Archive for September 30th, 2008

9/29/08: Too busy living life to blog about it

Word count: 6050 | Since last entry: 2841

The above word count actually represents 4543 new words and 1702 anti-words, because the first draft of the werewolf story wound up at about 7700 words and the maximum for this market is 6000. I completed the story, got a real quick critique, and handed it in person to the editor, Esther Friesner, at Foolscap last weekend. It’s not a guaranteed sale, but the reactions the story has received so far make me cautiously optimistic.

We’d waffled until quite late about attending Foolscap, but I’m glad we went. Many friends were there, some of whom we hardly see at any other cons, and the new location had a lot to recommend it (in a hotel inside one of those “streets”-type shopping malls… corporate, yes, but a wide variety of dining options within walking distance). I did a reading of my just-completed werewolf story, and got a good crowd and a good reaction; my reading was followed by Esther reading her werewolf story (not for the same anthology) about a six-year-old werewolf who lives in the Plaza Hotel. Hilarious. Other highlights for me included portraying the alien bartender Asteroid Al in the radio theatre production of Buck Godot: PSmIth (adapted for audio by Phil Foglio himself, who was sadly not at the convention) and helping out with the auction. It was the first time I’d been an auctioneer since back in the Midwest mumbledy years ago, and I was a bit concerned, but I had a blast.

The previous weekend we attended the annual West Coast Gay Advanced & Challenge Square Dance Weekend, which went very smoothly and was a lot of fun. We skipped out Saturday night for my SF in SF appearance at the Variety Club downtown. It went really well. The small theatre was comfortably populated with about 30 people, including both new friends and old (and four square dancers). And it was recorded for Rick Kleffel’s “Agony Column” podcast. You can hear it in 3 parts: Nick Mamatas reading his Carver/Lovecraft mash-up, me reading “Charlie the Purple Giraffe”, and the following discussion between us and Terry Bisson. The podcast is also available from iTunes.

The bathroom renovation has turned our house into a miniature third-world country. It’s noisy and dirty and the power and water are unpredictably intermittent. But the tub’s in and we have the mosaics in hand — it’s going to be gorgeous. Kate has pictures over on her blog.

Lots of other stuff happening. A few highlights: Bento 20 is now online in HTML and PDF formats; my story “Sun Magic, Earth Magic” will appear in the premiere issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies, which is scheduled to go live on October 9; and Space Magic will be available soon from the Multnomah County Library system. My book’s in the library! I’m somebody!

One lowlight: novel #1 was rejected again and I haven’t yet managed to contact my agent about where we want to send it next.

October is my month to finish novel #2 and get it in the mail!!