Paksworld

And another milestone number:  Book IV is now over 140,000 words.   This was one intermediate goal–to hit this or more before leaving for DragonCon.   Glad to be here a couple of days ahead, as it means I can visit ArmadilloCon this weekend.  Can’t spend long there, what with the packing and also the resting-up I need to do, but I can at least drop by and visit friends I otherwise don’t see between the conventions.   Next year I’ll be going to WorldCon in  Chicago, which gives me an extra day (assuming ‘DilloCon’s in the same relation, time-wise, to Labor Day weekend) and I should be able to actually *attend* it again.

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Yes, there will be a contest for an ARC of Echoes of Betrayal.   I haven’t decided just what it will be, but it will be.   I enjoyed last year’s “invite a character to dinner” contest and hope you did, too.   I won’t have a contest topic until after the next trip, so this is just a heads-up.

Husband is recovering well enough that I’m definitely heading for DragonCon week after next…by train, which means leaving on Monday the 29th.    (This is because the Sunset Limited–the train I’ll take from San Antonio to New Orleans, runs each direction on alternate days.  However, this gives me a chance to have a quiet morning in Atlanta before Registration opens Thursday afternoon.)

I will be meeting Editor there for a working breakfast, and also Former Editors (both Baen and Del Rey)  on a panel, so it should be productive.  I hope to meet some of you there, though I know some of you were unable to come.   Next year I’ll miss  DragonCon as I definitely plan to attend WorldCon in Chicago and it’s on the same weekend.    (Well, yeah, I could charter a jet and take one day off Chicon to fly to Atlanta and back…if I won the lottery…but practically speaking….no.)  The advantage of Chicon 7 is that I don’t have to change trains (large smile here.)

At any rate…suggestions for contests are welcome, though I won’t promise to use any.   (Isn’t that just like a writer!?)

Terie Garrison’s bright idea of a one-month “race” to keep us motivated in the otherwise uninspiring month of February…she and I did this last summer (August can also be One of Those Months).

You can watch progress at her LiveJournal–she’s got the graphics up at the head of her journal,   and because we’re each reporting in our own time zones, the graphic may be a day behind.   ( It is, as I post this. )    The up-to-the-minute wordage posts are on Terie’s newsgroup at SFF.net.   To read there, if you’re not a member (at least several of the contestants are), go to http://webnews.sff.net/ and sign in as a guest.   You’ll browse to find her newsgroup:   sff.people.terie-garrison.

The idea is that each writer chooses a word goal for the month–large or small, doesn’t matter.  Those picking the longest goal have no multiplier–the words you see are the real words reported.  Those with shorter goals have a multiplier to compensate for the “long” goal.

Larry Lennhoff,  ( #42 on the contest comment list)

Contact me (via email on website) with mailing address w/in  a week (there’s a backup winner number already.)

Thanks to Webmistress Ruta, who used a random number generator and got me an answer this morning.

The “take a character home for dinner” contest for an ARC closes at midnight my time tomorrow night….that’s…um…Central Daylight (dammit) Time for those in the US and I think (if I did the conversion right) it’s 0500 UTC.

I’ve really enjoyed the entries so far–many characters have been chosen (some are very popular) and the various dinners sound scrumptious.

You are the host.  You invite a character to dinner.   Which character from the Deed or Oath, and what do you cook for him/her, and why?    Try to fit the answer in just one or two sentences–this isn’t a demand for vast culinary expertise.   Something like “I would invite  A, and cook B (as simple as “bread” or as elaborate as you please), because (something about A that makes liking B plausible.)  Needless to say, you don’t have to be able to cook the meal in real life.  It’s a fantasy world.  All valid entries (includes character name, menu, reason) will be assigned a number, and the number entered in the drawing for the ARC.   I will co-opt my webmistress to pluck one from a hat.

Post entries to this topic as comments.   Entries must be in by midnight November 2 (the night of our concert, so I may be able to do the drawing within a day or so.)   When I do post the winner’s name, winner must contact me with a mailing address within a week, so we can avoid the holiday jam-up at the post office, which starts earlier every year.

I’m hoping you all have fun seeing who wants to invite whom for dinner, and what kinds of interesting menus are involved.    (I know what to cook for some of my characters, but not all of them.  If you’re actually dying to do menus for more than one, just for fun…sure, you can, but only the first one you send will be in the drawing.