For Those Whose Breath Might Be Bated

We've had a medical/childcare emergency today that required massive amounts of Uncle Chris tag ins to prevent a warp core breach.

We have a wonderful guest blog that we'll put up tomorrow, and then on Saturday, some NEWS!

Last Chance to Vote (Best Magic Semifinal 2)

What is the best magic system in fiction?   

In order to keep the enthusiasm for this poll hot and fresh, the turnover is going to be very, very fast.

That means our second semifinal round is almost over already.  Tomorrow I'll tabulate results and put up the FINAL poll.

Everyone will get four votes (4). The top five names of each poll will go on to the final round. Before you simply vote for your favorite four, consider that, as there is no ranking of those four votes; each vote beyond one dilutes the power of your choices a little more. So if you have a genuine favorite–or pair of favorites–it's better to use as few votes as possible.

The poll itself is on the left side, at the bottom of the side menus.

January's Best

Dear God, is it February already? My internal chronometer says early to mid January. I guess that's what happens when you kick a year off with ten days straight in a hospital room, not even remembering what day of the week it is.

Normally I would wait until a few days into a month to post the best of the prior month (in case some of the later posts needed a few days to get the last of their traffic hits) but today it's pretty obvious what's going to be the best of for January.

Most of the things I wrote that got any attention at all have to do with the cancer. And that is still at the center of my world right now. And even when it's not directly screwing with scheduling, it's affecting everything anyway. Right now I'm Tom Cruise with a wooden sword in The Last Samurai, and this horrible cold I got cold is Hiroyuki Sanada beating the crap out of me every time I stand back up. I need to just stay down for a while.

These are the articles from January that will be going on to the Hall of Fame.

Why I Literally Can't Even- I was finally able to share with the world what was going on with my partner.

Through: The Only Way Out- If you can put your writing aside when life explodes, put your writing aside. If you can't, it's important to remember that you CAN'T.

It's Later Than You Think- When I knew what was happening, but was being asked not to share it, and we were first admitted to the hospital, and I wasn't able to write as much in the blog, but I wanted to make sure everyone knew I was still here, I wrote this little post to keep people updated.

Best Magic System (Semifinal 2)

What is the best magic system in fiction?

Even though it's late, and we're going to be collect nominations for our February poll soon, our January poll continues.

Our second semifinal poll results will go up next Wednesday (as well as the final poll).  So don't waste any time voting.

Everyone will get four votes (4). The top five names of each poll will go on to the final round. Before you simply vote for your favorite four, consider that, as there is no ranking of those four votes; each vote beyond one dilutes the power of your choices a little more. So if you have a genuine favorite–or pair of favorites–it's better to use as few votes as possible.

The poll itself is on the left side, at the bottom of the side menus.

The Best Intentions (Personal Update)

Please don't forget that Thursday is usually our day for guest blogs. I don't have any submissions for today but if YOU'D like to be featured in the weeks ahead, please take a glance at our guest blogging guidelines and drop me a line at chris.brecheen@gmail.com

I really was going to try to get the second semifinal poll up today. Polls are pretty easy to get up even though they take some time and energy on another website to create. Then tomorrow I was going to do a bigger update.   


And then THIS happened.

I am become pestilence, plaguer of worlds.

I spent three-hours in the midnight hour crying, "Cough. Cough. Cough." *puts on sunglasses and pumps right fist* With a rebel yell, I cried "Cough. Cough. Cough." (If you don't get that, it's because I make thirty-year old pop-culture references; don't worry about it.)

I'll never know for sure if I wouldn't have gotten sick anyway (The Contrarian did cough into my open mouth at one point near the apex of his own cold), but I'm sure being absolutely emotionally REKT and stressed to the edge of my breaking point dealing with cancer didn't help. Last week I put in 82 hours and had a series of 16 hour days.

My brain isn't melting in my pan. It's just a rotten cold. There is probably some "it" sucking up that this cupcake could do. But my "Shrug It Off™" tanks are critically low, and I may need whatever reserves I have for the almost daily emergency doctor visits and last second tag-ins.

So....I am going for the jazziest of hands today, and then bedrest. And I think T.C. and I might have to do a Pixar marathon this afternoon.

Tomorrow I'll get that second semifinal poll up, and if I get a lot of work done this weekend, I'll have a personal update on Monday as well as something that's actually "About Writing" on Friday.

~blows you all kisses and promises this blog is going to stop sucking soon~

Best Magic System (Semifinal 1 Results)

Our first semifinal poll for best magic system is done, and everything above Elemental Magic will be going on to the final round. I was sad to see Bujold do so poorly, but the readers have spoken.

Stay tuned later in the day for the second half of this poll to go up so we're not wasting any time. Remember round two you'll be deciding which five titles will go on to the final round from this list:

Earthsea- LeGuin
Dragon Knight- Dickson
Discworld- Pratchett
Draegera- Brust
Cousins O'Dwyer- Roberts
Kingkiller Chronicles- Rothfuss
Riddlemaster of Hed-McKillip
Kencyrath-Hodgell
His Dark Materials-Pullman

Last Chance to Vote

What is the best magic system in fiction?  

In the past couple of months, the polls that go into semifinal rounds seem to really have the wind taken out of their sails, so I'm trying to combat that effect by having the semifinal turnover be extra fast and run the final poll only for a little over a week. Maybe by keeping the whole thing contained in the original month, we can keep the energy up.

That means our first semifinal round is almost over already.  Tomorrow we'll tabulate results and put up the new poll.

Everyone will get four votes (4). The top five names of each poll will go on to the final round. Before you simply vote for your favorite four, consider that, as there is no ranking of those four votes; each vote beyond one dilutes the power of your choices a little more. So if you have a genuine favorite–or pair of favorites–it's better to use as few votes as possible.

The poll itself is on the left side, at the bottom of the side menus.