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Category Archives: Blog
Overfilled Hot Tub
Matthew emptied out, cleaned, and refilled the hot tub over the weekend. He informed me that he’d accidentally “overfilled” it, but I just nodded and didn’t think much about it. Since it was a nice, cool evening last night, we got in for a soak. Whoa. He overfilled it good. Going to have to drain some of it off today. Otherwise we’re just asking for a serious flood situation in the hot tub room.
Writing Stuff
Damn. Got a reject from ASIM on a story that had made it to the third round. Fooie. Out it goes again.
Still no new words. But I did spend some time yesterday organizing my writing area. It was getting somewhat scary looking. Ah hell, who am I kidding? I’m procrastinating. Must. Write.
More positive agent responding
Writing Stuff
I got another request from an agent to see the full manuscript! Hurray! It goes out in the mail today.
Also, a glowing review from James Palmer of “Returning My Sister’s Face” in Feb’s Realms of Fantasy at Tangent:
“Eugie Foster’s “Returning My Sister’s Face” is a . . . tale of revenge as delightful as it is grisly. . . Asian folk tales and legends appear to be a rich story vein, and Foster mines it well . . . well-researched and entertaining”
However, I’ve been really crappy about getting new words on the page. Need to adhere rump to chair . . .
Lost in Translation and more with the writing biz
Watched Lost in Translation yesterday with Matthew. I want those hours of my life back. While the insight into modern Japanese culture was interesting, the story–if you could call it that–and the characters, most definitely were not. Yuck. Pretentious pretentious pretentious. And boring.
Writing Stuff
So, after the first positive agent response, I got a form “not interested in you, you fool!” from a different one in the mail yesterday. C’est la vie. Then I got a call from Ann Crispin! She’s recommending me to an agent in her agency, Writers House LLC. She’s sending them an email on my behalf and everything. She’s the utter and total best. It would be so completely amazing if I could land a Writers House agent. Ooo.
Also spent the last few days making banners for Scrybe Press. Go HERE to see them.
And I finally got the check from Cricket for “Razi and the Sunbird.” Now if they’ll only slot in for publication the other seven stories of mine they’ve bought . . .
Eugie not so good with the waiting.
Writing Stuff
Writing Stuff
Received my first response from the batch of agent queries I sent out, and it’s a request for the whole manuscript! It’s a long way from an offer of representation, but at least it’s validation that my query didn’t totally suck goats. Mailed off the full manuscript; now it’s all about the waiting. Again. *crosses fingers*
Also saw that the completed cover of “Inspirations End/Still My Beating Heart” is up on the Scrybe Press site in the available listing:
If you’re not going to Fantasm, you can order your very own copy. $3.49 with FREE S&H!
Fantasm in one week!
Fantasm is less than one week away! The last one, the final big blowout. Don’t miss it!
helichrysm has put together a fabulous poll for the Fannie Awards. To y’all who nominated me for “Favorite Ms. Fantasm,” mwaaaa 
. Now go and vote for me! (If you prefer, you can also email your vote to Poppy.)
poppyaseed also asked me to present an award on Thursday, which of course I agreed to. So I hope to see all your smiling, leering faces there.
Remember the banana?
Continue reading
My Laptop!
My laptop arrived! I’m writing and updating this LJ entry on my shiny new HP Pavilion!
I spent most of yesterday playing with it, loading it up with software and data, and getting it personalized and configured just the way I like it. It’s a bit heavier than I had expected. There is a certain “boulder on my lap” feeling when I perch it on me. I suspect the advertised weight was sans battery–which would put many lead paperweights to shame. Might need to see about setting up some sort of lap desk to share some of the weight. It also has a touch pad mouse, which is taking some getting used to (I’m accustomed to that little pressure point mouse that IBM Thinkpads have). But on the plus side, the screen is HUGE. And the wireless card is sweet. Cable modem router goodness. I haven’t tested its range yet, but for where I’ll mostly be using it, I’ve had perfect connectivity. Matthew thinks I’m getting faster speeds on my laptop than he is on the desktop, connected via the cable. I’m dubious, but it’s lighting quick. Very nice.
Writing Stuff
Rewrote the synopses for “Inspirations End/Still My Beating Heart” as what I had before did indeed suck goats. Happier with my redraft, I emailed them off to Nathan.
Received word from the publishers of the Blasphemy anthology. It is official, the project is on “hiatus.” I suspect that means there’s a solid likelihood that I’ll never see the damn thing in print. Somewhat annoyed at the whole thing. That story has been in publishing limbo for years now.
As a complete antithesis to the Blasphemy fiasco (i.e. as a shining example of really professional publishing business practices), I received the contract from jinzi in the mail. Signed and mailed her copy back.
Words: Couple editing passes, but not as much productivity as I wanted because I was too busy playing with my new laptop. (I am not unaware of the irony of my “productivity tool” leeching away work time, thank-you-very-much 
.)
Laptop fretting
According to Fedex, my laptop landed in Hapeville, Georgia this morning at 6:28AM. Since it’s in the state, it ought to arrive at my doorstop today, doncha think? *twitch* Yes, I’m obsessing.
[edit: Ooo! It made it to Alpharetta at 8:12AM! Now how long will it take to travel from the local Fedex facility to my doorstop? Ooo!]
Writing Stuff
Nathan, my Scrybe Press editor, asked for synopses for “Inspirations End/Still My Beating Heart.” No biggie, except for some reason, I was having a hard time coming up with something that didn’t sound entirely trite. Not sure why. Could it be because both stories are in first person? But I can’t figure for the life of me why that would make a difference. I did assemble sentences. Will go over them this morning to see if they actually sound as terrible as I thought they did last night. Hope to get something respectable together before noon.
Started on my Tangent review of this week’s Strange Horizons story. I also need to do a Critters critique. I haven’t done one in a couple weeks.
The SFWA Nebula and election ballots came in the mail. More voting. Whee. The election one is pretty much a no-brainer, but I’ll need to do more reading before I feel qualified to cast my vote for the Nebulas.
The new Chinese folktale story is done! Actually, I’m not happy with the final paragraph; I might add another sentence or two on it to round things out better, but for all intents and purposes, I’m at “the end.” Rah. Going to do another couple passes on it, then foist it on Matthew.
Words: 400 + 2 editing passes.
500/day
21
D*C staff meeting
The Dragon*Con staff meeting on Saturday was productive. Got to chat with excellent folk like dire_epiphany, astralfire, and roget, give huggins to fingerman, and hook up with lord_darkseid and pagmatic. Think I’ve acquired two new reporters, although I’m waiting on writing samples before I confirm.
Reminder to self: must send in guest application to D*C soon.
Watched Shark Tale yesterday, courtesy NetFlix. It was . . . pretty. The animation was nice, the set and background was quite lovely. The actors did a fine job with their roles. But the story. Oy. It lacked the freshness and comedic genius of Shrek, and failed utterly on pacing and storyline. I got bored with it pretty fast. There were amusing moments, but not enough of them by a long shot. Not a movie I’ll be clamoring to watch again.
According to the Order Summary thingy, my laptop should arrive today. Impatience is me. I’ve been functional with the desktop computer, but it’s far, far from ideal. Need me a laptop. *fidget twitch*
Writing Stuff
Acquired a new reviewer for Tangent. I totally spaced on his second assignment. He notified me right off the bat of the conflicts of interest he has (i.e. which publications he couldn’t review), and of course, I assign him to one of the markets he has a conflict with. Doy. Not my sharpest moment.
Received word from Nathan, my Scrybe Press editor, that the plan to get my new chapbook “Inspirations End/Still My Beating Heart” out in time for Fantasm is still a go. Rah!
Metallic Love
I discovered the best LJ community EVAR yesterday: baaaaabyanimals. Now that’s an instant cute fix.
Later today is the first 2005 Dragon*Con all-staff meeting. I’m all confused about how many staff slots I have open. You’d think I’d have figured out how to count to ten by now, and yet . . .
Writing Stuff
Metallic Love by Tanith Lee arrived from Amazon.com in the mail yesterday. I set it aside for most of the afternoon, but it kept beckoning me, all seductive and alluring. I gave in to the inevitable, settled down with Hobkin on the couch, and submerged. I surfaced briefly to eat dinner and hammer out a few sentences on the WIP, and then checked out again until I finished it.
As the sequel to The Silver Metal Lover, one of my all-time favorite Tanith Lee books (who is one of my all-time favorite authors), it doesn’t hold up. I wasn’t as enamored with the new main character, Loren, as I was with Jane. Nor did I like the new Silver (renamed Verlis) as much. But overall, it was excellent–which is largely self-evident since I read it in effectively one sitting. If I weren’t holding it up to Silver Metal Lover, I’d probably give it higher marks. And it’s not that it suffers from being a sequel–Lee goes to great lengths to make Metallic Love a different sort of book; it’s definitely not another Romeo & Juliet–although there is quite a bit of closure in it. But in many ways it’s a closure I didn’t need. Overall, I don’t think it’s a book that needed to be written, but I greatly enjoyed it. And, very importantly, it didn’t ruin the first book for me, which I was somewhat anxious about.
Words: 100 – The barest minimum scrawled out in great haste so I could return to Metallic Love
