I can’t begin to formulate a post on how awful the tragedy is in Moore, Oklahoma after the tornado yesterday. If you’re like me and you wish you could do something, anything, to help those who lost everything, here are a couple reputable charities.

Samaritan’s Purse. 4 Star rating on Charity Navigator. Website is here. Twitter is @SamaritansPurse . Donations also accepted via text: “SP” to 80888 for a $10 donation (US). Msg and data rates may apply.

If you prefer to donate to another charity, here is a link to Charity Navigator, which screens charities to weed out the scam ones.

And in the midst of all the heartbreaking stories coming out of Oklahoma, here was one that made me cry happy tears:

Woman finds dog in rubble on live TV.

Mirrored from Frost Light.

Originally published at Cassie Alexander. You can comment here or there.

I just figured out what’s going to happen at the very end of Bloodshifted. I knew, to some degree, what would happen, but not how — and it just leapt out and bit me.

It’s huge and it’s scary, and I can’t believe I didn’t see until just now how the entire theme and tone of the book was building towards this one precise moment. I’m going to take the rest of the night off to think about the implications of it for future books, because lordy are there going to be some, but but but, it is going to be so cool.

The fact that I’m scared of it means it’s the right thing to do. Right? Right :D

 

It feels like it’s been raining every day where I live, and the weather has me wanting to cocoon on the couch with a good book or a good TV show. Of course I can’t do either because I have to work, but a girl can covet, right? I have a bunch of books in my “Can read when I finish writing Up From the Grave!” pile, and here are some TV shows coming out in the fall that I’m looking forward to.

DRACULA, starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Nonso Anozie and Jessica De Gouw. Do I really need to elaborate on why I’m looking forward to this show? . Link to trailer here.

 

SLEEPY HOLLOW, starring Tom Minson, Nicole Beharie, Richard Cetrone, John Cho, and Gordon Dillard Jr. I’ve been fascinated by the story of the Headless Horseman since I was a child, so I can’t wait to see this retelling setting Headless and Ichabod Crane (and a sexy Ichabod at that!) in modern times. In fact, I’m so sold on the story that I stopped watching the trailer halfway through so I wouldn’t be spoiled on any plot points. Can’t wait! Trailer link here.

 

ALMOST HUMAN, starring Karl Urban, Michael Ealy, and Lili Taylor. Did you see the part where it’s starring Karl Urban? That alone would’ve sold me. Add in the show being produced by J.J. Adams (who produced Fringe and directed the new Star Trek movies, to name a few) and the cool-looking scifi elements in the trailer and I’m marking this as must-see tv. Link to trailer.

 

Marvel Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., starring  Clark Gregg, Brett Dalton, Ming-Na Wen, Iain De Caestecker, Elizabeth Henstridge and Chloe Bennet. Produced by Joss Whedon. I probably don’t need to say more to some of you, but as a superhero movie junkie and a big Whedon fan, I’m all over this one. Plus, it proves what I’ve hoped for since seeing The Avengers – agent Coulson isn’t dead! *throws confetti* Long live agent Coulson! Trailer link here.

So, that’s what I’m looking forward to in new shows. Am I missing any exciting debuts?

Mirrored from Frost Light.

Well, folks, my convention season has started in earnest, and this time tomorrow, I will be on a big metal sky-bird, wending my way to sunny Florida to rejoin my Disney Magic Bitches, along with the Chicago Crew and my Alabama family, at our second home: Disney World. Yes, Disney World, which in the summer plays host to a plethora of lizards, snakes, and local amphibians. It is going to be HOT AND COLD RUNNING FROGS all up in there, let me assure you.

After we get our Disney on, I'll be decamping to OASIS, the annual Orlando Area Science Fiction Society convention, where I am the guest of honor! Woo-hoo! We're still crunching out exactly what my schedule at the con is going to be, so I can't post it for you here, but I can assure you that if you're in the Orlando area, you should swing on by and enjoy the many rapturous delights offered by a con featuring me in my post-Disney high. Seriously, it's like chilling with Delirium as redesigned for Disney's Brief Lives, and you know you want to see that.

While I'm in transit, I will not be entirely offline, but I will be mostly offline, due to the part where I am not going to be checking my email from the Haunted Mansion and I don't know what the internet situation will be at the OASIS hotel. Please expect delays in responses until I get back, and for a week or so after, while we get back up to normal service levels.

ONE SLEEP TO DISNEY.

I cannot wait. I need this so bad, you have no idea.

DISNEY.

So it's May 15th, and I'm two sleeps away from hopping onto a plane bound for Orlando, Florida, which means I'm scrambling a little to get everything positioned, polished, and ready to go. And because it's the middle of the month, it's time for the post in which I tell you what I'm working on, and you finally understand why I don't have time for tea.

To quote myself, being too harried to say something new: "These posts are labeled with the month and year, in case somebody eventually gets the crazy urge to timeline my work cycles (it'll probably be me). Behold the proof that I don't actually sleep; I just whimper and keep writing."

Please note that all books currently in print are off the list, as are those that have been turned in but not yet printed (Parasite, Chimes at Midnight). The cut-tag is here to stay, because no matter what I do, it seems like this list just keeps on getting longer. But that's okay, because at least it means I'm never actively bored. I have horror movies and terrible things from the swamp to keep me company.

Not everything on this list has been sold. I will not discuss the sale status of anything which has not been publicly announced. If you can't remember whether I've announced something, check the relevant tag, or go to my website, at www.seananmcguire.com. Please do not ask why project X is no longer on the list. I will not answer you.

( What's Seanan working on now? Click to find out!Collapse )

Originally published at Cassie Alexander. You can comment here or there.

By now, those of you who are Gordon Ramsey fans like myself have seen the Kitchen Nightmares with the frankly insane woman on it, causing GR, a man known for being willing to throw down, to simply give up and walk away.

Her utter inability to admit that something’s wrong when presented with an internet’s worth of evidence made it the most compelling Kitchen Nightmare in years — no amount of hidden mold in a not-so-cold freezer can compete with epic trainwreck.

As awful as she was though (and as cathartic as it was to see Gordon realize what was going on, try to break through, and then finally give up), I do have some small amount of sympathy for her. Because to be successful as a writer you do have to know where the line of denial is and then step widely over it.

When you start out so many people aren’t going to believe in you, it’s not funny. Your spouse, your teachers, your relatives — hell, you won’t even believe in you (if you’re me). The only thing that’ll get you through the doldrums of disbelief is one hell of a crazy case of self-denial.

Not surprisingly, seeing as writers lie for money, we lie to ourselves all the damn time. You start off pretending a project doesn’t mean that much to you, or that you’re writing it to learn, or that you’re writing it for art, or that you need to do something during your lunch break. You tell yourself that your book is genius, that you’re a genius, that if not this book, then the next one. You send stories or novels out and start getting in rejections, and that’s the icing on the lie-cake — maybe my protagonist looked like that editor’s ex-wife, maybe I formatted it wrong, maybe space opera isn’t in (again) this year.

Because on some level the self-denial does protect you, and you need it to survive. You may know you need to get better, and can see yourself getting better, but if you don’t give your self-esteem a space place to grow and experiment, you’ll never achieve better. I know a lot of writers who know what level they feel they ought to be writing to, and because they’re not there yet, they harangue themselves endlessly and don’t accomplish very much. They haven’t learned to lie to protect themselves yet.

At the center of each successful artistic career there has to be a seed-sprout of outrageous sheer belief in who you are and what you’re working on right now.

The secret is to use the moments of willful self-denial to benefit and shield that outrageousness — because honestly, thinking that anyone is ever going to give two fucks about any artistic endeavor in this day and age is, just like JEM, truly outrageous.

But you have to be in control of the self-denial, and know that you’re in control of it, in some deep down way — and not to use the lies to become someone with an inflexible worldview with an “us vs them” mentality.

I feel bad for that lady even though she’s clearly awful, because maybe (as I write here from my penthouse office in Projection Central) she had to tell herself some things to get by in the early days starting out as a baker-artist. But she never had nor gained the introspection to realize that there’s a vast gulf between the lies we tell ourselves to get by and the lies we ought to expect other people to believe, which is a pity because those cakes looked pretty damn good.

 

• Mon, 13:29: Hmmm. Lemon and maple extract are NOT the same. Two bottles on same counter, was NOT looking when I added more of what I thought was lemon.
• Mon, 14:30: Thunder and lightning and hail, OH MY! And wind.
• Mon, 14:30: RT @PSETalk: We're seeing your tweets about downed power lines - stay safe! Stay clear of all downed lines! Assume they're energized & neve…
• Mon, 14:30: RT @KIRO7Seattle: RT @puyalluppd: Shaw closed Pioneer to 15th. PSE on scene to shut off power for tree removal. Est 1 hr to reopen. http://…
• Mon, 14:31: RT @KIRO7Seattle: RT @samargier: 375 lightning strikes in the last hour with the thunderstorms that moved across Puget Sound. http://t.co/…
• Mon, 14:36: RT @ShelbieKnight: @YasmineGalenorn Yes, it is pretty darn wild out there today!! Thunder so damned loud that it shook my entire house! =0
• Mon, 14:38: RT @KING5Seattle: RT @PuyallupPD: Traffic Alert: Shaw Road closed in both directions due to downed power lines at 1100 block.
• Mon, 14:39: Short break but it's darkening up again for another round!
• Mon, 14:51: RT @KIRO7Seattle: RT @valleyfire: Firefighters at Green River CC, large tree knocked powerlines down onto 20 cars, one car occupied
• Mon, 15:10: RT @KIRO7Seattle: RT @iaff3520: Tree into house 12700 Blk 53rd St Ct E, Sumner Heights area of Edgewood. http://t.co/tEoVPmbNFF

( Read more...Collapse )