Tag Archives: writing biz

Cafe Sunflower and H.P. Lovecraft’s

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Happy Bunny Day, everyone! May your baskets be filled with chocolate!

Had a wonderful evening yesterday with britzkrieg and rigel_kent. They invited us to dinner to celebrate my new agented status. I love hanging with them. We went to Café Sunflower, an excellent vegetarian restaurant in the city. Good food, fantastic company, what more could anyone want?


Writing Stuff

Got word back from the editor of H.P. Lovecraft’s Magazine of Horror. I figured there was a chance my email queries weren’t getting through, so I emailed the managing editor who forwarded my note on to the editor. His reply came a day later from a new email account, and sure enough he’d had a hard drive crash a couple months back. So very, very relieved to hear from him!

Everything’s back on track for “Within Your Soul I Sightless See.” He sent me the contract, which is even now winging its way back to HPL headquarters. And they pay on acceptance, whee! What’s even better, the editor said he’d try to schedule my story for issue #4. It might end up bumped to issue #5, but ohgodohgod I hope it’s in #4. Tanith Lee will have a story in #4. It’s been one of my writing dreams to share a ToC with her! Squee! Fangirl rapture!

Here’s the cover of #4. Gorgeous isn’t it? Got my fingers crossed that I’ll be in it.

Woohoo! Reprint sale . . . in Greek!

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Writing Stuff

Just got an email from the Greek language publication, 9 (the biggest newspaper in Greece). They published a Greek translation reprint of my short story “The Adventures of Manny the Mailmobile” in their Feb. 16, 2005, #240 issue. Payment (in Euros) is on its way as well as my contrib. copies, err, which I won’t be able to read, but so cool anyway!

Woot! My first Greek Language publication!

Fantasm Day (night) 1

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Fantasm has begun! We had a late start yesterday so didn’t get into Fantasm until after 8PM. Had time to get registered, say our initial hellos, and then find seats at the ballroom. I was scheduled to be a presenter at the Fannie Awards, so I checked in with poppyaseed, and then settled down to wait for my time to be escorted backstage. And waited. And waited. Of course, silly me, the award ceremony was on “convention time”! So we (Matthew, dude_the, and I) relaxed and gabbed with Melanie (Pony Girl) and Hugh.

Then the event began! The presenters had to reach the backstage by going around outside. I was slated to present an award with one of the Purgatory crew, Mistress Sapphire, and we were both not dressed for the outside. It’s cold out there! Shivering, we discussed what we were going to do onstage (which I now realize I totally messed up on–she suggested the presenter who ended up stage left should introduce herself first. Being a ninny (and terrified of public speaking), I blanked out and confused stage left with “left of Eugie”. Oops.) We presented the “Favorite Volunteer” award, and it was won by the lovely redwitch. I noticed when there that the stage was extremely slippery. I was very concerned for all the dancers who were performing ceremony numbers. Walking on the stage was a chancy undertaking. Dancing, yikes.

My stint done, I went back into the audience, eagerly awaiting the “Favorite Ms. Fantasm” award presentation. The presenters mispronounced my name at the “and the nominees are” part, and there was a bit of a mix-up at the “and the winner is” stage. But who cares? I won!


My acceptance speech was pretty lame. “Thank you, you’re all great!” My brain glazed over, and I could come up with nothing more amusing to say. Sigh. Probably the only “thank you” speech I’ll ever give at an award ceremony and I deer-in-the-headlighted.

Thank you, everyone who voted for me!

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Agented!!

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Phone call this AM. Long chat. Resulting in: I’ve got an agent!

I’m now officially a client of William Reiss, Vice-President of John Hawkins & Associates, Inc.

My agent (I love how that sounds) also represents John Katzenbach, Gregory Maguire, Janet Fitch, and Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, among others, and his agency has (had) clients including P.G. Wodehouse, Malcolm X, and Joyce Carol Oates! He’s been with the agency since 1971 and JH&A is the first literary agency in the U.S., established in 1893. And yes, they’re a member of AAR (actually, they founded AAR!).

Woohooo!! Must go breathe now.

More positive agent responding

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Writing Stuff

I got another request from an agent to see the full manuscript! Hurray! It goes out in the mail today.

Also, a glowing review from James Palmer of “Returning My Sister’s Face” in Feb’s Realms of Fantasy at Tangent:

“Eugie Foster’s “Returning My Sister’s Face” is a . . . tale of revenge as delightful as it is grisly. . . Asian folk tales and legends appear to be a rich story vein, and Foster mines it well . . . well-researched and entertaining”

However, I’ve been really crappy about getting new words on the page. Need to adhere rump to chair . . .

Lost in Translation and more with the writing biz

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Watched Lost in Translation yesterday with Matthew. I want those hours of my life back. While the insight into modern Japanese culture was interesting, the story–if you could call it that–and the characters, most definitely were not. Yuck. Pretentious pretentious pretentious. And boring.


Writing Stuff

So, after the first positive agent response, I got a form “not interested in you, you fool!” from a different one in the mail yesterday. C’est la vie. Then I got a call from Ann Crispin! She’s recommending me to an agent in her agency, Writers House LLC. She’s sending them an email on my behalf and everything. She’s the utter and total best. It would be so completely amazing if I could land a Writers House agent. Ooo.

Also spent the last few days making banners for Scrybe Press. Go HERE to see them.

And I finally got the check from Cricket for “Razi and the Sunbird.” Now if they’ll only slot in for publication the other seven stories of mine they’ve bought . . .

Eugie not so good with the waiting.

Writing Stuff

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Writing Stuff

Received my first response from the batch of agent queries I sent out, and it’s a request for the whole manuscript! It’s a long way from an offer of representation, but at least it’s validation that my query didn’t totally suck goats. Mailed off the full manuscript; now it’s all about the waiting. Again. *crosses fingers*

Also saw that the completed cover of “Inspirations End/Still My Beating Heart” is up on the Scrybe Press site in the available listing:

If you’re not going to Fantasm, you can order your very own copy. $3.49 with FREE S&H!

My Laptop!

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My laptop arrived! I’m writing and updating this LJ entry on my shiny new HP Pavilion!

I spent most of yesterday playing with it, loading it up with software and data, and getting it personalized and configured just the way I like it. It’s a bit heavier than I had expected. There is a certain “boulder on my lap” feeling when I perch it on me. I suspect the advertised weight was sans battery–which would put many lead paperweights to shame. Might need to see about setting up some sort of lap desk to share some of the weight. It also has a touch pad mouse, which is taking some getting used to (I’m accustomed to that little pressure point mouse that IBM Thinkpads have). But on the plus side, the screen is HUGE. And the wireless card is sweet. Cable modem router goodness. I haven’t tested its range yet, but for where I’ll mostly be using it, I’ve had perfect connectivity. Matthew thinks I’m getting faster speeds on my laptop than he is on the desktop, connected via the cable. I’m dubious, but it’s lighting quick. Very nice.


Writing Stuff

Rewrote the synopses for “Inspirations End/Still My Beating Heart” as what I had before did indeed suck goats. Happier with my redraft, I emailed them off to Nathan.

Received word from the publishers of the Blasphemy anthology. It is official, the project is on “hiatus.” I suspect that means there’s a solid likelihood that I’ll never see the damn thing in print. Somewhat annoyed at the whole thing. That story has been in publishing limbo for years now.

As a complete antithesis to the Blasphemy fiasco (i.e. as a shining example of really professional publishing business practices), I received the contract from jinzi in the mail. Signed and mailed her copy back.

Words: Couple editing passes, but not as much productivity as I wanted because I was too busy playing with my new laptop. (I am not unaware of the irony of my “productivity tool” leeching away work time, thank-you-very-much .)

Club 100 For Writers
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Handy hubby, NPR interview, Agent fretting

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Matthew displayed he was handy yesterday. Two out of three of our bathrooms had ailing plumbing. The flapper chain thingy in one of the bowls had broken, and the flush handle thingy on the other had cracked apart and would no longer do its job. And to top everything off, the light switch in our master bath had been possessed by some evil spirit that got its jollies from flickering the lights off and on at random intervals.

My intrepid hubby went to Home Depot, picked out the correct replacement parts, and installed them all by himself! (Well, I held the flashlight and was in charge of tool acquisition.) So now we don’t need to call either an electrician or a plumber! I’m so proud of Matthew.

And in Cool Happenings Out of the Blue, we got an email from an NPR reporter who was doing a story on Mount Airy Lodge in the Poconos (where Matthew and I honeymooned). Apparently it’s closing down and auctioning off all its fixtures and stuff. She’d come across my write-up on our experience and wanted to do a phone interview with us. So we emailed her back, and she called us shortly afterward. Interview happened, story slated for Friday’s Market Place. Neat! I spoke little, as this triggered my speaking in front of people phobia, but Matthew was great. I hope they got a few good sound bytes from us. Going to tune into NPR’s Market Place on Friday for sure!


Writing Stuff

Sent out eight queries to agents yesterday (yes, mroctober, one of those was to bgliterary). I think I figured out why this whole query/agent thing is freaking me out. With queries especially, agents gauge whether or not you get bumped up the slush to the next tier of consideration solely on the basis of an introduction letter–not the first page of a manuscript, not even the first paragraph. The letter.

I’m pretty confident about my prose. I can tell when something really sings, and when something really sucks. Can’t always get the sucking bits to sing, and certainly can’t coax forth much more than a warble most days, but I trust myself to know. Not so with queries. Totally new ground there. I mean, I’ve read fiction for most of my life and I know what I like and what works. I haven’t read very many query letters. What’s a masterful query? What’s the equivalent of the Eye of Argon?

Also, I’m fine with having a story judged by its merits, but I’m freaked out by the idea of having me and the future of my writing career evaluated solely on the caliber of my introductory letter. Glah.

To top off my anxiety, I received a rejection from Surreal yesterday. It was a nice one, as they went; they invited me to submit again, but I’m not in a good headspace for rejction right now.

However, in the taketh and giveth front, arkhamrefugee contacted me about a paying writing gig. It’s always sweet to get solicited.

Words: 700 – The Chinese fairy tale continues apace. ‘Bout halfway, and I’m pleased with how it’s turning out.

Club 100 For Writers
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500/day
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