michaeldthomas

No, I didn't quit LJ for Google +.

The last few weeks have been crazy busy. We had wonderful times at 4th Street Fantasy Conversation and CONvergence. We're only now just coming back to reality.

I would write con reports, but they would look like this:

1- We hung out with friends. Many of them are in the SF/F industry. :-)
2- We ate with friends. Mmm, food.
3- Drinking might have occurred, followed by gossiping, pontificating, and/or handstands.
4- We learned many secrets and got caught up in some small dramas (no permanent damage).
5- Lynne was magnificent. You should have seen her in that one dress.
6- Caitlin had a great time at my mom's.
7- We miss our friends. :-(

As we become more embedded in the community, there's just less and less I can talk about. It makes for a great life, but it's lousy for blogging.

Other than coming home to dead A/C (now fixed), everything else is fine. There should be a BIG ANNOUNCEMENT about my editor wife in a week or two (many of you already know what I'm talking about).

That's it for the next few weeks. Lynne is editing Chicks Dig Comics and working on the SF Squeecast. She should also be finished with The Scarlet Queen by the end of the week. Beta Readers should have it in two weeks.

We're pretty much ready for WorldCon.

Caitlin finishes Summer School this week. I'm working on a troublesome short story.

How are you?

We picked up Caitlin's back brace on Thursday. We're calling it her HAPPY BUTTERFLY CORSET. Caitlin doesn't mind wearing it, and it helps her with her trunk control when she's sitting in a chair. Hopefully, her trunk muscles won't weaken too much from using it.

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After we picked up her brace, we went to 2 different malls so Lynne could TRY ON ALL THE SHOES. She's on the hunt for the perfect pair of shoes for her Hugo gown. She found one possible pair, but the price was too high.

Caitlin bought me some early Father's Day gifts while we were out including a vintage "Hot Rod" Rowdy Roddy Piper t-shirt, two new shirts for con going, and The Very Best of WCW Nitro DVD set. (DON"T JUDGE ME!)

When we got home, the mail contained our new Pertwee DVDs. YAY PREZZIES!

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We were about to leave the house for my cousin's Home from the Navy party when I discovered a leak from the toilet base. After playing phone tag with the plumber and getting a confirmation from him on my diagnosis, I decided to make the repairs myself.

We spent the night at our friends Sarah and David's house. This was GREAT FUN for Caitlin since she thought it was a sleepover with their baby, Iris.

Our friends Stacey and Dan came over to lend a hand the next day. The repair was easy and cheap. Thankfully, I wasn't surprised with any scary complications.

So far, everything seems fixed. I'm glad that we have wonderful friends. :-)

Caitlin had her next follow-up appointment with her Orthopedic Surgeon today. We've had better appointments.

On the plus side, her hips are healed. He also looked at her aching left knee and hamstring. The doctor feels that they will loosen up and stop hurting if we use Cait's leg immobilizer at night.

Unfortunately, we also had some bad news. Caitlin's scoliosis is now at 50 degrees. That explains her trouble sitting for long periods at school. He wants her to wear a hard back brace for sitting. Using a brace will unfortunately weaken her trunk muscles and make her dependent on it in the future. The brace won't correct the scoliosis or stop its progression. That's the really bad news. It looks like Caitlin will need back surgery in a couple of years. This will be a much bigger surgery than the hips.

:(

I could really use some good news right about now.

1- Caitlin had more seizures on Friday. We didn't have to use her emergency Diastat, but we now know she's definitely back on that monthly seizure schedule. On the plus side, it's still only one bad day a month. On the minus side, they're still massive seizures. Caitlin's Epileptologist/Neurologist increased her Sabril in response. Thank the maker that Sabril is now FDA-approved. That would have been a financial disaster two years ago.

2- Since I didn't have to use Diastat, I spent the whole day hovering over her and watching every twitch and movement. Lynne came home early to help. Yeah, we've had better days.

This colored our whole weekend. Once the crisis ended, we had plenty of time to process and be miserable-- especially once Caitlin went to bed each evening. This is why we fill our lives with work and distractions. It's very hard to watch our little girl go through the epilepsy and pain. It's tough when we stop long enough to think about Caitlin's future. We know that her best days are very likely already behind her.

3- On a cheerier note, crazy doors are opening for Lynne left and right. It seems that every time she completes an awesome project, two more take its place.

4- I'm revising this week. Along with my mid-grade fantasy novel, I'm working on my most recent short story. Most of my crit partners have sent me their notes. Now I just need to work up the courage to read them. :-)

5- The one good thing that happened on Friday came in the mail. We spent the weekend consuming our Kinda and Snakedance DVDs. We still love the hell out of those stories. We also picked up a copy of Sunday in the Park with George on CD. Now that I'm in my mid-30s, I'm really learning to appreciate Sondheim.

Slowly but surely, rarelylynne's SEEKRIT PROJECTS are becoming public. She is wicked excited about Chairing the next Tiptree Award jury. It's an amazing group of jurors (Karen Meisner, James Davis Nicoll, Tansy Roberts, and Nisi Shawl). They've been setting things up over the last couple of days. It looks like Lynne has some reading to do over the next few months. :-)

If you know of an SF/F book or story that you think "expands or explores our understanding of gender" from this year or the last few months of last year, please email your recommendation to the jury at nominate@tiptree.org. That's one of the ways they discover these gems.

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The Whedonistas's launch went well. The publisher is pleased with the sales, and the reviews are positive. It looks like we're having a launch party at WisCon. Now all we need to do is plan it. :-)

In case you're curious, here are all of the Whedonistas's reviews:
( Reviews )
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Caitlin's Spring Break is over, so it's back to the writing mines for me. I need to revise a short story this week.

Real life is managing to be as real as possible.

1- Entropy visited our home again. This morning the fridge started to make noises like the Tin Man with an upper respiratory infection. It's been a loud fridge for a long time, so its immanent demise comes as no surprise. Luckily, Lowe's had a nearly identical fridge on sale and in stock. Nice people will bring it here tomorrow while taking away the old one. Other than the dryer, that means every appliance in our household has been repaired or replaced in the last month (plus a kitchen sink repair). Homeownership is fun!

2- Caitlin is doing much better. She made it through the last few days of school without any screaming fits. Her brain has also been stable. Hooray for good Caitlin health!

3- Pink Raygun gave Whedonistas a good review.

4- I like my new short story (so far).

5- The week started off with the deaths of comic book creator Dwayne McDuffie and Doctor Who Brigadier actor Nick Courtney. They both will be greatly missed. I keep tearing up from all of the wonderful remembrances.

How are you?

11 years ago today, rarelylynne and I were married in a Unitarian church in Hamden, CT.

Yeah, that kind of rocked. :-)

We went out to lunch at the local Middle Eastern joint yesterday. Today I'm watching Cait while Lynne works on a SEEKRIT PROJECT (if you were quick to the CONvergence programming page this week, you might know what it is).

In other news:

1- Lynne guest blogged about Chicks Dig Time Lords at jimhines's blog for his First Book Friday series.

2- There's an AMAZING review of Chicks Dig Time Lords on the Tin Dog Podcast. It made Lynne cry.

3- shsilver reviewed Whedonistas. It's the first of hopefully many. :-)

1- Caitlin is still progressing. :-)

2- I spent this week doing small home repairs. I replaced a borked drain on our kitchen sink. Thank the maker for youtube repair vids. I love that I live in a world where I can learn how to repair things in minutes rather than paying big money to a plumber.

3- We had a wonderful visit from our friend Sigrid on Wednesday. We watched Doctor Who, shared stories, and ate pizza. She also had a chance to talk to rarelylynne about a SEEKRIT PROJECT. Good times...

4- It's the 25th anniversary of the Challenger Space Shuttle Disaster today. I was in 6th Grade eating lunch when they announced it over the PA. It's still devastating. I cried a little last night during the PBS NASA documentary that covered it and the Columbia Disaster. I truly believe that these two tragedies are the reason why my generation in the US isn't pushing our government for more manned space exploration. Space became scary instead of wondrous.

5- The comic book magazine Wizard ended its print edition while firing everybody this week. I used to occasionally read it back in the 90s. I was never a big fan since it had too much of a frat-boy attitude. It was much more focused on the exploding booby titles from places like Top Cow than the thoughtful Indie and Vertigo comics that I was reading.

Still, it's a shame to see it go. I'm not pleased in general by the death of the print magazine as a viable form of information and entertainment. Wizard once sold over 100,000 copies per month in the late 90s. It was down to about 20,000 last month. For all of its problems, it paid its writers, had an editorial process, and published the occasional well-researched article. The comic book websites can't replace that.

Wizard claims that it will open a e-magazine, but so did Starlog. They seem happier now running crappy conventions with c-list celebrities than covering an industry.

1- Hey, Chicks Dig Time Lords made the long list for the 2010 British Science Fiction Association Best Non-Fiction Award. That means at least one person put it down on their ballot. Cool beans!

2- As most of you saw yesterday on Facebook and Twitter, Caitlin had her first Physical Therapy session yesterday. We had low expectations. Caitlin, however, had a different plan. First, she independently sat on the floor for the first time since the surgery. Next, she stood on her right leg with minimal assistance. Essentially, Cait displayed all of the abilities she had before the surgery. Considering that she's still recovering from having her hips altered only a month ago, we're very impressed. Cait's PT was flabbergasted. Caitlin's still in some pain, but it seems that she will completely bounce back from this surgery in only a couple of months.

3- Lynne, Deb, and I spent the last few days finding and contacting as many geek culture websites as possible about reviewing Whedonistas. It's amazing how many Girl Geek websites and podcasts exist. There's even going to be a GeekGirlCon in Seattle this year. Quite a few of them have already agreed to take a copy of the book.

If you have a suggestion of a cool review site that might be interested in Whedonistas, please let us know. :-)

We had a quiet weekend. Here are some Things of Interest:

1- After one week of exercising, I manged to lose two pounds. I'm happy, but weight loss isn't my actual goal. As I said when I started exercising, this is about having a healthier lifestyle. Still, I'll take it. :-)

2- Today is the next follow-up appointment with Caitlin's Orthopaedic surgeon. Hopefully, there will be some good news that will make our lives easier. We all want to see that brace go away.

3- Caitlin is more or less fine. She's been really sore in the morning, though. It was bad enough on Friday that I had to call her in sick from school. It breaks my heart when Caitlin screams in pain.

4- Since rarelylynne bought a WorldCon supporting membership in order to vote for the Hugos, I swung by the library and picked up a pile of SF/F books published in 2010. READ ALL THE THINGS!

5- This D&D video might be the greatest bad thing ever.