Monthly Archives: December 2011

Kage Baker liked summaries and reports. Especially if they showed data in her favour. Amazon numbers that showed lots of readers, or good reader response –  starred reviews in Publishers Weekly – nice columns of sales numbers in the year … Continue reading →

Kage Baker did not believe in unvarying truths. She felt that most verities had room in them to be altered by new information – that the truths inscribed in stone (sometimes literally) by one generation were naturally subject to editing … Continue reading →

Kage Baker used to pray for rainy weather on New Year’s. Not that the weather mattered much to us – it was the foreigners she worried about. All those non-Californians watching the Rose Parade on New Year’s Day, seeing our … Continue reading →

Kage Baker regarded the week between Christmas and New Year’s as pretty much wasted time. Un-real time, imaginary and basically inaccessible, only there to make the calendar pages come out more or less even. Some of the Meso-Americans, she liked … Continue reading →

Kage Baker was a firm believer in the power of nagging. It was like social erosion, in her opinion: keep up a slow, low-key but constant reminder to some obstruction that it was in her way, and eventually the bugger … Continue reading →

Kage Baker referred to the day after Christmas as “Leftover Day.” By mutual consent, we did nothing on this day – no visiting, no shopping, no returns. The goal was to stay in our jammies all day, playing games and … Continue reading →

Kage Baker always swore she was going to find a quiet corner on Christmas Day, and just sit and write. She never managed it. To be honest, she never even really tried. This was partly because most of her life’s … Continue reading →

Kage Baker loved Christmas Eve. Things were mostly all ready by then, and anything that wasn’t was under the Blessed Inevitability Spell: no matter what, the next day was Showtime! So it was, by definition and happy default, DONE. Usually, … Continue reading →

Kage Baker would have told me today: “Brace up, kiddo! You’ve got things to do and it’s almost Christmas and there’s no profit in lying around feeling sorry for yourself. Get up and do something while you can!” And she’d … Continue reading →

Kage Baker would say, as an indication of her energy hitting E: “It’s tired, and I’m getting late.” It meant her brain had shut down and her speech centers were not far behind. I know, I know – it’s customary … Continue reading →