Similar to the first Saturday of May in the past, after doing all the day's things including Somerville open studios, I got almost home while there were still fifes and drums playing in the park, although the group had dwindled to about a dozen folks by the time I got there. Still cool.
We haven't switched to sword for the summer yet this year. In fact it seems like the weather hasn't switched to summer either. It keeps going into the 40s at night, although flowers are busting out all over. I did buy a drum I hardly ever practice.
Penric's Intrigues, the 4th Pen & Des collection on paper from Baen Books, should be reaching stores this week, or maybe a bit earlier -- Uncle Hugo's Science Fiction Bookstore and Dreamhaven Books & Comics here in Minneapolis have theirs already, signed.
I don't know how widely distributed this one is going to be, but in any case your favorite local bricks 'n mortar bookstore should be able to order it via their usual channels on request, if it hasn't popped up on its own.
The online booksellers will start shipping it Tuesday, which means you can hit that order button most any time now.
It contains the novel-length The Assassins of Thasalon, and the novella "Knot of Shadows".
All three of the prior volumes remain available in hardcover, and can be ordered. (Some of the paperbacks are sold out.) To recap:
Penric's Progress, containing "Penric's Demon", "Penric and the Shaman", and "Penric's Fox".
Penric's Travels, containing "Penric's Mission", "Mira's Last Dance", and "The Prisoner of Limnos".
Penric's Labors, containing "Masquerade in Lodi", "The Orphans of Raspay", and "The Physicians of Vilnoc".
A week or so ago I recorded an hour-long interview for the Baen Free Radio Hour podcast in support of the new release; I'll link it here when it goes live.
I often quote Ellis Marsalis, responding to someone who didn't like jazz and who said "I know what I like." EM: "You like what you know, and you don't know much." I did a whole post about this in 2020, with some instructive remarks from bitterlawngnome. https://lauradi7dw.dreamwidth.org/619636.html But I'm still going with my gut reactions, years later. I have decided that I have a scale 1. Actively dislike 2. neutral 3. That's nice, but I probably won't remember it 4. I like that 5. I like that so much that I will go back to the museum sometime to see it again 6. I would like to buy that so I can see it every day (and maybe touch it)
I went to the Tampa Art Museum on Monday (many concert-goers were also spending the day Namjooning https://lauradi7dw.dreamwidth.org/845822.html so I was not alone). I liked most of what I saw. I learned a lot about the innovative ceramic techniques of Jun Kaneko. I learned about local artists. I took picture, and made mental notes. This 1970 painting by Alma Thomas would be in category 6, except one doesn't even consider buying something from a museum's permanent collection. My photo doesn't do it justice, of course. I liked it up close. I liked it from across the room, at a slant.
As I mentioned, today was one of the days of Somerville Open Studios. I had not before been to the multi-person studios near the East Somerville T stop. The first building I entered had a lot of art in category 1. A lot of them were nudes. I don't object to bare skin, but in some I didn't like the paint colors and I thought most of them (by many artists) were ugly. But there were a few things I liked, and there was this, by Junggyun Park, that might almost get to category 6 in a more plausible way. I didn't actually ask the price, and it wasn't marked. I didn't like all of his stuff, but a few. I chatted with him about this. These are shrimp from his imagination/memory. There were not real shrimp posing, which was one of the things I asked. He had a smudge (maybe charcoal from sketches?) on his nose. I successfully fought the urge to wipe it off.
Another one that I liked (would be category 5 if it were in a museum) is this, by Zach Faugno-Teig. Why do I really like this one but find all his other stuff (on display and on his website) to be meh, at best?
I liked everything on display by Pauline Lim at Brickbottom*, including not just the paintings but the note on her door (a special dispensation to wear shoes in the room, due to the occasion), her living quarters, and her corsets. I texted Flo, offering to buy one of the paintings for the children, but we decided they're good without expensive art at this time. I came away with a couple of postcards. https://pauline-lim.pixels.com/
I suppose it would do me good to figure out why I feel the way I do about individual pieces of art, but for the time being, I'm OK with vibes.
A week ago I got back from Japan where I was a guest at HALCon, an annual SF/F convention held in the Kawasaki International Center, and it was awesome. (Though right now I am still dead from jet-lag.) The convention itself was great, I walked to so many cool people, and was treated to so much good food. The Japanese edition of System Collapse translated by Naoya Nakamura had won the Seiun Award, and they presented me with that, which was also awesome.
Afterward we went down to Kamakura, which was the seat of the first Shogunate, and saw the Great Buddha https://www.kotoku-in.jp/en/ and two other Buddhist temples, one in a bamboo grove, and a huge Shinto Shrine. It was an incredible trip and I'm so glad I went.
Tour dates for Platform Decay, the next Murderbot novel:
Somerville open studios this weekend. Someone by the river gave me a paper map yesterday. She and I agreed that paper might be the best way to go, but there's stuff online, of course. https://www.somervilleopenstudios.org/ I am not going to try to coordinate with the trolley. Person-at-the-river kept pointing to the map and insisting that Porter is the best T station to use, even as I kept poking the Green line stations depicted and saying it would work best for me. I hope it doesn't rain much. I'm not planning to buy art, just feel guilty about not buying art.
At a BTS concert with thousands of other fans of many colors and ages. Me looking like me, with a mask and a cooling cloth and badly spread sunscreen (also a custom-printed t-shirt suitable for the occasion that is not visible in the photo).
By the Charles River at dawn on May Day, continuing my streak that has gone on since 1978 (the event itself started in 1974, but I was in NC on May Day 1974-76 and Delaware May Day 1977). This is a twofer - I have been hanging out in English traditional folk music/SCA-adjacent spaces for my whole adult life. But I'm not the only one - there were eight bellringers at the gathering this morning, including some of the Morris dancers.
Like Shakespeare ("Twelfth Night, or what you will") or Gilbert and Sullivan ("Iolanthe, or the Peer and the Peri"), the Voting rights act is "An act to enforce the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States." https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/voting-rights-act
We have beautiful overlays from Helena Elias, and today is you chance to win a set. We made you this video explaining what the overlays are, so you have a chance to listen to me in my Sell Products Online era.
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As stated, these are prototypes, and the portraits of Sol and Ramond turned out to be a little too dark when printed, so they will be lightened for the final printing. Please note that I said 3 times in the video that these are semi-transparent. That’s because experience tells me that someone will order these and be terribly upset because they are not art prints.
If you would prefer to order Helena’s prints, they are available at her store.
Winner will be chosen next Friday, May 08, 2026. We will ship internationally; however, there is no guarantee that the prints will arrive to you. In the event the prints are lost in transit, we will not replace them and will bear no responsibility for compensating you.
I typed out a very long concert and art museum report but did it right in the composing window here instead of as a document that I frequently saved. I did something or other that deleted the whole post. I couldn't get it back through the history. I'm not going to do it again right now. I'm just going to put this link here. One of their new songs includes four lines of an old traditional folk song. Have tens of thousands of people including me singing along on Sunday evening in someone's fan cam video (but not mostly the members, who were listening to the crowd) https://youtube.com/shorts/YmMSKNrqcJM?si=aciiiGrSCIOkDOg6
"I dissent. The Voting Rights Act is—or, now more accurately, was—'one of the most consequential, efficacious, and amply justified exercises of federal legislative power in our Nation's history.' It was born of the literal blood of Union soldiers and civil rights marchers. It ushered in awe-inspiring change, bringing this Nation closer to fulfilling the ideals of democracy and racial equality. And it has been repeatedly, and overwhelmingly, reauthorized by the people's representatives in Congress. Only they have the right to say it is no longer needed—not the Members of this Court. I dissent, then, from this latest chapter in the majority's now-completed demolition of the Voting Rights Act."
Watch is especially the word for this. Thanks to the rec from Derek Guy on twitter for the part that starts at about 4:30. I am amused by the name Yung Lean, which looks Chinese to me, but presumably is meant to be a bad spelling of English. His actual (Swedish) name is Jonatan Aron Leandoer Håstad.
A week ago I was told that #18 needed to go. https://lauradi7dw.dreamwidth.org/1048278.html I called the periodontist. Wednesday they called to say they'd had a cancellation for the next day (Thursday, two days before I was going to fly to Tampa). My Thursdays often involve driving a friend to Dana Farber (and hanging out with her for the day). We agreed that the tooth opportunity was important, so I was with her for much of the day and then a different friend drove her home. I had looked at the standard guidance for post-extraction. The top thing was "don't fly for two weeks." * I assumed that my appointment would basically be a checkup to see what she thought she could do. Nope. She and the assistant were planning to remove the tooth. I pointed out the no-flying thing and said that I would be flying four times in those two weeks. She waved it away, saying that it's more of a problem with upper teeth. #18 was on the bottom. She gave me a few minutes to consider. I called Flo, who said that if the expert said it would be OK, go ahead. I agreed (with Flo) and agreed (to the procedure). It took about an hour. She prescribed a week of amoxicillin and a medicated rinse (you're not supposed to swish - you tilt your head and let it pool up around the wound for 30 seconds twice a day). I was told to eat mush food for a couple of days, no nuts for a while (a major part of my diet, so that has been hard), and chew on the right side only for quite a while. I don't like the idea of unnecessary antibiotics, but I was going to be far away and it would be a weekend, so I went along with it. I definitely didn't want an infection. When I got to Tampa I bought a tub of yogurt to try to keep some gut flora going. I told the periodontist that I was going to a BTS concert but would try not to scream. She earnestly told me to scream all I wanted. (I only screamed a little bit). They recommended icing my face and taking ibuprofen. I iced for a day and did the ibuprofen for three. The dissolvable sutures have started partly dissolving. One of them fell out earlier today. I am not done healing yet but am hopeful. I plan to invest in the implant.
*other things on the don't do list I don't do anyway, like drink alcohol or smoke or use a straw
When Flo was about seven, we went to Hawaii for a week. She kept a journal. Each day had a drawing, a description, and she summed it up by finishing "It was fun." I went to Tampa (and environs) for three days and nights. I saw Arthur's aunt, his sister, BTS, 60 thousand other fans, and an art museum. It Was Fun. I have mentally composed three posts. Sometime soon...
Mod R is out today, so you are in my semi-capable hands. This is a slice of life post.
When I was a child, time seemed to move in a straight forward way, like floating down the stream of a slow, gentle river in a little boat. Then I became an adult, and the passage of time stopped being a steady ride. Sometimes it’s a rapid current, and I don’t know what’s going on, and the boat is falling apart. Sometimes the river turns into a swamp, and I’m going in circles, rowing as fast as I can and getting nowhere. Sometimes I just give up and drift. But then there are times when I open my eyes and notice that the sky is a beautiful blue, the water is clear, and the weeping willows are bending gracefully over the banks.
April had managed to pack all of those moments into 4 weeks. It’s always a very busy month for us. Gordon and both of our daughters were all born in April. This year, there was a book tour on top of it, followed by Gordon getting sick, and then a storm that ripped the decorative shutters off our house and damaged the stucco. Through all of it, we have been working on the book, which is a mammoth at 173,000 words and still isn’t done.
The river has been clogged with debris of Not Done for a while. Boxes of books haven’t been mailed, admin tasks haven’t been attended to, phone calls haven’t been returned, and important errands haven’t been run. I haven’t unpacked. I normally unpack within 24 hours of coming home.
::stares at the suitcases::
I swear I will unpack today.
We did accomplish some things. I have gone to my medical appointments. They had given me a heart monitor out of abundance of caution, and I am delighted to report that I am allergic to whatever kind of glue is on it. I broke out in hives, and the itching was ridiculous. The monitor fell off after 5 days and I actually did a little dance of happiness. I also dragged Gordon to have an eye exam, and his new glasses have arrived. I need to drag him out again to pick them up.
We went out for a dinner with friends and then again to celebrate the birthdays. We have left the house so many times in April, it has to be a record of some kind.
We signed and mailed off 2,600 bookplates for a special book box.
We heroically cut the grass in the backyard, because we finally got rain and in the true Texas fashion, the weeds had gotten thigh-high in a space of a week. Gordon ordered a dumpster for a spring cleaning, and I am ridiculously excited, because I can clean out the back yard. It accumulates old planters, random items like rusted thingie that was used at some point to turn the shutters, and other weird stuff, and I swear that refuse keeps reproducing somehow.
Someone emailed about the mammoth I made during the Q&A. Here she is.
I made her with Premier Parfait Plush for Kid 2. The pattern is available on Etsy from KnotsandSnuggles. Their mammoth has a wider head and less curly hair, but I really liked the curls. There is no trick – they happen naturally if you pull up a longer yarn loop.
I haven’t finished the Book Tour Shawl. I am saving it for the summer trip to Columbus Book Fair.
The next project is this shawl, Frühlingserwachen. I’d love to know what that translates to.
This is a very interesting pattern that looks deceptively complex, but is actually pretty straight forward. My issue right now is that I don’t quite have the right yarn for it.
I can hear you laughing, but hear me out.
This shawl takes at least 1,200 yards. I wanted to do one of Wendy Wonders gradients with it, but realized that what I have tops out at 800 and matching to it will be difficult. I’m trying to figure out how to approach this. Should I do each section in a different color? Do I want cotton or something like Blue Heron with lurex for this or do I want wool? Fingering or DK? Should I stick to the gradient but do the narrow cross sections in a different color or would that look ugly?
I am conflicted.
Well, I need to be at work in 8 minutes, so I have to end this lovely picnic and climb back into my metaphorical boat.
This is my reminder to myself and to anyone who needs it today: the book will get finished, the chores will get finished, the planet will keep spinning. In a rush to get everything done and to catch up, let’s not forget to enjoy the river.
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