Just learned from Douglas Cohen (douglascohen) that my story “Daughter of Bótù” received an Honorable Mention in Gardner Dozois’ Year’s Best SF 26. Squee!
(Shameless plug:
You can read “Daughter of Bótù” in Returning My Sister’s Face, now available at Amazon.com for the sweet price of $10.75 in trade paperback—discounted from the cover price of $11.95.)
I’ve been doing a lot of psychology research of late—the halo effect for “Whatever Skin You Wear” (which I didn’t end up using when I changed the story’s scope) and recently oxytocin, the “moral molecule.”
And I am reminded again how much I love psychology and also that I’m somewhat sad that I’m not active in the field. Probably just as well. I’d enjoy far too much being a mad scientist/evil genius…
One of my favorite quotes from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series:
Riley: Psychologically this is fascinating, doesn’t it make everyone wanna lock them in separate rooms and do experiments on them? [everyone stares]…Just me then.
“Whatever Skin You Wear” first readered by fosteronfilm (whose feedback helped me determine that no epilogue was required), several editing passes committed, and it’s at first draft. Time to inflict it upon critiquers.
This story came so much easier than the last, even with the POV flip-flopping. I think the change in milieu, genre, and voice were good for my muse.
New words: 200 on “Whatever Skin You Wear.” And it’s at zero draft, two weeks from inception to “the end.” Productivity win!
Except I think it may need an epilogue…
Awash in Facebook-induced nostalgia and maudlin sentimentality. Ugh. Need Japanese gay porn manga.
It’s story research. Honest! Well, this time it is…
Ahem.
New words: 1,400 on “Whatever Skin You Wear.” Might be able to make it to zero draft before the weekend’s out.
Just sold reprint of “Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast” to Apex Magazine! *happy dancing*
And the fey-infestation/mild haunting of our house continues. This morning, while I was in the bathroom getting ready for work and fosteronfilm was in the bedroom, heading towards sleep, my cell phone called his—both of which were in the living room.
Huh.
So now we have lights that spontaneously go on and off, toilets that occasionally flush on their own, disembodied thumps, and cell phones that call each other.
I am thoroughly amused.
Epiphany: I need to rewrite “Whatever Skin You Wear” switching from first-person POV to third-person. Glargh! Been second-guessing myself a lot of late.
Writerly instinct fail!
New Words: 700 on “Whatever Skin You Wear.”
Keep waffling about where I want to take this/how I want to approach this. Also worried that I may be administering my point via sledgehammer. Grmf.
For folks wondering about my thoughts on self-publishing, Matthew Nadelhaft started a question on Facebook about it, and Christina Baker Cline posted the resulting discussion on her blog (with everyone’s permission).
Other folks that chimed in include Michael Stackpole, Jeff VanderMeer, Stephen Dedman, Jennifer Stevenson, and Alex Irvine.
