Category Archives: LJ

Beyond dizzy. Shading into the psychedelic.

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The Effexor withdrawal paired with the extra spiky Monday-on-Adderall-after-the-weekend-holiday effects is nearly psychedelic. I’m getting dizzy waves that border on bona-fide visuals. I’d say “whee!” except it’s really not all that enjoyable. My days of finding vertigo recreational appear to have passed.

t_rex mentioned that some folks use Prozac to help wean off Effexor as it often diminishes the side effects–which makes total sense on a pharmacological level–and it’s much easier to get off Prozac. Since I’m becoming less functional rather than more, and I’ve got leftover Prozac, I’m putting myself on a 20mg/day dose for a week and seeing how that works out. It’s either that or going on an every other day taper with the Effexor, and I want to avoid taking any more of that stuff ever, ever again. *wobble* Sheesh.

   


Writing Stuff

Received:
– Payment from Stephen Eley of Escape Pod for “My Friend is a Lesbian Zombie.” I’m delighted to get paid from Stephen so very promptly but also a bit anxious that I haven’t received payment from Here & Now yet. Well, everything with H&N seems delayed, so I shouldn’t be surprised.
– Rewrite request from TQR for “Cyberevenge Inc.”

New Words: Maybe 2? Did a couple editing passes on “Arachne’s Gift” from Critters feedback, and I’m pretty happy with it. After some agonizing and dithering, I decided that I’m going to go ahead and send it to Cricket this week, as I had originally intended. The Purple Crayon said that some of the editorial staff might be staying on for a while in a freelance capacity after the move, and honestly, I can’t hope for a better reception than to send it to the editor I already know and love, even with all this pending upheaval.

Club 100 For Writers
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Woozy and Narnia

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While my p-doc said I could just stop taking the Effexor and it wouldn’t be a problem, he was obviously mistaken. I’m getting these periodic bouts of lightheaded dizziness, like falling. At first I thought it was the Adderall giving me a particularly hard kick for some reason, but since I’m on my weekend “holiday,” it obviously can’t be. It’s not a bad sensation, but it’s distracting, especially since it seems to be happening with greater frequency rather than less. I remember a similar effect when I first started taking the stuff, and it passed in a few days. I expect it’ll get better soon, but until then, it makes both stairs and driving chancy enterprises.

fosteronfilm and I saw Narnia with yukinooruoni yesterday. yukinooruoni and I were absolutely charmed by it. fosteronfilm was less so. I was delighted from the opening scene to the closing one (during the credits–so don’t rush to leave the theater). They did an excellent job with casting. All the actors were superb and believable–both children and adults (the White Witch was perfect, absolutely perfect). The movie was very faithful to the book, to splendid effect, and the FX were spectacular. I wish they would have shown more of the good guys–talking animals and all–but the majority of the FX scenes seemed to focus on the White Witch’s army over Aslan’s. Matthew didn’t like the children at all, and can’t get past the Christian propaganda elements of the original story and the resulting (literal) deus ex machina, the grump. The Chronicles of Narnia were a cherished and beloved favorite of mine when I was little (and too young to grasp either the Christian symbolism or any of the other problematic elements of C.S. Lewis’s writing). Now I have the urge to re-read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and perhaps the whole series.

Lifting a spoon is hard work

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Yesterday, I baked. The muscles in my arms are sore from all the stirring I did. I am such a wimp.
   


Writing Stuff

New Publications:
– The interview sdowens did with me is now live at Bloggasm.com. He also interviewed a slew of other interesting writer-folk like Christopher Rowe, Jay Lake (jaylake), Elizabeth Bear (matociquala), Doug Lain (douglain), Jeff Vandermeer, and a bunch of others, so go read!
– Apex Digest #4 is out with my (Pushcart nominated) story “Oranges, Lemons, and Thou Beside Me.”
– UK ‘zine Here and Now issue #7 is (finally) out with my story “My Friend is a Lesbian Zombie.” This tale will also be published as a podcast by Escape Pod in February, so if you can’t catch this in print, be sure to listen to the MP3.

Received:
The crits for “Arachne’s Gift” continue to pour in. The majority of them have been very useful (as well as positive), but my annoyance at those folks who insist upon lecturing me about how age appropriate or rather “inappropriate” my children’s works are has become a full blown peeve. I intentionally don’t specify the age range I’m writing for, and I’ve experimented with different ways of asking critters not to comment on that aspect, but it just doesn’t seem to matter. If I say that it’s a children’s work, some folks* feel compelled to tell me that my vocabulary is too sophisticated. If I don’t mention it, they tell me the piece is too short and should be expanded into a novel. I just want to know if the story works, dammit!

* Why exactly are people who don’t know the meaning of words like “surcease” or “abduction” and who think that only chickens can “cluck” trying to be writers? *twitch* Must not write snarky thank you note. *twitch*

War of the Worlds and industry news sends Eugie reeling

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Watched War of the Worlds, the Steven Spielberg/Tom Cruise 2005 remake. It utterly and totally reeked, pretty much from the first second. I hated all the characters, couldn’t suspend my disbelief, and even the EFX were lackluster. Yuk. I want to be reimbursed for those 116 minutes of my life.

   


Writing Stuff

Harold Underdown’s The Purple Crayon website, which is an excellent resource for folks interested in writing children’s literature has reported a recent upheaval that has me reeling with shock. The Cricket Magazine Group, the folks who put out the “buggy” magazines–Cricket, Cicada, Spider, Ladybug, and Babybug–are moving from their Peru, IL base to Chicago. And most of the senior staff, including the Executive Editor of Cricket and Cicada, are choosing not to stay on. I feel like I’ve been kicked in the stomach. I’ve had the most amazing editorial response and rapport with Deborah Vetter, and I’ve adored working with her. I’m absolutely devastated that she won’t be with them anymore. I really hope she and all the other staff members had plenty of warning and already have their future projects lined up. The timing of this must be especially awful for them, putting a real damper on the holidays. ‘Course I certainly understand saying “no” when your company asks you to move, but . . . but . . . WAAAAH!!

I feel downright queasy.

Received:
Something like a gajillion crits on “Arachne’s Gift.” (Well, actually 15, but it felt like a gajillion when I opened my inbox this morning.) It’s being well received. I was planning on sending this out to Cricket next week, but now I’m wondering if I should hold off until the dust clears. I guess I could also email my editor, but I really hate to bother her.

New Words: A pair of editing passes on “Rue and Ruin.” I need one more pass to address a remaining outstanding issue, and then it’s set to go.

Club 100 For Writers
      70

P-doc follow-up (give the dog a bone, this old man came rolling home)

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Had a follow-up appointment with my p-doc today. And . . .*drum roll please*. . . he agreed to let me stop taking the Effexor. I am now officially off any anti-depressants, which makes me happy! (Yes, the irony of that sentence is pretty gooey, isn’t it?) I explained to him that I hadn’t upped the dose past the 37.5mg starting amount since I was having such a good month in November, and that I’m sure the improvement is all due to the Adderall–since my weekend “holidays” are pretty sluggish. He suggested I up the Effexor and wean off the Adderall, but when I brought up that it seems likely that Effexor would be harder to get off of than a measly little amphetamine dependency, plus the shiny speed makes me happy, regulates my sleep, and gives me energy, whereas there’s no reason to believe the Effexor would do any of that. He agreed. So I’m staying with the Adderall . . . at least until my HMO adds Provigil to their list of spiffy drugs.

   


Writing Stuff

Received:
65-day form no from Glimmer Train.
65-day personal no from the From the Trenches anthology after making it to the short list.
157-day no-with-obligatory-comments from Leading Edge.

Ow, ouch. Not a good day, rejection-wise. Ooo, my ego is smarting. I need a band-aid.

New Words: 500 on “Vain and Vie.”

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
3,321 / 20,000
(16.6%)

Club 100 For Writers
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500/day
      114

Needy skunk and 5 quirks

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Did our part in being good little capitalistic consumers. Much shopping was done and we’re almost finished. Almost.

When we came home, Hobkin came running up and I gave him a pat before heading upstairs to the library to retrieve my laptop. The stairs are blocked off by a rover gate and while I was on them, Hobkin astonished me by pacing back and forth in the foyer and squeaking. It was a high-pitched, chirpy noise–sort of like bat calls–that gradually turned into the grumbly roinking I’ve heard him make before. I came running back down, because Hobkin is normally an utterly silent animal, and any vocalization from him is cause for immediate attention. I picked him up; he stopped and buried his nose under my chin. The little guy was calling for me! I think he’s been upset that we’ve been gone so often in the afternoons, Christmas shopping, and after we’d just got home, me going upstairs was the last straw for his poor walnut-sized brain. He clung to me for the whole night, to the point of following me into the bathroom (which is disconcerting, to say the least), and not letting me out of his sight. My skunk’s neurotic. I think that means the last bits of shopping we had slated to do today will have to wait until tomorrow or Friday. I’d also meant to swing by the post office today. Silly little fuzzwit.

canadiansuzanne tagged me good. So:

Rules: The first player of this “game” starts with the topic “5 weird habits of yours” and people who get tagged need to write an LJ entry about their 5 quirks as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose the next 5 people to be tagged and list their names.
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Holiday mutterings.

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Comcast! Stabbity stabbity! Quite the familiar refrain these days. How sad is it that I’m getting used to being profoundly frustrated when I try to access anything on the Internet? Grumf.

Today, must do Christmas shopping. Now we’re really behind.

   


Writing Stuff

Received:
Editing proofs from the editor of Modern Magic for “Souls of Living Wood.” I’d forgotten how much I like that little story. That anthology is slated for release early next year, which is a lot sooner than I thought. Very much looking forward to it.

New Words: 1000 on “Vain and Vie.”

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
2,135 / 20,000
(10.7%)

Club 100 For Writers
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500/day
      112

A Sunday of Writing

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Writing Stuff

Did much writing work stuff yesterday with very little actual words happening. Caught up on some Tangent work, sundry bookkeeping, completed and sent off the answers for my Aberrant Dreams interview, and wrote several crits and thank you notes for Critters.

Received:
– Confirmation of payment (in euros) from my bank from Faeries for “The Storyteller’s Wife.” And I got my contrib. copies! It’s a lovely digest-sized, glossy publication. Very nice production values. But my French skills are balking at my efforts to read it.

– A copy of the Writers for Relief anthology. Another glossy, gorgeous product with beoootiful cover art.

– An email (214-day rt) informing me of a Greek reprint SALE and publication of “When the Lights Go Out” to Ennea (9). It was published in issue #279 (week of 11/23/2005). This story first appeared in issue #5/6 of the UK ‘zine Here & Now. It’s my second sale to Ennea, and their operating procedure is to notify authors after they publish your story, and then they email you a contract/invoice to collect your pay. It’s different, but hey, whatever. The first sale involved some oddity with their check when I tried to cash it due to a Greek bank strike. This time, I think I’ll go with the direct bank-to-bank deposit route.

I’m having a very good week. Three sales in six days! That might be a record for me.

New Words: 100ish on “Rue and Ruin” in a couple editing passes. Beginning my rewrite from Critters feedback. Overall, folks seem to like it, but want me to make my antagonist more three-dimensional–an exceedingly valid suggestion. But also something that requires serious pondering. Plus, I’m somewhat mortified at the number of typos critters have discovered in my manuscript. Doh!

Club 100 For Writers
      67

Christmas Gremlins bad

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Had a wonderful evening Friday with yukinooruoni. There was much gabbing and geeking, food munching, and computer wizardry. We also watched Love Actually, a delightful holiday flick and a new favorite of ours since it came out. Alas, both fosteronfilm and my tech skills are woefully obsolete. There’s so much out there we’re just not up-to-date on. Amazingly, progress does not stand still while one is unemployed, imagine that.

Internet connection continues to be unreliable. (Feh Comcast, feh!) And now our FTP client is getting a “receiving call blocked” error when I try to upload changes to my homepage so I’m having to do my updates via Comcast’s website. This would be fine if A. it weren’t slower and B. would accept more than one file at a time. I appear to have offended the Lord High Emperor of Gremlins who has sent a plague of technical difficulties upon me. Debating whether I need to make a blood sacrifice or a technological one in order to appease him. It’s doubtful he’ll be content with cookies . . .

Written up the first wave of Christmas cards to send out tomorrow and entering into frantic mode on the shopping front.

Could barely manage to wake up yesterday whilst on my Adderall weekly “holiday” so I decided not to extend my break for the whole weekend. Popped my lovely 20mg this morning and feel much more chipper and productive. And a bit wired, as may be evidenced in the somewhat disjointed tone of this post.

   


Writing Stuff

Received:
197-day SALE of “Spring Arrives on a Hob’s Tail” to Story Station. Huzzah! This is a cute little tale inspired by Hobkin and his tail. Not sure when it’s due out, but I’m looking forward to it.

New Words: 1000 on “Vain and Vie.”
There’s so much writing I want to do, and so little time. *twitch*

Club 100 For Writers
      66

500/day
      111

Fume, snarl. Comcast @#$!!&^ (and a stair for Hobkin)

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So Comcast took out our Internet connection again yesterday. When we called it in, the person was certain it couldn’t be an outage as they weren’t able to ping our modem, so they were going to send someone out to look at it . . . on Monday. Fortunately, it came back this morning, otherwise I was all set to heat up the tar and start collecting feathers.

Lo, there was Christmas shopping. The highlight of our acquisitions (in my opinion, at least) was Hobkin’s Christmas gift. We bought a kiddie booster step for our fuzzwit. It’s a sturdy, wooden two-step stair intended for toddler-types to reach the bathroom sink and whatnot. It’s perfect for a stumpy-legged skunk to use to climb onto and off of the couch without having to wake mommy for a boost. Unfortunately, the wood has been veneered, which makes it very slick and not at all suitable for someone with paws and claws, so we went to Home Depot and bought some carpet tape. We’re going to take some of the remnant carpeting bits that we’ve got lying around from the sunroom project (yes, we’re utter pack rats) and tape them to the steps.

   


Writing Stuff

I did indeed manage to get the contract for “My Friend is a Lesbian Zombie” back to Stephen Eley of Escape Pod. But it required relocating the scanner from downstairs and putting it with me upstairs in the library–which makes the best sense because I’m the only one that uses the thing, and pretty much primarily for writing-related stuff–and replacing the defective USB cord with a shiny new one. Huzzah.

“Rue and Ruin” made it up to the Critters queue. Crits are trickling in. Can’t gauge yet how it’s going over. Also, I saw that there are a slew of stories this week from folks I know and want to crit.

Bought “Arachne’s Gift” to first draft and loaded it to Critters, and it’s already been bumped to go up next week. Coolness.

Received:
2, 74-day “unfortunately, I’m afraid it is not suitable for us at this time”s from Espresso Fiction.

New Words: 200 on “Vain and Vie,” part 2 of the novel stemming from “Rue and Ruin.” Also rewrote the ending of R&R to segue better into V&V.

Club 100 For Writers
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