Congratulations, Dave!
My good friend David Barr Kirtley's story "Save Me Plz" will be available in the October issue of Realms of Fantasy. And his name made the cover, too. How awesome is that!
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
My good friend David Barr Kirtley's story "Save Me Plz" will be available in the October issue of Realms of Fantasy. And his name made the cover, too. How awesome is that!
There's No Place Like Home
Finally got back from TNEO on Saturday after a three hour, get on the plane, get off the plane, get back on the plane again delay. Thunderstorms over Newark. Thanks.
So, after a long, exhausting, unairconditioned week of critiquing, all I wanted to do on Sunday was lie in bed and read the final Harry Potter book, but Wednesday will by my Great Aunt Angie's 100th birthday, and so me and my sister and my niece and nephew went to visit her at the nursing home where she lives.
I blogged about this a few months back: the great Angie nursing home search. The whole thing was really depressing at the time, but we did eventually find a great place for her on the upper east side. Even so, I felt awful about it, especially when it came time to leave her there. However, after all these weeks, Angie's doing really well, and she seems pretty happy--they take her to mass every Sunday, and there's lots of pictures of the pope and nuns roam free about the place, and for a little, old Italian lady, that's like paradise.
And now it's Monday and I'm back at work.
Crap!
So, after a long, exhausting, unairconditioned week of critiquing, all I wanted to do on Sunday was lie in bed and read the final Harry Potter book, but Wednesday will by my Great Aunt Angie's 100th birthday, and so me and my sister and my niece and nephew went to visit her at the nursing home where she lives.
I blogged about this a few months back: the great Angie nursing home search. The whole thing was really depressing at the time, but we did eventually find a great place for her on the upper east side. Even so, I felt awful about it, especially when it came time to leave her there. However, after all these weeks, Angie's doing really well, and she seems pretty happy--they take her to mass every Sunday, and there's lots of pictures of the pope and nuns roam free about the place, and for a little, old Italian lady, that's like paradise.
And now it's Monday and I'm back at work.
Crap!
Mike Scores a Hit
This was my birthday present. A 1977 picture book edition of "The Hobbit" with illustrations from the Rankin/Bass movie. It's totally cool.
It's My Birthday
Yes, I know, they landed on the 20th not the 19th, but despite that little date discrepancy, my birth will always be inexorably linked to the first moon landing. I will never, no matter how hard I try, be able to forget or ignore exactly how old I am, because invariably, some paper or TV news outfit will run this story:"Thirty eight years ago today..." Blah, blah, blah.
So, yeah, I'm fucking old.
Temptation, Thy Name is BSG
NBC has a small employee gym that I go to in the morning and today a woman took a locker next to mine and she had with her two scripts for next season's Battlestar Galactica.I swear, I was THISCLOSE to grabbing them and running.
I'm Online, Too!
Thanks to The Slushgod, I just discovered that my story, "Soft, Like a Rabbit," is also featured on Fantasy's website. However, I still encourage you all to buy the issue, and show your support for the magazine.
The Slushmaster in Print
Just found out last night that my friend Doug Cohen's story, "Feelings of the Flesh," is set to appear in an upcoming issue of Interzone. The issue number is still TBA, but check out the really, really cool illustration that will accompany it.I know you waited a long time for this, so congratulations, Doug!
(Sorry about the picture, but I just couldn't resist.)
Labels: Doug Cohen, Interzone, Slushmaster
My New Favourite Show
Rick Stein's "Food Heroes."Yes, it's true. A show about British food and cooking. First of all, just on a professional level, this show is beautifully shot. Whoever the DP is should get an award. Second, Rick Stein is very appealing. On one hand, he's soothing--Mike called him the Mr. Rogers of TV food show hosts--but then he also gets all angry when he talks about how people buy crap food that's been imported from other countries and have no idea how good their local producers are, and that's fun as well. And a particularly English phrase he uses, "works a treat," has now sunk into my brain, and I'm desperately trying not to let it leak into my own conversation--don't want to be too obvious. And, of course, the piece de resistance, his dog Chalky is his co-host, and he's the cutest thing ever.Check out Rick Stein's "Food Heroes" on BBC America.
If Only It Were Just 15 Minutes
If you ever want to be famous for simply showing up, it seems you should hire the Beckhams' publicist. Whatever they're paying him/her, it isn't nearly enough.
Readercon: The Return of Dirty Girl
Well, okay, I suppose that title merits a little explanation. Hmmm, where do I begin? How about the Nebulas. Back in May I attended Nebula Awards Weekend since it was here in New York City, and somehow the always entertaining Paolo Bacigalupi and I ended up talking about...actually, I don't remember what we were talking about, but the end result of the conversation was Paolo forcing me to explain to him, The Slushgod and Paul Melko what was involved in certain, um...alternative sexual practices. (No, I'm not going to name them here. I don't want this site to be banned across the South and Midwest.) Now, I don't consider myself especially kinky or perverted, but apparently I'm the only one with an Internet connection, because I've yet to encounter anyone else who knows what these two, uh...acts are. What the fuck, people? Do your research, okay?
Anyway, that was the day I got dubbed Dirty Girl. And unfortunately the name popped up again this weekend, when, during dinner at this kick-ass Korean BBQ place in Burlington, the dish we were all enjoying, Bulgoki, somehow reminded The Slushgod of...well, of something else--specifically something that rhymes with Bulgoki but, again, the naming of it would get this site banned throughout most of middle America so sound it out yourselves. In any case, no one knew exactly what this thing that rhymes with Bulgoki was and so they all turned to me to explain it. Well, I certainly wasn't going to do that (I went to catholic school, god damn it!) but once again, I got called Dirty Girl simply because I knew what this thing that rhymes with Bulgoki was. Totally not fair, especially since John was the pervert who pointed it out, but there you have it.
And so that was Readercon!
Oh wait, there was more, wasn't there? No, I guess it wasn't all grilled meat and porn.
Let's see. The weekend started on Thursday when Mike (god bless him) drove me out to E!'s house in Bayside so we could begin our journey. E! and I got on the road at 10:25 exactly. We stopped for lunch around noon at a place called Hot Cakes, which seemed to be a popular stop for truck driver types. (We were the only women in the place and all the men turned to look when we walked in. It was creepy in a Steven King kinda way, but they made a real killer BLT.) In any case, we soon got back on the road, and made it to Burlington by 3 o'clock. And then promptly spent the rest of the afternoon working: E! was writing, I was critiquing manuscripts for TNEO. Then we went to the aforementioned Korean BBQ place.
On Friday, we spent time working, too. (God, we're boring) and then sometime in the afternoon, I met up with John and Doug and Jenny and we went to John's kaffeklatch, which was scheduled late, so halfway through, we all sort of decided to adjourn the kaffeklatch, once again, to the Korean BBQ place. (this was when John dirty mind thought the bulgoki sounded like something else.) Then we went back to the hotel for the Meet the Prose party where I met exactly 1 pro--the lovely Paul Tremblay, co-editor of Fantasy Magazine which recently published my first story, "Soft, Like a Rabbit." (plug plug plug)
Okay, moving on. Saturday--well, I don't remember what we did on Saturday, probably more hanging about, talking, talking, talking. (other people were talking, really. I mostly listened.) Went to see Lucius Shepard discuss film, which was cool. Went to the Odyssey Writing Workshop panel to support Jeanne and the Odyssey program. Saw a bunch of Odyssey friends: Susan Sielinski, JoAnne Cox, Julia Liberman. I'm sure there were more, but I'm blanking at the moment. I also met some nice people from Codex: Lon Prater, Mary Robinette Kowal, Joy Marchand.
Then we, I don't know - did more stuff and I finally remembered that I had a camera on me, just in time to snap of picture of Paolo expressing his admiration for my story. And, just like a writer, he insisted on showing not telling.
Then we went for Korean BBQ. Again. Yes, we had Korean BBQ three nights in a row. I'm going to have to eat salads and whole grains all week to make up for it.
I know at some point we ended up at a party in the consuite where cake was served and god damn them to hell for breaking out my kryptonite: cheese cake AND carrot cake. It was a hard fall. And I finally met Sean Wallace, to whom I will always be grateful for buying my first story.
Then we somehow ended up at the bar where more cake was eaten and more yapping went on. And that's where I pretty much crashed.
On Sunday, John and I went to Paolo's reading, which was fantastic. (He's got a collection of stories coming out from Nightshade in February. I can't wait for that.)
Then we went to the dealer's room to hang about the Prime Books/Wildside Press table.
And then it was time to go home, and this time E! and I were accompanied by Ellen Datlow for the ride back to New York. And boy did that ride go insanely fast. E! is one hell of a driver.
And then I got home and didn't move at all for about ten whole hours.
The End
Anyway, that was the day I got dubbed Dirty Girl. And unfortunately the name popped up again this weekend, when, during dinner at this kick-ass Korean BBQ place in Burlington, the dish we were all enjoying, Bulgoki, somehow reminded The Slushgod of...well, of something else--specifically something that rhymes with Bulgoki but, again, the naming of it would get this site banned throughout most of middle America so sound it out yourselves. In any case, no one knew exactly what this thing that rhymes with Bulgoki was and so they all turned to me to explain it. Well, I certainly wasn't going to do that (I went to catholic school, god damn it!) but once again, I got called Dirty Girl simply because I knew what this thing that rhymes with Bulgoki was. Totally not fair, especially since John was the pervert who pointed it out, but there you have it.
And so that was Readercon!
Oh wait, there was more, wasn't there? No, I guess it wasn't all grilled meat and porn.
Let's see. The weekend started on Thursday when Mike (god bless him) drove me out to E!'s house in Bayside so we could begin our journey. E! and I got on the road at 10:25 exactly. We stopped for lunch around noon at a place called Hot Cakes, which seemed to be a popular stop for truck driver types. (We were the only women in the place and all the men turned to look when we walked in. It was creepy in a Steven King kinda way, but they made a real killer BLT.) In any case, we soon got back on the road, and made it to Burlington by 3 o'clock. And then promptly spent the rest of the afternoon working: E! was writing, I was critiquing manuscripts for TNEO. Then we went to the aforementioned Korean BBQ place.
On Friday, we spent time working, too. (God, we're boring) and then sometime in the afternoon, I met up with John and Doug and Jenny and we went to John's kaffeklatch, which was scheduled late, so halfway through, we all sort of decided to adjourn the kaffeklatch, once again, to the Korean BBQ place. (this was when John dirty mind thought the bulgoki sounded like something else.) Then we went back to the hotel for the Meet the Prose party where I met exactly 1 pro--the lovely Paul Tremblay, co-editor of Fantasy Magazine which recently published my first story, "Soft, Like a Rabbit." (plug plug plug)
Okay, moving on. Saturday--well, I don't remember what we did on Saturday, probably more hanging about, talking, talking, talking. (other people were talking, really. I mostly listened.) Went to see Lucius Shepard discuss film, which was cool. Went to the Odyssey Writing Workshop panel to support Jeanne and the Odyssey program. Saw a bunch of Odyssey friends: Susan Sielinski, JoAnne Cox, Julia Liberman. I'm sure there were more, but I'm blanking at the moment. I also met some nice people from Codex: Lon Prater, Mary Robinette Kowal, Joy Marchand.
Then we, I don't know - did more stuff and I finally remembered that I had a camera on me, just in time to snap of picture of Paolo expressing his admiration for my story. And, just like a writer, he insisted on showing not telling.
Then we went for Korean BBQ. Again. Yes, we had Korean BBQ three nights in a row. I'm going to have to eat salads and whole grains all week to make up for it.
I know at some point we ended up at a party in the consuite where cake was served and god damn them to hell for breaking out my kryptonite: cheese cake AND carrot cake. It was a hard fall. And I finally met Sean Wallace, to whom I will always be grateful for buying my first story.
Then we somehow ended up at the bar where more cake was eaten and more yapping went on. And that's where I pretty much crashed.
On Sunday, John and I went to Paolo's reading, which was fantastic. (He's got a collection of stories coming out from Nightshade in February. I can't wait for that.)
Then we went to the dealer's room to hang about the Prime Books/Wildside Press table.
And then it was time to go home, and this time E! and I were accompanied by Ellen Datlow for the ride back to New York. And boy did that ride go insanely fast. E! is one hell of a driver.
And then I got home and didn't move at all for about ten whole hours.
The End
Plug Plug Plug
Fantasy Magazine #6 with my story "Soft, Like a Rabbit" is now available! Go forth and purchase my genius.
