Robin Hobb's Blog, page 27

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

August 3, tonight, was National Night Out.

In Tacoma, there are organized block parties and gatherings at places like the Boys and Girls clubs.  The idea is that if people know their neighbors and own their streets, crime goes down.

Neighborhoods seem to run in cycles here.  Young couples with babies or little kids move in, the kids go to school, grow up, leave for college and the older couple moves out and is replace by a young ...

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

There comes a time when one must admit that one does not need to own every book in the whole world.  When the books are shoved sideways on top of paperbacks that are already two rows deep, well, it is time for some serious soul searching.  And a thinning of the library.

First to go are the books where somehow I have an ARC, a hardback and then a paperback.  Hardback stays, the other two can fly.  Then there are the books I...

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

Let's start with Blue Eyed Devils by Robert Parker.  This is the most recent and alas, last installment that we will get about Everett Hitch and his partner Virgil Cole.  It has been a long time since I have so enjoyed a Western novel, and I am sure I will re-read the books and more than once. Parker was best known for detective stories that featured Spenser.  His death is still recent and I am still mourning that there are...

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

I've posted about this before, but I keep receiving queries, so I'll mention it again.

I am currently at work on another Rain Wilds book.  It does not yet have a title.  It does pick up the tale of the Tarman Expedition, but also touches on some events in Cassarick and Bingtown.

And that is as much as I'm saying about it right now!

Robin

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

It was a lovely summer day.

And I knew that I had to stay inside for the morning, and finally pay all the bills, including this quarter's Business and Operating tax, and do a tidy on the office.  I always grumble to myself about having to pay B&O tax.  In Washington state, artists and writers are taxed just as if they are small businesses.  So, I pay a tax on my income to the city and to the state every quarter.  It strikes me a...

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

There's a Cats Laughing song called "Signal to Noise."  I think Emma Bull wrote the lyrics; anyone who knows for sure is free to confirm or correct me.  But there are times that those lyrics bounce right back into my head.  Here's the first verse:

Drinking coffee, have to stay awake and think of you
Aching awfully, knowing my perceptions aren't true
If you were what I've made you, not as your acts betrayed you
How could I keep...

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

Almost everyone can read almost anything you write on the Internet.  Even if you make your social networking site blog private or 'friends locked' or whatever.  Even if you choose another name for yourself, one that you think will never be connected to you as a flesh-and-blood human.  There are ways around all those picket fences, and most of them are not nearly as complicated as the social networking sites would have you...

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

Well, summer threatens to descend on me here!

I am a 70 degrees Fahrenheit person.  That's a wonderful type of day for me.  I don't really mind 60 or 50 or colder.  I can always put on a sweater. But today the weather man says we are going to 80. And 90 tomorrow!  This after days of clouds and cool rain.  Suddenly, summer is here.

I think I will welcome it a little bit.  My strawberries were not so good this year; big from the...

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

I love fireworks. The pretty kind that make colors in the night sky.

But once,  I loved blowing things up. It was all about the explosion.  Sad but true. 

My first memories of fireworks are from when I was very small.  In the back yard of our home in Terra Linda, California.  531 Wisteria Way, for the curious.  We set off fireworks for the 4th of July right there in the back yard.  My dad held the Roman Candles in his hand and...

I love fireworks. The pretty kind that make colors in the night sky.

But once,  I loved blowing things up. It was all about the explosion.  Sad but true. 

My first memories of fireworks are from when I was very small.  In the back yard of our home in Terra Linda, California.  531 Wisteria Way, for the curious.  We set off fireworks for the 4th of July right there in the back yard.  My dad held the Roman Candles in his hand and swooshed them through the air to fling the flaming balls even higher...