I am boggled by the response to The Further Adventures Of.

I understand that this first rush is the first rush, and that things will quiet down... Still, there's been an amazing turnout. Thank you, thank you all.

And, as you've all figured out, there's still a certain number of bugs and tweaks going on. If you haven't gotten your story in a week, get in touch with me or Deb - I've been hand-transferring information to her, and, clearly, something got dropped or led astray by pixies.

But, it's been rather tumultuous keeping up with this for the past few days, and yesterday was my Long Day at school - lots of driving, two classes with a nine-hour break in between. An exam last night, which means reading exam papers for the next five days (while also reading the final proofs of Dead & Buried, yay!). Sunny clear weather but cold nights, and exceedingly affectionate cats.

Possibly because of the web-site opening, I've gotten a large number of new people friending me, so I feel the need to explain and apologize, if I don't friend you back. Lately I've had so little time to do the necessary things, that reading the Friend-List has become something I do when and as I have time, about once a week. Things will change, but right now that's how they are, and I'm sorry I can't get to know you better at this time.

Everybody give good thoughts and special thanks to my lovely Sitemistress Deb, without whom NONE of the stories could have gone on the Net.

Well, I've just been notified that I've made a stupid oversight - "Quest For Glory" was apparently already posted - in its entirety - on my website already.

I'll notify Deb.

But, thanks to all of you who've bought other stories! And, MUCHO thanks to the friend who made the donation! I'm... flabbergasted.

It all seems to be off to a good (if slightly rocky) start.

My lovely Sitemistress assures me that the button now works. I'll try it later tonight.

I am also told - as I should have mentioned up front, and I'm very sorry I didn't - that nothing can go out until the payments "clear," which I think takes a day or two.

Meanwhile, in between all this I'm plugging away on Blood Maidens - Asher & Ysidro #3 (book, not short story)...

And coming up with ideas for a Keep of Dare short. It's been way too long since I dealt with Ingold and Gil.

If anyone has a report on the Pay button before this evening (I get to actually HAVE DINNER WITH A FRIEND, what a concept!), let me know.

Well, curses!
LOTS of people e-mailing (thank you all!!) saying the Buy Now button doesn't work.
I have relayed the information to my SiteMistress (since I haven't the slightest idea how these things work) - and since she has an Actual Job, my guess is, it may well be a day or two before things are straightened out.
PLEASE KEEP CHECKING BACK!
We'll get this figured out and up and running a.s.a.p.
I'm delighted that so many people tried it already! (Why don't things work the way they're supposed to?)

Sorry, that should be, Firemaggot is a novelette... or a novelini...

Anyway, I should add that, on the website, it's $5 per story whether they're short or long. Libre is about 7,000, Heart about 5500. Quest is pretty short. The length will vary. I hope that's okay?

You can follow me on Twitter (though I'm not sure why anyone would want to do that) as BarbaraHambly.

Can anyone advise me on how to put my Twitter posts here on the side of the blog? (I've seen it done, I just don't know what buttons to push...)

WoW - Maybe Thursday we can turn in some of the rather far-flung - but completed - quests I've got in my quest-pile?

The Further Adventures Of... section of my website is up and running!

So far, it contains four of my short stories about characters from my serieses.

"Firemaggot," a 15,000-word novella about Antryg and Joanna, is new... concerning what happens when one of Joanna's cats drags home a very small, dead, undeniably not-this-worldly monster spawn. (It's the mid-80s: Antryg and Joanna are living in LA, Antryg is without magic and hiding out from the Council of Wizards... There's no Internet to search for, "Anybody else seen a brain-eating monster in the LA area?")

The two Ben January stories - "Libre" and "There Shall Your Heart Be Also" - have appeared elsewhere, "Libre" in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine in 2007's New Orleans issue, "There Shall Your Heart..." in Julie Smith's anthology New Orleans Noir, also in 2007. In "Libre," Ben is searching for the missing daughter of one of his horrible Mom's placee pals; in "Heart," he and Hannibal are trying to figure out why a) anyone would want to steal Kentucky Williams's Bible and b) what the hell is Kentucky Williams doing with a Bible anyway?

The fourth story, "Quest For Glory," is a silly pastiche I wrote for a convention program book shortly after Sisters of the Raven came out... It's about the casting-call for characters for Sisters. Ben January, James Asher, Don Simon Ysidro, and myself make guest appearances.

The stories are downloadable as pdf's for $5 apiece, through PayPal. (You can read the first couple of paragraphs of each on the site).

There's also a Donate button, in case you'd like to make the author's day.

I am very, VERY curious as to how well this will work out.

Washing towels, making soup... going through the monumental fiddly hassle of adjusting my PayPal account to receive payments FROM THE NEW SECTION OF THE WEBSITE THAT IS OPENING SOON!!! Cold sunlight, hot tea, warm cats.

And, I realize belatedly, it's my eleventh wedding anniversary. Happy Anniversary, George.

The Further Adventures Of... should be up and running soon, thanks to the efforts of my wonderful sitemistress. "Firemaggot," the Antryg and Joanna story (is 15,000 words a novelette?), is my opener, backed with the two short Ben January stories "Libre" and "There Shall Your Heart Be Also," and with "Quest For Glory," which is short and silly and fun. I wrote a little intro (for the benefit of those who HAVEN'T been following all this here on the blog)... and we'll see.

In addition to a button to buy stories (at $5 a pop), there will also be a Donate button... all contributions will be accepted with sobs of grateful ecstacy.

Hiking with Larry Niven on my one-day vacation from teaching - VERY nice to get out, though I find I'm not nearly as sure-footed as once I was, and have to watch my step where the trail gets steep. Still, the overcast day was balmy and it was marvelous to be out on the hills. And the day following that, a gathering of the college History Department in the local pub, always instructive and enjoyable, though MAN any alcoholic establishment gets noisy once work lets out! Maybe it's the effect of everyone drinking Actual Beer and me drinking Orc-Ale or Thunderbrew or whatever it is they serve in all the taverns of Ironforge... virtual beer that's about as real as the icon one clicks to get the little blue bubbles around one's virtual head.

By the way, if anyone is interested in such things I AM on Twitter now... I suppose I should get it connected to this blog (is that possible? It is on my niece's).

Mist burning off while taking my walk. The heater on, to take the chill off the house. Cats sleeping in the sun.

Hot tea and oatmeal, and a day of quiet work ahead.

Spent a good deal of yesterday (between naps) name-listing and course-correcting on Blood Maidens; making sure that when Asher has to go find one of his Foreign Office colleagues in St Petersburg, I don't have to break off and look up, what's this guy's name and what part of town do they meet in... not to mention figuring out who WOULD be the Master-Vampire of an old German town like Cologne?

I did take a break to check out my neighbor's yard-sale - there were at least four going on and the street was like a block-party. I was able to completely fluff up my spring wardrobe for about $14: always gratifying.

And always entertaining, to see one of the cats pick up a kibble and shake it to break its neck before devouring it.

WoW - Any chance we could meet Friday instead of Thursday? There might be a department meeting Thursday, and I'd like to leave the later part of the day clear a) in case there is and b) in case the traffic is awful coming home. Or is Friday not so good a time, if we're going to hit the Deadmines and need a solid group?

I have sent off the final edit of Dead & Buried - with one touch of the magic button - back to London to my lovely editor. I am extremely pleased with the book. (How can you not be pleased with a book where you get to meet members of Hannibal's dysfunctional family?)

For the rest of the day I get to work on the re-write of "Firemaggot", until it's time to put on my questing-boots.

I have come to the regretful conclusion that, although I'd hoped to illustrate Website stories, that isn't going to happen. I am simply too crunched for time. At some point in the future, yes, but now cannot be that time.

A query: I'm also in quest of a good textbook for a community college class in Asian Civilization - China, Japan, India, Korea, "Indochina" (as it was once called). Can anybody point me to one, or point me to where I could start a search?

My long day - so long that I go home between my morning class and the evening one. People ask me, "Oh, can you catch a nap...?" but I'm unable to power-down - for one thing, I'm afraid I'll oversleep and miss the class, i'm that tired. I feel as I felt between matches at karate tournaments in the '70s: got to keep the energy level up.

I'm almost through reading over the electronic edit of Dead & Buried - new publisher, new editor. The wonders of electronic edits: push a button and the whole shebang goes to London in a blink. WAY too much stacked up in the landing-pattern after that.

I'm afraid it'll be awhile before I get the hang of Twitter. that "What are you doing RIGHT NOW?" always makes me want to reply, "Posting on Twitter, you idiot, what do you think I'm doing?"

I much look forward to quiet questing tomorrow night.

I generally don't post "Silly Student Answers" but on this exam, I was much bemused to note that two people (despite my REPEATED explanation of his true job description) thought that Winston Churchill was President of the United States at the time of Pearl Harbor, and one thought that he was Emperor of Japan at the time of Hiroshima. Probably the first major statesman to be credited with fighting on both sides of the same war at the same time. (Even Josef Stalin did that serially rather than concurrently).

On another front, I have been advised - on marketing/publicity grounds that make sense to me - to get myself a Twitter account and use it once a day, so that (along with re-writing "Firemaggot" and grading the rest of the exams) will be my task for the weekend. I understand that Barbara Hamilton's second Abigail Adams novel, A Marked Man, has been enthusiastically accepted with only minor nits and tweaks by the editors at Penguin... to the gratification of all her fans, I am sure.

I also get to do the copy-edit review of Dead & Buried when I get home from the Realm of Azeroth tonight.

There are few states of mind that a nice, solid 10 1/2 hours of sleep won't improve.

The first spits of snow were beginning to fly as my lovely and considerate Guest Liaison dropped me off at the Denver Airport this morning, having assured me that "Oh, they can take off in LOTS worse than this..." And Connie Willis blithely informed me, "Oh, the storm isn't due to hit until this afternoon..." (The plane was scheduled to take off at one).

I am home, and tired. It was a lovely - and VERY well-run - con. A good chance to re-acquaint myself with Connie Willis, Nancy Kress, John Piccacio the artist, and to buy some of Peri's gorgeous pottery in the Art Show. (I do TRY not to Christmas shop on the one-for-you, one-for-me basis...) I'd forgotten how poorly I sleep in hotels: lurid nightmares and repeated waking. The Con Committee had - wonderfully - gotten the volunteer service of a masseuse, so I finally had a professional work on my shoulders and prescribe physical therapy exercises.

My early a.m. class tomorrow, followed by a day and a half of wrap-up on the car (going out to Fontana for minor adjustments, driving around LA to finish paperwork, etc), plus the usual been-away grocery shopping. I think it's going to be an evening staring into the Idiot-Box, and early to bed. My lovely parents house-and-pet-sat, and my father put his finger on it precisely when he said that the New Boys reminded him strongly of the Dead End Kids (a.k.a. The Bowery Boys, for those who remember such things). (I blush to admit I had a semi-crush on Leo Gorcey, of all people...) (Talk about Guilty Secrets).

WoW... Thursday at 6?

In the meantime, where the heck did I put those lecture-notes on the Cold War?

The Con doesn't start until late this afternoon, so I have a quiet morning - quieter than it would be at home, in fact. There's nothing like being in a strange city, in a hotel-room, with nothing required and no way to go anywhere, to get excellent rest and mental quiet.

It'll be a busy weekend.

The guest-liaison here is a champ; the hotel folks are so helpful and friendly. The wireless connection in the room actually works. (I've been in hotels where you had to sit on the floor on the third-floor landing of the service stairs to get your e-mail). (I'm not making that up). I'm going in quest of lunch soon, but look forward to another couple of hours of reading and resting.

I should be grading exams - the rule is, I have to grade five a day. I get home Sunday night and give another exam Monday morning, so I'll have ANOTHER lot to grade next week. But, I'm glad I brought my Japanese notebooks - I don't know why I find the study of the preliminaries to that language so relaxing, but I do. (And of course I'm terrible at it: at the moment I can write This Is A Yellow Cat and that's about it.) I suspect it's because of the challenge of learning a new - and very art-like - means of expression. When I write paper-and-mail letters to my sister (a correspondence which has lasted over forty years now) I fill them with little photoshopped clip-art, almost like another alphabet: I wish I could do that with stories and novels. Words alone aren't enough.

The other thing I'm glad I brought - which I shoved into my bag at the last minute - is what I consider one of the most marvelous books in the world, Dickens' novel Bleak House. My God, what a fun book! As satisfactory as a really good steak dinner with ice cream; that same sense of Wow, I've had something great. Yum. (Well, I did read People Magazine on the plane.)

As I said, it'll be a busy weekend. I tell myself I'm stocking up on rest-points.

Well, it's been a stressy couple of weeks; my apologies for not posting. A week ago - in the pouring-down rain on the freeway - the Universe decided that It's Time For Barbara to get A Different Car. Fortunately this took the form of the cylinder-head blowing out rather than a wreck, but the price quoted by the dealership (to which I'd been taking the Old Car for repair for the past almost-200,000 miles) seemed exhorbitant, both to me and to the knowledgeable friend I called for a second opinion.

The result of all this was a visit to an outfit (used by a number of my friends without any problems) which deals in insurance salvage - the result being a low-mileage, late-model, very nice car whose sound-system I need to go back and have a talk about with these guys, and a week of extreme stress because the college has been told to cut a LOT of classes. Not what I need right now, nor what I need immediately prior to leaving for MileHi Con in Denver. I teach tonight until 10, leave for Denver first thing in the morning (after packing, which I didn't get to finish) (and get to grade exams in the airport, on the plane, and in the hotel room whenever I'm not on a panel). At this point I don't even really dare put my head down on the desk for a few minutes, because I'm tired enough that I'm afraid I'll actually fall asleep, and class starts in an hour and a half.

And I have to leave the convention early on Sunday because I teach Monday first thing in the morning. Thus it'll be a week before I get to do any actual work again.

I'm hoping to have time to run out a copy of "Firemaggot" and take it to read part of, at the Con, provided I have a reading. Allegedly I'm supposed to sit down in the gaming area and play Boggle or Scrabble with all comers - something I'm not 100% sure I remember that I agreed to do. I'm actually looking forward to the con - among other things, there's a potter who signs himself Peri whose work I love, who's in the Denver area and usually sells at conventions thereabouts. But I'm glad I said, "No late-night panels." I would not shine.

A long and tiring day tomorrow. I'm taking the Surfliner down to San Diego for a signing at Mysterious Galaxy - the train costs about the same as the tank-and-a-half of gas, and though it makes for a longer day, I'm less trashed physically. (I'm especially glad I decided to do this because my shoulders, arms, and back are still giving me grief). It's a pleasant ride, especially if you have an iPod and noise-cancelling headphones (and a good book).

And, in two weeks, I'm Guest at MileHiCon in Denver... where there is already snow. I really, REALLY don't want to get snowed in there - since I have to teach the following Monday morning. Since there's a large gamer component at MileHi, I see I'm listed on the "Gaming with the Guests" portion of the program. I have no idea what that will involve. Considering how badly I suck at every game I've ever played, we'll see how that works.

And, I seem to be noodging my way closer to putting up stories on-line. I'm trying to find out how sales tax works for that - I may charge $5.50, if indeed I end up paying on downloads. The LAST thing I need in my life at this point is a snippy letter from the California Franchise Tax Board. At least the first draft of "Firemaggot" is complete, and I'm very pleased with the story. I'll probably also put up a couple of previously-but-not-widely published tales - the two Ben January short stories, a Sun Wolf and Starhawk short I did for a Greenburg anthology way back in the day (which it looks like I'll have to re-key, curse it), and a pastiche I did for a convention which has several of the cast of Sisters of the Raven in it (as well as quick cameos by Asher, Ysidro, and Benjamin.) I wish I could put up the short story I did about Callista from Children of the Jedi, (which appeared in the Star Wars Adventure Journal many years ago), but that's licensed, alas. It was pretty good. 

Some good news, however - last night Rocky, Gus, and Apollo all slept on the bed... not together, of course, but at least there weren't any fights until Apollo tried to go over to her and say Good Morning.

WoW: Is Thursday at 6 ok? Do I need to shift quarters to the Inn at Astranaar? (I'll sort of miss Auberdine).

Got a good running start on "Firemaggot" - the Antryg short-story - over the weekend... and hit a curious... not a snag, exactly. A curious thing about stories that start in the Real World and transfer to another universe. Silent Tower and Silicon Mage definitely take place in the late 80s. Joanna is a computer tech, so the technology is late-80s. By implication, Dog Wizard takes place only a few months after the end of Silicon Mage (and no technology is mentioned in the rather brief sequences set in LA).

"Firemaggot" is an LA story... and takes place in the late '80s. (Actually, '89 or '90). I've wanted to do Antryg's adventures in LA, and this is the first of them (though others will involve other worlds beyond the Void, of course). This means, no Internet, no Blackberries, most people aren't using cell phones... and there's a certain amount of research involved in what WAS around in 1990. I hope it doesn't detract from the story (I don't think it does), but it's curious, to find myself writing about "modern day" that is now almost 20 years ago.

I'd be curious to see how well it works for people.

On another History front, I administered my first exams of the semester this week, so there'll be no writing about anything while I slog through close to 100 exams. I will take off a couple of hours on Thursday night to go questing - I hope everyone is okay with Thursday at 6? But other than that, it's LOTS of, Was Rameses the Great before or after the Peloponnesian War, and, Yes, Teddy Roosevelt was important to the country's history but WHY?  The first exam is always a bit of a shake-down.

And I'm scheduled to start Blood Maidens Thursday, Yay! (At least a page or two, to get myself back up to speed on Asher, Lydia, and Ysidro).

If I wanted to download a picture of my WoW character, Miss Biddy, how would I do that?

Whew! Just finished an interview about Homeland for syndicated TV (no, Mom, I have NO idea when it's going to be shown, or on what channel, and yes, I did ask for a copy but don't know when or if that will materialize); very professionally done in a studio at Beverly Hills High School. The interviewer - Connie Martinson - was first-rate, pleasant and relaxed and easy to talk to. Now I'll be picking fragments of mascara out of my eyelashes for the next two days.

After slogging up to Beverly Hills and back (the fifteen minutes Mapquest claims the journey takes means, of course, fifteen minutes at three in the morning), I've had enough day for the day. I look forward to an evening of practicing Japanese, and drawing cats.

I am also scheduled to do a signing at Mysterious Galaxy for PWMNBSO-1 on Sunday, October 11 - a nice train-journey down to San Diego on the Surfliner.

Someone asked me in a comment, (in response to my students asking me about my tattoos owing to the fact that it's 107 degrees at the college), were there any stories connected with my dermal illustrations? The one that makes me smile the most was the time I went to a tea-party at the house of a friend, and two of her neices (aged 10 and 11, I think) came up to me and said how cool they thought it was "when somebody old gets a tattoo..." Then I could see this young lady's face change as she heard her own words, and she added hastily, "Not meaning that you're old..."  I was pretty amused.

It has been, as I said, 107 degrees at the college - yet when the wind picked up, and the sun set, and the whole night smelled like the desert when I came out of the classroom at half-time, it was almost worth it. My office is, again, in one of the old dorm bungalows - 7 or 8 little Spanish-style dwellings that would have housed 5-10 students each (depending on whether it was 1 or 2 per room) back when the college was an ag school in the '40s. The wind was starting up just before sunset, and I stood by the door looking out at the hillside, thinking about what the place would have been then, and who would have stood there in the evening light like that. Maybe I was just tired.

It's funny - I am looking forward to going to Brewfest in Ironforge with friends (I think we're going to Ironforge), with the same eager anticipation that I'd feel if I were ACTUALLY going someplace rather than sitting in my study looking at a screen for 2 hours. Such is the power of these worlds.

Both manuscripts are ready to go in - Press the Magic Button, and poof! One's in New York, the other's in London. I've spent an exhausting week trimming Dead & Buried down to 89,999 words - after that, inputting the polish on PWMNBSO-II was quick 'n' easy. I feel like I can take a quiet Sunday sitting on a little rock in the middle of the ocean (as Judas Iscariot was said to be permitted to do on Sundays), before swimming toward the next island, a LONG way away. (The next island being Blood Maidens...)

And actually, I need to spend my island-time sorting out class rosters and reading over the students' get-acquainted papers - I ask them to write their names, what they want to get out of the class ("If all you want is the 3 units, say so - I don't care,"), and one interesting thing about themselves. It helps me put personalities with the names, and some of those interesting things are pretty fascinating. I think it also breaks the ice and makes the professor-student relationship a little less intimidating: one of the fellows said, "Can we ask you a question?" I said, "Sure." "What do your tattoos mean?" (It's been hot at the college and I've been pretty sleeveless).

I look forward to questing this week. Can we do it Friday? I'm being radio-interviewed "Thursday," all the info I have so far: morning? afternoon? rush hour? Who knows? I will be informed "later."

So, can we meet at the inn in Auberdine at 6 on Friday, and do the long run to pick up Flight Trainers (now that I actually know how to pick them up?) And I can turn in all those monster-heads I'm carrying around? I found I REALLY missed questing this week.

On the cat front, the New Boys are settling in. Gus is DEEPLY affectionate without being a lap-cat, and has a purr you can hear all over the house. Apollo seems to be unable to purr, but licks and snuggles and TALKS inceassantly. He is very interested in starting up a friendship with Rocky, who is having NONE of it - hissing, howling, ears back, eyes dilated, the whole catalog. Much batting and chasing. Gus is very interested in starting up a friendship with Damsel's food-dish, and every time I feed Damsel, tries to swipe food - leading to much bouncing and shoving. (Of course, since Damsel is the same size as the cats, nobody can hurt anybody).