Author Archives: Eugie Foster

I’m on the mend. That bug really knocked me for a loop. I’m still a bit shaky, but I can walk around without getting lightheaded. That was weird.

I didn’t, however, let anything as trivial as a fever and headache get in the way of my writing. (Deadline! Deadline! Ping ping ping ping!) I finished the S&S piece I was working on at a ridiculous 9000 words. But, after running it by Matthew, I realized that I do not do my best writing when I’m faintly delirious. So, one re-write later and I’m down to 7500 words and I’ve cut out a whole character. It’s better. Still needs work, but it’s nearly in first draft shape.

The “catharsis” story I’ve got up at Critters right now has received 12 crits so far. Coolness. But I’m hearing repeatedly that readers are finding my ending unsatisfying. Damn damn damn. Will need to re-think it in my re-write. Did I mention “damn”?

Well, the cough did turn into a cold. Woke up this morning with flashing lights in my field of vision and feeling dizzy. Took some pills and went back to bed.

Now I’m all snoggy and headachy. And what’s worse, I appear to have given my cold to both Hobkin and Matthew.

Families are for sharing. Blargh.

Veteran’s day. USPS holiday. Sigh. I’m so mail-oriented.

6000 words into my S&S tale. But that’s real count. Manuscript count is over 7K. I’m kinda rattled at how long it’s become. Acht. I keep telling myself to just finish the damn thing, word length be damned, and then I can go back in and cut as needed. But once I reach this point, knowing how much I’ve got left (certainly over 1K, maybe even 2K), I get inhibited.

Stupid muse.

I liked Angel last night. I laughed much. It was nice, seeing Joss at work again. And then Connor entered. Agh. Went downhill from there in my estimation. And the whole Gunn/Fred relationship thing is now irritating me. What happened last episode should have strengthened their relationship, not weakened it, dammit.

But on a completely lascivious note, Alexis Denisof sure looked sexy. I like what they’ve turned Wesley into. Gives him a yummy edge. Rrrowwl.

Okay, I listened to y’all who said “too grainy, take more pix” and I made Matthew get out the digicam.

This is the picture I think I like the best from the shoot, but there are others I ended up liking too.

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Okay, here’s me being incredibly vain. Phobos has asked me for a picture, bio, and little “what inspired you to write your winning story” essay for their website. I’ve got the bio, and am currently working on the “what inspired me” essay. But I’m dithering on the picture.

I’ve got two shots of me I like, but they were taken in some really dark lighting and are blurry and/or grainy. Even after some photoshopping, they’re still pretty blurry/grainy. And to make matters worse, I can’t decide which one I like better.

I’m soliciting opinions:

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Okay, I was too zingy from the Phobos news to write yesterday, as had been my previous intention. Actually, my plan was to spend this weekend writing, so I’m hoping to make up some lost writing time today.

So, instead of a having a night spent hunched over my laptop, Matthew made chocolate chip cookies to celebrate the Phobos thing and we rented Brotherhood of the Wolf. Cookies good. Mmm. Yummy. Movie . . . well, it was pretty. I don’t think I’m ready for a French costume drama/Hong Kong action flick/werewolf movie. It was rather depressing, as I’ve found French movies often are, and rather fragmented. Characters came and went without me being able to understand their purpose or motivation.

But, it was pretty. The cinematography was A-1 and the fight scene choreography was jaw-droppingly good. But sometimes, pretty just ain’t enough.

Then we hopped into the hot tub. Ahhh. Hot tubby goodness.

I think my light-headedness over the Phobos thing has lifted a bit, although I’m still grinning like a fool. Let’s see if I can get some word count happening.

I just got the notification! My short story “All In My Mind” is a winner of the Phobos 2nd Annual Fiction contest!

$500 and publication in the anthology! I’m so ecstatic my hands are shaking!

Orson Scott Card and Larry Niven read my story and they liked it! EEEEE!

Feeling rather bleak about the outcome of yesterday’s election. Happily, Amendment 6 appears to have passed–or it was certainly going in that direction when I last looked. But everything else. Urg. Enough about that. Too depressing.

Okay, one more thing: can any Floridans tell me if Amendment 10 on your ballot made it?

On a light and fluffy note, Nick, Paul, Matthew, and I went to see Star Wars:Attack of the Clones at the Imax theater at the Mall of Georgia on Saturday. Paul came out of it making “bzzt” and “fwing” noises. Hee. They did a lot of editing to make it Imax-length, and all of the edits were goods ones. Ones they should have made for the normal-sized theater release. And seeing AotC on the really, really big screen is awesome. Even if the close-up head shots got a little overwhelming.

And I liked last night’s Buffy. The scene with **minor spoiler alert** Spike taking the bazooka away from Buffy had me giggling like a maniac **/minor spoiler alert**. But I’m trepidatious about Angel. I really liked what **minor spoiler alert** Gunn did for Fred. I think it ought to cement their relationship, make it stronger, deeper, more intense, but I’m not sure if the writers will agree with my philosophy on relationships. If they don’t, then there’s a huge potential for massive suckitude **/minor spoiler alert**. And from the teaser “next time on Angel” they showed, it looks unlikely that they’ll be touching upon Gunn and Fred’s relationship next week. Ack.

Writing stats:
A slew of rejections in the mail over the weekend to offset the rewrite request from Cricket. I console myself that the majority of them were personal, encouraging, and asked to see more stuff from me. But they were still “no”s. And I’m running out of submission places for one story I’ve been peddling since 2000. I keep getting “we really liked this, the writing was great, I’m sure you’ll sell this one” comments, which are immediately followed by “but not to us”s. Argh.

4500 words into a S&S tale. My first in that sub-genre. Belated but greatly enthusiastic thanks to oracne for the market head’s up. Racing to finish it in time for the deadline. Wow, I’m writing to a deadline. I almost feel all growed up.