7/2/1

Tuesday July 2, 2013  Semi-annual appointment with the doctor who prescribes my ADD/ADHD medication.

He asked why I set the science fiction stories I write on other planets.  I told him one reason was that I didn't need to worry as much about things becoming obsolete before I finished a story.  Buildings are demolished or destroyed, often at times inconvenient to writers. 

And there were sf writers who had the Soviet Union surviving well into the future.

***Southeast Library, to pick up books being held: 
Wen Spencer, Eight Million Gods.  Inside front cover, this blooper:  "She's attacked by a raccoon in a business suit."  I wondered what a raccoon was doing in Japan.  It's a raccoon dog (aka tanuki.)  I suspect someone made a "correction."

Charles Stross, The Fuller Memorandum.  Which, it turns out, is now being discussed on the author's blog. 

***From Minnpost.com:
"Are these things warmer than human hands?  Elizabeth Baier at MPR has a story about … robo-milkers: 'A robotic arm swings below the cow's udder and two small, spinning brushes set to cleaning. An electronic tag around the cow's neck pinpoints where she is in her milking cycle. A precise amount of feed -- a treat to get the cow in place -- falls into a small trough at the end of the box. A laser finds the teats, attaches the milker and starts pumping, recording butterfat and protein levels in the milk. Ten minutes later, the process is done. The computer unlocks the gate. The cow walks back into the barn. The next cow steps in and repeats.' Heck, they might as well make me a Culver's malt while they're at it ..."

***From Publishers Lunch (email):
"Among the new deals posted yesterday at Publishers Marketplace: Francesca Haig's THE FIRE SERMON, 400 years after a nuclear apocalypse, society is left without technology and all humans are twins; Bruce Coville's DIARY OF A MAD BROWNIE, an adventure about a girl who is the messiest girl in Abbot's Cove, and the unfortunate ancient fairy who has been tasked with caring for the eldest living member of her family; and Jessica Day George's SILVER IN THE BLOOD, set in the Belle Epoque period about two cousins, who journey to Romania and uncover a deep family secret."

I suspect I know what that "deep family secret" is.  Spoiler for Dracula -- some characters turn out to be vampires.