...but one way and another, we ended up with one.

It's been a while. I've been reading and posting elsewhere on lj, but the blogging Muse has been persistently AWOL (probably on the beach with Aruba where my fiction Muse has been known to hole up when it's work time)(the pina colada bill for those two is off the charts).

We have had a very nice, almost-ten-day Camp. There have been Adventures with Family in Hospitals (OK now, and should continue OK, we hope). But! Pooka finally got his needles, and is finally doing better. And the rose population is exploding.

( See! Evidence! )

ISLE OF GLASS is finally an ebook! With special thanks to our own idiomagic for the scanning and proofing.

Piccies! They're over here.

Posted as an update on the Kickstarter page, but here it is for all my lj peeps (I am partial to the purple bunnies):

We're now in the exciting part--when the countdown has switched from days to hours, and we all hold our breaths to see if we make that one, big, final bonus.

This is a really big deal for me. The project you've all backed with such wonderful enthusiasm and confidence has been in the works for a long, long time.

Originally there was a proposal titled "Sun, Moon, Star," which was sold to Jane Yolen Books along with a ms. that actually saw print, His Majesty's Elephant--a YA novel (which would probably be labeled Middle Grade now, for the age and sophistication of the characters) about two young people and a very wise elephant at the court of Charlemagne. SMS was supposed to be the next YA of my career.

But just as I received the revision letter--in those days we got them by FedEx; I literally was opening the package when this happened--word came through from my then agent that the line had been terminated. Like that. Boom. SMS was orphaned, and I had so many other irons in the fire that I decided to put it aside.

It sat for a long time. It saw the YA market bottom out, the century and the millennium end, and the entire landscape of publishing undergo some major and, for many, devastating changes.

About five years ago I pulled it out again, having done so off and on but never gone much of anywhere with it. It needed a major update, and a pretty complete rewrite. It had grown in my head as the real world changed, and it had a whole new focus and essentially a new plot, though the characters had stayed pretty much the same.

I worked on this with my current agents (one for adult and one for YA/MG fiction). We tried it on a few editors. We collected comments, which helped with further revisions and enhancements. We polished it up. We started sending it out.

And out. And out. A couple of rejections actually led to another sale: editors asked for a "magic horse book," hence, House of the Star by my alter ego, Caitlin Brennan. And that was its own kind of excitement.

But the project now called Living in Threes kept getting the same results over and over. If the editor wanted it, the publisher would turn it down. My favorite of all the nays: "Editorial loves it, but Sales believes it's 'too girl-friendly for science fiction.'"

Actual. Verbatim. Quote.

Meanwhile we all went through Publisherdammerung in the fall of 2008, when the bottom fell out pretty much everywhere. And when the dust started to settle, the world as we knew it had become a different place. Is still becoming. Won't slow down much, I don't think, for quite a while to come.

Also in the fall of 2008, something new came into the world: a cooperative of professional authors under SFWA eligibility rules (except for the part about being in the sf genre), called Book View Cafe. I came on board in the spring of 2009.

And still Living in Threes went the rounds. Its agent loved it and was (and is) devoted to it, and put much work into finding a home for it. But it just didn't fit any of the slots. It was sf. And fantasy. And historical. Where in the world could it go?

Then the digital revolution started to look like a real and significant thing. Ebooks weren't just a fringe format any more.

And there was this thing called Kickstarter, which friends and colleagues were trying, and it was intriguing, and...

Finally I got my act together and asked my agents if I might try something different. They gave their blessing. Then I asked my friend Sherwood, who is an amazing editor and critic as well as a great writer, if she would look at the ms. and see what it needed. Which she did--with notes. And comments. And suggestions. And, "This is a good book, but it can be a great one--if you put the work in."

But work like that takes time, and I have horses to feed--and most of what I do to keep them fed isn't writing. To which my very evil friend Catie, who had just finished her own spectacularly successful Kickstarter, said, "You know what you can do about that." Then another friend who does lovely art said, "Would you like a cover artist?"

And here we are. There is going to be an ebook. By tomorrow night, we'll know what else there will be--but the most important thing is for-sure happening. Living in Threes will finally make its way into the world.

And here's your link to share: http://kck.st/A6WIQ0

Thank you all. So much.

...until I stop posting about that thing with the kick and the start. And the bonuses. Less than $400 to the one that has all the writer-folk piling on board: revisions before your very eyes. And before-and-after mss. to go with.

One more day. Wheeeeeee!

But we might end up doing one, at the rate the Living in Threes project is going. They say these things see a spike in the last three days. I'm not sure if that will play out here, but we'll find out. I just posted a teaser in the Updates, that's open to everybody. Little bit with alien creature. And moon. And ocean.

Yesterday started with a lesson and progressed to me going splat for hours, then getting up and getting work done. It was kind of a world out of time here, with the lesson coma and all. ( NEEEEEEEEEEEP! )

After S had finished, Gabriella demanded her piece of the action. She is getting really clear about this. One day last week as I was groundworking Pandora, I had her literally at my elbow--her nose resting on it--radiating ME! ME! MEEEEEEEE! (and she did get her ride a day or so later). So with the arena clear and some time to spare, I took advantage of the opportunity. And we had our first trot under saddle in the arena (having had one Out a few days ago). Didn't last long--need to work on saddle slippage; it slid forward till it was blocking those big round shoulders--but it was lovely while it lasted. She has beautiful gaits. Next time, with the nonslip pad, we'll aim for more.

And finally Pooka got his turn: longe in the body wrap, all three gaits. We'll be doing more of that now, as he's quite sound for non-ridden work. I just don't feel that he's ready to carry my weight on the damaged structures yet; he injured his psoas, and that's taking a looooong time to heal. But he's up for just about anything in hand.

Which is probably the lesson I'm supposed to learn. Balance and engage and connect in hand, then translate it to work under saddle. Hokay. We are having a great time, so there's that. He's a gas to work with, and he has such fun. He's a happy guy.

On May 1st I'm bringing out the first ebook edition of The Isle of Glass. Talk about ancient history--it feels as if a completely different person wrote this (but she sure did write what I like to read).

Thanks to designer (and kickass writer himself, who has a BVC release of his own, and a new-member launch, on May 8th) Dave Smeds, we have...Cover! ( Really! )

As weeks go, last week was more interesting than it needed to be. I'd been having a small plague of sneezy kitties--first Hillary, then Genghis, came down with the sniffly, sneezy, snorfly, never happened to any of the cat herd before in all the time I'd had cats bug. Three days, then just as I was ready to call the vet, it was gone. They never lost their appetite, just had a lot of sneezing and sniffling.

Then when I came back from Bisbee, Trouble acted as if she had a stuck hairball. Was off and on for a couple of days. By last Sunday night I knew I was calling the vet in the morning. She was entering the breathing-optional stage. Flashbacks to Trouble 1.0 who had a sinus tumor that ended up cutting off her breathing.

So Monday morning first thing, I called the vet. Miraculously she had an appointment open that morning--which never happens; usually it takes ten days to get one with her. But Bastet was kind, in her catly way, and in we went.

Good news: healthy kitty, no lung involvement, good order throughout except for clogged sinuses. We went home with amoxicillin and lysine gel, and instructions to call if she wasn't better in a few days.

Which for two days she surely wasn't. Wouldn't eat. Seemed to be drinking--she wasn't dehydrated--but the breathing part was still optional. Wednesday evening I was ready to hit the emergency clinic. And then suddenly she was hungry and making up for lost time. I had got her some baby food and some of the kibble she likes too well--she eats too much and gets fat--but it did the trick.

She's OK now. Much relief. Boys are fine. Minnow, knock silicon, has not fallen sick. She had a little bit of a watery eye a few days ago, which looked like an extremely mild form of what the boys had.

All in all, not the best week. I'm glad it's over. This week is crazy times. Work in heaping piles. Passover. Easter. Kickstarter finishing up--its last day is the 9th. I'll be running a countdown all week. If you've backed it and want to see the next bonus--the art and the video--now's the time to tell all your friends and enemies. Girl-friendly SF! Ponies in Spaaaaace!

Hey, I might even have neep later this week. Lesson scheduled for Thursday. I'll see how many brain cells I have to spare.

First thing first: I just put up a new Kickstarter update (open to all). Just two weeks to go before we're done. New rewards and bonuses. Pretty
pictures! Master class! Come and play.

And now, vacation. It was only a short overnight, but as a reboot of the barely functioning (and that was charitable) brain, it worked most excellent well. We all headed to Bisbee for the Rachael Sage concert.

For me that meant work all day including feed-store run, feed horses, do the quick-change thing, and head off into the badlands in the evening. The concert was upstairs at Cafe Roka, which is one of the best restaurants in southern Arizona--I had a wonderful steak (having just missed the last portion of wild Alaska seafood, phoo), and felt rather like an Old-West gambler type, sitting at a rickety table in a vintage room while Rachael played to a sellout crowd. Lovely concert. One of the new songs is chills-down-your-spine good. The others aren't too bad, either. ;>

After the concert we adjourned to the Copper Queen, where I bunked in with my mom and her friend for the night. No ghosts stopped by; it was very quiet.

The next morning began with a Quest For Coffee, which in Bisbee is dead easy--just head over to Old Bisbee Roasters. Which for once had nothing on the shelf--all the stock was down at the Tucson Street Fair or on its way to Peddler's Alley. But the Copper Queen had its own house blend on tap, and we made do. We caught up with the guy in Peddler's Alley later, and I scored a couple of months' supply.

We ended up at the Inn at Castle Rock, vintage 1895--too late for breakfast but lunch was Just Fine. I had not known there is a spring. In the building. Right in the middle of the restaurant. ( Proof! )

That's Bisbee. You never know what you'll find around the corner. Or behind a door.

We ended our part of the tour with a late lunch at El Charro in Tucson--then back to reality for me, and on to the next gig for the band. And I found I sort of had a brain again. It was amazing.

Also, a mite bit chilly. Officially it's spring, but the cold air is streaming over us and the snow levels areall the way down here. So far nothing is actually falling--we keep getting teases of warm sun, then the clouds roll in and the wind picks up and, basically, the horses aren't getting out of their blankets today. I have a nasty thunder headache--all those shifts are killing my sinuses. But it's certainly not a dull kind of weather day.

My Kickstarter is still going strong. We're aiming for the next bonus tier now: worldbuilding on the hoof for the "Ponies in Space" story. There's another story in the hopper if we get past that. Come on down and play--and please boost the signal. :) Thenkyewall.

Meanwhile, over at Book View Cafe, the Horseblog is fantasy worldbuilding. The comments, as usual, are worth the price of admission.

No horses will get worked in this weather, but they're all wrapped up and warm (and itchy--they're shedding like crazy). Pooka wants to register a complaint with the World Horse Union so he can get his heat turned back on, but other than that, everybody is coping perfectly well. He'll get his wish in a few days. Spring will be back with bells on by the end of the week. Meanwhile, honestly? Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it SNOOOOOOOWWWWWW!

I don't believe I've ever had a year that went by as fast as this one. There's just so much going on, in so many different directions.

Maybe what I need is a day off. A week. A month.

In another universe, maybe.

The Kickstarter is funded! Yayyyys! Now we're in bonus territory. Being funded means the project is on, backers will get their rewards, but the April 9th deadline is still there. We can keep going and see how far we take it (Pooka wants acupuncture. For that, the project needs $5000 or more. I will obviously have to offer something a little different for backers). We've already hit the "Ponies in Space" threshold, which means a totally new story just for the backers. Another $400 and change, and backers get to be part of the process of building said story. Go past that and we're looking at another story. And then...

But let's keep our eyes on the prize in the foreground for now. It's been an amazing emotional rollercoaster. Once we hit 100%, we all took a deep breath. It's on. It's happening. Whew!

People are pretty awesome when you think about it. I'm loving the directness of this, and the sense that rather than writing for an anonymous Market, I'm writing for actual real people who interact and comment and squee right along with me.

And speaking of that, she said in a segue worthy of an eight-horse across-the-arena half pass in passage in the Winter Riding Hall in Vienna, I spent the weekend at the Tucson Festival of Books. It is Huge. It is massive. It is amazing. Over 100,000 people came (and the numbers were up from the year before) to celebrate reading and writing and just generally being in Tucson. I did panels on high fantasy and on steampunk, did signings, talked to old friends and new. Wandered around and wondered at the crowds and the books and the music and the food and the excitement. Lots and lots and lots of kids, from babies to nearly grown readers and writers and scientists and artists. $150,000 went to literacy programs locally, from the festival--and that was just one of the many things they did or supported.

That was a Good Thing. Fourth annual. Fifth already in the works. I'm looking forward to it.

Meanwhile, back at the Fat White Pony farm, we celebrate a rather lovely, not too hot yet, not too cold, just-right spring. Hormones are running, bunnies are hopping, and there was a great blue heron perched in the cottonwood one afternoon. It's a pleasant breather before we leap into the furnace that people around here call summer--and also, before that, a collection of Camps and guests and visits and Herd Yoga and S-lessons and other delights. Plus, of course, as many words as I can persuade to come running when I call their names. (Words, like cats, prefer to believe that it's all their idea.)

10 days, $3540 and change. My Kickstarter project is 101% funded, which means it's a go. It will be a book.

The way Kickstarter works, nothing happens until you make 100%, but once you do, you can keep adding to it until the closing date (which for this is April 9th; that's when the backers will do their ponying-up thing, and I will officially have to start doing my supplying-the-goods thing). You keep adding bonuses and incentives.

My first one is that if we go to $4000, I'm writing the fabled story, "Ponies in Space." $458.05 to go.

Cover your ears now.

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

OK. Safe to use the ears again.

Ahem.

(yay!!!!!)

First bat, check.

First snake trail, check.

First anthill, check.

First wildflower on the farm, check.

First eggshell in the barn, check.

I'd say it's spring.

And yesterday, the moon got caught in the first bird of paradise blossom:



Coolness, says da Pooka. Or rather, not the coolness. The warmness. We approve, he says.

And so the Kickstarter adventure rolls into week number two--over 80% funded. Less than $750 to go. And if it goes to $4000, I'm writing "Ponies in Space." We're talking about it on the Update blog.

It's been an experience. And being a marathon, that means it has weeks and weeks to go. Eeeeeeeeee. Also, EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

I've been maintaining such calm as I can by working on Other Stuff. And yesterday there was a lesson with S. It was supposed to be about getting Ephiny back to her saddle training, but a fierce cold front and strong winds had even Pooka non-hormonally off his head--he nearly pulled me off my feet as I was moving him before the lesson. Not the best conditions for riding a very (very very) green horse who likes to courbette.

So we went to Plan B. Ephiny got all her tack on and I got into all my riding gear, just to be casual about the whiole thing, and then we did groundwork. Working on that issue of hers with being in her body and using all of it without wigging over stray segments, notably the right rear.

She was exemplary. ( Here be Neep! )

Fifteen years ago today, plus about three months, this happened:





Yep. Born that way.

This morning the Kickstarter is over 50%. Headed toward $2000. It even made the "Popular This Week" feature--in its first day.

Eeeeeee! People are so awesome! Eeeeeeeeee!

Later today I'll be putting up a special treat for the backers, and another treat for passersby who might want to be backers. You heard it here first.

One friend said, Hey! Unfair advantage! You've got Lipizzan mares to do the kicking!

To which I replied, Hey. Whatever works.

It is amazing how much energy this thing both gives and takes. It's like being onstage, but on your own time, at your own pace, and drinking up the energy and enthusiasm of the audience through the whole performance. And the audience gets an ongoing return, not just the "official" rewards but the chance to share in the process. It's fascinating.

Almost $1000 at the 12-hour mark of the Kickstarter. Still quite a ways to go, but what a start--and what an amazing crew of backers and signal boosters. Thank you all.

Now I have to figure out how I'll make it through the next six weeks. Eeeeeeep. And if it goes over goal, which would be really, really wonderful, I've got bonuses in mind. But if it doesn't, and still makes goal, that's excellent, too.

Eeeeeeeep.

Ponies are working on keeping my feet on the ground. Camilla is allllmost ready to try the riding thing again from the yoga angle, in collaboration with Yoga-J. S noted that Pooka is telling me something by being unridable so long. "Once is a stupid horse trick. Twice, OK, they do reinjure themselves, it happens. Three times? That's a message."

Hard part is to figure out what the message is.

Meanwhile S is coming next week to work with me and we hope get Ephiny back to work developing her steering and brakes. Time to stop lollygagging there.

Also meanwhile, it's looking as if I may be rewriting a book in the next few months. And finally publishing something new in the novel line.

Eeeeeeep.

I did it. I flipped the switch.

Squee.

Twitch.

Eeep.

Living in Threes on Kickstarter--Clicky!

They did it. They said I can do the Kickstarter. It's not live yet. I have to do some setup and upload the video.

Eep.

ETA It may be a while. I have to get my bank account verified. "5 to 7 business days," they say. Phoo.

Watch the skies.