John Miller‘s reading tonight was great. I knew it would be.
He was still upstaged by a special guest: he and his wife Gail brought Skippyjon, The Halloween Chihuahua. Who’s well-behaved, personable, and fearfully cute, and so was a huge hit.
see more puppies
Gail reminded me of something that happened last week when I was over at their house watching movies. As is my wont, I brought over chicken jerky treats for the sundry dogs who live there. I wound up with an extra, brought for a sometimes doggie visitor who failed to show.
So we’re in the middle of watching a weird Japanese movie (no, I mean, really weird, not all-Japanese-movies-are-weird weird.) Skipito, as she’s also known, hopped up on the sofa between me and John. She quickly discerned, presumably by smell, that I still had a treat in a Ziploc bag in my pocket, and set about rooting for it.
I told her, “No, honey, you’re not doing that.” So she refrained.
I watched the movie a little longer and then had the strangest situation. I looked down to discover Skippy was giving me the serious fish-eye.
It completely cracked me up. “She’s psychically willing me to give her the treat!’ I exclaimed.
And she was. She was sitting there just staring holes in me with those big, bulbous, slightly walled Chi-wow-wow eyes. I could see the balloon above her round little head, wherein she was obviously thinking: “You will give me the treat. You will give it to me now. You cannot resist the awesome might of Chihuahua Mind Control Powers!”
Then I gave her the treat.
“Well,” I told my hosts, “it worked.”
So, anyway. You should all hop over to John’s blog and bug him to hurry up and finish Black Train Coming. Actually, you should also bug him to update his blog opccasionally. Been like a year.
Then you should probably keep bugging me to finish the draft of The Dinosaur Lords very, very soon. If you would be so kind.
Oh. And happy that other day.
OMGROTFLCOPTER!
Finish DL!!!!!
Finish Serenity!!! (but, you know, take your time ‘n enjoy it…)
OMGROTFLCOPTER? WTFO?
As far as I can ascertain OMGROTFLCOPTER is a Twitter user (we should probably, in honestly refer to them – well, ourselves – as Tweekers.) Were you referring to him? Or is COPTER an acronym for something too advanced for my puny human brain?
Thanks for the goad on finishing DinoLords. Maybe a little early; it’s appreciated.
And yes, I’ll finish Firefly. Need to have something to discuss in the Forum as time permits.
So what do you think of the changes to the blog page, O Mighty Go-To Geek Guy?
F*ck, I dunno. OMGROFTL didn’t seem like enough. Am I using it wrong?
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=rotflcopter
I just kept seeing those little chihuahua bug-eyes looking up at you, messin’ with yer head…
Love the blog update – how could I not?? You need more. Give us a chance to order ALL your books…
Have you watched “Our Mrs. Reynolds” yet? That’s like my second or third favorite episode… I call it Vera…
How would I know if you’re using it wrong? I thought it might be the helicopter thing, but when I looked up the whole construction on Urban Dictionary, I didn’t find anything.
So, okay, now I get it, it’s funny.
“Im in ur hed, rulin ur thotz…”
Glad you found my mental subjugation by an eight pound dog funny. Oh, hell, it was supposed to be.
Was over at John and Gail’s house tonight watching movies with them, Patricia Rogers and Scott Denning, and Steve “S.M.” Stirling and his wife Jan. Skippy gave me a break from mind control this time.
As for a chance to order all my books, have you tried my Bibliography? Granted the “click to buy” links are a work in progress, especially since when I was doing it the Amazon Associates product link search wouldn’t find some of the books that regular search turned up, a problem Amazon has since allegedly repaired.
So what the hell are you doing up at this hour, anyway?
And no, I’ve not yet watched “Our Mrs. Reynolds.” I will. Patience, Weed-whacker.
I know, I should be abed. Yes, I’m trying to be funny – FAIL. You’re succeeding, though.
The biblio is good, yes, but front-and-center would be better. You’re burying your impulse buys (well, all your buys, really) at the back of the store. Or maybe your burying the lede. Or something. But I’m not worried, you’re headed the right direction and I can wait, no rush…
Weren’t you going to start liveblogging your impressions from _Firefly_? You know, with all that free time you’ve found…
L
I wouldn’t say your attempts at being funny rated a FAIL. I was just giving you grief in return.
In seriousness, where would you have me put the biblio? Even if (when!) I figure out how to do a three-column WP theme, it’d be too busy and distracted, it seems to me, to list all the damn books on the front page. Although I could try to list at least the ones that are currently available through Ammie.
Suggestions are solicited, please.
As for Firefly, actually, I promised not to liveblog it and bore everybody. That’s probably a mistake, I admit, since it sure does seem to generate comments. Have you checked out the open thread on my Forum?
It also seems to generate comments from the same core group of readers. Nothing wrong with that, obviously; I’m grateful and pleased to have a core. My biggest priority – after writing more and more, of course – in coming months is attracting eyes. Not just people I already know (again, thanks to you all for participating; please keep it up!)
In terms of “all that free time [I]’ve found,” (yes, I know your tongue was firmly in your cheek) first of all, I need to free up even more by wasting less time online – and while I don’t consider blogging, Twitter, or the Forum as wastes, as mentioned, I need to find a useful equilibrium with them. And the idea is in part, indeed, to have more free time to do things which actually give me pleasure, as opposed to making me unhappy and in no state to create.
The greatest part though is to create more. And to promote and get paid for it properly.
I’ll think about it some more and email you some ideas.