Hoping for a better year

Gah! Thomas and I agree that we're glad to see the backside of 2007. Probably icky stuff happened before April (oh yeah, like Rick and Jen's disappointment after all that time and effort), but with his quadruple bypass surgery, things went downhill. I had my yearly major sickness (vomiting and diarrhea at the same time–NOT recommended), my grandmother fell and broke her pelvis and has been in a nursing home ever since. Scott's dad being diagnosed with emphysema in addition to his pulmonary fibrosis had its good side, in that a doctor actually discovered this when his other doctor didn't, but being put on the lung transplant list is mighty scary stuff. On the good side, I started in February as worship minister at Mayberry following the scary-but-could-have-been-worse financial crisis and Ben's departure. So now I've been leading singing (and the entire service once at Thanksgiving when Scott was out of town) for nearly a year. I really love it, but need to get back to practicing my vocal exercises; I'm getting rusty.

For this coming year, mine and Scott's Imperial Age: Faeries should be published by Adamant, as well as his Imperial Age: Grimoire (which really should come out first, as he wrote it first). I'm really afraid the advent of D&D 4e has killed (for a time?) our d20 publishing careers. I'm really excited about 4e. I'm also hoping, on the publishing front, that I actually get paid something by Dog Soul. It's been a year and a half now since they paid me anything! I haven't seen a dime for my Sahasra Religion: Hinduism book (or whatever it's called). Sigh. Guess that's the way of independent publishing. They seem to want to fund themselves first and then pay the writers.

2002 Advancement Awards, Special Merit Award, CASE IIIGreat news is that my redesigned Samford home page won a Special Merit Award for CASE (District III). It's the same award I won for the redesign back in 2002. Coolest certificate ever (see image), so I hope the new one is as nice.

We should resume gaming this weekend, with the next installment of Scott's Mosaic campaign. I've nearly finished transcribing the tapes from the last session. (Yes, I tape the sessions. Got  a new digital voice recorder for Christmas, too, to use!) I'm anxious to see if Giuliana the bard/beguiler will get to use her talents this session. Someone whose forte is charm and illusion isn't much good against undead, which was our primary opponent last session.

Silver Hammer!

I finally got around to checking out the Horror Writers Association newsletter for May in hopes of seeing my name there, and sure enough, saw this: 

The festivities commenced with WHC's Grandmaster Award to Joe Lansdale, and then our own Deborah LeBlanc took the stage to present HWA's Silver Hammer Award (to our database mistress Donna Fitch) and the Richard Laymon Award (to Lisa Morton). WHC's artist Guest of Honor John Picacio next presented our Specialty Press Award to Peter Crowther of PS Publishing.

W00t! (I can't link it here, as you have to have username and password to log in.) The hammer is cool (and I'll post a pic of it soon), but the card celebrating it given to me by S & J is even cooler.

In other news, T and I spent 3 hours at the doctor's office. T's side was still hurting (actually worse) and Dr. Aizenman gave him a 4:15 appointment, but said, “Bring a book, you'll have a long wait.” Sure enough, we got out at 7:00. The diagnosis: pleurisy! Ack! Aspirin will alleviate it, and was helping him feel better by last night. Poor baby, he's so tired of feeling bad. I was able to read the first 12 chapters or so of the 6th Dresden Files book, Death Masks.

The Dresden books are fascinating. Better written (after the 1st couple) than the TV series–although I confess I now picture Harry and the gang looking as they do on the show. His depiction of Michael, who is essentially a paladin, was the best I've seen–a Christian who is actually an interesting character, strengthened by his faith, but having doubts and generally acting like a human being. In this current book, he's joined by 2 others, an Asian (Japanese, I think) man and a Russian man. This last was chosen by Michael (not Carpenter, the other one) to receive the sword–but he claims to be an atheist, or at best, an agnostic. Dresden finds that highly amusing; he apparently does believe in God, but has issues with Him.

OK, back to work on the home page redesign. I am so not into it.