I’m off to Burning Man in two days. Am I ready? Yukkity yuk yuk. I still have to Playa-proof my laptop, pack, make a sign for my friend Scott’s brilliant Karma Box art project, launch two podcasts (one of which begins an ad campaign), take our parrots to be boarded (a line I can only imagine my younger self hearing my older self say), pick up the RV (what, you think I camp out there in a tent? Hellwiddat! I paid those dues a looong time ago, thank you veddy much), load the RV, and a lot of other things I’m sure I’m forgetting (oh, yeah: finish painting the hula hoops I made for my wife to bring along).
A couple of scattered things before I take off till Sept. 8:
–ARIEL launched on Tuesday and shot up to #1 on Amazon’s “Movers & Shakers” list, and to #185 on the overall best sellers. It didn’t stay there long and I didn’t expect it to — this is a reprint of a book published 25 years ago, ferchrissake. That it got up there at all is simply amazing (and I owe Cory Doctorow cappuccino for the rest of his life for the JATO units he stuck onto the book’s launch). And apparently Barnes & Noble has a LOT of ARIEL floor stands (known in the biz as “dumps”). I’m WaY sTOkEd!
–Audible.com is currently sponsoring my Podrunner podcast. Choose a free audiobook from any of 60,000 titles (including, ahem, ARIEL) when you sign up for a free trial membership.
–I’m hooked on The Colony on Discovery Channel. Big surprise, Mister Postapocalypse likes a fake postapocalypse show. It’s contrived but it’s still fascinating. I get all anthropological around this stuff. FWIW, I’m also hooked on Mythbusters (how could anyone not be?) and Deadliest Catch.
–I visited Deyan Audio yesterday to go over potential issues in translating ELEGY BEACH into an audio medium. ELEGY has a lot of — well, let’s call ’em quirks. And since I’m going to be out of town while they’re recording, they won’t be able to call me up to ask wotthehell some of my weirdness is supposed to mean, and howthehell it’s supposed to be spoken. The fact that they would call if I were around, and that I’m able to visit them and go over these things (and record scratch dialogue for the book’s narrator, and record my Afterword) is nearly miraculous. I’m doing a future blog post about my experiences at Deyan; it’s been wonderful.
–I tried to add several “What I’m Reading Now” plugins to my WordPress blog and couldn’t get any of them to work. Yeesh! Does anyone know of a decent one? Cuz, you know, the problem couldn’t be me.
–Everything around Los Angeles is on fire right now. I mean biblical, pillar-of-smoke-by-day, pillar-of-fire-by-night stuff. Smoky skies. The sunsets are nice, though. See, every silver lining is obscured by clouds.
Have a great week, everybody, & I’ll be back in about 10 days!
Steve,
I saw you on the New Media Panel at WorldCon, and around the Con a couple times after that. I really enjoyed your slant, as you said in an earlier post, somewhere between the pure writers and Melissa Auf der Maur’s rock star views. You may not quite have Neil Gaiman’s aura, but you definitely fit in with that lofty crowd. So that coupled with Cory Doctorow’s hype, I’m starting into a fresh copy of Ariel, and looking forward to Elegy Beach. I see it took you a few weeks to recount your World Con experience on your blog; me too, you’re mentioned in Part 3: http://thechipsterzone.blogspot.com/2009/08/worldcon-diaries-part-3.html. Hope you caught fire at burning man,
Chip
Howdy, Chip; I’m glad you enjoyed the New Media panel! I think you may have just titled my autobiography: Somewhere Between a Writer and a Rock Star. 🙂
I have to say that I’m happy not to have Neil Gaiman’s aura, as he would surely hunt me down and take it back.
Thanks so much for mentioning me in your blog!