Author Archives: Eugie Foster

Ann Crispin, my writing mentor, telephoned last night to ask me to reprise my guest lecture for her Beginners Writers’ Workshop at Dragon*Con. I said I would, of course, with the familiar anticipation and terror that I always have when I contemplate public speaking, especially solo public speaking.

I definitely need to revise my talk. The market environment has changed, with some markets folding–most notably SCI FICTION–and others arising, and I want to mention audio ‘zines like Escape Pod, Psuedopod, and MechMuse.

I’m also slated for four panels (I think):

– “So You Want to Write a Kid’s Book?” with Shane Berryhill, Alan Gratz, Holly Black, and Cassy Clare for bevlovesbooks‘s YA Lit Track (Friday 5:30PM).
– “The Power of the Old Stories: Mythology and Folklore in YA” with Josepha Sherman, Holly Black (blackholly), and Heidi Heiner (Saturday 4PM), also for the YA Lit Track. (I get to be on a panel with Holly Black! *squee!*)

And two Writer’s Track panels. I think one’s on horror and the other is on writing YA fiction, but I can’t remember when those are.

I always enjoy doing panels at D*C, and yet I always freak out beforehand.

Stupid brain.

Hobkin is not a joy in summer. He’s a bratty terror during the warm months. He would not take “my alarm doesn’t go off for another half hour, lemme sleepzzzz!” as an excuse to postpone his (very early) breakfast. ‘Course, he doesn’t usually in winter either, but there’s an added level of insistence, as in “I will totally piddle on the carpet if you don’t get up NOW to feed me” that isn’t there so much in December. fosteronfilm actually got up to give him a snack so I could have a few more precious minutes of shuteye. And he’s been blowing his coat something fierce for what feels like months now (Hobkin, not Matthew). Fall needs to hurry up and get here.

I want to say again that I lubs me my new job. Some of the rose-tinted glasses-glow will undoubtedly fade in time–like I note that under each editors’ desk, we have our very own personal space heater, which bodes scariness come winter (note to self: bring sweater), and there’s a gigantic, framed Shakespeare poster hanging behind my desk which is there to cover a huge hole in the wall*, something I find charming now, but expect I’ll want to roll my eyes at down the road**–but I’m still deep into the honeymoon phase of my shiny, new career.

And my muse is starting to perk up from all the new stimuli. I’m thinking I need to write a story set on a transit train . . .

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*At least it’s a Shakespeare poster which is so much cooler than one of those lame motivational ones.
**Especially if there’s a chilly draft out of that hole come the cold season.

   

Writing Stuff
I got an email from a publisher/editor asking for my permission to reprint my column, Writing for Young Readers, on their website. I’m a bit surprised since it just started last month, but also quite flattered. The first column is still under an exclusive publication agreement with Writing-World and will be for several more months–as I told the editor/publisher–but I’m more than amenable to discussing future reprint options. ‘Course, they didn’t mention payment, and when I hopped out to their website, I couldn’t find their guidelines, but I’m pleased to have been asked.

New Words:
– 200 on a piece of fiction. Woo!

Yesterday was the final 2006 Dragon*Con Director’s Meeting, which means the convention’s right around the bend. Eek! So much to do, so little time.

Socializing, networking, and base-touching was had, and I got to coo over dire_epiphany‘s new Sony VAIO UX180p micro computer. It’s so bitty! When fosteronfilm and I were looking at ultra-portables, I gazed longingly at this model, but I really need a fully touch-typeable keyboard to write on. But the UX model has two cameras and a touch screen, its keyboard glows blue, and it’s a full-feature XP machine that fits in the palm of your hand!

Sony makes the coolest toys.

The convention fed us, as per usual, and I really shouldn’t have eaten a whole piece of lemon cake/torte with dinner. I felt queasy afterward on the ride home. Once upon a time I could eat multiple pieces of cake and not feel ill. Those days have passed. Blerg.

In other convention transpirings, I got a note from the Mobicon folks. They’re in the process of updating their website for 2007 and asked me for a bio and picture. I used my default headshot, but I wonder if I should have sent them this one instead:

Yep, the depicted bosom on the interim 2007 Frolicon postcard is mine! Not every gal can boast that their torso has been featured on a postcard .

Actually, I had no idea they were going to use this picture until the grapevine enlightened me. Hee! The photo was taken by fritzling during an impromptu shoot at the convention (as in, “hey, I’ve got a full photography set-up in my room, can I take some pictures of y’all?”–to our roving band of party-goers), not as anything formal or planned. He does impressive work, Fritz does, especially since I recall being tipsy and flushed during this shoot, and he’s managed to make my skin look all glowy and luminous instead of blotchy. The icon in this post is another picture taken by fritzling that same night. I was wearing my wings, and I like how the fall of my hair makes my ears seem a smidgen pointy.

   

Writing Stuff
I was hoping to get another story written before Dragon*Con, as my muse tends to get a bit shell-shocked right afterward. Plus, I’ve committed to writing three for various anthologies before the end of the year. But I don’t think that’s going to happen now. I shall just have to nose-to-keyboard afterward and crank them out post-convention. I did start one story on Friday, but I don’t see that I’ll have time to do any more writing until after D*C is over. The Dragon*Con hamster has bulked up to vasty-huge proportions and is now so massive I can’t see hefting even one small, skinny hamster alongside it.

And lingtm tagged me! Okay, okay, it’s a fun meme, and it’s sort of writing-related. Ergo:

1. One book that changed your life.

The Higher Taste solidified my stance on animal welfare, and I realized I needed to change how I lived in order to be consistent with my beliefs. I was already leaning in that direction, but the book gave me the final shove I needed to become a life-long vegetarian (but not a Hare Krishna).

2. One book you have read more than once?

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein. This is probably the book that hooked me on science fiction. Before I read it, I was almost exclusively a fantasy reader.

3. One book you would want on a desert island?

I’m taking an, err, page out of Samantha’s list. Definitely The Ultimate Survival Guide by John ‘Lofty’ Wiseman. I mean, it’s fully illustrated.

4. One book that made you laugh?

The Black Unicorn/Red Unicorn/Gold Unicorn YA trilogy by Tanith Lee. Yeah, I’m cheating; that’s three books. But I don’t need no stinking rules!

5. One book that made you cry?

The Silver Metal Lover by Tanith Lee. I cry every single time I read it. I love this book, the characters, the beauty of the prose, the story. One of my favs.

6. One book you wish had been written?

The Big Book of Editorial Smiting: You Can Hit People Over the Head with this Heavy, Pointy Book if They Don’t Use the Serial Comma.

7. One book you wish had never been written?

I think I’m going to have to cheat again, because I can’t think of anything. Sure there are some really bad books out there, but wishing something unwritten is like wishing someone dead. It seems a bit harsh and excessive.

8. One book you are currently reading?

Valiant: A Modern Tale of Faerie by blackholly. I thought this was going to be a sequel to Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale, but it’s not. Nevertheless, I love Holly’s urban fantasy world and stylings.

9. One book you have been meaning to read?

1421: The Year China Discovered America by Gavin Menzies. dude_the loaned it to me months ago, and I’m very interested in the subject matter, but it keeps getting pushed down my “things to read” list. I need a dedicated set of eyes and brain-storage space just to catch up on my reading.

10. Now tag five people.

reddherring1955, keesa_renee, basletum, pabba, and yukinooruoni, you’re it! And whoever else wants to play, of course.

Received:
– Interview answers from my CRICKET editor, Debby Vetter, for my Writing for Young Readers column. September’s installment will rawketh, ye verily.
– 9-day personal “didn’t quite grab me” from Escape Pod on a reprint, with an “As always, please keep trying us” so I don’t feel totally reviled and despised.

Stephen also mentioned that Pseudopod premiered to much fanfare last Friday, including a mention on BoingBoing! Sweet! Very excited about “Returning My Sister’s Face” forthcoming there.

So, yeah, we kind of went nuts yesterday. We went into Best Buy to pick up some DVD-Rs for fosteronfilm to use for the D*C film festival. While there, we also got a 250GB external hard drive and, uh, this:

It’s a Sony VAIO VGN-TX750p/b notebook. 1.2 GHz processor, 80GB hard drive, with a DVD-RW. And it weighs 2.76 lbs and can run for up to 7.5 hours on battery! It’s my dream laptop. And it’s so little! For comparison, we set it next to my HP Pavilion when we got home. I couldn’t decide if my Pavilion would eat it, or if it was a mommy computer and the VAIO a baby. So teeny tiny.

I tried and tried to get away, but it seduced me with its tiny cuteness.

   

Writing Stuff
I’m one of the featured authors in Aberrant Dreams‘s Writer’s Challenge. To participate, select a picture from the ten pieces of artwork on display, compose an outline and synopsis to accompany it, and choose one of the featured authors to write your story. You may also also opt to have one of the characters named after you. If your synopsis is selected, it will be written by the author of your choice and published in a forthcoming issue of Aberrant Dreams as well as a hard cover anthology. So if you want me to write you a story, go play!

Dean Ansley dropped me a line pointing me to the pictures he took at Frolicon. Here’s my all-time favorite of one of the panels jackzodiac, tstauffer, and I did, complete with bottles o’booze prominently featured before our giggly-ass countenances:

Been working on editing the guest bios for the Dragon*Con program book. I shall probably fume myself into an aneurism on this one, but the growing trend toward omitting the last serial comma is really ticking me off*. I want to bash over the head with a bucket of sporks those idiot English teachers who are telling kids that it’s okay not to include it!

The only style manual/grammar resource where I’ve ever heard such practice being acceptable is the Associated Press one, which omits them due to space constraints. All American authorities: The Chicago Manual of Style, Elements of Style, The Gregg Reference Manual, Oxford University Press, etc. say to use the serial comma because it reduces ambiguity.

So why aren’t people using it?

Well, at least I’m not the only one who finds this tendency aggravating.

Yes, I’m a grammar geek. Ye verily, I have embraced my nerditude.

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*I’m less peeved by Brit and Aussie writers who do it because their style manuals waffle on it more, and they’ve got other things to worry about, like whether to put the punctuation on the inside or the outside of the quotation marks.

   

Writing Stuff
I got a piece of mail from the excellent folks at Cricket that perked me up, although when I first opened it, I was momentarily confused. The communique inside was addressed, “Dear Pussywillow and Ladybug”–which are not names I recall going by–and there wasn’t an explanatory note to aid my comprehension. But after a moment, a few more neurons roused themselves, and I realized “Pussywillow” and “Ladybug” were the names of a couple of the bug characters featured in Cricket. It then dawned on me that they’d printed and sent me an email they’d received from a little girl, Maddy age 11. She loved the April 2006 issue and specifically mentioned my story, “The King of Rabbits and Moon Lake,” as one that she enjoyed

Fan mail from a young reader! I’m tickled that a little girl was so enthusiastic about reading, and specifically about reading something I wrote, that she took the time to send a letter to the editors. Happy writer me.

One of my DC2K writing group friends had a heart attack and is now in the hospital, recovering after emergency surgery. Been getting updates from reddherring1955 as she visits her in the ICU; she’s in great spirits and the prognosis is excellent. She’s slated to have a triple bypass in three weeks, and everyone’s expecting it to go well. She might (although it’s a long-shot “might”) even be able to make Dragon*Con still! I cannot express the hugeness of my relief that she’s doing so well. After the recent loss of my DiL, my emotions are so raw, I was totally freaking about her.

Still trying to catch up on everything that I had to let slide while fosteronfilm and I were in Illinois. I start my new job next week. Yay! But also nervous fretting. Meep. I’m thinking I need to slow down so I can double check my work. I keep screwing up. I’ve made a slew of editing mistakes, forgotten a doctor’s appointment, neglected to reschedule lab work, accidentally thrown away a signed contract slated for the mailbox (and then had to rummage in the trash to retrieve it when I realized what I’d done), and numerous other flake-outs, memory lapses, and oopses.

I’m so frustrated with myself right now!

I’ve been eyeing the bottle of leftover Prozac in our medicine cabinet, speculating whether it might be time for me to go back on antidepressants. I dunno. I’m definitely in a morass of psychological disequilibrium, but I think it’ll pass in a couple weeks or so, when I’ve caught up on stuff and have established my new work-a-day routine. But right now, it feels like I’m holding it together by focusing on the now, except I keep dropping hamsters, right and left on the now.

If you’re waiting on me for something, you might want to send me an email. Odds are, I’ve forgotten it.

   

Writing Stuff
Hear ye, hear ye! Jetse de Vries, editor of Interzone, is going to have a vendor’s booth at Dragon*Con this year. Jetse is looking for responsible volunteer-types to help man it. Check out this post on the TTA forum for details. There may still be comp badges available. Also, Jason Sizemore, editor of Apex Digest, will be at the same booth, so it’s a doubly great opportunity to schmooze.

All you writers attending Dragon*Con who have a little free time during the con should drop Jetse a line!

Received:
– “Though I still feel that your story has many lovely elements . . .” rejection from the editor who requested to see my middle-grade novel reworked as a picture book. Damn. Double and triple damn.

This might be a good day for retail therapy. Or ice cream. Although I think I’ve gained something like four pounds in the last couple weeks. Feh.