Stupid alien!

So I'm knitting the Alien Illusion Scarf from the Stitch n'Bitch book. I decided to make it for my brother-in-law Ryan, who has a good sense of humor. (He was a large piece of toast for Halloween once.) I'm knitting along, and it's hard and you have to pay careful attention to the pattern, and I'm going well and almost have a complete alien head done (there will be six total on the scarf). And I look at it and think, shouldn't the alien be green? You see, this is scarf made with stripes of black and green, with a subtly knitted pattern that will look like alien heads from a certain angle. And mine are black, not green, for some reason. Odd. So I go to Debbie Stoller's website, she who edited the book, where I know there are pattern corrections listed. Alien Illusion Scarf: mistake, colors indicated on pattern are reversed. GAAAAAAAHHHHH! That's kind of a big mistake, you know? There are only two colors, and in no less than three places it lists them the wrong way! I'm so annoyed! I had to unravel the whole thing, cast on and start again, this time with the green first and then the black, thank you very much! And I'm already tense because we're watching "Prison Break" and Linc and Michael are trying to spring LJ and Oh, my gosh I think Linc's been shot!!!!!!!!

Barbara Hambly

So I read the first of Hambly's Benjamin January mysteries, and I thought, Aaah, I'd forgotten how much I love Barbara. If you haven't treated yourself to "Dragonsbane", you're missing out. It's the book that poses the question: What if you went to find your childhood hero, the only living man to slay a dragon, and he turned out to be short, bald, and nearsighted? It's a treat for anyone who likes fantasy, or even historical fiction, with lots of rich detail and wonderful characters. And if you like vampires, there's her wonderful "Those Who Hunt the Night" and its sequel, "Traveling with the Dead". Such great books. Barbara, I love you!

Manuscript found

Oh, and for those of you who were concerned, my missing manuscript for Dragon Slippers was found at long last. It had been delivered by the Bloomsbury mailroom to the wrong floor. Let's all give a sigh of relief.

Sea of Monsters

My goodness, I haven't posted in a long time! So sorry. Not that anyone reads this, but, well, I like to pretend that someone out there does. Besides my husband. Anyway, I just finished copyediting Dragon Slippers, and I think it's lost in the mail now! GULP! I was freaked out when I sent it, because the FedEx dropoff I used was a bit . . . odd. They also sold homemade potholders. Double gulp. And the girl running the place seemed to be a bit . . . unsure of how to FedEx. Triple Gulp. It was supposed to be there Thursday, and as of today (Monday), Melanie the Editor has yet to receive it. Eeep. Perhaps it has fallen into the Sea of Monsters. I just spent the weekend at my parents' in Idaho, and on the way to and from I read aloud to my sister, who was driving. We read "Sea of Monsters", the second of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians books by Rick Riordan. It was fabulous! I highly recommend the Percy Jackson books to all and sundry. Now if only Percy and his mystical sword Riptide could FIGURE OUT WHERE MY MANUSCRIPT IS!!!!!!!!!