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?

Current Mood: busy

Hey F-List:

What are your favorite shows that never developed a huge following? I'd like to hear about the shows that mean something to you that were cancelled too soon, hidden in the backwaters of cable, or have just been forgotten over time.

Thanks!

Current Mood: busy

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.

#

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 )
#
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

1- We had a lovely time with our friend, SF/F author Alex Bledsoe, last week. Alex was down for a Friends of the NIU Libraries/DeKalb Public Library event. He finally got to meet Caitlin while we ate German food and talked shop. The event went very well. The SF Book Club loved The Sword-Edged Blonde, and everybody consumed delicious cupcakes.

I love when our author peeps come to visit. Which brings me to...

2-

sarah_prineas will be here tonight and tomorrow for the NIU Children's Literature conference. It will be very nice to see Sarah. Along with being an awesome friend, she's also Caitlin's FAVORITE AUTHOR. Caitlin loves her books more than the Harry Potter series. We've been bribing Cait all week with Friday's dinner.

3- Whedonistas will be out next week.

rarelylynne and Deb Stanish have been busy with interviews and other book launch activities. Some of the contributors are having a book launch event in NYC. There should be a review of the book in the current SFX Magazine in the UK, but we haven't seen it yet.

4- The new short story is starting to roll. I should finish it next week.

5- Since I started exercising in January, I've lost 10 pounds.

Current Mood: busy

The Happy Convention Round-Up!

What did I love at this year's Gallifrey One?

1- Hanging out with our peeps for four nights of drinking, dirty jokes, and general debauchery. (Sadly, in this case debauchery means arguments about Doctor Who continuity). ;-)

2- Watching Lynne and Deb hold copies of Whedonistas for the first time.

3- The entire Whedonistas launch panel, signing, and dinner. It was a complete success. I'm sure that Lynne and Deb will blog about this in greater detail with fancy pictures. The most amusing part might be my wife, Deb, and RM giving all of their Torchwood theories to half of the current writing staff.

4- Buying Peri & Sil action figures for me and the ginormous 11th Doctor TARDIS Playset for my little fangirl (she LOVES it).

5- Watching Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, and Sarah Sutton say the things about Matthew Waterhouse that I wanted to say after reading his dreadful Blue Box Boy.

6- Helping two friends make an awesome book deal.

7- Finding out that Janet Fielding read the copy of Chicks Dig Time Lords that Lynne gave her in the Green Room after Janet referred to it on main stage panel while answering a question.

8- Taking a trip to the In-N-Out Burger.

9- Getting to meet some new people while deepening other friendships.

10- Caitlin managed to have a good weekend with my mom and aunt.

Current Mood: busy

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. :-)

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

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.

Current Mood: drained

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. :-)

Current Mood: chipper

The Hugo Award season is upon us. I obviously have nothing eligible for an award, but I would like to mention that Chicks Dig Time Lords (edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Tara O'Shea) is eligible for a nomination in the Best Related Work category.

You can find out more about WorldCon and the Hugo Awards here. :-)

Current Mood: busy

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

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. :-)

Current Mood: busy

Now that the Make-A-Wish trip and recovery are over, the calender tells

rarelylynne and me that it's time to finish some projects.

For Lynne, her partner-in-crime Deb Stanish, and their plucky Associate Editor (me), this means polishing the manuscript of Whedonistas by the end of the week for the Mad Norwegian. That's more work than you might think. We have over thirty pieces from as many contributors that need to be placed into a single manuscript and cleaned up so that they all share the same formatting and style. Considering how many different writing styles (AP, Chicago, MLA, etc.) are out there, this takes some effort. It's also not very sexy.

The sexy part is figuring out the essay order. It reminds me a lot of my youth when I used to make mix tapes (yes, I'm in my mid-thirties). This is one of those vital components of an anthology that your reader doesn't necessarily think much about if you do it right. If you do it wrong, however, you can screw up the tone of the whole book. The sequence matters.

Once that's behind us, I need to finish the first draft of my mid-grade fantasy novel, The Scarlet Queen. I'm in the final quarter of the manuscript. My goal is to finish this draft before Caitlin's surgery in December.

Wish me luck. :-)

Current Mood: geeky

Lots of little things happening around here.

1- Caitlin had a great first couple of weeks of Second Grade. She's making friends and staying out of trouble.

Cait is very excited about her Make-A-Wish trip. We watched the Disney World vacation planning DVD on Monday night and she was unable to fall asleep until midnight. We'll be gone in 8 days!

2- Lynne rulz the Internets. This week saw the announcement of Whedonistas, the Seekrit Project that

rarelylynne and Deborah Stanish have been editing for some time. I'm glad we can finally talk about it. :-)

In other cool book news, the giant SF/F website io9 ran an excerpt from Chicks Dig Time Lords-- specifically, Carole Barrowman's essay. To say we are giddy about this is an understatement.

3- I'm at the 3/5 mark (more or less) on The Scarlet Queen. I'm feeling more and more confident about finishing it this year.

This one is for

scarlettgirl and

rarelylynne.

Current Mood: amused

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

As it turns out, I'm more productive as a writer when I turn off the Internet connection. Who knew? Oh, that's right, EVERYBODY. ;-)

I've had two 1100-word sessions in a row. It feels good to be back to my old production level. This is a good thing since all of my progress will halt in a week once Caitlin ends summer school. At that point, all of my energy will go into my two nonfiction projects.

Not much else going on around here. It's so quiet, in fact, that my kooky brain is creating things to be worried about. Entropy + Home Ownership = ANXIETY

I'm still watching Agatha Christie mysteries like an obsessed fiend. Why do I find British society murders set between the World Wars so cathartic? This dates back to the summer after 5th grade when I started reading Christie. There's something oddly reassuring about Poirot and Marple creating order out of the chaos of murder.

Unfortunately,

rarelylynne won't let me grow a Poirot mustache. :(

Current Mood: weird

Summer Vacation! Yay?

Caitlin is off until Summer School begins next week. Since we ran around a lot yesterday, she pretty much gets the day off (except for Speech Therapy). Right now, she's watching mass quantities of Phineas and Ferb on Disney Channel.

This "vacation" week includes three meetings and a trip to Children's Memorial Hospital for two doctor's appointments. Meh.

The Chicks Dig Time Lords reading/signing in Milwaukee exceeded everybody's expectations. Daniel from Boswell's Books was flabbergasted by the turn out. Over 85 people came. The store sold out of books and had to issue bookplates. A group of fans brought fan art for Lynne, Tara, and Carole: a photo montage poster of cosplayers reading Chicks. We also found out from Carole that RTD finished reading his copy. We didn't ask if he liked it. It's better to not know. :-)

I no longer know how to react to this. The popularity of the book is so beyond all of our expectations.

Current Mood: awake

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michaeldthomas

August 2011

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Entries tagged with mad norwegian press

I'm Still Here

For Research!

Waiting for the UPS Man

Odds and Sods

Monday Five Things- c2e2 Edition

One of those five thing posts...

Things I Loved about Gallifrey One

11 Years! :-)

We Survived THE BLIZZARD OF 2011

The Week That Was

Thursday Dispatches

For Your Consideration...

Happy New Year!

Three Things

Finish All of the Projects!

Thomas Family Update

Saturday Earworm

Lynne is Awesome- Wednesday Edition

I'm an idiot

Hey, Where's Perry?