A quick update from KCMO (Kay Cee Moe, or Kansas City Missouri) and KCK (Kay Cee Kay, Kansas City Kansas). The weather has been hinges-of-hell-hot, with Saigon levels of humidity. Good thing the hotel is air-conditioned.

Despite the heat, I took the "short two-block walk" to the WWI Museum and Memorial. It is in fact two blocks, but that's to the bottom of a 300-foot-high hill! After I hiked up to the top of the hill, I decided that I didn't need to go to the gym this weekend. Having said that, the museum is well worth the time, just take a cab to get there.

At the con, Hadley Rille authors played charades against Yard Dog Press writers. We won, despite various rude gestures by the (not really) shy and reserved owner of Yard Dog. Today I've got two panels, then we're going to my publisher's house for barbecue. I'm flying out tomorrow at a relatively civilized 10:30 AM, and will be back in Chicago for lunch.

The view out my window:



Other news:

1) The hotel, a Sheraton, is being renovated, and the lobby is tore up. Second convention hotel under construction.

2) Said hotel put me in a room that was already occupied. Fortunately, the occupant(s) were elsewhere, but still, I had to lug luggage around twice.

3) We did our book reading / signing at Prospero's in one of KC's yuppie districts. It was reasonably well attended. We got hit with a thunderstorm just as the event ended, which made loading of the Hadley Rille-mobile interesting, but we were successful in the end.

The convention starts today, and I have two early panels. Wish me luck!

Sorry, folks, nothing of interest to share today. I'll be traveling tomorrow and at ConQuesT in Kansas City over the weekend, so expect light and sporadic updates.

Like the title says:

A) SpaceX successfully launched a Dragon capsule on a mission to dock with the International Space Station. Go baby go!

B) Victoria Strauss at Writer Beware has won the Independent Book Blogger Award for best publishing business blog.

C) The birthers are going two-for-two. The crack investigative team of Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio sent somebody on a taxpayer-funded vacation to Hawaii to get Obama's birth certificate. This was apparently in response to Arizona's Secretary of State asking Hawaii to certify their records. Hawaii's response has been tell us why you can't read the birth certificate.

ETA (5/23/12): The Arizona Secretary of State is now convinced Obama is eligible to be President.

I will be attending ConQuesT in Kansas City, KS this coming weekend. I will also be attending a mass signing / reading event at Prospero's Books in Kansas City Thursday evening. I don't have a solid time on that event.

Here is my tentative ConQuesT schedule:

Friday

2 PM - How Genetics Will Repopulate The Planet (Fremont Room)

4 PM - Dystopian Futures: Why We Love The Downfall of Society (Fremont)

Saturday

7 PM - Dark and Gritty: Today's SF (Benton B)

Sunday

12 noon - Scriptwriting (Northrup)

2 PM - either Villians (Benton B) or Family Friendly and Hopeful (Northrup) [my current copy has me in both places - I assume Concom will resolve this]

Apparently I'll be earning my keep this weekend!

I'm back from the lovely Blue Harbor Resort in Sheboygan, WI. Below was the view out my hotel window:





Normal postings will resume.

I'm back in town for the day, and heading tomorrow to the Blue Harbor Resort in lovely Sheboygan, WI for Rotary. Sorry, no content to report.

Travelling tomorrow, and Rotary today, so have a few links:

A) On the piracy front, I see that the European Union has attacked pirate bases on land. I've reported previously, in a life-imitating-art mode, that insurance companies are building their own anti-piracy navy. Well, the first seven ships of that navy will soon be at sea.

B) Presented without comment: Legalize Pot, Save Public Education, and end Student Indebtedness.

C) Definitely presented without comment: Invasion of the Austerians.

My new mattress came Saturday, so for the first time in a month I slept in the master bedroom. My construction guy has a few final clean-up items, including door knobs for the bedroom (it broke on him while he was inside, forcing him to cut the knob off), but the house is almost done. Just in time for me to fly out on business and then our annual Rotary weekend in Wisconsin. Such is life. Also, due to my on-the-roadedness, posting here may be light.

In other news, Pete's Fresh Market opened up a couple of blocks from my house. It's number nine of a small Chicago-area grocery chain. I did my regular weekend shopping there. As one would expect from a "fresh" market, they have a spectacular produce section, and a really impressive meat and deli section. They also have a large buffet area, where one can buy ready-to-eat stuff and eat there or take home.

What they lack is some of the stuff that I personally want in a grocery store. For example, the only "dark" pop they had in diet was Dr. Pepper. Their cookie selection was slim, as was their bakery. Now, Chicago is not short of grocery stores, so if you're running an independent operation, you need to differentiate yourself by providing stuff the big guys don't, so I get the marketing strategy. Unfortunately, I'm not a fan of making two grocery store runs, so we'll see how much business I end up giving Pete.

Like the title says.

A) Of interest to gun people, and presented without comment, ammunition for the self-defense firearm.

B) In a reminder that the world is a small place, A web of privilege supports this so-called meritocracy.

C) Over 66 percent of guns recovered at crime scenes in Mexico that officials asked the U.S. government to trace were sourced to the United States, according to data released Thursday by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

D) Finish Off Al Qaeda. Stop Trying to Fix Afghanistan.

E) There's been a lot of talk lately about how the Federalist Papers are the "bible" through which we should interpret the Constitution. Well, this fellow, who's writing a book on the Federalist Papers, thinks differently.

F) Ten interesting laws for writing science fiction.

I have never read any of the works of J. R. R. Tolkien. Besides that fact that this admission may force me to give up my Official Nerd ID Card, this should tell you that I am not a fan of fantasy, epic or otherwise. However, since I knew several of the authors in the new anthology The Modern Fae’s Guide to Surviving Humanity (hereinafter called “Modern Fae”) I decided to give the anthology a chance. I’m glad I did.

The conceit of the anthology is that traditional fantasy characters, elves and the like have to survive in the modern day. This keeps the epic down to a low roar.

The first story out of the shoot is Seanean McGuire’s “We Will Not Be Undersold,” which is a wonderful tale of selling one’s soul (perhaps a bit too literally) to one’s work. Anybody who’s ever stepped foot in a “big box” discount store would appreciate this gem.

“Changeling” by Susan Jett is a fascinating story of a mother’s love, and it’s followed by “Water-Called,” a story of science and fantasy intersecting in the form of a water fairy. “The Roots of Aston Quercus” marries the old concept of dryads with urban renewal and modern environmentalism. Avery Shade’s “To Scratch an Itch” proved to be a fine coming-of-age tale.

The next story in the line-up, Kristine Smith’s “Continuing Education” was a story I had the privilege of hearing the author read at a Chicago-area convention. It was unique in that Smith told her story from the point of view of a normal human, not (as in the other stories) from a fae. This was bookended nicely by Barbara Ashford’s “How To Be Human ™,” which was the story of a fairy trying to make a living as a motivational speaker to humans.

Anton Stout’s story “Hooked” proved to be an interesting twist on a detective story, set in New York’s Central Park. This was followed by S. C. Butler’s story “Crash,” also set in New York, which told the tale of what really happens if you get hold of a leprechaun’s treasure.

“Fixed” by Jean Marie Ward was an interesting tale with a surprise ending, discussing the downsides of being able to change from animal to human form. Elizabeth Bear, one of the most prolific authors in SF and Fantasy, contributed a neat story called “The Slaughtered Lamb” which mixed traditional fantasy and very non-traditional gender roles. Closing out this anthology in strong fashion was my friend Jim C. Hines, going darker than his novel-length work with a short story called “Corrupted.”

All in all, a very solid collection, and well worth your time, even if you don’t read fantasy.

I now have a fully-operational Death Star kitchen! Even better, the cleaning ladies come today, so several shovels of construction dust should depart in their wake. My house is almost back to normal!

A history lesson from one of my favorite authors, Elizabeth Moon. The Greatest Generation and their lessons for today. The whole thing is great, but the money quote is:

The Depression did not teach self-reliance, for instance, or the need for free enterprise, or the need for lower taxation, less government regulation, and less government spending. On the contrary, those policies failed visibly, and the expansionary policies adopted instead are the reason we had the resources--the human resources, the infrastructure resources, the manufacturing capacity--to field a huge military effort and support it with domestic production. Most of the young men joining the military in 1941 had benefited from one or another government program that provided a combination of useful work, good food, medical care, discipline, and training in cooperative effort...exactly what you want your recruits to have in their background.

My latest magnum opus, Pirates of Mars, is featured on The Indie Spotlight.

AC fixed - problem was electrical and not related to my recent flood.

My heat works. My central air conditioning does not, a fact which I determined with sweat dripping off my nose at 9 PM last night. I very nearly tossed some clothes in a bag and checked into a hotel.

I am so tired of living in a construction / demolition zone!

Several links that I found humorous, one of them which is also serious.

A) A bit of nuclear-grade snark: The National Post has learned that Canada and Denmark are apparently this close to hammering out a deal over Hans Island, the vitally important strategic chokepoint that has kept these two warrior nations on the brink of mutual annihilation for the last eight years. With a little luck and perhaps some Annan-style shuttle diplomacy, our long national nightmare might soon be over.

B) This one is funny for its opening line, but makes a serious point: The United States is a bit like a 375-pound, middle-aged man with a heart condition walking down a city street at night eating a Big Mac. He's sweating profusely because he's afraid he might get mugged. But the thing that's going to kill him is the burger.

C) Here's not so much one line as a collection of comedy gold: Metaphors Be With You. An example: Most of her cooking ended out as the culinary equivalent of the Tunguska event - Jasper Fforde

From the service writer, "Saturns are good cars but they eat keys."

I caught mine before it ate another one.

That's "one more time with emotion."

I was at Windy City Pulp and Paper Show over the weekend. It was rather a bust, full of lookie-lous and lacking in buyers. When you see the same guy taking his third loop through the show without having bought anything, that's not a good sign. I didn't sell anything, and Greg Ketter of DreamHaven, whose table I was at, told me he was selling at half the rate he wanted. So, unless Greg had a booming Sunday, he's not happy.

The Great Drain of Gerrib

I give you a new modern marvel, the Great Drain of Gerrib: