Category: Chatter

(This is a “blog it so I can refer folks to it later” post.)

Last year, I wrote 403,000 words. Not great, but not terrible.

So far this year, I’ve written 130,900 words. That is terrible.

I also seem to have passed an awareness threshold. In the last few months, I’ve been offered speaking and teaching opportunities at half a dozen events, including big events like LISA and MeetBSD.

I’ve had to turn them all down. Which sucks. I want to expand my readership, and conferences are a great way to do that. Especially conferences that pay my expenses.

Ditto for the fiction opportunities I’ve been offered. (Which really tonks me off.)

It turns out there’s a reason why I’m tired all the time. Why I can’t concentrate. Why my productivity is in the toilet. Why flying somewhere and returning leaves me wiped out for a week.

Why I’m not doing my usual September writing retreat in Oregon.

Why I’ve had to take bloody naps.

I’m anemic. My blood marrow has shut down, and isn’t making more red blood cells. The ones I have are old and tired, and not doing such a good job of hauling oxygen around my innards.

There’s no reason for alarm at this point. My physician said “hmmm… that should have worked” and sent me to a blood specialist. I’m on more meds. They haven’t used words like “aplastic” or “pernicious.”

If I worked for someone else, they’d just have to put up with me falling asleep at my desk. But I’m self-employed, so my boss isn’t nearly so understanding.

Why am I posting this?

• If you’ve offered me a wonderful speaking or teaching opportunity and I turn you down, this is why. Yes, I want to expand my readership–but if I fly to Georgia and back in the space of a week, I’ll be flat on my back for a week afterwards. Add in a time zone change, and it’d be ten days.
• If you’ve asked me to contribute to a book bundle and I say no: this is why.
• If you’ve offered me exciting work that I’ve inexplicably turned down: ditto.

I am maintaining my existing commitments. I made those commitments already understanding my health. You’ll note that there’s only two of them. The furthest requires a three hour drive, and that’ll require rest breaks. (I’ll be fine at Ohio LinuxFest; I arrive early the day before, and I’m scheduling nine hours of sleep a night.)

My morale wobbles unpredictably between “not good” and “f— anemia.”

The bad news is: it took too damn long to find out this was going on. The anemia’s slow, stealthy progress hid the depth of the problem. It’ll take a while to recover.

The good news is: I’m expected to make a full recovery. There’s no reason at this time to think I’ll need vocabulary words like “aplastic” or “pernicious.”

More bad news is: you can’t do much to help me. The only thing I can do is wait for the meds to work, which will take a whole bunch of time. All I ask is that my readers understand why I’m slow in producing new books this year.

The great news is: I’m under medical advice to eat more cow.

I’ll be in Scottsdale, Arizona, for a few days on family business.

Readers, fans, and detractors are welcome to join me Friday 15 July 2016, 6PM, at Frank & Lupe’s Old Mexico.

And yes, there’s a gelato shop within walking distance. Several, actually.

I’m very hopeful that, while this might not be my last trip to Scottsdale, it will be the last trip to Scottsdale in the summer.

Here’s the interesting things about blackmail: it only works if the victim permits himself to be embarrassed. A victim who is willing to release everything renders himself invulnerable to such threats.

People have wondered how I make a living as a writer. It all depends on how you sell your product.

Sorry, David. You’ll have to buy your books like everyone else. Meet me in the alley if you’re still interested.

Two exciting things happened. First, we have a water heater, kindly provided by the fine folks who sponsored FreeBSD Mastery: Advanced ZFS.

A few hours after getting it, my missus declared that she believes the old water heater never worked. At all. She is also highly in favor of water pressure in a shower. Apparently my standards for heat and pressure are lacking.

Secondly, my author copies of FreeBSD Mastery: Specialty Filesystems arrived from Tilted Windmill Press.

I’ll pack some of them up for shipping this weekend.

I posted this on various social networking sites, but I should probably put it here too.

I’m in Scottsdale, AZ, this week, on family business. I have a couple readers in the Phoenix area, so I’m inviting them, and everyone else in the area, to join me for dinner on Friday night at the Roaring Fork at 6PM.

I should probably mention: while I’m issuing the invite, you get to buy your own meal.

KB suggested the Brat Haus, which looks nice–except that almost all the seating is outside. And I’m thoroughly convinced that the only reason Phoenix was built is because this is where the founders’ last camel died.

So, if you’re in the Phoenix area, show up. Tell me why my books suck. I’m used to it.

I’m in the midst of rearranging my web site. The nonfiction stuff is pretty well organized, but the fiction really is not.

Most of the fiction can easily be reordered, except for a couple of pages that just won’t fit well anywhere. So I’m putting those pages up as blog posts.

Unfortunately, I can’t cancel those out of the RSS feeds. And most of my blog readers are already aware of these pages. I’m using the bang-more markup to keep most of the pages out of your feed, though.

I think I can cancel those pages from spreading to the third-party sites, like Facebook and Twitter and such. If not, I’ll log into those sites and cancel them manually.

My apologies for the extra traffic.