Bday Highlights, Zombies, BARFODDER, and WHC 2009

Lots to talk about, I know...I've just been so darn busy it's tough to keep up on the blog.

Bullet points:

--Birthday Highlights
--A Cool New Book Is Coming Your Way (and Not By Me)
--Updates on BARFODDER
--WHC 09 in Canada


1) This year my birthday was sort of a week long celebration, the highlights of which have already occurred, and the lowlights will probably be winding down tomorrow night. I only say lowlights, because Technoexpatriate was going to have his House Boat Warming (pirate themed) tomorrow night, but due to weather and availability of guests with children on Halloween, that's getting pushed out. So...I have three costumes to wear and no place to go at this point.

On Saturday, I held my routine Birthday Drink-fest at the Bigfoot Lodge. My thanks to Abel, Lauren, and Lucas for taking care of my guests (and me!) at the bar, and to everyone who made it out. That would be Sea Slut, Accident Prone, MixerGal, Donnamite, ShereeDevil, Mikey, Technoexpatriate (who gave me the odd gift of a very nice kitchen knife in the middle of a conversation about how psycho Sea Sluts ex's have been), Midnight, xtine, LilyDove, Mot, Chinese Cowboy, Valericious, Sparkle, and of course...The Muppet.

One highlight of the evening may have been when I was tossing out candy, and a random person in the crowd said, "oh! Me! Me me me!" and when he got the candy, he was so excited about what it looked like (omitted on purpose) he came over to explain it was his gang's name. A rather well known gang. Tee hee.

It was really good to see everyone, as some of these folks I only get to see once a year.

Sunday we went to brunch with Thumbelina, LilyDove, and Mot at a lovely seafood place, then dropped into a wine bar and picked up some of the Penfolds Old Grandfather Tawny Port I love so much. I swear to the gods, that stuff is pancakes in a bottle. We also picked up some blackberry balsamic vinegar and a chocolate cabernet sauce that I'm itching to roast a turkey and drizzle it over. Or maybe pork chops.

The Muppet gave me a beautiful pen and ink writing set with 6 different colored inks, a lot of different nibs, and a replacement for the glass pen that was broken earlier in the year. He also gave me a gorgeous set of Tanzanite drippy jewelry. Its fancy stuff though, so not for every day. The Drag Queens will be so jealous.

I stopped into Borderlands Books looking for a specific type of journal with a vintage appeal, and ran into jlassen who showed me a copy of Nightshade's latest zombie anthology, which is in its second printing. A thick brick of a book, it was only $17 or so - a steal considering all the wonderful stories in it. I bought it on the principal that it had one by George R. R. Martin I had not yet read...and as I am an addict, I had to get my fix.

My thanks to Jude and jlassen on their suggestions for my journal hunt. I finally found what I was looking for at Aspinal of London, under their "historic" section and with free shipping through Halloween--it's not killing me to purchase from the UK.

2) For fans of zombies, you should pay special attention to Scott Browne's new book, BREATHERS, which will hit shelves sometime in March. For a sneak preview of what its all about you can check out his website, Undead Anonymous. Hey - if vampires get to have an online community, why can't zombies?

3) Brian Keene tells me he stopped into Cemetery Dance offices the other day, and commented that the cover for BARFODDER was just gorgeous. Of course, we know this...Daniele Serra is very gifted. But this is proof that the book truly is on the way. He saw proof! Daniele has also done artwork for ELEMENTS, which I'm wrapping up work on with Charlee Jacob, Linda Addison, and Marge Simon.

4) I have agreed to help host World Horror Convention 2009's Annual Gross Out competition once again, but this year it will happen in Canada. Unless I am able to get that pesky .08 DUI expunged from my record, Canada won't let me in due to the strict laws associated with it there. It was the reason I was unable to attend and be in Sephera Giron's wedding, and could be the reason I won't be up North for the next 4 years. However, I've paid my debt to society and could travel on a waiver if the expungement is granted.

Typically you have to wait two years for that to go through, but you can legally file for it after one year. PianoMan told me this last year...so we do have a chance, even if it's a 50/50 one. Because of this I have added a disclaimer to my proposed attendance - I will be asking a co-host to help out in the event I can't make it. I had initially asked Brian Keene, as we've been trying to co-host for some years now, but he will not be able to attend the con. Stay tuned for the announcement of my evil cohort.

November will be a busy month for me. I've got to finish up ELEMENTS this weekend. Napa for wine shipment pick-up next, and Technoexpatriate's Pirate Boat Warming. A girlfriend from High school, Lady Katherine, will be visiting the weekend of the 14th (you might recall the wedding I attended in Denver this past year), Turkey Day either out of town or at Accident Prone's, and then a weekend to rest and begin finishing up one of many set-aside projects [for Elements].

Labels: barfodder, birthday, friends, whc, wine, writing

posted by Rain at 10:14 AM

More Thank-Youses.

We had a blast at the Bigfoot on Friday…thanks to Lily_Dove, Smell Good, Muppet Man, Valicious, Midnight, xTine, AccidentProne, Baine, Not A Marina Girl, HotMark ™ and South Carolina…all for coming out to celebrate with me. Thank you for the thoughtful cards and gifts (even though I said no gifts…some of you brought them anyway, and they are all wonderful).

Thanks to my Dad, StepMonster (her term, not mine! Love her lots) and sisters for calling and wishing me a happy birthday…as well as to my Grandmomma, who had all her sisters and brothers over for dinner last night in Virginia and made them sing to me. Haha.

Thanks to Seanie and MissBlue who sent me wonderful cards and gifts…again to the anonymous Bruce Springsteen gifter, thank-you, I still don’t know who you are.

Thank you to everyone who sent me emails of well-wishes (there are too many to list) and birthday greetings, and those of you who have done so via LJ and Myspace...and especially to Debg, who made me a fantastic Lasagna dinner and amazing ladyfinger/Grenache torte (was it a torte or an actual cake? Whatever it was it was amazing) last week, with Zmayhem.

Thank you also to Muppet Man, xTine, Lily_dove, Smell Good, and Thumbelina for coming to dinner on Saturday night.

Also to MixerGal and Donnamite, who are making me dinner (belatedly) this Saturday night.

Sunday I relaxed and unwound, talked to family, and generally enjoyed the day. Lily_dove came by and we enjoyed a sunset glass of wine and portions of “Same Time Next Year,” that movie with Alan Alda.

All of you have made me feel so loved, and I adore all of you for it. (Even Alan Alda. LOL).

Labels: birthday, friends

posted by Rain at 1:37 PM

Thank-yous, and yous, and yous too.

Thank you to Miss Blue for the lovely “Dragorific” scarf. I can now walk Larkin street knowing my inner Drag Queen is now showing on the outside. LOL. I loooove it! I might also add that it is the exact color of the vampire red streaks I put into my hair last weekend. Double score.

Thank you to whomever anonymously sent me that Bruce Springsteen “Magic” record from my amazon wish list. I’ve been listening to it non-stop, and it rocks-out some kinda serious Boss butt.

Thank you to my grandmamma, who never forgets, and to all my friends joining this evening for birthday libations, as well as to the friends joining me Sunday for a paddle out on my actual birthday. w00t! You guys are the bestest.

Labels: birthday, friends

posted by Rain at 11:33 AM

Seattle and my (looming) Birthday

This will be a two-parter. 1) A briefing on my trip to Seattle. 2) Mostly for family and friends who keep bugging me about birthday and xmas wish lists. I don’t really have one…but I did take the time this morning to update my amazon wishlist for those who feel so inclined to read it.

1) Seattle

Friday morning I woke with a start, realizing my alarm hadn’t gone off, and jeezuzfook, it was 7am, and my flight had taken off at 6am. I called united, and was terrified that since I’d booked the flight on my miles, I wouldn’t have any other option other than the flight that got into Seattle at 1am Saturday morning…not optimal, considering I was already losing most of the day. United booked me on a 1pm flight, but I had to pay a $75 fee in order to guarantee a seat. Otherwise, I could fly standby…which wouldn’t work. I left plenty of time to get to the airport, but hadn’t accounted for the torrential downpour dumping on the Bay Area all day Friday, and it took me an hour just to get out of the city. I looked down and realized if I used the cheapy parking lot option I’d booked a reservation for…I’d probably miss my flight.

Another burst of expletives soared from my mouth as I realized…damn, I’d have to park at the airport. What’s worse, they changed the configuration at SFO so now you can’t just guide your car into Long Term Parking once you get up to the terminals…so I had to park in the HOURLY (yes, #!@$ me gently with a Chainsaw) parking, at a max of $33 a day. The bill came to $85 for three days when I finally got back on Sunday. Ouch.

What’s worse, when I finally got into the airport and checked in, my flight was delayed. I could have saved the money and the trouble… even worse, it kept getting MORE delayed. Like…four hours. Finally I hopped over to another United flight and got on standby for a 5:30pm departure. All that, and if I’d flown standby I could have saved the $75 to begin with…not to mention, the $85 for parking. Ugh. No Seattle trinkets for me.

JC picked me up from the airport and we headed straight to dinner downtown. He’d gotten a list of recommendations from having spent the better part of three days there already on business, so he was keen on checking out this place called Cascadia on 1st avenue. We didn’t have a reservation, were slightly underdressed, but the host still managed to fit us in to the last table available (which was still being cleared at the time). The service was fantastic, too. We had a 3 course pre-fix menu with a wine paring that was just out of this world - fresh pan seared cod with ginger marinated udon noodles, pumpkin bisque with some kind of anise froth that was just amazing, and we were so full by desert that we could only sample what was brought to us, though it was incredibly good - a coconut canoli-like spring roll that was rather phallic looking.

The next day drove into Seattle with Bruce Springstein's new album at medium blast (we are getting old, after all) and checked out the Pike Fish Market, wandering around through the various spice, fish, and flower booths. We walked all over town, and headed to Pioneer Square where we opted to take the historic "underground" tour, which was supposed to be littered with tales of debauchery and prostitution...but was mostly a history lesson (including the prostitution bit) on how seattle was built. Not much but a bunch of old junk and dank/dusty hallways for 90 minutes, but our guide was entertaining enough to keep us interested and clued in using our imaginations, more than the scenery.

After that, we were pretty spent on walking long distances, so we decided to drive over to the beach, as it was gloriously sunny and clear out (oh the irony). We walked along the beach, which was pebbly and pleasant, and decided to dip our toes and hands in the water to see how cold it was. I kid you not, the water was actually at least 10-15 degrees warmer than what I surf in during the summer months here in Nor-Cal. Weird!

We were getting hungry, so we headed back down to the Pike Market and hit Lowells for some fresh seafood platters (mmmm...fried clams, shrimp, fish and chips), which were so incredibly worth it. We thought it would be fun to try and find the Lighthouse that was recommended to us as a good spot to watch the sunset - but our maps were really, really bad.

After getting lost somewhere along Magnolia Park, we flagged down a park service guy in a truck, who was apparently pretty drunk, but gave us another map and another set of directions. After a few wrong turns, we found Discovery Park, and made our way towards what the signs said could show us the lighthouse. Unfortunately, it's situated on an Army Reserve, and the signs aren't really clear as to letting the average tourist know you aren't supposed to go there. When we passed through the gates, we realized we should probably turn around.

It was still early, but at that point we were too pooped to pip, so we headed back to the hotel and called it an early night.

Sunday it was back to the airport...and more delays for me on United, when we were told that our 11:45am flight had been postponed to 1:15 because a First Officer was delayed on a flight coming in from Denver...and there apparently was no one else on call to fly the plane.

I wandered around the little annex at SeaTac, picked up a copy of INTO THE WILD by Jon Krakauer, and have been enjoying it thusfar. All in all, it was a nice respite from the stress of the past two weeks, and it was really good to see JC again.

2) The Birthday Looms.

I've never been one much for gifts and such, though I have always loved anything anyone has ever gotten me or made for me, because I loved the thought behind it. I don’t really ever want anything, and often only produce a "list" of sorts for family and friends who bug me for one...and they have started bugging me...

My solution was just to update my amazon.com wishlist, as a guide for anyone who doesn’t already know I'm easily ployed with good company, a nice bottle of wine, or good cigar. You can look it up under my email address: raingraves "at" yahoo.

I see that n has updated his, for those of you that know he too has a birthday coming up...

Jack Ketchum is also another scorpio friend with another year looming. Last year I bought him a drink all the way from California at his favorite watering hole in New York. I do love what you can do in that town for people.

Oh, and to answer other folks' questions as to wether or not I'd thought about having a birthday gathering...I haven't. I might do an informal drinks thing on the 26th, and a Sunday paddle-out on the 28th. No real plan, to be honest. This year has just flown by...and being on the broke end of the stick after court, something low-key and free is always more my speed. :)

What I really want for my birthday is a publication date from Cemetery Dance on BARFODDER. A real one. Like, with galleys and everything!

Labels: birthday, friends, seattle

posted by Rain at 12:17 PM