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Wednesday, September 26, at 6:30, the first class of Short Story I will commence at UCSD on the Extension campus. I hope to see some of you there!
Conjecture: Due to a family emergency, I might not be able to come to Conjecture this weekend. I’ll post more as soon as I know more.
Related posts:Today in Albuquerque, there is a memorial service for Fred Saberhagen. He was the first author I ever wrote a fan letter to. In later years, I met him and saw him and his wonderful wife, Joan, at a few cons. I wish I could be there today to pay my respects.
A year ago today, one of my mentors, Charles L. Grant, died from a heart attack. I was at Girl Scout camp when I heard the news. Ironically, I am leaving in a few minutes for another Girl Scout camp.
Give someone you love a hug, and rejoice in life.
Related posts:I’ll be at Conjecture the last weekend of this month. I’m not sure of my schedule yet but it’s a great local convention and there will lots to see and do.
Conjecture 6 — “Alien Cultures”
September 28-30th
Crowne Plaza Hotel San Diego
2270 Hotel Circle North
San Diego, CA 92108
This is the first in a series of “kidgoth” books that I am writing for Penguin and it’s available now! “My” name is Chris P. Flesh, although in the future, other books in the series might be written by other authors. The first four are by me, though. Come to the strange little town of Snickering Willows, founded by Horatio Snickering III, the creator of Mystery Meat!
I’ll be posting the cover soon. For now, please check it out here!
Related posts:I am in a very nice (and cool!) motel this weekend, working on PRETTY FREEKIN’ SCARY 4: BEEN THERE, CROSSED OVER. This is my fourth PFS book, all of them written under the name Chris P. Flesh. I wrote all day yesterday (Saturday) and watched the Japanese movie PAPRIKA as my reward.
I am still puzzled by the number of emails I answer, that then bounce. As soon as this book is in, I’ll talk to my webmaster about it.
Meantime, thank you for the queries of WICKED 3, DAUGHTER OF THE SHADOWS, and a possible sequel to PRETTY LITTLE DEVILS. Here’s what I have to tell you:
1. Wicked 3–still no firm news
2. DAUGHTER–I may have some really good news soon!
3. PLD–still no firm news
I wish I had something more concrete to tell you, but I don’t. Meantime, I can tell you that as soon as I turn in PFS4, I will be finishing a short story about Zorro. I have become a Zorro geek! I’ve watched Zorro movies; I’m reading ZORRO UNMASKED by Sandra Curtis; I have Isabel Allende’s Zorro novel on CD; and I just went to the San Gabriel Mission. This is the Mission that Zorro would have hung out at. Many of the priests are buried in the campesino there and it completely freaked out my daughter.
Speaking of my daughter, we went on a very quick trip to Long Beach last weekend, to spend some girltime together. We went to the Long Beach Aquarium, the Queen Mary, and the Pirate’s Dinner Adventure. All very wonderful. We swam and I worked while she did some reading.
I hope you are all having a Pretty Wonderful Little Memorial Day!
Related posts:Hello, I’ve been working on my email tonight and I have been either hitting reply or using the email addies you have put in your messages, and I’m getting some of my messages bounced back to me. I’m not sure what to do about this, but if you have emailed me within the last week, and haven’t heard back, please try again.
Meanwhile, I hope everyone is enjoying their summers. I gave myself a treat today; I went to see THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM with a good friend of mine who is an FBI agent. We had a great time. I finished my draft of ATHENA FORCE: DISCLOSURE last week and TBU was my present. I recently bought the soundtrack for THE BOURNE SUPREMACY and I wrote a lot of ATHENA FORCE to it. My other favorite AF soundtrack was CASINO ROYALE. Great movies, great music.
Shoutout to Special Agent Jeff if he’s reading this!
Related posts:I had a wonderful brainstorming session today with my daughter, Belle, and Emily Erlenbach, a local Nancy Drew expert. Emily graciously sat down with us at our local Panera Bread and in a couple of hours, she and Belle helped me hammer out five good plots for five Nancy Drew ghost stories I’m about to write. Thank you so much, Emily!
The Erlenbachs have been very good friends to us. A couple days before our lunch, they gave us Teddy the Guinea pig, whose original mom, Julie, had to leave him behind when she moved back to Massachusetts. Belle adopted him and he is very happy in his brand new cage. Belle bought him his own stuffie, a hedgehog, which he loves dearly.
So thanks to the Erlenbachs, especially my awesome assistant, Emily! You RAWK!
Related posts:Your dad worked at my Zorro panel today. Hope you are loving Europe.
Ole!
Related posts:Here are my scheduled appearances for Comic-Con:
THURSDAY, July 26
5 to 6 PM: ZORRO ROOM 2
6 to 7 PM: signing, AA7 autograph area
FRIDAY, JULY 27
10:30 to 11:30, BOOTH SIGNING THE ROSE BRIDE with artist/illustrator team Kuniko and Mahlon Craft MARGARET MANNATT FINE BOOKS, #5116
2:30 to 3:30, SIGNING FOR ST. JUDE’S at the California Browncoats #A7-8
4:30 - 5:30, DEMONS, DEVILS, AND EVIL DICTATORS ROOM 4
5:30-6:30, SIGNING in autograph area immediately after panel (AA lines, check your program)
Related posts:My daughter and her aunt stayed up until 1 AM on Friday morning sewing a Hogwarts robe; then we drove to Barnes and Noble at 8 AM ish to stand in line to get our wristband and number. Belle was #12!!!!! Twelve, in all the melee that was to come.
After resting for a bit (while I worked), we had to go back to the fabric store for a few more things. Friends came over and the girls prepared their wands. Then off they went to a pre-Potter dinner while I worked.
I put on some themed clothing and went back over to Barnes and Noble, to discover my own books –WICKED 1 and WICKED 2 — in the window under a sign that read WHILE YOU’RE WAITING FOR HARRY POTTER. They were also on a table with PRETTY LITTLE DEVILS, and they were set up in 8 out of 12 shelves on an end cap. It was overwhelming.
More of my daughter’s pals all showed up for the Pottermania; their moms and I sat on the floor of the self-improvement section and offered to help browsers with their “issues.” The news trucks came; the books were purchased, and magic is in the air as little squiggles on paper take Muggles to Hogwarts.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart, JK Rowling.
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