March 31st, 2004

March 31, 2004

Posted at 7:04 PM by Jack Chalker

Yes, you’re right, it’s been a very long time since I updated this site, but in addition to the health problems is that I have lost two to three months and I haven’t been able to recover them no matter how hard I try. I need to catch up on all my business activities, my commitments, and my family, and I have to do that while somehow finally getting through the overdue books and starting new projects. You can understand that this means that I’ve wound up having to prioritize just about all I do, and updating the web site isn’t something that comes near the top of the list no matter how much I want to do it.

     And yet between the previous entry here and this one I have gone to several conventions, including one in Burbank, California, have, alas, gone to at least one major funeral of an old friend of many decades, playing computer mechanic, internet guru, and Dad to not only Steve, my youngest son, but also Dave again, who is back from Ohio and again living in house while trying to work off his bills and get finished with college while Eva is full time with Lockheed Martin, if not quite Rosie the Riveter but at least Rosie the Microsoft Office guru for those folks who do the Medicare and Medicaid stuff for your federal government. She is also vice chair of this year’s Balticon, the Baltimore SF Convention over Memorial Day weekend, which also makes her the chair of said con in 2005.

     I think I’m finally at the point where, if nothing else goes wrong, I may actually be able to finish Chemeleon in April and start on one or two other projects as well. At this point, the writing comes first. I need to refill the money coffers bad.

     Locally, our little Pekingese who inexplicably ran away in September is vanished for good, and Steve insisted on getting a new dog for him. He picked one, all right, and it really is his dog, but it’s a hound, much larger than any dog we’ve had here and larger than any dog I’ve ever had except my first one when I was a kid, which takes some getting used to. As to what kind it is, well, it’s a hound and I mean all hound, although probably of several types in one. He looks pretty much like a cross between a beagle and a foxhound, and he has a fear of being left alone and insists on being around one or another of us. He came from a rescue shelter so he already had a name we’re saddled with because he knows and answers to it. So, we have a dog named Boomer. The tomcat, by the way, has already taught Boomer who’s boss here. And I guess I must mention Ixty, the third pet, which is Dave’s—and, from the name, you might guess that it’s a very large female iguana. It’s in a huge terraformed cage, which protects her from the cat, but I do think Ixty is lonely and always planning for a breakout. We’ll see.

     Well, it’s spring, everybody’s home and reasonably healthy, the weather’s breaking and I’m back at work, so maybe, just maybe, we can get a break. Don’t expect me to update too frequently, but I’m going to try and get back at least to my habit of appending things here once a month whether there’s anything to say or not, and at any time when there’s breaking news. Until I write more and catch up, though, that news is going to be more folksy than professional unless Hollywood finally decides to make one of those movies. –jlc

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