Snow Day

February 12

I got a phone call this morning from my officemate, telling me that there was three inches of snow at the office, and that the road was closed. I couldn't go to work.

Hooray! Snow Day!

Yet another benefit of the day job-- the pleasure of an unexpected day off. If I worked as a freelance writer, I wouldn't have that-- I'd just keep working regardless of the weather.

That's sort of silly, though, praising the day-job because it's nice to avoid it. That's like saying torture's a good thing because it feels so good when it's over.

I took this day off as the gift it was-- that is to say, I did nothing productive. I had breakfast, I read journals (I love Columbine's recent musings on language-- I'm fascinated by linguistics, though I'm not 1/50th as knowledgeable as Columbine on the subject), I wandered downtown, I ate pizza, I read Sourcery in its entirety (not my favorite Discworld book by a long way, but adequate-- pretty firmly in the middle of the range, I'd say), I wrote e-mail, I napped on the couch. That took me neatly through the day.

Mike Jasper sent me a copy of the most recent Writer's of the Future Antho, nicely inscribed to me-- he says he intended to give it to me as a gift when he came to visit, but since that fell through, he just mailed it. Mike's story "Mud and Salt" in the antho is great, set in the same world as his Strange Horizons story "Crossing the Camp." I found "Mud and Salt" reminiscent of that resonant Tobias Wolfe story "Hunters in the Snow." Only, you know, sfnal. Toby Buckell's story "In Orbite Medievale" is also in the antho (with an excellent illustration). At least I get to be friends with the new rising stars of the sf world, right?

I went to Pergolesi and read some Sturgeon, then came home and started the Carlos story. It's going well-- my protagonist is a complex guy. Mostly loathsome, but with these weirdly endearing moments that make him interesting.

I went to Saturn with Scott. We talked about the Music of our Youth, and the fact that Axl Rose and Vince Neil are really fat now. We can only assume that Bret Michaels is, also, really fat.

That's all! A little read, a little write, a little nap, a little talk. Perfect use of a snow day.

Total Word Count: 24,263

Today's Word Count: 2,174

The Daring Darlings:

Jim C. Hines

Hilary Moon Murphy

Nicole Montgomery

Melanie Miller Fletcher

Karina Summer Smith

Anne Hutchins