Category Archives: LJ

Publishers Weekly Reviews Returning My Sister’s Face & Jason Sanford Recommends “Sinner, Baker, etc.

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Happy Obama inauguration day!

Thought it’d be relatively quiet at work this week, but came in this morning to a mountain of bills. Totally slammed. Guess that’s the price of not having to work this weekend.

   


Writing Stuff

Had a chock-full-o-squee day yesterday. As a follow-up to the IGMS sale, Publishers Weekly reviewed Returning My Sister’s Face and Other Far Eastern Tales of Whimsy and Malice:

“Noted short story author Foster offers a dozen enchanting and sometimes chilling tales alive with elegantly sketched characters and sensibilities drawn from Asian folklore…Readers who long for a break from European medieval fantasy will be charmed and entertained by Foster’s tales.”

I’m a “noted short story author”!

And Jason Sanford Recommended “Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast” as his Story of the Week pick:

“This far future science fiction tale is an exploration of self identity and the masks we all wear in public…a beautifully written and fast-paced tale which is certain to be on many of the year’s best lists.”

Squeeeeee!!

“Beautiful Winter” sold to OSC’s IGMS and first IZ#220 review

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Week 1 of session 2009 down. Felt pretty wiped by end of week, but so far, it hasn’t been too bad. Late night every day (‘cept Friday; the legislators scamper out on Friday as soon as they can, so we hardly ever work late on Fridays during session). But not that late, and I didn’t have to work this weekend.

I think my recent med change is causing me to be less resilient than I was last year. Not much I can do about it but keep on chugging along.

The fierce cold didn’t help. Friday was cold in the way I hoped never to be cold again—that whole moving to the South from the frigid Midwest and all. Painfully cold with a bitter windchill that steals the breath and numbs the face and fingers in under a minute. But it’s warmed up a bit, thankfully. All hail the amazing Georgia sun.

   


Writing Stuff

Eagerly awaiting my contrib. copy of Interzone #220 which is winging its way to me across the pond. I saw a review of the issue from the blogosphere which made me happy. Regarding “Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast”:

“The dream-like world that Foster paints is so beguilingly strange that this tale might have worked just as well even without the explanatory backstory, but regardless this is gloriously strange stuff, and a pleasantly untypical science fiction story.”
—Lawrence Conquest, The Barking Dog

“Beguilingly strange“! Sweet!

Received:
• 90-day SALE of “Beautiful Winter” to OSC’s InterGalactic Medicine Show. This is the story that was orphaned when Prime Books’ Russian Winters anthology got nixed, so I’m extra doubly pleased that the story was able to find such a wonderful new home.

First Story Acceptance and Publication for 2009; Killers Nominated for Black Quill Award

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The first Dragon*Con director’s meeting was tonight. It always seems to be right before the legislative session convenes, right when I’m frantically trying to get as much taken care of before everything gets put on hold. Guess that’s what laptops are for. Multitasking is me.

   


Writing Stuff

The Killers anthology, edited by Colin Harvey, with my story “Beautiful Summer,” is a finalist in the 2nd Annual Black Quill Awards in the category of “Best Dark Genre Fiction Collection.” Go vote, y’all!

New Words:
• 2.6K on The Stupid Novel. Didn’t manage to get it to zero draft, but damn, I’m so close.

Received:
• Not technically a “sale,” but my first story acceptance of 2009. Reprint of “Running on Two Legs” will be in the Pet Rescue/Humane Society Relief Anthology charity project. This anthology will benefit companion animals in need due to Hurricane Ike. Animal welfare is near and dear to my heart, and I’m delighted to be able to do something to help out.

Published:
• To go with my first story acceptance of the year, also saw my first published story of 2009: “Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast” in issue #220 of Interzone. Yay! Shiny cover:


Cover by Adam Tredowski.

Recommendation: LJArchive

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So folks are speculating after the recent LiveJournal layoffs about the future of LJ. (See also this article and this one.)

While I’m not inclined to put too much stock into rumors, I’d be sad if LJ closed down shop—although at the same time I don’t feel that the world would end if it did. But I did decide that it has been too long since I made a complete back-up of my blog. Rectified now.

In case anyone else is casting about for a good archiving application for their LJ, lemme recommend LJArchive (downloadable from SourceForce). While it seems that it’s no longer being supported or upgraded, it’s free and a pretty elegant little bit of software. It archives comments as well as posts, synchronizes smoothly, and does its job quickly and easily.

2008 Writing Year in Review and 2009 Resolutions

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Hope everyone had a Happy New Year! Welcome 2009!

Recovering still from the holidays. Not sure I want to analyze too deeply what it says about me that I find it relaxing being back at my desk after returning from Illinois. I remember growing up that I found my mother’s work-a-holic nature perplexing and irksome, and now I seem to have acquired it. Hmph.

Anyhoo, had a wonderful Xmas with the in-laws and birthday with the hubby—acquiring many new prezzies thereof, both practical and whimsical, including a rice maker, kitchen knives (thank Jeebus, real knives to replace the blunt, knife-shaped metal bits we’ve been trying to cut with), new clothes for work and play, an elephant teapot (!), and many, many books and DVDs.

But I always get overwhelmed by the chaos of the holiday season and fall behind on my various obligations. Fording through the backlog now.

   


Writing Stuff

2008 was an interesting year for me. My overall productivity improved over last year’s, but most of that was from wordage on The Stupid Novel, which isn’t at zero draft yet. So my number of completed works this year is quite small. But I also sold a short story collection. I’ve been hungry to finally have a book of all Eugie, only Eugie works for a while now, and it’s a huge milestone for me.

Looking over 2008’s Writing Resolutions, I determined to:

• Finish the ^#$!@# novel.

Sigh. Getting there.

• Write 500 words a day, every day, barring weekends, holidays, and the legislative session.

Well, that didn’t pan out again. I think I averaged something like 250 words a day, which trended towards bouts of productivity—several weeks of 1000+ words/day—intermingled with huge stretches of nada. I’m wondering if I’m just not geared to writing every day, and if expecting myself to do so is just setting myself up for failure. Writing has become ingrained as a behavioral reality of my life by now; if I don’t write, it starts eating away at me until I have to sit down and get words on the page. So I don’t think I’m risking my writerly chops by allowing myself to accept that it’s okay not to write every day. Going to try that this year and see how it works out.

• Be more willing to say “no” when new hamsters come a’beggin’.

This I managed to do, actually turning down a couple invitations to submit to projects, but I suspect I’ve still got too many hamsters in the air. Not sure what to do about it, as I want to keep all the hamsters remaining.

2008’s highlights and accomplishments, I:
• Saw the one-year anniversary of TTA Press’s The Fix.
• Survived another year as The Daily Dragon‘s Editor/Director.
• Made 15 sales (and received 25 rejections), including the sale of my short story collection, Returning My Sister’s Face to Norilana Books.
• Saw 17 works published, including stories in Cricket and Baen’s Universe.
• Wrote 42.2K words on The Stupid Novel, the most words I’ve set down on a single work and the closest I’ve come to completing a novel. Continuing to work on it and hope to finish it this year.

And herein my Writing Resolutions for 2009:

• Finish The Stupid Novel. I’m so @^$!#* close!

And that’s it. Guess that should’ve been “resolution” not “resolutions.”

And finally, New Words (the last tally from 2008):
• 1.6K on The Stupid Novel.

Weekend Before Christmas: Adventures in Lock Picking

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Thanks for all the slaps on the back re: the Ursula K. Le Guin cover blurb for Returning My Sister’s Face, everyone! I am still in a squeeful daze ’bout it.

The balmy autumnal weather we’ve been having in Georgia has come to an end, and now we’re feeling the wintry pain of everyone else in the country. And I am reminded—not that I needed it—that I really, really don’t like the cold. But I’m glad the freeze snap hit yesterday rather than earlier in the weekend ’cause we had to spend a couple hours outside on Friday afternoon.

fosteronfilm and I were heading out to finish up our Christmas shopping. Ahead of me in the garage, Matthew suddenly turns, his hand in his pocket.

“Wait, do you have your—”

*Click*

“—keys?”

Yep, that “*click*” was the sound of the house-to-garage door shutting…and locking. And, no, I didn’t have my keys.

We debated whether it would be cheaper to break a window or call a locksmith, but in the end decided that a locksmith was the way to go. Especially as we weren’t sure whether fixing a window could be done in a timely fashion, and having a broken window during winter seemed like a particularly bad idea.

There was an old phone book in the garage—slated for recycling, but because we are less-than-conscientious about such things, it hadn’t been hauled to the curb yet—which we used to look up a locksmith. We picked one with a big ad that promised “15-minute emergency response.”

We called, talked to the dispatcher who told us to expect a callback from the locksmith shortly, and settled down to wait. Twenty minutes later, we called then again. This time, the locksmith called right back and told us he was on the way. “‘Bout 20 minutes.” Forty-five minutes later, we called again. “Caught in traffic,” he said.

Well over an hour after we first called, he pulls up. At that point, I didn’t care about the wait. I was just gladdened by the prospect of being able to get into our house again.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to pick the lock.

It seems we had a really good lock on our garage door. And it wasn’t even the deadbolt (since we didn’t have keys to finish locking the door), just the knob lock. And yes, “had” past tense, as in, since he couldn’t pick it, he had to drill it. I guess technically we still have the lock, but it’s in pieces and sitting on our washing machine in a little metal pile.

And for the final “wah!” in our afternoon of wah-ness, the bottom line ended up being $230.00—which we really don’t have to spare—for getting us into our house as well as replacing the sad little pile of metal on our washing machine with a shiny, new lock. (Which now gives us three house keys to juggle: the two that we had before that still fit our other doors, and this new one.)

Sigh.

   


Writing Stuff

New Words:
• 900 on The Stupid Novel.

Ursula K. Le Guin Cover Blurb!

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Came home to an email from Ursula K. Le Guin—yes, the Hugo, Nebula, Pushcart, and Newbury (and many more) Award-winning author of The Left Hand of Darkness and the Earthsea series, that Ursula K. Le Guin!—with an awesome cover blurb for Returning My Sister’s Face:

“Whimsy and malice—yes—also mystery, a very female sensuality, and wit. An elegant and entertaining book.”

Is it possible to die from too much squee?

Brain Still Fizzing; Novel Still Progressing

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And sleep issues still plaguing me. Too much or too little, can’t seem to find a happy medium. At this rate, I’d be glad for a so-so medium. Yesterday I was in such a daze that I left the gingerbread muffins I baked for the office potluck at home.

Remembered to bake them the night before and remembered to get them out of the ‘fridge and stick them in a carry bag that morning. But between putting on my coat and walking out the door, the static in my head wiped out the all-important “bring muffins to work” step. Urg.

Fortunately, I have a forbearing and magnanimous hubby. fosteronfilm drove into town to deliver them for me. Isn’t he a sweetie?

   


Writing Stuff

New Words on The Stupid Novel:
• Tuesday: 150 – They kept wanting me to edit bills instead of write fiction at my day job, the nerve .
• Yesterday: 800 – Realized I need to split Part III into Parts III and IV as it has sprawled to a greater length than anticipated.