I live in Portland, OR and the rest of the team lives in the SLC region of Utah. We can’t get together every week and we interrupt each other too much to do without physical cues. This means that I fly in for marathon recording sessions. Last time we recorded sixteen episodes in two days. We recorded more at WorldCon and add guests any time we can get more than two of us at a con. Shocking, I know, that we don’t record them weekly.

Finding time when we can all get together is difficult. I mean, you’ve seen my travel schedule and that’s just one person. Have you seen how often Brandon travels? Or Dan? Or Howard — when he can find his pants, that is.

The point being that I’m about to dive into another marathon session of recording.

Do I come home then? No, I do not. I go to New York and then I come home.

Here’s my schedule!

Friday 8:00 PM – 11:00 PM Town and Country/San Diego: Autograph Session

This is a WFC tradition for all authors, artists, and editors attending the convention. Everyone is invited to participate in this very informal event.  Tent cards will be available outside the room. Get your card, find a seat, and make yourself comfortable.  Refreshments and a no-host bar will be provided in the foyer.

Saturday 8pm Pacific 1: Out of the Broom Closet: Integrating Magicians and Fantastic Creatures into Society.

Most stories have vampires, werewolves, witches and other supernatural entities hiding within the greater society. But more and more look at them as just another facet of modern society. How does that change them as characters? How does it change human society? What does it add to the plot, in addition to the obvious possible social commentary?

S. G. Browne, Mette Harrison (M), Leanna Renee Hieber, Mary Robinette Kowal, Rebecca Rowe

Will I see you in San Diego?

Aside from a slight delay at the border crossing as one passenger was detained, the bus trip from Surrey was uneventful. We got into Seattle about half an hour late due to that, but I still had plenty of time to go to Zeitgeist Coffee and meet up with Andrew and Scott James.

Allow me to pause here and put in a plug for Zeitgeist. They noticed me tweeting to invite folks to meet me there and tweeted a welcome back. I mentioned to someone else that I really like their lavender shortbread — lovely! — and when I arrived, the barrista recognized me and gave me a piece of lavender shortbread. If I hadn’t already liked the coffeeshop, that would have cemented it. Plus, they make a darn fine cup of coffee. Thanks, guys!

The train ride from Seattle was smooth and almost all things delightful. The infant in my car was mostly delightful and I went to the dining car when the child became less than delightful. You can’t do that on an airplane.

I’m home for the next 35 hours and then I fly down to San Diego for World Fantasy. If you are in the area, come by Mysterious Galaxy on Wednesday evening for the meet-and-greet with me and a metric ton of other authors.

Meanwhile, whew, it’s nice to be home.

I’ve finished a short story, had breakfast, strolled, and am enjoying a beautiful view out my window. I love the train SO much. Of course, in Seattle, I’ll have to switch to a bus for the last part of the trip, but it’s a fairly comfy bus.

In any event, if you are going to be at the SiWC, I’d love to say hello. If you aren’t attending the conference, but are in the area, the Saturday evening Bookfair is open to the public and there are lots of amazing authors signing.

Friday night, I’m the keynote speaker at the banquet and will be doing a short talk on “How a Life in Theater Prepared Me for Rejection.”

I hope to see some of you there.

At one point, we needed to get diesel for the car and Rob said that he thought he’d wait until we exited for our next turn. I thought that there weren’t any options at that exit — and I was right. It was weird.

If you were in elementary school in Washington or Oregon in 1995-97 or in Idaho in 1993-1995 or 1998, then  I almost certainly performed for you. It is a little awkward how many adults I run across that have memories of seeing me perform or rather of seeing the shows that I performed.

Now… let me explain why I take the train instead of driving to Seattle, or indeed, anywhere that I can take the train.

1. It’s a beautiful ride. This is true almost anywhere trains run. They tend to go through countryside that you can’t see from any other angle without hiking.
2. I am not driving, which means I can write. Finished a chapter on the way up. Halfway through one on the way down.
3. Better use of resources. It is way more efficient to use mass transit than to travel solo.
4. Really interesting conversations. And today’s is a case in point. The gentleman that was sitting next to me was on his way to Portland for a friend’s birthday.  We talked about my WIP, history, Jack Johnson, travel, AND he mentioned his daughter’s website.

Which turns out to be really, really cool. Those of you in Seattle, who aren’t already reading buschick.com allow me to encourage you to. I’ve just spent the past half hour trawling through it and reading about her car-free lifestyle. During the course of which I found this very cool video on an open-source “transit appliance” that the City of Portland uses.

The World’s First “Transit Appliance” from Streetfilms on Vimeo.

And that long string of things is why I like to ride the train. But in particular, it’s because of the people that I get to meet.  Today was a lovely example of that.

Nisi Shawl and I chatted with them for a little over an hour about some aspects of the business side of writing. Things like how to get on panels, how to start and end conversations, headshots, bios, and freebies.  Charles Stross, who was their sixth instructor, joined us at the end with some additional excellent advice.

Some of these, I’ll expand and get written up into Debut Author Lessons.  Meanwhile, may I just say to the 2011 Clarion Class that it was a pleasure meeting you. Congratulations on surviving!

I’m staying at their home, which is lovely, and it makes me oddly homesick. I grew up in North Carolina in a neighborhood of the same age as this one. While the house has a very different floor plan, the views out the window are strikingly similar.  I also hadn’t realized how much I missed the sounds. Cicadas and whip-poor-wills and the wind in the trees.  There are cardinals here, which we don’t have on the west coast.

Today I’m heading up to the Boston area for Readercon. In theory.

My flight has already been cancelled and my new flight is delayed by two hours. I’ve gone from an 8:30am departure to a 1:15pm departure.

For those of you who haven’t played #marygoround before… Some of the folks who read my blog and twitter feed noticed that I had some interesting travel karma. Things went wrong often enough that they suggested a drinking game.

The basic rules

When I successfully complete a leg of travel, you get to take a drink.

When something goes wrong, I get to take a drink.

The theory is that having you all root for success makes it more likely that I will arrive someplace. While if things are going wrong, I’m likely to need some liquid reinforcement.

Our weekend plans involve friends, cookouts, mosquitoes, and fine wine. Not necessarily in that order. What are you up to?

Our flight out of Portland was mostly on time and made up the loss on the way to Denver.

The REALLY AWESOME thing though was that the Hudson’s Books in Denver’s A Concourse had the hardback of Shades of Milk and Honey on the shelf.  I signed it for them and remarked that the trade paperback was out now. Brittany, who was very nice, said, “I know. It was back-ordered and I couldn’t get it. Everyone wants it so I decided to carry the hardback until the paperbacks came in.”  She might have just been saying that to make the visiting author happy and it worked.

We went on to the gate and… The flight out of Denver was delayed by forty-five minutes.  With me? That’s not too bad.

But in Minneapolis, Rob’s bag arrived and mine didn’t.  You know, the luggage that has everything I need for the wedding we are attending and the signing at Uncle Hugo’s on Sunday. I remarked to Mrs. Kowal that I felt like I was living in a sitcom.

Happily, they just called and have found the bag. They are going to drive it out to St. Cloud, which is only 20 minutes away, and we’ll pick it up in the morning.

It’s good to see Rob’s family. Tomorrow I’ll be helping with the hors d’oeurves.  After I get my cloths. I like this shirt, but not enough to want to spend tomorrow in it.

We started with the opening ceremonies which were short and simple. The various GoH’s introduced themselves and said, “hello” to the audience. Martin Young, the Toastmaster, gave me the straight line of asking if things ever went wrong in puppetry, so I told the Sleeping Beauty story.

Sandra Tayler is in town and rooming with me. She is a delight to hang out with.  By the way, I highly recommend having someone like Sandra with you when you GoH to act as a safety net.

From the Opening Ceremonies it was off to Getting Published Today with Dani Kollin, Eytan Kollin, and Susan Krinard.  Oddly we were all Tor authors whose surnames began with the letter K.  It was a fun conversation although at one point I remarked that we were a self-heckling panel.  The key takeaway I think from that is that if you want to get published you have to have a good manuscript and do your research.

Between panels Sandra and I hung out in the bar area with John Picacio, Chris Garcia, Jeremy Llassen, and a roving cast of others. Funny conversations including a whole host of innocent sentences parents should not say about their children without risking jail time if they are heard out of context.

In the evening we went to the Meet the Guests reception which was good clean fun. I need to give a shout out to Tobi Schneider, guest liaison, who is doing a fantastic job of making us all feel welcome.

After the reception, I indulged in my guilty pleasure and went to the Regency Ball. I brought an extra dress and managed to talk Sandra into going. Man, some of those dances are really fast. At one point, I lost a shoe. I felt very much like Cinderella.

Here’s where you can find me today (Saturday)

11:30 AM to 1:00 PM in room: San Tomas
Growing Artisticially Through Crisis

1:00 PM to 2:30 PM in room: Bayshore East and West
Puppetry Workshop
(Note: I will have the pencil-necked little weasel, and John Scalzi’s Papa Fuzzy puppet with me)

4:00 PM to 5:30 PM in room: Winchester
$5, a Dead Fish, and a Time Machine

5:30 to 7:00 PM in room: Central
Autographing

By the way, if I’m not in a panel, the bar is a good bet on where to find me.

I also met Bobbie DuFault, the Fan GoH.  She’s from Seattle so we were both wondering about the bright light in the sky. Thank heavens today is overcast.  That other thing was just unnatural.

Today I’ll be at:

2:00 PM to  2:30 PM in room: Winchester
Opening Ceremonies

4:00 PM to 5:30 PM in room: Lawrence
Getting Published Today

8:00 PM to 9:00 PM in room: Grand Ballroom E & F
Meet-the-Guests Reception

I’m also planning to head to the Regency dance after the Meet-the-Guests reception, although that might involve going back to my room to change.  Meanwhile, my plan is to hang in the bar area and chat with anyone who wanders by.

Wander by?

I’ve got my schedule below, but wanted to point out a couple of things.

1. At the puppetry workshop, I’ll have the Pencil-necked Little Weasel AND Papa Fuzzy.
2. For my reading, I’ll read some published work PLUS an excerpt from my WIP novel AND a tiny little puppet show.
3. There are two Regency dances on the schedule. I’m hoping to attend both.

Hope to see you there!

Friday

2:00 PM to  2:30 PM in room: Winchester
Opening Ceremonies
Let’s get the Carnivale started! Join the BayCon Chairman and our Honored Guests as they get the convention started.

4:00 PM to 5:30 PM in room: Lawrence
Getting Published Today
How do I get my career to take off in the era of shrinking midlist and self-publishing?

8:00 PM to 9:00 PM in room: Grand Ballroom E & F
Meet-the-Guests Reception
Come meet the Master of the Carnivale, BayCon 2011 Chairman Robert Toland. Mingle with our guests as our Toastmaster Martin Young regales us with interesting anecdotes and introduces our Guests of Honor.

Saturday

11:30 AM to 1:00 PM in room: San Tomas
Growing Artisticially Through Crisis
A discussion of how the traumas and tragedies can influence your art.

1:00 PM to 2:30 PM in room: Bayshore East and West
Puppetry Workshop
Learn more about puppetry from our Writer Guest of Honor, Mary Robinette Kowal. (Note: I will have the pencil-necked little weasel, and John Scalzi’s Papa Fuzzy puppet with me)

4:00 PM to 5:30 PM in room: Winchester
$5, a Dead Fish, and a Time Machine
Do-it-yourself alternate history. What if you were given three items? Where would you go back to, what would you change, what trouble would you make? What memes would you (re)start?

Sunday

10:00 AM to 11:30 AM in room: San Tomas
Make It or Break It: The First Three Pages
Everyone knows you have to grab the editors attention enough in the first page to get them to turn the page.  So what’s the secret?  And what about the next two pages?

1:00 PM to 2:30 PM in room: Grand Ballroom E & F
Interview: Writer Guest of Honor
Join Kimmi Albee as she interviews our Writer Guest of Honor, Mary Robinette Kowal.  Discover how Mary blends her award-winning writing with her award-winning puppetry.  What’s with her collection of manual typewriters anyway?

2:30 PM to 4:00 PM in room: Alameda
Author GoH Reading
Please come join Mary Robinette Kowal in a reading of her stories. (Note: I’m going to read a couple of things including a bit from my new novel)

4:00 PM to Sunday, May 29  5:30 PM in room: Grand Ballroom E & F
Social Media and Creativity
How can you use social media to increase your productivity? How does it make you feel more connected without being overly intrusive? How have social media affected your creativity, both positively and negatively?

Monday

11:30 AM to 1:00 PM in room: Stevens Creek
The Single Book That Most Influenced Your Writing
Every writer has a style, developed and polished over time.  Our panelists discuss the single book, or author, that most influenced their writing style.

4:00 PM to 4:30 PM in room: Winchester
Closing Ceremonies
Join our Guests of Honor as we bid a fond farewell to BayCon 2011!

I will be home for less than twenty-four hours.

I’m waiting for the doom to descend.

I look forward to seeing you there.

If you are on Twitter, travelling means we get to play #marygoround again.

This is the drinking game that folks on Twitter proposed to mock my travel adventures.  The basic rules are that every time I successfully complete a leg of travel, folks get to take a drink.  When something goes wrong, I get to take a drink.

Simple, eh?

For those of you reading along, I posted Chapter 12‘s draft

Here’s a tiny teaser.

Someone shook Walker’s shoulder. “Mr. Browning?”

He woke with a start, face pressed against the Eames’s kitchen table. Light from a shake-lamp bobbed across the table, paining his eyes. His whole right arm seemed nothing but pins and needles.

Miss Parker crouched in front of him. Worry creased her brow. “Are you all right?”

 

I’ll probably be limited online until we are back on Sunday.

Meanwhile, in Portland, I understand that there are winter weather warnings.  I might take a nap and think about that.

We are off to visit for the week.  Try not to feel sorry for me.

I got up, had breakfast with some folks, and then headed to the train station. I managed to get about 3000 words written on the trip back and wrap a chapter. That’s a nice feeling.

Tomorrow… Tomorrow, Rob and I are going on vacation.

Here’s my schedule.

• 9:00 The Healthy Hero — Emerald
• 10:00 SFWA Regional Meeting — Sage
• 13:00 The Muddle in the Middle — Ruby
• 17:00 What Writers Mean — Ruby

In travel news, because I know you are curious, I took the train. We left on time and had a delay waiting for a freight train to pass just outside of Pasco. I think we got in about forty-five minutes late.  I don’t mind train delays because I can get up and walk around. I also got a lot of writing done. Yay.

The bonus was that Amtrak stays at the Red Lion so I was able to catch a ride with the shuttle from the train station instead of needing to find my own way.  that makes life easier, eh?  I think that balances out the late arrival so travel karma wise, this worked out even.

I had never encounted the Utah version of a scone.  This is a deep-fried bread that is astonishing in its yumminess. Astonishing, I tell you.

We were joined by Dan Wells and his family, none of whom are serial killers, and Peter Ahlstrom and his family.  The number of adorable children was beyond counting.  At one point I performed The Broken Bridge for them, but mostly the adults just sat around and talked while consuming astonishingly yummy scones.

Someone made a crack about my travel home, joking about “if” I went home that night. I was assured that I would be safe because I was travelling with a yeti.  Moments after this, my phone rang.

It was my airline.

I started laughing even before I answered it.  The automated voice alerted me that my flight was delayed by an hour. The timing was astonishing. Truly, I could not have gotten away with that in fiction.

The flight wound up being delayed by an hour and a half, but I was upgraded to first class so I think it all balances out.

Sean Markey picked me up at the airport, with no problems. I’m staying with him and Beth Wodzinski while I’m here. We drove to their house. With no problems!  Seriously.  So far, I like the way my travel karma is interacting with 2011.

Anyway, this is what I’ll be doing for the next several days.  Looks good, eh?

THURSDAY

• 8:30 AM - Intro, seminar overview, introduce speakers (Kevin)
• 9:00 - Econ 201 for Writers: Economics of Commercial Publishing (Eric)
• 10:00 - Inside Editors: How editors look at manuscripts (Dave, Kevin, Eric)
• Noon - Lunch
• 1:30 PM - Myths of Publishing (Rebecca)
• 2:30 - Agents: the “A” word (Brandon, Eric, Dave)
• 3:30 - “Dirty Secrets”: Being a professional author (Kevin, Rebecca)
• 4:30 - From Slushpile to #1 Bestseller in 4 Years (Brandon)
• 5:00 - The Popcorn Theory of Success (Kevin)
• Evening - Welcome mixer/reception

FRIDAY

• 8:30 AM - Copyright basics (Dave, Eric)
• 9:00 - Self-Publishing & Ebooks: Realities and Pitfalls (Eric, Rebecca)
• 10:00 - Pitching the Big Proposal (Brandon, Kevin, Dave)
• 11:00 - New Media: Using It to Get an Edge (Brandon, Rebecca)
• Noon - Lunch
• 1:00 PM - Networking for Writers (Rebecca, Dave)
• 2:30 - Do It Yourself: Self-Promotion for Authors (Sherrilyn Kenyon)
• 3:30 - Promoting Yourself and Your Work (All)
• 4:30 - Open session: Q&A
• Afterward - Authors available for signing

SATURDAY

• 8:30 AM - Ergonomics: When Writing Gets to Be a Pain (Rebecca)
• 9:00 - Dissecting a Contract (Eric)
• 10:00 - Movies, TV, and Authors (Dave, Kevin, Brandon)
• 11:00 - Two Heads Are Better Than One: Collaborations (Eric, Kevin, Rebecca, Brandon)
• Noon - Lunch
• 1:30 PM - Intellectual Property: How to Exploit Yours (Dave)
• 2:30 - Eleven Tips to Increase Your Writing Productivity (Kevin)
• 3:30 - Balancing Acts: Writing World and Real World (All)
• 4:30 - Open session: Q&A

via Mistborn – Superstars Writing Seminar Panel Schedule, January 13–15.

We caught the shuttle with no problems but then, not surprisingly, traffic to Atlanta was backed up because of two different accidents.  The shuttle wound up arriving at the airport an hour late, which caused some of the other passengers concern, but was okay for us.

Security was no problem, thank heavens. We boarded the flight on time and they shut the boarding door, preparing for an on-time departure.

Then they reopened the boarding door.  This is generally not a good sign.

The captain came on to announce that they were having some maintenance issues in one of the forward galleys.  Then he came back on to say that the maintenance issue was a short in one of the warmers which had given the flight attendant a “rather severe shock” and they would have to replace her.

She walked off under her own power, accompanied by two paramedics, but looked a little pale.

Sadly, her lack of grounding meant that we were grounded. At least until they got that fixed and got a new flight attendant in.

Apparently this was complicated because of the snow in the northeast, which meant that a light of flight crews were also stranded. The pilot said, “Frankly, I’m not sure they even know where everyone is right now.”

During the next hour and a half, the crew was attentive.  They even pulled a couple people off the flight who were obviously going to miss their connections and rebooked them from Atlanta.  We also got random influxes of other passengers, which I suppose were people who were being rebooked themselves.

We got home an hour and a half late, but with our luggage and health intact, so I really can’t complain.

But for those who were wondering if Rob cancelled out my travel karma, I have to say… no. No, he doesn’t.

But… just in case people want to avoid my travel paths.  We’ll take the noon shuttle to Atlanta and then take a 4:30 flight back to Portland getting in around 7pm Pacific.  Hopefully, we’ll be home by 8:00 tonight.

We had dinner with my folks, helped with some tree decorating and are now enjoying a fire in the fireplace.

It was such a lovely afternoon that we decided to head to the bookstore afterwards.  Miss C– offered to drive us all in her car promising to drop us back at the tea shop afterwards.  This was really the first time, outside of a convention, that I’ve gone out in my Regency outfit. It confused the mundane shoppers, I think. They all thought we were off-duty carolers even though caroling is Victorian which is not the same thing as the Regency.

When we went back to the teashop, my car was not there.

There was a large sign that said that the lot was for patrons of the teashop and that everyone else would be towed. Even though I had a receipt from said shop in my reticule, I called the towing company. They had my car and for a mere $252 they would release it to me.

The shop itself was closed so I couldn’t cry foul to them.

We drove to the lot the towing company directed us to and met a tow truck coming out of the gated area.  The driver looked befuddled as he had just dropped off my car and didn’t see how anyone would have had time to call.  We must have arrived back at the tea shop about five minutes after he left with my car.  He couldn’t help me. The towing company was shut and only had an answering service available with no way to reach a decision maker. So we stood there, four women in Regency dress, while I paid the $252 so that I could go home.

Rob made dinner and a martini for me and we watched The Wire for a little catharsis.

I’ll be having a phone call tomorrow. Oh yes. Yes, I will.

And next time? Considering that my transit karma is now affecting in-town travel, My Regency dress and I will be taking the bus.

Edited to add at 10:59 am, Friday: The teashop is closed until noon, so I tried calling the towing company at 10:46am.  The gentleman who answered the phone said that towing company only has dispatchers and requires one to fill out a form on their website which “they deal with every couple of days.”  The managers are all out driving trucks and “don’t have time to pull their trucks over to deal with complaints.”

I have filled out the form and said, “I had tea at Tea Thyme and Lavender on Thursday evening and have a receipt time-stamped if you need proof that I was there at 5:50. The store closes at 6pm. My friends and I ran over to Powell’s and decided to take one car. When we returned, less than an hour later, my car had been towed.  We arrived at the lot as the driver was pulling out of it from dropping my car. I believe that my car was improperly towed as I was a customer of the establishment it was towed from.  I had no way to dispute this that night, so I would like you to reverse the charges on my card now.”

Edited to add:  I called the shop again and spoke to one of the women who was there last night, I think one of the owners.  She said that they did not call the company but that the towing company routinely comes by and tows any cars left there. “I’m so embarrassed but we have these big signs…”  I think her position is that, because it was after hours, I was no longer a customer and that it is my fault the car was towed. If I had told them that I was leaving the car, they would have put a note on it that I was a “legitimate” customer.  I pointed out that I had no way to know that I needed to do this.

She called the towing company (Retriever Towing) and “Chuck” said that he was looking at my email and would respond.

Edited to add: Brief update – Both companies say that the fact that my car was towed was my fault because once the store closed I was no longer a customer.

Further updates are in my post “Updates to the situation with the towed car.”

The cats seem surprised to see us.

At least. This is the plan.

Rob had been at work with two people that had pneumonia for a couple of days the week before this hit so it was in the range of possibile illnesses. The bad news is that I was contagious for the past week and saw a lot of people. Hence this post of warning.  Doom!

Did you see me last week and get sick a couple of days later?  Don’t worry, it’s just a respiratory infection but a fairly unpleasant one.  The doctor thinks it is not the flu.  Here are my symptoms.

• Starts with a head cold
• Adds a fever and a sore throat
• Nasty cough
• Green phlegm
• Some nasal congestion, but mostly chest
• Aches
• Rob got shaking chills and night sweats
• We’ve both been sick for over a week.  Rob for ten days, me for eight.

They’ve got us both on antibiotics to which it is already responding.  The point is, if you saw me and you got sick about two or three days after, don’t mess around. Go to the doctor.

And I’m sorry about that. Until the fever hit, I thought the cough was from all the travel.

I said, “No… I asked on the phone and she said I could use a credit card.”

“Well you can, but not for trips under $20.”  He looked aggrieved. “Sorry. The dispatcher should have told you. We’ve had problems with her.”

“Then we’ll have to find an ATM because I have $1.”

He clearly felt bad and offered to make an exception, but at this point, I just wanted it to be over and took the path of least resistance.  We stopped at an ATM — he turned off the meter while I got cash — and continued to the train station.

I walked up to the front door and there were people standing outside. Smokers, I thought.  Only none of them were smoking. They were standing outside because the station wasn’t open yet.   I only had to wait a few minutes but my brain did go, “Really? Hasn’t there been enough at this point?”

While I was in the station, a young man approached me and asked if he could plug his mp3 player into my computer to charge it.  Sure! I’ve been without a charger before and it’s a pain. We struck up a conversation and agreed to sit together on the way back to Portland.  He asked what I did. I explained the whole writing thing.

I asked what he did.

“I’m disabled.”  He showed me his hand. “I was stabbed and my hand is partially paralyzed.  I used to be a carpenter.”

That. Is. Horrifying.  All of my travel stuff? Sort of puts it into perspective.

Anyway, we had a nice chat on the way down.  Once I got on the train, I had no more problems. I got on the bus in Portland and arrived home safely.  Rob and the cats are happy to see me.

In other news, I have decided that I am my own Infinite Improbability Drive.

I heard from Irene and Edwin, who made it home safely.  Apparently it was an annoying trip because the car alarm kept going off, despite being disabled.

Naturally, I will keep you posted on how the rest of the day goes.

A warning buzzer went off on the dashboard, cutting through their conversation. The left front tire was flat.  Edwin pulled safely off the interstate and into the parking lot of a gas station. There, our travelers learned that not it was not merely the left front tire, but both left tires had fallen victim to debris from the accident.

At this point, via Twitter, Rose Fox noted that Mary seemed to have accidentally cast in an adventure film or buddy picture.  The buddy picture seemed more likely because Irene and Mary have known each other since seventh grade.  However, the picture came with an amusing twist.   Mary and Irene wearing both in trousers, while Irene’s husband sported a utilikilt and long hair.

Putting in a call to AAA, the threesome passed their time in a local bar awaiting a tow truck. This allowed them to do the requisite bonding over drinks.  A musical montage ensued.

The tow truck arrived in record time. Sadly, it could only accommodate two passengers so the company parted ways.  Mary chose to stay in a nearby hotel and take the train back in the morning while Irene and her romantic lead returned to Portland.

Unbeknowst to them until after they departed Mary’s company, the car’s odometer read 6660.  Further complicating matters, Amtrak’s booking system was down for maintenance because, as a friend noted,  it makes sense to take your website offline during a major holiday weekend.

Will Mary get home?  Stay tuned for more exciting adventures!

(I completely wish I were joking about any of this. But it is pretty darn amusing at this point.)

An hour later, I called back to see how things were going.

They couldn’t get it to start again.  He thought there was air in the line and they were trying to figure out how it got in there. Later he called to say that it turned out that it had bad O-rings and that was the problem.  An additional problem was that it was now after 5pm and all the parts stores were closed.

So, they’ll pick up new O-rings on Monday and hopefully the car will be ready to go.  I opened up the Amtrak site to book tickets home and they were sold out for today.  So I called Rob to let him know that I’d be home tomorrow and updated Twitter.

Cherie and I headed to Barnes and Noble to sign stock. On the way there, I got a call from my friend I– from high school, who lives in Portland now.  She said, “Are you still stuck in Seattle?”

“Yeah. It’s getting comic.”

“Well, we’re in Renton having dinner with friends and are heading home tonight. Do you want a ride?”

“Heck, yes!”

So! Twitter and Facebook to the rescue; I am going home tonight.

The trip home was entirely uneventful aside from finishing the ABM of Howard Jones’s novel The Desert of Souls. It’s a fast read and a lot of fun. Think Sherlock Holmes set in the Arabian Nights.

Rob and I went out for dinner tonight. It’s not that we lack food but there’s a tendency for us to both get distracted by all the things that Need To Get Done and to not spend enough time reconnecting. Getting out of the apartment removes the distractions. Plus we were both tired.

The next trip is on September 24th up to Redmond, WA for Foolscap. That doesn’t seem nearly as daunting since I can just hop the train.

Besides my blood-pressure, of course.

I’m impressed that my travel karma is inserting pre-emptive scheduling chaos although this does give me the opportunity to plan ahead for it.  Makes me wonder what time I will actually arrive…

Friday

Dragon*Autographs
01:00 pm Location: M301 – M304 – Marriott (Length: 1)
Edited to add: An airline itinerary change has me arriving AFTER my session. Sorry. Feel free to find me after any of the other panels/events.

Dragon*Reading
05:30 pm Location: Roswell – Hyatt (Length: 1)
I’ll be reading from Shades of Milk and Honey and performing The Broken Bridge, which is the shadow puppet play that occurs in Chapter 10.

Saturday

Broad Universe Reading!
11:30 am Location: Greenbriar – Hyatt (Length: 2.5)
Description: Discover new writers, rediscover ones you know! Up and coming women writers read from their own works and others. (I’ll be reading a new short story.)

Sunday

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
11:30 am Location: Hanover C – E – Hyatt (Length: 1)
Description: A roundtable discussion about science fiction and fantasy book covers by industry pros, discussing what’s good, bad and could be better.

Monday

Joining a Writer’s Group
11:30 am Location: Manila / Singapore / Hong Kong – Hyatt (Length: 1)
Description: Whether it’s a national organization like SFWA, RWA,or HWA or a local group…What’s in it for you?

Rob is off at the vineyard and left his cell phone at home so I haven’t actually spoken to him yet. I’ll see him this evening.

It is really, really, really good to be home.

I’ll catch you up on what the readings were like but for the moment I just want to settle in an be quiet at home.

For those who have been following my travel adventures,  you will be pleased and baffled to know that I had no transit problems on this trip, at all. Bear in mind that I was travelling on Friday the 13th.

It confuses me too.

Upon my arrival, I went straight to the Puppet Kitchen where I got pulled into helping build a duplicate of one of the dog puppets we built when I lived here before.  It was fun and felt like I’d come home. I do miss building puppets and working there.

Afterwards, I went out for drinks and a light dinner with friends. My current plan for the evening is to go to bed and sleep.

While I was sorting that out the flight attendant told me not to feel rushed because we didn’t have pilots yet. Sigh. We wound up leaving about forty-five minutes late but they made up the time in the air and we were only twenty minutes late arriving in Portland.

Rob met me at the airport and helped me lug my copious luggage home. I’m so used to travelling light that all the gear I needed to drag along for the con changed my routines a bit. The next leg of the Shades of Milk and Honey booktour will be worse in some ways since I’ll be packing for NYC, San Fransisco and Eugene. Whee!

Speaking of which, don’t forget to come out to see me at the Cedar Hills Powell’s tomorrow night at 7pm.

However, if things go as planned, I will change planes in Minneapolis and arrive in Raleigh around 10:30am tomorrow (Wednesday)

Thursday

3:00 PM – RCC 305B
Schmoozing: How to Network at a Con
Davey Beauchamp [m], Dan Kimmel, Mary Robinette Kowal

4:00 PM —  RCC 305A
Reading
I’ll be reading from Shades of Milk and Honey. Not surprisingly…

Friday

10:00 AM — RCC 306B
Longevity Panel
Mary Robinette Kowal, Henry Stratmann

2:00 PM – RCC 306B
Editing: The Necessary Evil of Publishing
John Hertz [m], Dan Hoyt, Chris A Jackson, Mary Robinette Kowal, Stanley Schmidt, Lawrence M Schoen

3:00 PM — RCC 203
Revive Fandom’s Relevance to the 21st Century
Mary Robinette Kowal, Mur Lafferty, Amy H Sturgis

8:00PM –Raleigh Hospitality Suite
Shades of Milk and Honey Launch
This will be a gentle reception with Regency music, games and a shadow puppet play.

Saturday

10:00 AM — RCC 306A
Creative Insults
Dan Hoyt, Mary Robinette Kowal, James Daniel Ross, Alex Wilson

1:00 PM – MAR Alumn
Writers Workshop — Section 3
Mary Robinette Kowal, Lawrence M Schoen

5:00 PM — RCC Boardroom
Kaffee Klatch
Come chat!

9:00 PM — RCC 306C
Great First Lines
Mary Robinette Kowal, Lee Martindale, John Pierce, Matthew Rotundo

Sunday

RCC Exhibit Hall — 10:00 AM
Autographs
Carl Frederick, Chuck Gannon, Mary Robinette Kowal

The cats are frantic with loneliness and Marlowe is doing a great deal of chasing invisible demons to prove his affection for me.  Rob is still away at IPNC so I’m just going to go to bed and let the cats hog his side.

Dave Klecha gave me a ride to the airport and my flight is currently on time. I suspect that it will leave without problems because the alternative would be staying here another day and that would be very pleasant.

I’m torn between going back to Merrie Haskell’s lake house to spend the night and getting on this plane to see if maybe I can get home.

Part of my dilemma is that the Oregon Regency Society is having a picnic tomorrow. I have managed to be out of town for every single event and was so excited that I’d finally get to go to one. I suspect that I will opt for staying here because that removes any uncertainty and the lake house is very nice.

Edited to add: Yes. I’m staying overnight here and flying home tomorrow.

In other news, it has been suggested that as a service to humanity I should post my flight itinerary so other people know what flights to avoid.

I had a lavender-vanilla bean creme soda that was really lovely. We started with the local cheese plate, moved on to a beet carpacio salad that flirted with perfect, and I had their gnocchi with spinach. For dessert a true key lime pie.

Highly recommend the restaurant, if you are in the area.

Today we finished recording An Artificial Night around four-thirty. This pleases me because they had scheduled three and a half days and it only took three.  It really is funny how I can read smoothly for three pages and then hit a sentence that I can’t seem to get out.

After work C– drove me into Grand Rapids on his way home and dropped me at a coffee shop. Merrie Haskell came to fetch me and take me back to her lake cottage for a little bit of relaxation before heading back to Portland tomorrow.

All in all, it’s been a very good trip.

I had a red eye out of Portland at 12:50 AM.  One of the benefits to all the ridiculous travel I’ve been doing lately is that I’m now a Gold Medallion member at Delta, which means that if there’s an upgrade available, I move up to first class. It is a different world up there.

It makes waiting much more tolerable. Waiting for things like, say, when the captain announces that the engine is leaking fuel and that we might need to sit on the ground for awhile.

Or when, oh, I dunno, he says that it might be a four hour wait and they might not be able to let us off the plane for security reasons. That’s easier to face with plenty of legroom.

Fortunately, they let us off the plane after only a half-hour and were able to get a new plane and us onto it pretty fast. We left an hour and a half late which, all things considered wasn’t bad.

And really, if they are going to notice fuel leaking from the engine, I’d rather have them spot it before take-off.