State of the blonde...: seanan

State of the blonde...

...although I suppose that since these days my hair is dyed in a lovely "sunset over the cornfield" ombre, I should probably consider changing that title, huh? Nah. Shan't. I am who I am, and even if I dye my hair black and start being Mira full-time, I'll always be a blonde girl. So! Statuses and such.

Shipping.

I am in the process of packing prizes and purchases and presents to go into the mail. I had a rough couple of weeks, and didn't do the mail when I was supposed to, which means I have a truly daunting amount of mailing to do. I shall persevere, have no worries on that front! It helps that I just got a brand new Ikea shelf for the front room, to act as a shipping supplies/office supplies storage area. I am much more likely to actually cram things into envelopes and send them out in a timely manner if I have easy access to envelopes, rather than needing to rummage through half the back room to find the damn things. (This is part of the overall "declutter the house and make it more easily livable" plan that has been in process for the last month or two.)

Post-Hogswatch cleanup.

So quite a few people who are not regulars around here added me to their LJ friend lists during the Hogswatch festivities, which makes total sense, since who doesn't love a daily giveaway? And now they're subtracting me, sometimes with apologetic little notes, because the giveaways have ended. I just want to remind y'all that doing this is totally cool. I am a voluntary follow zone! Please un-friend me at will, and don't worry that you're going to hurt my feelings. Unless you belong to a very short list of people, all of whom are dear friends who have known me for ages, I will not be upset. I'd be more upset if I learned that you had forced yourself to stick around out of obligation, and consequentially become sad.

Prepping for Boskone!

My first official appearance of the new year will be at Boskone, a Boston-based science fiction convention where I will be appearing as the author Guest of Honor, and more, where my first ever collection of essays and poetry, Letters to the Pumpkin King, will be released. I haven't seen the cover yet, but I'm sure it's going to be gorgeous. More, it's an opportunity to own the contents of my first two (severely out of print) chapbooks. So that's cool. Boskone will be held over Valentine's Day weekend in Boston, Massachusetts, and I hugely recommend swinging by if you're in the area and want to hear me blather about whatever the con winds up telling me to blather on about.

My icon.

Something new is coming in 2014. Step right up and try your luck; a dollar and a quarter buys an all-night pass. Details to come: watch this space for news (but don't bother asking me now, for I won't answer, no, not at all).

Cats.

Mom ran the shop vac on Saturday, to prep for the new Ikea cabinet I mentioned before, and the cats flipped their shit as only cats can do. Two days later, we still feel the echoes of the epic shit-flip. Thomas has been doing sock slides in the hall, Alice is a ball of bale, and Lilly keeps getting confused by the way things have moved, sitting down in the middle of the floor, and keening.

Cats are complicated, and I can't find the reset switch, is what I'm saying here.

Do you wanna build a snowman?

Or ride our bikes around the hall?

badgermirlacca

January 13 2014, 15:52:42 UTC 3 years ago

New comment

Hand raised for riding bikes!

And I'm still here, so there fwiw, 'cause I like your work. And your posts. So there, she says again and redundantly.

seanan_mcguire

January 13 2014, 15:53:19 UTC 3 years ago

Hee hee hee.

Deleted comment

January 13 2014, 16:19:47 UTC 3 years ago

I have a coat now! Bill bought me a coat. :) It is warm and good and I will not freeze.

aedifica

3 years ago

reedrover

January 13 2014, 16:31:14 UTC 3 years ago

Cats are complicated, and I can't find the reset switch

Indeed! We set up a motion camera in the dining room to find out what goes on in the hearts of cats during the Dark Hours. Four out of five cats approve of sitting on the dining room table. The fifth cat apparently thinks that the top of the dining room table is covered in The Evil Bane of Cats and will only pop his head up above table level to inspect it and make sure that the evil has not spread further.

January 13 2014, 18:35:58 UTC 3 years ago

It seriously is.

raelee

January 13 2014, 16:51:49 UTC 3 years ago

I think some company is overdue.

January 13 2014, 18:36:13 UTC 3 years ago

I've started talking to the pictures on the walls.

ladymurmur

January 13 2014, 16:59:02 UTC 3 years ago

Years ago, I was visiting a dear friend who owned two cats, one shy and skittish, the other a total attention-bunny. At one point, he pulled out the Dustbuster, and said, "Watch this!"

When he turned the Dustbuster on, attention-bunny ran and hid - didn't see him until the next day. Shy & skittish? Comes RUNNING into the room, rolls onto her back, and demands to be vacuumed. :-)

January 13 2014, 18:36:22 UTC 3 years ago

Ha!

sylphon

January 13 2014, 16:59:19 UTC 3 years ago

My Mal flipped his shit so badly when I used vacuums that I stopped using them and switched to swifters for my hardwood/tile floors and carpet sweepers for the rest.

January 13 2014, 18:36:35 UTC 3 years ago

You are a good cat slave.

evieeros

January 13 2014, 17:29:05 UTC 3 years ago

Cats are l♥ve. Complicated balls of occasionally somewhat demonic love, but love nonetheless!

My part Maine Coon tuxie demon-kitty sends greetings and demonic messages to your pride. Also, I think he might have put a hit out on the vacuum cleaner. He's convinced it eats cats.

As a baby.

As the Foof King he is now.

January 13 2014, 18:37:10 UTC 3 years ago

Oh my GOSH what a gorgeous boy.

notalwaysweak

sdelmonte

January 13 2014, 17:40:28 UTC 3 years ago

Will be at Boskone!

January 13 2014, 18:37:19 UTC 3 years ago

Yay!

tikiera

January 13 2014, 17:43:44 UTC 3 years ago

I probably wouldn't have gone to see Frozen if you hadn't been excited by it - I wouldn't have trusted it to be good without you.

I saw it, I love it, I am going to buy the soundtrack.

January 13 2014, 18:37:41 UTC 3 years ago

Make sure you get the deluxe. It's worth the three extra dollars for the songs that didn't make it into the movie.

elialshadowpine

shanejayell

January 13 2014, 17:54:32 UTC 3 years ago

Aw, cats. :D

January 13 2014, 18:37:50 UTC 3 years ago

They are awesome.

elliemurasaki

January 13 2014, 18:30:35 UTC 3 years ago

Amazon says NUFFINK about Letters to the Pumpkin King. NUFFINK. How'm I supposed to get my hands on a copy? Boston's too far a drive.

January 13 2014, 18:38:10 UTC 3 years ago

They'll have it available for order on their website once it's typeset and has a cover, I'm sure.

wombatoverlord

January 13 2014, 19:19:01 UTC 3 years ago

These days, the only way to get Totoro up on the bed is to run the vacuum. Or, as he undoubtedly thinks of it, The Hated Machine.

Have fun at Boskone next month, and try not to freeze. If you get a chance (or have local friends who can run an errand for you), the best ice cream around is in Cambridge at Toscinini's. I've been going there since before I was born. I haven't lived in the area since 2008, and the owner still knows me on sight. Yes, it will be the middle of winter in New England. My people still eat ice cream then.

January 15 2014, 18:17:54 UTC 3 years ago

I eat ice cream any time I can get my hands on ice cream; I do not judge.

January 13 2014, 19:40:27 UTC 3 years ago

I'd love to see a hair pic!

Not unfriending, sorry, you're stuck with me.

I am delighted to hear about Letters, and will keep an eye out for it.

I will not ask about your icon, but I am quietly flipping out with delight (quietly so as not to disrupt Cedric, who's still sleeping off his surgery.)

January 15 2014, 18:28:00 UTC 3 years ago

There were a bunch of them taken at Worldcon! I AM THE MANTIS SHRIMP.

anna_en_route

January 13 2014, 19:58:27 UTC 3 years ago

I remember the shock of learning that our tough as nails manx cat (Zaphod) , who feared nothing in the world, who would wait in the dark for bare ankles to savage, would not walk down the hallway if the vacuum was out, not on, not even plugged in, just sitting there.

Cats are freaky weird.

January 15 2014, 18:28:10 UTC 3 years ago

They sure are.

offcntr

January 13 2014, 20:06:04 UTC 3 years ago

Every time I see your new icon, Carnival Glass starts playing in my head. Phonographic memory. Sometimes a plus.

January 15 2014, 18:28:38 UTC 3 years ago

Seriously!

xjenavivex

January 13 2014, 20:26:16 UTC 3 years ago

Can I roller skate on the hardwood floors?

January 15 2014, 18:28:46 UTC 3 years ago

Sure.

lazzchan

January 13 2014, 20:40:39 UTC 3 years ago

As soon as I saw you had an LJ, I came out of the dust from my neglected blog and joined your fan-crew. :) You always post such interesting, thought-provoking things, as well as being a kicking author.

My cats go nuts when things are cleaned and rearranged, too. They glare and me and then look confused and wander around, mewing to themselves. Cats are nuts and I wouldn't trade them for the world. I'd build a snowman, but VA seems to have a bubble around it that lets in cold weather, but snow bounces around it! No snowmen here. However, bikes are always an option. Two-seater, anyone?

January 15 2014, 18:28:58 UTC 3 years ago

Aw, we're glad you're here!

phantom_wolfboy

January 13 2014, 21:11:52 UTC 3 years ago

Snowmen riding bikes. Embrace the power of 'and'!

January 15 2014, 18:29:32 UTC 3 years ago

The power of "and" is getting a little weird...

arcaneblades

January 13 2014, 21:16:20 UTC 3 years ago

Still doing the drive by reading, rather than having you on the friends page, but I do it most days.

As for cats, I am staying with a friend(for a few weeks) and have moved my cat in to keep the resident cat comfy, (and also to keep him from coming after me when I finally go home). The pair of them seem to desire to imitate a pair of heffalumps several times a day, making more noise running up and down the stairs and rolling around on the wooden flor than seems possible. My sympathies to your weirded out kitties, and you for having to deal with it.

January 15 2014, 18:29:43 UTC 3 years ago

And that, too, is fine and dandy!

martianmooncrab

January 13 2014, 21:26:21 UTC 3 years ago

free stuff is always cool, but a peek at other folks everyday lives is even better...

January 15 2014, 18:30:30 UTC 3 years ago

Truth!

cerulean_sky

January 13 2014, 21:54:31 UTC 3 years ago

My cat hates my vacuum. I preemptively put him in the bathroom (the only place with no carpet that he's allowed) before I even get it out.

Also, did I miss the last few Hogswatch winners? Scrolled back and couldn't seem to find them, but it might just be me missing obvious things...

January 15 2014, 18:30:44 UTC 3 years ago

No, I got delayed by other things.

dragonsally

January 13 2014, 23:04:28 UTC 3 years ago

Ha, my Nemo (and his dog siblings) run and hide when I vacuum. When the council cleaner comes though, he stalks her. Go figure.

That his baby-self in my pic.