Random

Best Smackdown: No contest. The honor goes to George Takei’s video response to Clint McCance.  “Mister McCance, you are a douchebag.”

Best Book Read: I’m gonna go with The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms [B&N | Mysterious Galaxy | Amazon] by N. K. Jemisin.  I commented briefly on this one here.

Best Family Trip: Windycon.  This was my first convention with my wife and kids, and it was great.  We don’t get much vacation time, so it was wonderful just spending a few days together.  They all enjoyed the con, but I think my favorite part was Friday night before everyone else arrived, just goofing around in the pool together.

Best Random Artwork: Anime Snoopy vs. Ninja Cats, by socchan.

Best Discovery: Doctor Who.  (David Tennant in particular.)  In my 36 years on this Earth, people have introduced me to Monty Python, Red Dwarf, and so much more … so why didn’t anyone tell me about the Doctor?  I blame ALL OF YOU!  Fortunately, we have borrowed several seasons worth of DVDs, and are remedying this oversight as quickly as possible.

Best Convention: World Fantasy Con.  Four whole days, and so many wonderful people to meet and catch up with.

Best Realization in Sanchin-Ryu: Holy crap!  I don’t know anything!!!  (Thank you Master Faught for this lesson.)

Best Moment with my Son (Age 5): Having dinner with friends, and watching him play with their five-year-old for hours without any problems or conflicts.  It eased one of my biggest fears following his ASD diagnosis earlier this year.

Best Moment with my Daughter (Age 10): Seeing her in deliberately mismatched socks, two T-shirts (one tied with scrunchies), & a thin braid of hair clipped back over one year, and realizing she’s exploring how to express herself and who she wants to be.  And that who she’s becoming is pretty darn cool.

Best Writing Moment (Business): Getting the offer from DAW for the Magic ex Libris series.  Book deals are always nice, but this one represents a significant step up in my career.  Plus it’s a series I’m really excited about!

Best Writing Moment (Creative): Figuring out how to end The Snow Queen’s Shadow [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy].  Without spoiling things, it felt right.  It felt honest.  And I’m pretty damn proud.

Best LEGO: Transforming Optimus Prime.

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Feel free to add your own!

Back from Las Vegas. Friend is successfully married. Yay!

After getting up at 4:00 a.m. on Monday to check out of the hotel, return the rental car, and catch our flight back to Michigan, I’m still a bit brain frazzled.  But here are some random thoughts from the weekend…

-No, I did not gamble.  Not out of any moral stance, but because I’m good at math.[1. I’m not mocking those who choose to gamble for the fun of it — I do understand the thrill.  But I don’t have the money to spare on this particular pastime.]

-My agent sent me a $700 Czech check right before I left.  My car immediately broke, requiring $700 worth of repairs.

-All of the lights in our hotel room used fluorescent bulbs.  I applaud conservation efforts, but find them rather ironic in Vegas.

-Effective immediately, the Mission: Impossible theme should be played on piano as part of the opening music at all weddings.

-I have once again forgotten how to tie a tie.

-I get way too stressed about travel arrangements, schedules, and details.

-Michigan sometimes gets so cold your snot freezes inside your nose. Vegas and its 110+ temps, on the other hand, dry your snot to the consistency of gravel.  (Because I know you all wanted the Vegas snot update!)

-Delta airlines did a surprisingly good job in terms of handicap accessibility, including providing wheelchairs, getting us where we needed to go, taking my wife’s walker onto the plane, and when possible, moving us to a seat closer to the front.

-Dear TSA: I have no explosives in my sandals.  Thanks for checking, though!

-If someone writes a Jim C. Hines is Awesome blog post, my friends will give me a hard time about it when they see me.

-Jellyfish are nifty.  This is a video I shot at the Mandalay Bay Shark Exhibit.  (The tanks were too dark for photos, but video worked pretty well.)

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Our local pizza place has a sticker which reads, “Property protected by 24 hour vidoe surveillance.”  Not a hand-scrawled note, but a professionally printed sticker.  This sort of thing is kryptonite to me.  I had to fight the urge to rip the sticker off the window and encase it in lead.

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Elizabeth Moon has a LiveJournal.  Yesterday, she shared her thoughts about military discipline and the removal of General McChrystal.  In addition to being an excellent author, Moon is also a former junior officer in the Marine Corps.  She knows of what she speaks, and posts like this are the reason I follow her blog.

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From a Twitter post by my agent: “Joshua in NYC B&N admiring ‘They Stand Against Darkness’ floor riser w/ @jimchines Red Hood’s Revenge.”  I want to run out to B&N right now to see this floor display!!!  (And then I want to take it home with me and set it up on the ego shelf!)

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I changed my process when I started working on the third draft of Snow Queen.  This is not an easy thing for me.  I tend to find a routine and stick to it, no matter what happens.  (Just ask my wife.)  So it was scary to throw out my old approach and try something new with draft three … but it seems to be working so far.  If this holds, it could save me as much as a month’s worth of work.  Go me!

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Am I the only one who’s been losing interest with Sluggy Freelance these past few months?