Blacksea

January 20

So, whoo! Sold a story to the new 'zine, Abyss & Apex. I sent it yesterday night, and got the response this evening. La! Which story? The one inspired by Greg's "Wanna buy a god?" typo, "The Sea a Deeper Black". Whee!

Tonight I wrote two reviews, one of The Night Class by Tom Piccirilli, one of The Fallen by Dale Bailey. Both good books. Heather (who updated again, and got an encouraging response from an editor today) assures me one of them is good; she was in bed by the time I finished the other, but I think it's good, too. My self-examining critical faculties seem strangely absent tonight...

I also tweaked my synopsis, and wrote my cover letter, and got everything ready to go to the agent. The envelope is stamped and ready to go out in tomorrow's mail. Y'all send me positive mental emanations, now. So now that all that stuff is done, I can actually work on fiction! Starting tomorrow, with the long-neglected collab...

Continuing backwards through time... we made salmon for dinner, with a new recipe Heather found, honey dijon and breadcrumbs and crushed pecans and mmm, yummy. It turned out quite well. Definitely a keeper.

Work was busy, but not bad. Tomorrow we finish up the February issue -- my favorite of the year, to read, if not to work on. My love for looking back on a just-passed year is well-established, and that's what this issue is all about, full of best-of lists and Recommended Reading essays (one of which I wrote!) by people like Gardner Dozois, David Hartwell, Michael Swanwick, and our own cadre of regular A Certain Magazine reviewers.

I actually had breakfast today -- that happens when we buy bagels. I think having a little food in my stomach made it easier for me to cope with the day. I may have to continue doing that...

Sorry this is so banal. Mostly just wanted to announce the sale; I'm a bit too wiped-out for anything more than that. Until next time...

Words written since February 1, 2002: 207,200

Words written since last entry:
1,100

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