dude_the went winging back to the Midwest yesterday. Didn’t get a chance to hug him goodbye ‘cause he had to be at the airport before I got home from work. Pook. 
But he’ll be back for another visit in October. Hurray!
Still dazed from the convention, but a full night’s sleep has helped get a few more neurons firing. Although I seem to be coming down with some Con Crud, dangit. Usually that misses me. Guess I needed to get a little more alcohol in my system. I had all of two sips of “Peach Pie”–a very potent and very yummy alternative to the (in)famous Tech Ops “Pie”–and that wasn’t quite enough to sterlize my system. Alas. *cough cough snog*
We picked up Hobkin from his godmother’s, and the wee fuzzy beastie is glad to be home. He snuggled with me all last night, except for when he was demanding to be fed, of course. I noticed that his coat’s already growing in thick from its summer shed. He’s all soft and fluffy. And round. Very, very round. Hobkin appears to be packing on the weight a bit early this year, and his coat’s gotten lush pretty early too. Wonder if that means it’ll be an early winter? Skunk as barometer. Yep.
Writing Stuff
Much catching up to do. There was a slew of hardcopy review material for Tangent waiting for me on the doorstep after we got back from Dragon*Con, which I need to assign to reviewers and sling back out into the postal service thoroughfares. I’m way behind on The Town Drunk work (gah, I hope britzkrieg doesn’t hate me). And I got a rewrite suggestion from my agent on the novel–>picture book manuscript. I also need to finish the review I’m writing for the Jigsaw Nation
anthology and write three stories for various anthologies that I’ve committed to before the end of the year. Urk.
Gotta get them hamsters back in the air, pronto!
Published:
– My reprint of “Second Daughter” is now up at Her Circle Ezine.
– My “Ten Myths About Writing for Kids” article is up at Writing-World.com. But hrm, September’s Writing for Young Readers column isn’t up yet. I wonder when in the month that’s slated for . . .
[Edit: It’s up, it’s up! “An Interview with Deborah Vetter of the Cricket Magazine Group”.]
Received:
Oof. I came home to a string of “no”s. Ouch ow owitch.
– 23-day “did make the final review but . . . “ from Apex Digest.
– 127-day kindly “no” from my editor at Cicada. Wah!
– 123-day “dear writer” from Black Warrior Review. Eh, that one was a long shot anyway.
In better news, I got a note from dsnight letting me know that he’s now got a tentative release date from DAW books for Heroes in Training: September 2007. Woo!
Good myth list! Someone who was auditioning for my old writers’ group when I was passing around a YA novel for critique told me that I couldn’t use “such hard words!”, but when pressed admitted that she hadn’t read a single YA novel since she left junior high. Bleh.
Thanks!
And I hope that person failed their audition. YA is essentially written at the same reading level as adult fiction. It’s the subject matter and length (and voice to some extent) that distinguishes YA, not diminished reading complexity. Gah.
We “mutually decided” that she wasn’t right for us: she decided she wanted a group that was more “supportive,” and we decided she was
smoking cracktotally ineptprobably going to be happier elsewhere.yeah, the C*crud. My first time with it. Work was ready to fire me… *grumble*, so I did a pre-emptive statement of replace-ability.
Con rocked, in many ways. It was good to say hi, though brief.
The boys are slightly off on their feeding schedule. The skunk-hating ex was usually here at afternoon feeding time, but there was no way I was going to ask him to toss some veggies out. They got a hearty brekkie daily, instead. (This is the guy who called DF&W on me, and presented photos of “vicious” animals watching tv on my lap, as his case of my being an unfit mother to the court…)
Anyway, it was definitely my Best Yet. I’m looking forward to next year!
Skunk-hating ex must be sporked. Or fed to skunks. Sheesh. I presume he was laughed out of court? Vicious animals, pfft.
There was some intense questioning as to their abiity and desire to bite, otherwise, the judge saw no relevancy to custody. For now, at least, the ex serves some small purpose. After that, may sporking insue! LOL!
Hobkin is an able barometer. It’s already a bit nippy here in the mornings, quite early for that by about two weeks.
Looking forward to the Ten Myths article. Let us know when it’s posted.
Con crud now gone, headaches gone, too, I hope?