Author Archives: Eugie Foster

Day of the Dead

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Happy Day of the Dead! Hope everyone had a fabu Halloween and All Saint’s Day. This is totally the time of year for goth holidays, isn’t it?

This Halloween, fosteronfilm and I didn’t stay home watching scary movies and handing out sweets. Instead, we celebrated the joyous matrimony of sruna and pleroma! Although Mapquest did us wrong, we did eventually find the venue–which is only something like fifteen minutes from our house, although it took over half an hour to get there. @#$! Mapquest. Fortunately, we arrived in time so as not to commit the faux pas of walking in after the ceremony had already started.

I had a bit of a quandary about how to manage my attire. I typically get home between 6:05 and 6:20, which didn’t allow for time to change before the 7 o’clock wedding. But Halloween is a marvelous excuse to dress weird, so I went to work at the Capitol in a black Renaissance dress, sans corset but with bunny ears (I was a pooka), and just swapped one accessory for the other when I got home.

Voila, a costume for all occasions:


The wedding was outdoors, beneath an illuminated arch, next to a river/stream/watercourse thingy. In keeping with the Halloween theme, the beautiful bride wore red, the wedding party wore black, and there was Renaissance, goth, and period garb a-plenty among the guests. The reception was a masked affair, and the bride and groom were toasted with mead and honey wine (yum!). It was a lovely and elegant occasion, and I’m so glad I got to be a part of it. And yes, I got a little sniffly as they were exchanging their vows.

I brought my camera, but it gets petulant in dim light. All of my pictures turned out either dark, blurry, or simply bad. However, a few of the blurry ones reminded me a bit of sruna and pleroma‘s engagement pictures.

Here’s the best of them:

   


Writing Stuff

New Words:
– 1000 on a new dark fantasy: “Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast.” After all the sweating and agonizing on the last story’s title, this one essentially titled itself.

I was spinning my gears on “By Oak, Bramble, and Metro” and this story hit me between the eyes. My muse, she is a fickle whore.

Received:
– Galley proofs for “Nothing of Me” in Aegri Somnia.
– Payment from Writing-World for my November column, “An Interview with Gisele LeBlanc.”
– Email from oldcharliebrown. Best New Fantasy is back from the printer, and I can expect to have my contrib. copy in my hot little hands soon.
– 14-day “I hate to turn this down but . . .” from All Possible Worlds with invite to submit again.
– 49-day “this is one of those ones I really have trouble saying no to” no from Escape Pod on a reprint, with invite to try again.
(While tons better than a kick in the teeth, I’m not gaga about this “really didn’t want to pass on your submission, but I’m going to. Got anything else?” trend.)
– 95-day #2 form nope from Asimov’s. Urg. I’m losing ground here. The last couple rejections were personal ones from Sheila. Snartleblast.

Pulp pulp pulp

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Saw Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! for the first time. And it was . . . wow. Fast cars, ultra violence, and go-go dancers.

I feel the same way I did after the first time I saw Pulp Fiction: surprised-unto-astonished that the quality of the writing, well the dialogue, exceeded my expectations, dazed at the blood-splattered brutality, and uncertain as to whether I liked it or not. It’s obvious that Quentin Tarantino was greatly inspired by Russ Meyer.

I was verily impressed by the shape of the actresses too. With the movie coming out in 1965 and the development of the silicone breast implant only in 1961, I’m assuming that the actresses were all au naturale. Perhaps I’m being overly cynical, but I’d sort of forgotten that women were capable of those sorts of dimensions without surgical enhancement. Meyer liked his actresses curvy, he did.

On a related pinup and anatomical curves topic, some Dragon*Con folks are putting together a calendar to benefit the Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast cancer research foundation and have asked me to be one of the months. Of course I said “yes” (I’ll be August). Each month will have an appropriate D*C fandom theme such as goth, anime, etc.

I think pulp and camp were on my mind when the coordinator asked me to pick a theme for my month. I suggested doing a science fiction spacegirl a la the pulp ‘zines, which also appeals to me on a writerly front. She loved the idea, so yah, that’s what we’re going with.

Problem: I don’t have a spacegirl costume. I have . . . a ray gun.

Erm. I’ve never constructed an outfit from the accessory up before. Amber, the calendar coordinatrix, assures me there are seamstresses onboard who are willing to apply their skills to the effort, as long as it’s not too ornate. So I’ve been surfing around, trying to get costuming ideas.

Can anyone recommend a good science fiction pulp art gallery I can peruse?

   


Writing Stuff

Received:
– 217-day (after a query or two) “Excellent story . . . may we see another?” pass from Weird Tales. The supernatural element wasn’t strong enough, alas.
– 10-day “Nice . . . but didn’t hold” from JJA of F&SF.
– 27-day form nope from Coyote Wild. Might be time to trunk this one.

New Words/Editing:
– Several polish-and-tweak editing passes on the Japanese fantasy, and the fork is stuck in and quivering. I’ve launched that hamster out, out and away. Rah! Also, thanks to one critter’s suggestion, it’s also got a better title: “The Tears of My Mother, The Shell of My Father.” Well, I think it’s a better title, anyway . . .
– 100 words on “By Oak, Bramble, and Metro.” Hoping to make better progress on it after Halloween.

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
2,129 / 5,000
(42.6%)

Addicted to uppers/Late life lesson

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There was much sleeping over the weekend. My caffeine addiction appears to have re-established itself too excess without me noticing it. My occasional “extra boost” cup of coffee has become part of my daily routine, an essential ingredient in my staying-functional cocktail, and I’ve begun to add onto that a second cup of java and/or a diet cola.

That suggests to me that my tolerance to the Adderall is ramping up, even with me taking weekend holidays from it. And on weekends, when I’m not on Adderall and not having my usual first-thing-in-the-AM coffee, I’m useless–either dead-to-the-world asleep or slumped logy and apathetic on the couch. I obviously needed to catch up on some sleep this weekend, but I was also free-floating grumpy at fosteronfilm and headachy, both symptoms of withdrawal.

While on the one hand I’m glad I’ve got a workaround; I keep pumping in the uppers, and I can function like a proper human. But on the other, it’s just not healthy. And at this rate, I’m going to have to ask my doctor to increase my Adderall dosage, and I would really prefer not to be on more than I’m currently taking.

This is all so annoying, dammit. I’m going to have to wean myself off caffeine again . . . but not until after I meet the next couple hamster deadlines. Still, even while I’m fuming at the shortcomings of my human suit, I’m also somewhat awed by how chipper I remain (barring, of course, the occasional husband-oriented grumpiness). My emotional equilibrium remains pretty stable, unfazed by sundry physiological nuisances.

It’s the job. Day-to-day job satisfaction is giving me a buffer I never had before. Makes me marvel that I languished for so long at my previous day job, and makes me wish I’d had the courage to switch careers a long, LONG time ago.

Ah, well. A late life lesson is oodles better than one never learned.

   


Writing Stuff

Received:
– Crits continue to flow in for the Japanese fantasy up at Critters. It’s being well received (yay). I did get one crit which made me go “gah!” but not ’cause the critter didn’t like the story. On the contrary, she enjoyed it, and she singled out the title to praise–yes, the same title I’m wracking my brain over to come up with a suitable replacement. Sigh.
– 8-day glowing reject on a reprint with invite to submit again from Blood, Blade & Thruster. They loved the story, but thought its publication history made it too well known for them to reprint. Can’t argue with a rejection like that. But, but snartleblast!
– Contract from Hub for “Wanting to Want.” Signed and sent back.

New Words:
– 500 words on the MARTA-inspired urban fantasy, tentatively titled “By Oak, Bramble, and Metro.” An odd phenomenon happening with this one. I seem to need to write it on the train. I sit and stare at the file at my desk, no words, no ideas, zip, but as soon as I get on the MARTA, the words come. #$%(*!@ Stupid muse.

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
2,000 / 5,000
(40.0%)

Insomnia bad.

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Got to sleep late, woke up early (as in 4:45AM). No reason. Just my sleep regulator acting wonky. I’ve had 20mg of Adderall, a big cup of coffee, and a diet coke today, and I still feel like I’m one long blink from slumping comatose at my desk.

Me and Hobkin, sluggish and sleepy.

Skunks don’t hibernate during winter, per se, but when the cold season comes, they get sort of groggy, are more inclined to snuggle (wild skunks often winter together in a single burrow), and nap all the time. Hobkin’s generally better behaved in winter also, too much of a lap lump to get into (as) much mischief, and he’s less tetchy overall. Stomp- and huff-worthy things a month ago barely get a raised tail now. This last week, he’s been particularly snoozy, likely to flop over and start snoring as soon as he crawls into my or fosteronfilm‘s lap. It’s very cute, although it pretty much immobilizes whoever he’s using as a skunk pillow.

The notion of curling up with a skunk for a long nap sounds really nice right now . . .zzzzzz.

   


Writing Stuff

I received a request a while back from the guy who runs the German Firefly fan site, firefly-universe.de, asking if it was okay for him to translate and reprint the interview that arkhamrefugee and yukinooruoni did with Summer Glau for the Daily Dragon. I gave him the A-OK, and I got a note from him the other day letting me know his translation was now up. Major snaps to arkhamrefugee and yukinooruoni!

New Words/Editing:
– Did a review and polish of the next segment of the collab. story I’m working on with mtrimm1 and lobbed it back. This has been a great, fun project to work on. I think the finished piece is going to be hella shiny.
– A once-over edit of my MARTA-inspired urban fantasy WIP to get back into the flow, and 300 new words from where I left off.

Received:
The crits are beginning to trickle in from Critters for “Hannya-Shin-Kyo.” It’s too early to draw any big picture conclusions, although I’ve received some good micro-level suggestions that I’ve already implemented.

I also got a crit that irritated me enough to complain to Andrew, ye old critter-herder, about. The critter in question only read the first 800 or so words of my 6K story, and the majority (3/4ths) of their crit was quoting large chunks of those 800 in order to pad their critique word count. Furthermore, the comments they did make showed that they hadn’t even properly read the fragment of story they did go over.

*snort* Talk about a half-assed critique.

So yah, while I’m willing to just shrug off crits that I think are totally off base, I think one this lame, where it’s obvious the critter didn’t even try, shouldn’t get credit.

Japanese fantasy at zero draft. Finally.

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Hmm. I’ve had a couple spam comments in my blog in the last couple weeks. They’re the first spam I’ve had here in LJ-land. Wonder if the spammers are getting better at circumnavigating the anti-spam protocols LJ has in place or if the anti-spam protocols went through some “upgrade” that fubarred them.

Anyhoo, on Sunday, I hung out with and assisted terracinque and donovanj99 while they conducted a photoshoot thingy. We roamed the Decatur square area whereupon I was charmed by much of the flora and architecture: the old courthouse, a lovely church, a brick alley (the one next to Eddie’s Attic) with wrought iron banisters and copper downspouts, and sweeping magnolia trees. I snapped several pix of terracinque with my point-and-shoot Nikon CoolPix and here are a few of my favs:

Continue reading →

Sleep is for the dead

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Muchly sleep deprived. Got to bed late and was awakened frequently and prematurely by a restless skunk. Ended up getting up at 5:30ish, so I decided to just come into work early. I noticed that it’s much quieter on the MARTA at 7:45 than it is at 8:15. The train’s still as full, but that half hour difference seems to render everyone dazed and blinking.

   


Writing Stuff

Urg. I’m so behind on Tangent work. I’m the furthest behind I’ve ever been. The reviews-to-be-published are piling up, but I’ve been making such good wordage progress that I didn’t want to stop writing. Meep.

Received:
– Payment from Realms of Fantasy for “The Devil and Mrs. Comstock’s Snickerdoodles” (slated for their Feb. ’07 issue).
– Payment from GrendelSong for “Shim Chung the Lotus Queen” (in their premiere issue).
– squirrel-monkey suggested to darinbradley that he tender me an invite to submit something for the Farrago’s Wainscot (farragoblog) project. He did, and I did, and F’sW will be reprinting “The Life and Times of Penguin.” Shiny!
– 13-day alas-o-gram from GVG of F&SF.

New Words/Editing:
– About a paragraph’s worth of words on the Pseudopod rewrite request, several editing passes, and it’s lobbed back for editorial judgment.
– 700 words on the collaboration story I’m writing with mtrimm1. Debating whether I want to finish the scene or bat it back.
– 1200 words on the Japanese fantasy, now tentatively titled “Hannya-Shin-Kyo: The Stillness Between Thoughts.” Tamed my snarling plot bunny and getting close to the home stretch.

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
4,783 / 6,000
(79.7%)

Columbus Day

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I get tomorrow off! I haven’t had Columbus Day off since I was in school. My new job continues to rock my eyeballs. And how’s this for sweet, sweet icing? The Representatives and Senators left on Friday at 2:30, so us Legislative Counsel folks got to too. Half day, woot!

   


Writing Stuff

basletum interviewed me for SpecMusicMuse. Shiny!

Published:
– My October Writing for Young Readers column: “Hi/Lo Books: Writing for Reluctant Readers” is now up at Writing-World.

New Words:
– 500 on the Japanese fantasy, and I’ve come upon a plot snag. Pondering, pondering.

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
3,560 / 6,000
(59.3%)

Received:
– Contract from Faeries for French reprint of “Of Two Minds in Lanais.”
– Contract from Helix.
– Contrib. copy of Grendel Song. Yay!

Circus at the state building

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So the editorial folks here at the capitol are going to the circus this morning. The nut job who’s trying to ban Harry Potter books, after being shot down at the school and then school board level, is appealing her case to the Georgia State Board of Education. The hearing is this morning at 10AM across the street in the Twin Towers State Building, and we’re all going to watch the spectacle.

On the more wholesome amusing front, britzkrieg forwarded along this link to Cute Overload which made me giggle. Baby skunkies!

   


Writing Stuff

New Words:
– 200 on the Japanese fantasy-with-no-title. Didn’t get nearly as much done on it yesterday as I wanted to. Foo.

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
3,059 / 6,000
(51.0%)

Received:
– 24-day rewrite request from Pseudopod. Squinching my brain to determine how best to implement their suggestion.
– 150-day form nope from One Story. Pfft. But this was something of a long shot anyway.

Skunk in purse

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Came out of the shower this morning to discover a skunk in my purse and the previous contents displaced and flung helter-skelter about. I made the fundamental error of thinking that when fosteronfilm talks clearly and lucidly in the early AM, that he’s actually awake.

Me: I’m gonna go shower now. Hobkin’s sleeping under the covers there, okay? You can watch him if he wakes up?
fosteronfilm: Skunk there. Yep, we’re fine.

After my shower:
Me: Aghh, my purse! You were supposed to be watching him!
Matthew: Wha? *blinks, yawns* I was?

No harm done. I keep my various medication bottles in a separate zippered bag that little paws can’t (or at least haven’t yet figured out how to) open. And I really should know better by now. My hubby is so not a morning person. Although I don’t know how I would have explained bringing a skunk to work by accident . . .

   


Writing Stuff

After lamenting about the dry spell I was having sales-wise, I made two yesterday! Woohoo!

Received:
– 1-day sale to Helix. “Addy in My Mind” is slated for their January issue.
– 114-day sale to new U.K. ‘zine, Hub. “Wanting to Want” will be in their premiere issue, which I believe is coming out in December.
And, because three sales in one day is just too much to hope for:
– 111-day “almost” from John O’Neill of Black Gate with invite to submit again. While he liked it, the ending was too much of a downer for them. Alas.