Barbara's Blog

  The nice folks organizing WorldCon asked me for a picture of my study, so here it is. (I tried to get the one of me while I was President of SFWA, in a scarlet dress conducting the SFWA meeting with a whip, but couldn't manage to scan it correctly. This'll have to do.) I'm STILL trying to regain access to my Facebook page, "Barbara Hambly, Writer," but have not had any luck getting in touch with the people who actually run the page. The personal page that I used as a sort of gateway to get into the Writer page won't let me on until I "Press This Button to Get Started!" and I can't find out whether this is an actual thing, or a scam of some kind (I got into a LOT of grief the last time I pressed a button without checking). (It's not doing that on my other, Secret Facebook Page.) The good news is that I finished Ben January #22 (Act of Insurrection) AND a short story for an upcoming anthology of stories set in Larry Niven's Known Space un...

  Happy Mother's Day, all! Here's my Mom, playing the piano before my wedding. I miss her - and Dad - every day. Continuing apologies for not having the time to figure out the Facebook issue - the next Ben January book is due to be turned in in three weeks, and I've been dealing with mild health issues and other interferences with work. All is coming along well. One of the interferences could be counted as Research - I went to the Ventura Melee Megabowl last weekend, and, in addition to watching guys fighting in armor (full contact, full armor), I was delighted to see that four women's teams competed as well. As a conscientious writer of sword-and-sorcery fiction, I went down and talked to ladies who actually DO fight in armor - useful knowledge. (Other than a couple of brief lessons in broadsword, the sword training I've done has been Japanese style, single-blade katana, no armor). [Dang it, I need to do some fiddling with the pictures before I can post them...!] I...

  First, to my great annoyance (I have five weeks before I need to turn in the next Benjamin January book) I have not yet got the situation with Facebook sorted out. I am still not able to sign in and post on my Facebook site, Barbara Hambly, Writer - I'm trying to get that sorted out. BUT, I'm happy to say that as part of my new contract with Open Road Media, there will be a new (or 70% new) entry in the Asher/Ysidro vampire series after all. A couple of years ago I wrote "Gravemould and Ectoplasm," covering Lydia's adventures with Don Simon Ysidro in New York after Don Simon ceased being an active vampire and became... whatever he became, a ghost among the Undead. At the end of the final novel of the series, Prisoner of Midnight, he and Lydia are in New York (with 5-year-old Miranda, Lydia's daughter) while James Asher has to go back to his undercover assignment on the Eastern Front.  Last year I picked up that story in a novella called "Nightfall's...

  Still more apologies - a LOT of stuff going on, and a very close deadline. And to make matters more complicated, Facebook has decided not to let me into the FB page from which I access the "Barbara Hambly Writer" page (which is operated by one of my publishers). I get a blocking message saying I need a (not sure whether it's "passkey" or "passcode" and I'm too tired to look it up at the moment). I have no idea whether this - and the "click this button to solve the problem!" button - is a scam which will end with my bank account being robbed (again), and since FB has no way of contacting them directly to find out, I'm putting off doing anything about the problem until the next Ben January book (# 22 in the series!) is a little more under control. So, I'll try to come onto this page more frequently - for now, this is the way to get in touch with me. All else is going well, except that I'm very tired and working into the nights...

  Stuff going on. Next weekend - Feb. 6-7-8 - I will be at the Gallifrey One Dr. Who Convention, at the LAX Marriott Hotel. I'll be on a couple of panels, and doing a signing - and my lovely niece (or niece-in-law) Sara will ALSO be on a couple of fan panels. Usually Gallifrey co-incides with Strategicon, which is held at the hotel next door (the LAX Hilton) but this year, because of the NBA All-Star game, Gallifrey was moved up a weekend from its usual time-slot - so I'll miss doing the heavy cruise of the Strategicon dealer's room that I usually do. However, I'm hoping that my first official incursion into the Dr. Who universe will be released by then (it's scheduled for "February"): the audio adventure from Big Finish, "The Kraken of Hagwell." As far as I can tell, it seems like it will only be released digitally, but I'll check in the dealer's room (I don't listen to audio-books on my computer, for a variety of reasons) - also, it...

  It's time for the Christmas watchlist - a bit abbreviated this year because it's a busy and tiring Christmas. But definitely the four favorites: a) We're No Angels (few people realize what a great comic actor Humphrey Bogart was), b) Scrooged (in my opinion one of Bill Murray's greatest roles - and one of the best re-tellings of Christmas Carol on film, closely rivalled by...) c) the George C. Scott Christmas Carol. I've heard people describe d) Love Actually as "cringey" and inappropriate, and yes, some of its jokes are definitely sexist and fat-shaming... But it still makes me weep. I apologize for that. And in between all that, I continue my research into one of the weirdest alien civilizations ever to have existed on this planet: Heian-era Japan. A very, very strange world indeed.

Happy Birthday, John!