Author Archives: Eugie Foster

Did some pruning and another 1000-words on the Urban Fantasy piece, and it’s complete! Woohoo! Zero draft! Going to have Matthew first reader it, and then up to Critters it goes. Got a story due up this week, and I suspect Andrew is having another double or triple weeker for the holidays. Also, the Creative Loafing contest should be notifying entrants of the outcome soon. As the odds are that will be a resounding rejection, I’ll need to try to coordinate that story into the queue as well. Think I’ll be using an MPC somewhere in there.

But it’s done! Very pleased to have cranked out another story before the year’s end. It clocked in at 7300 words, word processor count. Which, unfortunately puts it at 8400ish, manuscript count. Going to try to do some judicious cutting in my editing and rewrites, but it’s still going to be a hard sell due to length. Sigh.

In a flurry of glow-of-accomplishment, I’m tempted to crack open the novel again, see if I can’t make some headway on it. We’ll see.

Did a lot of present wrapping last night. Hobkin “helped.” He punctured a wrapped parcel with his fangs, flopped on me with great determination so I had to have Matthew fetch paper and tape for me and contort to wrap and ribbon, and he attacked a hapless box of Styrofoam peanuts. He actually ate one of them, which if he were a ferret, would have me panic-stricken and in tears at the vets, having them do ultrasounds/x-rays/etc. to see if he had an obstruction and was in need of emergency surgery. But we’re wise to the ways of skunk-kind. Now.

Early on, when Hobkin was still a youngster, he got hold of a Styrofoam packing peanut before we could get it away from him. Matthew and I grabbed him and forced open his mouth and fished most of it out. Hobkin, while being young, had a full-grown set of teeth. It is very hazardous removing something from the jaws of a skunk that is determined to keep it. Both Matthew and I emerged bloody and swearing from that venture. After bandages and antiseptic were applied, we anxiously contacted the Skunk Chat community, gave Hobkin some feline hairball remedy, and fretted. As the Skunk people reassured us, skunks are not ferrets. What’s life-threatening for a ferret is a light snack for skunk-kind. Still, we’re trying to avoid feeding Styrofoam to our little fuzzbutt. I can’t figure out why he loves the stuff.

Writing stats:

Polyphony 4 said “no.” Rats.

69-words on a flash piece for NFG‘s 69-er contest. My fascination with the platypus from the nature show I saw last week didn’t seem like enough to merit a full short story. But a 69-word flash piece? That’s an appropriate length. Fun, light, and short. Cool if it gets published, and I’m only out 69-words if it doesn’t.

750-words on the Urban Fantasy. Argh. My momentum is waning! Must. Maintain. Impetus. *gasp* I’m almost at the climax with the dénouement to follow. But I’m already at 7500-words, manuscript count. My awareness of hitting the “unsellable” length is weighing down my progress. Will. Finish. Story. Dammit. I-think-I-can . . .

Sunday we did a slew of Christmas shopping. Almost finished with it. Still got a few more things to pick up, but we’re in the homestretch.

I also got new shoes! I’m a total shoe-a-holic, and I’ve been very good for a long time now, not picking up any new pairs for ages and ages, no matter how strappy or shiny or sexy. But I was lured to the shoe displays at the mall and showed Matthew the shoes I had on–cracked soles, worn sides, heels uneven from wear, and no longer impervious to water (don’t they just sound pathetic?)–and he agreed that I should buy some shoes. So I went skipping down the Payless aisles and now have three new pairs. I adore Payless. Since I don’t buy or wear leather, my options are extremely limited. But hurray to Payless and their “all man-made materials.” Cheap footwear that doesn’t compromise my pro-animal ethics. Gotta love it.

Writing stats:

700-words on the Urban Fantasy piece and I’m beginning to get anxious at its length. Dammit. I’m looking at another novelette here. Maybe I should just stamp “unsellable” on it and have done with it.

Abyss & Apex said “no” to a flash piece, although Leah was very complimentary about it. That’s, um, seven for this month. This counting rejections by the month thing is getting depressing.

I expect to hear from several markets this week, or perhaps next. Polyphony is due to start sending out rejections this week, the Creative Loafing contest should have their winners lined up “on or around” the 17th, Phobos said they’d have final judging done by mid-December in time for Christmas (although I expect them to be tardy if they follow their usual modus operandi), and Carina said she was picking up a new batch of slush for RoF. Plus I’ve got manuscripts at the usual fast-response suspects.

Also, I queried Dreams of Decadance again about the story the editor’s been holding for nearly two years. I’d have thought it was a lost cause long ago, but I got a note from her saying that she was holding it for consideration and “quite likely to buy it” way back in May of ’02. Makes me inclined to keep my hopes up and my patience screwed to its sticking place. But I’ve queried several times since then, both email and snail mail, and haven’t got any sort of response since. Gurgle.

I’m beginning to jones for another sale, which is ludicrous since I made four sales in November and three in October. I should be cruising on my fix high. But I’m all twitchy about scoring my next one. It’s like I’m mainlining on sales and I still keep needing more and more and more. Agh! I’m a junkie!

Finished the rewrite on the Science Fiction piece. Finally. Normally I like to do a rewrite as soon as I get all of the critiques in so the ideas and comments are fresh and percolating in my head. But this one I had to sit on for a while. I got so tired of looking at it I couldn’t bear the idea of cracking it open one more time.

But enough is enough. I finished my statistical analysis of peoples’ comments, jogging old thoughts on plans for my rewrite in the process, and then dove in.

The fork is more than stuck in; it’s jammed up to the hilt, quivering. I find myself wondering if I should have put in another flashback or more heavy-handed foreshadowing, even though I did flash and shadow in my rewrite, but I’m not going to second guess myself. I’m done with it. Done done done! And out it goes. Fwoosh.

Just in time too. My magic realismish piece comes up in the queue next week on Critters and I’m still wrangling with the Urban Fantasy. I’m glad I cleaned something off my plate.

On the Urban Fantasy front: 1000 more words. And some polishing. It’s falling into shape. I think. Rah.

I tipped over extremely early last night. Woke up before my alarm, but that still clocked me as getting nearly ten hours of sleep. This is ridiculous. I think my meds are going wonky on me again. I really should not need that much sleep, dammit.

And I still had to have two cups of java to get me going.

Maybe I’m doing a winter hibernation thing. Well, it would make some sense. Hobkin is definitely in eat-sleep-eat-sleep mode. And he’s got the chub to prove it. Unfortunately, so do I.

Perpetual New Year’s resolution: lose 10 lbs.

Writing stats:

Deleted 900 words on the Urban Fantasy in a fit of inspiration and pique. Replaced them with 1300 new and hopefully better ones.

Received the contracts from both Song of the Siren and Another Showcase. Now the big question, will I also receive the payment for both of those stories before the end of the year? If I do, I believe I’ll break even, financially speaking, on my writing this year. If I don’t, I’m in the red. But either way, I’ll be well into the black next year.

All the big paying markets seem to only pay on publication. Sigh.

After some preliminary figuring (preliminary because there’s still two and a half more weeks left of this year), it would seem that my postage costs for this year are coming in at around $170. That’s less than what it was last year, despite having more stories in circulation. I suspect I’m seeing a slight dip in expenses because I’ve been trying to seek out more markets that accept esubs as well as trying to minimize the number of overseas subs I’ve been sending via post. It also didn’t hurt that I sold four stories on their first trip to market this year, minimizing my postage output on those. Gotta love that.

Received a couple rejections: a 20-day form (I think it’s a form, I’ve never subbed to them before) from Pedestal and a 62-day “no, but send more” from Challenging Destiny. When I saw the Canadian postage on my SASE in the mailbox from CD, I got all excited and anxious, wondering if this was finally going to be On Spec either buying or turning down the story they’ve had since March. But it wasn’t. Pook.

That makes four rejections for December. And the RM leader is still, I believe, at fifteen.

I’ve said it before; I’ll say it again. I hate Mondays. Just could not get into gear yesterday. Brain felt like it was coated in viscous ooze. The cold didn’t help matters, of course. I just wanted to pull the covers over my head when my alarm went off. Brrr.

Watched Branagh’s Henry V on Sunday. Yes, the man does Shakespeare good. Haven’t heard much from him these days. Wonder what project he’s working on now? It’s a true pity that he and Emma Thompson broke up. They had excellent chemistry.

Also watched True Lies. That is one of my all-time favorite spy-genre and Arnold movies. Much fun.

All writing efforts have sputtered to a painful pause until my brain can fully engage again. Managed to crank out another 800 words pre-Monday, though.

On an up note, Another Showcase, the fiction project being assembled by a co-Critter that accepted my story “An Interesting Week for Emmy” appears to be live. He’s got it up and running with a cover page, artwork, author’s page, and stories. There’s some formatting/HTML glitches I saw, but overall it looks pretty good. I think he’s still working on it as the publication date is supposed to be January 2004.

My first published-online full story. I still prefer hardcopy publication, but there are virtues to having more of an online presence.

Waiting for my check now . . . although I don’t know how he’s going to pay me. He’s a UK bloke. Initially there was talk of him issuing a check in sterling, but I suggested PayPal, and haven’t heard back from him. Need to call my bank and find out how much they charge for me to deposit foreign currency checks. Hmm.

Went to see Henry IV part II at the Shakespeare Tavern last night. It was excellent, just excellent. The battle and plot bits were fairly uninspiring, but they always have been with that play. It’s like an editor took Bill aside: “It’s got great character development, but we really need an action scene in the middle.” But the Falstaff parts were fabulous; they pretty much stole the show. And I loved the stereotypical Jewish Mother a la Richard IV to Prince Hal in the death scene. Funny, touching, and poignant. Very well done. And again, I must give mad props to the Shakespeare Tavern for their excellent production.

Now I want to see Henry V. Maybe when Matthew wakes up we’ll break out the Branagh DVD.

And, now that I’ve made a good start on that Urban Fantasy piece, I suddenly have an urge to try my hand at steampunk. Hmm . . .

DEVIL/PAN
“the joker, worker, stabilizer”
You are gifted when it comes to protecting yourself
from judgements cast upon you by others. In
fact, you are not easily thrown by external
reality. You have the capacity to work and
play hard and to laugh at yourself. This is
the card of humour and sexuality (it is the
only card with genital symbols).
“Devil” spelled backwards is
“lived”, and it is very fitting. You
live with humour and have a stable foothold on
life. Of course, you do love setting the
occasional bit of mischief into play.

which major arcana of the thoth tarot deck are you? short, with pictures and detailed results
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