Probably, indeed, the larger part of the labor of an author composing his work is critical labor; the labor of sifting, combining, constructing, expunging, correcting, testing. This frightful toil is as much critical as creative. ~T.S. Eliot
The real secret of magic is that the world is made of words, and that if you know the words that the world is made of you can make of it whatever you wish. ~Terence McKenna
Tell the readers a story! Because without a story, you are merely using words to prove you can string them together in logical sentences. ~Anne McCaffrey
The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon. ~Robert Cormier
If you don't feel that you are possibly on the edge of humiliating yourself, of losing control of the whole thing, then probably what you are doing isn't very vital. If you don't feel like you are writing somewhat over your head, why do it? If you don't have some doubt of your authority to tell this story, then you are not trying to tell enough. ~ John Irving
Sometimes making stuff up feels a lot like Coyote* running across the empty space between one rocky pinnacle and the next, and as long as you keep moving you're fine. When you stop and look down, it's suddenly all too apparent that there's absolutely nothing underneath and that you're keeping in the air by a peculiar effort of will.
And then a good day comes, and you start running through the air once again, and, if you're smart, you resolutely don't look down. ~Neil Gaiman
So what infected my computer was a piece of spyware called something like Virtualmond. It's nasty. According to the person who fixed it, it's rather new (or at least they hadn't encountered it before), anti-virus programs won't catch it, and Ad-aware and Spybot couldn't find it. So it invited friends over and by the time they were done, they pulled off nearly 200 viruses/worms/trojans off, and finally fished all the little bits of the nasty invasive weed off. I had terrible fears that wiping the drive would be the only cure. But my computer is back and it's behaving.
One of the funny things about the attack was that it caused all these little system warning bubbles to pop open warning of terrible things. Among them: a "black door trojan." I should "click on this ballon" and "whould I like to download this antispyware" called, and this is its brandname "bestselling virus." Duh. It's like an invasive nigerian scam. Oh dear.
So tomorrow, Saturday the 27th, I will be part of an author event, called the Writer Roundup, at the Hastings in Butte, Montana. It will be from 11-3 and there will be 10 of us, including the fabulous Patricia Briggs. And I they will have copies of The Cipher on hand and all of us will be reading. So if you are anywhere in the vicinity and of a mind, do stop in. I'd love to see you.
World Fantasy Con happens in Saratoga Springs next week. I'm reading at 3:30 on Thursday and at the author signing on Friday Night. Give a shout out if you're going to be at WFC. I'd love to see you.
I forgot to ask (or maybe not--I'm a screwball) when you're getting in. I get in on Weds around 5:00 to the airport and probably will be catching a cab.
*sigh* Some day either you will get to travel out East where I can afford to travel or I'll get to travel where you go for a signing. :) Or go to a con... I'd love that. Have a good time! Glad your PC is up and running!
Ah, but see, I have relatives in Rochester which makes Saratoga probably only an hour or two from there... this is doable. Do you have a date? *hopeful questioning grin*
Hmm... maybe not. I really should learn to do maps beyond inches. :) But it's for World Con and I have no ticket. Ah well. Maybe next year. You should come to the Borders in Strongsville OH. It's rather large and does a good amount of business. :) *wink*wink*
We get in late afternoon on Thurs. if all flights go according to schedule. We have a dinner commitment, and hope to make it to the Zombies / Brains event http://pbray.livejournal.com/150778.html if we are back from dinner in a timely fashion and not too incoherent from having been up since the wee hours. We will figure something social out!
w00t! Looking forward to seeing you! :)