Went outside to feed the cat this morning* and was inundated by the most amazing scent–sweet and delicate and decidedly floral. It was like perfume, but not the bottled, artificial variety, more like perfume the way it’s supposed to smell. And I followed my nose until I came to this flower:
It’s lovely, and it blossoms only briefly. Anyone know what it is? Continue reading
It’s our anniversary. Fourteen years ago today, fosteronfilm and I were married in a private ceremony beside a waterfall in the Pocono Mountains. Matthew is my best friend, my sweetheart, my helpmeet, my confidant, my joy, and my sanctuary; he’s my everything.
Happy Anniversary to us!
And, amusingly apropos, a link ganked from teflaime: The Kama Sutra as performed by gummi bears.
Before sending it off, I want to do a few passes for editing and style, and make sure I didn’t contradict myself somewhere or make any embarrassing gaffes. But for the most part, it’s ready to go.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: writing nonfiction is tons easier than writing fiction.
And for my next freelance job, I’ve tentatively tossed my hat into the ring for a gig to write up wedding veil descriptions. Ah, the glamorous life of a freelance writer. Snerk. Until I get concrete specs and confirmation, it’s back to work on le fiction. Except my gears seem in need of oil. I’m having a hard time disengaging from analytical scientist mode and activating creative fantasist mode. *shakes muse*
As a serendipitous segue, I’m writing up my answers for two interviews: my Apex Digest featured writer one (psst: Buy a Best of Apex Digest 2005 chapbook, yo!), and also one from a college student who found her way to my ferret and skunk website, and is writing a paper on animal rights and how the Internet has impacted the movement. So, yeah, I need to make sure I send the right interview to the right interviewer or crazy wackiness may ensue.
Received:
– The tentative ToC from dsnight for Heroes in Training. Tentative still, so I can’t post it, but I can engage in some preliminary squeeage. *squee!*
– 111-day personal “pass” from Fantasy Magazine. They “thought the story was well-written, but . . . ” Snartleblast.
Completed five and a half out of seven sections of my research/writing freelance gig, and the 1.5 sections left are all applied, so I can lay off the theory, note taking, and brain scrunching.
Therefore, with a whole week left until my deadline, I took a little time to breathe this weekend . . . which still translated to 10-hour days working on the project. But having a few hours free in the evening felt pretty decadent to me.
Because Pierce Brosnan is teh hotness, I watched the first four episodes of season one of Remington Steele with fosteronfilm, courtesy Netflix. I didn’t see it when it first aired, but I’ve been curious about it, because, well, Pierce Brosnan and all. It was fun, not terribly well written, but not atrociously so either, but definitely somewhat time-branded. However, it did exactly what I wanted it to do, which is show lotso yummy Pierce–looking very young–albeit in three-piece suits.
So yeah, the second season one disk is going into our Netflix queue.
Published:
– “Oranges, Lemons, and Thou Beside Me” in the Apex Digest Best of 2005: Volume II anthology.
Table of Contents:
“Layers” by Mike Simon
“Big Sister/Little Sister” by Jennifer Pelland (jenwrites)
“An Odd Day in I-Forgot” by Athena Workman
“Oranges, Lemons, and Thou Beside Me” by Eugie Foster
This sweet little chapbook is only $2.50, and if you buy it with Volume I, both of are only $4.00.
You know you want it. Buuuuy it . . .
Received:
– In a conjunction of timely serendipity, an email from Matthew Tait, editor/reviewer for HorrorScope, letting me know he’d reviewed “Oranges, Lemons, and Thou Beside Me” in Apex #4.
Blurbage:
“It’s a well-rounded tale with appealing characters, and brushes on incestuous erotica as Sabin – the war vet – tries to veil his feelings for his twin sister who greets him upon returning. An important plot twist involves their servant, with a finale that will not be easy to deduce and is shocking in its shrewdness.”
–Matthew Tait, HorrorScope
And issue 4 of Apex is sold out, so if you want to read the story, you have to buy the anthology.
Went out to feed the cat this morning, and I saw the teeniest, tiniest, adorablest snail latched onto the edge of her food dish, undoubtedly brought out by the deluge we had last night:
I think the kitty knows I’m trying to get closer to her. She’s been visiting and chowing down on the food I set out during the wee hours of the night when I’m unlikely to be peering out the window. Getting a little anxious; I’m running out of leftover ferret food.
In other beastie-related news, Hobkin hasn’t sicked up in over a week, which makes me very, very happy.
Received:
– Preliminary sketch from Dragonfly Spirit for “A Patch of Jewels in the Sky.” I know it’s not industry practice to involve the writer in the art selection or development, so I don’t expect to be consulted, but I always really appreciate it when I am. Also, *squee!* I think it’s going to turn out to be quite spectacular.
– 91-day form “no” from Polphony. Sigh.
Researching. Researching. Researching. fosteronfilm had to drag me out of the library last night for dinner. There’s just so many papers and articles I need to read, and those spin me off into online ad hoc research. Don’t have time to eat, dammit.
I remember why I chose this area in college; I’m finding the subject matter utterly fascinating. Although I noticed that I’m not even bothering to go over the statistics sections of research papers; I just jump to the conclusion paragraphs. I have a feeling all those advanced stats classes are well and goodly flushed out of my system. Sigh.
Received:
– Contract from GrendelSong for “Shim Chung the Lotus Queen.”
– Reprint sale of “Only Springtime When She’s Gone” to Apex Online. This’ll go up in May to accompany my “Featured Writer” interview. Yay!
dude_the flew back to Illinois yesterday, and I’m now playing catch-up (again), trying to make a dent in the mountain of work that accrued when I took a measly three-day weekend off. Three days. I take off three days and I can barely breathe for all the work that’s piled up. Sheesh. I remember a time when I routinely took three-day weekends with blithe unconcern. I don’t miss the circumstances of that luxury, but I do miss the luxury itself.
Our taxes went out on Monday, right under the wire, and spurred by the state of our finances, I went casting around for other sources of income. I was investigating the possibility of writing grants and found one that catered to women writers and poets to the tune of $50K for two years.
“Huzzah,” sez I, “someone trying to help poor, starving writers! I must apply.” But upon further examination, I discover that the grant application requires a $35 application fee. So yeah, they’re supporting poor, starving writers with other poor, starving writers.
Grumble. If I had a spare $35 to toss around, I wouldn’t $@&#! need a grant.
Oh well. I probably wouldn’t have had a chance anyway, being a genre writer and all. Still, foo.
How absolutely fabulous is that? I actually cracked open my old Child Development textbooks–including the one I worked on in graduate school!–to get me started. I knew I was keeping those around for a reason . . .
I’m so tickled to be able to use my degree, although also a little aghast at how rusty and out-of-date my knowledge base is. (And also by the fact that my APA Style Manual is so outmoded that it doesn’t even mention how to cite Internet sources! Fortunately, the APA website does give out that info.) At least there’s a certain falling-off-a-bicycle feel to it. Once I started getting in up to my elbows, it all started flooding back. And even more amusing, my adviser in grad. school literally wrote the book on the subject I’m researching, so not only is this Dev. Psych. stuff, but this is totally-up-my-alley Dev. Psych. stuff.
But as I said, the deadline’s pretty stringent, which means I’ve shoved several other projects down my Things to Do list that I was working on. I’m hoping to get some of the smaller stuff done in between research jags, ’cause as I well remember from college, if I don’t give my brain a rest when I’m going over the theoretical stuff, I hit a wall where my gray matter becomes an impenetrable chunk of overwhelmed, making it and me quite useless for anything.
I’m using my psychology degree! Squee!
Received:
– Note from Jason Sizemore asking for my Featured Writer reprint story for Apex Online. Y’know what I really like? When editors ask me to send them a story. Yay!
Frolicon. Whee! *flop*
In recovery mode now. Think it’s going to be a slow, easy couple of days.
My first panel was the Writers for Relief one with jackzodiac and tstauffer. Many copies sold and good-natured jibbing and accolades at Davey for his incredible job at putting the whole project together.
Then I found out (!) that I had a reading that evening in the con suite. As anyone who reads my blog on any sort of a regular basis knows, public speaking freaks the ever-living bejeebers out of me. The idea of doing a reading, cold, was enough to turn me into a whimpering, twitching mess.
I was debating between having fosteronfilm read something for me, and simply hiding out until my time slot was over, when Matthew came up with the inspired idea of playing the Escape Pod podcast of “My Friend is a Lesbian Zombie”–it was even an appropriately-themed story for the convention. Problem: we didn’t have a sound system or a CD of the podcast. Fortunately, bamapair had swung by for my panel and very generously offered the use of their laptop to download it; the hotel had free WiFi even. And Joe had brought his kicking boom box for the con suite. Serendipity.
“Lesbian Zombie” went over well, with giggles and snarfs in the proper places, so I then put on “The Life and Times of Penguin” to more giggles. So much better than if I’d tried to muddle through a reading. Thank you Escape Pod!
Continue reading
dude_the is here. Yay!
Beastie updates:
Hobkin: Sicked up on Thursday, but he didn’t yesterday. We’re trying to feed him smaller, more frequent meal to see if that helps. ‘Course that means he’s getting fed something like five or six times a day. Don’t want him to get used to that. Plus we can’t keep that up over the weekend ’cause of Frolicon. Not sure if we’re going into town tonight for the convention or waiting until tomorrow to get our registration et al. taken care of.
Kitty: No cat sightings, but she’s been chowing down on the food I’ve been setting out. I’ve refilled the bowl three times in the last two days.
Received:
– Contract from Aberrant Dreams for “Nobodies and Somebodies.” My editor liked my rewrite. Huzzah!
New Words:
– 1K on the story for mroctober. Chug chug chugging along . . .
500/day
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fosteronfilm and I are striving to get our taxes done before Frolicon, but the IRS doesn’t exactly go out of its way to provide clear and easy-to-understand documentation. Blah.
Herein my Frolicon schedule:
Friday
11-12:30 Lombard 1 – Writer’s for Relief (with jackzodiac and tstauffer) – Discover what it took to bring about Writers for Relief
Saturday
3:30-5 Lombard 1 – Fairytales and Folklore in Modern Dark/Horror Fiction (with jackzodiac and tstauffer) – Explore the origins of many of the images found in today’s genre fiction. How do today’s dark/horror fiction writers turn age old images upside down and make them modern and edgy?
5-6:30 Lombard 1 – Twisted Relationships in Fiction (with jackzodiac and tstauffer) – What happens when the obvious love relationship is turned on its head? How do you construct twisted but believable relationships in short fiction that won’t leave your reader cold, but panting for more? Why are we drawn to the twisted and unexpected?
Whoa. Saturday’s going to be a bit grueling. Three hours straight, back-to-back. Good thing I’ll be up there with Davey and Toni. I can gab forever with those fab folks.
And I haven’t prepared anything either. I probably ought to jot down some notes or something beforehand.
I’ve become much more cavalier about these panels than I used to be . . .
New Words:
– 600 on the collaboration I’m doing with mtrimm1, and I volley the ball back over the net. Me likie having someone else to bounce ideas off of, not to mention being able to hand off a story when I hit that “okay, that part’s done . . . now what?” wall.
– 1K on the story for mroctober. It’s taking on a decidedly Lovecraftian feel.
500/day
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dude_the is flying in for Frolicon tomorrow evening. Hurray! House cleaning must commenceth . . .
For the last few days we’ve had a four-legged caller, a petite, gray and white kitty, very pretty and very fluffy-looking. She’s been hanging out on our porch, lounging by our front step and bird watching among our holly trees. I managed to snap a picture of her through the window:
She’s a dainty thing. In the picture she looks rounder than she actually is. I don’t think she’s thin, just sleek, although I can’t be sure through her fur. I’m not seeing ribs, though, which is good, and her coat looks pretty healthy.
Behavior-wise, she’s not terribly skittish; when she saw me peering at her through the window, she approached–although, of course, there was still a wall between us. But when I opened the door, she bolted. I’m betting she’s someone’s outdoor cat and not a feral, but just in case, I’ve been putting food out for her. (We’ve got a bag of leftover dry ferret food that we never got around to giving away to a shelter.) She ate the first bowl of kibble I put out, but didn’t snarf down the second, so I don’t think she’s starving or anything like that. Although I do worry that she’ll get hit by a car as we’ve got a road by our house which gets fairly heavy traffic during the rush hours.
I’d like to be able to figure out whether she’s someone’s pet or if she’s feral, or perhaps if she’s someone’s ex-pet looking for a new home, but I’m not sure how to proceed. Obviously, we can’t adopt her if she’s in need of a home–between Hobkin and my cat allergies, that simply isn’t a tenable option–but we could get her to a vet, make sure she’s spayed/neutered, and make sure she’s properly looked after for the duration while we try to find a good home for her. I figured I’d keep putting food out for her and trying to get her to come to me so I can look her over better–see if she’s thin, has all her claws, determine whether “she” is actually a “he,” that sort of thing.
She’s a sweet-looking thing. I hope she doesn’t kill the birds who flit around our holly trees.
Received:
– Galley proofs for my two flash pieces, “The Wiggly People” and “Sins of the Mother,” for the Dark Cloud Press Thou Shalt Not anthology. The editor said he plans to send the finished product to the printers by early May. Rah!
New Words:
– 500 on a story for mroctober. This one’s going to be short, a one-scener. (*smacks muse* “You hear me? I said short!”)
Club 100 For Writers
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500/day
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