play with her with her Hideous Toy, then sit with her as she chews her rawhide bone. If she’s occupying herself I read, or write, or watch TV, or get online - as I’m doing now, in fact. Squeak almost always joins in - she can’t bear to have anything going on that she’s not part of. Right this moment, as I sit on the sofa writing this, Emma lies next to me with her head by my left leg and Squeak sits on the sofa arm to my right.
TJ usually turns up as well (no sign of him yet tonight) to just hang. He mostly keeps his distance from Emma; he appears to fear that if he consents to play with her, as she’s always importuning him to do, she might squash him accidentally. Which is not a particularly ill-grounded fear.
On the whole, it’s very pleasant Quality Time with the Family.
Last night after Emma finished her with her bone I went into the bedroom for a bit. When I emerged Emma was standing between the table at the end of the sofa that runs along the living room wall and the end of the other sofa that forms a sort of informal demarcation between living room and kitchen. She looked at me hopefully.
Usually that’s a sign she wants to go outside. But she didn’t. I checked to see if she wanted to play any more. She did not - which was good, since I was tired and needed to go to bed. Nor was she out of water.
Then she went over and sat on the floor toward the other end of the sofa and stared at me imploringly. I mean, really stared. I’ve never seen her stare so intently before.
She badly wanted me to do something. Indeed, it was apparent that she was trying to psychically will me into doing … something.
When I’ve blogged about my animals it’s mostly been about Emma. I’m not sure why. Much as I love her, the cats and I are bonded much closer. We’ve got a lot more history.
Maybe that’s part of it. Tales about TJ and Squeak have tails, that reach back a dozen years. Emma’s been with us just going on four. Her stories are simpler.
Anyway, I was just sitting and going through my morning ritual of trying to get my brain to come on, always a significant undertaking. Currently it consists of doing some joint-mobilization moves and exercises, which I’d done, and then sitting on the couch drinking cocoa and reading Terry Pratchett Discworld novels.
Squeak, whose real name is Mia Antoinette, Red for Short (that’s all her name; no one’s ever called her “Red” for any reason whatsoever. See what I mean about backstory?) appeared on the back of the sofa at my left shoulder. She’s a gleaming black cat with auburn undercoat and a few stray white hairs which she’s always had, and eyes that range from amber to baleful yellow-green. She’s also a bit porky. She’s basically a black Siamese.
Anyway, she started dabbing tentatively at my left shoulder. This means she wants to lie on my chest and be cuddled. The problem was she couldn’t find an angle she liked to get into that position. Fortunately she’s not inclined to just launch herself and hope things settle out, which would almost certainly end in my getting numerous thin cuts sliced down my chest and belly by her claws.
So I picked her up and put her on my chest. At which, naturally, she put her ears back and bitched me right out. Then she settled down and began to purr happily.
This hit me literally out of nowhere: the other day a message appeared in my e-box headed, “SCI FI NIGHT AT NM SCORPIONS HOCKEY,” from one Melissa Gomez, who proved to be the Director of Special Events for the New Mexico Scorpions hockey team (I’m presuming I’m not violating any confidence by posting this, since it concerns a public event, indeed a promotion.) At first I took it to be an invite for me to attend; on reading it, it turned out to be asking if I cared to participate.
Indeed do many things come to pass.
So what’s going on is, at 7:15 PM on Saturday, March 1st 2008, the Scorpions will host a Sci-Fi Night at their game against the Colorado Eagles at the Santa Ana Star Center. For details I’ll just go ahead and quote the post verbatim:
“Mr. George Noory of Coast to Coast AM will be our guest that evening. Fans will have an opportunity to meet and ask questions. We would love to have local authors available to meet our fans and would like to extend an invitation to you to be our guest that evening. You will be able to display your books or upcoming events on the concourse and mingle with fans as they enter the arena at 6:00 pm. Currently local authors Walter Jon Williams, Jerry Weinberg and Jane Lindskold will also be joining us that evening.”
I wrote back to Ms. Gomez and said, basically, “Sure.” It sounds fun. And of course getting a chance to promote NM authors - myself notably included, o’ course - appeals to me. I don’t know exactly how big a draw a passel of SF authors will be at a hockey game, although if a lot of people turn out to see George Noory (Art Bell’s successor as host of the Coast to Coast overnight radio show, which deals with all sorts of weirdness) (as if you didn’t know) who knows? They might just find our high-quality local science fiction and fantasy entertainment product appealing too.
If nothing else, I’ll get to pass a pleasant evening with friends. I’ll go way out on a limb and predict there’ll be more of us there than Walter John, Jerry, Jane, and Your Humble and Disobedient. Not that anything sucks about that lineup…
And it should be a hoot to meet George Noory. Maybe he’ll decide to have some NM SF authors on his show some evening? We’re a fairly entertaining bunch, if I do say so myself as oughtn’t.
So if you’re in the area that night and find yourself at loose ends, fall by. You don’t know less about hockey than I do. It isn’t possible. We might even become fans. Stranger things happen. I’m just sure.
Since I was rendered mentally fuzzy (okay, more so than usual) by the cruds the last couple weeks, I plumb neglected to announce this: Tor Books is launching the all-new Wild Cards volume Inside Straight with a gala mega-signing Saturday, February 2, 2008 at Page One Bookstore, Montgomery and Juan Tabo NE in Albuquerque, at 2:00 PM MST.
Featured will be George R.R. Martin, Melinda M. Snodgrass, Daniel Abraham, Michael Cassutt, John Jos. Miller, Ian Tregillis, Carrie Vaughn, and Tor Books editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden. That’s, if I reckon right, seven of eight authors and the editor. They’ll be discussing the new mosaic novel as well, of course, as signing it.
Play your cards right and you might live to talk about it even get to see some other Wild Cards authors. Such as, um, me. I don’t have a story in this volume, but I do in the next. I’ve offered to come and heckle.
But wait - there’s more. Since two out of three authors will be there, you can also get your copy of the new SF novel Hunter’s Run by George R.R. Martin. Gardner Dozois, and Daniel Abraham signed.
That should fill anybody’s recommended daily allowance of awesome.
Mark it down on your calendars. A good time should be had by all.
Yesterday (technically, day before now; but I only count it as a new day if I’ve been to sleep) I was awakened by a whump from the front porch, followed by Emma barking furiously.
By the time I found my robe and struggled into it and reeled to the front door I’d figured out, of course, what it likely was. A brand new box o’ Annja!
She has a somewhat new look on the new cover (for a larger image, and one which isn’t an ill-concealed ad, click here.) On some earlier covers her face was, at least to me, markedly reminiscent of Jessica Alba’s. Now, I think Jessica Alba has a nearly angelically beautiful face - too bad the child can’t act a lick. But she ain’t Annja.
This time, aside from those funky lips that seem to verge way too close upon Mick Jagger territory, she looks much more as I envision her, with a longer, less round face. Think more Hillary Swank or Jill Wagner, who played Krista Starr in the awful Blade TV series.
I really love the way her eye and part of her face are reflected in her Mystic Blade. Too bad it doesn’t appear to be sharpened…
Also this version of Annja seems to present her for the first time, at least on one of my covers, as a beautiful, sophisticated young woman who, if she happens to think you need it, will fucking kill you.
On other fronts … no graceful segue here … I’m befuzzled and off-balance. More so than usual. I haven’t been sick much this fall and winter. Until a week and half ago, when I got a scratchy throat, inclining to soreness, and then my chest got socked-in with bronchitis. It’s come and gone and actually was at its worse a couple of days ago: Monday it was all I could do not to sleep all day. Finally it seems to be breaking up some.
It’s been a bit rough. Not because I’ve felt terrible - I haven’t, mostly. Even when I’ve had a sore throat it hasn’t hurt much. But I’ve been short of breath and, along with the aforementioned drowsiness, often had a hard time focusing mentally. That makes it hard to get much done.
Poor Emma’s going stir crazy because we haven’t been out to walk in so long. I intended to go today until the wind came up. The cold cut through me like a scythe. Tomorrow isn’t looking any too promising either…
with a gala mega-signing Saturday, February 2, 2008 at 
by George R.R. Martin. Gardner Dozois, and Daniel Abraham signed.
the Resurrection of the Dead.