Author Archives: Eugie Foster

The Golden Compass

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Caught an advance screening with fosteronfilm of The Golden Compass over the weekend. I’m not sure if it’s because I read the book so recently or whether it’s a reflection of the movie, but it felt cursory, full of narrative intrusion and lacking the depth of worldbuilding that the story has. Still, it was a beautiful film, and I enjoyed it, especially the daemons—also my favorite part of the books*—which were fabulously executed. The filmmakers managed to convey a rich expressiveness of the CGI critters through facial expressions and body language, doing total justice to the visual medium. The acting was solid, too. I was especially impressed by the lead, Dakota Blue Richards. Shiny.

(fosteronfilm wrote a more complete review for anyone interested in his take—also, he hasn’t read the book.)

*I haven’t read the third book yet, so please no spoilers!
   


Writing Stuff

Received:
• Payment from Cricket for “The Tanuki Kettle.”
• Note from basletum inviting me to contribute a nonfiction article to the book on writing he’s putting together for Double-Edged Publishing, Perspectives on Writing. Of course, I said I would.

New Words:
• 1300 words on WiP, “Morozko” (2335/3500). It’s chugging along nicely, although my day job folks keep wanting me to do work . . . sheesh, the nerve . So I haven’t had as much writing time as I expected.

Absentminded Writer

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Well, on the plus side of things, the new story is going well. On the minus side, my brain’s not so much. The other day, I was deep in writer-mode as I stood on the MARTA platform, waiting for the northbound train to take me home—eager/anxious to open up my laptop so I could jot down my ideas before they slipped away. Train pulls in; I scamper to a seat and happily commence typing away.

Twenty-five or so minutes later, end of the line, everyone off. I look up and realize I’m at Doraville, not North Springs.

DOH!!

In my creative fugue, I got on the wrong train. And not only did I fail to notice that the train I was boarding was Doraville-bound, but I also totally missed all of the periodic announcements informing me of that fact—which, in my defense, were far more mumbley than usual.

Had to take the southbound back and transfer to the North Springs line, tacking on another forty-five mintues to my already hour-long, home-going commute. And since I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss the transfer station, I put away my computer and twiddled my thumbs during that leg of it.

Yepper, I’m losing my mind.

   


Writing Stuff

Got in the last crits for “Biba Jibun” (oodles of thank yous to mouseferatu, mroctober, and nikwdhmos), did a final tweak and editing pass, and sent it off to the Datlow/Windling duo. Crossing everything that’s crossable (and one or two things that aren’t) that they like it.

Received:
– Payment and a Christmas bonus Amazon.com gift certificate (!) from my editor for my December (and last) Writing for Young Readers column. *sniffle* I miss that hamster already.
– Note from the CRW folks inviting me to conduct another writing workshop for them. I agreed, so I’ll be teaching an online workshop on Character Development for them next October.

That promises to be enjoyable. “Character development” is much like “adventures and discoveries in psychology” for me. Will post more details and links to register for it down the road.

New Words:
– 1000 on Russian fairy tale re-telling, “Morozko” (working title). I’m thinking this one will come in at around 3.5K, but I no longer trust my word-count-fu. It’s steered me wrong too often recently.

Post-Thanksgiving 2007

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Thanksgiving was lower key than I planned. For most of the weekend, I slumped on the couch, alternating between pitiful whimpers and pained moans. Between the little men hammering inside my skull, the sundry aches and soreness of the rest of me, and a queasy tummy from popping Tramadols*, I only managed to venture forth from the house once.

Hobkin and fosteronfilm took turns sitting with me and being comforting, of which I am verily thankful for.

I think a weather-related pressure change is the culprit. I’m better now, although my sinuses are still giving off threatening twinges, and my shoulder is one shrug away from becoming (once again) a knotwork of “ow.”

*How in the name of anything holy could anyone even consider using Tramadol recreationally? I took two 50mg pills, twice a day—less than the maximum dose specified on the bottle, let me add—and even the thought of food made me turn green(er).

   


Writing Stuff

Less writing got done than I’d hoped over the holiday weekend, but then, I usually accomplish less than I plan to over holidays. Good intentions, foo.

Received:
• Contract from Llewellyn Press for “A Nose for Magic.”
• 253-day cordial pass from Aberrant Dreams.
• Invite from squirrel_monkey to submit to a Russian themed anthology she’s editing. It’s the next (I assume) in an anthology series, forthcoming by Prime Books, each drawn from a different world mythology (the first being Japanese Dreams which includes my story, “The Tears of My Mother, the Shell of My Father”—due out this monthish). Of course I said “yes.” I love world folklore/mythology/fairy tales, and this will give me an opportunity to explore in greater depth Russian fairy tales, which I’ve always adored.

New Words/Editing:
• 1000 words on my last (*sniffle*) Writing for Young Readers column: “Happily Ever After.” I thought it fitting that the topic for the final one be “endings.” Did several clean-up passes and sent it off to the editor.

And thus, I set down another hamster and bid it a teary farewell.

Published:
• “The Raven’s Brocade” in the December issue of Cricket:

I’ve said it before, but it bears saying again. I really love seeing my stories in Cricket. The artwork which accompanies them is always so wonderful.


Illustrations for “The Raven’s Brocade” by Nicole Wong

Stupid human skin woes. Ow.

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It’s been a while since my wingstubs and/or shoulder have troubled me, but this weekend, my painfree stretch ended in a triple encore presentation of wingstub aches, shoulder spasms, and a headache. Ugh. Not sure if my wingstubs freaked out my shoulder which caused my headache or my headache made my shoulder tense up which aggravated my wingstubs, or any of the myriad possible cause-and-effect scenarios, but the outcome was me whimpering on the couch for two days straight. I even took two Tramadols last night. One usually zonks me out and leaves me woozy (but painfree and happy) the next morning, but two didn’t even make me yawn. And my shoulder still feels like a twisted knot of unhappiness today. Wah!

I wonder if it’s a delayed tension/stress reaction from last month. If so, I’m grateful for the delay, as I couldn’t have afforded to lose a weekend in October, but I’m even more perplexed by the mystery which is my physiology.

fosteronfilm made sympathetic noises, plied me with snackie tidbits, and let me use him as a shoulder support, and we had a Kevin Kline romantic comedy marathon, starting with Dave, then progressing to In & Out, Fierce Creatures, French Kiss, A Fish Called Wanda, and wrapping up with Soapdish. So yeah, not great on the productivity front, but it did force me to have a leisurely weekend.

   


Writing Stuff

The senior editor of Mirrorstone Books sent out a little promo meme to the authors of Magic in the Mirrorstone for their website, and a meme is meant to be posted. Ergo, my answers:

My Name: Eugie Foster

Title of story in Magic in the Mirrorstone:
“Princess Bufo marinus, Also Known as Amy”

Sum up your story in one sentence:
A modern-day adaptation of “The Frog Prince” where a young man’s loyalty and compassion will decide the fate of an imperiled PDA, an overdue English paper, and Amy, the frog—err, toad—princess.

When I was a teen, I thought I would have a career as a:
Psychologist. Up until my second year of graduate school, I expected my future to be filled with lab coats, clipboards, and enigmatic statements of “hmmm.”

Favorite book when I was a teen
I can’t pick just one! Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein, Dune by Frank Herbert, Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, The Silver Metal Lover by Tanith Lee . . .

Favorite magical spell?
Brain Clonus Temperarus – I need a second brain I can sit in a corner that can read everything piled up in my library that I haven’t been able to find the time for.

If I could have one magic item, what would it be?
A Stick of Prodding. Also being an editor, I find myself frequently needing to poke, prod, cajole, and coerce other writers come deadline crunch. I can see it now: “Hey, your article’s due tomorrow!” *prod* “How’s the assignment coming along? *poke* Actually, could I have a Stick of Time Multiplication instead?

Which is better: zombies or unicorns?
Can I get a zombie unicorn?

Why you should read Magic in the Mirrorstone
Because it’s brilliant, of course!

Received:
– 31-day personal pass with feedback and an invite to try again from Clockwork Phoenix.

Is that . . . ? Yes, yes it is. An even keel!

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Had a follow-up appointment with my rheumatologist. Also had to jump through fiery hoops of doom to get my Adderall refilled through my p-doc. The clinic where both are located is somewhat out of the way for me, and with Adderall being a controlled med, Murphy guffaws big-time if I try transferring it to another pharmacy since they can’t fax or otherwise electronically transfer the ‘scrip like other meds. Experience has taught me such attempts only bring about debacles galore, ergo the whole two birds, one stone thing.

But I should have known to expect a headache. It’s always a huge fiasco whenever I need to get a refill, made worse by the egregious ineptitude of my HMO who won’t allow fosteronfilm to take care of the red tape for me, despite my having filled out a legal waiver giving my consent and permission for him to do so on my behalf. Add to that the cost we’re paying for health insurance through my employer is increasing by 10% next year and that my HMO is the most expensive one they offer, and it’s aggravating, it is.

I’d want to switch plans, except I really, really adore my rheumatologist. Not only is he the doctor who managed to get me out of a two-month-long flare-up and keep me stable for years now, but he’s a real doctor to me. He treats me like a person, not just a list of symptoms, and actually remembers little personal details about my life and medical history, unlike all the other medical professionals I’ve seen who I doubt would be able to pick me out of a lineup. If I don’t mention something that troubled me in the past (as in years in the past, even), he takes the time to ask about it: whether I’m better, if I’m still experiencing it, etc. He’s a great doctor, probably the best I’ve ever had.

He also makes me giggle. He has a bit of a temper*, but it’s not an evil-scary temper but an endearing-grandfatherly temper. After my appointment, I witnessed a tirade to his nurse about some difficulties they’re having with their computers and the tech support who’re supposed to fix it. It made me twitter and want to give him a hug.

So I guess I’m sticking with my current HMO and health plan, despite all the other myriad aggravations.

*He yelled at me the first time I saw him for not seeing a specialist before about my lupus–which I hadn’t done due to the brilliant advice of my previous doctor who told me–even as my flare-ups were getting more regular, longer, and harder to recover from–to just treat the symptoms when I had them.

   


Writing Stuff

The Fix has reached routine maintenance mode, my deadlines are in a manageable state, and I just finished the story I’ve been fretting about.

It’s official; I’ve hit an even keel.

And it’s . . . weird. I feel downright disoriented not having to juggle a bazillion things at the same time, not freaking out about deadlines, or not stressing about the massive pileup of items on my things-to-do list. Huh.

Well, as predicted, my even keel hit just in time for the holiday chaos to commence, so I can’t imagine it’ll last. Although I think I really ought to want it to last. And maybe now I can get some work down on that %#&@! YA novel that I set aside in June and haven’t picked up since.

New Words:
– 1250 words on “White Rabbit” which I’ve re-titled “Biba Jibun.” Hit zero draft over the weekend and had fosteronfilm first-reader it. It ended up being 6K, and I’m miffed that I couldn’t get it down to 5.5K or less. Importuning a couple other folks to look it over now, and then it’s off to the Datlow/Windling duo.

Meep.

God, I hope it doesn’t suck. When I finished the zero draft, I felt pretty elated, pretty pleased with it. But I gave it a couple days and did an editing pass. Subsequently, I’m far less elated and much less pleased with it.

Again, I say “meep.”

Pagan Fiction Award finalist – “A Nose for Magic”

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So I got a phone call a couple weeks ago from the publisher of BBI Media letting me know that my story, “A Nose for Magic,” is a finalist in the Pagan Fiction Award contest and is slated for publication in their anthology. Unfortunately, I missed the call and it went to my voice mail, but she left a return number. So the next day, I called back . . . and got her voice mail. In addition to leaving a message, I sent her an email.

Several days passed as I gnawed my fingertips (as my nails have, long, long ago, been worn to nubbins). Realizing I needed my fingertips to type with, I emailed the editor.

Crickets chirping.

Agh! Had I been smited by the gods of communication? Had it been a mistake? Did my story actually suck, and they dialed my number in error? Aghhh! *twitch*

But then last night, I got the official press release:

PanGaia Magazine and Llewellyn Publications are pleased to announce the finalists from the Pagan Fiction Award contest. These thirteen stories, listed alphabetically by title, earned the top scores:

• “The Bitter Herbs of Camelot” by A.C. Fisher Aldag
• “Black Doe” by Vylar Kaftan (Yay! Another score for fellow Launchpadee and all around rawking grrl, Vy!)
• “Dead and (Mostly) Gone” by Deborah Blake
• “Draw Down” by Alex Bledsoe
• “From Our Minds to Yours” by C.S. MacCath
• “A Nose for Magic” by Eugie Foster
• “The Rune Hag’s Daughter” by Linda Steele (endelarin)
• “Seabird” by Paula R. Stiles
• “Selk River” by Melodie Bolt
• “Silkie’s Diary” by A.C. Fisher Aldag
• “Under a Double Rainbow” by Sophie Mouette (safirasilv‘s alter ego)
• “A Valkyrie Among Jews” by April
• “We Have Come Home” by A.L. Waldron

First, second, and third prize winners chosen from this list of finalists will be announced at Pantheacon, taking place in San Jose, California February 15-18, 2008.

The stories will appear in a book titled Pagan Fiction Anthology: 13 Best New Pagan Voices to be published by Llewellyn in October 2008.

I’m verily pleased that this story found a good home. It was inspired by and features Hobkin. So, herein, a couple pictures of my non-crack-whore, fuzzy muse:



A close-up of Hobkin’s inspirational nose.

   


(More) Writing Stuff

Received:
• Note from the Cricket folks letting me know that my story, “When Shakko Did Not Lie,” is slated for publication in their January 2008 issue. Woot!

New Words/Editing:
• An editing pass to get my focus back and 250 words on “White Rabbit” (4750/5500). Although the word count was pretty unimpressive, I made good headway on the story progression. I guess I should listen to my crack-whore muse when she drags her feet. I needed a scene in there to establish foreshadowing, and I didn’t realize it. Now that it’s there, I think the rest will progress at a good clip. I hope. I’d really like to get this baby to zero draft by week’s end.


Sexism and Racism in a Workshop Environment

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Rachel Swirsky (velourmane) dropped me an email asking for input on the topic of “How to Deal with Sexism and Racism in a Workshop Environment” for an article she’s putting together. I think it’s a very relevant and interesting topic, one that I don’t recall seeing addressed before. I sent her my $.02 over the weekend, and I’m looking forward to reading her article.

   


Writing Stuff

New Words:
– 850 words on “White Rabbit” (working title). (4491/5500)

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. My muse, she is a sleazy crack whore. This story has a strict word count limit, and musie-poo is all “ooo, let’s add in another scene here, or flesh out this bit of character here.” And when I rein her in, she pouts. Then getting anything out of her is like trying to herd hamsters on speed. @#%^%!

Not a happy writer, me.

Day After Halloween, and all is (mostly) well.

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Happy Day After Halloween! It was a pretty low key All Hallows for us. Didn’t even costume up, not counting my Happy Bunny jammies.

dude_the is here, escaping the Midwest, and we watched The Sixth Sense. And I did not need to cover my eyes, nor did I insist on having fosteronfilm accompany me throughout the house so I wouldn’t be alone in any room . . . unlike the first time I saw it.

In other news, Comcrap annoys me. A lot. They’re in the process of overhauling their online storage setup, and it’s kyboshing every site that I link images to: my LJ, MySpace, etc. It’s been messed up for weeks now, so I finally contacted their unhelpful help people to nag them about it. Outcome: “They’re working on it.” *grumble* They don’t even have a status board or anything that I can check in on. If they weren’t the only outfit in the area that provides cable broadband, I’d switch faster than it takes to fling a hamster in the general direction of the support folks in India.

   


Writing Stuff

Got a note from a student at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem. She’d heard the Escape Pod production of “The Snow Woman’s Daughter” and wanted my permission (and a copy of the text) to illustrate it for a school project. Shiny!

Not only do I believe in supporting students, but I also love seeing how artists interpret my stories. So I sent her a PDF along with my a-ok.

Published:
– My November Writing for Young Readers column is up: “Worldbuilding Considerations for the Children’s Writer.”

New Words/Editing:
– Did an editing pass on the new story I’m writing for the Datlow/Windling anthology to get me back into the swing of it. Cut about 200 words from where I left off, putting it at 3570 words (out of 5.5K or so, I’m hoping).

It’s always sort of scary coming back to a WiP after a hiatus. Will it suck? Will I know where I was going with it? Will I be able to pick up the threads of my inspiration?

After the editing pass, I don’t think it sucks (whew), I know where I’m going with it (whew), and my inspiration is still perky (WHEW). Charge!

My plate o’hamsters is less overfloweth

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Things aren’t yet to an even keel, but they’re getting there. I’ve had several nights in a row now where I’ve been able to get more than five hours of sleep (sometimes up to a full eight!), running The Fix is almost to the point of day-to-day routine (still a few outstanding items that need taking care of), this is the last week of the Worldbuilding for Writers workshop I’ve been conducting all month, and my November Writing for Young Readers column is mostly written.

Huzzah!

I should have all my “t”s crossed and my “i”s dotted just in time for . . . the holidays . . . and then the legislative session begins. Glargh!

Stupid hamsters.

   


Writing Stuff

I saw on slushmaster‘s LJ from the 13th (yah, I’m way behind on my flist) that Shawna liked and will be buying my story, “Daughter of Bótù” for Realms of Fantasy. Woohoo!

This was the story (previously titled, “Fire Rabbit of the Clan of Bótù”) that I wrote for the Ellen Datlow/Terri Windling anthology but which ended up being too long (I’m in the middle of a new story to send to the Datlow/Windling dynamic duo), so I’m absolutely tickled that I was able to find it such a good home.

Congrats also to jimvanpelt, Euan Harvey, and vylar-kaftan (one of my fellow LaunchPadees!) who also made RoF sales from that slush batch!

New Words:
– 1500 on my Writing for Young Readers column, tentatively titled, “Worldbuilding in 2000 words or less.”

Received:
– Word from the editor that Writing-world.com will be cutting back its publication schedule and going to a quarterly timetable at the open of 2008, which means that my Writing for Young Readers column gig will be coming to a close then. At Moira’s recommendation and urging, I queried another publication, asking whether they’d be interested in picking it up, but haven’t heard back. I’ll be sad if I have to lay this hamster aside, as I’ve liked wearing my columnist’s hat, but it’s probably for the best (I tell myself). It’s just not in my nature to put a hamster down, even if I am elbow-deep in the little nippers, so having one hie itself back to the wild is probably a good thing.
– Note from the Cricket folks that my story, “The Raven’s Brocade,” is slated for their December issue. Woot!
– My Magic in the Mirrorstone contrib. copies. Shiny hardcover goodness!

The Fix now live!!

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Sorry for the prolonged radio silence. It’s been a hella busy and very intense couple of weeks. Much hard work and not much sleep. But I’m thrilled to announce that The Fix is now live!

Featuring over twenty new reviews of print ‘zines, e-zines, anthologies, and collections; the inaugural samplings of new columns: Jennifer Mercer’s Distillations: Speculative Poetry Review, John Dodd’s Podcasts in Review, and Matthew M. Foster’s Flickers on the Wall: Reflections on Short Film, as well as the continuation of James Van Pelt’s column on the writing life, The Day Job; and an exclusive interview, our virtual pages are chock full of wonderful content. Please spread the news!

I’m so proud of the dedication and hard work The Fix‘s team of contributors put in to make this launch a success. And I’m honored to be working with them on this exciting, new venture.

I’ve also been teaching an online workshop this month, “Worldbuilding for Writers,” in addition to gearing up for The Fix‘s relaunch. Then there’s that short story I’d like to finish, and I haven’t even started on my November Writing for Young Readers column (although I may end up cannibalizing some of my class write-ups for my it), and there’s still outstanding “to do” things for The Fix.

I think my hamsters have morphed into fluffy wolverines.

   


Writing Stuff

Had a reading on the 4th at Outwrite Books with mroctober and catherineldf. And, urg. It . . . did not go well. Steve and Catherine were great. Me, not so much. In addition to having a head cold to beat all head colds (courtesy my folks who picked up something in their travels) making me nasal and hoarse, the setup totally flummoxed me.

I’ve only ever had a table and/or podium to read from, so it didn’t occur to me that things might be different. My reading copy is loose leaf. That allows me to just move a page over when I’m nearing the bottom so I can continue onto the next page without having to pause to shuffle pages. But the reading setup at Outwrite is bar stools in front of a microphone–and I’m not so good with microphones in any case. No table. No podium. Tall bar stool so my feet couldn’t touch the ground. Also, I’ve never had to worry about time before, and we each only had 15 minutes to read. I didn’t have a watch, and all the clocks on the wall displayed different (wrong) times.

So yeah, much franticness as I nearly drop my pages repeatedly. I ran overtime. Massive stress and public speaking terror. End result, my reading verily sucked. I wanted to crawl into a hole afterward.

Sigh. Well, I’d been on a good roll, starting to get my confidence up and all. The cosmos decided I was overdue for a humbling fiasco. Duly noted. Public speaking bad. I get it.

Received:
– Got a note out of the blue by new, German podcast outfit, Podgeschichten. The editor heard the Escape Pod production of “The Life and Times of Penguin” and wants to translate it into German and produce it for his publication. And they’re a paying market! Of course I said “yes.” Received the contract . . . which was in German, albeit with an English translation, and after having terracinque confirm the translation, we’re all good.

I haven’t been translated into German before. That’ll make it my fifth foreign language. I LOVE having editors solicit work from me.
– Also received word from mroctober that Magic in the Mirrorstone contrib. copies are going out. A pleasant surprise, that. The anthology is slated for a February ’08 release, so I assumed I wouldn’t be seeing it until next year. Sweet.

Published:
– In all the hubbub, I didn’t realize that Hub had published “The Music Company” in issue #26 until I got their PayPal payment. Hee!

They email each issue to me, but I’d been too busy to do anything but forward them on to reviewers. So I totally missed it! Hmm, wonder what else I’ve missed in the chaotic frenzy of the last few weeks . . . probably best not to dwell on that.