Category Archives: Blog

Calling back, health insurance, adventures in skunk shedding

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So yeah, the guy from the other day called back. Not really something worthy of all the fretting. I’d subbed my info to a self-employed workers organization that offered health insurance to its members, and asked their insurance provider to contact me with details. I very carefully clicked the “only contact me through email” button, but apparently that’s only there for ornamental purposes. *snort* Insurance guy was all jolly and upbeat until I said “lupus” and then you could’ve heard the crash and burn.

Yep, I’m an automatic decline. Lovely.

Been reading the “A New Horror Subgenre: Health Insurance For the Self-Employed” article by Doranna Durgin in the last issue of the SFWA Bulletin. It’s depressing beyond depressing how many options for health insurance I don’t have.

Twelve weeks until my COBRA runs out.

In lighter news, Hobkin is shedding like fuzz has gone out of fashion. There’s rolling drifts of white fluff tumbleweed billowing through our house. So yesterday after dinner, I got out the brush, waited for Hobkin to curl up beside me on the couch and start snoring, and then I went to work.

fosteronfilm helped collect the fuzzy detritus, and soon had a pretty impressive ball of shed fur next to him. And he sez: “You’re going to brush Hobkin until there’s nothing left, and then *poof*, he’ll be beside me instead.”

I giggled.

Didn’t manage to execute a feat of skunk-teleportation-via-brush, but Hobkin looks decidedly sleeker. I think he’ll be more comfortable now.

   


Writing Stuff

Pimpage:
You can now pre-order Aegri Somnia, both the trade paperback ($14.95) and the shiny, shiny limited edition hardcover ($29.95).

Release date: Early December 2006. The first 200 trade paperback and 50 hardback copies pre-ordered and purchased will be signed by the contributors, the cover artist, and the editor. (Oof, that’s 250 signature plates I’ll be scribbling on soon.)

Aegri Somnia contributors:
Cherie Priest (wicked_wish), Scott Nicholson, Steven Savile, Lavie Tidhar, Christopher Rowe, Mari Adkins, Rhonda Eudaly (reudaly), Angeline Hawkes (angelinehawkes), Nancy Fulda, Jennifer Pelland (jenwrites), Eugie Foster, and Bryn Sparks.

Also, Sages & Swords is selling out, and they’re not doing another print run!

From the publisher: “If you haven’t purchased your copy of Pitch-Black’s critically acclaimed heroic fantasy anthology Sages and Swords, you’d better hurry! The anthology will not be reprinted upon sell-through. There are currently very few copies available in-house and not many more in our distributor’s warehouse.

Sages and Swords includes 14 heroic fantasy stories from authors such as Tanith Lee, Eugie Foster, Howard Andrew Jones, Harold Lamb, and many others.”

New Words:
– 800 on the current freelance gig.

Club 100 For Writers
      30

500/day
      41

Call back, plez

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Just got a phone call from someone–Frank Kelly? Jake Kelly? Frank Jesse?–asking for me. And it sounded important.

We screen all our calls and weren’t fast enough picking up to catch him before he hung up. The caller left a return number on our machine, starting with the area code 678, which is local, but our machine ate the message before I could get the rest of the digits.

I tried doing a *69, but their service either blocks callbacks or isn’t equipped for it.

On the off chance that whoever phoned me reads this blog, can you please call back?

NPR live streaming & LiveJournal Breastfeeding Icon Boycott Day

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This morning, I discovered the public radio station’s (WABE 90.1) live streaming broadcast after a very unfruitful search for our portable radio. I’ve been too out of touch, holed up in my library-office as I am, day-in-and-day-out. I’ve missed listening to Morning Edition, and I think insulating myself from basic world news and events is also impacting my writing scope. NPR rawketh.

And for everyone either participating in or sympathetic to the cause: Happy LiveJournal Breastfeeding Icon Boycott Day. Power to the people.

I’m choosing not to delete my journal today, not because I don’t support and believe in the cause, but because I’m not convinced that that action would be an effective protest method. Personally, I like zhai‘s suggestion: “I think what everyone ought to do is organize an effort to simultaneously post naked primary user icons on the same day.”

I did, however, sign the petition and urge everyone else to.

   


Writing Stuff

Published:
– “The Archer of the Sun and the Lady of the Moon” is now out in the new issue (#9) of Paradox.

Received:
– Another painful glowing rejection from an editor via my agent for my middle-grade novel: “I love the concept and the literary, dream-like quality of Eugie Foster’s prose. I also appreciate that friendship is a main theme of the novel. However . . . ” And she goes on to say: “Clearly Eugie Foster is a tremendous talent . . .”

Waaah!! Today might be a good day for ice cream therapy. Or gin.

And we’re still waiting on a verdict from the editor who requested a picture book manuscript. *twitch* Waiting hard.

Deleting drama? And V for Vendetta

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Erm, several people on my flist (deannahoak, nhw, neil_beren, shawn_scarber, and snurri) have suddenly deleted their LJs in the last few hours. Did I miss something?

Watched V for Vendetta yesterday. I very much liked it. I bet Hollywood was biting its nails about this one, what with the hero using terrorist tactics and all. Natalie Portman did a very convincing job of portraying Evey, a woman whose conscience and sense of moral obligation are crippled by her fear. However, there was a certain gratuitous feel to the superhero element, like it wasn’t necessary for the story. The dystopic vision and the call for the common people to rise up against a corrupt and abusive government were powerful enough without resorting to flashy fight scenes.

The mood of this movie was closer to 1984 than to Zorro, and the action elements felt a bit out of place. Still, there was a certain satisfaction to the beat-em-up parts in the opening, and the action did lighten a movie which otherwise would’ve been pretty grim. I haven’t read the comic book, so I don’t know whether the character of V was fleshed out better in the original source material.

   


Writing Stuff

Finished composing and sent off my answers to Lynne Jamneck’s interview questions.

Also put down a bid for a freelance opportunity. This whole “bid” thing is totally new to me. How much I’ve been paid as a writer has been all across the board, and I’ve never been the one to dictate how much I get.

I definitely want this job, but I don’t want to undervalue myself either. Just because I’ve accepted peanuts for writing something doesn’t mean I think my writing isn’t worth more. It’s a pragmatist thing. If I only make a pittance, it’s still a pittance more than I had.

I’ve got no idea whether my bid was competitive or not. It’s for an article-writing gig which also involves some comprehensive research, and instead of charging an hourly fee for the research and pairing that with a per-word rate for the articles, I bundled everything together into a flat rate for the articles with research included.

Was that the right thing to do? I have no idea. I’m so out of my depth.

New Words/Editing:
– 900 on the Swan Lake story that I’ve been neglecting. Very relieved to be putting some wordage down again on fiction, even if the words came out at 3AM, as in this case.
– 400 on my current freelance gig, plus editing passes on previous words. Hoping to wrap this baby up in the next day or so and get it out the door.

Club 100 For Writers
      29

500/day
      40

Weekend update

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Patrick and Christy are heading back to New Orleans as I type. Their apartment hunt was fruitful, job prospects looking good, and they’ve all but settled on a place close by, around eight miles from us in the Sandy Springs area. Yay! Very, very excited about them moving here!

And now I have much work to play catch-up with.

   


Writing Stuff

New Words/Editing:
– 600 on a new freelance gig. Edited, sent off, and paid.
– 1200 on another freelance gig.

Published:
– “A Patch of Jewels in the Sky” is now up at Dragonfly Spirit.

Received:
– Note from the editor of Writing-World. She liked the article, and wants to make it a two-parter, so asked me to write part two. Of course I said “yes.” Coolness.
– 30-day “not right for us” from oldcharliebrown on a submission to Fantasy Magazine, but to offset the pook, also some preliminary back-and-forth on contributing to a Prime books anthology with a Japanese mythology theme.
– Contrib. copies of #193 of Galaktika from Hungary.
– Payment from Ennea via wire transfer after I asked them not to wire the money. Not only did my bank shaft me with another $15 fee, but my payment got sent in two stages, so the Greek bank doubly-shafted me to the tune of another $9. To say that I am unhappy is much like calling Godzilla a tall lizard. ARGH! Sporksporkspork!

Club 100 For Writers
      28

500/day
      39

Friends from afar, near again.

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5 Comments

We’ve got house guests, so this post will be brief. Our good friend, Patrick, and his sweetie, Christy, arrived here yesterday. Patrick used to live in New Orleans, pre-Katrina, and he and Christy became hurricane refugees, opting not to return to Louisiana when the city reopened. They’ve been in Texas for the last eight months, and now they’ve decided to relocate to the Atlanta area. They’ll be moving here in a few weeks, and are doing the job interview/scope out apartments thing this week.

Yay! We knew Patrick from when we all used to live in Illinois, and I’m happier than a skunk with ice cream that he’s moving here! Yippy-skippy!

   


Writing Stuff

Editing:
– Article polished and sent off to Writing-World.

Club 100 For Writers
      26

On hyperthermia amd dehydration in skunks

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Discovered the limits of Hobkin’s heat tolerance yesterday. We’d set the A/C to 81, trying to save energy and money, but it seems that’s too warm for the lil guy. Yesterday morning, he had a bad tummy and then wasn’t interested in breakfast. Loss of appetite is extremely worrisome in a skunk, so much fretting commenced.

fosteronfilm suggested that Hobkin might be dehydrated from his bad tummy, so, feeling rather dubious, I scooped him up to see whether I could force some water into him.

Normally, Hobkin doesn’t drink water. And I mean at all. The closest he’s come to drinking out of his water bowl is dipping his paw in and then licking it, and even that’s pretty rare. We still leave fresh water out for him, just in case, but he’s knocked the bowl over more often than he’s drunk from it–and it takes quite a bit of effort to tip it as it’s secured to his pen. In the past, when I’ve tried to feed him water out of a syringe, he’s batted it out of my hands and spat or shook what little fluid I could get into his mouth back out. He just doesn’t like water, the goofball.

But yesterday, although he whined and glared at me, he readily swallowed something like 12ccs. It seems the heat had dehydrated him, and he wasn’t hungry because he was thirsty. But figuring out the problem didn’t get us much closer to a solution. How does one re-hydrate an animal that doesn’t drink and won’t eat? We could take him to the vet’s and have them inject fluid into him subcutaneously, but that would’ve stressed and freaked him out. Plus, I didn’t think he was that badly dehydrated. We could try buying some flavored Pedialyte or Gatorade, but that’s a last-ditch sort of effort as I don’t like the idea of him having all that sugar. Also, there’s no guarantee he’d like that any better. When we had to force electrolytes and fluids into the ferrets they were quite underwhelmed by the stuff (as I am–Gatorade, yuk). Also, last I checked, fresh watermelon wasn’t quite in season, and again, re-hydrating him with watermelon would’ve involved more sugar than I’m comfortable with him having.

After some brainstorming and much anxiety, I came up with the answer: A cottage cheese smoothie. I used a fork to mush up a teaspoon of cottage cheese in about 18ccs of water and added some diced bok choy, and Hobkin lapped it right up! Three servings of cottage cheese smoothie later, and he’s himself again–running amok, stomping at shadows, and begging for treats. Whew. I kept pushing liquids the rest of the day; his lunch was more smoothie along with bok choy and celery, vegetables high in liquid, and I added enough water to his dinner lentils and rice mixture to make it a pudding.

Definitely going to keep that in mind for future need. My next plan had been to make him a veggie shake–cottage cheese, a bit of milk, plenty of water, and various vegetables in a blender. But fortunately I didn’t have to break out the blender.

And yes, we’ve now cranked on the A/C.

   


Writing Stuff

Got an email from Lynne Jamneck–a writer who I’ll be sharing a ToC with in mroctober‘s So Fey antho–asking for an interview and inviting me to contribute to an anthology she’s editing, Lesbian Sleuths & the Supernatural, to be published by Regal Crest Enterprises. Of course, I said yes to both. The anthology also has an open call for submissions:

An Anthology of Lesbian Sleuths & the Supernatural
(Women Writers Only)

Word Length: 7,000 – 10,000 words
Payment: $100 Flat Fee Per Story
Submission Period: July 2006 – November 2006
Reading Period: December 2006 – April 2007

Ghosts, haunted castles, and things that go bump in the night. A trip to Egypt; the mummies and the pull of a primordial tomb. Ancient Aztec ruins and the burning fever of a jungle. Is a sinister cult operating in a small town near you? Do you feel the pull of something otherworldly just beyond the veil of everyday? The supernatural have existed in cultures for thousands of years, all around the world.

I am looking for stories that explore these and other weird happenings, and are centered around a ‘whodunit’ type conundrum. The sleuth of the story-whether amateur or professional-must be a lesbian character. No excessive violence. Humor is welcome. No fan fiction. Character driven stories with strong emphasis on storytelling essential.

If you’re looking for a reference/indication of the types of stories I’m looking for, you should familiarize yourself with the following authors:

H.P. Lovecraft
Agatha Christie
Ray Bradbury
Arthur Conan Doyle
Harlan Ellison
Kim Antieau
Kathe Koja

Submissions should be unpublished, original short stories. If you feel you have a story that does not fit that word count but would be perfect for the anthology, please query to superantho@gmail.com. Be sure your submission includes your surface mailing address and phone number in addition to a valid return email address.

Submissions (disposable copies) should be sent to:

Lynne Jamneck
129 Layard Street
Invercargill, 9501
New Zealand

Exceptions can be made for email subs, but query first to: superantho@gmail.com

New Words:
– 1100 on the article for Writing-World and it’s at zero draft. It needs a few editing passes, but I’m hoping to send it off today.

Received:
– 60-day “although it’s a really fun concept and a wonderfully creative POV choice, this one doesn’t quite work for Escape Pod” with invitation to submit again from sfeley on a reprint. Snartleblast. But I’ll show him! I just launched two new submissions his way, mwa ha ha haaaa!

Erm, yeah. My wingstubs have been really hurting these last few days. I popped two Tramadol, and they’re not helping the pain, but I think they’ve made me a loopy.

Club 100 For Writers
      25

500/day
      37

Birthday bash

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Had hella fun last night at j_hotlanta‘s beautiful sylvan abode, where he and britzkrieg co-hosted a dual birthday party. There was food (grilled portabello mushrooms, mmm), booze, and cake, and I had a smidge too much gin. A bit hung over this morning, because I am unable to hold my liquor–one Tom Collins in a tall glass. Yep, I am the lightweightiest lightweight there is.

   


Writing Stuff

New Words:
– 400 on the article for Writing-World.com.
– 300 on the child development article.

Received:
– Payment from Galaktika.
– Barbed-and-pointy shaft from my bank by way of a $15.00 “wire transfer fee”! [RANT] Isn’t it enough that I work like a dog to make peanuts; peanuts, furthermore, that the government double taxes me on because it’s “self-employed” income, although said government doesn’t see fit to provide me any reasonable, comprehensive health care option? Is it really necessary to smack further indignities upon my pathetic financial status with bank fees that swipe nearly 20% of what I earn? ARGH! [/RANT]

So yeah, I’m awaiting payment from Faeries and Ennea still. Previously I’d given them the go-ahead to wire my payment from France and Greece, respectively, but in light of the egregiously painful shafting I just got, I’ve emailed them to see whether there’s any way they can cut me a check instead.

Club 100 For Writers
      24

500/day
      36

On shaving a skunk and Tramadol

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14 Comments

And it’s back to the daily grind.

After hearing how much happier yukinooruoni‘s cats are in summer after being sheared, I wondered if Hobkin wouldn’t prefer to carry less fur weight around during the hot months. And then I remembered how much he hates being brushed and having his nails clipped (although, oddly, he doesn’t have a problem with me cleaning his ears), and I’m thinking we’d lose digits if we tried it. Ergo, skunk shall remain fluffy.

Wingstubs giving me some major grief, so I took a Tramadol last night. And not only didn’t it knock me out, but it seems to have given me a bit of a zing. I was up until 4AM, working. Huh.

   


Writing Stuff

In an effort to continue spring-boarding more paying work off my psych. degree, I went on a guidelines spree. And, of course, I found an ideal market right under my nose. The Cricket folks put out a Parent’s Companion publication as accompaniment to their ‘zine for 2-6 year-olds, Ladybug. They’re looking for articles written with “a thorough, up-to-date understanding of child development.” Bing!

Went through my old grad. papers for inspiration–which were stored in Lotus’s Word Pro, of all applications, and I had to scour the Internet looking for a freeware program that would let me open them before I could read them. So I spent most of last night compiling notes, references, and checking out new research, and I hope to get an article written this weekend. This one’s on spec rather than of the query–>greeen light variety, but I’m thinking the topic matter is such that it should be sellable to other venues if they turn it down. Assuming I don’t totally botch the job and write gibberish, of course.

Also put together a query/pitch for a nonfiction article for the China-themed issue of the kid ‘zine, Faces, and sent it off. They’ve got a pretty formal process for queries that includes a word count, an outline, and a reference list, with the end result being that I’ve all but written the thing by the time I finished putting together my query. It should definitely make writing it a no-brainer, should I get the green light.

Initially I hesitated about querying them because their guidelines specify that they buy all rights, and I’ve been assiduously avoiding selling all rights to my work, but I realized I’m far less possessive about my nonfic stuff. After all, I’ve been ghostwriting routinely since I started picking up more freelance work, and haven’t had any qualms about the “all rights” nature of that. Of course, they’ll probably send me a “thanks but no thanks,” which would make all this waffling moot.

Received:
– Contrib. copies of the June issue of Spider with “The Tax Collector’s Cow” in it. I was delighted to see five illustrations (by Jennifer Hewitson) for my story. Very shiny.
– Contract and payment from Best New Fantasy: 2005 for “Returning My Sister’s Face.”
– Payment for my last freelance gig.
– 1-day rejection from Escape Velocity on a reprint; they don’t take reprints. Oops.
– Comment at MySpace from the MechMuse folks that their audio production of “The Storyteller’s Wife” is proceeding apace. Quite looking forward to that, I is. I’ll be sharing a ToC with Kevin J. Anderson!

Club 100 For Writers
      23

500/day
      35

Emotional roller coaster . . . wheeee!

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28 Comments

So we dropped Hobkin off with his godmom, tossed the last minute sundries into the suitcase, and I was burning Escape Pod podcasts to a CD for the long drive, when we got a call from fosteronfilm‘s brother. In what can only be described as a miraculous recovery, my dad-in-law got better!*

It seems his system isn’t able to expel carbon dioxide properly anymore, and it had built up to a toxic level, resulting in this recent scariness. But with him on the respirator and them doing whatever it is they do to purge the CO2 out of him, he started perking up. They took him off the respirator, and as of yesterday, not only was he breathing on his own, but he was sitting up, lucid, and talking, and they’re expecting him to be able to go home soon! He still can’t get rid of CO2 on his own, but apparently they’ve got ways to deal with that.

Matthew called his mom, and she’s so confident in his recovery that she’s planning on going back to school next week**. After much discussion, fosteronfilm and I decided to postpone our exodus to Illinois until July–when we were planning on visiting originally–unless Dad-in-law worsens again.

Off we went to retrieve Hobkin, who was pretty excited to see us, although I’m sure also a bit puzzled at what all the to-and-fro-ing was about, and today I’m installed back in my office, happily working away.

This has been quite a week. I’m dazed and drained, but also delighted and very, very relieved. Thank you to everyone who sent your thoughts, concerns, and support. Y’all are wonderful.

*My opinion of their GP has plummeted to an all time low. It strikes me as egregiously irresponsible, callous, and incompetent to tell someone not to expect their loved one to recover, that there’s nothing left they can do, when there’s obviously still a reason to hope and procedures to try. I just want to slap that man into orbit.
**Although technically retired, my mom-in-law enjoys working and she teaches 2nd grade at a private academy–which is a way nicer job than her pre-retirement one, which was for a public school.

   


Writing Stuff

Started compiling references and material for the article I’m writing next for Writing-world.com.

Received:
– Galley proofs from Paradox for “The Archer of the Sun and the Lady of the Moon.”
– 91-day pass from OSC’s IGMS with a “we would like to encourage you you to send more of your work to us for consideration”