on wednesday, the meerkat went AFK

A quick braindump:

Oh Leverage, how you do rock my world. You are smart and pretty and funny, and don't mind too much the fancifulness of your premise because you are smart and pretty and funny. And Parker is such a sweet psychotic. Thank you for promising to come back this summer. That makes me very happy.

It also made me happy to discover that what the GOP disdainfully refers to as a "nanny state," the president apparently defines as "cleaning up the mess Baby made." I'm not much for speeches from any president (it's all propaganda, even when it's YOUR propaganda) but flinching from hearing hard truths and uncomfortable decisions is so much to be preferred to flinching from hearing Teh Stooopid.

And some very interesting comments from Trained Political Pundits in the aftermath, about how Obama's attempted bi-partismanship isn't aimed at the GOP, who believe they cannot reach back or lose whatever they think they're holding onto, but the independent voters. Obama reached out and was rebuffed, purely for the sin of Not Being GOP. That's going to hurt someone, PR-wise, and so far, it's not Obama.


Took the day off from Pack of Lies yesterday, and worked on a couple of new projects, and some promotional stuff for on-going books, as well as dealing with the long-distance chaos of trying to migrate the web site to its new home. We seem to be having Technical Difficulties. :-( But soon it will be done, and I will be able to muck about with the updates on a much more regular basis, and won't you be sorry then?

(that might also spell the end of the Cosa Nostradamus On-Line, as the content is folded into the main site. We'll see.)

I also managed to get some wonderful, if quick, footage of Pandora, blissed on catnip, almost falling off the desk. but if I post it, you will all see the terribly disorganized state of my office, and I'm not sure I can stand the shame...

Oh, wotthehell.

in which the meerkat is pleased and proud and inspired....

It has been a very long day, and I am too wiped out to do more than skim e-mail, but a wee note caught my eye, and I thought "this is worth blogging about."

Bear with me, first, while I take you on a quick history recap.

The year is 1991. I am a baby Assistant at Ace/Berkley, dutifully skimming the slush pile. And a manuscript catches my eye. SF, Heinleinish adventure with a female protag. It's not brilliant, but I think it's pretty damn good. So I take it to my boss, and make the pitch why I think we should buy it. She reads some of the manuscript, looks at the schedule, looks at the budget, and tells me to go make an offer. Baby Editor's First Phone Call!

The book got solid reviews and meh sales. The second book did pretty much the same. But the author and I got along well, and I knew she had a lot of talent, not to mention stubborn determination.

About this time, the female-featured mystery series was really starting to heat up, and we were told "look for more of this." So when the author mentioned that she had a mystery she'd written sitting on her hard drive (this was after hard drives, but only just) I told her to send it.

She did. We bought it, and two others ("I don't know if I can write two more," she said. "Shut up and take the deal," I said. "We'll worry about that later.")

That book was A COLD DAY FOR MURDER. The author was Dana Stabenow. It won the Edgar for best paperback original mystery, and cemented a damn good author/editor relationship, if I do say so myself. Leaving her to another editor when I went to NAL was one of the hardest parts of the job change. Dana parted ways with Berkley a few years later, and went to St. Martin's, who has published her since then.

And now, with WHISPER TO THE BLOOD, the 16th Kate Shugak book, she is a New York Times* bestseller.

16 books into a series. Two publishers, two agents, and several editors later.

Talent. And a stubborn determination.


*raises glass* Mazel tov, my friend. I may have set you on this path, but you're the one who walked it. Well done. Well done indeed.

Let this be a lesson and an inspiration to all of us who are looking down that road, and wondering if there's anything worth walking to....






*okay, extended list. NYT, baby!