It’s been brought to my attention that the next Dragon*Con all staff meeting falls on Mother’s Day. Whoops. It’s not a biggie for my area. I’ll still be there, but I don’t usually have many of my Daily Dragon staffers show for these, and I do all of my information dissemination via email anyway. But still, whoops.
Wonder if anyone will bring their mom? 
New Words:
– 900 on The Novel. Slack picked up. Chugging away.
|
|
|
3,688 / 40,000
(9.2%) |
Had a minor MARTA adventure this morning. I don’t feel all that tired or out of it, but I was going over my “things to do” list in my head during my commute to work, going over my agenda for today, and I somehow managed to get turned around and disembarked on the wrong side of the Southbound MARTA train. I ended up on the Westbound platform instead of the Eastbound one (realizing this just in time to see the Eastbound train I should’ve been on whiz by). So then I went back down to the N/S level so I could get to the Eastbound platform and realized there wasn’t a way to get to it from that side of the track. I needed to go all the way up and over on the street level. 
While I stood there, exasperated and dumbfounded, I had a good bit of fortune. Another Southbound train came in, so I hopped through it to get to the other side of the track, whereupon I made my way to the Eastbound platform.
Urg. I seem to be losing my mind. If anyone finds it, could you please email it back to me?
Published:
– My May Writing for Young Readers column, “Writing for Children’s Magazines”
Received:
– An email this morning from Jason J. Marchi, editor (with co-editor Jackson T. Ellis) of the proposed Scissor Press anthologies Deadly Dolls, Trains, Machine Mayhem, and Automobilia:
“The anthologies are on HOLD since two different publishers, one after the other, have backed out, saying short story anthologies aren’t selling now. I’ll contact you again should I be able to find another publisher willing to take on these books. I’m very much in love with the concepts for these books I have devised: AUTOMOBILIA. TRAIN STORIES, DEADLY DOLLS, and MACHINE MAYHEM. So I will be working behind the scenes to find a respected publisher for these titles. Meanwhile, please market your work to anyplace that will publish it. Writers have a shrinking audience as it is, so avail yourself of every opportunity to market your work to get it sold.”
I had a couple submissions out to these anthologies from 2005, but after not hearing back from a query in October last year, I assumed they had folded without fanfare or notice and sent my manuscripts out elsewhere . . .
New Words:
– 1000 on The Novel. I’m a little behind the pace of 2500 words a week that I set initially. Spent some words-on-page time researching over the weekend, but I think I found what I need. Going to try to pick up the slack this week.
|
|
|
2,783 / 40,000
(7.0%) |
I saw that the USPS is raising postage rates, effective May 14. Sigh. This directly impacts my bottom line as a writer. Not as much as publishers and distributors, of course, but it’s still a slice out of my little pie o’proceeds.
Also they’re doing something to make calculating postage more complicated. Haven’t studied the changes in-depth, but my initial glance over them was mightily perplexing. I use a home postal scale and buy stamps in bulk to decrease the number of trips to the post office (and their interminable lines) I have to make. In addition to submitting manuscripts, I also mail a lot of magazines and books on behalf of Tangent, so being able to mail things from home is a great time saver. As such, them making the mailing process more obtuse is verily grump-making. Even the forthcoming Star Wars postage stamp doesn’t mitigate the grrr. Hmpf.
Received:
– Got a call from Ann Crispin. It’s always a pleasure hearing from her. She asked me to reprise my “Marketing Short Fiction” guest lecture for her Beginners Writers Workshop at Dragon*Con this year. Of course, I said I would. I’m still brimful with the terror of public speaking, but I think it gets better every year. And I genuinely enjoy doing it once I get past the shakes.
– Invite/request from palmerwriter to contribute a story to a charity anthology he’s editing to benefit the American Diabetes Association. I think I have a reprint that might suit, so uber coolness.
– Payment for “Mistress Fortune Favors the Unlucky” in the Bash Down the Door and Slice Open the Badguy anthology. It should be coming out any day now . . .
– Email from the editor of Faeries, letting me know that the electronic transfer of payment for “Of Two Minds in Lanais” has been made. After not hearing anything from my query in March, there’s much relief to finally get an update. He included a scan of the “Ordre de transfert de fonds international,” which my rusty-unto-iron-shavings French was mostly able to get the gist of. Waiting now with bated breath for the Show Me the Money part.
– Payment from Moira for my Writing for Young Readers May column.
Got a doctor’s appointment in a couple hours. It’s way overdue, postponed initially for session and then again when session was extended, so I’m glad to get it out of the way. But getting there is going to blow goat chunks. I’m having to take the MARTA train from work back to the North Springs station to get my car, then drive back into town through Friday afternoon rush hour traffic to Cumberland. Yuck.
fosteronfilm won’t even be there to rant to and commiserate with about my drive when I get home. He’s working the Atlanta Film Festival tonight (as he did last night). Sigh. So the home plan is to tank up on caffeine and hammer some wordage out.
Alternatively, I could put on a DVD of vacuous entertainment and veg with Hobkin. Decisions decision.
New Words/Editing:
– 750 words on my May Writing for Young Readers column. Several editing passes done, stuck a fork in, and mailed it off to my editor. Huzzah.
– 760 on The Novel.
|
|
|
1,779 / 40,000
(4.4%) |
Got a note from Gerald Page, an awesome and distinguished writer who I had the opportunity and pleasure to meet at the Aberrant Dreams signing last year. Christopher James (“Jamie”) Bishop was one of the victims at the Virginia Tech shooting, the German professor. He was also a member of our small, close-knit SF community. His father, a fellow Georgian, is Michael Bishop, the Nebula, Rhysling, and Locus award-winning SF writer, and Jamie designed the cover art for a number of books as well as issue #9 of Aberrant Dreams. Virginia Tech is putting together a memorial fund to honor Jamie and the other foreign language instructor who was killed, Jocelyne Couture-Nowak, and Jerry asked me to pass the word along.
From the Virginia Tech website:
Jocelyne Couture-Nowak and Jamie Bishop shared the conviction that learning a foreign language and culture is not just a joy, but is fundamental to our civilization–if we are to be civilized. To honor the memory of our colleagues and students, the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures has established two memorial scholarships for French and German majors at Virginia Tech.
Donations may be made payable to the Virginia Tech Foundation, for the Jocelyne Couture-Nowak Scholarship (French) or the Jamie Bishop Scholarship (German). If you give online, please be sure to indicate which scholarship you would like to support.
University Development
902 Prices Fork Road
Blacksburg, VA 24061
It’s fosteronfilm and my 15th wedding anniversary. Matthew’s picking me up after work, and we’re heading over to Atlantic Station to have dinner and catch an advance screening of Next.
Our lives have changed a lot in this past decade and a half, and throughout, there’s been laughter, tears, and above all, love. My husband is my rock, my best friend, and my true love. He’s the strength I didn’t think I had and the support I can always count on to catch me when I fall.
Happy Anniversary to us.
Reminder:
I’m running an online workshop in June, Worldbuilding for Writers: Transporting Readers Beyond the Ordinary. Register HERE. (Deadline, May 27.)
New Words:
– 350 words on my May Writing for Young Readers column, “Writing for Children’s Magazines.” Hoping to have the rest of it cranked out today so I can do a couple editing passes before sending it off to my editor tomorrow (or maybe Friday).
And I think it’s time to start Club 100 For Writers up again: 2
The vet called yesterday with the blood panel results, and Hobkin officially has a clean bill of health. The vet used such words as “great” to describe how the fuzzwit’s numbers look and said we were doing a really good job with him. Yay!
This is a healthy skunk, so sayeth the vet:
Did research this weekend, lots for the novel and a little for my May Writing for Young Readers column (ack, I really need to crank that out and send it off already). Got on a roll on Saturday re: novel. My main concern is that I haven’t got a solid feel for my main character yet. I’ve been loading up on clinical descriptions and case studies of autism and Asperger’s, but I was still experiencing a sort of distance from her, when I really want to get into her head so I can understand who she is and what she’s like, not just what she’ll do.
Plus, I really want to like her too. I mean, I’ve written stories about characters who I didn’t have that rapport with, but for a longer work like this, I think I need to have it. And really, the best stories I’ve written have been ones where I completely empathize with and know my protagonist. But in order to reach that level of awareness requires a certain intimacy and a thorough understanding of what makes her tick; I gotta be able to step into her head completely and seamlessly in order to be able to show who she is to readers.
And hurray, finally, finally, I came across what I’ve been lacking, an excellent first-person account of someone who has Asperger’s–an inside look at an Aspie’s feelings, thoughts, perceptions, and insights. And y’know, it made me wonder even more whether I might fall into the autistic spectrum myself. There was so much there where I found myself nodding along going, “yep, I grok it.” It’s by no means a new speculation for me, but it made me go “hmmm” even more.
And following that bit of reading and rumination, there was cat waxing.
Sigh. Well, at least it was productive cat waxing. Since the beginning of the year, with session and all, I’ve let my files get totally out of order. Normally my organization system is meticulous, but I had four months worth of contracts, correspondences, and rejections strewn around the house, scattered in haphazard piles in my office, lying where I’d opened them in the living room, and dumped in amongst the bills and receipts by an exasperated fosteronfilm (who doesn’t know what to do with my sundry writing paperwork and is generally leery of moving it). Spent several hours sorting everything and filing documents in their proper places. Cheers for getting that taken care of. And now I have no excuse not to crank out wordage.
Published:
– “The Goddess Queen’s Battlefield” in the Spring Equinox issue (#2) of GrendelSong. Woot!
Contents:
“The Goddess Queen’s Battlefield” by Eugie Foster
“Maixgloan” by Christopher Heath
“Pretty Mary” by Samantha Henderson
Featured Poet: Catherynne M. Valente
“Contraception throughout the ages and cultures: a short overview for a fantasy writer” by E. Sedia
“The Gods-forsaken World” by Steve Goble
“The Glaring Inaccuracies of the Bards” by Berrien C. Henderson
“By the Light of the Dark” by Stephanie Burgis
New Words:
– 1020 on The Novel: working title Fox Princess.
And so it begins.
|
|
|
1,020 / 40,000
(2.5%) |
The legislature adjourned sine die on Friday at midnight. elemess and terracinque escorted me to the House Gallery to witness a legislative tradition. As the session winds to an end–characterized by an auctioneer-esque introduction of bills on the calendar by the Speaker and rapid-fire voting*–the Representatives start ripping up bills until they’ve amassed big piles of confetti. When the Speaker announces sine die and thumps his gavel to adjourn the session, they toss these into the air, creating a joyful blizzard of paper. It was very festive, and I wish I’d had my camera. I’d actually brought it to the capitol with me, but in the rush to the gallery, I forgot it. But elemess went back to get his and captured the confetti flurry.
And so, in a whirlwind of fluttering paper, it’s official. I survived my first session!
To celebrate, we took Hobkin to the vet yesterday. Yah, it wasn’t so much to celebrate, but we’d been putting it off until after session to make sure I could be there.
As vet visits go, it wasn’t too bad, certainly not as traumatic as last time, thanks almost completely to Sevoflurane (Ultane). Yep, we gassed Hobkin so the vet could do the exam. fosteronfilm and I were very hesitant about it, as neither of us liked the idea of Hobkin being put under a general anesthesia. But Hobkin huffed and growled at the vet as soon as he got close to him–after letting strangers pet him in the waiting room without even blinking. It was pretty obvious the lil guy wasn’t going to let the vet touch him without a major fight. So, weighing gassing him versus totally stressing him out by having to restrain him, the gas seemed like a better idea. We didn’t like it, but, hell, animals have died from heart attacks from the stress of being restrained too. Plus, Sevoflurane is safer even than Isoflurane, which was the gold standard in safe anesthesia gases.
They rolled in a portable gas unit. I insisted upon being the one to restrain Hobkin and hold the mask over his face to put him under. Frankly, I don’t think anyone else could’ve done it as the fuzzwit didn’t like the apparatus or the sweet smell of the initial oxygen and fought it. But he’s less likely to freak out if I’m holding him, and he’ll tolerate being restrained best from me. The vet gave him the lightest dose possible, so light in fact that Hobkin woke up at the needle prick when the vet tried to draw blood (and failed). I was actually glad that Hobkin woke up, so I knew how lightly he was under. ‘Course they had to increase the concentration then to get him under again, but I knew he wasn’t out deep.
There were two vet assistants helping, one of which I really liked. He kept his hand on Hobkin the whole time he was out, with a finger right over his heart to make sure it was still going strong. And when the vet couldn’t draw blood after several tries, he handed the needle over to this assistant who got it on his first try.
Poor Hobkin. I’ve had less-than-stellar phlebotomy experiences where they’ve had to jab me multiple times and moved the needle around trying to find my vein. I suspect he’s probably sore and possibly bruised today.
The vet was able to do a complete exam while Hobkin was out, including a good look at his teeth. I peered over the vet’s shoulder so I could see them too. Normally, I’m limited to gazing into Hobkin’s mouth when he yawns and pulling his lips back when he’s asleep to check his gums. I saw tartar and a bit of redness, but the vet said that he looks pretty good, better than a lot of five-year-olds skunks he’s seen, and that he doesn’t need to have his teeth cleaned yet. He recommended we try Pounce Tartar Control cat treats since Hobkin’s ambivalent about the Greenies.
Then they switched him to oxygen, and Hobkin snapped right awake–looking quite startled, like he had no idea where he was or how he’d gotten there. I cuddled him, Matthew paid our bill, and home we went.
I think Hobkin’s a little grumpy at us. And skunks do a pretty good miffed:
After stomping at us and doing a couple skunk laps around the house, he scampered under the hutch to sulk:
But he came out later to snuggle and sleep with me after dinner, so it seems we’re forgiven. And we should get the results of his blood work back tomorrow.
* Which is amusing to listen to and watch until one realizes that nearly all the bills are passing without any sort of discussion or debate. But at least those bills should be Conference Committee substitutes which, theoretically, have been hashed out in committee.
Did some more novel research. Gearing up for the effort. Trying to set myself reasonable word count goals. If I can manage 500 words a day (assuming 5 days of writing a week), I should be able to complete a 40K YA novel in 4 months. Theoretically.
Received:
– Galley proofs from Darker Matter for “The End of the Universe.”
Three painfully near misses:
– 19-days to a “We really like this story, and we held it until the final cut. Typeface, however, is notoriously inelastic, which forces us to return stories we might otherwise have bought” from the Sword & Sorceress 22 anthology. Wah! I’d really thought this one was a good fit. And I would have loved to have broken into this fantasy institution anthology series.
– 7-day “This is charming, whimsical, and funny, but . . .” from Spacesuits & Sixguns with a charming, whimsical, and funny invite to submit again.
– 61-day “After a great deal of discussion, we ultimately decided to pass on it. We liked this story a lot, but . . . ” from Shiny with a “would love to see more submissions from you.”
Ouch, ouch, and ouch. While these types of rejects are far better than say-nothing forms, and I greatly appreciate the editors taking the time to give me a nod and kind word, they’re also absolutely agonizing.
Still at work. The House is gone, but the Senate is still plugging away–on their last bill of the night, though! Barring a special session, only one more day and Session 2007 is done done done!
However, in a total non-confluence of timing, fosteronfilm is working at the Atlanta Film Festival this week, so I’ll actually see very little of him. And it’s even going to be a three-day weekend (Confederate Memorial Day, booyah!).
Drat.
I’ll just have to celebrate surviving my first session with Hobkin . . .
Next week (assuming no special session), the plan is for me to launch my Eugie-Will-Write-a-Novel-Dammit! effort. Kinda apprehensive and intimidated about the prospect. Mucho performance anxiety.
We did our taxes this weekend. 
Despite making significantly less than the poverty level last year–me being out of work for most of it and all–the IRS is taking a gasp-inducing chunk out of my writing income. The rest of my wages (from the OLC), we don’t owe taxes on due to our deductions and because of how meager they were. But my writing income, they still tax.
As it turns out, no matter how little I make as a self-employed freelancer, if I make any profit, I will get shafted. There is no “you made so little last year that your taxes come to zero” for the self-employed, although there is for everyone else.
Ole Uncle Sam really doesn’t like independent entrepreneurs or freelance artists. Sheesh.
And, once again, I am pondering whether making myself an LLC would be beneficial. It’s easy enough to do. I send in some paperwork to the Secretary of State and a $100 fee (with a $30 annual renewal thereafter). The virtue of working where I do, I’m a lot more familiar with Georgia state laws and how to look them up–as well as legalese in general–but I haven’t managed to wrap my mind around federal tax law. And that’s the clincher. I haven’t waded through all the IRS verbiage to get to the gist of whether I would gain any benefit and manage to avoid being double taxed if I incorporate myself.
Sigh. A fun project for after session, maybe.
Received:
– Contrib. copy of Aberrant Dreams #8 with “Nobodies and Somebodies” in it. I actually forgot about this contrib. copy since it was also published online. I like nice surprises.
– 44-day cordial pass with detailed commentary from Trabuco Road after a hold request for further consideration. Drat.
– 82-day “does not meet our needs” after a hold request for further consideration from The Edge of Propinquity. Humph.
– Invite from OmegaCon, a convention in Birmingham, AL, to attend, I assume as a guest. However, as it’s slated for mid-March (2008), right in the middle of next year’s session, I’m having to pass.
– Forwarded letter from Cricket from a 9-year-old reader praising “The Snow Woman’s Daughter” in the Feb. issue. *squee!* I love hearing from readers!
Reminder:
I’m conducting an online workshop, Worldbuilding for Writers: Transporting Readers Beyond the Ordinary. Register HERE. (Deadline, May 27.)
