Tag Archives: hobkin

Dropped Hobkin off at skunk camp last night. Normally when we leave him at Debbie’s, he goes tearing around her house and barely notices when we go. This time, he kept fairly close to where we were chatting in her kitchen, and when I picked him up, he clung to me when usually he wiggles to be put down so he can go rampaging about again. And then, even more astonishing, he tried to follow me out the door when we left. He’s never done that before. It was heart wrenching leaving him behind.

I’m sure he’ll have a great time with Debbie and all her skunks at Christmas skunk camp, but I miss him terribly.

Writing Stuff:
Up to twenty-eight Critters critiques. Catching up on my “thank you” notes. Thinking of sending the thing to Realms first. I’ve got such a backlog with the Cricket folks, it might be half a year or more before I can get this one out, and so many Critters recommended I target an older audience with it. Plus, if wonders of wonders, I should manage to sell it to RoF, Cicada accepts reprints. I’ll wait until after Christmas to decide for sure. In any case, it still needs some polishing before I’m willing to stamp “final draft” on it.

Also wrote a review for Tangent of this week’s Sci-Fiction story and sent it off to my editor. Although I saw the Tangent website appears to be having some major technical difficulties. Hmm.

Word count: 630 words on “Rue and Ruin.”

Club 100 for Writers
31/100

500/day
19

Numbers:
With only nine days left to this year–busy, holiday days at that–I think it terribly unlikely that I’m going to make another sale before year’s end. It’d be nice to be wrong, but in case it’s not, this year’s progress report:

For 2004
Rejections: 126 (down from 129 in 2003)
Sales: 22 (up from 14 in 2003)
Words Written: 107K (up from 106K in 2003)
Works Completed: 17 (down from 23 in 2003, but I completed a novella-length work).
Works Published: 14 (up from 4 in 2003)
Reviews for Tangent Written: 35

I sold significantly more stories than I wrote this year, a first for me. A good writing year, all in all. Here’s hoping 2005 is even better.

Hobkin is such a good boy! The flu-like symptoms I was having, well, seems they were a pretty low-grade flu . . . which I’ve subsequently conferred upon the poor fuzzwit. After dinner, he was cuddled up with me on the couch, and suddenly he jumped up and went scampering away. Now that isn’t an uncommon occurrence, so I didn’t think anything of it until the unmistakable sounds of a skunk being sick to his stomach started coming from the kitchen. I sprang up to check on him, and found him sicking up with his head in his litter pan. Poor lil guy.

Hobkin’s very good about running to his area to be sick (which has a nice, linoleum floor, making it much easier to clean than carpet), but this was the first time he was considerate enough to do so right in his litter box! I praised him effusively and gave him a mint sandwich (Pepto Bismol on bread) to ease his tummy.

Hobkin is such a good boy. And he seems much better today.

Writing Stuff:
Wrote a review for this week’s Sci-Fiction story for Tangent, as well as a Scrybe Press synopsis for Nathan, a critique for Critters, and many belated thank you emails. Also did a rewrite pass on the slipstream story. It’s garnered eighteen critiques so far. I’ll give it another day for the final critiques to trickle in, then send it off to market.

Word count: 500 on the SF WIP.

Club 100 for Writers
23/100

500/day
11

I woke to much cuteness this morning when my alarm went off. Hobkin was curled up under my chin, snoozing peacefully. But I had to get up; the alarm was insistent about it. Except every time I started to move, the fuzzwit would burrow his nose deeper into my neck, paralyzing me with fluffy cuteness. I tried pushing the covers off; he snuggled in more firmly. After several similar efforts, I sighed, pet him, and waited, hoping he’d fall into a deeper sleep so I could escape. When I finally had to get up, I tried to substitute my warm shape with that of my pillow’s. Didn’t work of course. Hobkin immediately noticed the switch, awakened, and stared up at me with hurt recrimination in his little eyes. I felt so guilty I gave him a cookie before heading for the shower.

I’m a total sucker, aren’t I?

In amusing news, the skunk show britzkrieg and I went to got a nice write-up in Creative Loafing.

Writing Stuff:
Started on my review for Tangent of this week’s Sci-Fiction offering.

Word count: 500 on the SF piece. Entering the climax of the story, and I am massively underwhelmed by how it’s going. Hoping that something better will occur to me than the tripe I’ve currently got planned for an ending. Bah.

Club 100 for Writers
19/100

500/day
7

The colder weather has brought about another change in Hobkin: ice-cold paws. And he has a penchant for plunking those chilly paws on me, especially when I’m asleep. As if that wasn’t bad enough, last night he stuck one of his freezing paws in my ear as I lay snuggled up under the covers. Wonder if they make mittens for skunks . . .

Writing Stuff:
The situation at IROSF concerns me. Apparently the Editor-in-Chief stepped down, which puts the future of the publication in question, not to mention my cyberpunk article. Guess I should hang tight and put on my “wait and see” cap.

Did an editing pass on the slipstream piece. It’s still not listed as up for this week on Critters. *sigh*

Word count: 1000+ on the science fiction piece, and yet I haven’t managed to hit flow. Still, I chug along. Chug-a-chug-a.

Club 100 for Writers
18/100

500/day
6

Feasting: Check. Vegetarian roast beast, garlic mashed potatoes, mushroom and onion gravy, pumpkin cheesecake, chocolate silk pie, and fresh-baked sugar cookies. Mmmm.

Shopping : Check-ish. Although not much got accomplished. We braved the crowds, which weren’t as insane as they could have been. But we did very little purchasing. More like browsing for ideas.

Decorating: Check. There’s still much to do, but we got the main tree up and decorated, the mantle wreath ditto, the entertainment center ditto, and the stairs. Still to do: Hobkin’s tree and area, my “birthday” tree decorating, and various counter-top tableaux.

Skunk Trauma : Check. Apparently abandoning the small fuzzwit for several hours for two days in a row was too much for his sense of safety and security. He was skittish and anxious all day yesterday, a state not alleviated one iota by the judicious use of the vacuum cleaner (to clean up the dusting of faux evergreen nettles littering the carpet from our holiday decorating efforts). He huddled under his hutch in terror, and then when we were able to coax him out, he clung to me with a dedicated tenacity for the rest of the night. He’s currently curled up peacefully in my lap, exuding an aura of “all is well.” But I think that means we can’t go out today.

Writing Stuff
Um, well, I certainly intended to get some writing done this weekend, but my intentions went astray. There’s still a chance of me getting some words on the page, or maybe some editing accomplished, but I wouldn’t bet on it if I were a gambling type.

My Tangent reviews of Sci-Fiction stories “All of Us Can Almost . . . ” by Carol Emshwiller and “Super 8” by Terry Bisson have been published. Rah.

In slightly worrisome news, I still have yet to hear from John Frost of IROSF after a query regarding my “Sub-Genre Spotlight: Cyberpunk” article, which, if they follow their new publication schedule, is due to go up tomorrow. Certainly there’s a holiday lag to be expected, but it’s due up tomorrow and I have not yet seen a contract. Hmm.