Author Archives: Eugie Foster

Tea for Two

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Had an absolutely delightful time yesterday with yukinooruoni. I’m working with him on a writing workshop-related project, and he treated me to an afternoon out to discuss it. We went to this lovely little tea shop which is just down the road from where I live. Didn’t even know it was there before! They served us scones and little cakes and clotted cream and lemon custard and finger sandwiches (the sandwiches, alas, were not vegetarian-friendly, but made up for it by being very pretty) on an adorable three-tiered tea service. And of course, individual pots of steaming tea from their extensive tea menu (which included various black, green, white, oolong, and rooibus selections). I had a pot of peach-imbued white tea and a pot of apricot, current, and um, something else yummy-flavored green tea. The ambiance and decor were so charming: doilies and delicate Victorian tea pots and cups, with ornate chairs and tablecloths. There was a larger party that came in while we were there comprised of women playing dress-up in bright, old-fashioned hats and feather boas. So cute!

yukinooruoni and I chatted for hours! We actually closed the place down . . . and then some. Arriving at around 2ish, we didn’t leave until past 5:30, and the place was supposed to close at 4. Err, oops. But they were very gracious about us staying so late.

Hobkin was less understanding, being somewhat miffed at having his dinner delayed by my tardy return. And fosteronfilm was frazzled from having to explain to a hungry skunk why the food fairy hadn’t come yet. I believe they were reduced to doing skunk laps in the house from the look of things when I got back.

   


Writing Stuff

Still no contrib. copies from Faeries so I sent the editor a follow-up, “lost in mail, wah!” email as well as the info for him to transfer payment to my bank account. Wonder if it’ll be in euros or dollars . . .

Got an invite from dsnight to contribute a story to a new DAW anthology, Heroes in Training. I cannot express the amount of squeeage commencing upon reading his email. I’ve got shelves full of DAW books, and the prospect of being in one of their anthologies has me in a giddy twitter of excitement. Now to start heating up the irons and thumb screws to get the muse properly motivated . . .

And the Writers for Relief charity anthology with my story, “A Little Soul Music,” edited by jackzodiac is now available at Amazon.com. All proceeds go to benefit the victims of Hurricane Katrina, and the contents include contributions from such luminaries as Brian W. Aldiss, Gardner Dozois, Joe Haldeman, Nancy Kress, and Larry Niven. Only $16.95. Wouldn’t it make a great Christmas gift for all the SF readers on your list?

New Words: 1100 on an outline/synopsis of the novel I want to expand “Rue and Ruin” into.

Club 100 For Writers
      57

500/day
      108

Received new A/C adapter

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The new A/C adapter from HP came yesterday. Now I have two identical A/C cords. Yay? But since I updated my BIOS, I haven’t had a freak shutdown. Keeping my fingers crossed that the trend continues.

   


Writing Stuff

Y’know, I shouldn’t be surprised that the overwhelming response to my Do you know the Greek myth of Arachne? poll was “Yes, very well. I love Greek myths!” My flist is full of writers and readers who love folk lore and mythology. Y’all are simply not a proper control group. But your answers, and especially your comments, were enlightening. It’s silly of me to quail at doing a re-write because a story is well known. I’ve written and sold re-tellings of “Sleeping Beauty” and “Hansel and Gretel.” I’ll write what I write, and it’ll either sell or it won’t.

Besides, it’s a bad idea for me to try to comprehend the vagaries of marketing. Down that road lies madness. MADNESS!!

New words: Not so much new, as many, many, many rewrite passes on a story I wrote in 2002. I thought the thing was clean and just wanted to glance it over before sending it out, and instead found myself appalled at how clunky my prose was. Spent the day doing a massive overhaul. The story’s the same, but the mechanics of telling it are much changed. Makes me a little frightened about what some stories I’ve got making the rounds from a couple years ago may look like.

Anyway, the story is spruced up and I’m much happier with it. Sent it out to meet the world with its new face-lift.

Club 100 For Writers
      56

500/day
      107

Pie, cookies, and a chocolate chip for our chocolate chip

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Baked veggie pot pie and chocolate chip cookies the other day in an effort to make our Halloween-decorations-go-down-Christmas-decorations-go-up efforts merry and festive rather than tedious and chore-like. Managed to drop a semi-sweet chocolate chip on the floor, and before I could retrieve it, our chocolate chip Mephitis mephitis lunged and nabbed it. I grabbed him and tried to get it out of his mouth, but the very best way to encourage Hobkin to gulp something is to pry at his jaws and stick your fingers in his mouth while shouting “Drop it!”

Sigh. Silly beastie. Can’t really blame him. I mean, it’s chocolate.

I stressed. He’s fine. Not even an upset tummy. Apparently chocolate frosting on a birthday candle or a single semi-sweet chocolate chip isn’t enough to even faze a skunk’s digestive tract. But I really need to be more careful. Hobkin appears to have acquired both a taste and a nose for the stuff, and can pounce and swallow faster than I can bend and snatch.

Also, on the laptop front, I updated the BIOS (thanks for the suggestion, cyber_pagan) and am now waiting to see if that did any good. And, I’ve been working off battery more often–although the amount of time a fully charged battery provides is downright pathetic–to see if the shut down happens while solely on battery. So far, one day and no mysterious power outage . . . and counting.

   


Writing Stuff

Did some research on an Egyptian myth that I think I’d like to turn into a retelling to try on Cricket, but it’s really hard finding source material. It’s the Unut/Wenet and Wepuat/Un-nefer/Osiris moon-hare tale. I’m good with Osiris, but I’d really like more info on Unut/Wenet.

If I continue to come up dry on the source material front, I’m leaning toward retelling the Greek Arachne Myth instead. But I worry that that myth is simply too well known, and therefore done. I’d ask fosteronfilm if he’s heard of Arachne, but he’s not much of a myth/folklore/fairy tale sort and nine times out of ten he’ll give me “huh” face for even the most well known myths. So I can’t count on him being unfamiliar with a myth necessarily indicating that it’s obscure. But just because I know a myth backward and forward, it doesn’t mean it’s common knowledge either. Grumph. I need a control group. Or . . . a poll!

New Words: -500 on “Rue and Ruin.” Culled about 500 words and foisted it on the hubby. He thinks I should turn it into a novel. Yup. Also, I went back and looked over the anthology guidelines. Doh! When I thought they’d said a max word count of 12K, it was actually 20K, so I’m going to put back in some of the bits I pulled out.

Zokutou word meter
12,776 / 12,000
(106.5%)

Club 100 For Writers
      55

500/day
      106

A day of writing

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Greatly appreciate everyone’s thoughts on my laptop issues. Going to systematically try out y’all’s suggestions and then I suspect I’ll be making a trip down to Microcenter (thanks, roget!) to consult with their HP service folks. Might as well take advantage of the warranty while it’s still valid.

   


Writing Stuff

New Words: 2300 on “Rue and Ruin.”
Hit zero draft! Woohoo! At 1K over the maximum word length. Boo.
Today, editing editing editing. And then foisting it on fosteronfilm. I wonder if I can cut 1K?

Zokutou word meter
13,106 / 12,000
(109.2%)

Club 100 For Writers
      54

500/day
      105

Skirmish one with the HP folks in India. Score = Eugie 0: HP -1

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Spent 2.5 hours doing an online chat with the HP tech folks in India. I flummoxed the first two to the point of hanging up on/disconnecting me, and the last one finally tossed a free piece of hardware my way to get rid of me.

I’m nice. Really, I am! I never shouted, or swore, or got impatient, or said mean things. I just wanted to know why my laptop was shutting itself off, and what the “solutions” they were suggesting would accomplish, and why they were suggesting them. Also, the directions (obviously pulled from an online procedure manual) for some of them were incomplete, and I wanted clarifications (for e.g. one of them listed a series of steps, including removing the battery, but never said when to put the battery back). When they endeavored to explain what these solutions did, it seemed to me that they were unlikely to solve my issue, so I voiced my concerns and asked if they could address them. Apparently, that stumped them.

Well snartleblast.

After the second one disconnected me, the third one decided that it was an A/C adapter problem, despite the fact that I’ve never lost power or gotten a low battery error message, and the shut down is completely different from a “you need to charge your battery” automatic hibernation–which I explained to him several times. Also that it’s not a power surge because I’m plugged into a surge protector. But he decided that it was indeed a problem with the adapter, and he’s sending me a replacement.

Amusingly, when each one first started their chat with me, their English was flawless–obviously taken from a script. But as I asked harder and more in-depth questions, their grammar and vocabulary skills took serious nosedives. The poor things. Their spelling was still better than most Americans’, though.

So after two and a half hours and three help desk folks, I get a free A/C adapter. Um. That’s nice and all, but I’m dubious that this will fix my problem. I did do the steps they suggested: Power Drain, Reset the BIOS Defaults, Reinstall Power Management, and Disable “restart on system failure.” However I think it’s unlikely that will have accomplished anything–aside from wiping out any BIOS setting changes I might have made.

Well, a new A/C adapter will be nice. I can have one upstairs in the library and one downstairs in the living room. And I don’t feel like I totally wasted a huge chunk of my afternoon.

Oh yeah, my laptop shut itself off again this morning, about ten minutes after I started it. That implies to me that it’s not an overheating issue. I also tried to install a CPU temperature monitoring utility as per dude_the‘s suggestion, but I don’t think my laptop has the appropriate motherboard sensor that the utilities check and report on. And I can’t for the life of me figure out how to find out what make/model, etc. my motherboard is.

Hardware problems make me twitch.

   


Writing Stuff

New words: 600 on “Rue and Ruin.”
The time spent flustering the HP folks ate into my writing time. I also discovered I needed a bridging scene. Wrote that, and I still have one more scene to go. Getting there. Slowly . . .

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
11,424 / 12,000
(95.2%)

Club 100 For Writers
      53

500/day
      104

Post-gluttony-day

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Feasted on a very traditional T-day dinner of faux bird, mashed potatoes, mushroom gravy, cranberry sauce, and cherry pie. Stuffed to my eyeballs, yep. Hobkin even got a bit of the cranberry sauce, which he was quite enthusiastic about.

After dinner, I embarked upon my great Doctor Who burn. Visit to the post office to commence today or tomorrow.

I think cyber_pagan‘s hypothesis is right regarding the cause of my spontaneously shutting down laptop issue. The thing turned itself off twice when I was working on it yesterday. This strange behavior started after I began my “I need to act like a professional writer, dammit” kick and commenced locking myself away in the library every day and doing writing jags for ten+ hours straight. I think I’m overworking my poor system. The fan comes on regularly–too often?–but I’m wondering if it’s not able to keep the CPU cool enough. Plus, the library is a much smaller room, with little ventilation when I have the door closed, which I usually do when I’m writing. I’m thinking of lugging the flatscreen monitor and a keyboard upstairs, and hooking them to my laptop. That ought to ease the heat output . . . I think. Plus it’ll be a nicer station to work on–bigger keyboard and monitor. Err, except I don’t have a USB mouse, which would make functionality awkward. Damn, I need a docking station!

I wonder how well those lapdesk thingies work–the ones that are supposed to help distribute heat.

Maybe it would help the thing stay cool if I scheduled a few 10-minute breaks throughout the day, letting it hibernate and cool off for a bit? That would be annoying, as I really don’t like taking breaks, but I suppose it’s better than giving myself minor heart attacks when my computer suddenly turns itself off.

   


Writing Stuff

Heard back from Faeries, the French ‘zine that reprinted a translation of “The Storyteller’s Wife.” They said they sent my contrib. copies a couple weeks ago, and are puzzled why I haven’t received them yet. And they need a BIC/SWIFT number, which is some sort of international bank ID, along with my bank/account information in order to do an electronic transfer of my payment. Unfortunately, I have no idea what my BIC/SWIFT number is. I probably need to call my bank to find out. Sigh.

New Words: 800 on “Rue and Ruin.” One scene down, one to go. It’s possible that I may be able to get to zero draft on this one today. Maybe.

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
10,781 / 12,000
(89.8%)

Club 100 For Writers
      52

500/day
      103

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Much has changed in the time between today and last year’s Thanksgiving, but y’know, I find that I’m still thankful for the same things, and I consider myself extremely lucky to still have them to be thankful about.

Therefore, I’m going to repeat my Thanksgiving post from last year. If I never have to change this list in the years to come, I will consider my life blessed.

Things I am thankful for:
1. My husband, Matthew. He is my best friend, the love of my life, and my soul mate. He can make me laugh, a gift I cherish more and more in this scary world, and he holds me when I cry. His sense of whimsy delights me, and his intellect thrills me. He completes me in every way. He is my shelter, my harbor, and my sanctuary.
2. Hobkin, for all the love and trust the little fuzzwit warms my life with every day. And the cuteness. Mustn’t forget the cuteness.
3. Family. Something I have not been able to be thankful for for a very large chunk of my existence–so long I’d almost forgotten how comforting it is to be able to have people who love me as a daughter and sister. I’m thankful for the reminder and the reality.
4. My friends: near, far, offline and on.
5. That my health, as crappy as it is, isn’t worse, as it could so easily be. I can dance, hear the music which is my husband’s laughter, see the adorable fuzzy beastie frisking at my feet, and hold them both close. Not everyone is that fortunate. And I am thankful that I can afford the medicines that keep me (mostly) well.
6. That I have the ability to compose creations of prose that I believe in and that others believe in (and that they want to pay me for). While my storytelling and literary skills are far below many people’s whose work I admire, I am improving year by year.
7. My beautiful home where I may run around in panda slippers and nothing else, and it’s all good.
8. That I am not hungry or cold.
9. That I believe in and love myself, a state hard won.
10. That I have the freedom to chase my bliss, even if I don’t exercise that freedom all the time.

   


Writing Stuff

My Carnifex Press interview has been published. The formatting seems a bit off–all of my italics were lost and every time there’s a website URL, a line return follows it, which looks weird–but it’s up. Go read. There was shameless plugging.

New Words: -600 on “Rue and Ruin.” Yes, I’m going backward. My anxiety over the length overcame me, and I spent yesterday doing a rigorous editing pass on the story to-date. Feeling better about it, as I did indeed pare off some bloat, but I still have at least two scenes left, and under 2K to do them in.

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
10,015 / 12,000
(83.5%)

Club 100 For Writers
      51

500/day
      102

Laptop anxieties

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My laptop has spontaneously turned itself off a couple times in the last few days. The first time, I thought I’d accidentally hit the little hibernation switch which activates when the lid is closed, but the second time I wasn’t anywhere near it. And even if I had toggled the switch, it ought to have put itself into hibernation, not turned itself off. Fortunately, I didn’t lose any data–I hit SAVE like someone with an obsessive-compulsive disorder, and Word’s automatic recovery snagged the files I had open both times–but my anxiety levels are spiking.

   


Writing Stuff

Got the interview questions from Aberrant Dreams. For the most part, they’re the normal fun/fluff/quirky silliness I’d expect, but there’s a couple notable exceptions. There’s one question asking my opinions on Kafka and de Maupassant with regard to their modern marketability, and one asking me to deconstruct several works with regard to the psychological impact of their literary technique. Erm. When I read those, I suddenly felt like I was back in grad. school during test time, or maybe filling out grad. applications–you know the kind where they want you to answer a couple essay questions to evaluate your knowledge and writing ability. I’m not sure if I should try to compose a treatise of “Eugie’s Literary Theories”–which I can’t imagine anyone would want to read–or blither about what I think of Kafka, the works in question, et al, or if I should just try to come up with something funny. *blink* It’s certainly an interesting set of questions.

If folks want to see what I come up with, the interview should come out in their January issue.

Received:
– Final approval from the editor on “Princess Bufo marinus, I Call Her Amy.” Woohoo!
– My contrib. copies of Fantasy Magazine #1. (Still awaiting payment, though.)
– An email from Story Station two months after I queried them, letting me know they’re still considering my submission. Going on a total of six months that they’ve held that story. Their GLs say they aim for a one month turnaround and to query after two. Grumf.

New Words:
– 200 or so on the requested editorial changes on “Princess Bufo marinus, I Call Her Amy.”
– 700 on “Rue and Ruin.” I’m beginning to get anxious about the sprawling word count on this one. I’ve still got at least two scenes to go before the end, and less than 1.5K to do them in. Miss Muse is apparently feeling verbose, the contrary floozy!

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
10,659 / 12,000
(88.8%)

Club 100 For Writers
      50

500/day
      101

LJ buggins and Highlander

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20 Comments

I noticed that LJ appears not to be emailing comments to me. How annoying. I know they went through a big server move recently, so I’m hoping it’s due to that and will resolve itself soon.

fosteronfilm put on our laser disc of Highlander to watch at around 2AM last night, and I woke up enough to peer groggily at the first half, and then fell back asleep. But the Queen song “Who Wants to Live Forever” has seeped into my subconscious and I can’t shake it free. A couple measures of the eponymous chorus keeps playing over and over in my head. Makes me want to go postal with a spork–stabbity stabbity. Agh!

   


Writing Stuff

Much editing and rewriting happened on “Princess Bufo marinus, I Call Her Amy.” The editor has a few more changes he wants, and then it’s done done done. I hope.

Got a flier JPEG from Aberrant Dreams for the signing at Oxford Comics and Games in February. It’s preeeetty:


Clickie to see it full-sized.

Words: Um, let’s just call it 500 on “Rue and Ruin.” There was much furious typing, and then much frenzied cutting. The net gain is only a couple hundred, but looking at it that way makes me want to grind my teeth, so I’m not gonna. (Hmm, I wonder if this urge to spork and gnash could be an Effexor side-effect? I hope not.)

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
9,963 / 12,000
(83.0%)

Received:
70-day rejection from Mslexia for their Deadly Sins anthology after making their short list. Snartleblast. A lot.

Club 100 For Writers
      49

500/day
      100

Bufo marinus resolution

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6 Comments

Thanks to everyone who participated in my poll and chimed in on my title quandary from yesterday. It was close, but the majority opinion went with “Princess Bufo marinus” over “Princess Bufo Marinus.” Also, the editor stated his preference and it matched the majority vote.

I know a lot of you on my flist are writers, but I’ve also got my fair share of science-minded people on my flist. I wish now that I’d also created a supplementary poll to see how the numbers spread out between literary people, scientific people, and folks who were both or neither. The scientist in me is all bubbling with curiosity.

I sent my rewrite of “Princess Bufo marinus, I Call Her Amy” to my editor and he’s sent back his edits. Another pass or two and I should be done with it. Hurray!

New words: 700 on “Rue and Ruin” with some bloat pared off in an editing pass.

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
9,780 / 12,000
(81.5%)

Club 100 For Writers
      48

500/day
      99