..are having issues with old links, the website being one, you need that s. Just plug it into your browser URLS and save it, and you should not have any trouble.
Jane and I are finishing the edit, Betsy is eagerly awaiting same, and we are doing ok—some family illness issues have slowed us (Jane’s side) and we are trying to take care of that while finishing the edit, so be patient with us.
Yes, happy birthday, CJ!
I can agree with the popular sentiment, just ignore the elephant in the room. (Birthdays officially note we’re another year older. I’ve got another couple years to 80, which I never even vaguely imagined and am trying to get used to.)
My brain thinks I’m about 30. My body knows otherwise.
I have probably said it more than once; I like to view a birthday as a celebration of beating the devil out of another year.
A belated Happy Birthday, CJ, and I hope you and JF are doing well!
In that vein, can anyone inform me as to CJ’s status? We haven’t seen an update in several months, which isn’t historically her pattern. Is she/are they alright? If they are, what’s the status of the books being written? I haven’t had a new CJ/JF novel to read in quite some time, and I’m eager for more, as always 🙂
Thanks!
CJ mostly seems to be posting (and reposting) on Facebook recently (I’m wondering if she can get into the blog). She and Jane too celebrated her birthday with their favorite lake cruise on, I think, Friday evening. They are back hard at work on novels after the year+, successful battle CJ had with colon cancer and then her on-going recovery from the effects of the chemo.
Thanks for letting me know! 🙂
That might be about the only reason I would ever consider getting a FB account; social media smacks too much of Big Brother to me.
Sadly, you have a point.
I’ve been using social media for decades.. it has its uses, like anything else 🙂
Thanks for the info.
I’m unable to find anything new on Facebook.
This address:
https://www.facebook.com/cherryhauthorsite
has nothing published after march 2021 and only a few posts a year before that.
And
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063286594649
hasn’t updated since 2019.
Could you point to the proper page?
Thanks.
https://www.facebook.com/cj.cherryh
@EricF, you need to be a Facebook member to see her posts there.
For those of us who aren’t, we rely on our fellow visitors here who are, to occasionally update us on noteworthy news, though that happens very rarely.
Ah, updates from CJ’s Facebook posts, then: several weeks ago unfortunately one of Jane’s brothers died although CJ provided little more detail than that. I think both of them were (silently) off attending family affairs related to that for a while as CJ recently posted —mostly as a fish tank update— that they are back after being with Jane’s family and all tanks but one did well but one had heater and/or filter severe and surprising malfunction which resulted in the demise of all its neon tetras but the surprise hanging on of another fish species I’m forgetting the name of right now (sorry, it’s late; I was out traveling up to/back from historic Deerfield in Western Massachusetts all day to view how they have integrated multiple perspectives into their retelling of the 1704 Native & French attack on the English colonist fortified settlement, and I’m tired); also Tanner the cat is doing well, recently went to a kitty spa for grooming or something and the other cats hissed at him when he came back (cats smell wrong to their housemates when they leave for a while; happens with our cats too) and CJ used copious doses of catnip to restore blissed out equilibrium. Other cat news: Finity went up and over the back garden fence when let out there on her own; appeared in the front yard but CJ was able to calmly (so as not to spook her) guide her back into the garage(?) and inside; whereupon Finity went off to quietly feel cat-guilty (CJ’s interpretation) over her behavior for some hours. One gets the impression Finity remains a handful. Finity, unlike the older cats, will not be let out in the garden alone for the near future at least. I was also glancing at CJ’s individual Facebook page a couple days ago (rather than only relying on her posts —mostly political commentary, science and meme reposts— appearing on my Facebook feed), and it looks like she and Jane are well underway with another Alliance book and also another Foreigner one. CJ was quite satisfied with writing system they have developed where one of them works on a section or character for a period of days (& weeks?) and then the other reads that and responds.
Others who keep up with CJ’s Facebook feed should correct and augment my (tired) stream of consciousness memory here.
Thanks for the update, Raesean!
Hlo mutual CJ Fans. It’s been a while now since I was last posting on here, and I guess I feel a bit awkward about it now. My Mother took ill about November last year, and declined until her eventual death in January this year. As you can imagine, it was not a good time for me. We as a family didn’t discuss this publicly on Facebook. Initially because we didn’t want anyone to find out in a second hand manner, and thereafter because, well it was a private matter. I’ve had some pretty rough moments since then myself, not health wise. I discovered an account Clone of my Facebook account, but reporting it to them was a waste of time. I messaged anyone I was friended with to warn them, and I’ve avoided Facebook for a while now. Shame because I used to flow CJ`s posts there more often than I did coming here. Speaking of which, I’ve been absent from here for a while too. My Password was “remembered” on my Kindle so I never had cause to right it down. I’ve used my Kindle for this site for a long time now off and on. Anyway, at some point Amazon’s software decided that this was an unsafe site and wouldn’t even let me look at it, was surprised when it let me in today. Wishing everyone well here.
My personal view is that FB is, not to put too fine a point on it, evil. It’s causing “siloing” and destroying citizenship. What it provides as “news” is what one says one wants to hear, not what’s going on, nothing to the contrary provided. No wonder when politicians say, “People want…”, their followers think they are in the majority, as do certain wives. I manage my own IRA investments, so monitoring the markets daily–when Wall Street deciced to move, it does so “in a New York minute”. The following news headline turned up on my CNBC page: “Facebook scrambles to escape stock’s death spiral as users flee, sales drop”. Fine by me. If he is to be believed Z is culpably naive, IMO. People aren’t all sweetness and light; to wit, Ukraine, annexations, nuclear threats. Anonymity, being beyond fist’s length away, only makes it worse!
Washington Post: “Facebook parent Meta is warning 1 million users that their login information may have been compromised through malicious apps.
“Meta’s researchers found more than 400 malicious Android and Apple iOS apps this year that were designed to steal the personal Facebook login information of its users, the company said Friday in a blog post. Meta spokesperson Gabby Curtis confirmed that Meta is warning 1 million users who may have been affected by the apps.
“Meta said the apps they identified were listed in Apple’s app store and Google Play Store as games, photo editors, health and lifestyle services and other types of apps to trick people into downloading them.”
So how is it that apps CAN steal login credentials? The thieves are NOT the only ones to blame!
Amazon just sent word that Alliance Unbound vol. 2 of the Hinder Stars, sequel to Alliance Rising has a new USA publication release date of Tuesday, Jan. 9th, 2024 (2024-01-09). I think this is later than the previous date. I still have my ebook pre-order in.
My personal situation has become dire, and I’ve been updating the Wavy Navy team (Chondrite, Hanneke, Raesean, others) via emails. I still don’t know if I’ll get the help I need before the end of Nov. or sometime in Dec., and I am expecting to give away one cat, hope to keep the little mama, and need to give away the kittens. I’ll be updating the team as long as I can and hope to have some contact method in place, but I may drop out of contact if things don’t get better fast enough. Then, I don’t know what.
I hope CJ and Jane are doing fine and all the fans here are doing well.
Kittens Day 81 – Halloween. Brindle, Conchita, and all four kittens are doing fine. I tried to make progress today but only got more bad news. I am unlikely to get any help in time. I am likely to become homeless before I can get benefits. A resource couldn’t give me recommendations of any shelter that would take pets. So it is likely I will have to give away little mama Conchita and the Buff-Ginger boy kitten, as well as the other three kittens and Brindle. I don’t know how to take this on top of the rest of the bad news. It will be up to 7 days before I hear back for an appointment, and they may not call back by then, requiring me to follow up. The appointment will be by phone or in person. Only then will I know anything and the process start. The agent said to expect three to five months before anything goes through for me to get benefits. I will lose my bank acccount and be homeless before then. I will be making calls to the other cat shelter / rescues to see about taking the kittens and cats, first the ones to give away, then mama and the one kitten if that becomes necessary, which I now expct. I’ve called again to get another copy or two of the doctor’s letter proving my legal blindness, required for federal and state agencies in order to get benefits; I have one copy from before. I don’t know if I will post any further kitten updates. I’m heartbroekn. I will let friends know when I get the kittens and cats given away. I will try to stay in contact as long as possible after that. I am likely to be offline by the end of December, probably indefinitely. Thanks to folks for their concern. I don’t know if I will get any better news to post before the end of December, but if I can, I will. Thanks again.
Damn Cat 🙁 life keeps putting the boot in.
I’m sorry that I’m not in any position to help there,
I have my own financial woes too.
I remember an earlier conversation, ( well not the actual conversation itself ) , that you had been looking into possible voicing for talking books.
See the thing is, I spend some time on U-Tube and have come to enjoy the narrator’s on there.
I don’t mean that I sit listening to somebody reading a Book.
What I do follow, is the cluster of about five of my favourite Narrators, who Read ( for us their followers ) stories that they have found on the web.
Actually many if not all of my favourites are stories taken from Reddit /hfy
Basically, a number of people post stories there in an episodic manor.
Some will get sponsored by their fans, some narrator will ( with the authors permission ) read these stories on U-Tube. They are being supported by donations from.their supporters. I guess it takes a while to build a following, though some appear to make it their living.
Some are better than others, two I listen to most would be Netnarrator, and Agro Squirrel. I can’t afford to donate but some do, using such things as Patreon, PayPal, Kofi, and even Merchandising.
I figured that such things might be of benefit to you, yet they require as I said Time ( to establish ) , and pretty likely some equipment for the recording etc.
Wish I had suggested this earlier, but frankly I’ve only really caught onto these Narrator things in the last two years, before that U-Tube was mainly for the filk music.
Offering you my Best Wishes, sadly it’s all I have to offer.
Hi All – back after a while. Good wishes to all.
Staring down the barrel of the big Eight Oh myself now, with prostate cancer seemingly well battened down still. Looking forward to the new books promised above. Does anyone else rate the SF works of Iain M Banks (sadly a victim of pancreatic cancer a while back)? In my view he joins CJ in a very short list of great SF writers.
I wrote one flop myself – so I just read the stuff and marvel at it now!
Batten the hatches! Mauna Loa is erupting again!
Are both Kilauea and Mauna Loa erupting simultaneously?
Yes! Both are being relatively well behaved, although Mauna Loa is making some very pretty fire fountains. There’s a reason we call our volcanoes ‘drive-thru.’
Forget the damned road, its fate was sealed when it was built! How are the telescopes?
The road is a relatively new thing; up until about a decade ago it was still forbidden to rental cars, because it was mostly maintained not very well by the US Army for access to their training grounds in the saddle (read: UXB). Then the state paved it nicely and opened it up to everyone. The telescopes are on Mauna Kea, which hasn’t erupted in recorded history, although it’s still classified as potentially active, or ‘dormant’ in the no-longer-used lexicon. Only a few automated monitors are on Mauna Loa, which does erupt frequently, geologically speaking.
It’s been a long time since I looked in, and even longer since I posted anything. I caught up on travel in 2021, with a train trip taking in Yellowstone, Yosemite, Glacier parks, as well as Salt Lake City, San Francisco, and Seattle. New Orleans twice. France: Paris, Versailles, and a river cruise. Several small trips as well.
2022 was taken up with visiting Virginia to look for a place to live. Ended up in a 55+ condo complex 2 miles from my older daughter, in Reston. It’s not a care facility of any sort. Shaped like a diamond, sort of, my unit is on a courtyard at the corner so I have windows on three sides, a sunporch at the rear, front door opens directly outdoors with space for a couple of chairs.
The idea of moving was to make the transition while I’m still healthy and active. I’m very fortunate, I’ll be 84 next week and happily planning trips for next year, as well as exploring DC. I’m a mile from the nearest metro station, and there’s a bus stop right outside the building so it’s easy to get there.
I did read all the comments, hello to everyone, best wishes to those who need them and may everyone enjoy the holiday season. I’d been following CJ on Facebook and let that replace coming here, but I’ll try to do better henceforth.
And with various holidays bearing down on us like a freight train, “Mele Kalikimaka e Hauoli Makahiki Hou!”
Happy solstice to all!
Indeed, thank you for the Solstice wishes!
‘T’was my spouse and my 36th wedding anniversary also. (That date was chosen because a) what a special night & b) it was the first good chunk of time free after classes ended but before exams/final papers were due at the end of January: that was when Harvard had a Christmas break and then a decent number of weeks “reading period”.)
We went out Wednesday night to the locally famous “Kowloon” restaurant and dined in its “Volcano Room.” Folks who have ever travelled route 1 into Boston from the north will all have seen this landmark “Polynesian” Chinese restaurant with really great food.
Happy holidays and a healthy and happy new year for anyone who still visits here occasionally, in memory of older and busier times.
Happy (belated) Holiday Season to all our Associates. Our progeny and several friends have visited with us this holiday season so we are just about partied out and it has been almost two weeks since I last checked email and internet/social media. Tomorrow the last visitors get driven to the airport and I will strip the beds to put them back into visitor readiness mode.
This has been a strange year with several medical problems for ReadyGuy including the need for an MRI and a biopsy. Covid is the only problem we have not had. Next adventure is a PET scan Thursday to determine treatment options. ReadyGuy’s 94-yo mother has had RSV and is doing poorly while his 99-yo father is showing signs of senile dementia. I have an approach-approach conflict as I want to take care of in-laws who now live less than 1/2 mile from us, but want to avoid any infections that might affect spousal unit. I guess you could say I’m busier than a one-armed wallpaper hanger.
May you and your family have a Happy and a regaining/maintain Health New Year, Ready!
Happy new year, all!
(We’re maybe going to get nearly three inches of rain in the next 10 days. One of them I have a doctor’s appointment. Forecast says “showers” but it’s also giving a possible total of an inch.)
Indeed, best wishes for a Happy New Year for us all.
I had “breakthrough” Covid a few weeks ago. I had all 5 vaccinations. Luckily tested, positive, the first day of symptoms, Monday*, before it really took hold. I went to a nearby Urgent Care and got prescribed Paxlovid. Started that the first day. It is fantastic!
I went downhill the next two days. Major symptom was coughing up buckets of sticky, stringy mucus. I “lost” Wednesday morning, but that’s when the Paxlovid started getting the upper hand. Wednesday evening I was much better, Friday evening I judged I was at 90%. Saturday I was as close to “well” as could be expected. Tested negative Sunday morning and again 48hrs later, Tuesday. But I had been cautioned that I was a sitting duck for a secondary bacterial pneumonia infection, and went back for a chest X-ray. Quack! Lower right lung! Now a prescription for a week of antibiotics took care of that.
So my message is: “Don’t wait! Test early, and if positive and you qualify, get on Paxlovid ASAP!” I’ve never had any medication act that quickly.
* The way it usually goes, things start late Friday night or Saturday!
Happy New Year to all… and a healthy one too!
Wishing you all a Happy, Safe New Year
All of a sudden, Alliance Unbound is being listed as being published on 9 Jan 2024, rather than in 2023. I can’t find it on Barnes and Noble and all of Amazon shows it as next year. This has to be a typo I think but if you expected delivery next week, I think we are all out of luck.
Confirmed by CJ on facebook. Really unfortunate, hopefully we’ll get something from CJ and Jane this year.
CJ also just posted on Facebook that they lost the koi to sudden, winter weather:
“Sadly, we lost all the koi. The sudden massive storm that began the winter did not let me get the bottom heater deployed, though I made double-sure of the top one. It was not enough, given the weather hit new lows, and sustained lows, and I will never get caught like that again. The two heaters, surface and bottom, are going in at the beginning of October, and will simply go on until March. It’s very disheartening. They all had names, personalities, were individuals. We’ll fix up the pond come melt, in spring, and we’ll get new babies, and name them, and love them, and watch them grow, and by golly, we’ll be ahead of the winters, if they start to come early. I may lay down two bottom heaters, as well as the surface heater. If winters are coming at us with -15 F, we will just be prepared earlier, better. Not that we don’t care. That we do, and next lot will have everything we learned this winter. “
Dang.
That freeze was pretty bad for everyone north of the jetstream.
There is Fan-run Cherryh site called Shejidan that some of you may have heard of. It has gone through several incarnations from its creation in the early days of the 2000s. Much of our self-image is taken from the Foreigner series. We have plenty of discussion and plenty of support for fellow fans of CJ. If you want to check us out, here is a link: https://shejeval.boardhost.com/index.php
Last time I tried, it seemed to have disappeared. I reregistered this evening under my old handle. Couldn’t setup this avatar from Gravatar though.