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09:45 am
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New D*CI Film Festival Website, End of the Rainbow Anthology, and Diabolical Plots Interview
Can't believe July is almost over. Sort of freaking out about it, actually. The @#$! grand jury duty isn't helping, either. It's become a tired refrain, but I'm so behind on everything I wanted to get done. Y'know, I'm really sucking at time management, or I still have too many hamsters on my plate. Or both.
Well, I did lob off one more hamster. Just finished overhauling ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) fosteronfilm's Dragon*Con Independent Film Festival website. (Shiny?) And we did accomplish a couple major homeowner to-do items: ripped the carpet out of the half-bathroom (I have hated that carpeting since we bought the house almost ten years ago; who carpets a bathroom?) and replaced it with linoleum and had our poor, laboring air conditioner checked over and cleaned. But I never get much satisfaction out of accomplishing domestic stuff. More like a sense of relief to have it done and out of the way.
Writing Stuff
Heard from the editor that the anthology Triangulation: End of the Rainbow with a reprint of my "A Patch of Jewels in the Sky" is now out.
Contents:
"The Rainbow Vendor" by David Sklar
"Tourist Trap" by Mark Onspaugh
"Making Friends" by Kylie Bullivant
"A Test of Spirit" by Brenta Blevins
"David is Six" by Amanda C. Davis
"The Stickball Witch" by Peter S. Beagle
"Messiah" by M. Z. Hoosen
"The House at the End of the Rainbow" by Amy Treadwell
"A Womb of my Own" by Tinatsu Wallace
"The Meaning of Yellow" by Cate Gardner
"Talking Blues" by Matthew Johnson
"Spirit House" by Ron Sering
"A Patch of Jewels in the Sky" by Eugie Foster
"Haole" by D.K. Thompson
"The World in Rubber, Soft and Malleable" by Aaron Polson
"Commander Perry's Mystic Wonders Show" by Jaime Lee Moyer
"The New Elementals" by Marshall Payne
"In Lixus, Close to Waking" by Erin Hoffman
"In Order to Conserve" by Cat Rambo
And the interview David Steffen did with me for Diabolical Plots is now up, with a reminder that the deadline to vote for the Hugos is the 31st.
If you're still reviewing your Hugo ballot, I invite you to read "Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast" online at Apex Magazine or listen to the Escape Pod podcast. Both are free!
I'm feeling:  busy
Tags: blog, hugos, newly published, sinner baker fabulist priest
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09:00 am
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Back in the Office
Back in the office after a two-week expected-but-sudden holiday. It's the longest I've been out of the office since I started here, and it's a bit weird. All of the routines I'd established—what applications I launch and in what order when my computer boots, how much cream I put in my office mug, etc.—are a little rusty.
Didn't get any work done while I was out, of course. Way behind on all my correspondences. Didn't get any writing done either. So today will be all about playing catch-up. Whee.
I'm feeling: working
Tags: blog
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04:08 pm
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Droid X, Multitouch Keyboard, and Swype Beta
So Motorola, Verizon, and Google announced yesterday that the Droid X will be coming out next month, and units have been pre-released to the media.
The Droid X looks impressive—faster processer, 8MP camera, HDMI output port, Adobe Flash, and a bunch of other shiny features. It also has a 4.3-inch screen (compared to the Droid's 3.7-inch). Thing is, I actually prefer the smaller profile of my Droid. My hands and fingers are small, and I don't like the idea of possibly having to strain to single-hand commands. Also, the Droid X doesn't have a physical keyboard, which an hour ago was a definite deal breaker for me. But now I'm less adament. Why the sudden position wobbling, you ask?
Okay, the lovely thing about Android being open source is the resultant thriving Android tech-geek community. As soon as something new comes out, there's hackers yoinking and modifying it for the masses. (Mwa ha ha haa!) So, courtesy Droid Life, I downloaded the Droid X's multitouch virtual keyboard and also the beta Swype virtual keyboard to my Droid. I installed the multitouch keyboard first and immediately went "shiny, yay!" It's slicker and faster than the default Android keyboard, and I found it to be noticeably more accurate.
And then I installed Swype.
OMG! Swype rocks beyond the telling of it! Within a minute (most of which was spent stepping through the brief tutorial) I was doubling my typing speed on my Droid. Doubling! I am not exaggerating. I think it's quite possible that I'll be able to get 40WPM+ using Swype, something I didn't believe was possible on a virtual keyboard. And Swype's out-of-the-box dictionary is impressively extensive. While it didn't know "solipsist," it did know "onomatopoeia." And it's incredibly easy and intuitive to add new vocabulary words to its database.
One of the lingering issues I had with my Droid was that I found the virtual keyboard too slow and typo-prone to write with. Wasn't a biggie because of the slide-out physical keyboard. But now I have two superior virtual keyboard options, and if Swype continues to be as cool as my initial experience with it indicates, I may actually find that the absence of a physical keyboard is not a deal breaker whenever I decide to upgrade my Droid (which I'm in no hurry to do)...assuming the new phone has Swype on it.
I'm feeling:  geeky
Tags: blog, droid
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10:00 am
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Breaking Radio Silence: Refinancing and "Sinner" reprint sale(s)
I know it's been a while since I posted. Partly I was trying to avoid exacerbating my wing stubs so as to give them a chance to heal—which seems to have worked; let's hear it for not being in perpetual pain—and partly it's been insane-busy these last couple weeks.
The Georgia code page proofs are starting to come in at work, which curtails big chunks of my footloose and fancy freetime. Was utterly mowed down by the granddaddy of lingering sinus headaches. Days and days of "ow my head hurts, ow my arms hurt, ow ow OW." This is also the busiest time of year for fosteronfilm. He's making his final selections for the Dragon*Con Independent Film Festival, and he's also still putting in hours as a census worker. And, for the evil icing on the cupcake-o-overwhelmed, we decided this was the time to refinance our mortgage. Did the math—historically low interest rates and all—and realized refinancing would go leaps and bounds towards offsetting this year's financial hemorrhage.
So, while I was feeling pitiful and pained, and Matthew was stressing over his film festival spreadsheet and evaluating second cut (or third cut in a couple cases) film submissions, we were also filling out refinancing forms, reviewing and assembling piles of paperwork, making varied and sundry phone calls, and comparing and contrasting the bids we got. If I hadn't already had a headache, the paperwork alone would've brought one on.
We ended up opting to do a short lock on our refinancing application, resulting in a much shorter time-frame between initial application to closing. We did it to lock in a lower interest rate when it looked like they were starting to creep back up, although as it turns out, they crept back down to the rate we locked in, so we didn't really need to. However, assuming no eleventh-hour monkey wrenches, we close and finalize tomorrow. Rah.
But my head still hurts.
Writing Stuff
In other news, I think I made another foreign reprint sale of "Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest," but I'm waiting for a final communique from the editor before announcing the details. Yeah, sorry for the cryptic, but there's a bit of a weirdness to this sale. I'm pretty sure it'll turn out all good, but cryptic is the better part of valor for now.
And for some not-cryptic, I can't believe I forgot to mention that this year's Nebula Showcase Anthology is being edited by Kevin J. Anderson! Emailed him the manuscript file of "Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest" and he said that contracts should be coming along shortly. *squee!* I'm going to be in a Nebula anthology! 
I'm feeling:  accomplished
Tags: blog, sinner baker fabulist priest
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08:51 am
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Interviewed by Hank Quense
Wingstubs really bothering me of late. Trying to minimize typing...which is tricky considering my vocation(s). But wanted to post a brief note that fellow Critter Litter writers group member Hank Quense interviewed me for his blog.
Owitch. Back to glaring at my keyboard.
I'm feeling:  sore
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03:00 pm
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New Story Started. New Story Done.
In a fit of "I hate this novelette, dammit, but I've got this other idea—" I started writing a new story this morning: "The Priestess, the Baku, and the Emperor." Four hours and 1,200 words later, it's done.
Huh.
When I began it, the concept was significantly longer, with the opening intended to serve as something of a prologue. But when I finished the prologue, I thought, "Hey, this could be a complete story if I just add that bit I was saving for the next scene and wrap up the foreshadowing here..."
So I did, and it is. I think. At 1.2K words, it feels a little wispy and also falls outside most categories of flash, but I suspect it's too somber to be well-received at children's markets. On the other hand, wispy sorta works.
Guess I'll just keep open the possibility of returning to my original concept and making this a longer work, at least until I get fosteronfilm to first-reader it.
I'm feeling:  contemplative
Tags: blog
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01:15 pm
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Wingstubs and Insomnia Make Eugie an Unhappy Girl
Having a bad wingstub flare-up, so bad that it's making it difficult to sleep. It got bad enough that I took a Tramadol last night, which in the past has always been more than sufficient both to blunt the pain and KO me straight to sleepy-time land. In the past. This time, it barely made a dent in the pain, didn't cure my insomnia, but did make me too foggy-headed to do anything useful or distracting, like read or write, so I was left lying in bed, going "ow ow ouchie, gee, I wish I could fall asleep, ow ouch ow" for several hours.
Not. A. Good. Night.
I haven't taken Tramadol in quite a while as I usually consider it the Big Guns and haven't felt the need for it. Now I'm wondering if my pills have expired. Didn't think to examine the bottle last night, but I'll be checking the date after I get home today.
Writing Stuff
Completed the rewrite of "Rampion," (tentatively) retitled "Rose Window, Black Door, White Tower." Doing one more editing pass before foisting it upon fosteronfilm to first-reader.
It's currently a whooping 15.2K words, which strikes me as being overlong, but I thought the same thing while doing the rewrite—with an eye towards doing some trimming and all—and instead managed to increase the word count. Hrmph.
I'm feeling:  crappy
Tags: blog, medical
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08:49 am
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Back in Atlanta, Spanish Sale of "Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest"
Back in Atlanta after visiting the in-laws in Illinois. There's a dead zone smack dab in the middle of Kentucky where I can get cell reception but no GPS or data connectivity, either 3G or 1X, on my Droid. Weird. I thought data and GPS rode on the cell signal, so I was rather baffled to find that I had full cell service but nothing else. My Droid found it confusing too and rebooted itself a couple times until I told it to quit already.
Didn't get nearly as much done over the holiday as I'd hoped, of course, but in what might be a first, I did manage to get some writing done. Being able to take out my phone—and not have to boot my laptop—to write a paragraph here or there, really ups the convenience factor. Droid win.
Managed 1Kish new words on the editing pass/massive rewrite of "Rampion." I'd say I'm in the final stretch, but I sort of feel I've been there for so long that I've lost touch with the meaning of that term.
And sold Spanish language reprint of "Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast" to Cuásar, slated for their special edition issue #50. Spanish is another new language that my work will appear in—making it the fourth for this story and my seventh overall. Coolio.
I'm feeling:  tired
Tags: blog, droid, sinner baker fabulist priest, writing sale
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08:47 am
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"Honored Guest" by Ellen Kushner Now Live
My reading of "Honored Guest" by Ellen Kushner is now up at PodCastle. Go listen, yo!
Actually, I haven't heard it yet. I'm a little scared to. I wanted to do one more clean-up pass on the audio, but the General Assembly was still in session at the time, and I was bumping against the deadline already, so I never ended up doing that final pass. Rushing always makes me anxious, and I really hope I did this lovely story justice. Eep.
I'm feeling:  anxious
Tags: podcast
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08:33 am
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Rampion: WiP Progress
About 2/3 through my editing pass of "Rampion." Probably more accurate to call it a massive rewrite than an edit. Gutting scenes and slashing out paragraph after paragraph of craptacular prose. Feh.
It's currently at 14.5K words. At least it's looking like it'll stay solidly within novelette range.
I'm feeling:  frustrated
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