I thought I'd write a quick post to explain the recent lack of activity. Last Wednesday my mother broke her hip and has been in hospital ever since.
I want to do an update at some point simply because all of the waiting around has lead to me eating a couple of books (including Charlie Stross' Halting State, which is so cool and interesting that even the bits that don't really work are cool and interesting) but I also want to start setting up the Son of Scalpel infrastructure. However, as of the last few days I've not really been able to sit down and do any proper thinking. When I'm up at the hospital I'm either having to deal with "stuff" or I'm playing solitaire on my phone to take my mind of the same "stuff" and when I get home I generally want to collapse in an unseemly mass of flab and ironic Tshirt and continue re-watching The Wire.
Anyway, hopefully "stuff" should improve this week and I'll get a chance to do some writing, thinking and generally mucking about online.
Best wishes to your mum and I hope she gets better soon.
Posted by: mhayinde | August 13, 2007 at 12:56 PM
Yes, same from me.
Posted by: Niall | August 14, 2007 at 10:04 AM
Oh, I will send healing thoughts her way. All the best to both of you.
Posted by: La Gringa | August 14, 2007 at 01:07 PM
Not good! Hope the hospital's healing her, and The Wire's healing you...
Posted by: Al | August 14, 2007 at 02:53 PM
Hope your mum gets well soon.
Where did you find Halting State? I didn't know it was out yet.
Posted by: Renee's Andrew | August 15, 2007 at 12:02 PM
Likewise, best wishes to her for a speedy recovery!
I'll be interested to hear what you think of Halting State. I've generally enjoyed his work, but so many of Stross's books have felt to me like first novels; I've been waiting for him to put together a "breakthrough" novel that wasn't crippled in some obvious way. Is this it?
Posted by: MattD | August 16, 2007 at 06:30 PM
"Renee's Andrew"? Oh my!
I got my copy of Halting State from the UK publishers who were kind enough to send me an advance review copy and once I get a free afternoon I shall write up my thoughts.
MattD - You know, I have the EXACT same feeling about him. I think the closest he's come to that GREAT novel is Accelerando but that was too piecemeal to really convince.
Halting State is, I hate to say it, broken in a quite subtle manner but it's a really enjoyable book because the ideas in it really are top notch.
Posted by: Jonathan McCalmont | August 16, 2007 at 11:50 PM
Oh and thanks for all the kind words and thoughts guys. Hopefully a routine will now start to emerge and I can get my life back.
Posted by: Jonathan McCalmont | August 17, 2007 at 12:08 AM