They do have their failings, though.  The designers haven’t got the facial expressions quite right–there’s no warmth, and they have little or no ability to smile.  They also, of course, have no sense of humor and are completely lacking in human kindness or courtesy.

These qualities might limit their spread to some occupations, but the makers have obviously found at least one place to employ their creations.  I saw these robots at almost every station in the airport today, and I do believe they’ve fully saturated the airport security checkpoints.  I guess there are some jobs in which the ability to smile or demonstrate warmth are not in the job description.

Happy Fourth of July!

(see, I’m still human).

• An empty suitcase with two items of clothing laid on top.
• A batch of wet laundry.
• A tentative confirmation from an untrained friend willing to watch our fish, chickens and cats while we’re gone.
• An overdue library book waiting patiently on the counter,
• Oh, and a website that is halfway through its facelift.

Otoh, I had a great time messing with the blog look, and had a fabulous time tearing my WIP apart and planning the next draft.  I plan to continue this trend of preparations until the last moment possible tomorrow.

It’s good to know my priorities can’t be shaken up by a little thing like a plane to catch.

But I’ve really been loving round two.  It’s been nearly six months since I typed the last words.  I’ve gone through the stage where I was convinced the darling needed only the attention of one agent and it would be off to instant stardom.  I resisted the stage in which I thought burning would be too good for it, though complete and total chemical annihilation might work.  I spent weeks working on back history, studying plot arcs, dissecting plot point instructions, re-writing the synopsis, and trying out different queries.

This week I printed the whole thing out and started critiquing it just like I would do for a friend, or perhaps like a critique for a friend on steroids.  The critique.  My friends don’t want to be buff that way.

And I loved it!  So many ideas, lots of wonderful solutions already hidden in the manuscript and ready to be teased out, and the boring parts could be shed like so much dead skin.

But why is this post not about the joys of re-writing?  Why am I not editing my way to nirvana right now?  Because I took the WIP to the pool today…and I didn’t bring it home.

Luckily it was not drowned, and while I haven’t in fact set eyes on it, I’m told it’s in good hands and has been rescued from the night winds.  I plan a reunion tomorrow, and must now only pray that the WIP will not hold my neglect against me, and will recognize that it was not maliciously abandoned, but only temporarily misplaced.  Certainly not that word which begins with L and rhymes with cost.

Her roommates weren’t too happy about it.  They’ve been acting more cautious–especially around our dog, Zeke–and have elected to sleep off the floor of the coop.  Of course, I hadn’t yet made them a perch, so that left them wobbling all night on a gate.  Not conducive to a good night’s rest.

Enter the perch:

We made it from sticks and branches we harvested from the woods, lashed together with the wire I use when I work on their coop.  Simple, easy, and cheap.   Best of all, it’s been accepted by the chickens!

Shall we invite the fox in, and see what he thinks?

In searching for a submission backdoor I chatted with James Maxey and found that he and authors David Drake, Mark L. Van Name and Lisa Shearin were doing a panel and book signing that night in Cary at the B&N.   Accordingly I went by after my swordfighting class.  Here’s the evening in summary:

• James’s new cover of Dragonseed is awesome–check out the detailing on the shotgun.  Very nice.
• I have my own signed copy of Dragonseed, and yes, I feel special.
• Lisa Shearin fences, and she liked my dagger earrings.  The lady is in!
• David Drake continues to astound with the range of stuff that can come out of his mouth.  He’s wise on the writing front, I’ll grant him that, but I think he’s overly fond of making women blush.  I’m happy to say I didn’t give him that satisfaction.
• I was late and so missed most of what Mark had to say.  I’m still curious as to what the ‘L’ in his name stands for.
• I found it interesting to watch the authors interact with their fans.  My takeaway pointers were to let the reader/fan drive the direction of the conversation and its duration, so long as the line was still moving.

As a followup on the evening I went to James’s website and found he’s running a contest to support breast cancer research.  Go check it out and get your own copy of Dragonseed!

I read Magic Lost, Trouble Found a couple years ago and enjoyed it.  I always meant to pick up the next one…so Tuesday I got the second book, Armed and Magical and got it signed by Lisa.  I heard her recommend it as a great beach read, but I can testify that it’s also a great recovering-from-the-dental-variety-of-torture read!  I was very thankful for my new books as I moaned my way through the remainder of my Wednesday and nursed my three new fillings and 1 new crown prep.

This is Apricot’s favorite place to curl up, which gives me an excellent excuse to put off planting some mundane variety of flower!

Go figure.

I can’t wait to meet my fellow students, and I’m totally stoked to spend a whole week focusing on nothing but writing. Oh, and it’ll be cool to take classes directly from Orson Scott Card, too.

Instead, I’m going with the quick catch-up news blurb:

• We’re having the kind of thunderstorm during which one wonders if there is some truth to tales of angry gods and temper tantrums.
• Tonight my dh and I passed our testing on single-handed broadswords, and therefore qualify to fight with said single-handed broad swords.  Of course, we’re not yet allowed to fight with steel, and so are stuck with silly pieces of foam…but at least we can fight with them!
• I still have no news on OSC’s bootcamp. The news is not overdue yet, it’s just long-awaited. But I’m good at being patient, so I’ll keep waiting. Patiently. Really, really patiently.
• We’ve applied for the permits that will allow our home construction to go forward. Still haven’t decided on a contractor, but we’ve decided all we really need is a bold fellow with a bulldozer.  Who uses contractors these days?
• I think I’m leaning towards the wimp route. In Yellowstone, that is, and will forgo the tents for the cabins.
  First unarguably wise decision I’ve made all year!

 
They’re learning to tolerate Zeke with only a squawk or two,

and even put up with Apricot’s watchful eyes.

However, they have yet to produce eggs.  Since their nesting boxes are still on order (my orders, to myself), this is probably just as well.  Don’t worry, though, I’ll be sure to let you know when the first omelet appears.