michaeldthomas

So, what's up with my Hugo-nominated wife?

1- The SF Squeecast podcast debuted a couple of weeks ago. In the podcast, Lynne, Elizabeth Bear, Paul Cornell, Seanan McGuire, and Catherynne M. Valente squee about their favorite things. Yays!

2- Here's an interview of Lynne done at CONvergence by The Omega Podcast. You might hear her announce something during it that hasn't been announced anywhere else yet.

3- Here's the Chicks Still Dig Time Lords panel from CONvergnece featuring Lynne, Tara O'Shea, Christa Dickson, Kathryn Sullivan, and Catherynne M. Valente.

( CDTL Panel Vids )

4- Here are a bunch of pictures of Lynne as a Guest of Honor at CONvergence (check out pages 5 and 42-46).

5- Two books containing works by my wife as edited by Robert Smith? can be purchased or pre-ordered. The first is Time, Unincorporated 3 (co-edited by Robert and Graeme Burk). This book of Doctor Who essays is available for purchase and contains Lynne's essay "Camp Noir," a defense of Torchwood Series 1.

The second book is the academic book Braaaiiinnnsss: From Academics to Zombies. This peer-reviewed academic book contains a paper by Lynne (co-authored with our friend Sarah McHone-Chase) entitled "Maintaining Academic Library Services during the Zombie Apocalypse." It will be released on October 8 and is available for pre-order.

Finally, the new edition of Sarah Monette's short story collection The Bone Key (stories featuring the supernatural world of museum curator Kyle Murchison Booth) will be released on October 18 and is available for pre-order. According to the solicitation text, it features "a new introduction by one of Booth''s "successors" at the Samuel Mather Parrington Museum." Hmm... ;-)
ETA- Book news

Current Mood: busy

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?

Current Mood: busy

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. :-)

Current Mood: accomplished

After a few doom and gloom posts, I decided it was time for a shiny happy post.

1- I finally scheduled a physical for myself. It's about 2 years overdue. I feel great, but it's time. My only issue is a small spot of uneven pigmentation on my face. It's probably just part of aging, but I want a doctor to verify that it's nothing serious.

2- I have 4 short stories on the market. I'm very happy with my most recent story after receiving some quality critiques. I think I fixed most of its issues. *fingerscrossed*

3- I'm finally revising The Scarlet Queen (my mid-grade fantasy novel). It's slow-going, but I should be finished by CONvergence. Now all I need is a critique partner who specializes in mid-grade fantasy. :-)

4- All of our WisCon plans are solidifying. The Whedonistas party is going to rock. It's going to be nice to hang out with so many of our peeps. Hooray!

5- We loved "The Doctor's Wife." It's now my favorite story of the Smith/Moffat era.

6- The SF Squeecast will premiere in the next couple of weeks.

7- The first batch of Chicks Dig Comics essays came in without any major drama. Lynne and Sigrid are pleased.

8- We have great friends. Thanks for all of the support. :-)

We had an amazing time at Odd Con. Since we were surrounded by good friends (too many to list), it was essentially a Relaxacon for us. We had many great conversations and meals. As always, Odd Con also had a great BarCon. It's the perfect way to kick off the convention season.

Caitlin behaved for Grandma all weekend. :-)

Last night we popped into The City for a lovely dinner with

yuki_onna at Harold's Chicken. It was nice to see her outside of a convention or signing. I wish we lived closer to her.

After a week of shop talk, I need to bear down and revise my mid-grade fantasy novel. I also need to revise my new short story, but that can wait until I have some more feedback from my beta readers.

Everything else going on around here is SEEKRIT. We can't wait for some of these things to go public. :-D

Current Mood: cheerful

Since I can't do much until UPS delivers Cait's meds, I thought I would blog. Let's see if LJ stays up while I type this.

1- This weekend we'll be at Odyssey Con in Madison.

rarelylynne and I are only scheduled for the Whedonistas panel on Friday. Lynne will be doing her SF/F Archivist thing (we'll pick up boxes, DVDs, or flash drives if you have them). I'll be hanging out with our friends. This should be a nice, low-key weekend.

This con will also be our friend

truepenny's first GoH gig. If you can, come and support her.

2- That's my only panel for the next few cons. I decided that I'm too burned out to be on any WisCon or CONvergence panels this year. I need to work more on my writing career before I feel comfortable again up on a panel. Also, Lynne really needs me to focus on being her assistant at those cons.

3- It looks like the Whedonistas WisCon party might involve Mai Tais and a Buffy Sing-Along. Good times. :-)

4- My poor wife is BURIED in projects. We really don't think about it until somebody asks us about what she's up to. Then we talk about her normal work stuff, co-teaching her class for another university, a SFWA project, the Whedonistas launch, co-editing Chicks Dig Comics, writing something for a friend's book, writing an essay for another couple of friends' book, writing an essay for a journal, working on the least SEEKRIT SEEKRIT PROJEKT podcast ever, and chairing the Tiptree Jury.

And yet, she still somehow finds time to be an exquisite mother and wife. :-)

5- The Bridging the Rift Doctor Who Podcast features Lynne reading her Tor.com essay about the 11th Doctor. Flames Rising is running the Introduction from Whedonistas for free on their website.

Current Mood: chipper

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.

Current Mood: bouncy

It's Spring!

1- Caitlin is off all week for Spring Break. This will be a quiet vacation since Lynne is working.

2- We had a wild weekend. Our friends

michaellee and

frozendragon crashed with us on Friday night and Saturday night at my mom's. They're now off on their pre-honeymoon in Ireland. They also went to the c2e2 convention with us.

3- c2e2 was massive. I'm not a big fan of cons with over 30,000 people, but we had a great time. Lynne talked to some of her and Sigrid's probable Chicks Dig Comics contributors, and then she signed books for an hour at the Alien Entertainment booth with

taraoshea. They had a decent crowd.

We probably talked to a few dozen of our friends over the course of the day. We also met a bunch of new awesome people.

I now own The Sontaran Experiment toy set, and Caitlin owns an Adipose stress toy (her gift for good behavior at Grandma's). I love living in a world where they make all of the toys I wanted when I was 10. :-D

4- We attended The Middleman reunion panel and had a wonderful time.

5- After the panel, we went out to eat in Chinatown with a bunch of people. I would say more, but we were sworn to secrecy by one of our ringleaders. WHAT'S SAID AT THE PHOENIX, STAYS AT THE PHOENIX. ;-)

Good Times. :-)

Current Mood: tired

Since it's only a week and a half away, I thought I would list

rarelylynne 's Gally schedule. If you see her, make sure you ask her for a Chicks Dig Time Lords's ribbon. :-)
( Lynne's Schedule )

The title sums up our week. DeKalb ended up with about 16 inches of snow. We kept our power. The worst seems to be that our Internet has been wonky in the evening.

rarelylynne and I shoveled about half of our driveway and a kind neighbor used a snowblower to finish the job. Other than Lynne and Caitlin getting two days off, the storm was pretty uneventful. Basically we just spent two day watching Hercules, Xena, and Robin of Sherwood episodes (Caitlin is on a fantasy kick).

Some other news and notes for the week:

1- Cheryl Morgan sums up why I mentioned that Chicks Dig Time Lords is eligible for a Hugo Award in the Best Related Work category.

2- About a dozen reviewers now have PDF ARCs of Whedonistas.

3- Gallifrey One is only two weeks away. I'm not on any panels. To put it bluntly, I'm kind of tired of doing Doctor Who panels (especially now that my DW writing project is on indefinite hiatus). I've said just about everything I can say about the show, and I think the world can survive one less middle-aged white guy giving his opinions about the series. I would rather just relax, hang out with friends, and fanboy my wife. :-)

4- I didn't write much this week, but I submitted a couple of short stories (one for the first time). That gives me three currently on the market. I also have a new story percolating in my brain.

Current Mood: bouncy

It's a new year filled with new conventions. In case you want to stalk us, here's the current list:

Gallifrey One
February 18-20
Los Angeles, CA
Lynne M. Thomas is an Additional Guest
Plus: Whedonistas Launch!

C2E2
March 18-20
Chicago, IL

Odyssey Con
April 8-10
Madison, WI

WisCon
May 26-30
Madison, WI

4th Street Fantasy
June 24-26
Minneapolis, MN

CONvergence
June 30- July 3
Bloomington, MN
Lynne M. Thomas is a Guest of Honor

WindyCon
November 11-13
Lombard, IL

Chicago TARDIS
November 25-27
Lombard, IL

Current Mood: awake

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. :-)

Current Mood: awake

Things making me sad:

1- Caitlin's hip surgery is two weeks from today.

2- Today would have been my grandfather's 87th birthday. This is the first of his birthdays since he passed away. I really miss him. I want him to reassure me about Caitlin's surgery.

3- I'm nervous about Caitlin's meds showing up today. Usually, UPS Overnight calls on the day of shipment. I really hope that yesterday's bad weather didn't screw things up.

Things making me happy:

1- I'm going to see dozens of good friends at Chicago TARDIS in two days.

2- Lynne is one of the Chicago TARDIS Guests! How awesome is that?

3- Caitlin is really excited about meeting Tommy Knight from Sarah Jane Adventures on Sunday.

4- Lynne is going to buy me early birthday presents at the con.

5- The editing on Whedonistas is just about finished. It will be a REAL BOOK in less than three months.

6- Our best friends will officially adopt their baby tomorrow.

7- I will see the rest of my family on Thursday.

8- I raked all of the leaves in time for the city leaf collection with 1 1/2 hours to spare.

Current Mood: weird

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. :-)

This week, author

jimhines posted a sexual harassment resource for writers and fans due to an incident at this year's World Fantasy Convention with an industry pro who has a history of harassing women at events. This resource also included information about SF/F conventions and a link to a list of different SF/F cons' sexual harassment policies.

Since Chicago TARDIS, wasn't on the list, I pinged the con on Twitter about its policy. I received this Tweet response from the Head of Programming and Publicity:

CT has no specific policy. We have a basic "if you behave badly, you're gone" in the prog book, have had no need 4 more.

I know for a fact that many of my female friends have been sexually harassed at Chicago TARDIS over the last few years. Many of these incidents involved a particular fan dubbed "Foot Fetish Guy" by comic book writer Tony Lee.

If this happens again, PLEASE notify the convention staff. The Head of Security is Wayne R. McCloud.

You deserve to feel safe at the convention. Let's stop tolerating this behavior.

ETA: I want to clarify that I am not blaming the convention or staff for these incidents. They can't act unless the sexual harassment is reported. That's why I'm pointing out that there is a policy and that people should report incidents to the staff.

ETA2: Clarified that the conversation was on Twitter.

I was warned by my mother that time passes quicker as you get older. How is 2010 almost over? Didn't I just write my goals for the year?

My brain is currently fried from the final push on my mid-grade Fantasy novel, The Scarlet Queen. If I still used a word meter, it would show I'm at 44,000 of about 50,000 words. I should meet my goal of finishing the first draft by Caitlin's hip surgery on December 7th.

Other than that, I'm doing lots of little things for my glamorous wife. This month is packed with conventions and meetings. This weekend, we're having dinner with a SUPER AWESOME AUTHOR and friends. The next weekend is WindyCon, and of course Thanksgiving weekend is Chicago TARDIS where Lynne will do her Guest thing. Add that to a few Seekrit Projects, and I'm spending lots a time organizing all of the things.

Instead of going to WFC (stupid budget cuts), we spent last weekend at home. We ended up taking Caitlin to Brookfield Zoo for her birthday. Her aunt and cousin joined us (hooray!), and we had a very good time once Caitlin stopped moaning about the wind in her face.

Current Mood: busy

My brain is fried from last night's insomnia. Racing thoughts suck. The worst part of it is that I'm now thinking about writing a long post about the latest SF blogosphere kerfuffle. I'll wait until tomorrow to see if I still want to touch the shiny blades at the bottom of that blender.

Here are some news and notes:

1- Lynne and I will be at MadCon in Madison on Sunday on a Chicks Dig Time Lords panel at 1:00 PM with Sophie Aldred, Carole Barrowman, Kathryn Sullivan, and Jennifer Adams Kelley. Sadly, Harlan Ellison will not be joining us on the panel.

My brain has yet to process the fact that I'm going to be on a panel with Sophie Aldred.

2- The next installment of Cait's Make-A-Wish trip is up on

rarelylynne's journal.

3- L. Timmel Duchamp officially joined the NIU SF Archives. There will be another announcement any day now of another author joining with some major WisCon ties. At this rate, Lynne will be archiving the Madison Concourse housekeeping staff by 2012. ;-)

Current Mood: tired

A bundle of links about my AWESOME wife...

1- There's a great review of Chicks Dig Time Lords in the latest issue of the Doctor Who fanzine The Terrible Zodin. I love the reviews that get what we were trying to do with the book.

2- There's a wonderful picture of Sophie Aldred (Ace) wearing a Chicks Dig Time Lords t-shirt while standing next to Karen Gillan (Amy) in the latest issue of Vortex: The Big Finish Magazine.

3- Speaking of Sophie, there's going to be a Chicks Dig Time Lords panel at MadCon in Madison on September 26. Panelists will include Editors Lynne Thomas & Tara O'Shea, Associate Editor Michael D. Thomas, and contributors Sophie Aldred, Carole Barrowman, Kathryn Sullivan, Jennifer Adams Kelley, and Christa Dickson.

4- Pamela Dean joined the NIU SF Archives! For those of you keeping score at home, she joins an all-star author list that includes Jack McDevitt, Carol Emshwiller, Tamora Pierce, Eric Flint, David Weber, Kage Baker, Patricia Wrede, Sharon Shinn, Pamela Dean, Elizabeth Bear, 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, Alma Alexander, Kelly McCullough, Naomi Kritzer, Lyda Morehouse, Alex Bledsoe, Mary Robinette Kowal, Jennifer Stevenson, Nisi Shawl, Cat Rambo, Ted Kosmatka, Richard Chwedyk, Steven H Silver, Lori Devoti, Mark Rich, Donald Bingle, Elise Matheson, Catherine Lundoff, Jaime Lee Moyer, Heather Shaw, and Sean M. Murphy. There are another 30 or so authors on their way. :-)

5- Paul Cornell quotes

rarelylynne in his con report about CONvergence 2010. If you're thinking about going to CONvergence, this is an excellent primer/endorsement.

6- Finally, the CONvergence website has been updated for the 2011 convention. MY WIFE IS ONE OF THE FREAKIN' GUESTS OF HONOR with Catherynne M. Valente and Brian Keene!!! How freakin' awesome is that?

Phew. There are other amazing things going on with Lynne, but most of them are seekrit. I am very proud of my phenomenal wife. :D

Current Mood: bouncy

My brain is still toast from an excellent CONvergence. We had a great time hanging out with Laura and

kellymccullough,

christapolis and the Mad Norwegian,

jfboyd,

michaellee and

frozendragon, Stephanie and Ben Zvan, Christopher Jones,

paulcornell2, @drwhodealer,

resolute,

fizzixrat,

dewey921,

swords_and_pens, and many more awesome people.

Highlights I can talk about include:

1- Finally sitting down and talking to

swords_and_pens about life and writing.
2-

rarelylynne saving a panel from getting derailed.
3- Visiting the McCullough house and getting to play with their kitties.
4- Going to Matt's Bar with

frozendragon so Lynne could try her first Jucy Lucy.
5- Watching Lynne in the Closing Ceremonies act in a small role and then getting announced as a 2011 Guest of Honor.
6- The parties. :-)
7- My Death of the Magazine panel.

I wish we lived closer to all of our Twin City peeps. Four days are not enough.

I can't wait until next year. Did I mention that Lynne is ONE OF THE GUESTS OF HONOR along with our friend

yuki_onna? HOW F-ING AWESOME IS THAT?

Current Mood: awake

rarelylynne and I will be at CONvergence again next weekend. This is one of our favorite conventions. If you're looking for me, here's my schedule:

Saturday, July 3

Evolution of Common Themes
Time: 2:00PM to 3:00PM
About: How do you reinvent something that has been done to death in a way that is interesting without seeming forced? Vampires, werewolves, androids, zombies and sentient computers that want to rule the world.
Speaker/Artist(s): MontiLee Stormer, Michael D. Thomas, Matthew Davis, Kelly McCullough

Geronimo! The 11th Doctor: Year One
Time: 3:30PM to 4:30PM
About: Steven Moffat and Matt Smith's inaugural year aboard the TARDIS is well underway. This panel will discuss impressions about the most recent season and will include spoilers, so beware.
Speaker/Artist(s): Rob Callahan, Michael D. Thomas, Lars Pearson, Steve Manfred, Lynne Thomas

Sunday, July 4

Behind the Sofa: Villains of Doctor Who
Time: 11:00AM to 12:00PM
About: The Master, Davros, Omega, Rassilon, The Rani. Are they really villains or are they just misunderstood? Talk about your favorite bad guys that went mano a mano with The Doctor.
Speaker/Artist(s): Michael Scott Shappe, Rob Callahan, Lars Pearson, Steve Manfred, Michael D. Thomas

The Death of the Magazine
Time: 12:30PM to 1:30PM
About: The internet age is killing the media we love. Can we save it? Can we move it online? What happens to the writers when these publications go away? The bathwater is gone, can we still save the baby?
Speaker/Artist(s): R. Scott McCoy, Michael D. Thomas, Joshua Lynsen, Michael Merriam, MontiLee Stormer

Current Mood: chipper

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michaeldthomas

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Entries tagged with conventions

Lynne's #1 Fan

I'm Still Here

Weekend ADVENTURES!

Shiny Happy Monday- 8 Things!

We're Alive & Well

Waiting for the UPS Man

Odds and Sods

Monday Five Things- c2e2 Edition

Gallifrey One and Lynne M. Thomas

We Survived THE BLIZZARD OF 2011

Conventions- 2011

Happy New Year!

The Michael with Two Brains

WindyCon

Chicago TARDIS and Sexual Harassment

November?

I'm So Tired

Lynne is Awesome- Wednesday Edition

CONvergence aftermath

My CONvergence Schedule