Category Archives: LJ

I’m managed to addict myself to coffee, and of course the requisite mega-doses of caffeine, again. Despite the reasonably functional chunk of gray matter that I carry around in my skull, I continue to believe on some illogical, irrational, and just plain dim-witted level (despite the overwhelming excess of first-person evidence to the contrary), that I can counter the effects of one drug with another. The Clonazepam that I’ve been taking to nick the edge off my wing stub pains makes me groggy and muzzy-headed, so I slam various caffeine-delivery mechanisms and end up muzzy-headed and twitchy. And then when I stop taking the Clonazepam, I get headaches if I try to quit the caffeine administration.

And my wing stubs still hurt.

Stupid body.

Writing Stuff:
Found the Eternal Night website roundabout via jack_yoniga and discovered a very nice review on it for Ascendancy of Blood:

“A refreshing look at a traditional tale. Eugie Foster has written an enchanting little tale that keeps the reader interested until the very last word.”
–Lesley

And discovered this fine review of “Returning My Sister’s Face” from the Science Fiction Romance Newsletter:

“‘Returning My Sister’s Face’ by Eugie Foster is a ghost story about avenging wronged love in a medieval oriental setting . . .The author maintains a sense of suspense throughout, and the narrative style is so compelling I could almost hear the slow, dignified plinking of ancient oriental music as I read it.”
–Joyce Ellen Armond

Due to either the caffeine OD, or the Clonazepam residue, I was tempted to bite off my own fingers, giving myself a Really Good™ excuse for why I didn’t write today. Alas, I only ended up gnawing on a knuckle or two, then forced myself to toil on the novel.

Words: 500 And they were all crap.

Club 100 for Writers
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500/day
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Thanks to the unexpected munificence of benefactors known and unknown, I spent most of yesterday gleefully making scores of little LJ icons.

It’s amazing how much fun that was. I am, unabashedly, a geek. And receiving the tacit support and encouragement for my humble blogging efforts really made my weekend.

Thank you.

Writing Stuff:
Well, I didn’t get much writing done, but I’m beginning to hear back from the Tangent reviewers I inherited. Some of them are planning on going inactive, which I knew, but it means I shall need to start actively recruit fiction reviewers soon.

Saw that “Perfidious Beauty” will be the lead story in the Embark to Madness anthology, which delights me. The editor said they’re aiming for a May or June publication date, so I won’t have it by Fantasm, but will for Dragon*Con.

Maybe I’ll manage to finagle some words on the page today.

Because I didn’t feel like doing any work. I went to this website and played.

Here’s my default LJ icon in the style of Botticelli, Mucha, Modigliani, and Manga:

I tried it with a few more pictures. Continue reading →

Exotic nighttime marvels, storytellers, and illusion permeate Vera Nazarian’s (norilana) Dreams of the Compass Ross. The template of a story within a story is classic and timeless, from Shakespeare (A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream, Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet, etc.) to Ray Bradbury (The Illustrated Man), and Nazarian utilizes it flawlessly.

She displays her skill as a master tale spinner, effortlessly weaving together different character, theme, and plot threads into a shining tapestry. While on the surface Dreams of the Compass Rose is made up of a collection of short stories, when taken together it is a glittering whole that transcends its parts.

Appropriate for tales featuring mad tyrants, quixotic gods, and luminous mortals, Nazarian’s prose is rich, full of colorful imagery and fluid dimension. But Dreams goes beyond the mere trappings of fantasy, expounding upon the nature of wonder, illusion, and love. Scheherazade would have been proud of her modern-day sister-in-storytelling.

All in all, a satisfying and delightful read.

Still hurting, but went in to work anyway. I am the master of my wingstubs, dammit! Yeah, right. At least it’s the weekend.

Writing Stuff:
Got my contrib. copies of the Feb. issue from Cricket for “Razi and the Sunbird.” Hurray! No check, but I expect that’ll show up in the next day or so, mailed separately. The packaging envelope had a return address not in Illinois (where Cricket is based), which leads me to believe they send them straight from the printers. Shiny and colorful! Continue reading →

The cold temperatures and my flat keyboard at work have my wingstubs in an uproar. I hurt, so I took today off from work.

Writing Stuff:
It’s official. I’m the new Managing Editor of Tangent, effective immediately. Congrats and commiserations to me! A new and improved site is in the works. At the very least, a functioning skeleton should be up ASAP.

Started my rewrite on the SF story that went through Critters. Hoping to have it out to market tomorrow.

Also sent the huli jing story up to the Critters queue. It should go up next week.

Words: -300 via several editing passes.

Club 100 for Writers
46

500/day
14

Matthew lobotomized Mr. Computer last night. There was swearing, terror, drama, and many reboots. I hid behind my laptop, comforting it and trying to shield its little CPU from trauma by covering its speaker ports. This morning, when I woke up, everything seemed peaceful. The router is sulking and refuses to listen to impassioned pleading, some programs need reloading, and my email settings have to be restored, but all in all the surgery appears to have been a success. Huzzah.

In other technology related mishaps, I succeed in frying my ergo keyboard at work. Oopsie. Tea and electricity are not friends. So, defying the eleventh commandment (“Eugie shalt not tinker with hardware”) I took the thing apart. I figure, it’s already broken, right? I popped out all the keys (is there some sort of law that states if little pieces of plastic can fall in unreachable places, they will? I ended up on my hands and knees beneath my desk about a dozen time), and was astonished at how blicky things were. Crumbs, dust, unspeakable filth. I did a half-hearted job of cleaning that, and then tried to pry the plastic thingy under that off. But it defied my efforts. I’m not sure if it’s glued in or just simply very well set. The thing is, I’m sure the part I need to get at is underneath it. There’s a thin, plastic protective sheet-thing underneath it–which I suspect is there to keep moisture out, hah!–beneath which is the circuitry stuff. I need to be able to get at the circuitry in order to clean it . . . err, maybe with isopropyl alcohol? Or would that fry it more? Hmm. This is probably why there is an eleventh commandment.

My well intentioned efforts have left a pile of keys and a rather grungy looking base on my desk. Left it there for the cleaning lady to puzzle over. Think it might be time to requisition a new ergo keyboard . . . probably what I ought to have done immediately instead of trying to fix the thing. Or, err, called tech support.

And my wingstubs hurt more from having to type on a flat keyboard. Ugh.

Writing Stuff:
Novel novel novel. Decided that I shall need to scrap the opening chapter as I’ve come up with a better way to introduce the characters and the interpersonal conflict immediately. Novel!

Words: 500 words

Club 100 for Writers
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500/day
13

Cold cold cold cold cold. And I forgot to set my alarm last night. What woke me was the morning sunlight, beaming through the window, a sight I don’t see at this time of year until I’m on the road. Urk.

I should be happy I managed to wake up at all. I took a clonazepam last night because both my wingstubs and my back were hurting me. Slept great, but it left me woozy and light-headed this morning, not to mention disinclined to wake up. And my wingstubs still ache.

Writing Stuff:
Saw that zarabee posted on the RM that the contents of issue #17 and #18 of ASIM are being swapped around to accommodate editorial Life Events. So “The Life and Times of Penguin” which was slated to debut in February, will instead premiere in April. Glad to know. Thanks for the update, zarabee!

Story (by Robert McKee) got me contemplating ye olde novel again. I hammered out an outline in five acts with scenes and everything. I figure I need a solid foundation of structure if I’m going to finish it this time around. Have the first chapter written, although I’m dissatisfied with my setting. I’m confident I can make it richer and more interesting than what I have currently. I’m also trying to avoid committing the heinous crime of a prologue. I wrote the damn thing because I needed to have a good feel of the backstory, but I’d much rather figure out a way to incorporate the information into the storyline than use it. *ponder ponder ponder*

Words: 1500 – Mostly planning and otherwise gearing up for The Novel™. Brainstorming, outlining, world building, character construction, and a bit of futzing with prose.

Club 100 for Writers
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500/day
12

After the unscheduled downage of LJ, I decided the prudent thing would be to back up my entries, considering I’ve been writing in this blog for years now (I can’t believe it’s been that long!) So I downloaded LJArchive, which is a nifty shareware application. It even saves everyone’s comments and stuff. And it comes with some amusing plug-ins. Very nice.

On the backing up front, Mr. Computer has gotten pokey in the last few weeks, and we think some Adware got through his firewall and virus checker. Ergo, Matthew is going to reload Mr. Computer, an undertaking I personally find terrifying. I spent several hours going through my data, deleting redundant ones and backing up the rest to CD-ROM. Actually, I’ve got my writing files backed up to no less than five places, so I think I’m set for anything shy of a huge magnetic storm. Matthew’s taking his turn to clean up his stuff, and then he’s going to give Mr. Computer a lobotomy.

I can’t look.

Writing Stuff:
For those not aware, Tangent, the ‘zine I write reviews for, is losing its current Editor-in-Chief. Chris Markwyn is stepping down and has been looking for a replacement. Since my duties for the Daily Dragon are largely seasonal in nature, I thought this might be a good opportunity to stretch my editor muscles. So, after some waffling and much dithering, I volunteered to take over. I do believe I’ve gone mad.

Chris and I are still emailing to discuss the particulars. If it sounds like more than I can handle or has other heretofore issues that I don’t want to contend with, I may still bow out. Or if someone more qualified and more experienced than I offers to helm her instead, I will undoubtedly bow out (or get booted out) of consideration. So it’s not finalized yet. But if all goes as it looks likely it will, I’ll be Tangent‘s new Editor-in-Chief.

Glurk.

Words: -400 words on the huli jing story in two passes. Chop chop.

Matthew had few comments to make on it. As I suspected, it’s just not his sort of thing. My hubby isn’t a big fairy tale guy. It’s unfortunate as that seems to be where my passion lies. Or at least what I seem to be capable of selling. Going to poke it a few more times and then send it up to Critters . . . although it probably won’t go live for another couple weeks as I’ve still got the SF story in the queue this week. Erm. Well, as long as it goes up in time for me to do a rewrite before mroctorber‘s deadline . . .

I’m also engrossed in Story by Robert McKee (thanks again teflaime). It’s intended for screenwriters, but everything McKee says is equally applicable to prose writers. So far, it’s covered basics like setting, hook, and the nature of the protagonist which haven’t really been all that edifying, but it’s beginning to go into story structure and pacing. I’m actually taking notes. I feel like a student. Whee. Almost makes me want to undertake an MFA. Almost.

Club 100 for Writers
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500/day
11

Wow. LiveJournal totally fubared itself, didn’t it? Hoping it’s all better now.

Writing Stuff:
I did something I’ve never done before. I’m not sure if I should call it a new milestone, or sheer stupidity and/or arrogance.

I declined a sale.

I submitted a story to a market last year, and since that time, this market’s pay scale dropped significantly (about a quarter of what I expected initially which was already what I consider the minimum of what I will submit fiction to) and the editor, in her email to me accepting the story, apologized for it citing low sales and went on to say how she might not print the next issue in any case because of a dearth of good submissions. After some waffling–it goes utterly against instinct to refuse money for a story–I decided that I believed this story was worth more than what she was offering me. Plus, I’m not really keen on the idea of jumping aboard a sinking ship–low sales, uncertain future of the publication and all.

So, yeah. I can walk away from a sale.

Words: -500 on various rewriting between the huli jing and the SF story in the Critters queue. Chop chop chop. One of my regulars did indeed nail me with all the typos I left in it, and then found several that I missed. I’m well and duly mortified. But aside from my sloppiness, I’m getting a good reaction so far.

Time to get Matthew to first reader my fox story.

Club 100 for Writers
41

500/day
9