Category Archives: LJ

Woofer 0, Hobkin 1

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Watched The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, of which I have to say: “RAWR!” Laughed myself loopy. People must see it. Go. Shoo!

Woke up this morning before my alarm went off. Hobkin was nestled beside me, snoring and snuffling occasionally, so I thought it safe to wrap him up in the blanket, and sneak off to shower. After all, Matthew was right there. He’d wake up if Hobkin started getting into mischief, right?

Wrong. Very very wrong. While I was in the bathroom, getting ready for work, Hobkin apparently woke up and decided, since I was absent and Matthew was asleep, that meant it was open season on everything he knows would merit many “bad skunk!” and “no!”s. I was getting out of the shower when I heard a loud *thump* in the living room. Hair dripping and half-wrapped in damp towel, I ran out to investigate, and immediately found a pile of black foam/sponge bits on the floor, and a guilty-faced skunk standing over them. He’d been very industrious, ripping one of our speakers, the woofer, to shreds. He’d pried off the front screen part, and was busily tearing out the inner foam section that encircles the sound box when I intruded. I suspect the woofer is now an ex-speaker, but we haven’t yet confirmed it. Sigh.

And, my wingstubs really hurt.



Writing Stuff:

– 700 words on the new SF story. Rah.
– Did another Critters review.
– Making good progress on the rewrite of “Caught Between.” The overall consensus is that the title is a dud. Dammit. Brainstorming in progress for a new one.
– Saw on the Borderlands 6 website that they’re reading submissions from 5/27. I sent them something on 5/13 and haven’t received a rejection yet. Does that mean I might have made it onto the short list? Or that email gremlins have eaten my submission en route? To query or not to query? Dammit.

Monday doldrums

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Monday again. Yuck. Major motivation issues, even with a large pot of green tea as encouragement. I seem to be having some general initiative issues of late. Must engage ass in gear . . . wingstubs ache too, which isn’t remotely helpful.



Writing Stuff:

– Story Station paid me for “Second Daughter”, yay!
– My review of “The Tang Dynasty Underwater Pyramid” by Walter Jon Williams is up at Tangent.
– The critiques of “Caught Between” continue to trickle in. Started on my rewrite. Hope to have it out the door by Thursday. Maybe Friday.
– Completed my synopsis for Nathan of Scrybe Press and sent it off.
– Wrote a couple critiques for Critters.org.
– Replied to Ann Crispin about guest speaking at her workshop. Still get the jitters thinking about it, so I’m encouraging a personal state of denial until I need to plan out what I’m going to say. And sent her a market-listing handout for her students.

Dragon*Con is soon!

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Got a phone call from dire_epiphany yesterday, a frantic plea for assistance. Apparently the printers of the Dragon*Con program book et al. bumped up their deadline, and they wanted all of the documents (guest bios, performer write-ups, etc.) today. She was expected to have 100+ pages of text edited and ready to go in like, negative time.

So, Matthew and I were enlisted in the great editorial marathon to help get everything spell- and grammar-checked, and consistently formatted. Actually, I like editing. I thought it was fun. dire_epiphany still did the lion’s share (and we’re talking gigantic, mammoth-eating cave lion here, not the little bitty modern-day lions). I hope she was able to get some sleep last night . . .

But it really sunk home that Dragon*Con is right around the corner. Eep.


Writing Stuff:

Received yesterday:
-An email from Ann Crispin asking if I’d do a little talk on the business of submitting short stories during her Dragon*Con beginner’s workshop. 1. I’m totally stoked she asked me. 2. I’m also totally terrified. Did I mention I’ve got an acute phobia of public speaking? I’m going to do it, but I’m waiting until I don’t get the shakes when I think about it to reply to her email .
– A request to synopsize another novelette for Scrybe Press. Going to work on that today.
– Checklist form reject from Highlights with “It is not suited to our present needs” checked. Probably just as well. Highlights buys all rights, and while they pay well for them, they don’t pay as well as Cricket, who just buys first print and non-exclusive reprint rights. ‘Course Cricket passed on this one. But after further consideration, I don’t think I’m happy with the idea of parting with “all rights” to anything of mine. It also might be time to trunk this folk tale. But, on an amusing note, there were some checklist items that one normally doesn’t see on genre forms. My favorite was “We do not publish material that requires or encourages a reader to mark on the pages” .
– Two more critiques of “Caught Between” (including yours, canadiansuzanne, thanks!) Still seems to be going over reasonably well. Coolness.

Skunk mating season?

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Is it skunk mating season? Hobkin has been positively wild this last week. And he keeps rubbing his chin and face on the wall corners, marking his territory. I actually dosed him with Rescue Remedy this morning, he was so frenzied. First he started trying to tear the speaker screens off, then he tried to wrestle open the printer cabinet, and finally he got a hold of a dangling computer cord which I only managed to retrieve from him with some difficulty. What’s so funny is he’s like a Jekyll and Hyde fuzzy. He’s all sweet and loving in the evening when he wants to snuggle. What a silly, exasperating beastie!


Writing Stuff:

Four critiques on “Caught Between a Twofold Way” from Critters. So far, people quite like the story, but, err, not the title. Sigh. And I thought I was being so clever with the re-titling. But I’m very glad the story is being well received, especially after the trouncing Matthew gave the zero draft.

1100 words on the new SF piece. Yay, wordage!

LJ, wingstubs, and writing

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LJ continues acting wonky with its comment emails. I assumed when I started getting LJ replies from entries in July at the beginning of the week they were doing some sort of system upgrade and the kinks would get worked out. But I’m still getting them. Oh well. No harm, I guess.

Wing stubs still hurting. Took a clonazepam at bedtime last night. Woke up decidedly woozy. Careened off the bathroom door lintel and went through the morning in something of a daze. Hobkin gave me a “What’s wrong with you, woman?” look when I kept interrupting his breakfast preparation to go do one thing or another that I’d forgotten about in my post-sedated haze. I believe the error was in taking the full dose. I think from here on in, I’ll be chopping my tablets in half.



Writing Stuff:

– Forgot that my “Caught Between a Twofold Way” story was due up at Critters this week. Coolness. I suspect it won’t get as much lovin’ as others of my works due to its length. We’ll see.
– Did a final pass over the IROSF cyberpunk article and booted it out. Hope it meets with approval.
– Completed my review of this week’s Sci-Fiction story and launched it at ye olde editor.
– Received a request from Leading Edge to do some more tweaking on “Of Two Minds in Lanais.” There’s positive references (*gasp*) to drug use in my story that they asked me to “tone down” so as not to offend their sponsors. Well, it is Brigham-Young’s publication, after all. I was a bit perplexed as to how to do as they requested since the drug in question is a pivotal feature of the story. But I did my best. Erm.

Writing writing writing

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Writing Stuff:

– The cyberpunk article is nearly done. Fork poised and looming. Going to double-check my formatting, read over it once more, and then send it off.
– Started a review for Tangent of this week’s Sci-Fiction story, “The Tang Dynasty Underwater Pyramid” by Walter Jon Williams.
– Did another Critters critique for a regular.
– And while driving home, a story inspired by a recent 60 Minutes feature coalesced. I hammered out a synopsis/outline, complete with character sketches and finale. This one’s science fiction.
-Also received a 93-day personal scribble on a form “no” from Amazing Stories with invite to send more.

Hobkin and the blue moon

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Hobkin has been a fuzzy chaos fiend these last couple days. Could it be the recent blue moon we had? This morning I woke up way before my alarm, and then tried to get up without rousing the slumbering demon. Didn’t work. Spent the next hour trying to restore order to the house. Have the forearm welts to show for it. He figured out how to snap off the baby locks holding our entertainment cabinet doors closed. If he repeats the stunt, we’re going to have to find a new way to secure them shut.



Writing Stuff:

Work continues apace on the cyberpunk article. I finished draft one and ran it past Matthew. He thought it read too dense, like a term paper rather than an entertainment essay. I agreed, so in my next pass I worked on punching up the prose and making it more user-friendly. Maybe one more pass and it should be in shape to send in. Probably.

I think my head is filling up with cyberpunk fiction. Need to get a brain upgrade with more storage space.

Clonazepam and writing.

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Only took a little Clonazepam this weekend. Broke a .5 mg pill in half, and took .25 mg. It seems to have worked in that I wasn’t zoned the morning after. Although my wing stubs are still protesting. But they’re protesting in less strident voices.



Writing Stuff:

72-day personal reject from Abyss & Apex with request to see more. Damn.

All stories that have returned with their tails tucked have received pep talks and been booted back out.

One of the submissions I have at Cricket has just crested the 100-day mark, which is always a promising sign with these folks. My story at RoF that Carina pulled from the slush has made its way to Shawna. And more twitching and nail gnawing shall commenceth. That’s two of my stories under round two consideration there. I know the publishing biz isn’t a numbers game, but I can’t help being hopeful that this increases my chances that at least one of them will appeal.

Work progresses on the cyberpunk article. Non-fiction is so much easier to write than fiction. Although I am experiencing a decidedly collegiate déjà vu sensation. And I’m getting very annoyed with how pretentious all the essays I’m finding on Postmodernism are. There’s this tendency to dance around anything that remotely might be a definition or theme, making for huge expanses of gibberish I have to wade through.

The Tangent snafu appears to have been cleared up, and my editor has returned from his sojourn to the mystic pit of vanishing. My reviews of Sci-Fiction stories “The Anatomist’s Apprentice” and “Volunteers” has joined “Jumpers” in the recently published list.

Wrote a critique for Critters (for your story canadiansuzanne).

Did a vanity Google search and discovered a new review of Ascendancy of Blood at a site called, whimsically enough, Yet Another Book Review Site:

“Just when readers think nothing new can be done to an old fable, along comes Foster. She reinvents sleeping beauty. Her take entertains and her twist, surprises . . . A fast, horror read that will surprise fable lovers.”
–Christina Francine Withcher

A glowing review makes Eugie happy.

Sunday Insomnia

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I’m awake at a ridiculously early hour, and I don’t know why. Stupid whacked-out circadian rhythms.

Had a lovely day with dire_epiphany, astralfire, and their son. We hung out at their beautiful, forest-wilderness surrounded home, and chit-chatted. Made the acquaintance of their pride of felines: Maggie, Rajah, and Jasmine with much belly-rubbings to Maggie. Was amused to see Matthew try his hand at one of their video games (something to do with zombies), and got fed a feast, a feast I sez, of salad, lasagna, garlic bread, and strawberry cheesecake. Yumm! There was some talk of viewing a DVD, but we got so caught up with gabbing, that by the time we’d finished the cheesecake, it was already late, and Hobkin would have thrown a fit if we’d stayed out any longer. Much fun indeed. Just what Matthew and I both needed. Hope to do that again soon, maybe with the movie-watching even.

Also watched Hellboy, courtesy Netflix. Shiny. Comic booky to the extreme, but escapist flash-flash galore. I liked the Cthulu beasties. And the ending made me go “awwww.”


Writing Stuff

Received a 3-day rejection from the new market, Surreal. Pffft.

Been devouring the cyberpunk books I checked out from the library (*crunch crunch crunch*), and now I’m thinking I need to swing by a used bookstore to pick up some more. The selection the library had was pretty limited.

Oddly, my Sci-Fiction review of “Jumpers” by Mary Rosenblum is up at Tangent, but not my review of “The Anatomist’s Apprentice” which I sent before the one for “Jumpers.” Weird. Emailed editor and publisher to try to figure out if it was received or what.

Vet visit, weekend fun

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Took Hobkin to the vet for his shots. He growled at everyone (except me, whom he clung to with every fuzzy fiber of his being), and huffed whenever anyone touched him. Poor little guy really doesn’t like vet visits. Fortunately, Debbie, Hobkin’s godmother, was there to assist (she works at our vet’s). He likes her and will tolerate great indignities if she’s holding him.

He’s lost a little weight–hurray! But the vet said he could stand to loose more–boo! But aside from that, he got a clean bill of health. Hurray!

Going to head over to dire_epiphany and astralfire‘s place to hang after lunch. Good company and relaxed atmosphere sounds like heaven.


Writing Stuff:

Received the contract from Leading Edge and learned that “Of Two Minds in Lanais” is slated for issue #48, October 2004. That’s the very next one. Yay!

Also swung by the library and picked up some cannon cyberpunk books to read. Going to Netflix some of the few cannon cyberpunk movies I haven’t seen yet. Had an interesting experience at the library. Their online system said they had a book I wanted–an anthology–but when we went to the stacks, we couldn’t find it. Engaged a helpful librarian in the hunt, with limited success. She wondered, since it was a collection of short stories, if it had been filed in the 800s in non-fiction (non-fiction??), since apparently that’s where short stories go. But then Matthew had the epiphany to look in the wrong place for it. And yup, there it was, filed not under editor, but under title. Yikes. If Matthew hadn’t been the clever thing he is, that book would have been lost in the stacks forever.

Voracious reading to commence.