It went very well. I got pretty well hosed, as did everyone else, and, best of all, we raised $1300 for the Red Cross.

Also: there is now a Keith puppet. puppetmaker40 created one for me. There will be pictures soon enough.

Off to the bar......

Off to Shore Leave 31 within the hour. My schedule is here. Hope to see some of you there! The rest of you, keep the blog neat and tidy and don't upset the cats.....

So after karate class, Shihan tells me that there's going to be a black-belt promotion in October, and he wants me to be ready for it.

Yeah.

Honestly, I didn't think I'd be even considered until next year. There are two black-belt promotions per year, one in March, one in October. I didn't think I'd even get consideration until the March 2010 one.

But Shihan thinks I'm ready now. Or, rather, that I will be in October. There's a bunch of training to go through above and beyond class, including building my endurance and running a lot, and I have to get even more serious about fighting class now.

Wibble.

I did see this coming. For the past week, Shihan has been quizzing me on tons of things, plus at the end of class, he'll have everyone but me sit down, and then have me do a kata or three alone in the center of class. Last Thursday, Shihan had me do Tensho kata, a deep-breathing form in a stable stance. Five black belts surrounded me and hit me with pads, kicked me, tried to destabilize me, and so on. That was just a taste of what I'll be going through in October. But usually when folks go through that sort of thing, it's a prelude to prepping for the black-belt promotion.

And, sure enough....

This has been such an amazing journey. But, I hasten to add, that this is just one milestone of many. Becoming a black belt was never the destination, just one of the many many stops on it.

And, it should be added loudly, I ain't there yet. Being told to get ready for it is not the same thing as doing it. I haven't been formally invited for promotion yet, I'm just preparing in the hopes that I am ready.

Damn....

Got up earlier than usual to drive the Forebearance to the airport as they hie to Chicago for the American Library Association conference. Then home to nap for a bit, then to the shrink for the weekly appointment (she thinks me and terri_osborne living in different apartments is a good idea for us both), then down to the dentist for the first time in about five years. Got a cleaning, a lecture on Why I Should Floss And Use Mouthwash, and made three appointments for deep-scale cleanings and followups and stuff.

I've been watching Torchwood: Children of Earth -- I'll try to do a detailed review after all five parts are done.

The muse has been stuck in the mud. This needs to change and fast, as I've got a fuckload of writing to do.

When E-Z Pass says they're going to e-mail you your password (because the password that used to work doesn't anymore), it would help if they actually, y'know, e-mailed it! Sigh.

It's pretty much official at this point: I'll be writing a third Supernatural novel. I can't say much about it, except that it'll be out in 2010, the current working title is Heart of the Dragon, and it'll take place in San Francisco in three different time periods.

More details when I'm allowed to give 'em....

The Chronic Rift has just released a quick promo of "HG World: Heroes of the Zombie War," the audio drama produced by Jay Smith (dr_p_venkman) that I provide one of the voices for. drewshi and popfiend interview Jay about the series, and then you can hear one of the promo pieces. So check it out -- and then go to the official HG World web site, www.GoodMorningSurvivors.com, for more stuff....

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's the latest entry in Marvel's ongoing campaign to convince women that we shouldn't buy their comics!

Soooo, let's see. Marvel wants to help the average comic book nerd be stylish this summer. To this end, they've created a variety of (amazingly hideous) superhero costumes for men, and for women they've created... lipstick and lipbalm.

Wow. Lipstick and lipbalm! What shall I ever do with such an embarrassment of riches? What more could I possibly wish for as a female fan of superhero comics? Surely, I and my superheroic pouty lips will be the envy of all the cosplayers at ComicCon! BEWARE MY POUTY LIPS, EVILDOERS!!!

I swear, it's getting to the point where I feel kind of bad every time I buy a comic book, thinking of all the pain I inflict on the poor, suffering Marvel creators by forcing them to accept my icky money with the girl cooties alll over it. How do those oppressed menfolk live with the horror of knowing that their precious work is being read by someone without a penis? Oh, the humanity! Surely their own penises must be withering in shame at the very thought.

But then I remember that they can fix that problem just by looking at any of the recent Ms Marvel covers, and then I don't feel bad for them anymore.

For some inexplicable reason, the apartment has suddenly become a dead zone for my iPhone. No matter where I go, I get "No Service."

The hell????

So if you've wanted to call me and left voicemail that I haven't returned, or expected to hear from me, this is why......

Two Michigan librarians have started a blog called "Awful Library Books."

According to the "about this site" section of the blog:

Awfullibrarybooks.wordpress.com is a collection of the worst library holdings. The items featured here are so old, obsolete, awful or just plain stupid that we are horrified that people might be actually checking these items out and depending on the information.

This blog contains actual library holdings. No specific libraries or librarians are named to protect the guilty. Check your shelves, it could be you.

I've mentioned this before, but thought I'd repeat it: six of the fifteen songs in the Boogie Knights' set at 11am Saturday morning at Shore Leave 31 this weekend will be audience requests. Friday night, and Saturday morning before the show, there'll be a fishbowl and a pad of paper outside the Valley ballroom, and people can write down songs they want to hear, and we will do our damndest to perform them. (We reserve the right to refuse to do a song for whatever reason.)

Here are the remaining nine songs (so don't bother requesting these, as we're already doin' 'em):

"Earth Magic Girls" (parody of Queen's "Fat-Bottomed Girls")
"Outlaw Band of Thieves" (Cher's "Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves")
"Wanted: Harem Guard" (Billy Ray Cyrus's "Achy-Breaky Heart" -- yes, really)
"Works Like a Charm" (Kansas's "Dust in the Wind")
"I'm Gonna Wreck the Shrine" ("This Little Light of Mine," trad.)
"Thank You, Scotland" (Mac Davis's "It's Hard to be Humble")
"I'll Rock Your World" (Modern English's "I Melt with You")
"Claxon Bells" ("Jingle Bells," trad.)
"Dragon's Lure" (Buster Poindexter's "Hot Hot Hot")

boogiebabe_smap

I've adjusted the Shore Leave 31 schedule post slightly to add the live Chronic Rift podcast we'll be doing.

Yay, I can finally post my capiron_bigbang story! Also known as my first serious attempt to make movie!Tony have sex with Steve incorporate the original Avengers team into the movieverse. As an experiment, I'm posting a link to my Dreamwidth journal, because DW allows me to put the whole story in one post rather than split it into chapters. Or you can read it at the fest website which also has art (thanks, norinoricat!)

In a Different Light
Author: marinarusalka
Rating: R for language, violence and superheroes having sex
Warnings: None I can think of. My overall warning policy is in my LJ profile.
Word count: aprox. 20,700
Canon: movieverse/616 mashup; set about a year and a half after the Iron Man movie, with the assumption that the classic Avengers team was formed a few months after Tony's "I am Iron Man" press conference.
Summary: After an unexpected attack, Tony has trouble dealing with his injuries and Steve has trouble dealing with Tony.
Note: Huge thanks to my betas, linaelyn, athenejen and jazzypom. You guys rock. Also, equally huge thanks to malkingrey and red_mike_yog for patient and thorough help with the medical research. Any remaining inaccuracies are my fault and not theirs.


Read the story at Dreamwidthl

Dean Wesley Smith examines what life would be like if all copyrights ceased to exist, in the style of the History Channel's Life After People.

Really fascinating stuff about things we take for granted. Check it out.

This week's installment of "The Summer of the Rift" is an interview with TV writer Rockne S. O'Bannon, the creative force behind Farscape, seaQuest DSV, Alien Nation, and more (as well as my writing partner on the post-finale Farscape comics). The interview is conducted by drewshi and popfiend, two self-described fanboys, who actually conduct an excellent interview in which Rockne talks about all the above-mentioned projects, as well as The New Twilight Zone, Warehouse 13, and more....

You can get the episode off iTunes, or from the Rift web site or podOmatic's Rift page.

Here's my likely schedule for Shore Leave 31 this coming weekend at the good ol' Hunt Valley Marriott:

Friday
7-8.30pm: "Charity Roast of Keith R.A. DeCandido," with MC Robert Greenberger, roasters Kirsten Beyer, Kevin Dilmore, Michael Jan Friedman, Glenn Hauman, David Mack, Marco Palmieri, Dayton Ward, and special guest Peter David (Hunt)
10pm-12am: "Meet the Pros," with all the author and editor guests signing whatever you throw in front of us, and I'll have some of my own books and comics for sale as well (Hunt/Valley Foyer)

Saturday
11am-12pm: Boogie Knights concert, where we'll be taking audience requests (made before the concert) and debuting several new songs including one I wrote and will sing (Valley)
1-2pm: "Ten Years Later, Farscape Continues," with Greg Cox and David Mack (Salon E)
3-4pm: "Star Trek: Corps of Engineers: Wounds," with Ilsa J. Bick and Terri Osborne (Salon A)
4-5.30pm: "Star Trek: Mere Anarchy," with Mike W. Barr, Christopher L. Bennett, Kevin Dilmore, Dave Galanter, Dayton Ward, and Howard Weinstein, where we'll each be reading from one of the chapters in the tale (Salon B)
5.30-6.30pm: "The Chronic Rift Live Podcast," with John S. Drew, and two others TBA, as we do an episode of the Rift live from Shore Leave (Tack)

Sunday
10-11am: "Mirror Universe: Shards and Shadows," with Margaret Clark, Peter David, Kevin Dilmore, Michael Jan Friedman, Jim Johnson, David Mack, Marco Palmieri, and Dayton Ward (Salon E)
11am-12pm: "Writing to Music: The Muse that Inspires," with Greg Cox, Allyn Gibson, Jim Johnson, William Leisner, David Mack, and Scott Pearson (Hunt)
2-3pm: "An Hour with Keith R.A. DeCandido" (Salon A)

I'm listed as being on the Star Trek XI SMACKDOWN!, but that conflicts with the Boogie Knights concert, and there are plenty of folks who can sound off on that one....

Also we're doing an episode of The Chronic Rift from Shore Leave, but as it's scheduled right now, it's opposite both the Wounds and Mere Anarchy panels, so as it stands now, I won't be able to participate....

Edited to add: They moved the Rift to 5.30 so I can be there. We'll be discussing the new Star Trek film.