Caroline M. Yoachim

Not Many Posts Lately

Warning: This post was written for the express purpose of me venting.

I have this incredibly frustrating cycle where almost every time I have a sustained productive period with my writing, the extra computer time puts too much strain on my wrists. I managed to explode them again on Monday, so rather than getting work done on the three revisions I have going, or on the new story ideas I have floating around, I have been going to a series of doctor appointments and trying to rest my wrists. GRRR.

So I haven’t been blogging much lately, and will probably …

Sale!

Squee! I found out this weekend that “The Best Last Choice I Ever Made” will appear in Issue #38 of Talebones Magazine. Judging from the table of contents my story will be in excellent company!

Last Observatory Post!

One of the perks of going to visit the observatory with an astronomer is that I got access inside the telescopes, and also to the walkway outside the dome (which is about three stories up, and an excellent place to take sunrise/sunset pictures). I put a few shots from inside the telescope dome up on flickr, with notes about the equipment. The third photo in that series shows the little tiny holes in the mirror of the Harlan J. Smith telescope from when one of the telescope operators got disgruntled and shot the mirror with his gun.

Also over …

Rained Out

The first few days we were at the observatory, we had tons of rain. The weather alternated between thunderstorms, rain, and thick clouds.

Most of the time the weather was so bad we didn’t even want to leave the lodge (which meant I got lots of writing done!). But every now and then the clouds would part, which makes for some nice dramatic sky pictures:

Everything is bigger in Texas…

I know not everyone likes giant spiders, so I put the pictures behind the cut….

Good Morning!

Sunrise was at about 7:15am, and I managed to wake up early enough to set up and take photographs three times during the trip. This shot shows the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (in the hills on the left side of the photo) just as the sun peeked over the mountains. A few of my other favorite sunrise photos are up on flickr.

Save the Puppy!

A black lab puppy is desperately in need of a good home. If you live anywhere in or near the state of Texas, and would be willing to help, the details are here.

Procrastinating with a Healthy Breakfast

I have a lot of revisions I want to get done today, so obviously the first order of business for the morning was eating a healthy breakfast. Oatmeal is very healthy. So I made some. The texture of instant oatmeal doesn’t do it for me, so I made a nice pot of steel cut oats (which I have raved about before). Steel cut oats take about half an hour to cook, and while they were going, I wondered what I could do to improve upon this lovely and healthy breakfast.

Well, I like oatmeal, but I like apple pie …

Armadillocon

Last weekend was my second consecutive weekend spent at a con. This time around it was Armadillocon, a little local Austin con that was an entirely different experience than Worldcon in Denver. I had a good time at both cons, but I found Worldcon a bit overwhelming, and Armadillocon was more my speed. I had a lovely time meeting and hanging out with several people I’d only known online and/or through their work before — Steven Utley (impatientape), MK Hobson (mkhobson), Lon Prater (lonfiction), Sheila Williams, Eric Marin (ericmarin), and Patrick Swenson …

Back in Austin

It’s strange to be alone at my computer after spending so much time with friends this past weekend. It was so wonderful to meet people I’d only known online before, and reconnect with people I haven’t seen in way too long. An official Worldcon report will come later, but for now I’ve posted some pictures (mainly of me with my Clarion West classmates — worldcon was a bit of a reunion for us):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/78523822@N00/sets/72157606669157338/