This is me rambling about me, mostly. Current stuff: home, family, my head’s on fire… that kind of thing. This also includes everything imported from LiveJournal.
Twice this morning I was called up in remembrance of my grandmother’s house in Maryland.
The first scent is one that triggers the memories often — the smell you get from a puff of un-ignited natural gas from the stove. Her stove was the first gas stove I had ever seen, and the smell of natural gas (or rather the smell of mercaptan and other additives) always reminds me of her kitchen. Even after almost fifteen years of cooking with gas myself, that smell still sets me off.
The second is “day-old fireplace.” We had a nice, cozy fire in our enclosed fire stove yesterday evening, and this morning there’s a smell coming from that end of the living room that reminds me of grandmother’s house during winter. It’s not the smoky smell — any residual smoke has been cleared out by the air filter I bought last winter. It’s kind of a wet ash smell that you can only pick up right at the fireplace.
Regardless of the source of the smells, the remembering was nice. Grandma has passed on, and that house was sold long ago, but I still have fresh memories right here… in my nose.
Yesterday I finished the last of the sketch editions (with the exception of the last eight that I’ve set aside for “special handling.”)
I also determined that my digestive issues of the last week or so are almost certainly due to my increased ingestion of ibuprofen. I think I maxed out at 2400mg/day, which is 75% of the maximum adult dose, but I was taking that much between 11am and 6pm, so I’m pretty sure I was pushing the line a wee bit.
Anyway, the huge block of sketching is done. Today I’m going to ink and color some buffer (more Admiral Emm, YAY!) and knock down those last eight books. And I’m going to do it without taking any ibuprofen..
I watched the old Grinch cartoon with my kids, and later had one of those oddball thoughts that probably should not be shared, but that I sometimes share anyway.
“Yahoo Doré” is Who-speak for “Where the hell is my stuff?”
Be apprised: the arrival of four-point-six-eight tonnes of printed material in my driveway is not the same thing as “I’m shipping your book now.” Here is the schedule for the next two weeks:
Tuesday: shift 3000 books to a storage unit. Break 2000 books out of cartons and begin signing.
Wednesday through Friday: Bang out a half-ton of sketch editions.
Saturday & Sunday: Ice my hand. Take the weekend off.
Monday, December 3rd: Pre-orders officially close.
Monday through Wednesday: Finish sketch editions.
Thursday and Friday: Sketched and signed books are boxed and mailed all over the world.*
Saturday: Release Party at Dragons Keep. If you’re picking your book up in person, that’s the place.
So… if you’ve been wondering where your book is, now you know. It should ship out no later than one week from this coming Friday.
*Note: This is the official call for volunteers for the shipping party. We’re shipping out of Dragons Keep again. Email sandra.tayler@gmail.com for details.