Anyone who has ever had to deal with convention dealer rooms, crafts-show booths, or anything similar needs to read today's Two Lumps. Scroll down slowly for full effect. My partner howled so loudly from the back of the house that I had to go ask what the hell was going on!
Paul & Jacque (317-318): Wow. Both of those links are mind-bogglingly cool!
Xopher, #300: Holy chocolate, Batman! What would it take to get you down here for Chocolate Decadence this coming year?
green_knight, #167: I think Paula's analysis is correct. It's the scammer's version of the same reason that our Move Along T-shirt continues to be a good seller rather than saturating its market: every year there are new potential customers moving into the age-group that buys it. And on the scale of ASI/Horizons, it doesn't take a very high penetration percentage to yield a worthwhile ROI, especially with Harlequin doing the kickback referrals.
John A, #255: "Burglar" doesn't seem to be available as a charm from any of my regular sources. "Pirate", however, is; would that be an acceptable substitute? If so, drop me a line (fgneqernzre@zvaqfcevat.pbz) and we can negotiate.
Serge, #36: Janet Kagan beat you to it, in Return of the Kangaroo Rex. (Note: this is one of the stories featured in the collection Mirabile.)
Linkmeister, #37: Oh, dear. That just begs to be Photoshopped, doesn't it?
Also, if they're talking about the first MI movie, it doesn't focus on a "rogue" but on a traitor -- a highly-placed one. Is that REALLY the association they want us to make?
Teresa: Your response, OTOH, is epic win.
Maya, #110: I suspect that Thomas Nelson is getting away with this because most of their writers have nowhere else to go. I also suspect that the lack of critical commentary about that venture is one of the reasons Harlequin thought they could get away with doing something similar.
AKICIML: I have a large (about 5" long) half-shell that I want to make into an art-jewelry pendant. The back side, which will be hanging toward the wearer, is... as rough as natural shells tend to be; that's not terribly rough, but I'm still thinking that I'd like to put some sort of coating on it to smooth it out a bit. Can someone suggest a transparent coating substance that won't damage the shell, flake off with wear, or be toxic/irritating to the wearer if the pendant is being worn with a low-cut neckline?
Just to clarify -- when I said I wondered how established Harlequin authors were going to feel about this, I was thinking more about Harlequin having established a vanity-publishing arm than the RWA announcement. If I were a non-vanity Harlequin writer, I would certainly feel that this had damaged my credibility in the market, and would be looking to change publishers forthwith.
I'm impressed.
What I now wonder is how Harlequin's established authors are going to react? They can't be thrilled about this.
Birth of a new species observed.
How cool is that?
dcb, #83: I've read several times that many people, writing up their PhD, end up with a wonderfully clean and tidy house, etc. etc. - anything to avoid actually sitting down and writing the thesis - so you're not alone in this.
That doesn't just happen with theses, either. Nothing puts me more in the mood to do housework than knowing I really need to be making up stock for an upcoming show!
Also, another vote for "please post your tips". Not that I'm writing anything for which I might need them, but I'm always fascinated by the things people come up with to help them spot and correct errors.
nerdycellist, #96: That's cool!
Earl, #47: Better yet: first, seed the comments with a couple of train-themed poems, then post the URL to several large train-enthusiast mailing lists.
Sylvie, #7: Everyone else has offered good advice. It's hard, and will never be anything but hard, but it's one of the inevitabilities we accept when we bring a companion animal into our lives. My late beloved Mina made it to age 23, and that was really hard -- I'd had her for half of my life! But I think the pain may have been blunted for me because we had other cats, so there wasn't that shock of coming home to a now-empty house. If/when you get to the point of having another pet, you might want to consider getting two of somewhat different ages for that reason.
I spent a lot more on beads than I'd intended to this weekend, but I think I'm going to get a lot of good finished product out of it.
I also found out that cartridge casings make excellent cord-tips for kumihimo cords. Talk about thinking outside the box!
GoodThoughts being sent.
albatross, #824: My partner (who has a lot more experience with hardware stores than I do) says that the big-box stores are fine if all you need is stuff in the fastest-moving 30% of any given category. If you're looking for one of those odd bits that nobody needs until they need it NOW, you're much more likely to find it in an independent store -- especially one that's been around for a long time.
My personal datapoint to add to this: some 15 years ago, I salvaged a couple of file cabinets that my office was discarding. One of them had the key broken off in the lock. I had both halves of the key, but none of the big-box stores could help me because all they had were the fancy new electronic key-cutting machines. The little hardware store down the street, which still had an old-style mechanical key machine, was able to clamp the two pieces in place and cut me a new key that worked.
WRT restaurants, our opinion is that chains are for when you're on the road and don't want any surprises, especially if you're either tired or in a hurry. When we're visiting friends in a strange city, we always ask to be directed to the good local places!
Jacque, #825: "Recreational surgery"??!!! Do I want to know, even in general terms?
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