Pearl Harbor & Getting on Our Plane

 

Pearl Harbor

Saturday, 4/29 - John got up about 5:45, having had a miserable night. Went for breakfast at the buffet, then gathered our carry-ons and made our way to the disembarkment station. Around 8, we were sent off the ship to claim our luggage and find our tour bus. John nearly had a panic attack because he couldn't find our car keys. We were given a short tour of some sights in Honolulu, then given about 4 hrs to explore the Pearl Harbor Memorial. We saw 2 short movies and took a boat over to the USS Arizona Memorial, where we spent about 15 or 20 minutes. We didn't know if there would be a place to eat at the airport, so we got a sandwich apiece at the snack shop and finished with a look through the gift shop, where I bought a tote bag. By then, John was getting tired, so we slowly walked back to the bus and waited for the rest of the people to show up. The tour bus dropped us off at the airport at about 1:30. Our plane was scheduled to take off at 10:59 pm, so we had a long wait before we could check our luggage and go through TSA. There was no place to eat outside the TSA, so we were extra happy we'd had sandwiches to get us through.

Getting on Our Plane

John searched every one of our suitcases and the carry-on bag for the car keys, which we finally found. We discovered we could get our suitcases checked in 6 hours before the plane took off, so about 5 pm, we hopped up and got started on that. TSA was its usual nightmare for John, or more so, because the x-ray machine claimed he had metal somewhere, and they had to pat him down. Happens to me all the time, but I think it's the first time for him. Then we started walking to our gate. It was a long walk, made even longer by the number of stores that were already closed. We finally came across a restaurant that was open, so we stopped and had burgers and sodas. $50! Just before we got to our gate, we came across a news stand that was still open, though we had passed a couple that had already closed. We sat down and waited. Eventually, I went to that news stand and bought a bottle of water. When I got back, John asked, "Couldn't you just use the water fountain right over there?" My reply was, "The airplane doesn't have water fountains."

There were more people trying to get on the plane than they had seats, including a pair of parents and their 3 young girls. The clerk was looking for volunteers to be bumped so these extra people could get on. As we were checking in to board the plane, this family apparently figured out they wouldn't be sitting together, so they had to go back to the clerk to get something done about that. John and I didn't get to sit together, either. We had a 5-hour flight to LA, and I thought the plane was cold, so I didn't manage to get any sleep. John tried to get some sleep, I could see him from where I was, but I don't know if he managed it.

Italian Cruise 2021 - Day 2

Sunday, 10/17

During our flight to Barcelona, I got woke up rather rudely as the lights were turned on and the flight attendants handed out breakfast. The yogurt was okay, but not a kind I would have picked. Much thicker than I’m used to, but at least it was fruit flavored. After breakfast, they turned the lights back out.

By now, John had opted to use the empty seat next to us, and I was sitting next to the window. Despite having only gotten about half an hour of sleep, I couldn’t go back to it. As the sky lightened as dawn approached (or were we approaching it?) I watched the Spanish landscape pass by under us. There were entire valley systems that were full of fog, which lent the view an eerie look. Some were so large, they looked like seas.

Then we flew out over water, which surprised me. I thought Barcelona was land-locked. Apparently not.

The Barcelona airport is big, with long halls to walk and many hoops to jump through. There was a bottle-neck as our passports were checked. More walking. More walking. Another bottle-neck as our Spanish health forms were checked. John’s sailed through. I don’t know what the problem was with mine, but I must have stood there for 2 full minutes before they sent me on.

Find our luggage. This was at least an hour after the plane landed. Somebody was collecting suitcases from the carousel as ‘unclaimed’. Eventually, John found our 2 suitcases, and we put on the luggage tags for our cruise. More walking.

Finally, we saw somebody holding up a sign for a cruise line. Not the one we were looking for, but ours was standing not too far away. That person directed us to another cruise employee, who was taking luggage and sending it to the ship. After standing around for a few minutes, they took us upstairs and outside to ‘go to the bus’. We walked a couple blocks. The breeze felt nice. Then into a building and down 2 floors to get tested for covid. We were told about this, but thought it would happen at the dock.

Half an hour later, we got on the bus to the ship.

We didn’t have our boarding documents that had supposedly been sent to us, but they were ready for that. They took our passports, found us in their system, gave us our cabin keys (and gave our passports back), and sent us on our way.

At last, we walked onto the ship. Our first chore was to find our muster station, in case of emergency, but that muster station was, for us, right inside the entrance. So while we were there, we booked reservations for a couple shows. Then we went to The Taste, one of the main dining rooms, to get some lunch. John got a pork chop, and I had a philly cheesesteak sandwich. Both came with fries. John finished his meal, but I was so sleep-deprived, I could only eat half of mine. My body didn’t want food, it wanted sleep. And fluid. I did manage to drink 4 glasses of cola and 1.5 glasses of water. John drank about the same. We felt semi-revived after lunch, so went and found our cabin.

Our cabin was so small, it was lilliputtin-ish. The bathroom had been split up, with the toilet in a tiny closet on one side of the entrance, and the shower on the other. There was a curtain that could be closed to separate that piece of the room from the rest of the room. Beyond that, a curved closet resided on the right, the sink, a counter and cupboards on the left. A double bed presided over the rest of the cabin, with–I’m guessing–less than a foot of clearance on either side of it. So, not a lot of room to move around in.

Our luggage had not yet shown up. John unpacked the carry-on suitcase and we took our morning pills. We hadn’t managed to take our evening pills the night before, but it was far too late to worry about that.

John went out to explore the ship, and I lay down and stared at the ceiling. After a while, I got up and unpacked my carry-on bag–mostly–and then I got on the phone and checked on our specialty dining reservations. We had forgotten when they were at, and didn’t want to miss them. Then I glanced through the shore excursion tickets, just to do something. Uh oh. According to my count, we were missing one ticket for one excursion, and both tickets for another. So I shoved them back into the envelope and trotted down to the shore excursion desk to check into it.

The shore excursion desk was busy. I expected that, so I got into line, as requested. Others apparently didn’t realize there was a line, and got help before me, but eventually I got up there, and took all the tickets out of the envelope to explain the problem. Turned out 2 of the tickets had been stapled together and I hadn’t noticed. So that missing ticket was solved. Then as I sorted through the rest of the tickets, I realized I had pairs of tickets for every port we would hit. All was well with shore excursions. Obviously, my brain wasn’t functioning well. More laying on our bed, not sleeping but resting as best we could, and still no luggage.

Eventually, we went back to The Taste for supper. John had Atlantic salmon, and I had baked zita. I was so tired, I only wanted comfort foot. We admired the 3-deck tall chandelier in the middle of the restaurant and went up to the buffet on deck 15 to have a 2^nd dessert.

Then it was back to our cabin. Our luggage had shown up. We quickly unpacked–mostly–and then gave in to our fatigue. After checking our tickets for our shore excursion the next day, we set an alarm to wake us up. With an inside cabin, there would no chance of sunlight seeping in to wake up. And especially at 6:30 am, so we set an alarm or 2 and thankfully sank into some much-needed sleep.

Italian Cruise 2021 - Day 1

 Okay, we were ready. Or thought we were.

Our suitcases were packed. The dog was at the kennel. We got up at 7:30 on Saturday, Oct 16, to make sure we got to the airport for a 2:56 pm departure for Miami. We left the house about 10:30, got the car parked, and got on the shuttle. It was about noon. There was, of course, a line at the airline counter, but otherwise, things were going as expected.

Until we got to the ticket booth. I handed her our passports, our vaccination cards and our print-out regarding our flights. Then; “Have you got your health form for the Spanish government?”

My jaw dropped. “I know nothing about such a form. I was never told I needed any kind of form for Spain.”

Well, such a form was necessary. Such a form was mandatory. The clerk wrote down the website on my flight information and asked me to step aside and go to that website on my phone and fill out the forms, and come back when I had the QR codes we would receive by email.

My phone! Use the internet? Check my email? I don’t use the internet on my phone; I use it for phone calls. And text messaging.

No choice. So for an hour, I stood in the middle of a busy airline ticket center, trying to fill out a form to get permission to land in Spain. First, I filled it out for a family, thinking that would be simpler (I was wrong). I filled it in for John, then went on to give it my information, skipped through the sections for 5 children, and… it wouldn’t let me go on until I filled in those sections! So I went back to fill out individual forms. Fill in the information for John, and… It told me a form for him already existed, and I should click on ‘Continue with Forms’, a button that I could not find. Tears streamed down my face as I started tearing out my hair.

Okay, not quite that bad, but I was getting pretty frazzled. It was going on 2. The crowd had dissipated. Finally, the ticket clerk came over to help and filled out the forms on her smart phone, then printed them out so I would have them when we got to Spain. She got us our boarding tickets, took the luggage we were checking in, and sent us on our way. I never even got her name. She was my hero, that day.

Next, the security line, which was long. We took out our electronics and put them in a bin. Emptied our pockets and put our extra glasses in a bin. Took off our shoes to put in a bin, was told not to use a bin. I had to take off my belly bag, and couldn’t put it in a bin, either. I told the guard I had artificial knees, and he waved me over to the big, 360 degree x-ray machine, which I expected. Then I got patted down. What was the purpose of the x-ray machine? John doesn’t have any artificial parts, but he got waved over to the x-ray machine, and got patted down as well. Apparently, what was good for the goose was good for the gander.

It was approaching 3, and they were hollering at us to get our stuff and get out of the way. John told me to grab my stuff, and run for the gate, he’d catch up. The overnight case fell open, and he had to shove stuff back into it. I shoved the computer and 2 kindles into my bag (only the computer had come out of it), shoved my phone in my pocket, grabbed my phone and ran for the tram to the concourse I needed. It was crowded, and I didn’t get a chance to get my shoes back on. As I hurried down the long hallway towards Gate 58, I heard them calling our names to report to the gate, the plane was about to leave. I got there and shoved our tickets at them, had to remind them to give back the attached tickets to get us to Barcelona (Spain). Then I turned around to see where John was.

He was coming. He handed me the glasses I had forgotten to pick up. He didn’t have his shoes. They couldn’t let us on the plane without shoes. I sat down and put on my shoes, but all his other pairs of shoes were in his checked luggage, not his carry-on. We had a plane to catch in Miami in order to get to Barcelona. What were we to do?

A man said he could give John a pair of sandals, size 12. John told him they would be a little small, but he’d take them. After looking through all his family’s carry-on pieces, the man didn’t have his size 12 sandals and apologized. At that time, a younger man approached with a pair of flip flops, which he offered John, who accepted gratefully, and we got on the plane. I have the impression we were not the last ones to get on that plane, but I can’t swear to that.

We found our seats, sat down, buckled up, sighed in relief and hoped the worst was behind us. John had lost his shoes to the conveyor belt at security. We could hope to reclaim them when we returned to Orlando. At some point, John realized I wasn’t wearing my belly bag. Another item lost to the security check point. Another thing to hope to reclaim when we returned to Orlando.

The items in my belly bag included my flash drive and my driver’s license. Luckily, our passports were in my carry-on bag, so I still had a form of ID.

We arrived at Miami without further incident. While John made use of the rest room across the hall from our arrival gate (D20), I discovered that we had 2 hours to reach our departure gate, D4.

We had had an early breakfast, but no chance to grab anything to eat or drink in the Orlando airport, and nothing had been served us during the ½ hour flight to Miami. We had 2 hours. Surely we could find something to eat in the Miami airport, couldn’t we?

Luck smiled on us. Directly across from our departure gate was a tiny Cuban restaurant, so we got something to eat. We had no clue if anything would be served to us during the 9 hour flight to Barcelona, so we ate while we had the chance, and it was good. I rather wished I had gotten 2 empanadas. I opted to munch on pretzels I had packed as a snack. Between the relief of finally being on our way and the introduction into our systems of much needed food and drink, we were feeling pretty decent.

John likes an aisle seat in a plane, but we were assigned seats A and B, which were the window seat and the middle seat, so he took the window seat. Surprisingly, nobody showed up to claim the aisle seat, but we were in the air before I realized it was going to remain empty.

After about an hour of flying, the flight attendants served drinks. And then supper. I opted for the vegetarian pasta, John had the chicken and rice. There were a lot of other things included; a bottle of water, a small salad, 2 large crackers, a wedge of cheese, a roll and a dessert bar. We ate it thankfully and finished our sodas, keeping the bottles of water for later.

After dinner, the cabin lights went off, as it was presumed everybody would sleep through the flight. There is 6 hours time difference between Florida and Barcelona, and it is an 8-hour flight. We left between 6 and 7, and would arrive in Spain between 8 and 9 (both local times.) But according to my watch, we would arrive at about 2 am. Anticipating a long, busy day the next day, I tried to sleep. I really did. John ‘rested’, but probably didn’t get much sleep. It wasn’t until my watch said it was 12:33 that my body decided, ‘Okay, it’s time to sleep.’

We would arrive in Barcelona in approximately 2 more hours, but I got a few minutes of sleep.

Rumors of My Death…

 …if you’ve heard any, have been premature and greatly exaggerated. I am alive, and (relatively) well, but life has been… complicated.

It all started getting messed up when my husband came home one day and said, “I’m going to retire.” Well, yes, eventually I expected he would, possibly even this year, so I didn’t think it was anything to worry about, because his 62^nd birthday was still 5 months away. And then, a few days later, he added, “I can apply for social security 3 months before I turn 62. Let’s get the house ready to go on the market.”

In a nutshell, that pretty much turned our world upside down.

We knew we had to remove a lot of the personal stuff from our home, so we packed our book collection, our art collection, our video collection… We hired some young helpers to put these heavy boxes in our storage unit. He packed up everything in his office except his computer. I packed or threw out a lot of stuff from my office until I ran out of time.

We had a vacation scheduled for most of May. The paperwork for retiring was signed, and the day husband flew down to Orlando for that vacation was his last day of work. We spent a couple days in the parks and visiting friends while he tried to get his head around his new status. We checked out a few houses that were for sale while we were down there, and started the process of getting pre-approved for a mortgage.

And then… that infamous ‘hurry up and wait’ segment settled in. For the past 3 weeks (and probably for at least another week), the 2 of us have been living in 1 room while all the rest of the house gets fixed up and painted. While we are in that room, the only computer we have access to is the laptop we had in Florida, which I perch on a folding chair while I sit in an easy chair. Is it any wonder my neck, shoulders and back almost constantly ache?

It doesn’t help that I was surprised by a rush editing job just before leaving Florida; the 4^th manuscript in a 5-book series. I got that one done and back to the publisher, but I’m wondering when #5 will appear in my mailbox.

At first, we spent a lot of time in that room, watching various tv shows. By now, we have opted to spend our mornings at dospace (If you live in Omaha and haven’t checked out dospace at 72^nd & Dodge, you should – dospace.com); several afternoons of the week we go to the gym and work out; and at least once a week, we go see a movie – or 3.

Being confined to 1 room is mind-numbing. Most of the time, I just can’t concentrate. Oh, and if you are waiting impatiently for me to add another episode to MacOnFireball.blogspot.com, don’t hold your breath. I will get back to it, but guess what? The notebook holding the original story got packed when I wasn’t looking. Actually, I found the notebook, but the 10-20 pages I had out, next to my desk-top computer, to be typed in and tweaked… also got packed, and has proven to be elusive.

Eventually, the work on the house will be done. Eventually, our Omaha house will sell. Eventually, we will buy a new house in central Florida (we’ve been told it takes a minimum of 6 weeks from bid acceptance to document signing/closing) and can get the household belongings shipped down there. But right now, as the days grind by at a snail’s pace, ‘eventually’ seems a terribly long time from now.

Best Made Plans

Have you ever made plans that just didn’t live up to your expectations? Even vacations have bumps when things don’t go your way. Our last vacation ...

In Florida, every time I lay down, my sinuses immediately plugged up and I was soon mouth breathing. My cpap mask only covers my nose, so it was no help.

John had signed up to march in Disney’s StarWars weekend parades. He was up at 6 AM that first Friday in severe pain and unable to bend one knee. I took him to ‘urgent care’... which didn’t open until 8. He had to scoot in and out of the back, with the leg stretched along the seat. It was gout; they prescribed steroids and ice packs. (He did get to march the next day, and for the rest of the parades while we were there.)

To see the parade, I had to be at the gate by 7:30 (one never knew what time they were going to let people in), rush to one of the (2) benches along the parade route and park myself. The parade happened at 11. The humid heat did nothing for my stuffy sinuses.

I got a page written for my ‘Mac’ serial, but Open Office kept crashing and finally refused to open my ‘Mac’ file again. Unable to think, having no OO specialist to consult, I gave up. John, however, got his 2nd novel rewritten (2nd draft).

I finally let John take me to ‘urgent care’, and I waited 3 hours to see a doc. Then the pharmacy didn’t have the medicine! Augmentin was on back-order? The doc changed the prescription. To sulfur pills. My brother has to take sulfur pills. They work, but not quickly. Another week before I started feeling almost decent.

Friends spent weekends with us. On the last parade day, as everyone was getting ready, the wife fell and struck her head. The husband took her to urgent care, so John went alone to do the parade. Long story short, it was much more than a bump on the head; she ended up in the hospital for 2 nights before they could go home.

Wednesday, I started home, stopping to call my mother-in-law to say I was on my way. She had been taken to the hospital that morning. Frantic phone calls and text messages dogged me all the way home.

Thursday, the radio talked about severe rain and some flooding ‘in Missouri and along the Mississippi.’ I was in Illinois, about to turn west to St Louis. I called my son and asked him to research this, in case I needed to continue north and go through Des Moines. He said it was located south of I70 (the road I would travel).

East St Louis, Friday morning, heavy rain. Happily, the worst was over by the time I left St Louis. But EVERY river and creek I crossed was definitely over its banks! Like I wasn’t nervous enough.

NOT a good vacation. It wasn’t a bump, it was a series of steep cliffs the entire time. I suppose there’s bound to be a bad one every so often, right? But I haven’t given up; we plan to head for Washington (state) and an Alaska cruise in August. Hmm. Maybe it’s good we got this ‘bad luck’ over during this vacation.

Let Me Check My Schedule

Do you have a schedule? I think most people have a schedule they more or less follow. I had one for the greater part of my working life. It got tweaked if I changed jobs or got a promotion, but it mostly looked something like:

Get up at a certain time in order to arrive at work on time

Have a lunch break

Go home and prepare/eat supper

Spend the evening on family activities, housework, hobbies and/or writing

Go to bed in order to get up in the morning.

Weekends - or whatever days off I had - did not follow this schedule, and often felt scattered, unfocused or even wasted. That did not mean I was ready to give up my time off, of course.

Now that I’m ‘retired’ from my day job, I am looking for the perfect schedule to follow. In the meantime, I have a rough schedule for when I’m at home: get up, breakfast & pills, write, lunch, housework, business, prepare & eat supper/take pills, tv & hobbies, take my last pill, extra time on the computer, go to bed.

Okay, it’s not that different from when I was working, but this schedule includes those pills, which are far more than a multi-vitamin, these days. It works most days, unless I can’t wake up, every joint aches and my brain doesn’t work. Weekends take more effort to remember those pills, because we usually have errands to run, extra chores, or go out for a movie.

Then we have vacations, when I might be away from home as much as a month, and mini-vacations where we go to a convention. Somehow, it becomes a major undertaking to remember those pills, see that I eat somewhat regularly and get some ‘me’ time to keep the stress level down. The less I can follow a schedule, the worse things get. I start sleeping more. I have trouble waking. I forget my pills or to watch my blood sugar.

And then I have a hard time recovering once I get home. It might take me several days to get myself organized and ‘on schedule’ again. Con-i-tis.

People are creatures of habit. I certainly am. Doesn’t mean I want to give up conventions or vacations.

What happens when you ‘fall off’ your schedule?

Anticipated Cars

Anticipated Cars

When I was a kid, the next anticipated ‘improvement’ to cars would be hovercars. ‘The Jetsons’ cartoons also seemed to promise flying cars, but we figured they had to float before they could fly.

Floating cars were on our doorstep... almost. But they never arrived. Loooong before I could drive, I asked my dad what was taking so long to get hovercars ‘off the ground’.

Now, dad was a mechanic, with no formal schooling beyond high school, but his answer made sense to my less-than-10-years-old brain. The layer of air under the car had to support the car’s weight, so they had designed a rubber skirt around the bottom to keep the air from dispersing. However, they couldn’t control the car’s height precisely enough to keep the skirt touching the ground. I’ve accepted that explanation for over half a century.

Eventually, we stopped hearing about hover cars.

These days, the big thing is cars that drive themselves. Sounds good!

You see, I rather routinely drive to Orlando 2-4 times a year. In my car trunk, I have my suitcase, my husband’s luggage, my laptop, my cpap... sometimes I even take my sewing machine. Hubby flies down after a few days, and all he needs to bring is a bag of books to read and his cpap. By driving down, we don’t have to rent a car.

This is a 22-hour drive, straight through, but I can’t do that. I can’t even manage 11 hours of driving - between boredom and highway hypnosis - so it takes 3 days to get there. I love Orlando, but the drive is dreaded.

If the car drove itself, I could read, write, crochet, or just enjoy the scenery. The trip could be as enjoyable as the destination.

I imagine other transportation methods would undergo changes, if cars drove themselves. Flying is expensive, especially with luggage, so people may decide to use their car. Trains are as expensive as flying, take at least as long as driving, and the route might not be as direct, so why not take the car? As for buses... well, some things might not change that much.

Bring on the self-driving car! While you’re at it, make them electric, solar-powered, and re-chargeable in a few minutes, with plenty of recharge stations around the country.

Then we could really get somewhere.

Vampires!

Okay, I promised to tell you a bit about the stories I’ve sold (so far) this year. Today I’ll talk about the first one.

I saw a call for submissions for an anthology on vampires. They didn’t want the sparkly kind, they wanted more of the nitty-gritty kind. Now, I like vampires as much as the next person, but I haven’t written a lot of stories about them because I rather thought there wasn’t much more that could be said. Wasn’t it about time for their trendiness to peter out?

However, I did have this one story... so I sent it in, and it was accepted!

The rough draft for this story was written 10 years ago, while the family (including me) was on a week-long Caribbean cruise. Yes, even on vacation, I need to write, and I find time to write. If you see me at a convention - or any place, really - and I’m scribbling in a notebook, I’m probably writing a rough draft. [This can get irritating when I get home, because I know I wrote 5 scenes on this rough draft, but where did I put the notebook?]

There’s also a werewolf in this story. Vampires and werewolves are often paired together, but I don’t have the werewolf subservient to the vampire. In my universe, both of these creatures have been around a VERY long time. The vampire isn’t sure how she became a vampire, and the only werewolf either of them has seen is the one that attacked the current werewolf. Neither of them really fits in with ‘normal’ humans, although they can pass for human. Sometimes they go their separate ways, but more and more, they hang with each other, for decades or centuries at a time.

I’d like to write more stories about Wolfie and Vamps, maybe even a book or two, but so far, they haven’t been loudly demanding my attention. [So many stories, and only 24 hours in a day.]

I understand this 2-volume anthology is scheduled for an October release, maybe for Halloween? I’ve already gone through the editing phase for my story, and I’m anxious to actually see this in print, to hold it in my hands.

Stay tuned for future details on that!

Looking Ahead

Okay, last week I looked back at 2013, so this week I'll try to figure out what I'm going to do in 2014 to get me closer to my goal.

The first thing that comes to mind is I've got to overhaul / reinvent the website. (www.MoonPhazePub.wix.com/MoonPhaze) I can't afford to hire anybody, so it's up to me. I've been gathering notes on what makes a good website, and I have people I can consult for their opinion, so maybe it won't be too bad. Still, it's not my favorite activity, so it will be slow-going.

Hubby and I will be attending the World Science Fiction convention in London, and the European Science Fiction convention in Dublin the following weekend. That has been occupying a lot of my time, trying to figure out the travel arrangements and all that. That long a trip will suck up a lot of our resources, so as far as personal appearances, the 'usual' local conventions may be the only ones I can plan to get to. Still, that doesn't mean I can't schedule some appearances at book stores, libraries or corn fields in the region that I can drive to in a day, so I will be trying to organize some of those.

MoonPhaze Publishing has wanted to print its first hard-copy book. We'll be looking at means of doing it that will not require thousands of dollars up front, like going with POD. Of course, if we happen to find a few thousand dollars to go to a regular printer, we'll switch gears again. In any case, having a paper-back book on hand could make those appearances mentioned in the previous paragraph more enjoyable, both for me and for anybody who attends them.

I've signed up for some classes in leatherwork! In at least two of my universes, I have a segment of the population who work with leather, and this will help me 'identify' with them. Besides, I like to learn new things.

As far as writing, I've got 4 contests/anthologies to submit to during the first 2 months of 2014. It's time for my second novel (romance) to start looking for a home. My third novel needs some rewriting & polishing, the roughs of 2 other novels need to be finished, and I've started a sf novel rough. If I keep finding more contests and anthologies, I should be plenty busy!

Maybe I should get an early start on some of that, don't you think?

On Vacation

I do apologize for not having a blog to post today. Yes, I'm on vacation, but I usually manage to get a post written and posted, even on vacation. Unfortunately, not this time.

On Friday, we were on the road, and drove as far as Muscokee OK before we stopped for the night. After a quick supper, we settled our brain-dead, road-weary bodies into the motel bed and gave in for the night.

Saturday, we finished the driving, finally arriving on the south side of Houston TX. Having reached our destination, we settled in for a quiet evening. Unfortunately, hubby decided to check his email, and his inbox was so full (after 2 days) that by the time he got done, there was no time left for me to do anything on the computer.

Today, we went to the Space Center Houston. Once we looked around and saw what was there, it seemed we could do it all in one day, therefore saving us the money of going again tomorrow. And we did get done, but it was a long day, and we were both limping by the time we returned to our motel room. I was too tired by then to try and write a blog.

So, my apologies, and I will try very hard to actually have a blog next Sunday. Yes, I will still be on vacation. Yes, I will be at WorldCon in San Antonio. Yes, I am on staff at WorldCon in San Antonio. However, by Friday, my staff stuff will be done, so if I haven't gotten one written by then, I will be able to take half an hour to type one up. I hope. Worldcons always seem to have something going on.

Conquest 2013

On our way home from Florida, Hubby and I paused in Kansas City to attend Conquest. Hubby would participate in 3 panels. I also had 3 panels, plus I had a time set aside for a reading and autograph session!

I didn't do as well with those panels as I'd hoped I would. I thought I was ready, but my shyness asserted itself; I gave short answers, I didn't insert my 2 cents if it meant interrupting, and on one panel in particular, I found myself unable to invent wild tales at a second's notice. Yes, I'm a writer, and I do spin wild tales, but they don't come to me at the snap of a finger.

As a panelist, I need to 'grow', but at least I didn't completely freeze, so that's a point in my favor.

I didn't get to any of the parties on Friday night, so I made an effort to make the rounds on Saturday night. I didn't expect to be the life of any party, I just wanted to find a drink (soda) and join in a little conversation with - well, anybody. And then move on to another party/conversation. Dip my toe in, you might say, rather than hide in my room. My introverted self kept me from spending more than a few minutes in any one party, so it didn't take me long before I got to scurry back to my room. And I survived! So next con, I'll work on spending a few more minutes at the parties.

My reading was scheduled for 10 AM on Sunday. What few people were up that early chose to attend a different panel, so the only ones there were me, Hubby and the other author sharing that time slot. I did do my reading, for the practice, and Hubby gave me some pointers later. When Dennis did his reading, I realized I had read at least one of his books, probably two of them, possibly as many as three! So that was a nice discovery! And I knew better than to be upset by the poor turn-out. I was happy to be ON the schedule, happy for the opportunity to practice.

All in all, Conquest was a good experience for an author taking her first few steps to market herself and her work.

When Balls Drop

With four of my stories available electronically through Smashwords, I decided it was definitely time to spend more of my time marketing. The problem was, I wasn’t sure how to market, plus anything that put me out in front of people, blowing my own horn, was going to be outside my comfort zone. That was why I had joined Toastmasters for 2 years, to get more comfortable speaking in front of others.

If I had to do it, I had to do it. There was no getting around that. I began looking at the conventions I planned to attend this year, and inquired if I might do a reading and possibly be included on a panel or two. I did get to do a reading at a small convention about an hour down the road in the spring, and that turned out well.

This year, we were attending several conventions that were either quite a distance from our home, or new to us, or both. They already seemed to have a full array of panelists and readers, so I attended purely as a fan, handing out flyers to anyone who seemed interested.

Then an organization I belong to that provides mutual support among its author members, wrangled a spot at the World Science Fiction Convention for its members to do a ‘multi-reading’. Instead of one author doing one reading, this organization takes one time slot – in this case, 75 minutes – and schedules several of its members to do short readings.

What an opportunity! I was on staff for the world convention, so I was definitely going to be there! I was one of the first to contact the organizer to state my interest in participating. After a couple days, she emailed back to say I needed to fill out the questionnaire. I was new at this, I didn’t know if the questionnaire was needed for the author’s organization or the convention, so I asked her where I would find the questionnaire I needed to complete.

Here’s where this particular ball got dropped. I forgot I was waiting for an answer. She forgot also. By the time one of us remembered, she had the entire time slot filled. I missed out on this wonderful opportunity.

Oh, well. These things happen. I suspect the trick is, when you drop a ball of opportunity, that you look for more of them, and start picking them up. So, here I am, looking for places to speak, to read, to … market.

HOT Vacation Notes

You’ve seen it in movies, read it in books; an intrepid band of adventurers (or maybe just one) must travel through a desert with the clothes on their backs and few or no supplies. As one expects in the desert, the sun beats down, and after a full day of traveling, at least one (probably only one) adventurer is ‘severely’ sun burnt. Maybe s/he falls into an exhausted sleep of fevered dreams. Maybe, if they find an oasis, someone places cool damp cloth on the reddened face. If natives come to their rescue, the tribal healer may give the burnt one an ointment to help the skin heal.

Other than those few bits I’ve mentioned above, the affliction of sunburn is not mentioned, and doesn’t affect the abilities of that person beyond the first day.

You’re not going to see sunburns treated so cavalierly in my books.

Hubby and I went to a water park during our vacation. I’ve been told all my life that I have skin like a redhead’s, and I’ve said for decades that I ‘burn at the drop of a sunbeam’. When we go to a water park, I try to find someplace I can entertain myself in the shade, with only occasional short stints in the sunlight. By the time the rest of the family is ready to leave, I hopefully only have a pink bit of sunburn to contend with.

I forgot all that, I guess. Oh, I started on the not-so-lazy river, which has large stretches of shade, but then I wandered to the ‘wave pool’. After 2 hrs in the mid-day sun, I could tell my face was burnt, so we left. By the time we reached our room, I was in PAIN! My face felt like it was on fire, my soft cotton t-shirt scraped my shoulders and back into agony. I slathered on moisturizer several times the rest of that day, and poured ice beverages down my throat, hoping to give my body the water it needed to repair this fiery damage. At least, I did those things until I developed the shivers so bad, all I could do was curl up inside a blanket on the sofa. I was still shivering when I went to bed.

The next day, I stayed indoors, continued with the moisturizer and iced beverages. And ibuprofen to fight off any more fevers. My face still burned. My shoulders, back and upper chest gave sharp protests whenever I moved an arm. On day 3, the burn on my face was pink on the lower cheeks and chin, but still red across the forehead, cheekbones and nose. The other burnt areas were much the same as Tuesday, except my back and collar bones - although still very tender - started to itch. And so my recovery continued slowly, a mixture of pain, tenderness, care and irritating itchiness. I still hadn’t gotten to the peeling stage.

And mine would not be considered a ‘severe’ case of sunburn, since I didn’t have any blisters that first day to indicate a 2nd degree burn.

More Vacation Notes

Another week in Orlando. What has happened that might have any bearing on writing?

We do theme parks a lot. That’s one reason why we come to Orlando; between Walt Disney World, Universal, Sea World, Cape Canaveral to the east and Busch Gardens to the west, we can keep ourselves entertained. Another reason we come at this particular time of the year is because of Star Wars Weekends at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday for 4 weeks, you can get free autographs from the Star Wars guests on hand that weekend, shop in the special Star Wars store, and line up to see special stage performances by the Star Wars guests. Oh, yeah, there’s a bunch of costumed characters on hand for photo opportunities, too.

The problem is that you have to have a special fastpass to be assigned a time to get those autographs, and people start lining up for the next day’s fastpass hand-out as early as 9 PM the night before. We don’t sleep on the concrete to get our spot in that line, but we have gotten up as early as 4 AM to get into line by 5. This is fine for Hubby, who wakes up with the sun anyway. He’s an Early Bird through and through. But I’m a night owl, and getting up that early is a killer. With my bad knees, standing in line for those fastpasses is, um, a killer. I’ve taken to reading fantasy while standing in line, to distract myself from the various aches and pains.

Things to keep in mind for my characters while writing: 1) Sleep is good, 2) water bottles are good, 3) rain can be a bummer when you’re caught out in it, 4) sun block is good when it isn’t raining, 5) DISTRACTION can be a really good thing when the alternative is to find yourself focusing on discomfort.

Still more to come!

Vacation!

This week, Hubby and I flew to Orlando. Neither of us are enamored with flying, but for different reasons. I can’t stand being herded through the checkpoint, onto the plane and then off of the plane. Hubby can’t stand having to wait in the airport for a couple hours before we can get on the plane. Neither of us likes the too-small seats, lap trays that won’t actually come down flat, the inability to change position. Still, driving here takes two days each way, and sometimes we just don’t feel we can spare that much time. Since stuff from your real life is fodder for what you write, I try to remember our irritation and frustration connected with flying, and the impatience and boredom that can crop up during a long drive. On the other hand, if my traveler is NOT approaching his/her ‘golden’ years, then I can’t bog down the story by describing aches and pains that a younger person probably doesn’t have to endure.

Now, why would we come down to Orlando, especially in the summer? It’s so hot and humid! And hot! And humid!

Yeah, you’d think so, especially if you compared the relative positions of Orlando and Omaha on a map. Orlando is so much further south, it MUST be hotter! In the winter, yes, Florida is warmer than Nebraska. But I’ve seen hotter temperatures in Omaha in the summer, and surprisingly, the humidity can be just as bad in one place as the other.

I can explain the temperature. Nebraska is in the middle of the country, with nothing but miles and miles of dirt in all directions. In the summer, the sun bakes everything, and in the winter, the cold northern winds have nothing to stop them from covering everything in ice. Florida is mostly surrounded by water, which stores up heat during the summer (keeping everything on land from baking quite so badly), and slowly releases it during the winter, letting the area stay warmer than it otherwise would.

I can’t explain the humidity. The water surrounding Florida would be a quick explanation for that humidity level, but Nebraska doesn’t have large bodies of water, so how does that much humidity collect in the place? I can’t explain it, like I said.

But it brings up something else to keep in mind while I’m writing. Just because location A is miles closer to the equator than location B does not necessarily mean a great difference in the local weather.

Everything is more complicated than we think it ought to be.

This story of our May/June vacation and what I learn from it will be continued next week.