michaeldthomas

How the hell is it 2011 already?!?! Seriously, it feels like we just did that whole Millennium thing. I am not a fan of this whole time-moving-quicker-as-I-get-older thing.

We had a quiet evening last night. Caitlin spent most of the morning crying every 20 minutes due to cramping and soreness. Thankfully, she felt better by the afternoon. Lynne and I "celebrated" New Year's Eve with Chinese food and awful television. At least we were together and not in a hospital. We should have friends stopping by today and tomorrow. That will be nice.

2010 was a phenomenal year for us. Like any year, it had highs and lows.

The bad:

1- My grandfather passed away.
2- Caitlin's hip surgery.
3- My big nonfiction commission was put on indefinite hiatus.
4- I didn't write anything good enough for publication.

The wonderful:

1- Caitlin stayed healthy and had a successful surgery.
2- We continued to have amazing friendships and met some new wonderful people.
3- Chicks Dig Time Lords was a major success for Lynne and Tara, leading to book signings, our first Gallifrey One convention, fanart, fanvids, interviews, convention guest invitations, and fantastic reviews. We even impressed a few famous people who worked on the show. It's been an phenomenal ride.
4- I met all of my writing goals and completed another novel.
5- Lynne and Deb finished Whedonistas.
6- The NIU SF collection grew and Lynne was even interviewed for Locus.
7- Caitlin rocked her communication device and had a smooth transition to a new school.
8- We went on an amazing Make-A-Wish trip.
9- Lynne started two SEEKRIT PROJECTS that will be big deals in the next couple of months.

2010 was a magical year for us. Let's hope 2011 continues this trend.

We couldn't have done it without all of you. Thank you for your love and support last year. You made us feel like the richest people in Bedford Falls. :-)

The doctor part was great; the drive was scary as hell.

Anyway, Caitlin's Orthopaedic surgeon took some x-rays and examined her. He thinks everything looks great. Her hips are fine, and she maintained good range of motion in her legs. The only downside is that her leg bones still haven't healed (he expected this). This means another week in the brace full-time. After that, we can remove the brace for very light stretching. In three weeks he'll examine her again to see if she can get out of the brace completely and bear weight on her legs.

This means I need to bring her to school when she goes back in two weeks since her reclining wheelchair isn't designed for the bus. Oh, well.

It took us about 45 minutes to drive to the doctor's office. It took TWO HOURS to drive home. We hit rush hour during a snowstorm with complete whiteout conditions for half of the trip. Lynne is still shaking. We seriously thought we were going to end up in a ditch.

It feels good to be home.

Caitlin is doing great. She aced her surgery. It went super smooth. Just as important, though, she didn't experience a single complication. We had a little scare on Wednesday with some red splotching around her left hip incision, but it turned out to be just surgical bruising.

Caitlin also switched from the epidural to oral pain meds without a hitch. The only major issue of the week was her lack of peeing after the removal of the epidural. It came out Friday morning. Basically, the pee countdown started at 2 pm. We could have gone home as soon as she proved capable of doing it on her own. We thought this meant we would be out of there Friday evening. Then we waited. And waited. 8 1/2 hours later, the nurse prepped a new catheter to drain Cait so we could start over again. Finally, she peed before the nurse could act. By that point, though, it was too late to start the discharge process.

Everything went real smooth on Saturday until rarelylynne tried to start the car. Due to the overhead light being left on and the cold. the battery wasn't cooperating. We didn't cry. Security gave us a jump and all was right in the world again (the battery seems fine now). After laying Cait down in the backseat with a complicated harness system, we finally came home.

Caitlin is on less drugs, but she's still pretty out of it. She and Lynne are sleeping in this morning. Sleep is easier without roommates and nurses.

I want to thank all of you for the thoughts and prayers. Special shout outs go to my aunt and uncle, taraljc, and marydell for visiting us and bringing prezzies for Cait (and delicious food for us). Also, a special thanks to Sarah and David and scarlettgirl for the balloons and prezzies sent to the room. All of the love cheered us up.

Cait's follow up is a week from Monday. Until then, we're stuck in the house. As always, visitor are appreciated. :-)

Caitlin's surgery went "awesome" according to her doctor. She is now resting comfortably in her room.

[rarelylynne posting for Team Thomas]

Finished. 49,600 words later, I have a first draft of my mid-grade fantasy novel, The Scarlet Queen.

It needs major rewrites, but I made it over the first big hurdle.

rarelylynne and I will be at WindyCon this Saturday and Sunday. I'm not on any panels. Here's Lynne's schedule:

Chicks Dig Time Lords
Sunday, Noon
Lynne M. Thomas, Jody Lynn Nye, Jennifer Adams Kelley

Since we're basically free all weekend, feel free to come find us in the halls or lobby. We'll have Caitlin with us, so we should be easy to locate. :-)

Internet kerfuffles sometimes meld with other ideas in my brain. I really don’t have much of an opinion about Steampunk as a sub-genre of literary SF/F. I haven’t read enough Steampunk lit in order to make any sweeping statements. Based on spending a few minutes at TeslaCon this weekend and last year’s WindyCon, I know lots of people are enjoying it. One question raised during the whole discussion, though, stuck with me. Why do people passionately embrace Steampunk in 2010?

The more I pondered it, the more I thought about my family’s trip to Epcot a few weeks ago. My last visit had been in 1989. Back then, the front half of Epcot was designed to act like a never-ending World’s Fair called Future World. Corporate sponsors helped create pavilions that showcased future possibilities, usually with films and audio-animatronic characters. By 2010, most of those optimistic ventures have been replaced with typical Disney theme rides. What happened?

The future died.
( Read more )

It just keeps on growing. For those of you keeping score at home, here is the current list of SF/F Professionals archiving with rarelylynne at Northern Illinois University:

Jack McDevitt
Carol Emshwiller
Tamora Pierce
Eric Flint
David Weber
Kage Baker
Patricia Wrede
Pamela Dean
Sharon Shinn
Elizabeth Bear
Pat Murphy
Robert Asprin
Jody Lynn Nye
Caroline Stevermer
Will Shetterly
E.E. Knight
Catherynne M. Valente
Tobias Buckell
Sarah Monette
Kristine Smith
Tim Pratt
Nnedi Okorafor
Jim C. Hines
Sarah Prineas
L. Timmel Duchamp
Nisi Shawl
Alma Alexander
Kelly McCullough
Naomi Kritzer
Lyda Morehouse/Tate Hallaway
Alex Bledsoe
Mary Robinette Kowal
Rebecca Ore
Jennifer Stevenson
Cat Rambo
Ted Kosmatka
Richard Chwedyk
Steven H Silver
Lori Devoti
Mark Rich
Donald Bingle
Elise Matheson
Catherine Lundoff
Jaime Lee Moyer
Heather Shaw
Sean M. Murphy

There are over 30 more authors who have said yes but haven't sent anything in yet.

Since I'm an aspiring author, I want to get this future post out of the way.

I hate the state of the publishing industry in the 2020s. That new, successful sub-genre sure does suck. I mean, come on! Who reads that stuff? The stuff I write is much more serious. My fans are smart. The fans of that new, successful sub-genre are soooo stupid. I'm writing this post because I really care about the quality of the industry. This has nothing to do with the fact that the new, hot sub-genre outsells my books by a lot. No sirree, no sour grapes here...

There. Now I don't have to write that BS later. :P

1- The Whedonistas manuscript is in the hands of the Mad Norwegian. The "final" edits consumed our last week. I'm proud of all of the hard work rarelylynne and Deb Stanish put into this book. There are some magnificent essays in it. If you like Chicks Dig Time Lords and the works of Joss Whedon, you'll love this book.

Now we wait for the Mad Norwegian's notes...

2- We celebrated Lynne's birthday with the now-annual Squee Weekend (or Squeekend if you prefer). dark_aegis and nnwest drove in from their neighboring state while mrsdrdavison wandered over from her digs. We ate pizza, Portillo's, and cupcakes while watching a metric ton of Doctor Who. Lynne showed off her completed Tom Baker Season 18 scarf, and many racy things were said. Good times.

We've also decided that taraoshea should feed different Doctor Who celebrities in the Chicago TARDIS Green Room dishes based on the recipes they gave to The Doctor Who Cookbook back in the 1980s. We really want to see Frazer Hines eat his Mushrooms McCrimmon. ;-)

3- I'm reading Matthew Waterhouse's memoir Blue Box Boy. I can guarantee that Doctor Who fans will be talking about this books for years to come. :-)