Unquiet Desperation

I’ve worked out which conventions I’ll be attending this year. Sadly, Origins will not be one of them…my family has a vacation planned for that week and I’m going to have to miss it this year.

I’ll be at:

• PyCon: Feb 17-21 in Atlanta, GA
• Balticon 44: May 28-30 in Balimore, MD
• GenCon: Aug 6-8 in Indianapolis, IN
• Con on the Cob: Oct 14-17 in Hudson, OH. This one will be something special…Kris and I have a Clever Plan we’ll talk about in coming months.

If you’re going to be at any of these, drop me a line and let’s find some time to meet up.

Also, the latest episode of TRICKSTERS has been posted on The Secret Lair. Remember the girl on the doorstep from last week? Yeah. There’s more to her than meets the eye.

Way back when the Internet was young, in 2006, Chris Miller, Kris Johnson, Mur Lafferty, and P.G. Holyfield put together a podcast consisting of writing tips and tricks for the valiant souls participating in National Novel Writing Month. They repeated the series in 2007, when they got other authors, like Sam Chupp, Phil Rossi, J.C. Hutchins and Seth Harwood to wax poetic on the craft of writing a novel in thirty days.

Then, the NanoMonkeys went silent, the domain was taken over by one of the less savory outfits on the web, and the podcast passed into legend, never to be heard again…

…until now.

Starting on 10-31-2009, The Secret Lair will present encore episodes from those original shows, releasing one a day for the month of November. Subscribe to the main feed, and you too can join the madness.

For more information and to subscribe, visit The Secret Lair.

It has been a week of difficult decisions. From it, I have two things to disclose.

First…I’m taking a hiatus from development on Podiobooks.com.

The reason is simple: I lack the time to do the PB 2.0 project justice. It kills me to admit that. When we started PB five years ago, I had two small kids, a simple 40 hour a week job, and my wife was not working. Now, I have a 12, 9, and 4 year old with all the commitments that follow from that, plus my wife is working full time, playing in two bands, teaching violin and fiddle, and I am working full time and filling in as Mr. Mom. It has become impossible to find the time to truly lead the project. Those things, combined with some recent health developments, have put the whammy on many of my personal projects. The PB2 project will go on (we are looking for new leads right now), and Evo and the PB2 team will continue driving it. It will grow and flourish, and I cannot wait to see where it goes next.

Second…Michelle and I will be recording the final Shadowdance podcast tonight. The reasons there are similar: my personal schedule and Michelle’s schedule no longer match up quite as well. She’s writing books, appearing on television and traveling, and I have my family and my career to look after. Also, my opinions on the subject matter of the show have changed, and I feel disingenuous continuing to give advice on a subject that I do not fully embrace. More on this in a future post.

For the record, The Secret Lair is still going strong: Kris and I will continue with our fun until the men in white coats come after us to take us away.¹ In fact, we just released Episode 29, chock full of goodness from the likes of Dr. John Cmar, Natalie Metzger, Jay Lynn, and our special guest, Mick Bradley.

So, that’s the news. How’s your day?

1. If they can get past the giant squid and the rabid zombie poodles.[back]

I decided I needed someplace to put all my shiny things. To that end, I’ve created Trinkets in a Coffee Can, a tumblr blog for posting things which catch my attention.

If you want to drink my milkshake, this is the feed for you. Real time, scattered, and ultimately trivial. But it beats workin’, eh?

Read or subscribe at http://ctmiller.tumblr.com.

It’s official…my family and I will be moving back to Cleveland. Our last day in L.A. will be 4/17, and after that, we’ll be driving back across country while the movers put our stuff into storage for a bit.

Why are we leaving?

We’ve found that L.A. is just not for us. L.A. seems like a great city if you’re single or a couple. There are a lot of things to do, if you’re into the night life scene. We’re not really, and with the kids, it’s hard to get out much.  The main reasons we’re leaving are:

• The schools are atrocious. The worst schools I’ve ever had the misfortune to step inside. I’ve never seen a state so proud of something so completely abyssmal.
• It’s too damn expensive. You cannot even USE the car insurance you pay ($260/mo for our cars), because if you are in a single fender bender, the cost will double.  It’s why there are so many beaten-up cars on the road. You’re basically throwing money away. And rent…don’t get me started about rent.
• Crime / safety. The LAPD helicopters were over our apartment complex last week for the thrid time in as many months.
• Too many goddamn people.
• We miss proper seasons, a city we can nagivate without reams of maps, proper forests and parks (The Cleveland Metroparks are AMAZING, and should not be taken for granted), our friends and family.

Where will we be living?

We’re settling in with my inlaws in Shaker Heights until we find a place. We’ll likely be renting for a bit, but if we find the right house at the right price, we might buy. Where is yet unknown.  We’ll be working that out.

Will there be a party celebrating our return?

I have it on good authority that there will be.

Will you be going to Origins?

I’m going to try, yes.

May I follow along with your Grand Adventure?

I’ll be writing about the trip across county, much as I did when we moved out here. You’ll be able to follow along from the comfort of your own home.

(special thanks to robotskirts for the awesome “How far is Ohio?” graphic, originally from Superpoop.com)