Category Archives: Blog

First Sale of 2011: Beneath the Silent Bell, the Autumn Sky Turns to Spring

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Woohoo! I just heard from the fabulous Jennifer Brozek that she’s buying my “Kiyohime” story–now titled “Beneath the Silent Bell, the Autumn Sky Turns to Spring”–for the DAW anthology Human for a Day.

First story sale of 2011!

I love deadlines. I wrote most of this one back in November, and then ended up stuck on a plot point. Meant to finish it over the holidays but I never get anything done then. (I don’t know why I keep thinking I will.) Next thing I knew, it’s the new year, the deadline’s snorting steam down my neck and striking fear in my heart, and poof, I stopped being stuck. I hadn’t worked my plot issue out, but I just started putting words down because I knew I had to, and miraculously, what I’d been spinning my gears on resolved itself. La.

Deadlines stress the heck out of me and wreak holy havoc on my sleep, but I am never so productive as when I’m sweating to meet a deadline.

Day 1 of the 2011 Georgia Legislative Session

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Georgia’s Governor has declared a state of emergency because of the winter storm, but it’s Day 1 of the legislative session so I braved the snowy roads anyway.  Was creeping along on 400, nearing exit 5, in the home stretch…only to discover the ramp to the North Springs MARTA station was closed.

Glargh!

Much swearing and Droid consultation commenced (I pulled into a Home Depot parking lot to do both) and I made it to the Sandy Springs station. Waiting (and freezing) now.  I’m definitely going to be late, even though I gave myself an extra 40 minutes.

Not an auspicious beginning to the 2011 legislative session.

The Princess and the Golden Fish: Part 1 now out in the Jan. 2011 issue of Cricket

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Hope everyone had a wonderful winter holiday, whatever one or ones you celebrate! In addition to a huge pile of lovely prezzies, I received my contrib. copies of the January, 2011, issue of Cricket with part one of “The Princess and the Golden Fish”! Continue reading →

Writing Year in Review, Resolutions, and Happy 2011!

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Happy New Year! Welcome 2011!

Had a wonderful Christmas with the in-laws. We managed to miss the worst of the weather driving up to Illinois. Plenty of snow up north, but the skies held off on dumping it down while we were actually on the road. Heard Atlanta had its first white Christmas on record. Just as glad to have missed that traffic chaos.

And celebrated my birthday with the hubby by seeing Tangled—sweet and funny, but I liked How to Train Your Dragon better.

Received a slew of fabulous prezzies, including quite a few accessories for my Droid: a 32GB microSD card+USB reader, a spare battery+charger, and a desktop dock. And the hubby also got me an iconnect wireless data station and a terabyte external drive. Finally I have space (I’ve been scrounging for space on my laptop, constantly getting those “running out of drive space” warnings, for the last…ever) and it’s all wireless. So very shiny. The hubby also got me a new laptop battery, so my poor lil VAIO can now survive without having to be tethered to an outlet. My ultraportable laptop is mobile again!

Yeah, it was a chock-filled-with-tech sort of Christmas. We are geek.

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‘Course I didn’t get any writing done over the holidays. I’ve got one short story deadline rushing up headlong and hoping to get Demon Queller revised and in shape before Georgia’s 2011 legislative session starts. Urk.

Feels like I’m perpetually racing to catch up and running in slow motion…oh, wait, it’s ’cause I am. You’d think I’d be used to it by now and would quit marveling and just put my head down and do it. And yet…

2010 WRITING YEAR IN REVIEW
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December Tanuki-Kettles

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As I mentioned in a previous post, I contributed a story to the December Lights Project, an online compilation of uplifting and warm short stories. My story, “The Tanuki-Kettle,” is now up! This story was originally published in the July, 2007 issue of Cricket and was reprinted in my collection, Returning My Sister’s Face. Hope you enjoy it!

As a bit of festive synchronicity, Geoff and Anne got me a tanuki teakettle for Christmas! Continue reading →

Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest Now Out in Spanish in the Nov. Issue of Cuasar

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Received my contrib. copies of the November issue of Argentina’s Cuasar with the Spanish reprint of “Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast.” Or rather: “Pecador, panadero, fabulista, sacerdote; máscara roja, máscara negra, caballero, bestia.”

My first appearance in Spanish! Continue reading →

50% Off Coupon for Returning My Sister’s Face E-Book

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Hope everyone’s holiday season is going fabulously! Got a holiday bargain for folks wanting to give the e-book of Returning My Sister’s Face as a gift or who just want to treat themselves: a 50% off coupon from Smashwords.

Just enter in the coupon code WC93X (not case-sensitive) before checkout and get Returning My Sister’s Face for $3.50! (Offer expires January 1, 2011.)

RMSF is available from Smashwords in every major e-book format, including MOBI (Kindle), PDB (Nook and Palm reading devices), LRF (Sony Reader), EPUB, and PDF.

Happy Holidays!

December Lights Project: Holiday Gifts of Free Short Stories Throughout the Month of December

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Received an email from the lovely and talented Stephanie Burgis inviting me to take part in a project she and her also-extremely-talented husband, Patrick Samphire, are putting together: the December Lights Project. It’s an online compilation of short stories to make you laugh, provide some warmth and good cheer, and generally make you feel good about the world, all for free, as a gift to readers this holiday season. Every story is guaranteed to have a happy ending, and several are already up—with new ones going up several times a week throughout the month.

“What a wonderful idea and a lovely sentiment,” thought I. So of course I told Steph to count me in. Stay tuned for an announcement of when my December Lights contribution goes up.

And herein a list of the writers who will be a part of December Lights: Continue reading →

Ailing Human Suit Leads to Rooting My Droid and Top 5 Essential Rooted Apps List

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Hope everyone who observes it had a fabu Thanksgiving holiday!

Spent most of mine lounging on the couch, dealing with human suit issues. I seem to have acquired a minor cold, which is throwing off my temperature regulation system. Irregular fever spikes are an early symptom of my immune system about to go totally wonky, so I took it really easy, even through I didn’t feel that bad. As such, I got little to no writing done. But I did take the plunge and root my Droid.

I’ve been wanting to root it for a while now, primarily so I can overclock the CPU. But I’ve been too lazy to go through all the hoop jumping, and I’ve also been concerned about the whole voiding of the warranty thing (with the related worry that I’d brick my Droid in my root attempt). But my warranty is nearly up, and a new, free, extremely safe, one-button rooting app recently came out: z4root.

Z4root provides the option of temporarily or permanently rooting your Android phone. So I could try it out first and make sure everything worked okay before doing it for keeps. And it also has an easy, one-button unroot option, so “permanent” isn’t a set-in-stone commitment either. Installed z4root, rebooted my Droid, ran z4root, and two minutes later, I was rooted. And suddenly a whole wealth of new apps with shiny options opened up to me. Time for another list!

Herein my Top 5 Essential Rooted Apps:
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