New Computer
Just trying out, to see if the new computer will let me post... and it will! One less thing to stress about!
Happy New Year!
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! Here is a deeply unflattering picture of me on the beach this morning, wearing 4 layers under my gi and looking like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man, after doing 1100 sword-cuts with my iaido group at sunrise, a dojo tradition of "spirit training." After the Misogi - as it's called - we walked down to the ocean, to watch the waves materialize out of a horizonless gray eternity of fog.
I just found your blog! Since I began reading your books before computers, it never occurred to me. And I just finished reading The Silicon Mage for the millionth time. It is so very satisfying! Thank you for sharing the fruits of your wonderful imagination and skill with us! Molly Swan-Sheeran, Lopez Is, Wa.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course, all the computer stuff in that series is hopelessly out-dated now! When I write the short novelettes about Antryg & Joanna on Kindle, I have to write them as historical pieces, taking place in an era that's gone (which is VERY strange...). (Delphi Net, anyone?)
DeleteI remember reading Silicon Mage when it first came out. Cool a woman programmer. Rare as hens teeth. I bought my first computer about that time a Hewlett Packard. It had Word before it had numbers. .9, I think. I remember writing batch files with DOS command line. And spending time on BBs whose names I don't remember now. 40-45 years ago has become history! I can't imagine how to write, now, about then. My imagination just fails me. I have I believe ( I need to check this0, all of the Silicon Mage books in paperback. Tattered but much loved. I will continue to watch for your updates on any of your series. Thanks
Delete40-45 years ago IS history! As I am reminded, every time I make a joke in my history class about John Wayne or the Godfather and they have no idea what I'm talking about. When I write the Further Adventures stories about Antryg and Joanna, I check my recollections on Google (What year were people standing in line outside toystores for the new Cabbage Patch Kids? What year were women wearing those awful break-your-neck platform shoes? Who was playing in Vegas in 1987?). Exactly like writing a historical novel (Would a fraudster have been using magic-mirror ghost illusions in 1839? Would Joan Crawford have been an extra in Hollywood in 1924? In MAY of 1924?). (Would a well-bred girl have been able to travel by herself on public transportation in 1836 I DON'T THINK SO!!! and any number of other anachronisms I have encountered in historical romantic fiction...)
DeleteI recommend highly (while I'm on this subject) Krista Ball's "What Kings Ate and Wizards Drank" and Susanne Alleyn's "Medieval Underpants", whether someone is writing historical or fantasy fiction or just wants an entertaining read.
I did have a programmer friend check through the technical bits of Silicon Mage before I turned the manuscript in. I actually worked at the plant that was the model for San Serano, and man, wasn't THAT place creepy in the middle of the night! (It's long gone now and the ground wall-to-wall condominia.)
well, I am sure you get scads of ' lets have more of ' requests but let me chime in too.
ReplyDeleteI just reviewed your books and while I love January and Asher et al and never miss one, another of the series I very much enjoyed is the Abigail Adams set.
As far as I can tell there are both artistic and practical reasons why a series or genre is left behind.
But hopefully sometimes the time is open, ideas intrigue,
and its possible to add another. If so I vote for
Abigail!
And look forward to January! Karla Z
Funny you should mention that. I've been re-reading the John & Abigail books and thinking, Boy, those are really fun and I'd love to get back to them. They're a project on the back-burner, to be returned to when I'm able to retire from teaching and have a bit more time and energy to do "spec" projects. At the time Penguin dropped the series, a series would stay dropped, but if I can get the time to write them, I could simply self-publish through Amazon Kindle and Smashwords, as I publish the further adventures. It's a question of When and How, not If.
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