Got up extra early this morning to vote. I voted. A less exciting undertaking in practice than theory.
So, yeah, my life = blurred frenetic haze of legislative editing punctuated by non-legislative editing for The Fix.
I’m finding the editing mindset a bit hard to break out of…in an OCD sort of way. dude_the was here* for our annual Superbowl shindig (the only football game I watch), and we were out doing the Saturday beer run at the Wine Shop. Not being much of an alcohol drinker (or buyer), I amused myself by reading the wine descriptions. Three sentences in, I found myself with pen in hand, busily adding in the missing serial commas. fosteronfilm dragged me away before I could finish (or attract the ire of the shopkeeps). *twitch*
But we’re now on Day 11, over one-quarter of the way through Session 2008. Rah.
*Actually, dude_the is still here, as his flight was cancelled last night, but I’m not sure if I’ll get to see him off from his extended stay—or at all—as I’ll probably have to work late again tonight. A bummer, as he got back from his wranglings with Hartsfield-Jackson airport last night after my bedtime.
Writing Stuff
Rich Horton (ecbatan) singled out my story, “Honor is a Game Mortals Play,” as one of the best in the DAW anthologies from 2007. *Squee!* (Thanks to jimhines for the heads up!)
Received:
• 23-day reprint SALE of “The Life and Times of Penguin” to the Triangulation: Taking flight anthology. My first sale of the year! And it came with an exceedingly complimentary acceptance letter from the editor, Pete Butler. It was his first acceptance letter (written) of the year, too. Hee!
• 44-day personal “not right for us” from Weird Tales with an invite to submit again. The sale gods giveth and they smacketh. Sigh.
• Payment from Llewellyn for “A Nose for Magic” after a bit of worrisome email straying. Seems they sent me a request for a W-9 for tax purposes which they wanted me to send back before they could cut my check, but I never got the email—I suspect an overzealous spam filter, paired with the lack of a subject in the original email, was the culprit, as I do check my spam folder regularly for misfiled correspondences. It was purely by luck that I saw the follow-up, recognized the “Llewellyn” in the return email addy, and fished it out.
• Note from palmerwriter letting me know that Voices for the Cure (the charity anthology to benefit the American Diabetes Association with my story, “An Interesting Week for Emmy,” in it) is now available through White Rocket Books, which means it’ll soon be available at Amazon.com and B&N.com, too. Yay!
Brilliant! Furthering the editorial proofreading agenda, one embarrassed presenter at a time. Mwa ha haa haa!
“Three sentences in, I found myself with pen in hand, busily adding in the missing serial commas.”
God, I do that inter-office memos all the time. And sometimes it makes me cringe at the lack of knowledge of the basic rules I have to work with every day.
Big congrats on the honor, sale, and pubs. It’s nice to know your writing life isn’t entirely over now the session is, well, in session.
If that last doesn’t deserve a whack with a red pen, I don’t know what does.