Home Again Home Again

We’re back in Georgia after another grueling drive, and happy to be home. Hobkin’s pleased too; he spent last night cuddled up with me, and spent the first hour or so after I carried him in running around the house cheek-rubbing all the baseboard corners, re-establishing his territory (when we re-paint the interior some time in the dim and hazy future, it’s going to be a dark color) and making sure nothing had changed in his absence.

Thank you to everyone who dropped a comment with well-wishes and thoughts over this last week. Apologies that I haven’t responded individually to y’all. But you can be sure that your outpourings of concern and support were greatly appreciated.

DiL is still in the hospital but getting stronger daily. He’s eating on his own, and I believe they’ve started him on physical therapy. Still stubborn as all get out and clamoring to go home. They’ve also installed the pacemaker, a complication-free surgery. Unfortunately, the tests came back that they ran after his last fever spike and he’s got a Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection, which they didn’t know before they put in the pacemaker. He’s now quarantined within ICU and people have to wear face masks when visiting him. Both fosteronfilm and MiL banned me from seeing him–over my squawked protests–once the results came in, all jumpy about my stupid compromised immune system. Grumpf. Bunch of worrywarts. You’d think with an overactive immune system I’d be less susceptible to infections instead of more. Stupid lupus.

I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye before we left. I’d be very distressed about that, but I’m hoping I’ll be able to see him again sans infection, when he’s back home.

   


Writing Stuff

Didn’t get nearly as much work done as I’d hoped last week. Not really a surprise, considering, but I’m now stretching myself full out in an effort to catch-up. My hamsters have embarked upon a breeding program while I was up north, the irksome things, and none of the new hamster-spawn appear to be aerodynamic.

The last Dragon*Con all-staff meeting is this weekend, which heralds the start of in earnest Daily Dragon prep. I’ve also been officially approved as a guest again this year. Right now, I’m scheduled to be on bevlovesbooks‘s panels “The Power of the Old Stories: Mythology and Folklore in YA” and “So, You Want to Write a Kid’s Book?” for her YA Lit track. I believe jackzodiac is hoping to put together a panel for Writers for Relief, and I’m anticipating that Ann Crispin will want me to reprise my guest lecture for her Beginning Writers Workshop. Another chock-full schedule. Much fun, but also loads of public speaking anxiety.

I saw that my other Escape Pod story, “The Life and Times of Penguin,” was also nominated for a Parsec Award. That’s both of them! Squee! Crossing my fingers that at least one of them makes the short list.

And Escape Pod now has an LJ: escapepodcast. EP was a lifesaver during the drive to and from Illinois. During David D. Levine’s “Tk’tk’tk”, I totally lost track of the miles and got swept away to an alien world . . . that was also somewhat Asiatic in feel. Very nice.

Received:
– Payment for my 2-part Multicultural Writing article from Writing-world.com.
– Contrib. copy of Apex Digest Best of 2005. Shiny!
– My taped-shut-but-empty SASE from Realms of Fantasy for “The Devil and Mrs. Comstock’s Snickerdoodles.” Erm. I expected it to contain my contract, and now I’m stressing that the contract was lost en route. Have dropped a note to Shawna to alleviate my anxiety.
– 46-day “thanks but no” from Forgotten Worlds. Bummer. But less of one now that I’ve learned that FW doesn’t include a contrib. copy with their payment. While I’d rather get money over a contrib. copy, I sort of expect both.

New Words/Editing:
– 1200 on a freelance gig. Got 300 to go and I can send this one off. This was a longish assignment.
– After 29-crits from Critters.org for “Black Swan, White Swan,” I did several editing passes and stuck a fork in. Fly, little swan story; find a good home and make me proud!
– Put together the outline for my first writers-world.com column article. Right now, the plan is to call the column: “Eugie Foster – Writing for Young Readers.” It’s not flashy or exciting, just plain jane straightforward. But I think that’s best. Plus, I couldn’t think of anything cute.

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18 Responses to Home Again Home Again

  1. Welcome home! Let me know when I can come over and pick up magnets.

  2. basletum says:

    How’s this for a catchy column title: “How to Get your Kid to Read, or Methods that Schools Will Never Think of in a Billion Years (and Would Rather Gnaw Their Own Groin off Than do so Anyhow)”

  3. The last Dragon*Con all-staff meeting is this weekend, which heralds the start of in earnest Daily Dragon prep.

    So what does that mean for your ace reporters?

    • Eugie Foster says:

      It means to expect the usual state of the Daily Dragon, gimme your hours, desk duties, blah blah blah etc. mass emailings to start rolling into your inbasket. All old hat to you. Although there’s a new thing that I’m working on that I’m hoping to have cemented at this upcoming staff meeting. I’ll drop you a note in private; it’s about something you asked about before, and I think you’ll be pleased.

  4. lisamantchev says:

    Glad you made it home safe and sound!

  5. Welcome home! Am crossing my fingers for a Parsec short-listing! 😀

  6. albionidaho says:

    Behind on my journal reading.

    Sorry to read about your FiL, but I am so glad to read all is well. Take care.

  7. whitecrow0 says:

    Glad you’re back. I have a skunky story for you. :}

  8. j_hotlanta says:

    Glad things went well with the Dil; MRSA is nothing to be sneezed at (sorry) so probably better safe than sorry…although some of the new stuff like Avelox really does a good job on it. It’s become such a big deal now that at Jay’s wrestling meets, they’re constantly spraying anything contaminated with stray body fluids with disenfectent to try and control any spread between contestants.

    Don’t know where you stand on the incorporation vote next week but if you’d like some “Johns Creek Yes” signs to nail to the Nesbitt Ferry side of your fence let me know: I have some extras.

    • Eugie Foster says:

      Don’t know where you stand on the incorporation vote next week

      We’re voting “Johns Creek Yes” too.

      if you’d like some “Johns Creek Yes” signs to nail to the Nesbitt Ferry side of your fence let me know: I have some extras.

      Hmm. Got any with feet that can be plunked into the ground instead? I’m hesitant to drive nails into our fence. I’m a bit concerned that it might tip over if it’s subjected to the force of hammering. It’s a wee bit . . . rickety, and it has gone done on our neighbor’s side (leading to some to-do about whether it’s the HOA’s job to fix the fence or the homeowners’). Any notion as to how the vote’s leaning in your neck of the woods?

      • j_hotlanta says:

        Where the vote is going is anyone’s guess right now. In terms of yard signs along rivermont parkway…they’re running about 3-1 in favor of Johns Creek (although my SO points out that, in light of the fact that the Roswell folks didn’t expect much of a fight, they didn’t print a lot of signs).

        I have a couple of signs but none of the wire yard thingies. When we grabbed them at the fundraiser, the wire thingies were all bundled up with a metal strap and we couldn’t get them loose. I figured that someone would steal the sign so I grabbed a couple as replacements.

        I was thinking of using my impact stapler to put the sign on the back of the fence(or, since it only has to last 1 day, maybe a little duct tape). Of course, given your concerns, you run the risk of the sign being the only thing holding the fence together at that point.

        • Eugie Foster says:

          Y’know, considering that the vote’s in less than 24-hours, I’m inclined to think that one more sign isn’t going to make a big difference in voter opinion, one way or another. That, paired with the less-than-sturdy nature of our fence makes me think perhaps it would be best to forgo the signage. Meep.

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