Author Archives: Eugie Foster

Went to see Henry IV part I at the Shakespeare Tavern yesterday. It was amazing. The Falstaff parts overshadowed the political bits, as is to be expected. They have an incredible Falstaff, the same actor who plays the part in Merry Wives of Windsor. I’m pretty sure he’s their “standard” for that role.

Normally, the histories aren’t my favorite of ole Bill’s works, but the Tavern did an incredible job bringing to life the characters, which is really the truly interesting part, seeing the development of Prince Hal.

I’m greatly looking forward to seeing Henry IV part II next month.

Writing stats:
Got a rewrite request from the Critter who’s putting together an online showcase. I did a cursory look over of the piece before I submitted it to him, but after I got his rewrite suggestions (mostly tightening), I cracked it open with new eyes. I haven’t really read the story since I completed it and started sending it out, around a year+ ago. My writing skills have improved a lot since I wrote that story. It definitely needs streamlining and a rigorous spit polish. Rolled up my sleeves when we got back from the play and started digging in. I plan to dedicate a good portion of today to it.

But he sounded pretty interested in taking the piece, pending my rewrite. I’m quite pleased.

Had a fabu evening last night. glenn5 came over bearing Mildred Pierce on DVD and key lime pie! Matthew cooked up some yummy stir fry, and the vidfest commenced. Excellent dinner, excellent dessert, excellent company (we must do it again soon!). I could definitely see Curtiz’s influence, which is a good thing, although it was difficult empathizing with any of the characters as they were, for the most part, uniformly slimy. The dialogue was lustrous in places, though. Curious about the book now. Afterward, the menfolk chatted about the vagaries and idiosyncrasies of Film Noir while I squeezed a very snuggly Hobkin.

Surprising me, Hobkin didn’t stomp once at glenn5 even though he’d never met him before. Our fuzzbrain is getting very laid back. It’s a good thing.

Writing stats:
Finished the rewrite on the SF piece and sent the new version up to Critters to replace the original draft. Should be going up this week.

I read through my story in In the Outposts of Beyond. While I love the anthology, I’m a little disappointed with the editing. When I initially got my acceptance, the editor and I discussed a couple fixes to the text that I’d missed in my submission–just little typos–one that he’d identified and one that I’d caught upon re-reading. It was just a misspelling and a teeny punctuation fix, but they’re still there in the published version. I know I’m just being persnickety, but it bugs me. I was a little trepidatious about not getting galleys to proof, but since we’d discussed fixes, I assumed it would be taken care of. It looks like he took the file exactly as I submitted it and inserted it into the book.

Considering the length of time this project took, I really would have liked to have seen galleys.

Health stats:
I thought I’d gotten a handle on my meds and my emotional equilibrium, but I feel . . . glum this morning. And my insomnia has returned. My eyes burn and I’m exhausted, but I can’t fall back asleep.

Currently reading book 3 of Tanith Lee’s Secret Books of Venus series. Maybe I’ll bury my nose in escapist fantasy for a bit.

Locus reviewed Hitting the Skids in Pixeltown! It’s short as reviews go, but is overall pretty favorable. I was worried they would totally pan it as the reviewer hasn’t been impressed by the stories appearing in Analog written by one of my co-winners, but it seems thumbs-up. A blurb:

“Hitting the Skids in Pixeltown . . . a showcase of new writers, it’s impressive, and I’ll certainly look to see more work from these folks.”
–Rich Horton

Wonder if Pixeltown will make Locus’ “Best SF Anthologies of 2003” list like its predecessor Empire of Dreams and Miracles did for 2002. That would be cause for cake.

Also received my contrib. copy of In the Outposts of Beyond. Yay!

Still stoked about yesterday’s good tidings.

Writing Stats:
The Creative Loafing story is currently winging its way to the editorial offices. I was feeling masochistic, so I went over the story after mailing it off. Nothing like finding errors or edits you’d like to make but can’t anymore. As it turns out, I only found one thing I wanted to tweak, and it was a small, sentence-level decision, so I’m not feeling too badly about it.

Also had to try to find new places to send the two stories that didn’t make it to the Phobos finalists round. The market I was planning on sending the first of them to is closed to submissions until next week. I guess I’ll have to sit it out until they reopen. The other story is fairly new, but I’m unsure of its market niche. I’ll send it to F&SF while I dwell on other options. It’s a long shot, but then isn’t everything in the publishing biz?

Did about 100 words of polishing and fine-tuning on the SF piece. It’s in better shape now, but I’m still dissatisfied with it. It’s due to go up at Critters next week. Hoping other eyes will be able to see how to fix it or at least what’s wrong with it that’s bothering me so much.

And dude_the sent the pictures he took:
Hobkin all curled up, asleep on the couch:

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I just heard from Phobos! My story “Tried as an Adult” made it to this year’s finalist round of their fiction contest. I’m totally stoked!

Nail biting to commence. I believe they hope to have final judging completed in time for Christmas. Winning again would be a truly fantastic Christmas present. Judges this year include Orson Scott Card again, David Brin, and Stanley Schmidt.

Just got an email from the editor of Song of the Siren. She wants to buy second print rights to “Second Daughter” (which initially appeared in Leading Edge). Hurray! My first reprint sale!

Patrick left on Sunday after muffins and as much coffee as I could get into him and dude_the left yesterday evening on the late-night flight out of Hartsfield. I hate goodbyes.

dude_the took many pictures, mostly of Hobkin, with his new digicam. He’s promised to email them to me.

Spent my writing time yesterday looking for my muse. I think she stepped out for a cigarette and maybe a tall latte, and someone hijacked her. Or she bailed on me, the strumpet. I tried caffeine to lure her back. Then I tried more caffeine. Then I tried sugar to go with the caffeine (and we bid fond adieu to the last of the Halloween Pixie Stix). Result: No muse, but a profound case of the twitches.

So I said: “Screw the harlot. I can write just fine without her.”

Writing stats from yesterday:
100-words, all of them crappy, and all of them blood drenched from my bleeding fingertips.

*whimper*

Hey, I’m not proud. I begged. “Muse? I didn’t mean what I said. Please come back. I’ll make you a brimful pot of Harry & David’s Moose Munch coffee. And we’ll have chocolate and pie. Muse?”

Fortunately, today she took pity on me, assisted by a clever idea brainstormed by Matthew.

Writing stats for today:
2500 words to the theme of “dirt” as per the Creative Loafing Fiction contest (thanks for the head’s up britzkrieg!) and the story is completed. I’m under a very tight deadline as the hardcopy manuscript needs to be with the editors by 5pm Friday. “No exceptions,” they say. So I had Matthew first-reader it as my only reader feedback, eschewing my usual route through Critters. I’ll send it out tomorrow, hoping it’s not too raw. If (when) it comes back, tail between its legs, I’ll send it through the Critters queue for fine-tuning before tossing it out to the usual ravening hoards.

So I hit writing flow, with a few snags here and there. I think I work well with a deadline. Or maybe it was all the coffee.

dude_the and our good friend Patrick from New Orleans are here. I’m so happy to see both of them again!

Friday was excellent fun. britzkrieg joined us for a costumed post-Halloween get-together. Bummed that her SO couldn’t make it, but he’s suffering from crutch-necessitating pain and badness and bowed out. We didn’t watch any of the movies we had been going to, instead putting on Dracula 2000 and Queen of the Damned as background so we could all chat. And then I discover that britzkrieg really doesn’t like vampire flicks. Ooops. But at least they were only background. Lots of excellent conversation and britzkrieg had brought a fabulous selection of fermented hops-related beverages. We did eventually sit down to watch The Uninvited, so there was actual movie watching at our movie-viewing shindig.

Saturday we lounged around the house, getting up-to-date with dude_the and Patrick. And last night we played in one of Matthew’s traditional Halloween RPG games. There was death, there was mayhem, and there were goblins. And we beat the bad guys and solved the puzzle . . . after a painful injury and a nasty limb-rending incident. Rah!

The boys are still sleeping now. Late night gaming followed by later night gabbing, and I’m the only one who the morning calls to, so everyone else is zoned. But I assume people will start stirring soon. Patrick has to take off back for New Orleans in a few hours and I want to make sure he’s well fed and caffinated before he sets off on his long drive.

Hobkin’s been very well behaved for having all these new people invading his territory. We’ve also been dosing him with Rescue Remedy, so that might account for some of it. But he’s been very snuggly and fairly minimal with the amok skunk/stomping behavior.

So this gets my vote for a very good weekend. Zero writing accomplished, but masses of fun had.

Since the skunk show was last weekend, we didn’t celebrate Halloween properly. This weekend we’re having some folks by to make merry and scary to observe the occasion as it should be feted.

Waiting for dude_the to call now. He was supposed to have arrived last night, but he got bounced from his flight so had to reschedule to the early AM flight this morning. He should be calling any minute now to let us know to go fetch him from the Marta station.

Writing stats:
Started on the rewrite of the SF piece. Made some inroads, but I’m still dissatisfied with it.

Not much else to report. Got a couple encouraging rejections from the usual suspects, but a nice “no” is still a “no.” Onward!

Just got word from Cricket. They liked my rewrite and are buying “Winter’s Daughter,” my re-telling of the Japanese Snow Woman folktale! WOOHOO!!

The editor also said that “Razi” is still floating through their editorial. Eee!