Doomsday Release

It's Doomsday!  The first book of the Clockwork Empire has reached its official release, and The Doomsday Vault (by Steven Harper) is now in stores everywhere.  Air pirates!  Zombies!  Mad scientists!

In a clockwork Britannia, Alice's prospects are slim. At 21, her age and her unladylike interest in automatons have sealed her fate as an undesirable marriage prospect. But a devastating plague sends Alice off in a direction beyond the pale-towards a clandestine organization, mad inventors, life-altering secrets, and into the arms of an intrepid fiddle-playing airship pilot.

We're kicking off the fun with a blog tour.  Hop aboard the airship and follow me around the Internet in 14 days!  I'll be doing guest posts and interviews.  Here's the schedule:

Friday, November 4: Award-winning author Anne Harris, who also writes as Jessica Freely and Pearl North: http://anneharris.typepad.com/

Saturday, November 5: Amazing book blog, the Qwillery: http://qwillery.blogspot.com/

Monday, November 7: Fellow steampunk writer and romance writer Cindy Spencer Pape at Write Faster! http://cindyspencerpape.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, November 9: Famed agent and fanged vampire author Lucienne Diver: http://luciennediver.wordpress.com/

Friday, November 11: Beloved fantasy and science fiction author Deborah J. Ross, known for Darkover and much, much more:  http://deborahjross.blogspot.com/

Monday, November 14: Delightful fantasy writer Lynn Flewelling, known for her Nightrunner books: http://otterdance.livejournal.com/

Other stops are in the works.  Dates and links will be posted as soon as we have 'em!

Samhain 2011

Over the weekend I baked a pumpkin spice cake.  From scratch.  With caramel cream cheese frosting.  Also from scratch.

Last night, Sasha took his brothers trick-or-treating, which gave me a couple hours by myself (!).  When they got back, we performed the annual Samhain ritual.  We lit candles about the house, then brought the Goddess statue inside, cleansed everything, and set up the indoor altar.  We also spent considerable time with the Tarot deck.  Then we extinguished the lights--the dark time of the year is upon us.

And then it was time for cake.  Wonderful, delicious cake!

Aran, Autism, and Conversation

Just now I took the boys to get their hair cut.  Aran sat down in the chair while the stylist hovered over him.  After a moment, he said to her, "How long have you been working here?"

"Oh, about eight years, I think," she said.  "Since 2003."

I jerked my head around, startled.  Was that . . . ?  It was!  Aran had just used a conversation starter that had nothing to do with himself or one of his own interests, one that focused on the other person.  And it was appropriate to the situation and came across as perfectly natural.

Wow.

Next Aran said, "Have you ever heard of Harry Potter?"

This =is= one of Aran's obsessions, and we had fallen back into the regular conversation patterns he follows, and I mentally sighed.  Well, it would be too much to hope for a full-blown regular conversation, but this one--

"Is that the wizard boy in the books?" the woman said.

"I watch the movies," Aran said.

"I haven't seen them, but my grandson loves them."

"How old is your grandson?" Aran asked.

"He's twelve."

"Does he like Harry Potter a lot?"

"I think so, but I'm afraid I haven't really paid attention."

Did you catch all that?  Even though Aran slid into his own interests for a moment, he refocused on the stylist again.  I couldn't see Aran from where I was sitting; I could only hear, but I was thrilled.  He carried off an entire small-talk conversation with a stranger that was appropriate and politely done.

Wow.

An Evening of Mythology

Aran is starting THE ODYSSEY in English class.  He often has trouble with comprehension when he's reading something brand new to him, so I decided to give him an oral primer on it.  I was making supper, so I sat him down at the kitchen table.

"Just listen," I said, "and we'll go through it."

And then a thought occurred to me.  I called Maksim into the kitchen to hear it, too.  Why should he miss out?  (Sasha flatly refused.)  Mackie was reluctant, but I coaxed him in, and then we began.

See, I used to be a professional storyteller.  "Professional" as in "people paid me lots of money."  I don't do it anymore because I don't have the time, but I've honed my skills at keeping a crowd's attention with just my voice.  I used those skills now on Aran and Mackie with Greek mythology.

We started with Eris getting ticked off because she was excluded from Poseidon's wedding.  We progressed to the golden apple, the judgment of Paris, and the wooing of Helen.  From there we went to the War of Troy (greatly condensed, since Aran wasn't covering that in class at all) and the Trojan Horse and the cursing of Odysseus.

By now Maksim was getting intrigued.  Right at the moment Odysseus arrived in the Cyclops's cave, supper was ready.  Sasha didn't want to hear about Greek mythology over supper, but the moment he was done eating, Mackie (Mackie!) demanded that the story continue.  We went through Circe, the Underworld, the crashing rocks, the Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis, the Isle of Winds, Calypso, and the arrival at Ithaca.  Aran fell into the role of Odysseus, filling in the hero's lines and reactions as we went, stabbing at enemies with his fork.

We had long finished supper and the leftovers were growing cold on our plates and platters. I thought the boys would want to stop and finish it later, but no, they wanted it all, so I kept going.

We still had the suitors at Ithaca, the death shrouds, the betrayal of Penelope, the disguise of Odysseus, the test of the bow, the battle in the great hall, and the reunion of Penelope and Odysseus.

At long last, we got up from the table to clear up.

It was one of those evenings I'd always dreamed of having.