September 26th, 2000

September 26, 2000

Posted at 6:35 PM by Jack Chalker

Apologies for not updating the past month, nor getting much else done here, but it’s been a very weird month. The World SF Convention in Chicago was an experience; I was happy to meet and talk with so many of you there, and those who couldn’t make it might look at next year, which is in Philadelphia. My wife’s from that city and her family’s there, amd she’s working on the worldcom, so you can be pretty sure that unless something cataclysmic happens I’ll be there. I’m also going to be at Philcon this year in mid-November, as usual. Next year is shaping up as something unusual; I have Guest of Honor appearances in Madison, Wisconsin, at a new con there, and at another debut con in central Missouri that’s college based, and there might be more. I’ll give you complete details when I can get MELCHIOR’S FIRE off to Baen (it’s now 45 days late) and do some tax related stuff. Then it’ll be time to redo the entire web domain top to bottom. All I need is some time. For those who saw me on the motorized scooter, be aware that while my damaged leg from falling onto the car deck of the ferryboat Florafox still looks awful it no longer is bloated and infected, I’m walking normally again, and hopefully that’s behind me. For the rest of you, the pain of the injury made most work impossible until mid-month; this was followed by a horrible cold/flu just over, and, for the past week, both computers here crashed so badly that one had to be put out of its misery (I built another) and both existing ones then had to have their OSs and all programs reinstalled from scratch. Fun. I’m now hoping to get everything done in the next two weeks, but the way things have been going who knows?

      In the meantime, we’re trying to cope with the new cat, which my wife named Valentine after the rich relatives who might give us some bucks. Unfortunately, I’m a dog person (and so’s the dog) and I’m not at all thrilled with a hyperactive 3-4 month old homicidal egocentric slashing machine. One can only hope that when he’s grown and the vet says it’s okay, The Operation will calm him down….

      We’ve decided to experiment with Print on Demand, and picked a book that’s been out of print for far too long but which hasn’t had any takers for a reissue. That’s AND THE DEVIL WILL DRAG YOU UNDER, a favorite book of many of my long-time readers, concerning a demon named Asmodeus Mogart who needs to send some unsuspecting folks to parallel worlds in search of magic power amulets which can give him enough power to keep our Earth from being smashed to smithereens. It’s progressively wacky, winding up far more bent than any of the Dancing Gods books, and it’s in one volume. We’ll let you know on the web site when and where it’ll appear (and it should also be available for order from any online bookseller once it appears). We may do more of these if this one goes.

      That’s about it for now. More news as it develops, and look for a really major redo of the site around Halloween if not earlier. For now, click on “The Myth” and see what’s out and impending right now. jlc


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