Are you a SFWA active member? You have cast your ballot for the Nebula Awards, haven’t you? I mean, tomorrow is the last day.

The biggest reason I hear from people who haven’t is that they just haven’t read much this year. I understand that. But let me propose a scenario.  Read the nominees the way you would if you were an editor and could only pick one to buy.  In other words, you only have to read far enough to know that you wouldn’t vote for it.

Maybe that seems unfair, but it is an accurate reflection of how our industry works. Trust me, the nominees are so wildly different that even if you read only the first three pages to narrow it down, you’ll have a solid sense of which stories you connect with.  You don’t have to vote in all of the categories, either, just the ones in which you have an opinion.

So, participate. Please?

Online Ballot: http://www.sfwa.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=1160

You must cast your nomination ballot by tomorrow, March 30th, 23:59 PST.

To login, you’ll need Your Name, with spaces, as it appears in the SFWA Directory.

If you need your password you may reset it here:
http://www.sfwa.org/forum/ucp.php?mode=sendpassword

If you have any questions or need additional help please let me know. And if you have already participated, thank you. Now please, guilt one other person into doing it too.

Today we went to look at the location where we will be filming. I’ve seen photos, but this was my first time on site. One of the goals while there was to get measurements so I could finish the set design. I’d done a very rough sketch prior to this, but that didn’t mean it would work with the reality of the space. And behold, my sketches needed to be adjusted a fair bit.

On the floor, you’ll see tape lines. the blue ones represent the original angle of the walls. The tan ones are the adjusted walls. Normally, I would do the measurements and then come home and work on paper, but because the man who is building the set was coming by, I needed to be able to have a clearer conversation with him about sizes than I was going to be able to given the my sketches. Which is why I laid things out in real space.

So this stuff that looks like a bizarre basketball court? That’s me designing with tape.

It also gave John Skipp, writer/director the opportunity to walk through the space with our lead, Chase McKenna, and begin thinking through action in the space. We discovered a couple of things in the process which should save us a load of trouble later on.

Back at the ranch, we had a production meeting to work out some more details, then I sat down to do actual drawings of the part of the set we need for promo shots.  Sunday, I’ll be painting it.

My dad sent me this video with the subject heading “What passes for news in Chattanooga” and a link to the local news station. Now I share the video with you.

I sometimes forget to tell you things. Sorry about that. I don’t mean to neglect you like that.

Anyway, I’m in L.A. through the morning of the 30th for a weekend of pre-production meetings on a 3-D film called “Rose” which is going to be a load of fun. This is the secret project I referred to landing a while back and I’ve been given the go ahead to do some posts about it.

Which I will totally do. But now I am going to bed.

Rob and I signed up for a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program last fall and I have to say that I am completely converted and can never go back. Every two weeks, Hood River Organic gives us a box of produce. It is all locally grown, seasonal and the freshest produce I’ve had.

At first I thought that not knowing what would come from week to week would be a problem, but it turns out that it is a much more fun way to cook. Take this week. We’ve got Cremini and portabella mushrooms, Bosc pears, Fuji apples, arugula, bok choy, kale raab, red radishes, micro greens mix and bread.

Kale raab? I have no idea what the heck it is and probably wouldn’t have picked it up in the store but now I have this yummy new vegetable to try. It has completely changed the way I cook because I now look at what I have and then decide what I will make. Except in very rare cases, I never buy produce at the store anymore.

Now, we had one week as they were switching over to the spring season where we didn’t get a box. Suddenly having to think about what I wanted to make and then going to the store to see what they had… Then realizing how much of the food had been shipped up from Chile. It was like stepping back into a strange and alien world without a connection to my food. Nothing was as fresh and it was so much more expensive than our CSA boxes.

So, allow me to highly recommend signing up for a CSA in your area.

I’d like to ask you a question. When was the last time you did a breast self-exam? I do them pretty frequently because the natural topography of my bosums includes some denser tissue which can feel, well, lumpy.

In early February, I found a lump.  Now, this did not particularly alarm me because I’ve had a cyst before and there’s no history of breast cancer in my family. Still, it was something I needed to get checked out. Because of some unexpected travel, I had to wait till I got back to Portland to schedule a visit to the doctor which meant waiting a month and a half.

Monday, the doctor checked it and informed me that I was correct that there was a lump. But it wasn’t a cyst.

Which meant a mammogram and probably an ultrasound were in order. The imaging center could get me in on Wednesday, which was great but left me with a day and a half for my brain to eat itself. I found myself wishing I was still in Iceland where these things are dealt with much faster.

I’ve been so certain that it was nothing that I was completely thrown by the fact that it might be something.  Now, there was still a fair chance that it would turn out to be just a fibroid or some other benign thing. And yet… the not knowing was crazy-making.

This morning I hopped on my bike and headed down to EPIC Imaging (Yes really  figuring that the endorphins of the ride would help. The folks there were incredibly nice and took me back pretty fast. We did the first set.

Now… the technician told me that the mammogram shouldn’t hurt anymore than sleeping on my stomach. I am dubious about this.  In fairness, the fact that my bosom is being flattened between two plates isn’t the uncomfortable bit. It’s the pinching and stretching of the skin around it. She was very efficient and made it as painless as possible.

Back out to the waiting room while she had the doctor look at them.

Then back in for more images focusing on the area with the lump. The whole time she was reassuring me that more images doesn’t mean anything and then said, “Now, the small paddle. That will be uncomfortable.”

Oof. She was right. Again, though, very kind and took good care of me.

Back out to the waiting room while she had the doctor look at them.

Then I was taken back to have an ultrasound. As the technician was working on me, she said, “I think you’ve got a lymph node there.” Before my brain could try to parse that, she explained that it was a normal thing and not cancerous but that she’d have to have the doctor confirm it.

By the time I was dressed we had the confirmation that the lump is just a lymph node and that it isn’t at all unusual for them to become more apparent as a woman ages. It also becomes firmer during the course of my cycle. Now I know it is there and can safely add it to the internal topography when I do my self-exams.

So, I’m fine.

It was really like someone reached into my head and flicked a switch from “Fret” to “Happy!”

Now… my request to you is: Please do breast self-exams regularly.

One of the fascinating things about being in a new place is watching the seasons change. Here is what our courtyard looks like at the moment. This is the view from our living room window.

As sometimes happens, one gets busy, forgets to blog and then one’s parents phone to inquire if one is perhaps dead.

Ahem.

So, in lieu of actual content but as proof that I am not dead, I offer three videos which I ran across while doing some research.

This is terribly exciting. In 2008, I attended a workshop hosted by Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Sheila Williams was the guest instrutor. While at the workshop we had to write a story and I wrote one which prompted Dean to say that he fell asleep reading it. Not my most inspiring moment.

Sheila mentioned the opening scene as very vivid and months later asked if I had done anything with it, because she’d liked that scene so much. I had trunked it, in fact. So I pulled it out, tossed what wasn’t working and wrote an entirely different story retaining parts of that scene.

Today, Sheila accepted it for Asimov’s. Woot!

We are having company tomorrow, so I’ve made Pistachio Cupcakes with Raspberries.

I just tried one and am prepared to declare it quite tasty.

Hello allergy season.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you and I have to say I’m not sure I’ve missed you.  In New York, despite all the things that bloomed in the spring, despite the exhaust and grime, you didn’t come around. In Iceland, there weren’t enough flowering things for me to see you.

But in Portland, in Portland you have a special treat for me and I will spend the next two weeks with the constant reminder of your presence. I will have to relearn the skill of keeping my hands away from my face. I will have to remember to pack tissue when I leave the apartment. I will once again sleep with a damp cloth over my eyes.

No, my dear, dear allergy season, I regret to say that I have not missed you.

Yours,

Mary

We just got home from a production of King Lear, in which Sam A. Mowry portrayed a very fine Lear. This has always been one of my favorite of Shakespeare’s plays  and I actually memorized chunks of it, back in the day.

The way Sam was playing his Lear, made me aware of the number of times Shakespeare sets up a happy ending and then yanks it away. Lear and Cordelia reconcile; she’s got an army with her. All he would have had to do was to let her win the war. Does he? No. Edgar has all the pieces to restore his father and destroy his lying brother. Does he get to? Almost! And then his father dies.

I think that’s why this is such a successful tragedy, not because of the horrible things that keep happening to Lear, but because Shakespeare keeps teasing the audience with hope.  It’s like that moment in a horror film where you think the protagonist has made it safely through the door, only to realize that she’s locked the demon inside with her.

There’s only so far you can beat someone down before they have nothing to lose. Shakespeare was doubly cruel because he kept promising to restore order to his characters but only so he could cut them down again.

Note to self: Horror and tragedy work better when there’s something at stake and the possibility of surviving.

We had dinner guests tonight, Deb Chase and Mick Doherty of Oregon Shadow Theatre. I hadn’t seen them since we moved back into town. I knew that they lived close by but couldn’t quite remember where. It turns out that we are three blocks away. How silly to have not seen them yet.

Dinner menu

Fig and blue cheese ravioli with blanched watercress and olive oil

Green salad with pears, walnuts and a white balsamic vinegrette

Roasted broccoli

Dessert: Pear Ozark pudding, served in ramekins

I do enjoy having dinner guests.

The new/old stove is a little cantankerous and we need to fiddle with the adjustments some.  The oven rocks, but the mix on one of the range’s burners is clearly not right since it gouts flame that would be more at home in the laboratory of a horror film.  The ones that are correctly adjusted are a dream though

Joe Sherry says very nice things about Scenting the Dark and Other Stories over on Adventures in Reading. Here’s an excerpt.

There are only eight stories in this 80 page collection from Mary Robinette Kowal, but there is not a wasted word here. The stories of Scenting the Dark and Other Stories should delight readers as much as they delighted me. With two novels and more short fiction pending, you’ll want to pay attention to Mary Robinette Kowal.

via Adventures in Reading: Scenting the Dark and Other Stories, by Mary Robinette Kowal.

In 2008 I attended Launch Pad and it was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve had. What is it?

Launch Pad is a free, NASA-funded workshop for established writers held in beautiful high-altitude Laramie, Wyoming. Launch Pad aims to provide a “crash course” for the attendees in modern astronomy science through guest lectures, and observation through the University of Wyoming’s professional telescopes.

I highly, highly, highly recommend this. Applications are open through March 31.  Do not hesitate. Just apply. Now.

via Launch Pad Astronomy Workshop – Improving Science Literacy through Words and Media.