Eugie Foster's Self-Indulgent Musings

Elephant oven mitt and review by Lois Tilton of "A Thread of Silk" in IROSF

2008-07-02T14:19:56Z

Thanks to amysisson's advice to try eBay in my quest for animal oven mitts, I purchased a new elephant-shaped oven mitt to replace the killer whale ones who we've retired. Just in time, too. fosteronfilm has been braving the dense and thorny hazards of our backyard to pick the wild blackberries that grow there. Last year's drought decimated our harvest, and we barely had enough for a single pie. This year's, though not as bountiful as previous years, is going to be much better. We've already got enough for one blackberry pie, possibly two, and the season's nowhere near over.

*squee!* Although I don't recall elephants having such fierce looking canines.

Writing Stuff
A new issue of IROSF came out yesterday, and I was happy-giddy to see that Lois Tilton had given a "Recommended" review to "A Thread of Silk":

"While this tale is grounded in the well-known story of Taira no Masakado, Foster skillfully slips this variation in between the cracks of the historical account and the subsequent legends, warping it in a different direction. The ending of the frame story delivers a strong final twist"

! Read the whole thing here.

New Words:
• 200 on the Sudanese Pied Piper story. Not my most productive day.

Club 100 for Writers: 14

Wall-E, Planetary Stories/Pulp Spirit

2008-07-01T15:30:41Z

Went to see WALL•E on Sunday. I was worried that it wouldn't hold up to all the hype and that I would be disappointed, but it was an utterly charming, clever, and visually lush movie. Loved it. The homages to 2001 had me hooting. And I'm both awed and impressed by how much personality and humor they managed to squeeze into animated 'droids. I mean, I'm extremely easy when it comes to anthropomorphic empathy*, but they evoked an extraordinary amount of emotion and character with only a pair of eyes and "body" language in both Eve and Wall•E, not to mention the host of supporting cast of 'bots which didn't always even have eyes.

Definitely one of the top Pixar productions in my book (and I'm a huge fan of Pixar), up there with The Incredibles and Ratatouille. I've heard a couple critics say that they think the environmental message was delivered too heavily, but I don't agree. Yes, it was blatant and upfront, but at the same time, it didn't feel preachy. 'Course I'm pretty green, so I think concern for the environment is a good attitude for kids (and everyone else for that matter) to internalize.

(As an addendum, I also really enjoyed the short, "Presto," which ran before it, too. Humor a la classic Looney Toons with stepped up Pixar animation and a clever conceit.)

Roger Ebert said in his review of WALL•E:
"This story told in a different style and with a realistic look could have been a great science-fiction film. For that matter, maybe it is."

I definitely think WALL•E qualifies as great science fiction.

As a tangential segue, I find it interesting that there's an attitude which assumes that animated works somehow have less merit or meaning purely due to their being animated and/or that relegates them to the sole province of children's entertainment. I'm not saying Ebert is doing that here, although I'm not saying he's not either. But I've noticed with fosteronfilm's mom that she can't seem to accept the notion that animated works are suitable entertainment fare for adults. She loves musicals and has a decided '50s sensibility and taste in movies, and we've thought that a lot of the modern animated features would appeal to her. We've tried to turn her on to some of them, like Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin—titles which have great songs as well as solid and classic storytelling—but she's never been interested in them. Makes me wonder if it's an age/generational thing.

*We've got a couple "retired" killer whale-shaped oven mitts which are singed, stained, and worn through in places that I can't conceive of ever throwing out. Over the years, fosteronfilm and I have imbued them with so much personality—they used to complain about their jobs, screaming and ouching when we used them to pull things from the oven, and suchlike—that it feels wrong to even consider just dumping them in the garbage. I figure they've earned a lazy retirement in the towel drawer.

Writing Stuff
I met Jerry Page back in early 2006 at the Aberrant Dreams signing, and we've been corresponding since. (I've also managed to persuade him to write reviews for The Fix.) He edits the fanzine Pulp Spirit which is a companion publication to Planetary Stories. Anyhoo, we were emailing back and forth, and I commented about a column he wrote and the general contents of the last issue of Planetary Stories/Pulp Spirit. Jerry asked whether he could print my remarks in their letter column, "From the Vibrating Ether." Of course I said he could, but I didn't realize that they also had an ongoing "best letter to the editor" contest. Hee. My letter won. I'm getting an original, signed Mark Fults illustration (#1 at the bottom of the contest page). Sweet.

Received:
• 25-day personal pass from Podcastle from Rachel (velourmane) on a reprint accompanied by a request for me to submit a different story for them to consider which she read and liked. Works for me! Crossing my fingers that the rest of their slush committee likes it too.
• 61-day kindly pass from Withersin with invite to submit again.

New Words:
• 1000 on the SF WiP.
• 2000 on a new story, sort of a Pied Piper retelling inspired by the Lost Boys of Sudan.

Yeah, I'm all fragmented with what feels like half a dozen WiPs hanging about with none of them completed. I've been focusing on getting the writing gears in working order again, getting words on the page, no matter what those words are or whether I finish something. I felt like I needed to get back in the habit of regular writing before I could re-establish a "must finish story" routine. But I think it's time to roll up my sleeves and get to "The End" on something. Preferably several somethings.

Club 100 for Writers: 13

Poll results and SFWA public service announcement: Fraudulant writing contest

2008-06-17T13:14:11Z

Thanks to everyone who responded to my "What Generation are You?" poll. As I figured, most folks who read my LJ appear to be Gen Xers (83 responses) with only a few Boomers (4), but I was interested to see that there were more Jonesers (32) than Millenials (17). Inteerezzting.

Now for something completely different, a public service announcement from the SFWA:

A bogus contest has been advertised on craigslist and elsewhere which is supposedly being run by Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. SFWA has nothing to do with it, and it has all the earmarks of fraud.

In response to a cease and desist letter, this person has apologized and says that the posts will be removed from craigslist but he/she doesn't know how to remove them from flixer. He/she claims that he will never do it again. SFWA and Writer Beware are monitoring the situation.

SFWA never runs writing contests of this sort, and is not associated with this contest in any way. If you find any other instances of this solicitation, please contact Michael Capobianco, the President of SFWA (email address can be found at the link above).

See the press release from the SFWA for more information, and also, Victoria Strauss has blogged about this contest on the Writers Beware blog.

While most of the places advertising this have taken down the ad, it's likely that there are still many writers who haven't gotten the news and, attracted by the promise of big money prizes and the prospect of publication in a prestigious anthology, may be intending to submit. Please spread the word so that folks don't get taken by this scam.

Writing Stuff

Received:
• Galleys of "A Nose for Magic" from the Pagan Anthology of Short Fiction and "The Life and Times of Penguin" from the Triangulation: Taking Flight anthology.
• Payment from Cricket for "The Raven's Brocade" in their December issue and from Drabblecast for "The Wiggly People."

New Words:
• 1150 on the SF WiP.

Club 100 for Writers: 6

"What generation are you?" poll and "The Wiggly People" at Drabblecast.

2008-06-11T13:08:05Z

Doing research for a new story which was inspired in part by some articles and studies on Generation X (born approximately between 1965-1980), Generation Y/the Millennials (born ~1981-1997), the Baby Boomers (born ~1946-1964), and Generation Jones—a sort of between generation wedged between late Boomers and early Xers containing folks born ~1954-1964 who share a lot of sociocultural traits with Gen X but who fall within the demographic of Boomers and who also share some cultural influences and hallmarks with them.

The perception is that bloggers and folks who read blogs tend to be Gen Yers/Millennials, "digital natives" who've had the benefits of and been around digital technology and the Internet for their whole lives. It made me curious to see where y'all fell.

So herein my completely unscientific poll:

View Poll: #1203240

Writing Stuff
I realized that I've dropped all my writing hamsters, and they've scampered to parts unknown. The only fiction I've completed this year is the story I started last year for Russian Winters, and I suspect the only reason I managed to wring "the end" out of it is because I had a deadline—which was extended three months, to boot. Session ended two months ago; I've wasted a lot of time when I should have been writing angsting about not writing. So I'm taking a leaf from my own book to remind myself that One Hamster is Still Juggling, and I'm starting up Club 100 for Writers again:
Ergo: 3

New Words:
• 800 on new SF story, working title "NANI." It's been a while since I did science fiction; I was pretty exclusively focused on fantasy last year. It feels good to stretch my science-geek writerly muscles, although I'm chagrined at how weak and flabby they are. This story will be grounded in social and developmental psychology, which very much plays to my academic background, but I'm finding I have to look up some really basic stuff 'cause I can only remember shadowy concepts and vague theories, and I'm needing specifics. It's a bit distressing to realize how much information I used to have readily available for speedy retrieval and how little remains accessible without some massive joggling. My brain needs a better indexing system.

Received:
• Fan mail from a couple Cricket readers (forwarded to me by the fabu folks of Carus Publishing) for "When Shakko Did Not Lie" and "The Tanuki-Kettle."

The first, from a 10-year-old girl, said:
"I have been getting this magazine for two years. I think it is the best magazine ever!!!!...My favorite story was 'The Tanuki Kettle' (July 2007). I also liked 'When Shakko Did Not Lie'…I really like stories about nature and animals."

And the second, from a boy (no age specified), said:
"I think you mag is better than any T.V. show or magazine I've ever heard of. Also in the January 2008 issue the story 'When Shakko Did Not Lie' is an excellent choice for Cricket. I would like it if you put more of that kind of story in your mag."

I think I melted into a big pile of "awww!" after reading those. And to top it off, the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Cricket, Marianne Carus, scribbled a line at the bottom of the second letter: "Those were great stories! My favorites, too."

*squee!*

Published:
• "The Wiggly People" (audio reprint) in Drabblecast. Well, it's not up yet, actually, but Norm Sherman, the editor/publisher dropped me a note on Monday saying it would go up today, so I've been hanging around the site, hitting F5 compulsively.

[Edit: It's up now! Go listen!]

Hot skunk, "A Thread of Silk," Part 2 of "Writing Multicultural Fiction for Children"

2008-06-02T20:59:28Z

Hobkin doesn't like the heat. It makes him grumpy and stompy and prone to tearing about the house huffing at things. We were hoping to be able to hold off on turning on the air conditioning for a little while longer, but ended up switching it on this weekend. I feel sorry for the little guy, after all he's got a fur coat on, and I don’t think he can tolerate as much heat as we can—especially since he doesn't drink water.

We've now switched ISPs, and not only is our connection speed noticeably faster, but part of the package deal was switching from our Dish TV to AT&T's cable—with a DVR thrown in. Really loving the DVR! I can record cartoons (from my computer, even!) and save them up to watch on weekend mornings. Rah!

Writing Stuff

Published:
• Part 2 of “Writing Multicultural Fiction for Children” (nonfiction reprint) is now up at Absolute Write.
• "A Thread of Silk" is now up in the June, 2008, issue of Baen's Universe with illustrations by Anthony Hochrein.

I've waited a looong time for this one to see print. I subbed this right before Baen's was taking an extended slush holiday, resulting in unusually long RTs. But the wait was worth it.

Writers for Relief 2, Daughter of Bótù, Caesar's Ghost, Manny the Mailmobile

2008-05-29T13:55:56Z

*REMINDER: We're switching ISPs. My Comcast email address will be defunct as of tomorrow. Please use my eugiefoster.com or gmail addresses from now on!

Over the 4-day (!) Memorial Day weekend (yay 4x10!*), we resolved a couple hardware issues:
• Fixed the hibernation problem my laptop was having after I upgraded my RAM. A bit of research showed me that the glitch seemed to be a common one in XP machines with over 1GB of RAM. Just had to download and install XP Service Pack 3, and voilà, all good.
• Replaced the battery in my car. Y'know, I find it to be a very strange thing to discover that one's car won't start when the temperature's above 70 degrees F. I'm accustomed to it happening in the subzero season in the Midwest, but I guess I don't expect it here in Georgia in summer. Didn't even leave the headlights on or the overhead or anything.

We took it to the Honda dealership on the off chance that it was the alternator and not just the battery. Just the battery, though, thank goodness; apparently one of the cells went bad.

They also wanted to hit us up for a 90-mile service and a routine maintenance/oil-change/check-up (since we're overdue). The former would've included changing the timing belt, which braced fosteronfilm, at least, for a scary-shock estimate. But even so, the bottom line they trotted up made both of us go bug-eyed: $1500. $1K for the 90-mile-timing-belt-service and $500 for the routine maintenance, etc.

So yeah, we told them "no can do, just the battery, please." We'll take it to a lube-n-go place for the oil change, and I'm fully prepared to use the old timing belt until it dies, thank-you-very-much. The only thing I'm a little worried about is that my SRS (the airbag system) warning light has been on for a while, and I'd like to have the sensor checked. If it's the seatbelt, both the check and fix would be covered under Honda's warranty. But if it's the SRS system, it's not, and we'd have to eat the $190 appraisal as well as whatever it'd cost to get it fixed. It's rather a lot to gamble on warranty vs. no warranty, but at the same time, the airbag wouldn't deploy right now in an accident, which really makes me nervous.

I really don't get along well with hardware stuff. It's expensive, capricious, and baffling. Sigh.

*Another benefit from my new 4x10 workweek: In addition to not having to make the drive to the train station and back on my day off and thereby saving on my overall gasoline use, since I'm leaving earlier in the morning and coming back later in the evening, the traffic is better—much better in the morning and slightly better in the evening. I don't have enough data points to know for sure exactly how much time I'm shaving off my daily commute, but I'd estimate right now that it's something like half an hour. Sweet.

Writing Stuff

~~New~~ Words:
• -250. Yes, that's a negative number. There was a lot of cutting and tightening. But the fork's in, and "Morozko," retitled to "Beautiful Winter," is done done done and sent off to market. Huzzah.

Uber thanks go to marshall_payne for the speedy and thorough crit.

Published:
• "Caesar's Ghost" (audio reprint) in Pseudopod. catrambo read it, and I think she did a stellar job. Go listen! There are ferrets.

Received:
• Contrib. copies of the Aug. 2008 Realms of Fantasy with my story, "Daughter of Bótù," in it. Shiny!
• 40-day SALE of "The Adventures of Manny the Mailmobile" (audio reprint) to the Clonepod podcast. Woot!
• A note from daveybeaucham that Writers for Relief 2 (with my story, "Running on Two Legs") is now available for pre-order. This is the second in his charity anthology series, this one to benefit the Bay Area Food Bank (the first was to benefit the survivors of Hurricane Katrina). Other contributors include Todd McCaffrey, A.C. Crispin and Christie Golden, Elizabeth Blue, David Drake, Mur Lafferty, Tony Ruggiero, and many others. Great fiction for a great cause!

Comcast kicked to the curb

2008-05-22T14:07:40Z

So we're finally switching our ISP from Comcrap.

Between the appallingly bad customer service, the increasingly slow connection speeds, the frequent outages, and their throttling/blocking of peer-to-peer traffic, not to mention the premium rates they charge for this shoddy service, I've been ready to kick them to the curb for ages. But we've been holding off because 1. We wanted to ensure that the ISP we switch to will have broadband speeds comparable to what we're getting now (easier and easier to achieve as our connection speeds continued to decay to near-dial-up slowness) 2. We were hoping to take advantage of a juicy "switch to us!" incentive deal and 3. It's a ginormous pain to change email addresses, and we've wanted to gradually migrate away from our ISP email accounts.

The stars aligned, the cosmos gave its nod of approval, and lo, our new ISP destiny is now. Or rather, the end of this month.

Ergo, anyone who's still using my old Comcast email address, it's going to be deactivated in a week. Please update your address books accordingly and send all future emails to either my eugiefoster.com domain email or my gmail address.

Writing Stuff

I'm absolutely loving my new 4x10 work hours. Not only am I pleased as punch to have an extra day off each week, but I'm also tickled to have the extra hours per day at work. I can get so much more done! I've written more this week than I have since session ended, which means this is the most productive I've been all year.

New Words:
• It's hard to say. There was a lot of cutting, furious typing, and then more cutting. But I've got a handle on the WiP (the Russian folktale) where before I was vaguely unsatisfied with it. It's currently at 6,250 words, and I anticipate hitting zero draft today or tomorrow. Huzzah.

Received/Published:
• Fan mail from school children in China (!) for "The Tax Collector's Cow" in the June, 2006, Spider, forwarded along to me by the good folks of Carus Publishing. Utterly squee-some. I love getting fan mail, of course, but I especially love hearing from my young readers.
• Contrib. copy of The WisCon Chronicles, Vol. 2: Provocative essays on feminism, race, revolution, and the future. velourmane invited me to contribute my thoughts on dealing with racist and sexist material in writers workshops for this project last year, which of course I was delighted to do, and I'd completely forgotten about it. I also didn't realize (or had totally forgotten) that it would be a gorgeous trade paperback and that I'd be getting a contrib. copy. Receiving an unexpected contrib. copy is like finding candy, a special surprise treat.
• Note from the folks at Aberrant Dreams asking me if they could buy audio rights for "Nobodies and Somebodies" (which they published in Summer, 2006, in issue #8) for a new audio venture they're putting together. Of course I said "yes." A sale out of the blue is even better than found candy!

Twiddling about this week

2008-05-16T20:07:02Z

Still floating high about selling Returning My Sister's Face to Norilana. Thanks for the deluge of congrats!

Things I've done this week:

• Sold my flash story "The Wiggly People" (audio reprint) to Drabblecast.
• Seen part 1 of my article, "Writing Multicultural Fiction for Children," reprinted at Absolute Write.
• Decided that I will try out the new flexible work hours being implemented at work. Starting next week, I'm going 4x10 (10-hour days, 4-day weeks). I used to work 9x80 at my previous job (three-day weekend every other week), which was nice, but I'm wondering if a 10-hour workday might be a bit long.
• Received, signed, and sent back contracts from Norilana, the Triangulation: Taking Flight anthology, and Drabblecast and looked over galleys from the Killers anthology and Baen's Universe.
• Broke then fixed the Daily Dragon website, giving myself a crash course in PHPMyAdmin in the process.
• Added 1 GB of RAM to my VAIO laptop, upgrading it from its original 512 MB to 1.5 GB. Very stressful, and in the end, I needed fosteronfilm to seat it properly for me; I don't get along well with hardware. But my laptop is speedy-fast now...although the hibernation function keeps going wonky.
• Joined Facebook (friend me if you've got an account!).

Things I haven't done this week:

• Write.

So yeah, not a productive week...

Norilana Books buys Returning My Sister's Face and Other Far Eastern Tales of Whimsy and Malice

2008-05-06T13:39:20Z

Got the most incredible, fabulous, wonderful news! Norilana Books—founded and owned by the talented and lovely Vera Nazarian (norilana) is buying my short story collection, Returning My Sister's Face and Other Far Eastern Tales of Whimsy and Malice.

The collection will contain a selection of my Far Eastern fantasy stories originally published in venues including Realms of Fantasy, Paradox, and Baen's Universe and will be released in both hard cover and trade paperback. The tentative hard cover release date is first quarter 2009 with the trade paperback to follow three months after.

*squee!*

A bit of blurbage to whet the appetite:

Enchantment, peril, and romance pervade the shadowy Far East, from the elegant throne room of the emperor's palace to the humble tea house of a peasant village. These are stories of adventure and magic from the Orient: the maiden who encounters an oni demon in the forest, the bride who discovers her mother-in-law is a fox woman, the samurai who must appease his sister's angry ghost. Where luck can be found in a jade locket, and dark and light are two sides of harmony, therein lies the stuff of legend.

Skunk in the bathtub

2008-04-30T18:48:05Z

I want to give a huge "thank you!" to everyone who answered the eleventh hour plea for volunteers and came out to help rescue fifteen pallets of Meisha Merlin books last week! Y'all rawk.

This past weekend was a three-dayer for me, since we Georgia government employees get Confederate Memorial Day off. Yep, Confederate Memorial Day. And how exactly does one celebrate Confederate Memorial Day? By bathing a skunk, of course!

It actually went better than usual. I did not get smacked in the face by a sudsy tail—the first time that hasn't happened, I might add. And, while Hobkin was obviously displeased at being plunked into a bathtub full of lukewarm water and lathered up with baby shampoo, he put up less of a fuss about it than we know from experience he's capable of. Also, he did not (this time) go running amok through the house afterwards, collecting dust mice and lint in his still-damp, newly washed fur.

Of course, I was compelled to snap a couple pictures to compound the indignity of his ordeal:

Doesn't he look piteous?

"Umf. Must escape bathtub!"

Writing Stuff

New Words/Editing:
• Back to work on WiP, "Morozko." A major editing pass to hack out around 500 superfluous words and then hammer out 600 new ones gives me a net gain of 100 words. Making progress.
• 1400 on "Cthulhu Editing."
• 550 on a new story that I started just to get some words going. It worked, but I'm not sure if I've enough enthusiasm to see this one through. Had a bunch of imagery that needed an outlet, but the story's pretty nebulous.

Published:
• "Daughter of Bòtú" in the August, 2008 issue of Realms of Fantasy. Yay! Actually, I don't think the issue's out yet (haven't received my contrib. copies). But I got to see an e-ARC. Happy shiny.

Strong backs in Atlanta area needed: Free Books for the carting

2008-04-21T14:57:10Z

To All You Book-loving Atlanta Locals:

I just got a note from Sean Wallace, Publisher/Editor with Prime Books/Wildside Press. It seems that SF/F publisher Meisha Merlin, which declared it was shutting down in November, has a rather large amount of stock (tens of thousands of books) in its Stone Mountain warehouse (1440 Kelton Drive, Stone Mountain) that needs to be rescued or it will all be destroyed/recycled.

Sean is renting a truck which can fit fifteen pallets, single-stacked, or thirty double-stacked, but there's no forklift available, only a pallet jack. So he has to fill the truck by hand. He'll be in town Tuesday and Wednesday (4/22 and 4/23) to load up, and he's asked me to spread the word that he's desperate for volunteers to help him. Anyone who volunteers can cart off any books they want that don't fit into the truck.

If you can help out or know of folks who might be able to, email Sean at: seanwallace@comcast.net

Taxes, Dragon*Con, various website updates

2008-04-15T15:17:29Z

This weekend, we did our taxes. Glargh.

It was tempting to postpone filing them since we've got until May 19th due to our county being one of the ones declared as a federal disaster area from the recent tornadoes, but we (mostly fosteronfilm) went ahead and crunched the numbers and signed the forms, and they're winging their way to the IRS in time to meet the regular deadline.

I continue to be appalled at how much Uncle Sam takes out from my writing income. It's effectively double taxed—at a higher rate, even, which is supposed to make up the difference for Social Security…except I pay Social Security through my day job. Every year at this time I contemplate whether it would be beneficial to incorporate myself, start delving into the labyrinthine forms and regulations to do so, get confounded and flummoxed, and give up. So this year, I've resolved to skip the forms-->frustrated step and go straight to "give up." But I really wish I knew whether it would be worthwhile. 'Course, I could hire a tax lawyer to advise me, but I'm sure that would eat up any possible tax benefit and then some. Sigh.

In other news, while I was updating the Daily Dragon website (details below), I went in and overhauled Hobkin's website, Musta-lay-day Grove, and moved it to my domain server. Comcast, my ISP and the previous host of the site, doesn't give users admin access to the hosting space it provides (did I mention recently how much I hate Comcast?), and I wanted to upgrade Musta-lay-day Grove to a WordPress platform—which requires admin access in order to create a database and DB user. So I decided to make Musta-lay-day Grove a subdirectory of my eugiefoster.com domain.

Now I'm wondering if I want to go ahead and register a domain for Hobkin's website. I even went and checked the availability of mustalayday.com and mustalayday.org (unsurprisingly, both are still up for grabs). It's a silly and tiny hobby site—skunk pictures, a FAQ, and some links—so I'm not sure if I can rationalize the expense. Then again, I've maintained the thing for years, and I kind of like Hobkin having his own web presence. Ponder ponder.

Writing Stuff
Received my guest acceptance letter from Dragon*Con. I was actually thinking about not applying to be a guest this year. Last year was just so hectic with running the Daily Dragon, I had to cancel out of a lot of my panels (which, among other things, brought on a load of guilt for shirking my responsibility to those track directors) and one of my readings, and I ended up being so overbooked that I enjoyed the convention the least of any year since I started attending it. But in the end, I decided to go ahead and apply.

The thing is, sometimes my panels are the only times I manage to get out of Daily Dragon headquarters, and my guest obligations often help to ground my time sense. Knowing that I have to be at a panel at XX o'clock keeps the days from blurring into convention limbo space-time. Plus, I frequently enjoy doing panels, despite the panic and hyperventilation beforehand. Although I am going to ask the scheduling folks not to slot me for any readings. There's just way too much prep involved, and I intensely dislike doing solo speaking gigs.

On a related Dragon*Con note, the Daily Dragon website moved to a new .org URL from its old .net address, as D*C is doing an across-the-board upgrade to its website server/hosting/etc. I decided that a site overhaul for the Daily Dragon was long overdue, so I migrated it to a PHP platform, specifically WordPress, which should greatly ease DD website updates during the convention. It'll also allow my reporters to get me their articles from anywhere they've got access to the Internet during the convention. Rah.

New Words:
Zero, nada, zilch. I suck.

I tell myself that I've been busy with overhauling and upgrading my various websites, but what I've been doing is procrastinating. Going to try to apply words to page this afternoon. I've run out of excuses, and I'm getting really pissed at myself for not making some progress, any progress, on the writing.

Writing Season Opens

2008-04-08T17:15:40Z

It's been eerily quiet in the office. Many folks are gone for the week, escaping on a much-needed vacation now that session is over. I'm the only editor in residence in the editor's room today*, although the senior editor is also here in her office. One of the attorneys came in to say "hi" and fell asleep on the couch for half an hour or so—it is, admittedly, quite a comfy couch. Everyone's in serious depressurization mode.

Beginning to make forays into my to-do list. I've also opened up my writing files and have started putting (or rather, trying to put) words on the page.

*Edit: elemess came back after I posted this, so I'm no longer solitary editor in residence. Whew. ...Although apparently he's rusting...

Writing Stuff

I was utterly delighted by the wonderful things James Patrick Kelly said 'bout The Fix in his "On the Net: Son of Gallimaufry" article in the June Asimov's:

"Luckily for fans of the short form, a new site, The Fix, has arrived on the scene. Andy Cox, of TTA Press, publisher of Interzone and Black Static, and Eugie Foster have created a site that is visually pleasing and intellectually stimulating […] The columns are quite astute—I can particularly recommend James Van Pelt’s The Day Job and Scott Danielson’s Audiobook Fix. The Fix is one of the most promising new sites of 2007."

*squee!*

Received:
• 7-day (reprint) sale of my nonfiction article, "Writing Multicultural Fiction for Children" (Parts 1 and 2), to Absolute Write. Yay! They're slated to go up the end of April and beginning of May, respectively.
• Payment from Aeon for "Black Swan, White Swan." Me likie payment on acceptance.

New Words/Editing:
• An editing pass and 300 words on my pre-session WiP, "Morozko."

Glargh. The words, they are are not coming easily. And the ones that do come, they suck. Was feeling pretty disheartened by the end of the writing session, so I took out one of my completed (and sold) stories to read—one that I'm particularly fond of—to remind me that I am indeed capable of putting together a reasonable sentence and crafting a readable tale. 'Cause it sure doesn't feel like it.

My writing muscle's gone gimpy.
• 300 words on a new story, something light and silly that came about from a conversation fosteronfilm and I had in the car. Working title (and working title only!), "Cthulhu Editing."

Amazon/BookSurge's coup de main on POD publishers

2008-04-05T13:36:57Z

I survived my second legislative session of the Georgia General Assembly. Woke up feeling pretty upbeat and then got an email which thunked me over the head with the realization that I've been living in a cocoon of Georgia legislature-induced isolation for the last three months (also an oblique reminder of the huge backlog of catch-up items on my to-do list).

The American Society of Journalists and Authors sent me a press release/position statement which made my jaw drop in disbelief (and check to see whether I'd received it five days late):

"The American Society of Journalists and Authors, the nation's trade association for freelance nonfiction writers, is disgusted with Amazon's announced move requiring that all print-on-demand (POD) books sold on Amazon's site be printed by their own print-on-demand house, BookSurge.

"As of April 1, Amazon is requiring small publishers to sign a contract agreeing to such demands."
—Read the whole thing on ASJA's website

I engaged my Google-fu and immediately discovered Angela Hoy's report of these Amazon/BookSurge doings at Writers Weekly, which has been corroborated by sources including Publisher's Weekly and The Wall Street Journal:

"Reports had been trickling in from the POD underground that Amazon/BookSurge representatives have been approaching some Lightning Source customers, first by email introduction and then by phone (nobody at BookSurge seems to want to put anything in writing). When Lightning Source customers speak with the BookSurge representative, the reports say, they are basically told they can either have BookSurge start printing their books or the "buy" button on their Amazon.com book pages will be 'turned off.'

Writers Weekly has also assembled a compilation of the current and burgeoning uproar of the issue that's flying through writers websites, forums, and the blogosphere.

After I retrieved my jaw from where it had fallen off and bounced under my desk, I find myself trying to figure out whether this is a desperate bid on Amazon's part to shore itself up in a time of economic decline or if their hubris is such that they believe they can pull this off without suffering a backlash. This will and is already raining down a huge negative PR storm on Amazon, as well it should. It's monopoly tactics, and it totally screws independent and small press publishers and authors.

I hope that this is just a very stupid decision on the part of some clueless marketing executive and will be tromped down by clearer heads.

Session 2008 Day 40, T minus 4.25 hours: Sine Die and sale to PodCastle

2008-04-04T23:46:52Z

Feel totally thrashed. This day has been uber grueling, and there's still over four hours of it to go. But I got my bunny slippers on and am eating some non-sugary food*, and the pace has slowed way down. We're mostly in waiting mode as the House and Senate bicker and wrangle their way through their remaining agenda items. And I think my second wind is rounding the bend.

*There's been donuts, cookies, pie, and cake a-plenty to be had all day, but the only food o'substance was very meat-laden. However, one of the attorneys saw me gazing at the chock-o-meat pizzas with disappointment and felt sorry for me. She gave me a salad and then, over my protestations, made me a cheese sandwich and a big bowl of popcorn—have I mentioned recently that I really love working here with all the fabulous people in my office? I really love my job...even during session when it kicks my ass.

Anyhoo, I didn't think I was particularly hungry, but after snarfing down the salad and sandwich (and I'm snacking on the popcorn now), the bleary haze in my head is beginning to clear.

Writing Stuff

Received:
• 55-day pleasant pass from PodCastle on a reprint and
• 255-day reprint sale of "The Tanuki-Kettle" to PodCastle. Woot! It's been a great week for me for podcasts. Very much looking forward to hearing my story presented by the newest Escape Artists outfit.

Sine Die! Matthew on Minnesota Public Radio's Midmorning show

2008-04-04T14:59:30Z

Sine die! Chaotic, frenetic, stressed me. But wanted to post a shout out that fosteronfilm will be on Minnesota Public Radio's Midmorning show in a few minutes. They've got streaming audio online, too!

[Edit: If you missed the show, they've put up an audio file of it for listening and download.]

Session 2008 Day 39.5: Insomnia, aches and pains, and Matthew on Minnesota Public Radio

2008-04-03T15:40:21Z

Urg, what a week. Sine die is tomorrow, the end of the 2008 Georgia legislative session, and I am so ready for it to happen. Been having to work a lot of late nights, and by the time I get home, I'm too wired to fall asleep. Last night, when I finally did manage to drop off, I dreamed of editing. Woke at 4AM feeling vaguely distressed about not being able to parse some text. Couldn't get back to sleep, so I turned on my computer...and commenced doing some editing for The Fix. Sigh.

Also, my immune system has informed me that it is displeased with the liberties I've been taking with it. Both knees have ached for the last few days, making it a bit of a chore climbing stairs—which is awkward 'cause the Office of Legislative Counsel spans three floors. We editors are headquartered on the middle floor, and there's a certain amount of upping and downing required, although we all try to convey each others' bills to their varied destinations to maximize efficiency and minimize stair slogging.

In other news, fosteronfilm is going to be on Minnesota Public Radio tomorrow! He and another guest speaker, someone from Wired, will be discussing postapocalyptic movies. Haven't had much chance to talk with the hubby this week 'cause of that whole consumed-by-work thing, so I don't have any of the details except that it's slated to air at 11AM (I think). Hope that they podcast or stream it so I can hear it if I can't listen to it online tomorrow. Shiny coolness.

Writing Stuff
Starting to dwell on writing and writing projects for post-session. Went through my submissions and sales logs and sent out some reprint prospects which have been idling on my things-to-do list.

On the words on the page front, I need to finish the Russian fairy tale re-telling for squirrel_monkey's anthology that I started back in November, before session began. Fortunately, the deadline got pushed to June as the release date of the first volume in the antho series, Japanese Dreams (which will have my story, "The Tears of My Mother, the Shell of My Father" in it), got postponed until July to coincide with ReaderCon.

I'd also like to come up with a story to send to Cricket. I don't have anything whatsoever under consideration in their slush pile, and that strikes me as a situation that needs remedying.

And then there's The Novel. Once again I have set myself the (Sisyphusian) goal of finishing the %&!$#@ thing. I really need to get past this writing hurdle/milestone. It's turning into one of those fell-off-the-horse-but-didn't-get-back-on hang-ups.

Session 2008 Day 37: In the homestretch and sale to Pseudopod

2008-03-31T23:40:16Z

We're in the final week of Session 2008. The legislature is scheduled to adjourn sine die this Friday, barring something stupid coming up. These next few days promise to be hectic to the extreme, but I'm relieved to be so close to officially surviving my second session. Also, I'm a little nervous now that "writing season" is about to start up again. After being away from it for so long, there's some performance anxiety about getting back into the habit of putting words on the page. Meep.

Writing Stuff
Saw in the Baen's Universe e-ARC area that "A Thread of Silk" will be in their June 2008 issue. Coolness.

Received:
• Promo copies of Magic in the Mirrorstone to sign. The Mirrorstone Books folks sent several copies that they want to use as promotional giveaways 'round to all of the authors to John Hancock. The instruction letter inside said that they wanted to get the books back before February—the anthology's release date—but, um, unless their marketing department has a time machine stashed away, that's not going to happen. Oops. Well, I'm sending them along to the next author tomorrow. At least there are only two stopovers left.
• 60-days to a (reprint) sale of "Caesar's Ghost" to Pseudopod. Yay!
• Contract from Aeon for "Black Swan, White Swan"...along with a request for an intro. Erg. I have a dickens of a time writing intros or synopses for my stuff. As the author, I want to come off as witty and insightful, but definitely not ostentatious or pretentious, and I want to intrigue the reader with my story's premise without giving away too much or building false expectations.

Yeah, for my next trick, I'll turn Kool-Aid into brandy and walk on Jell-O. Much brow furrowed lip-chewing, there. I came up with something and sent it off, but I'd rather write a whole story while aardvarks gnaw on my ankles than a one-paragraph introduction. *twitch*
• Payment from both Drabblecast (for "The Tiger Fortune Princess") and Pseudopod. Yay²!

Session 2008 Day 34.75: Weird storytellers and Tiger Fortune Princess at Drabblecast

2008-03-26T18:27:33Z

As part of their 85th anniversary commemoration, Weird Tales conducted a poll to see who their readers considered the weirdest storytellers of the last 85 years, and they posted the Top 85 yesterday on their website*. They specifically asked folks not to limit their nominees to fiction writers, which resulted in such wonderful additions as Jim Henson, the Cirque de Soleil, David Bowie, and M.C. Escher, as well as the writers you'd expect like Tanith Lee, Ray Bradbury, Neil Gaiman, and H.P. Lovecraft.

It's a great list. And it started me dwelling on other weird artists. Topping my list of weird-storytellers-not-in-WT's-85, I'd have to say is Don Hertzfeldt. While he's a relative newcomer, I don't think anyone can argue that his works aren't sufficiently weird. And, of course, he's brilliant. Billy's Balloon needs to be shown alongside The Red Balloon to school kids.

*There's also an "85 Weirdest Storytellers" article in their 85th anniversary issue (#349).

Writing Stuff

The audio podcast of "The Tiger Fortune Princess" is now up at Drabblecast, read by Norm Sherman, who did an absolutely fabu job. *squee!* I lubs hearing my stories read aloud. Go listen, yo!

Session 2008 Day 34.25: a sale to Aeon and annoyance with the USPS homeland security policy

2008-03-24T19:08:08Z

Had a quiet Easter weekend with fosteronfilm and Hobkin. Stayed in, cuddled a skunk, and watched Donnie Darko. Hey, there was a bunny in it.

The Georgia legislature is in adjournment until Thursday—which will be Day 35 of this session. It's been relatively quiet at work, giving me a chance to play catch-up, but it seems that as soon as I start making headway in one area, stuff starts piling up in another. I can't seem to get my email down to less than 50 "needs response" notes, some of which are egregiously late, as I have a terrible habit of responding to email in last-in-first-out order rather than first-in-first-out as I ought. It feels a bit like using a tablespoon to bail out a leaky boat...that's headed into a waterfall...in the middle of a thunderstorm.

Also, I'm miffed with the USPS. Apparently, a recent homeland security policy of theirs now mandates that all stamped mail which weighs 13oz or more must be dropped off at a post office rather than mailed from a residential mailbox. Because, of course, the folks who work the counter at the post office will have a much better detection system than my local letter carrier when it comes to terrorist mailings of over 13 ounces.

The thing is, I've got a no-frills postal scale at home, and my standard operating system is to stock up on various denominations of stamps so that I can disseminate review items for The Fix as I get them*, without having to set aside time to drive back and forth to the post office. But now, I can't do that with any material that's heavier than 13oz, like, oh, say, most trade paperbacks and glossy magazines. ARGH!

The only thing that's saving me from really pulling my hair out is that I've been encouraging editors/publishers for the last several years to send me electronic files instead of paper. So now, the majority of the review material I receive is electronic. But I still get enough hard copies that this is going to be a major inconvenience and, with fuel prices being what they are, an annoying expense.

Stupid USPS.

In other news, I've migrated my eugiefoster.com website to PHP, specifically WordPress. My experience with webmastering and helming The Fix has really sold me on the application, even though I don't update my homepage with anything like blog-like frequency. The flexibility of being able to make site-wide changes easily as well as the browser-based admin interface really appeals. Now I can chuck FrontPage—which always inserts gobs of junk into my code that requires clean-up—and not have to worry about learning DreamWeaver. Shiny.

*I also use it for my paper submissions, but there've been fewer of those over the years as more and more markets accept submissions via email.

Writing Stuff
Hmm. Well, it seems that "Daughter of Botu" is not, as it turns out, going to be in the June issue of Realms of Fantasy. Not a problem, but now I'm wondering which issue it's slated for. Did I misread my contract and it said June 2009 instead of June 2008? Or was it just bumped to next issue or something? Must remember to check that when I get a chance.

Received:
• 98-day SALE of "Black Swan, White Swan" to Aeon. Woohoo! I've been trying to break into these folks since they premiered. Delighted that this story will have such a wonderful home.

But I'm also all fretty. The acceptance email indicated that their contract should have been attached to it, but it wasn't. I sent a "please resend contract?" email last week, as soon as I got their acceptance, but haven't heard back, and I even succumbed to my twitchy writerness and sent a follow-up from a different email address yesterday. I'm sure it's that they're very busy—and probably not that they've changed their minds, seen that it was a brief bout of insanity that prompted them to receive positively something I wrote, and are trying to come up with a kind way of telling me never again to darken their virtual doorstep with my prose—but my on-again/off-again email reliability issues have really ramped up my writerly trepidation and apprehension.
• Note from Drabblecast that their production of "The Tiger Fortune Princess" is scheduled to go up this Wednesday, huzzah! Also that they're passing on another submission I sent them, pook.
• Email from the editor/publisher of Fantasist Enterprises:

Fantasist Enterprises Needs Your Help

When I started Fantasist Enterprises almost ten years ago, I had three major goals in mind: 1) Create new markets for short fantasy fiction. 2) Help re-grow the popularity of the short story as a literary form. 3) Bring illustrations back to literature in the artistic marriage that the Pre-Raphaelites so championed.

I’ve certainly learned a lot since those early days, in respect to writing and editing, art directing, and running a publishing company. I’ve also met numerous friends, mentors, and students over the years—something that is infinitely valuable. It has been a joy to work with so many talented writers and artists.

Now FE and I need your help. We need to raise awareness of the company and sell more books and art in order to complete our upcoming projects and break exciting new ground in the genre. You can help us reach our goal in many ways.

1) Spread the Word . . .

. . . through your own words: If you have read our books and enjoyed them, please recommend them to your friends. Consider posting reviews on Amazon.com, BarnesAndNoble.com, and anywhere else that book reviews are welcome.

. . . with banners: Add a little visual flair to your website, blog, or MySpace/FaceBook page with FE banners. Go to our banners page for directions on how to add them to your page.

. . . by wearing T-Shirts: Want some FE art on your person? Then check out our T-shirts on our swag page

2) Buy a Book or Art

Buy an FE book through your favorite book retailer or direct from us at www.FEBooks.net, where we are running some specials for a limited time (see below). The stunning art found in our books is available exclusively on our website.

DEAL 1: While supplies last, purchase both FANTASTICAL VISIONS I & II for a total of $12.00.

Yes, FE and I were still cutting our teeth on those publications, but there are some memorable stories to be found within their pages. And soon, they’ll be collector’s items!

DEAL 2: Purchase both CLOAKED IN SHADOW & MODERN MAGIC for a total of $24.75.

DEAL 3: BASH DOWN THE DOOR AND SLICE OPEN THE BADGUY is on sale for $12.75.

So yeah, not only do I support small presses, especially ones that publish short fiction, but these folks had the excellent taste to publish "Souls of Living Wood" in their Modern Magic anthology and "Mistress Fortune Favors the Unlucky" in Bash Down the Door and Slice Open the Badguy, and they'll be publishing "Megumi's Fire" in their forthcoming Paper Blossoms, Sharpened Steel. So buy a book, y'all! Pleeeease?

Session 2008 Day 31.5: Atlanta weather and return of the prodigal laptop

2008-03-17T16:25:46Z

The tornado was a nonevent for us. Didn't even realize one had ripped through downtown Atlanta until we got calls from fosteronfilm's mother worried about our safety. Up north where we are, we got dark skies and thunderstorms, but no twister action. The hail on Saturday was a bit more dramatic, but we seem to have withstood that without any damage, too.

And, my laptop's back, my laptop's back! Yay! It languished for over a month in the shop, and in that time my organizational system fell into total disarray. My to-do list reached profoundly scary proportions, and after I finished re-loading my system and trying to sort through my emails, I'd flagged nearly 100 emails as "needs response."

While I had a back-up system to work on and check email from while my VAIO was gone, it's a huge behemoth of a machine that I can't easily transport back and forth on the train. Plus, it doesn't have the battery life that my ultra-portable VAIO does, making it useless by midday. So I ended up leaving it at home and checking email from a browser interface at work—and therefore not having my address book or sent history or received archives at hand. And without a main system as the hub repository for all my data, I ended up accumulating duplicates and putting off items or having information scattered across multiple systems in different versions. What a mess.

But my laptop's back home now, and I've been wading through the pile-up. As of this morning, I'm down to 60 emails flagged, and my files are more or less synced up. Whew. I'm worried that some stuff may have gotten lost in the cracks; I tried to err on the side of duplication rather than deletion, but then I tried to keep the duplicates manageable and…glargh. I hope to have everything shipshape by the end of this week, legislature obliging, of course.

I missed my little VAIO. A lot.

Writing Stuff
Received:
• 125-day SALE of "The Better To…" to Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, slated for #38—which I believe will be their October issue.
• 91-day very glowing and personal rejection from Space & Time. It got held until the final round, but…sigh.
• Contract from Drabblecast for "The Tiger Fortune Princess."
• Payment from Realms of Fantasy for "Daugher of Bótù," which I believe will be coming out in their next (June) issue.

Session 2008 Day 29.5

2008-03-07T15:46:04Z

We're in the home stretch. The legislature has established their schedule through Day 38, which will be the 27th of this month. That means they'll most likely adjourn sine die the first week of April, hopefully April 1 or 2, which is much earlier than last year, with sine die falling on the 20th.

Good thing, too. I've switched to taking my Imuran in the A.M. with breakfast instead of at night with dinner because the schedule for my evening meals is all thrown off with session. There have been nights when I've had to skip dinner altogether and just make due with snacking at my desk between bills—resulting in me forgetting to take my meds. This brought on a (thankfully very minor*) flare-up last month, and I realized I needed to swap my pill-taking time so it could coincide with what's left of my daily routine. But taking it in the morning often makes me a bit queasy, which it doesn't do at night 'cause I usually take it with a hefty meal versus the cup-o-yogurt that I have in the morning.

Trade-offs. Queasy or pained-feverish? Blah.

*It's been so long since I had a real-for-sure flare-up that I didn't recognize it at first. I couldn't figure out why my joints and muscles were aching so much...until the fever and dizziness came.

Writing Stuff
I'm in a bit of shock that Speculations and its wonderful Rumor Mill community are gone. While I haven't been all that active on it, I've been a member—subscribed to several threads, checking in on folks' author topics, etc.—since I began writing seriously in 2000. It was a great resource and a great community, and I'll miss it.

Finished up my 2007 short fiction readings (yes, I'm behind) and finally got my picks to Chris McKitterick for this year's Sturgeon Awards. I've been honored to be asked to contribute to the nomination process for the last several years, and this year I had to ask for an extension on the deadline as I was so utterly swamped at work and couldn't get my nominations in on time. But I finally managed to send them off yesterday.

Received:
• 44-day reprint SALE of "The Tiger Fortune Princess" to Drabblecast. Yay! The editor, Norm Sherman, actually solicited this one from me. He'd heard Escape Pod's production of "The Snow Woman's Daughter" and liked it enough to both email his compliments and ask me to send something his way. Much shiny ego-boo.

Session 2008 Day 25

2008-02-28T17:48:33Z

This week has been incredibly grueling, and it's not even over yet. fosteronfilm has had to drive me home twice in three days*, and Hobkin was feeling under the weather on Tuesday (he seems fine now; I think he's stressed because I've been away from home so much).

Bad week, no cookie. Need. Weekend.

One of the unlooked-for silver linings of my laptop being in the shop is that I've been catching up on my reading on the train. On the nonfiction front, I'm reading Robert Epstein's The Case Against Adolescence, which expounds upon a subject I've been soapboxing in one way or another since I was 13, which is how the infantilization of young adults and the artificial extension of childhood, as well as people's preoccupation with ensuring that their children are insulated from anything and everything that has even an iota of hazard in the world, is incredibly dysfunctional for both young people and society as a whole.

A fascinating read, although not particularly revolutionary for me, as I already hold to the belief that young adults are much more capable than most people give them credit for. But Epstein puts it together articulately and presents some historical pretext as well as research findings and ethnographic studies that I wasn't aware of previously. (For more information about Epstein and his book, check out this Psychology Today article.)

As an amusing cosmic synchronicity, fosteronfilm mentioned that he'd heard my advisor in graduate school, Dr. Laura Berk, on NPR the other day but couldn't remember what the subject matter was. I continue to hold Dr. Berk in the highest of regard and esteem (I'm also co-author with her on a textbook resource on Child Development—my first taste of that oh-so-addictive "name in print" goodness). So I went out to the NPR website and discovered this article, "The Bryant Park Project," focusing on play and child development, particularly with regard to executive function—of which a central aspect is the ability to self-regulate**. And I thought it most telling that there's been a marked decrease in childrens' ability to self-regulate in the last six decades or so. The fanaticism to safeguard children from the world is retarding the natural rate of maturity and creating increasingly incapable young people.

Gripping stuff (to me, at least), even if it paints a rather bleak prognosis for the state of personal accountability, sound judgment, and capability in general for present and future generations.

* We've agreed that if I have to stay at work past 9PM that he'll come get me rather than me taking the train home.
**Executive function and self-regulation is a good predictor of future achievement and well-being. From the article: "Poor executive function is associated with high dropout rates, drug use and crime. In fact, good executive function is a better predictor of success in school than a child's IQ. Children who are able to manage their feelings and pay attention are better able to learn. As executive function researcher Laura Berk explains, 'Self-regulation predicts effective development in virtually every domain.'"

Writing Stuff
Got a(nother) note from a writer asking me whether a review had been published of his collection yet. Not an unusual occurrence, save that this is the third or so such note I've gotten from him. And also that he continues to address me as "Dear Editor." It's not hard to find my name on The Fix's website. Really, it's not. But it is hard for me to feel disposed to respond to someone who doesn't take the trouble to address me by name. Maybe I should reply "Dear Writer"...

Yeah, yeah. I'm feeling snarky. Blah. It's been a taxing couple weeks.

Received:
• 76-day SALE of "Megumi's Fire" to the Fantasist Enterprises Paper Blossoms, Sharpened Steel anthology. Woot! I lost count of how many people sent me a heads up when these GLs went up, but thankyouthankyou to each of y'all!

Session 2008 Day 22.5

2008-02-25T17:54:05Z

Over the halfway mark for Session 2008. 18 more days to go.* I'm getting a wee bit scared about how far behind I've gotten with regard to other obligations, but trying to keep my head above water and/or not think about the hamsters I don't have time to attend to.

But I can see out of the corner of my eye that them hamsters are getting pretty hefty . . .

What's really exacerbating things is that I had to send in my VAIO laptop for maintenance. It's just a hardware issue: a loose A/C connection that was requiring me to clip the cord at an odd angle in order to get the battery to charge. But I had to backup the whole drive as I'm sure they'll wipe it (as it seems to be standard operating procedure at every shop on the planet). And now they're waiting for an ordered part to get in, so I don't know when I'll get it back. Plus when I do get it back, I'll have to spend several hours reloading it.

The loss of my "cart around everywhere" computer has really hindered my productivity. I can't reply to emails on the train, can't do a bit of editing during the commute, etc. I really need that extra hour and a half per day to stay on top of the hamster pile. Wah.

* Don't ask me whether I'm a "glass half full" or "glass half empty" type. Mostly, I'm a "thirsty now, gimme water" type.

Writing Stuff
I've put several more stories up at Anthologybuilder.com. All of my cyberpunk-esque Tales from Old Atlanta, including the Phobos award-winning one, "All in My Mind," which prompted me to write the rest of them: "Oranges, Lemons, and Thou Beside Me," "Addy in My Mind," "Only Springtime When She's Gone," and "The Few, the Proud, the Leech Corps" (which was already up). I've got one more from that world, "The Music Company," which I planned to submit this weekend, but never got a chance to.

I've also got several stories up for sale at the Sony eBook Store through a contract with Tekno: "All in My Mind" (again), "The Tiger Fortune Princess," "Returning My Sister's Face," "Honor is a Game Mortals Play," "The Bunny of Vengeance and the Bear of Death," "The Wizard of Eternal Watch," and "The Storyteller's Wife."

Much buying goodness!

Received:
• Payment from Baen's Universe for "A Thread of Silk," which helped offset some of the debt from Christmas.

New Words:
In the midst of the chaos of last week, I was bowled over by the urge to do some writing. Novel writing, even. I'm not sure which I'd rather have, no time but plenty of inspiration or plenty of time but no inspiration. They're both exercises in frustration and thwarted creativity. Actually, come to think of it, the latter is worse. I did manage to crank out a little over 300 words. I'll take that over grinding my gears, staring at a blank page, any day. But it still leaves me twitchy and irked.

Session 2008: Day 12

2008-02-06T15:02:29Z

Observations made this morning during my commute: The prevalence of cell phones, and especially itty-bitty Bluetooth phone headsets, makes it tricky telling who's nutters and who's actually talking to a real person these days.

Then again, who hasn't mumbled to themselves on the train for giggles and guffaws?