Had a minor MARTA adventure this morning. I don’t feel all that tired or out of it, but I was going over my “things to do” list in my head during my commute to work, going over my agenda for today, and I somehow managed to get turned around and disembarked on the wrong side of the Southbound MARTA train. I ended up on the Westbound platform instead of the Eastbound one (realizing this just in time to see the Eastbound train I should’ve been on whiz by). So then I went back down to the N/S level so I could get to the Eastbound platform and realized there wasn’t a way to get to it from that side of the track. I needed to go all the way up and over on the street level. 
While I stood there, exasperated and dumbfounded, I had a good bit of fortune. Another Southbound train came in, so I hopped through it to get to the other side of the track, whereupon I made my way to the Eastbound platform.
Urg. I seem to be losing my mind. If anyone finds it, could you please email it back to me?
Writing Stuff
Published:
– My May Writing for Young Readers column, “Writing for Children’s Magazines”
Received:
– An email this morning from Jason J. Marchi, editor (with co-editor Jackson T. Ellis) of the proposed Scissor Press anthologies Deadly Dolls, Trains, Machine Mayhem, and Automobilia:
“The anthologies are on HOLD since two different publishers, one after the other, have backed out, saying short story anthologies aren’t selling now. I’ll contact you again should I be able to find another publisher willing to take on these books. I’m very much in love with the concepts for these books I have devised: AUTOMOBILIA. TRAIN STORIES, DEADLY DOLLS, and MACHINE MAYHEM. So I will be working behind the scenes to find a respected publisher for these titles. Meanwhile, please market your work to anyplace that will publish it. Writers have a shrinking audience as it is, so avail yourself of every opportunity to market your work to get it sold.”
I had a couple submissions out to these anthologies from 2005, but after not hearing back from a query in October last year, I assumed they had folded without fanfare or notice and sent my manuscripts out elsewhere . . .
New Words:
– 1000 on The Novel. I’m a little behind the pace of 2500 words a week that I set initially. Spent some words-on-page time researching over the weekend, but I think I found what I need. Going to try to pick up the slack this week.
|
|
|
2,783 / 40,000
(7.0%) |
I have a business associate that works a great deal from his car. I can’t count the number of times I’ve had him on the phone when he says “Damn, I think I just missed my exit!”
I suspect your lost mind is very near to the marbles I lost a long time ago – wherever they are…
“I can’t count the number of times I’ve had him on the phone when he says “Damn, I think I just missed my exit!”“
Maybe ’cause he was on the phone?
I’m now envisioning a big pile of mislaid evanescents languishing in some cosmic dead letter office: absent minds, missing marbles, lost patience, forgotten youth, etc.
you may have had an idle moment, but catching a southbound to switch from east/westbound sides sounds very impressive in a rubix cube solving kind of way.
Thanks! Although it was less impressive than it sounds. More of a serendipitous “I can’t get to the other side of the tracks, wah! . . . ooo, train!” *hoppity*
glad to hear SOMETHING on the Scissor Press anthos. They never responded to any of my queries so, I, too, assumed they folded and submitted the stories elsewhere [one will appear in this months Doorways Magazine]…lovely how they took the time to reply to queries!
Thanks for posting the news, Eugie.
Muchly welcome.
And congrats on the sale to Doorways!
Thanks! The May issue has the story, an interview w/me and photos, and the cover art is using a photo of me…I’m busting at the seams to see it…though also very nervous! lol…I’m going to be in some form of zombification…lol.
“I’m going to be in some form of zombification“
Erm, since Doorways is a horror mag, was that statement figurative or literal?
Ha!! Figurative, I HOPE! lol….if I go missing, send help…lol..
Congratulations on finding a way out of the magical MARTA mystery tour. I imagine the MARTA adventure scene unfolding with spy movie music and spy movie quick cuts between perplexing camera angles.
Luckily for me, my commutes are much simpler. The local commuter train ONLY runs north-south and most of the trains are going in the correct direction in the mornings or evenings.
Theme music. I need theme music!
Mostly, my commutes are pretty simple–barring the periodic technical problem or other slow-down. Not as simple as yours, but relatively straightforward. I take the Southbound to work from the furthest northern station, so trains are only going in one direction from there, and transfer to the Eastbound for one stop at the junction where N/S meets E/W. I’ve never had any problems with the transfer before yesterday. Damn brain fluke.