And while you’re there, here’s the three-part tale of the Creation of the Manifesto.

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Big fun.

Some people get in the car and drive until they get to their destination. We wander a bit. We just spent two days driving from Tahoe to Salt Lake City; apparently this takes normal people about 9 hours.

Our itinterary:

12:00 Leave the house where our friend’s wedding was held. (Very nice ceremony; everything went gorgeously.)

12:02 Stop at a scenic overlook.

….and so on.

It would make other people crazy, but we enjoy the ride — and the scenery between here and Tahoe is spectacular, in that empty Western mountain way.

And on the way back, Sean got a call: he’s got a job now. Yay!

Now to get caught up on all the Stuff that accumulated while we were gone…

Won’t you come play along?

Yeah.

It’s been a long time in the making, but it’s here at last, and I couldn’t be more pleased with how it turned out: The Clockwork Jungle Book. 175 pages, 20 stories, chock-full of fabulous steampunk animal parables from Jay Lake, Jess Nevins, Lou Anders, Shweta Narayan, and a dozen others! And it’s a gorgeous lovely book, too, with wonderful illustrations from 6 artists, and photos of the contributors decked out in their steampunk finery! Grab your copy today. OR ELSE! Sales have been brisk so far; get your copy before they run out.

Watch the Shimmer site over the coming weeks, as we bring you special treats: the authors reading from their works. In some cases, they read the whole story! It’s always cool to me to hear what an author sounds like, whether it’s Jay Lake’s authoritative storytelling or Vince Pendergast’s Australian accent.

Tick, tock, tick, tock.

It doesn’t help that I’m a little sick and the antibiotics I’m on are making me sleepy and dizzy. Sean’s being very solicitous but still it pretty much sucks. Gives me time to think, I guess, about ways to make sure all the important and exciting projects get done, instead of getting caught up in just feeling overwhelmed with how much work there is to do (my usual pattern).

So, faithful readers, how do you get it all done?

A: Nope! Sean and I really got married on Monday, Oct 5. All witnessed and photographed and legal and everything.

Q: Wow, why so sudden? Why didn’t you plan a big wedding and/or tell me? Are you pregnant??

A: We always figured we’d get married with little fuss someday when the time was right; I guess the time was right. Sean needed health insurance, so we figured we might as well.  We did not get a chance to tell everyone we wanted to, though we did talk about it on our blogs, twitter, and facebook (so follow us there if you want to know what we’re up to!). I am not pregnant.

Q: Did you wear shoes to the wedding?

A: Yes, Mom.

Q: So how was the ceremony?

A: It was really nice. We were joined by our friends Keri and Jeff, Skipper, and Chris and his lovely wife Brenda. Chris took photos for us, and Keri and Skipper were our official witnesses. The ceremony was the standard one written by the county clerk, and it was great. Afterwards, we went to Ruth’s Diner and ate way too much food.

Q: So are you changing your name?

A: No, no. I’ll retain my own identity instead of being subsumed into Sean’s. I’m casting off the shackles of patriarchal hegemony and keeping my “maiden” name, given to me by my father.

Q: You really crack yourself up, don’t you?

A: Oh, yes.

Q: So, uh, we didn’t get you any presents. What can we get you?

A: Aww, that’s sweet, but you don’t have to get us anything. We’re cool. We’ve got everything we need and a lot that we don’t need, including a hot dog toaster.

If you must get us something, Sean would love a pizza. We would also make good use of gift certificates (to pretty much anywhere, including Ikea, local restaurants, hotels, bookstores, etc).

Or, channel your generosity to people who really need it: support organizations working for marriage equality in all states, so that all couples can just run off and get married if they want to.

A: Where are the photos?

Q: Sean’s got a few up on his web site; there will be more.

The decision to do it now started as part of a discussion about how Sean needs health insurance — so if this doesn’t work out, I shall blame the Republicans for blocking health care reform.

So tomorrow I’ll be a boring old married lady. See you then!

Rotisserie chicken was on sale, half price. We couldn’t buy half the groceries we needed but chicken made a nice dinner. Ate while watching Watchmen (which I thought was terrific).

Today Sean offered to make me a sandwich with some of the leftover chicken. Yum, I said. But how about chicken salad? Sure, he said, and I took off to run some errands. I’m thinking, a few slices of chicken, diced, with mayo, etc. Came back from my errands and discovered he’d picked the carcass clean and made giant bowls full of chicken salad, and tossed the bones (no stock for me, alas!). It wasn’t what I had in mind but it sure is good.

And there’s a lot of it. Want some?

Settling in for a lazy Saturday now. I’m going to go read a book until the nap kicks in.

It’s such a great lineup! I can’t wait until this issue is released and everyone can read it.

Issue 11, the Clockwork Jungle Book, our collection of steampunk animal parables, is currently in the proofreading stage and will be off to the printers soon–expect that in early September.

And if you haven’t yet downloaded Issue 10, this would be a splendid time. Issue 10 is totally free to download, so check it out.