Assorted Oddments

I'm very tired and very unfocused both creatively and in terms of reading, and I am STILL behind on Hugo book reviews but this awaits a time when I am not working weird hours and/or frantic with holidays. In the interim, have a list of things:

  • If you follow my Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, or Facebook page, you know I fairly regularly post ballpoint doodles that I do on post-it notes during technology-enforced pauses in my workday. I've gathered all of the doodles to date in one place at last, this Pinterest board.
  • Again, you may have noticed on social media that I was doing InkTober. I've also gathered the 2015 InkTobers in another Pinterest board.
  • This morning we had the first really dramatic hard frost of the season. The tomatoes, despite their valiant efforts, are clearly done for. The cilantro is hanging on grimly, but it's a matter of time.
  • I am researching the novel still, and amassing a lot of the information I'll need to make this thing work. There's a lot of work yet to do before I can start writing again. In the interim I've been trying to drop a few words here and there on other things; I'm struggling to settle but I might pick up the thing with the witch family with the unlucky son and the harvestmen. I have no idea where that'll go but it's the kind of project I feel comfortable dabbling with.
  • I went to ChessieCon, and I'd like to write about at least one of the panels. The big thing, though, is that I got to give Ursula Vernon fanart. She and Kevin were both very nice and I'm still pretty delighted.
  • Also this morning I screwed up my courage, after reading several articles that piqued my interest, and went to the hardware store looking for small pieces of softwood. I was about to give up, but forced myself to talk to an employee and discovered the one guy who's been doing woodcarving his entire life and who evangelized me with great zeal on the subject. More on this as it develops.
  • Uh, and I just set up a deviantART account? A few folks recommended I give it a shot again. Not sure I'll be able to keep up with it, but there you are.