minicon40, including photos

Here's rather a nice one taken of me by dd_b. Here's Rob. Here's me, wearing the ice palace necklace, with the girls. Several ones here of Rob with Delia. See many other minicon40 pictures here, including dozens of people on my friends page. Thanks, dd_b!

I will publish a full minicon40 report. Maybe. Eventually. Short version: We stayed at the hotel Friday and Saturday night. I was on four panels and had a (sparsely attended, but still pleasant) reading. My cold was in full bloom. I had fun. Steve Brust called Laurie Winter and me "beautiful babes of publishing" at the Tor party (you have to understand this is just Steve's way: at the time he was wearing a button that read "Look me in the eye when I'm hitting on you"). I bought a lovely sarong and a velvet shall in the dealers room and got lots of compliments on them. The girls were more independent this year, which made the whole experience much less vexing.

Had great conversations with, oh heck, lots of people. Too many to list them all. *sigh* I'm tired. Maybe I won't do a full con report. Anyway, it was fun.

minicon40 report

All right, so maybe I will do a con report.

( Friday )

( Saturday )

( Sunday )

Cross-posted to minicon40

Tarot Reading

Laurie WInter did a tarot reading for me on Sunday, as she has done the past several years. (I don't know which deck it was, sorry). I have mixed feelings about tarot. I don't fear them as instruments of the devil (Tim Powers, for example, despite having written a novel all about the power of the Tarot, will not allow a deck in his house), although I am at times a little uneasy about them. I guess I treat them, as Kij has said, as something that might open a window of thought that might help you to think about your life in a different way. I have known writers who have found them to be at times helpful to use when thinking about their books.

The question (which I didn't tell Laurie) "What do I need to know about getting the ice palace book going and moving toward a full, confident, successful writer's life?

The Signifier: 2 of Pentacles, showing a woman on a tightrope, holding a pentacle in each hand. "Balance or focus." Oh, yeah. I laughed when I saw that. That's what I'm all about, definitely.

Situation Surrounding You: King of Swords, reversed. Cruel and crafty, untrustworthy, crafty pig-headed. This could be a person, but no one sprang to mind for me. It felt to me instead like writers block, like the pig-headed stubbornness of my back brain to produce words when I ask it to.

Recent past: 7 of Wands, showing a man standing on a hill, with wands pointed at him from the foreground. Being prepared for whatever comes, you've picked your high ground. Forces are arrayed against you, but you operate from a position of strength.

Bridge or barrier: Ace of Swords. Shows a sword, surrounded by flowered garlands, but the sword pierces through them. Attainment of power or goals. insight/mental/mind, "cutting through the crap."

Near Future: Page of Wands. She stands holding a tall wand with a crystal at the top, emitting rays. Firecrackers at her belt. Harnessing available energy. It felt like a card showing "focussing," which was hopeful, suggesting getting in touch with whatever-it-is that makes me write well.

Root: 5 of Pentacles. Shows a ragged man in the snow, facing away from a stained glass window (the five pentacles are in the stained glass). Another hooded woman lies huddled in the snow under the window. Not taking help available, turning away, choosing to step outside, do it my way. It felt like writers block again, the feeling of being out in the cold, not making it on my own. The writing has felt impoverished in the past.

Goal: 6 of swords, reversed. Shows a man in a boat with swords in it, floating without his guidance into a cave. Trip to higher consciousness is advised. Reversed it means you have doubts about obtaining your goal. I asked her, "Doubts about achieving it or doubts about wanting to achieve it? "Excellent question," she replied.

How you see yourself: Chariot. Balance again. About not driving (the driver is holding a lyre rather than the reins). He is focused on his art, rather than the journey, driven at high speed. This felt like another balance card, and the feeling of being slightly out of control. Interestingly enough, it was the only major arcana card in the entire reading.

How others see you: 8 of swords, reversed. This is a scary looking card, with a bound blindfolded woman surrounded by cards, but since it's reversed, the meaning is respite from fear, new beginnings, freedom, release. A very hopeful meaning.

Hopes and fears: 10 of cups. Happy family, surrounded by abundance. Home, joy, familial bliss, contentment of heart, peace, respect from others.

Up until this point, I had felt that the reading was moving in a very hopeful direction. I had been blocked, but somehow I was going to get focused and move in the right direction. Then Laurie turned over the last card.

Outcome: 6 of pentacles, reversed. Shows a man holding a scale, with hands reaching out to him. Reversed, it means unstable finances, frustrated plans, jealousy can cause harm.

I stared at the card, disappointed. Rats.

Laurie suggested that since there was only one major arcana card, this might be interpreted as a very short term reading. Perhaps the last card was a caution, rather than a prediction. Jealousy, I thought, and laughed a little. I told her how I had sat next to Jane Yolen at the signing, and there had been a long line at the table for her to sign (serendipoz probably had at least fifty books for her) and nobody had one of mine. Yeah, I have to beware of jealousy, of comparing myself to others; it will only make my frustration/dissatisfaction about the progress of my career worse.

Comments, especially about that last card?

Isn't it annoying?

I picked up the third Flash Girls CD at the DreamHaven table (actually Rob sprang for it for me; thanks, Rob). However . . .

I had put it in a perfectly reasonable place, the side pocket of the bag that carried the books that needed to be autographed. Rob, inexplicably, took it out again ("I don't want it in there because I'm going to be carrying these books around to get them autographed." I dunno, did the CD make the bag too heavy for you to carry?) And he stashed it somewhere, and he can't remember where and hasn't found it yet.

It is often annoying to be in love with someone who at times has a memory like a sieve. I really wanted to listen to it today.

Edited to add: He found it, in about the eighth place he thought to look. He'd stuffed it with his dirty socks into the laundry pouch.

I ask you.

Computer transfer

Ah. Ok. The old Quicken records cannot be transferred over. No need to tell us that it's a simple matter of turning the files into .qif files and importing/transferring them over. It's not. We've used a lot of split transactions, transfers between accounts, and memorized transactions, and Quicken can't translate those. And if it can't translate a transaction, it just sort of throws it anywhere. Thousands of transactions. My 401(k) balance is now $28,404,120.46. I wish. My checking account is $-151,144.70. I don't think so.

This is much easier if you understand that it simply can't be done. There's no point in trying to correct transactions fifteen years back to straighten it all out.

So we forget about moving files over. We finish out 2004 on the laptop and do the taxes on that. And we start entering 2005 from scratch on the new computer. Urgh.

Glare Report: 3/28/05: Rearranging and adding puzzle pieces

When I printed off the manuscript for my reading at Minicon, I wanted to read a scene I hadn't read at Dreamhaven, but it wasn't there. I went hunting for it tonight among all my backups and found four fragments that I hadn't yet incorporated into the main manuscript. I have now. Although I haven't added any new words tonight, those added scenes brought the word count up to 16137.

elisem is bribing me to produce by telling me that when my word count hits 20,000, she'll make me a pair of earrings to go with the ice palace necklace.