Allergies lead to napping

Something in the air is triggering my allergies. My skin feels like it needs to crawl off my body. I took a Benadryl and it knocked me totally for a loop. I have the choice of being out for the count or itchy. Blah. Spent a good chunk of yesterday in an antihistamine haze, and the rest of it trying to recover with a Sudafed and coffee cocktail. As such, not much was accomplished. So, here’s a couple skunk pictures:


Us napping on the couch.



Hobkin napping under his hutch, all nestled in his blue blankie.


Writing Stuff

The three-weeker over at Critters finally ended. I stabbied my poor little story with a fork and sent it out the door. Fly little story, fly!

21-day “Unfortunately, your story did not pass the second round of reading” from Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine. Ah, well. It was something of a long shot anyway, not being a particularly funny tale. Although both of the stories I’ve sold them haven’t been of the belly laugh variety either. “Body and Soul Art” is downright gritty in places. Actually, the same can be said about “The Life and Times of Penguin,” depending upon how you feel about toy box carnage. Out that tale goes again. *boot*

New Words: 500
Jittery and somewhat unfocused, but making progress on the folktale. Rah. I’m struggling to keep this one at my target 2K, but it’s fighting hard to end up at 2.5K or longer. I’ve sold stories that exceeded 2K to Cricket, but I always feel terribly guilty when I send them stuff over their stated maximum, like I’m doing something naughty by violating their guidelines. Must obey writer’s covenant . . .

Thou shalt not simultaneously submit unless the guidelines expressly permit it.
Thou shalt remember the word length constraints and keep them holy.
Thou shalt not submit a handwritten manuscript for the editor will punish thee for the sin of illegible script by rejecting you out of hand.
Thou shalt use courier 12 point.
Thou shalt honor thy editor by addressing them formally in thy cover letter unless expressly invited to use their first name.
Thou shalt double space.
Thou shalt use one inch margins.
Thou shalt not omit an SASE for the editor will pitch your manuscript in the circular file if you do.
Thou shalt not use pink, lavender, or powder blue paper, for clean, white bond paper is the only true paper.
Thou shalt not staple manuscript pages together.

Club 100 For Writers
29

500/day
61

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10 Responses to Allergies lead to napping

  1. Lori and Benadryl don’t get along 🙂 If I take ONE, I’m in and out for at least 24 hrs.

    And then there’s Jeffrey who pops two every morning and night, go figure.

  2. mtfay says:

    Ah, Benedryl…that blessed drug that allows us to stop sneezing and sleep for 29 hours at a time.

    On another note, you, my dear girl, should have enough published stories now that you should be packaging the whole as a collection and sending it round to publishers.

    • Eugie Foster says:

      Eugie’s collection

      Actually, Scrybe Press wants to publish a collection of my adult fairy tales (not the XXX variety, the Ellen Datlow/Terri Windling kind). Nathan initially said end of 2005/beginning of 2006 for a publication date, but I suspect it’ll be a little longer than that.

      And I’d very much like to market around my children’s folk tales compiled in a collection, but I can’t until Cricket publishes the ones they’ve bought first since they’ve contractually got first publication rights. I figure I can wait. And in the interim I write more, which makes for a bigger collection.

      Besides, I don’t want put out an “Only Eugie/All Eugie” collection before I have a large enough readership base to support it.

  3. Anonymous says:

    Benadryl gives me kidney infections and everything else turns me into the zombie princess. Sniffle, sniffle.

    Thanks for the Hobkin pics! Torn between bouts of “Ooo, cute” and concern. To my warped mind, the little guy looks like he’s been squashed under the hutch, with half his cute self sticking out.

    He’s obviously a great cuddle partner.

    I’ve broken a couple of the covenant specs–still do. But then…I don’t play well with others and still run with scissors.

    Pat Kirby

    • Eugie Foster says:

      To my warped mind, the little guy looks like he’s been squashed under the hutch, with half his cute self sticking out.

      Smushed skunk! Oh, no, no. The angle of the picture is causing a deceptive perspective thingy. The hutch has a seven inch clearance, plenty of room for the lil fuzzbump. Here’s the same pic slightly pulled back:


      Flat skunk. Oh, dear, I’m not sure if that’s showing it any better . . .

  4. dean13 says:

    Ever try Claritin? Loratadine is the generic name. It doesn’t leave me as foggy as Benadryl but it is also less effective at relieving severe symptoms.

    Watch out for Claritin D, that variation includes a huge quadruple dose Pseudoephedrine that leaves some people, including me, jittery and bouncing off the walls.

    • Eugie Foster says:

      I haven’t tried Claritin, but Matthew has. He was underwhelmed. My allergies typically manifest dermatologically, and therefore are contact-related. I do get sinus pathway grief when I am subjected to really intense levels of an allergen, but usually my allergies respond to a nice application of steroid ointment on the affected area. But this time it doesn’t seem like something I’ve blundered into, just an overall feeling of discomfort. It feels a bit like the first time I discovered I was allergic to amoxycillan. Yuck. The doctor people had me on Benadryl for a week–most of which I don’t remember, being in a waking stupor or asleep for the duration.

      The Benadryl I took yesterday did the trick. I’m just hoping whatever it was that triggered my bout of discomfort is out of my system now.

  5. jmeadows says:

    Aww, cuddly skunk.

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