Today, I get an email from a fellow writer, a woman who once lived in an African country and speaks Swahili. She's coordinating volunteers for the Dying to Write Conference later this month and heard I was a sucker, ahem, able to volunteer. Be that as it may, she tells me that my email addy (mlima) means "Mountain" in Swahili.

Oddly enough, my last name originated as a much longer Basque surname (shortened when my g'g'greats descended from the mountains into the cities of Spain. The original meaning of the name: the shepherd who walks amongst the mountains.

If that's not enough of a coincidence, I spoke to my "twin" today, my soul sister, who is half-Japanese. It seems her last name means Mouth of the Mountain.

Dude.

Pretty damn cool.

In other news, I'm off to Boston this weekend, and not to the lovely NYC gathering (waves at the gals) due to a business trip. A silver lining - there's a real good chance that I can sneak out Saturday night to meet up with my pal, Christopher Golden as he, Tom Sniegoski, Craig Shaw Gardner and Jeffrey Carver sign at Pandemonium Books in Cambridge.

Chris and I have *known* each other via email and such for a few years now. He's co-authored a few things with my cousins, Jeff Mariotte and Maryelizabeth Hart. I had the great good luck to get to vet a galley of the 4th book in the Shadow Saga, The Gathering Dark, thanks to cousin allaboutm_e. We've never actually met in person, as our paths keep diverging. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this outing will work out.

I'll be taking my laptop, but have no idea how much time I'll have to play, since the trade show begins on Sunday and I'm booked for events every night until my Wednesday return.

So, BLG, sorry babe, looks like we'll have to hook up next time you're here, or maybe I can come up there some weekend.

Still trying to catch up on the week's season premieres. The EyeTV tuner is awesome - recorded everything. I just now need to have time to actually watch! (Did catch Lost, though.)

Had some progress on Blood Bargain, thanks to beledibabe's sympathetic ear. Fortunately, she didn't let me throw out the baby with the bath water. I did, however, throw out the boring, gray water. Amazing how much you can stare at your opening chapters and until you talk it out, you don't realize how intensely nothing they are. My fresh start is a hell of a lot better. I think I'm going to lose some characters, too. The whole thing was beginning to resemble a William Wyler epic. (No chariot races, though ::g::) No wonder I was getting bogged down. I swear, if it wasn't for beledibabe, I'd be the idiot jibbering over there in the corner, staring at the screen. Thank the writing gods for my fabulous alpha/beta!!

Tags: blood bargain, book signings, rl, serendipity, writing
Spirits: amused