Category Archives: LJ

Got an email from my mother today. She and I don’t exactly have a close relationship. She lives in China; I live in Georgia. We send each other birthday cards once a year. Recently she re-married and the first I heard she was seeing anyone, much less engaged, was the wedding announcement.

She and her new husband are planning to swing by America in October and they’re thinking of spending a couple days in Atlanta. She wants to know if Matthew and I are free then to entertain. I can deal with a couple days of my mother’s company. Really I can. And I am curious to meet her husband. Apparently he has a couple sons. I have a pair of step-brothers. Huh.

I haven’t seen my mother in years. I’m not sure how many. Less than ten, more than five, I guess. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever see her again and I was okay with that.

Weirdness.

The three-weeker on Critters ended Wednesday and I’ve got . . . fifty-one critiques of my “squicky” story. GLAH! Too. Much. Information. I think my “gore and violence” warning at the top of my manuscript attracted people instead of scaring them away. Guess I shouldn’t be surprised. But now I’d like to start on my rewrite, but before I can do that I face the daunting task of trying to run my usual stats and review of all the critiques. My God. Fifty-one opinions is a lot of opinions to wade through.

At the beginning of the first week, I was pretty caught up. I’d already logged and broken down sixteen of the critiques. Normally, that’d be the majority of them, leaving room for maybe five or ten more to trickle in. But the tri-week and Dragon*Con increased my crit number and decreased my attention-paid-to-crits, respectively.

There’s a limited returns factor to this. When I’m procrastinating on doing actual writing because I don’t want to go through the sheer mass of critiques, that’s just plain counterproductive.

Hmm. I’m complaining about getting too many critiques. That’s just wrong. Gurgle. Okay. This weekend I’ll sort through the critiques and hammer out my rewrite. I will send this story out on Monday. Dammit.

In totally unrelated news, our 2nd season Angel DVD set arrived yesterday. Hurray! Angel-viewing marathon to commence. Rah!

On Spec has had one of favorite stories since late March. I finally got my courage up to query them on Monday–after all if I’ve been biting my nails and obsessively checking my mailbox for six months, I’d really like to know if it even got to them–and they inform me that yes they got it, and yes it’s still under consideration. The general editor even said that “no news was good news” and apologized for the long wait.

Gleep. Trying desperately hard to keep my hopes reined in. On Spec has quarterly reading periods and a sort of committee editorial process, although according to their website, consensus isn’t necessary to buy a story. But what that means is the longer a story is held by them, the more seriously it’s being considered as it makes the rounds from editor to editor.

I would LOVE for On Spec to buy this story. Aside from the obvious “woohoo, another sale” thing, I’m extremely fond of this one, and On Spec is the premiere Canadian Spec Fic magazine. They’re a wonderful publication with a prestigious history. It’d be such a wonderful home for my little tale. My fingers are so tightly crossed they’re turning blue.

Gulp.

My day job kicked my ass today. How dare my project folks heap gobs of work on me on a MONDAY? One rewritten module, two updated JCL jobs, and a brand new process (still in development) later, I looked up from my monitor, stunned to realize it was still Monday. Wasn’t that enough work to take me through the whole week already?

On the night job front, after my brief burst of writerly success, I’m slapped back to earth. Got a BFoD from RoF in the mail for one of my very favorite stories. I love this piece but can’t seem to place it. Out it goes again, but I’m quite bummed. It didn’t even make it past Carina, RoF‘s first reader. Damn.

I just don’t understand what sells and what doesn’t. I know I’ve said this before, but the marketing/editorial mindset is just a big ole mystery to me. Stories that I consider light, rattled-off pieces have sold, sometime to pro-markets their first time out, while my favorite, really polished, really meaningful works languish, piling up the rejection slips. It’s enough to make a writer seek a pointy edge to head-thump in frustration. Although I guess I would be more distraught if nothing of mine sold at all, so on that note I’m pretty grateful for the vagaries of the editorial world. Still puzzled as all hell.

Still no muse sightings, although I think I scented her perfume today. She’s skittish, so I’ve put some coffee out to lure her back. Waiting . . . waiting . . .

And it appears I’m back on the caffeine wagon. Not a surprise. I expected to be after Dragon*Con. Just wanted to make sure the big C worked during the convention itself. Now I need it to get me through the aftermath.

I need another holiday.

Went to Robert Walker’s son’s art opening last night. It was way cool. I’d never been to the Dragon & Phoenix before. It’s a huge new-agey bookstore with candles and incense and neat crafty stuff in it. Aside from re-meeting Robert Walker (and having him take my picture), I also had a chance to gab with renowned author Mitchell Graham and his lovely fiancée. They live just fifteen minutes or so away in Marietta! Hope to get a chance to chat with them again sometime soon.

I was rather in awe of the august company I was in, what with Robert having so many books out and Michell talking about his book deal with Spielberg and how he was being courted by Putnam or Harper-Collins and whatnot. Sigh. One day I too will have a mega book deal with a major publishing house . . . yeah, right.

So, to bolster my ego, afterward we drove to Barnes & Noble where I zipped to the SF shelves to hunt for Hitting the Skids in Pixeltown. And there it was! Nestled between Orson Scott Card’s Wyrms and Enchantment! Of course, I did what any writer would do and pulled it from its spine-showing configuration and turned it face-out so I could admire it properly. It really does have a beautiful cover.

My first book presence at a major brick-n-mortar bookstore. I feel like I should’ve brought a camera. Warm-glowyness.

Went home then and watched one of Matthew’s birthday DVDs: Casablanca. That movie really is amazing. It gets better and better each time I see it and find something new to admire.

A very nice Saturday. Today, I think there will be vegging on the couch. I baked a batch of chocolate chip cookies yesterday and we ate half of them. I believe that makes us obligated to eat the other half today.

It’s turning out to be a very nice weekend. Too short, of course, but aren’t they always?

My writing muse, as expected, is still holed up. Probably shell-shocked. She should recover in a week or so, I suspect. I’m eying that magic-realism piece I started before D*C. I’d really like to finish it. Hope when musie perks back up she’s inclined to help me out.

My “squicky” story is still up at Critters. Three weeks is a really, really long time for a story to be up for review. As of this morning, I’ve got thirty-seven critiques of it. Glah! That’s a bit much to assimilate. And there’s still half a week to go! Overall, I’m getting that there’s too much exposition at the end, but aside from that it’s been quite well received. Hurrah.

I did get a critique from one reader who apparently subscribes to Cicada. She replied to my thank-you note of her critique that she didn’t realize I was the author of “The Adventures of Manny the Mailmobile” until she checked out my homepage. She says she really liked “Manny” and even read it two times. It is an utter thrill to discover total strangers who have read and enjoyed stories I’ve written. A very nice happy-glow moment.

I’m very, very glad the weekend’s here. I expect it’ll be a nice, quiet one. Full of skunk snuggles and long naps on the couch. Hobkin seems to have missed me during his time at Dragon*Con skunk camp. He’s been extremely affectionate all week, very clingy and huggy. What a sweetie.

(Edit: After predicting a quiet weekend, I get an out-of-the-blue invite to an art show opening for tonight. One of the authors (Robert W. Walker) I met at D*C’s son is having an exhibit at the Phoenix & Dragon. Robert and I exchanged cards and he sent me an email inviting me attend the opening where he says that he “found me extraordinary.” Now, I ask you, what girl can resist words like that? Matthew was amused. Hmm, what to wear . . .)

Saw the first foreign-language translation of something I wrote today. It’s the Daily Dragon article “Q&A with James Marsters” I wrote about Marster’s Friday panel at Dragon*Con, at this Italian fan site: Bloody Love. My article’s about halfway down the page. Do a FIND on my name and it’ll pop up.

Okay, I’m amused. Yes, they violated my copyright, but they did credit me with the article (and spelled my name right), which significantly defuses any indignation I might otherwise be experiencing. And it’s in Italian. I’ve never had something of mine translated before. Another milestone, even if it is without my explicit approval.

It’s also not the first time an article of mine has been pirated. The Andrew Hallett article I wrote two years ago for the Daily Dragon (“What is it About the Green Ones?”) was also swiped by another fan site. These folks also credited me as the writer, so again, I’m not particularly upset. And they also provided the URL to the Daily Dragon even if they didn’t have the courtesy to link to it. Although they appear to have renamed “Dragon*Con” to the “Daily Dragon Con.” Heh.

I should probably fire off a note to both places and ask that they please request permission next time, and ask the Italian place to provide a link back to the DD–assuming they’ll be able to understand me since I don’t write Italian. Is there anyone on my Friend’s List who can do a quickie translation from English to Italian?

I just can’t bring myself to feeling too hard-assed about this. Don’t get me wrong, I’d be hopping mad and talking legal action if someone stole some of my fiction and posted it in violation of my copyright, but I’m just not as attached to my non-fiction. It sets a bad precedence if I don’t follow up with such incidents, I suppose. But I’m not angry at all. In fact I’m quite amused. Silly ravening Buffy/Angel fans.

Still decidedly out of it. Today was an adventure. Being away from my desk for four working days resulted in many fires, of which I was far too zoned to find my fireman’s cap with ease. Even after a very hot, very concentrated dose of caffeine, I was still all “huh?” and “wha?”

Maybe tomorrow will be better.

But, okay, back to Dragon*Con 2003:

First and foremost, we did the Daily Dragon. For our first year as directors, I think Matthew and I did pretty well, although the thing just about kicked our asses. We had a great staff, and the stress was somewhat alleviated by knowing that dire_ephiphany and astralfire were there to help pick up the pieces if something shattered. Fortunately nothing did. But it was good to have a safety net. And word on the street is that both dire_ephiphany and astralfire went to panels and actually got to enjoy a bit of the con! Woo!

Got several compliments on some of the additions/changes to the hardcopy we made this year from other directors at the Dead Dog party. I suspect some of it was people being nice to the new victims, but I’d like to think that our little publication was well received. It’s always nice being appreciated.

Next year, we need to either train or acquire more staff that have layout and web developer expertise. Having dude_the and glenn5 help with the web publishing side of things was essential. My head would’ve exploded without them to help keep the website updated. And I’d want to commandeer dude_the to help with layout, except that he, like me, tends to turn into a pumpkin after the midnight hour, and layout usually happens in the wee hours of the morning. But we got articles! My God did we get articles! Over thirty this year, which more than doubles what we had last year. fahkingnut wrote a fantastic bit of poetry/prose as a wrap-up. It was perfect for the final editions, both hardcopy and online. I’m so proud of all my writers! I was also very pleasantly surprised to discover that glenn5 is a bigger grammar nazi than I am. Excellent discovery to make as by the time Saturday rolled around, I was missing some pretty basic copyedits in my bleary-eyed perusal. My brain was totally fried. We would’ve had a lot more typos and bad grammar snafus if he hadn’t been there to be my second (and sometimes first) line of copyediting defense.

And I seriously hope that next year we get better computers. This year, one of them was thoroughly infected with Klez, so we never even got it hooked up into our network. We did end up cannibalizing it for parts so that some of the other systems would run a little faster. But our computers were still total clunkers even with the extra memory bits. Bona fide antiques. And we had a couple corrupted document scares and network issues. Our network person, Dean, is a god. There was a very bad moment on Friday that would have been hell-in-a-bucket if he hadn’t come riding to the rescue. And he had sugar! Jumbo-size Pixie Stix and Tootsie Roll lollipops, mmm.

We still have additions to make to the Daily Dragon Online. We’re talking about adding a photo gallery, which would be way cool. Dean has a CD full of excellent photos and I’m always bummed that we can’t include more in the hardcopy. Something to do tomorrow. Or next week.

High/lowlights:
James Marsters: Didn’t get to interview OR meet him due to “BUCKET-OF-ICE” Julie Caitlin Brown. @#*$&! (Did she manage to tick off every single convention-goer at Dragon*Con, or what??) But we got quite a few good shots of him from his first panel on Friday. Also watched him do sound checks during Dawn Look-Alike Contest prep backstage. Missed seeing Marster’s ass-crack by two seconds. Heh. Also watched a few Ghost of the Robot numbers backstage but then, err, decided to leave.

Dawn Look-Alike Contest: One of the few events I was able to get to. Got a chance to see all of the Dawns up-close backstage when they did their individual photo-ops with the D*C photo crew beforehand. Zoloft was gorgeous, as usual. Zounds. There were sixty-two contestants this year. Insane.

Cruxshadows: As always, they totally rocked! And their posters and the fliers they were giving out featured the picture Matthew took of them at one of their previous concerts! It turned out so well we sent it them to post on their website. And Matthew also entered it in a photo competition where it won 2nd place. Turns out the Cruxshadows needed a good picture that would reproduce well in black and white and picked his. When we recognized it, Matthew went and asked Rogue if he could get one of the posters to keep when they were done with it. Even better, Rogue and Rachel signed it. Cruxshadowy goodness. They were also at the Dead Dog party and I got to HUG Rogue. Cruxshadow squeezy goodness.

Anne McCaffrey: Through some excellent reporterly activity, Debbie was able to get an interview (our only one this year, unfortunately) with Anne McCaffrey. Go, Debbie! I’m so proud of her. The one downer is that Anne wanted to meet James Marsters but it looks like that didn’t come about because of JCB’s interference. That’s just wrong.

Keith Olexa, James Maxey, Adam Connell: Got to meet face to face my fellow Phobosians. I loved getting a chance to chat with people in the writing biz who I’ve only had the opportunity to email with before. And sitting on the panel with Keith and James was fabu. It’s still a blur and probably will be forever (hysterical amnesia anyone?), but I’ve got pictures. Also, Keith (Phobos’ in-house editor) asked me to send him a story, which I’m going to do ASAP.

Dinner with Ann Crispin and my DC2K writers group: Took a couple hours off on Sunday to have dinner at the Steak and Ale (fortunately they had a vegetarian entrée) with Ann and my writers group. It was my first real meal that wasn’t nachos or donuts from the Con Suite. It was great seeing everyone and hearing ’bout what everyone’s up to. My stomach had shrunken by that time so I couldn’t finish my meal. Had them wrap up what was left to take with me. I was going to give it to Matthew, but a homeless person asked me for food as I was en route back to the Hyatt. Figured he needed it more so I handed him my doggy bag. He seemed very grateful for it. Picked up a few karma points there, I figure. Also, got lost on my way back (no surprise to anyone who knows me. I’m famous for being able to get lost in my own subdivision) and got rescued by Dangerwoman who was able to point the way back to the Hyatt. I’m pathetic. I need to have a GPS installed in my brain.

Mayhem mayhem mayhem: that would be everything else. Didn’t get to go to nearly as many panels and events as I would’ve liked to. Hoping that next year we’ll have more of the snags worked out so we’ll have more time to enjoy the convention. (Must learn to delegate more . . . ) Did manage to sneak a few hours off with Buffy-board friends (Lionsmile, Xandersmom, and Bellwitch), which was a good and much-needed unwinding time.

Overall, a resounding thumbs up. But I feel like I could use a week to recover from it. Heard through the grapevine that Hitting the Skids in Pixeltown has been sighted at numerous Barnes & Nobles across the country. But it hasn’t fully registered. Even my sale to MicroSHOCKS couldn’t shake me out of my daze. I barely have enough brain cells firing to go “woohoo.” Maybe it’s a delayed reaction thing and after I recuperate, I’ll have a jump-up-and-down moment or two. Right now, I just want a naaaap . . . snnnnzzzzz.

Just found out I sold “Reflections in the Mirror” to the MicroSHOCKS anthology, to be published by 3F Publications. Woo!