Kickstarter has FUNDED!
On the first day! In less than eight hours! It's amazing and crazy and insane! Sailing right on into stretch goals.

I saw a lot of you drop in for the author party. Thanks! It meant a lot to me to see familiar faces. I appreciate the support, both moral and monetary, more than I can say.

And now I am going to fall over. Good night, all. Sweeeeet dreams.

Current Mood: accomplished

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Kickstarter is LIVE!!!
Couldn't be happier! Please help us get off to a strong start and spread the word: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/815743020/2016-fantasy-releases-two-new-worlds

Current Mood: jubilant

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Progress: Goodreads, Web Site
A Witch's Kitchen is now up on Goodreads, so if you're a Goodreads reviewer, you can apply for an ARC. Please, if you have the time, read and review my book.

Also, I have a web site up for Dianna Sanchez! I've joined the WordPress age and will be blogging along merrily soon. The site itself is rudimentary, but by September, I'll have it humming along beautifully. If you have time, please check it out, push ALL the buttons, and let me know what breaks.

Reminder: the Facebook Launch Party is tomorrow! Hope to see you there.

Current Mood: accomplished

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Facebook novel launch party
Hello, all. You're all invited to come listen to me, Sherry D. Ramsey, and Susan Jane Bigelow talk about our novels and launch a new Kickstarter! Hope you can join us.

Current Mood: excited

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Save the Date - Book Launch Party, September 24, 7pm
I just scheduled a book launch party for A Witch's Kitchen and Susan Jane Bigelow's The Demon Girl's Song at Pandemonium Books and Games in Cambridge on Saturday, September 24th at 7pm. WHEEEEE!

Meanwhile, working on my stretch goals. First draft of a short story nearly finished.

Current Mood: elated

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Female protagonists in SF comics
Hey, all you comics afficionados out there! Do you know of any good SF comics/graphic novels with strong female protagonists? A friend of mine is writing/illustrating a cool graphic novel, but his contract fell through, and now he needs to shop it around again. When you query novels and comics, you need to include comps, comparative works that are current (published within the last three years), successful (doesn't need to be a bestseller but should have sold well and gotten some good reviews) and similar (but not TOO similar) to your own work.

So if you can think of anything in this narrow category, let me know.

Current Mood: inquisitive

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Gratitude
It's really too bad that my church's gratitude blog is over. This would have made for one hell of a story.

I complain a lot about my body. To be fair, it fails a lot, in annoying ways. But there are some ways in which it performs well, and one of those is my ability to produce platelets. It's something most of us take for granted: the ability to clot when we are wounded. My platelets do this swiftly and thoroughly. So I donate them to those who don't have them, since I have plenty to spare.

In a bizarre coincidence, which you might read about on Alex's Facebook page, the husband of one of Alex's coworkers had his gall bladder removed today. For me, it was a fairly trivial procedure, and today, four days after my surgery, I was already up and driving the kids around to afterschool activities. But for this man, it's a serious, life-threatening condition because he happens to have hemophilia. Without donated platelets, he would die.

Nearly three weeks ago, I donated platelets at Mass General Hospital. There is a nonzero chance that, right now, this man is receiving my platelets to help him survive the very same surgery I had four days ago. I may have saved the life of a man I actually know, not just some abstract, nameless stranger. It's an astounding feeling.

If I could, I would go donate more tomorrow, but I happen to need my platelets at the moment. So all I can do is encourage all of you: if you can, donate.

Current Mood: grateful

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Hell Has Frozen Over
...or at least, I have stopped constantly craving chocolate. What? Is that even possible? I thought chocolate was addictive, like coffee. This is a bit like going from a 3 cup/day habit to chamomile tea overnight. Now, I've long known that chocolate is a serotonin substitute for me, so am I suddenly producing enough serotonin?

That's possible, now that I've increased my B vitamin intake from an unlikely source. I recently found a local source of Kallas Kaviar, a cod roe paste that Swedish kids eat like peanut butter. (Ingredients: Fish roe, canola oil, sugar, salt, potato flakes, tomato puree, potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate (preservative), ascorbic acid (antioxidant). I prefer a variety that also has dill.) You spread it on a wafer of crispbread, usually on top of a layer of butter, though I forego that step.

I find it utterly delicious, if a little saltier than I generally like. More importantly, it contains a ton of omega-3s and B vitamins that I've found really help my brain run more smoothly. Until now, I could only get the stuff at Ikea, and that's a very long hike from Beverly. But I recently discovered a little European market in Peabody called Karl's. Better known for their excellent sausage, they also have a great selection of pickled herring/sardines/anchovies, including the truly bizarre Silsalad (beet, herring, and whipped cream salad) and Kallas Kaviar. I go there about every other week to stock up, since the girls conveniently have an art lesson nearby.

I have two or three servings of Kallas each day. I'm guessing these amount to a tablespoon or so each time. And lo, even after two nights of not so great sleep, my mind is running smoothly, my work practice is improving, and I've stopped inhaling chocolate. I left most of the chocolate frosted cake for my father-in-law. I was at the Gulu Gulu cafe last night, got an Andes mint latte, and found myself wishing it was much more mint and much less chocolate. I had no desire for a nutella crepe. I felt like I'd entered the Twilight Zone.

The only times in my life this has happened before, I've been pregnant or had a stomach bug, scarlet fever, or food poisoning (and, to be honest, I craved chocolate all through the food poisoning, I just couldn't eat it). This time, I seem to be robustly healthy, perhaps more so than ever before. I'm 1/8th Swedish and roughly 1/4th German. It seems my brain chemistry is determined by that side of my family tree. Of course, hypothyroidism can also cause serious vitamin B-12 deficiency, though the argument still holds: I get my hypothyroidism from the same side of the family.

Regardless, fish, especially fatty, omega-3-rich fish, seems to be critically important to my mental and physical health. No wonder I was constantly depressed in New Mexico! Shellfish, crustaceans, and beef liver also appear to be good sources.

Current Mood: surprised

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Yoga Class - Friday 10:30am - Anyone Interested?
My favorite yoga class by Carol Faulkner meets on Fridays at 10:30am at Cambridge Cohousing (yes, I drive all the way in from Beverly for this class - it's that good). Alas, only three other people have signed up for the class this fall, so it may not happen. This sucks for me - it's nigh impossible for me to buck traffic and get to Cambridge for the 8am or 5pm classes. Carol is fantastic at taking into account all my quirks and oddities (very tight hamstrings, messed up right foot, torn right rotator cuff that never healed properly, very sensitive wrists). If you are interested in a really good, mindful, gentle Iyengar yoga class, please let me know. I have spare yoga mats and props to lend if you don't have them.

Current Mood: desperate

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Today's Writing
I got together with my friend Dirk Tiede to do some exercises from the Rock Your Plot workbook. As a warm-up, we did Charater Goal-Motivation-Conflict charts for Luke from Star Wars and Marty from Back to the Future. Now I need to start in on my next novel.

Problem is, I can't decide which one to work on. I had planned to do Treewalker next because I have more written there, but I'm realizing that I have some serious plot and character flaws. Emporium is still mostly an amorphous blob in my head, mainly because I don't have a good grasp of my protagonist's motivations and no clue what I'll do for an antagonist. Great House is even more amorphous in that I don't even have an ending in mind. Meghan and the Infinite City is the most well-rounded, from a character standpoint, but I have MAJOR research to do before I can even consider starting in on that. And the MIST novel not only has major worldbuilding challenges but is also barely a twinkle in my eye. Sigh.

I'm starting to think that I should do a workup on each of them, see which one is most fleshed out already, and get going on that. But ugh. I really want to just write again. Planning is a bummer, but I know it will save me horrible, tedious hours of revision later.

Current Mood: daunted

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Giving a Reading on Sunday, November 2nd
Hey, folks. I'm going to be reading at an Odyssey fundraising event in at LaBelle Winery in Amherst, NH on Sunday, Nov. 2nd. This is a kid-friendly event with a bonfire and smores, so bring the kids and come listen to some rocking SFF!

Egad. I'm sandwiched at the end between Alex Jablokov, one of my very favorite writers, and Jeanne Cavelos, who runs Odyssey. Yikes. I would really appreciate seeing a few friendly faces in the crowd.

Current Mood: guarded enthusiasm

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Please Support Cool 3D Printing Kickstarter
Apologies to those of you who've already heard this from other sources.

As many of you know, I do some contract work for Einstein's Workshop (recently featured in the Boston Globe) and the girls take classes there. They've recently developed 3D printing design software called BlocksCAD that is so easy and intuitive, third-graders can use it. Annelise took a class that used it and not only loved being able to create her own doll furniture, she discovered a new, profound appreciation for math. It was the first time she'd experienced a real, practical use for math beyond counting money.

They're running a Kickstarter campaign right now to fund improvements to the software and open-source distribution so that schools, libraries, and makerspaces worldwide can use BlocksCAD. If you have kids and/or are interested in 3D printing, please support this campaign!

Current Mood: enthusiastic

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Lactose Intolerance
So, after all the wailing and gnashing of teeth, it turns out I have become lactose intolerant. Really, that's a pretty good outcome after watching my doctor completely freak out. And I've seen this sort of thing before. Once, my brother was hospitalized because his doctor thought he'd contracted typhoid. Actually, he had the flu at the same time as a severe allergic reaction to our parakeet.

As a species, we look for patterns, and often we find them where they don't actually exist. In my case, I had a mild stomach bug during a week of school vacation in which I got the kids (and myself) ice cream almost every day, which caused a massive flare-up of the lactose intolerance I didn't know I had. And somehow, that looked to my doctor like a perforated intestine. Go figure.

Anyway, having figured this out, I now carry Lactaid everywhere and am gradually changing my diet to be less dependent on dairy. I really love almond milk with cereal, for example. I really, really miss cheese and yogurt. But I'm hoping that going off dairy for a while will help my digestive system to chill out a bit, and maybe eventually, I'll be able to tolerate cheese in small quantities again.

And now that my digestive system doesn't hurt all the time, I'm catching up with all my work again, which is a very good feeling.

Current Mood: optimistic

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Intuit is hiring
In case I forgot to mention it, I'm now working at Intuit, and Intuit is hiring:

Global Alliances Solution Engineer in Waltham MA.  Details @  http://tinyurl.com/m79goga

Channel Partner Manager in Waltham MA.  Details @ http://tinyurl.com/la8a38c
If you'd like to apply, send me your resume. If you're hired, I'll split the referral bonus with you.

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First Comic in Print!
My very first comic strip is out in this month's North Shore Children and Families. Click on the image of the issue and go to page 14.

I had a lot of problems with this one, unsurprisingly. The print in the last panel is hard to read, Susie has no feet in the last panel, and I really struggled with the color - first color comic I've ever drawn! Hopefully, subsequent strips will be better.

Current Mood: jubilant

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Recommended Book
Go read "Mindset" by Carol S. Dweck. Seriously.

Current Mood: accomplished

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High Ground Microfarm blog
Hi, all. I'm posting my farmy stuff on a new blog, http://highgroundmicrofarm.blogspot.com/. Henceforth, I won't be posting that stuff here, but I do link it to google+ if you'd like to follow there.

Current Mood: accomplished

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Ladybugs
Just released live ladybugs into the greenhouse, right on top of the aphid-infested dill. Go, bugs, go!

Current Mood: amused

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Farm Planning Fatigue
Oof. Starting to go crosseyed looking at seeds and fertilizers and amendments and beneficial insects and row covers and irrigation supplies and fruit trees, etc., etc. OTOH, thus far, I have orders for about 100 seedlings without really trying. If I can get up to 1000 seedlings, I may be able to fund my increasingly expensive hobby.

Yesterday, the CowPots arrived. Today the seeds from Johnny's arrived. I cleaned up the greenhouse, took down the old tomato plant, trimmed the pea plants (sob!), cleared all the non-essential stuff out of the way, set up more tables, dug up some finished compost, and mixed it with organic potting soil. I'm waiting for the rice hulls to arrive, and then I can transplant kale seedlings and start the basil and peppers. After lunch, I created the first draft of the seedling order form and started messing with the formatting of the blog. I'd give you the URL, but there's nothing to see as yet. Need to design a logo, find a more appropriate background image, add some clever widgets, etc.

Spent an hour distributing farmshares (not grown by me, I'm just the site coordinator) at the girls' school. Then came home and started scanning craigslist for usable garden supplies. Sorely tempted by free chickens and goose, but I'm just not ready yet. Need a henhouse! Hmm... wonder if I can find a henhouse on craigslist or ebay...

I am pooped.

Current Mood: tired

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Gardening Update
Looks like I may have found the answer to the non-blooming peas problem: http://charlesthegardener.com/?p=490. So I have to trim the pea stalks, which I think may kill me. I hate thinning seedlings and pruning tomatoes. It drives me crazy. But since I do want peas, I'll grit my teeth and do it. I'll also order the phosphorus and potassium supplements recommended.

In other news, spring has definitely arrived in the form of flea beetles on the spinach and aphids on the dill. Grr. Time to whip up a batch of insecticidal spray and order some ladybugs.

Alex has gotten really excited about the prospect of earning back some of the money we've put into the garden by selling seedlings. If I've already contacted you about seedlings, my previous offer stands. If not, and you're interested in seedlings, what would you like me to grow for you, and how much would you pay for them? By the end of this week, I'll be planting kale, basil, peppers, and ground cherries. I could also be persuaded to start some eggplant if anyone's interested, and I could seed some more leeks, herbs, and flowers. I'll start tomatoes, broccoli, and cauliflower at the end of the month. I could be persuaded to start some brussels sprouts and cabbage if there's enough interest. May 1st, I start melons, cukes, and squash. If there's something you want that I haven't listed here, let me know.

I will also accept sweat equity or swaps for seedlings. Things I need: trays of any kind to put seedlings in, small and medium pots for larger seedlings like tomatoes and peppers. Work I need done: bed building, compost brought to me, wood ash for soil amendments, etc. I'm also looking for herbs to transplant, especially mint.

Current Mood: entrepreneurial

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