My blog is over on Blogspot now. Look for me there: storysculpting.blogspot.com

I've been using Blogger off and on for a couple of years now, posting now and then while I was busy writing novels. That's my excuse for neglecting this blog, and I'm sticking to it.

Novels, you say!

Why yes. I've published ebooks and paperback books. You can find them for sale here: amazon.com/author/kmherkes
The paperbacks are also available through B&N or from any other retailer who orders through Ingram distribution.

Why start a new blog, you ask? Why not stay here?

I'm glad you asked.

Why? Why? Why?

Okay, you can stop asking now. The answer is: the lure of the new and shiny always overwhelms me. (Blogger was new to me at that time.) I stayed there because the interface was easier to maintain, the site was less cluttered with paywall bells & whistles, and the layout was seductively minimalist. Also, controlling spam in the comments is easier. I do miss the tags list here in LJ...but that's about it.

So, anyway. Visit me there, not here, for the foreseeable future.

Ta!

Two whole years without an entry.

Says a lot about the barren employment-related stressful wasteland of the last two years.

With luck, discipline and a little brain grease (because elbow grease would do no good) I should not be absent so long again.

Unemployment: only a bad thing because I still need to buy books. And eat. And have shelter and electricity. Okay, among the many bad things there nestle a few fluffy kittens of joy; time to contemplate, relief from external driving forces and freedom from distractions.

Thoughts on air travel and layovers and other interesting aspects of modern life. In no particular order.

( ponderings during travelCollapse ) That’s all I’m sayin.’

Home again, home again, bippity-boo.
( There's no place like home in the rainCollapse )

What, not home yet? No, no, no!

( Road Trip Part the FourthCollapse )

Oh, yes, it just keeps on going....

( Road Trip Part the ThirdCollapse )

and for those who can't get enough of my ramblings

( Road Trip Part the SecondCollapse )

for anyone interested, here's how I spent my not-summer-any-more vacation.

( Road Trip part the firstCollapse )

Gencon is a touchstone event for me, a glorious four days soaking my roots in the fringe culture of gaming and science-fiction & fantasy.

When I started reading SF, role-play gaming didn't exist. And when I started gaming, I was not welcomed because I was a grrrrl. (granted that being a knowitall sassmouthed ugligrrl might have had a bit to do with that, still, so did the adolescent social skills of the guys.)

So nice to look a glorious piece of pencil & ink artwork and say, "Yeah. Want it." and get it, even though its price has three digits on the wrong side of the decimal point. So nice to remember (too late this year, bt I did remember) that there's a venue and time where I can dress up funny and still fit in.

Heck, I can dress up as funny as I can stand...and not even stand out.

So what if I game not much? I get into a demo or two and I hang out with those who have the attention span for board games that involve cards and dice and counters. I get to roleplay a bit at least one evening out of four. I watch others game and soak up the fun by happy proximity.

I get to go out to eat in big loud groups, stay up all night and watch the Olympics and swap puns and bad jokes and discuss politics and pop culture trivia, I get to read buttons and teeshirts and cryptic badges, and above all I bask in the emotional glow generated by a gathering of so many others who think the same, strange way that I do.

Yes, some of us have a shaky grasp on the concept of hygiene, and all too many think that social interaction not only begins but also ends with bragging about their collection of cards, their high-level character, their game-bargain find at someone else's retail booth, their close relationship with an author, artist or designer...but every field of fandom has its doofuses as well as its freak-flag-flying geeks who pass for normal in all other walks of life.

Despising them would be like despising puppies for licking their testicles in public. It's in their nature, and clearly no one has properly taught them to do otherwise.

Besides, without those fringe-of-the-fringers...who would appreciate how cool I am? ^_^

Blissness.

Tempting as it is to take a picture of my porch and post it here, I shall refrain.

'Tis wonderful to be sitting out here in the bug-free shade, breeze on my skin, relaxing in peace with the outdoor stereo cranking out tunes, my cool refreshing drink melting its ice cubes and this comfy chair enfolding me in its cushy depths.

All that, and I am also cruising the internet. Bliss.

I do like to share, but a picture would be just too much.

Just finished a Patricia Briggs ARC. I like the world she's putting together more andmore. Watched Dog Soldiers--much better than expected, and Breach-- well-done, kinda pedantic, and The Last TIme -- bleh, an actor-director movie, all kinds of excellent character studies of people I would remove from the planet post-haste, come the revolution. Amoral sociopaths may be great fun to play, but without any offsetting characters who can beat them up and win, a movie's just no fun. IMNSHO.)