Author Archives: Eugie Foster

The Fix, Apex Raffle, Shiny

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Thanks to everyone for the outpouring of support, commiseration, and congratulations on my recent masthead change. Y’all are great, and you make all the hard work worthwhile.

I’m delighted to be able to announce the forthcoming relaunch of the short fiction review publication, The Fix.

From TTA Press, the publisher of Interzone, Black Static, and Crimewave, The Fix online, like its print incarnation, will provide in-depth reviews of short fiction from the full spectrum of magazines, webzines, anthologies, and single-author collections in the industry. We’ll also bring you interviews, a range of features and columns–including the continuation of James Van Pelt’s column on writing, The Day Job–and insightful articles and observations.

URL: www.thefix-online.com
Publisher: Andy Cox
Managing Editor: Eugie Foster
Launch Date: Oct. 15, 2007

If folks could spread the word, it’d be greatly appreciated.

Doing my own part to spread the word:
Apex Digest is conducting a Halloween Grab-Bag Raffle this month. Raffle tickets are only $1, and a percentage of proceeds will go to benefit the National Center for Family Literacy. Check out the amazing collection of goodies and open up your wallets, yo!

   


Writing Stuff

Received:
– Payment from Helix for “The Center of the Universe.”

Published:
– “Close to Death” in the premiere issue of Shiny. Shiny is a new YA electronic short story magazine put out by the fabu folks of Twelfth Planet Press. In addition to my humble offering, Shiny #1 also has stories in it by Sue Isle and Trent Jamieson.
– My October Writing for Young Readers column, “An Interview with Author Dallas Woodburn.”

New Words:
– 3700 words on new short story, “White Rabbit” (working title). Believe it or not, I actually started a new short story. I had to put in on hold so I could work on The Fix, but I hope to get back to it after we launch.

Where do we go from here?/Why is the path unclear?

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So I’m at a bothersome “what next?” juncture in my ceaseless cycle of hamster juggling.

I’ve just finished (*crossed fingers*) one story and gotten caught up with many of the outstanding tasks and correspondences which built up due to Dragon*Con. But I’m so not at leisure to twiddle my thumbs; there remain several fairly major tasks glaring at me in my “to-do” list, including the wistful hem of my languishing novel-in-progress, another couple short stories for anthologies I’ve been invited to submit to, and various and sundry writing-related projects. But I’m undecided as to which one to pick up next. And worse, I’ve got an insidious urge to procrastinate.

Sigh. When I’ve got too many items flying at me to possibly stay on top of, I don’t have to pep-talk myself into getting stuff done. I’m perpetually in full-speed-ahead triage mode. I need every minute to be productive just to avoid being overrun by a stampede of hamsters. But that’s a recipe for nervous breakdown and burnout . . . and nippy hamsters.

There’s gotta be a happy medium, dammit.

   


Writing Stuff

Publishers Weekly reviewed So Fey in their 9/17 issue:

“Despite its provocative title and aggressive opening vignette, sex and sexuality fade into the background of Berman’s quiet compilation of fantasy tales . . . Most tales also feature classic Shakespearean or Celtic-inspired faerie folk, though Eugie Foster’s ‘Year of the Fox’ and Craig Laurance Gidney’s ‘A Bird of Ice’ draw effectively on Asian motifs . . . this anthology is wholly readable and likely to engage general readers as well as its target audience.”

Not too shabby, all in all. And I’m tickled that my story got a mention, even if it’s only to say that it “draws effectively on Asian motifs.”

Received:
– Payment from Hasbro (!) for “Princess Bufo marinus, I Call Her Amy” in Magic in the Mirrorstone. Me likie payment on acceptance.
– My contrib. copy of Heroes In Training. This anthology marks another writerly milestone, my first appearance in a mass market paperback, as well as the achievement of one of my first writing goals, to be published in a DAW anthology. Much wooting and book petting.

Parental visit on the horizon

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My folks are coming to visit this week from China. They’re doing a coast-to-coast swing-by of the U.S., visiting my stepdad’s sons in California, spending several days in Pittsburg at the 2007 IEEE Holm Conference on Electrical Contacts–wherein my stepdad is being presented the “Ragnar Holm Scientific Achievement Award”–and then spending a few days in Atlanta before heading to the Midwest and the East Coast.

The “Ragnar Holm Scientific Achievement Award” is awarded to the “living scientist or engineer who has made significant contributions to the theory or practice of electrical contacts.” In addition to receiving the award, my stepdad’s presenting a paper on the effect of particle contamination on electrical contact failure. It’s a great honor and an impressive accomplishment, and I’m extremely proud of him.

I also find myself wondering, though, why is it I always get along better with or find it easier to establish a rapport with my male relatives? I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen my stepdad, and I feel like I’ve got more in common with him than I ever had with my mom, the woman I grew up with.

Meh. My familial relationships and my associated emotions thereof have always been, are, and will always be a messy, confounding mystery. I accept that.

   


Writing Stuff

Received:
– 124-day SALE to Interzone of my story “Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast.” Woohoo!! Much happy dancing, ye verily. Not only have I been jonsing for a juicy sale, but I’ve also been longing to break into IZ for, like, ever.

This is a science-fantasy tale, my first foray into writing a dystopia piece, which I’d been wanting to do for a while.
– Contract from Shiny for “Close to Death.”
– Contract from Hub for “The Music Company.”

And catching up on R’s received during the chaotic period of Dragon*Con prep and recovery:
– 57-day form nope from Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine (a long shot, but it was for a cross-genre piece that I’m having a hard time figuring out where it fits: horror, dark fantasy, or crime).
– 39-day cordial pass from Ann VanderMeer of Weird Tales with invite to submit again.
– 133-day YFoP from Realms of Fantasy.

New Words/Editing:
– A slew of editing passes–lost count of how many–and a smattering of wordage on “Requiem Duet” over the weekend. Jabbed it tentatively with my fork and fired it off to mroctober.

I’m honestly not sure how I feel about it. I hit the point of going over that story so much that I couldn’t evaluate it anymore–y’know how if you stare at a word for too long, it just doesn’t look right, even if it is. Like that, but with the whole manuscript. Normally, if I hit that point in a story’s development, I step away from it for a week or so to get some perspective back, but I’ve been rather pokey on this one, and I didn’t want to hold things up any longer.

Even Keel Sighted

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With most of my Dragon*Con post-convention to-do items squared away, things are finally settling back into what serves as manageable routine for me. I’ve still got too many hamsters in the air, but not so many that I’m perpetually in a state of stressed out frenzy. I’d much rather be busy than bored, but another month like August would send me, twitching and whimpering, to the comforts of my very own padded cell. This year has been hella manic. And I’m still behind on a couple very outstanding projects . . .

Hobkin has started putting on his winter coat, and he’s been gaining a bit of weight. Ergo, it’s official; he’s metamorphosing from a cranky Summer Skunk into a laid back Autumn Skunk, although there’s still plenty of episodes of huffing and stomping at Chez Foster. The fuzzwit only becomes truly mellow when he’s a Winter Skunk. But his thicker, softer coat is a delight to snuggle with, and even though I get anxious about too much weight gain, the plump look suits him:

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Dragon*Con 2007 part 2

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Still recovering from D*C’07. fosteronfilm has a touch of the Con Crud, and I’m recovering from forgetting to take my Imuran for several days in there. (Whoops.) dude_the wants to establish a system for next year so I don’t forget again. Probably a good idea.

I took very few pictures at the con this year, basically only of folks I know when I remembered to pull out the camera. Herein the ones I got:


My DC2K writers group annual dinner with Ann Crispin. From left to right: Lisa, Nancy, Teresa, Ann, orig_ladycat, reddherring1955, Gwen, aldeygirl.


Three of us wore corsets this year: Me, Debbie, and canadiansuzanne. Maybe I can get all of us in them next year?

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Dragon*Con 2007 part 1

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Dragon*Con is over, and I feel like I’ve been hit by a Mack truck while hung over, a particularly sad state of affairs because nary a drop of alcohol passed my lips for the whole convention. I also forgot to take my Imuran three times and once walked the sixteen flights of stairs up to the (17th floor) Green Room–after waiting fifteen+ minutes for the elevator–on top of the regular stress/no sleep/poor eating habits of the convention. So I ache and I’ve got a low grade fever. Blah.

I’m still processing the weekend, and have lots to catch up on work-wise, so this will be briefish.

There was much that sucked about this year’s con, most of which were things that I had no control over and could do nothing about–such as the Marriott doing renovations and knocking out half a hotel’s convention space for D*C07, the rent-a-crap printers and copiers that made my job that much harder, and the Internet situation in 219 which necessitated that my computer not be networked with any of the others, leading to beaucoup version headaches and having to transfer all DD files using USB thumb drives. But I also dropped the ball on Friday, not getting the DD hardcopy printing before I left to do my guest talk for Ann Crispin’s workshop, making it come out very late. My fault, and I can only plead brain spasm, as I forgot that I needed to get it running in the AM and only realized after I got back that Friday’s edition isn’t on the same timeframe as the rest of the issues.

There was also much that was great about the con, mostly to do with members of my staff. arkhamrefugee and dude_the did their usual awesome job, and also canadiansuzanne, reddherring1955, and Debbie were fabulous. Buckets of huzzah go to sfeley and cunningmix for putting out the DD podcast. And what possibly saved me from totally padded cell/strait jacket losing it, first-time staffer, noelleleithe‘s efficiency and skill, as well as her good humor and great attitude. I’ve had . . . problems with layout people on my staff before. So much so that I’ve sworn never to use one again. But when I heard noelleleithe‘s credentials, I knew I had to give it one more go. And gawd am I glad I did. She rawks and rawks hard. Not only could she do the layout professionally and quickly, but she’s also a sharp editor, even at 3AM.

I also particularly enjoyed doing my talk for Ann this year. I think, after several years now, I might have it down now. And I also enjoyed my Saturday reading. Both surprising as they involved me doing solo talking.

But yah, Mack truck, feeling pained and feverish, and much work to do and catch up on. So that’s installment 1 of my D*C ’07 experience.

And also, the rumors of me reducing an ex-gunnery sergeant staff person (not my staff) to tears are vastly overstated. I did no such thing, although I was insistent and undoubtedly somewhat terse with him.

I did, however, forcibly evict several people off an elevator to make room for a guy in a wheelchair (edited to add: unrelated to the above ex-gunnery sergeant rumor). I probably could’ve handled that better–with greater politeness and poise–although I have no regrets on the end result. So yes, my fuse was short, and I might’ve gotten more ranty and rude than is my norm. But I didn’t make anyone cry, much less a gunnery sergeant . . . I don’t think.

   


Writing Stuff

Published:
– The audio reprint of “The Snow Woman’s Daughter” is now up at Escape Pod. Read by the lovely and talented cunningminx.
– Anthology Heroes In Training, edited by jimhines, with my story, “Honor is a Game Mortals Play” is now out. And you can read more about the authors (including me) at Jim’s Blog.
– This month’s Writing for Young Readers column: Juggling Hamsters: Tips for the Busy Writer.

Dragon*Con OMG

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dude_the is here, hurray! He flew in this morning. (Flappity.) fosteronfilm immediately put him to work on Film Track stuff, and I swiped some of his time to help me with Daily Dragon tasks.

Got the Pocket Program PDF this morning and posted it to the Daily Dragon website. Also had a chance to look over my complete Dragon*Con 2007 guest schedule.

Gah!

Friday:
– Noon “Marketing Short Fiction” guest lecture for Ann Crispin’s Beginner Writers workshop.
– 2:30PM “In the Beginning” (Writ) with Lawrence Barker, Aaron Allston, & Eric Griffin.
– 4:00PM “Villains and Bad Boys of YA” (YA Lit) with Davey Beauchamp, Cassandra Clare, Holly Black, & Kathleen David

Saturday:
– Noon (tentative) Volunteer Vixens calendar signing.
– 2:30PM Dragon*Reading

Sunday:
– 11:30AM “Oh, the Horror of It” (Writ) with Keith R.A. DeCandido, Bill Fogarty, Lloyd Kaufman, & Jack Ketchum.
– Noon (tentative) Volunteer Vixens calendar signing.
– 4:00PM Aberrant Dreams: The Awakening Dragon*Reading with Lawrence Barker, Chesya Burke, Jack McDevitt, Jana Oliver, & John C. Snider (I have no idea how six people are all going to give readings in a one-hour slot).
– 8:30PM “Now, that’s Funny!” (Writ) with Robert Asprin, Bruce Gehweiler, Michael N. Langford, Brad Strickland, Michelle Roper, & Berta Platas.

Monday:
– 11:30AM Dragon*Autograph signing.

There’s no way. Absolutely no way I can do all of these, run the Daily Dragon, and manage to stay out of a padded cell and straight jacket.

I already know I’m bowing out of the Monday signing. I mean, I can’t imagine anyone’s really going to queue up to get my autograph, and if they really want my scribble, they can come to my panels or, heck, find me in the Daily Dragon room. I’m also not making the second Volunteer Vixen calendar signing. It conflicts with my 11:30 panel, and, again, I’m pretty easy to find if someone really wants my siggy.

But after those, I’m going to have to do some pondering to figure out what next to drop–and I’m going to have to cancel several of these in order to have a marginally sane schedule.

*twitch*

Stress. Much, much stress.

   


Writing Stuff

New Words:
– About 500 words on next month’s Writing for Young Reader’s column. The topic is “Finding Time to Write,” which I thought was a sweet little irony for this month’s column. Of course, I’m so slammed right now, I’m scrounging through couch cushions and under the bed for the time to finish the thing. Mmmf.
– Got to “the end” for the story for mroctober on Friday, but it needs polishing and first/beta readering. It ended up clocking in at 6.2K words. Probably will cut it a bit in my rewrite passes.

Published:
– Got a note from mroctober. So Fey is now out, huzzah! We’re doing a signing for it in Atlanta in October. Stay tuned for details!

Hamsters, hamsters everywhere!

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Hamsters, hamsters everywhere!

Argh! Too. Many. Hamsters! Seems like no matter how hard or how far I fling the lil squeakers, I’m still eyeball deep.

Dragon*Con’s looming, and the number of items on my D*C things-to-do list gives me fits just to look at. Got a director’s meeting this weekend, need to see about setting up interviews for those of my reporters who’ve requested them, and I haven’t even started going over my guest talk for Ann’s beginner workshop yet.

I’m using Adobe’s InDesign this year instead of MS Publisher to lay the hard copy of the Daily Dragon out, which is great. Except that I’ve never used InDesign before and am having to learn it from scratch. dire-epiphany gave me a rundown of it a couple months back, but that was a couple months back, and I’ve totally blanked on what we went over since. But between the tutorials and help menu, I got over some major steepness in ye olde learning curve last night, and am now at the point where I can operate it–undoubtedly without all the bells and bling that InDesign is capable of–but I can cobble together the layout. Hoping that the new layout person will work out so that I won’t need to worry about it for at least a couple of the issues. But steep leaning curve aside, I’m really pleased not to be using Publisher anymore. Even my limited and halting grasp of InDesign shows me how much more powerful and versatile it is.

Public service announcement: the Volunteer Vixens are planning to do a couple calendar signings at the convention. We’ll be in front of the exhibit hall. Stay tuned for when.

   


Writing Stuff

Doug Cohen (slushmaster), the assistant editor of Realms of Fantasy, makes an impassioned call for a general subscription drive for the speculative fiction short story market. If y’all haven’t seen it, go read. Then subscribe to something.

Published:
– “Cyberevenge Inc.” is now out in the premiere issue of Murky Depths. Got my contrib. copies, and this magazine is really luscious. It’s got fantastic production values, feels more like a graphic novel than a literary ‘zine.

Check out matt-wallace‘s post for more pictures of the innards.

New Words:
– 3300 words on short story “Hollow” with new working title, “Change of Heart.”

After consulting with mroctober, my word count max. on this project increased, and so did the story’s scope. I wanted to write two, maybe three stories this month, before Dragon*Con, for various projects I’ve been invited to submit to, but it looks like I’ll only be able to finish one of them, and it’s been a tooth pull of a tale. Aside from the beaucoup research I needed to do for it (including a crash course on Creole–thankfully, I took French in college), midway in, I realized the story would have more resonance in first person rather than third, so I re-wrote it. Also it seems the publisher prefers lighter YA, so I also rewrote what I had to make it less gritty and dark. But I’m in the final stretch now. Had an epiphany on the drive home yesterday and plan to incorporate that today.

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
5,301 / 6,500
(81.6%)

Hobkin and me this week. Voices for the Cure now out

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Took the MARTA this morning with fosteronfilm. He continued on to Hartsfield-Jackson while I got off at my regular stop. The hubby is heading up to Illinois for the week to visit his mom. I was going to go with, but I sort of burned up all my vacation time to do Launch Pad. Launch Pad was absolutely (incredibly, fabulously!) awesome, but it means it’s just Hobkin and me this week. Fortunately, my ankle feels much better than it did this weekend, and I don’t think I’ll have any trouble as long as I don’t do anything stupid, like re-injure it.

I am, however, a bit trepidatious about Hobkin. Normally, the fuzzwit gets lunch at noonish, fed to him by fosteronfilm. But of course, I’m at work at noon and can’t pop by the house to feed him, working as I do in the heart of Atlanta. So I’m just going to give him extra large breakfasts before I head out in the AM. Big breakfast notwithstanding, I suspect that when noon comes around, he’s still going to be looking for his meal. And this being the first day that Hobkin will have to skip lunch, I anticipate much skunky ire and associated glaring when I get home.

   


Writing Stuff

Maybe I’ll get vasty gobs of writing done this week. Maybe.

Published:
The charity anthology palmerwriter put together to benefit the American Diabetes Association, Voices for the Cure, is now available!

In addition to my story, “An Interesting Week for Emmy,” it features work by such awesome writers as Robert J. Sawyer, Mike Resnick, Cory Doctorow, Lucy Snyder, Mur Lafferty, Davey Beauchamp, and more!

Only $9.05 for the trade paperback and $3.00 for the PDF download. Go buy, yo!