Austin, TX --

A fundraiser and auction to benefit the Aaron Allston Donation Fund will be held on Sunday, July 19, from 1-5 p.m. at Arbor A in San Gabriel Park, 445 E. Morrow, Georgetown, TX. The Aaron Allston Donation Fund is a medical fund established by his friends to help Mr. Allston, an internationally known science fiction writer and author of several Star Wars novels, with large medical expenses recently incurred as a result of emergency bypass surgery. Mr. Allston is a long-time resident of Central Texas.

The link with info about the auction time and place, and the addresses for check and PayPal donations, is
here.

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I sometimes think I'm the only single writer I know who has personal health insurance. (I had to hunt it down, tag it and keep a GPA on it to hang onto it, but there you are...) And for what it costs, I know why. If you can, buy one less $5 item this week and then pass this message along. If everyone who sees it gives a few bucks, it will at least dent the mound of medical bills Aaron has amassed.

A California Lyme Disease Association (CALDA) sponsored Survey will send message from patients to IDSA* Lyme panel --

Have you taken CALDA's new Lyme survey? If not, click here to participate. CALDA CEO Lorraine Johnson will present the results at the IDSA's Lyme guidelines hearing in Washington DC on July 30. (The hearing will be streamed live over the internet. Stay tuned to the CALDA web site for details.)

Feel free to pass this on to anyone you know who is dealing or has dealt with Lyme disease.

Hiding with the top of the paper shredder and the electric Teflon skillet set aside for batiking/trash and accidentally packed.

Happy dance!

Damn, tried to go ADD during exercises, and awfully tired to do sub-q for cat. Must remember to do early, since wanted to demonstrate for Belleps Tues or Weds nite --

The Un-Constipated Gourmet: Secrets to a Moveable Feast
Danielle Svetcov. Sourcebooks, $15.99 paper (288p) ISBN 9781402216725

Diners of all stripes and evacuation schedules will find Svetcov’s lighthearted collection of 125 colon-cleansing dishes informative and effective. The usual suspects (coffee, bran muffins, black bean and corn salad) are on display, but even veteran commode commandos will be surprised at some of Svetcov’s suggestions, including flourless chocolate cake with raspberries, bourbon truffles (she insists that chocolate has laxative properties) and yogurt smoothies that get a boost of fiber from supplements and fresh fruit. Virtually all her dishes are flavorful and simple–—wheat germ, flax meal and whole wheat pastry flour are about as outré as she gets—and the emphasis is on flavor rather than fiber content (to that end, Svetcov rates her recipes on a 10-point scale, ten being a dish best consumed within sprinting distance of a restroom). A collection of emergency heavy hitters includes jump-starters like prunes with warm brandy. Conversely, those who might have overdone it will appreciate Svetcov’s recommendations for slowing things down, such as baked potato with olive oil or matzo pancakes. (July)
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If prune juice is the drink of warriors, what is prune juice with warm brandy?

Happy Birthday, Nikola Tesla!

In cat years, Max is 102 and Merlyn 78.

Don't tell them. Max thinks he's sixty-five and struggling to look fifty, while Merlyn thinks he's twelve going on eight.

Just yesterday I was wishing I'd had $600 to buy the original cover to FIRES OF NUALA, my least favorite title change, but the best impression of the world I've ever seen done. But $600 was a lot then, and I didn't know about buying original artwork, hauling it around to signings and deducting it as promo. So some collector has the original. But now you can apparently get a lot of Don Dixon's works as Giclee prints. They sell 18x24 and 24x36 inch prints, the larger for half what the original would have cost me.

http://cosmographica.com/gallery/prints_main.html

Wish I'd had a better head for numbers back then.

Anyone ever purchased a Giclee print? How's the quality?

Amusingly, the third Nuala cover is not on the site. It was badly done. I don't know if the editors or art department asked for too-fast changes, but I thought of it as the hunchback cover. I remember showing it to artist Kevin Anderson, who diplomatically said: "The rocks on the back cover are great!" I agreed, and said I only wished the front was good enough to make someone flip the thing and read the back cover.

We're talking that if I had been the art editor under deadline, I would have either flopped the cover and put the cliff on the front, or taken the back cover of the first book and made it the third cover. Yup -- that bad. Even good artists have bad days....

They've extended the time allowed to sign the petition to Speaker Pelosi. Help keep Dan Choi fighting for us!

We cannot demand a zero tolerance policy on lying of our cadets, and then toss DADT at them. It's stupid, it's illogical, and it is horribly unfair.

http://www.couragecampaign.org/page/s/RepealDADT

By Calvin Reid -- Publishers Weekly, 7/6/2009 7:49:00 AM

http://tinyurl.com/luhp3y

Cheaper than the Kindle, and will support the major open e-publishing format that's been agreed on!

Fuu has won me over -- the craps scene was priceless, and the animation is striking.

FIFTY-FIVE DISCS OF INUYASHA?! In the states, we call that a blockbuster.

I've ordered 10. Otherwise, it would take the rest of my year (well, maybe not that much, but a lot.)

I confess to watching FRUITS BASKET again. It contains just about every trope there is, especially for a girl fantasy, with male characters that will rope guys in. Thoughtful, funny and tragic by turns. I sense some writings on anime looming...but they are more about the genre, using stories as examples. So they will take a while to craft.

It's all sparkylibrarian's fault....

Weekend count -- four more boxes, found rest of bathroom stuff, which includes the manicure kit, phew! I was getting desperate, and those things are expensive. I need to carve out a large swath here so my cat sitter will be comfortable. Part of this is so she doesn't have to look at any boxes -- at least only ones she's not responsible for!

"...for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."

A moment of silence, please, for the brave men who signed this document. Over half of them died or had their lives, and even their families, destroyed during the revolution. We may be the longest running experiment in history in overthrowing a government and replacing it with something better for the majority of its people.

Lift a glass to the countless men and women who fought, in may ways and in very different Americas, for "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness."

Everything else is up to us.

A very good friend has just stepped from the halls of nonfiction and short pieces to her first novel, from Chanter Press in the Texas hill country. It's a story about fathers, daughters and sons, and how two strangers discover that although their fathers had secrets that they told to no one, sometimes a trail of clues will lead to the truth.

I recommend it. Anyone who likes WWII stories will probably love this book. Cheryl has a gift for just the right phrase, and tells a story that brings truth and new beginnings from mistakes and heartbreak. We have a WWII German solder, a late 20th century Air Force Colonel, and a young woman who is both observant and loves a father she never really understood. This will make a great gift.

Here's from the launch party at Facebook:

AVAILABLE BEGINNING JULY 4, 2009 FOR $12.00 (+s&h) FROM:

Chanter Press
Lulu.com

COVER COPY:

"Lives are often stories not yet written down. Not always ended, either, which can fuse the living and telling into a path not always clear. Some tales take a long time to tell, especially when they start in 1944 and flow into 1996, and the characters weave in and out across those years without knowing one another.

Retired Colonel Matthew Rankin’s sudden death at a party in 1996 leaves a gap in many lives. Deepest, perhaps, in that of his daughter, Manda, whose grief is overwhelming as she realizes how little she knows of who her father was. His strict and formal way kept Matthew at odds with his daughter.

The coincidental arrival of Pieter Becker, a man following a just-found trace of his own father’s World War II disappearance, sets the two of them in motion to solve the puzzle of their fathers’ connection. At first, the only clue they have is a photo taken of the two men together in Grand Central Station in 1975 by Willi Prang, a garrulous former WWII POW who says he knew Pieter’s father.

In 1975, Matthew Rankin was an on-the-rise Colonel in the United States Air Force, successful and devoted to doing the Pentagon’s bidding.

The other man in the photograph is Pieter’s father, Franz Becker, according to Willi Prang, whom Pieter meets at a reunion of ex-German POW’s.

But Pieter’s father died in World War II.

Or did he?"

I've tossed up a website for a friend whose self-published (and quite good, actually) novel is released July 4th. I know the browsers never match, but I'd like it to look good in both Firefox and IE (designed for Firefox 3.0, because I am out of date coding and I know that better). I'd be interested to know of any fast way to get the white Firefox table to show up in IE. It would solve the problem of the bottom navigation not looking right on page 3, because the left column is only navigation. Also can't remember how to shorten the table on two -- we don't need quite so much space under the sample right now. I cut heights in two places, but the browser is having none of it.

I would be interested to know how it looks in AOL (boo hiss) Safari and anything else someone wants to contribute. If one is hopeless, I'll have to put up a suggested browser. I tried to find her a designer, but everyone was not taking new clients!

It's www.chanterpress.com for the curious.

By they way -- this would be a wonderful purchase for anyone interested in WWII or family/generational works. The author is published in short and non-fiction, and it's been professionally edited and copy-edited. She just got tired of 22 year old agents & NYC editors telling her that no one was interested in WWII anymore. She wanted a Father's Day release, but Lulu was very hard to work with...I may have to look for another packager for me, if Lulu is going downhill.

So now, to a petition to Speaker Nancy Pelosi to bring up DADT in the House. Of course, she's from California, where they are mostly tolerant of their GLBT taxpayers, but do not want to let those people get married.

You know, the wedding industry really should get on board here. Doubling their profits is only a vote away!

http://www.couragecampaign.org/page/s/RepealDADT

Yes! Book View Cafe had over 500,000 hits last month! Go BVC!

www.katharineeliskakimbriel.com * * * www.bookviewcafe.com
http://alfreda89.livejournal.com/ * * * http://blog.bookviewcafe.com/
Latest Alfreda short story -- http://www.yarddogpress.com/wingsof.htm

Extreme sheep herding? A bunch of wacky engineers take to the hills of Wales with sheep, border collies, LEDs and a camera, all for our enjoyment. I'm not sure what is best -- the antics, or the laugh of one of the guys. I noticed today that only 23,000 people have seen it at YouTube, although I have mailed it to people. So few? That's a crime!

So, for your evening nightcap -- Extreme Sheep LED Art!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2FX9rviEhw

CODA: I have a less-viewed copy -- looks like over 8 million viewers! That makes me feel better. With all the junk out there, forethought, application and real humor must count for something!

I can hear the "Aaawwwww"s already.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31586820/ns/us_news-environment/

I was always afraid that I was not really a geek, because I'm more interested in writing fantasy & SF than in catching up on Buffy. (You'll be sad/amused to know that I saw the first season, then taped the second (had a class that night) and kept coming home too tired to watch stuff. I also taped the third season before giving up.) Buffy will be in my future, not my past. I am also a potted plant and chocolate woman.

But I do have more SF/Fantasy DVDs than anything except Jane Austin stuff.

Also -- if I had known about Fiesta!Giles, I would have taken up a collection, because if suricattus doesn't have one, I think she should have one.

The comments are also worth reading!

http://theparkbencher.blogspot.com/2009/06/how-to-meet-and-woo-nerdy-girl.html

Writer Steven Harper Piziks, a fellow member of BVC, is running a contest. I have lots of fun little stories about chocolate, but nothing overwhelming enough to win a contest. So -- you go!
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http://spiziks.livejournal.com/160712.html

It's summer! Time to indulge! Indulge in lazy afternoons. Indulge in luscious summer reading. Indulge in yummy treats. Like chocolate.

To celebrate summer, chocolate, and the release of the Silent Empire books on the Kindle, I'm holding the Chocolate Covered Kindle Contest.

To enter:

1. Post your favorite true anecdote involving chocolate.

2. The anecdote can be sensual, romantic, cute, heart-tugging, funny, anything you like--but it must be true. (No sex stories, please! That's a contest of a different kind.)

3. Entries will be judged on how interesting they are and how full of chocolaty goodness they are.

4. Deadline is Tuesday, June 30 at 5:00 p.m.

5. The winner will receive an autographed copy of a Silent Empire book of his or her choice--and a bar of delicious chocolate.

As an example: When Aran was three, I baked a batch of chocolate brownies and put them on the counter to cool. Aran looked at them longingly, but I told him they were too hot to eat yet, so he shouldn't touch them. Then I took him out into the back yard, where I had yard work to finish. A few minutes later, I heard Aran crying inside the house. I ran inside and found him in the kitchen wearing a pair of oven mitts. The mitts and his face were smeared with chocolate. He had snuck back into the house, but he remembered that the brownies were too hot, so he put on the oven mitts. But then he discovered he couldn't get at the brownies with his hands covered. I felt awful--I didn't know how much the brownies meant to him. I cut him one and gave him a fork, and he was so very happy. [This falls into the "cute" category.]

What can you share with us?

And be sure to check out DREAMER http://www.amazon.com/Dreamer-Novel-Silent-Empire/dp/B002DML10G and NIGHTMARE www.amazon.com/dp/B002ECF1R4 on the Kindle. TRICKSTER and OFFSPRING are coming soon!

I just posted a 1000 word article on this over at Book View Cafe:

http://blog.bookviewcafe.com/2009/06/26/fake-poop-and-other-cat-deceptions/

And -- starting on Monday:

Book View Café is launching author Steven Harper Piziks as the newest member of the group. Piziks’ novels include In the Company of Mind and Corporate Mentality, both science fiction published by Baen Books. Writing as Steven Harper for Roc Books, he has produced The Silent Empire series. He's also written movie novelizations and books based on Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, and The Ghost Whisperer.

For his launch, Book View Cafe is offering Piziks’ short story, “Thin Man,” on June 29th. “Thin Man” was originally the cover story for Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine, Winter, 1997. Piziks’s BVC Bookshelf also includes his short story, “A Quiet Knight’s Reading.” A full length science fiction novel and more of his short stories will be available soon.

Visit Steven Piziks’ bookshelf at BookViewCafe.com: http://www.bookviewcafe.com/index.php/Steven-Piziks/

Watch for Piziks’ future offerings on Mondays at http://www.bookviewcafe.com