Post-Release update

 Conventions, novel releases, and surprise trips to Colorado have meant that I've gotten behind on my school, and am paying the price. I arrived home this week to a flurry of frantic activity: while I was off adventuring, the rest of the world had moved into the dread and terror that is Midterm Season. And the little part of that world that is my lab had shifted into We Have To Present Our Research HOW SOON? mode, so there was a lot of scrambling. On the plus side, there are now pictures of the research I've been doing for the last year. 

Isn't it adorable?!

So in between photographing urchin larvae and studying for statistics (at least that exam's over now--eeek, math), I am left with only one exam more before I need to start worrying about finals and posters for the grant. 

And then it will be summer. Tolerant Housemate and I had a brief argument about summer yesterday: he insists on not considering it summer until June 21st. I insist on calling it summer now because I've had to resort to hiding in the 15ºC room in lab from the heat. Yay environmental rooms. 

As for the novel? Well, if you go visit my website, you'll see that it's up at a variety of new and exciting places. If you've read it, do please leave a review! You shall make me a very happy author indeed. 

And as more people read the book, I can start posting more about said book, such as how to use a fan in combat...

Launch Day!

Weather is out today!

Julian and his world have been kicking around in my head for the last three years or so, and to finally get the little sneak out of the house and into the real world has always been my goal--while some of my projects were written with the express goal of leaving them to moulder under my bed when I was done, Weather was always intended for publication. At least, so I hoped.

And now I'm a day away from strangers (who aren't being paid to do it!) reading the book. I'm torn between hooting and hollering and having an (illegal) glass of champagne and hiding under the bed going "I hope no one notices the historical inaccuracy of the dirigibles/attitudes/Julian's left nostril, oh god I hope there's not someone ACTUALLY named Julian Lambert..." 

That aside, thank you to everyone who has helped and supported me, to my advisor, who's put up with me being completely scatterbrained over the last two quarters, to my parents, godparents and extended family for encouraging me to pursue both scientific and literary careers, to the various wonderful people I've lived with and been friends with, and to the older and more experienced authors who have been my inspirations and my mentors, whether over the course of years or an hour's conversation at a convention. Oh, and to my current housemates, who have had to put up with me playing the theme from a certain animated TV show on repeat for the last two weeks.


Now to go deal with the fact I can't get one of my marketing tools to work before I get in trouble with the publisher!

Nova Albion Steampunk Exhibition

This weekend I got to do my first convention as an author and it was wonderful. I cannot recommend the experience enough! The convention in question was the Nova Albion Steampunk Exhibition in Santa Clara.

I almost didn't go; my college is a good six hours away by car, seven and a bit by train, and neither I nor my companions had our drivers licenses yet (well, one did, but she had just driven up from San Diego the night before, and so it was less than kind to saddle her with yet another lengthily drive the next day). So we took the train.

I, a train noob, am now convinced that train is the most supremely civilized way to travel. It was quiet and surprisingly fast and, above all, comfortable. And you meet the nicest people. One of my companions wound up talking to her seat partner for the better part of the return trip, to our neglect. And, oh, yes, the views look like this.

Somewhere north of San Luis Obispo

Once we arrived, we had a bit of a scramble, as the registration desk had closed before our train had turned up! The convention staff were very kind, though, and we still managed to get our badges and attend the opening night ball.

Due to the vagaries of class and of trains, we were only able to stay one day. But it was more than worth it. It was my first purely steampunk convention, and a wonderful introduction to the steampunk community as a whole. I was able to talk to both the inestimable Gail Carriger and the brilliant J. Daniel Sawyer about marketing and other authorly issues, and somehow managed to avoid fangirling absurdly at the both of them (at least, I hope). Hopefully, I will one day be able to do for another young author what they have done for me. (In the meantime, I have an awful lot of internet work to do!)

Real world work, too. One of the bits of beaded trim fell apart on me in the middle of the convention!

Weather launches tomorrow. It seems a little unreal now, back in my little apartment with the vegetarian housemate rattling around in the kitchen and the entire place smelling of ant spray (guess what invaded over the weekend?) and a pile of very modern laundry on the bed. I can't wait until next year. Who knows, maybe I'll be marketing book two...

Weather Has a COVER!

Isn't it GLORIOUS?

I'm just going to sit here and squee a little. Terribly unprofessional, probably, but I can't help it. 

Weather releases May 1st!

Food, glorious food!

I have been rather ill behaved of late with sporadic posting, but I have an excellent excuse for that, which is midterms. Yay midterms! Also getting things in on time to the publisher, which is just as much of a thing. 

This weekend, facing two imminent midterms and writing-related-work, I kind of...froze. I sat there in front of my computer and decided that not only could I not take another moment of trying to memorize exactly what Romanus IV was doing in 1011 (answer, getting his butt handed to him by Alp Arselan at the Battle of Manzikert because he had left his reinforcements in the hands of an uncle of the child-emperor he was determined to depose), but if I had to puzzle over the exact weight of my main character again I would either scream or crawl under the bed and never come out.

So seizing my tolerant housemate by the arm, I went to the grocery store and then raided the cookbook shelf (my parents, convinced that I would starve without suitable instruction, have given me more cookbooks for my apartment than most people see in a lifetime). 

I then proceeded to go through all of the dozen eggs I'd just bought. The products of this were rewarding, to say the least. 

I must confess, though, I did not make this first one. These are the tolerant housemate's lemon bars, which may have won the award as the best lemon bars ever, even over my mother's! (Sorry mom!)

We baked them in a pie dish, since we do not actually own a small, deep sided pan suitable for lemon bars, brownies, or other such delights (a thing that must be remedied soon. I got another dozen eggs on Tuesday). 

These are cinnamon chocolate chip muffins. Though the flavor was lovely, I have somehow mastered the technique of making the tops of the muffins perfectly tender and their bottoms something akin to cardboard. I blame the fact that I left the wet ingredients in the fridge and the butter congealed and made the dough a funny texture. Moving on. 

 Here are the lemon bars, freed from the wax paper and the pie dish. In future, the wax paper will be omitted. It was...difficult. 

This last one, I cannot take much credit for, as it came from a box. It's an almond sweet bread--think a giant cinnamon roll except with crushed almonds and almond icing. The tolerant housemate loathes almonds, but I love them. (So does my main character in Weather, one of the few things we agree on!) I also added caramel to the center, which was a success, though it did make the bread ooze a little in the oven. 

So now, dear reader, you know how I retained my sanity this weekend. After all the baking, I went back to studying and working on other projects quite happily. It might have been something to do with the lemon bar I was munching.