The sun is shining, we've been promised the hottest day in June today, the car is mostly cleared out of things from the weekend, and I'm utterly busy prepping for the next weekend. There's a lot of odds and ends to still take care of - from printing out price tags and my inventory list to checking if I have enough change; from planning the layout and packing the decoration and display materials to packing clothing and planning what to eat during the fair days.

So I'm really busy - especially since I had this nice idea for displaying the many small items I have for sale... but the idea did not convert into reality all by itself. Which means I am working on this today, and it's not all sure whether I'll be able to get the new display put together in time or not...

While I am doing things with wood, cloth and paper for this shiny new thing, maybe you would like to read the latest review of Middle Ages Unlocked (well, at least the latest that came to Gillian's and my attention)? You can find it here at Medievally Speaking, along with a lot of other reviews and a few interviews.

Before I drift off into the blissfulness of the holidays, with nothing to do but hang out with loved ones, have yummy food and too much caffeinated hot beverages and the other usual silliness that accompanies this season, one more non-fluffy blogpost for you - related to gender, and work, and making enough money to live:

Get rich or die vlogging - the sad economics of internet fame tells about the dilemma of those trying to make an income off their youtube videos. (Hint: it's really, really difficult.) Another piece of proof that doing a job you love, and doing it well, does not necessarily mean you'll be able to live on it: Mallory Ortberg from The Toast on Work, Writing, and the Cost of Creative Freedom.

Also related to getting an income: Why Women Don't Apply for Jobs Unless They're 100% Qualified. Harvard Business Review lets you read 5 articles for free - I think this one is really interesting and worth spending one of your five on. The TL;DR? Job descriptions are more like guidelines, and if you think you could do the job well, give it a try. (Another article on HBR, somehow related, is Women Need to Realize Work Isn't School.)

On an unrelated note - I've installed a spambot blocker for the comments, which should not be noticeable at all for you. My test, at least, was successful...

It's Friday (why is it Friday already?), the cat is napping after a long walk outside and a bowl of cat food, I have coffee, and things are coming along. Which is good, as I will spend all of next week with fellow textile people at the European Textile Forum - one week of textile nerdiness and intensive research. Bliss.

Somebody needs to pack my things for that, though. That same somebody also has to take care of a few other things, so she should not get sidetracked with other stuff (again) - even though life is throwing her things such as this lovely review of The Middle Ages Unlocked at Skiffy & Fanty.

Sidetrack lures aside, I have now finally managed to submit my most recent publications to the VG Wort, which means my writing (non-fiction writing, as I lack the whatever you need to write fiction) might earn me a few Euros. How this works? You make a contract with the VG Wort that basically gives them the right to handle your claims to a part of the fees that libraries and copy-machine producers and copyshops have to pay each year for secondary rights.

That wasn't very helpful, was it? Let me try again. Copying and lending books and similar publications means that the author will lose out on income, so there's a fee that has to be paid. This fee goes to the VG Wort, and they split it between their authors due to a specific key. It's all full of legalese and stuff, but the important thing is: it's for authors, and you only have to tell them "yes please I would like some money for my writing thank you so much" and then hand in the information on what you wrote in time. (The deadline for online reports? Tomorrow.) Then, with a bit of luck, you will get a bit of money to your account a while later. (It's usually not much, but hey - even if it will only buy me a coffee, I do appreciate it!)

If you are writing and publishing things, you might want to look into getting registered with a similar association in your own country. Here's a list of copyright collection societies, for writing and other kinds of things - chances are high that your place will be among them. It can't hurt to try!

Somehow Friday's Patreon-related thoughts ate so much of my brain capacity that I totally forgot to give you the Beast blog tour links. So here you go - the rest of our blog tour:

Q&A at A Literary Vacation
A post about spinning at The Freelance History Writer
and the last in the series at Edward the Second.

It was a lovely tour, and we had lots of fun. So much fun, in Gillian's case, that she did another blog tour on the side, so you get bonus posts from her -

the first one in Felicity Pulman's blog, here, where she answers questions about the Beast, and her writing.
She also has a post over at SF Signal, where she talks about writing both fiction and non-fiction.
Not related to the Middle Ages, but also an interesting post is this one at SFFWorld, where Gillian writes about local stories going international. And finally a fourth one at the Skiffy and Fanty Show.

And that wraps up our US release blog tour! Thank you again to everyone who hosted us, and thanks to you for bearing along with us and reading our posts. We hope you had fun!


So now, after the tour, we actually get to celebrate, because - amazon.uk:




and amazon.com:


and amazon.com kindle store:



See? We're in the Top 100, several times, in both electronic version and print version. Woot!

(Note that we have no clue whatsoever on how this relates to actual sales numbers. Amazon has so many books in its listing that a single sale might mean a huge jump in the sales rank, so we're basically still in the dark on how many books are selling. Personally, I'll celebrate even more if the sales are going through smaller bookstores and not the Big River One, or through our publishing house directly, as I'm not really a fan of The A. However, just like it's a good place to read book reviews, it's also a good place to get a rough idea how a book is doing, sales-wise. And that means being in the top 100 of these categories is definitely something worth celebrating, which we are now doing at our respective ends of the world... with chocolate.)

It just arrived this morning, and oh, it is pretty! I'm very happy with it, and I can finally stop worrying. (I never stop worrying about a print product until it is in my hands, and I can be sure the printing went okay. Glitches can happen, after all.)



Also, since I have been gently prodded, I have already put it up in the shop.

So now it's time for me to pack up the complimentary copies due to the museums and institutions, and for the German National Library (which keeps a copy of all the things published in Germany).

If you want to be sent a copy too, you can order it in my shop - or come and see me at the Nadelkunst on October 2-4 and buy it there.

The book is at the printer, and I hope there will be no more shenanigans. I shall wear any typo left in there, and any US spelling, and any glitch in line lineup - I'm fed up with doing corrections on it, and I'm also rather unhappy with how communication with the printer worked out. I will think thrice about using that service again.

Well, anyway, in case you like numbers, here's a rundown of a few numbers related to the gold embroidery book...

Days before today I wanted to have this dealt with and over: 2.
Number of pages in the final version: 56.
Number of different fonts: 1. (Thanks Thorsten!)
Percent the amount of pages has gone up from first estimate:  80%.
Percent the costs for making have gone up since my first calculations: 100%.
Days delayed due to post issues: 1.
People hijacked, cajoled or otherwise finagled into helping in some way: at least 16.
Number of phone calls undertaken due to the book: 5. (I strongly prefer emails...)
Number of times checked for errors, including typographical errors: at least 7.
Photos taken for the project: about 650.
Days I woke up way too early because of the book: about 10.

In case you wonder about the insane amount of photos taken, it went like this:
a) Make a list of steps that need to be photographed.
b) Set up equipment.
c) Do the embroidery for the steps required, holding a remote control thingie in one hand and peering through the camera viewer while stitching. (Optional: Realise that there are some movements that are hard to do when holding a remote control as well as the embroidery frame and a needle and the gold thread.)
d) Press the button on the remote control.
e) Slightly change angles of the piece that's being worked and press the remote control button again.
f) Repeat e) several times.
g) Look at photos. (Delete lots of them again.)

One of the many photos that did not make it into the book. See the remote control thingie sticking out of my right hand? The button is under my ring finger.

h) Realise there should be another one, or a different one of that step, to make things clearer.
i) Repeat c)-g).
j) If necessary, repeat h) and i).

Yesterday was spent (partly) at the library, checking up things in books. Today is putting the last few pictures in (they will arrive today), then final layouting and related edits, and then our trusty little printer gets to churn out the whole thing once for a very last check-up. (Oh, and showing it off to my family over the weekend.)

Also, there is a cover. It's blue, and gold, and beautiful, and it looks like this:


Also: Thank Goodness it's Friday. I can use a bit of weekend!