The Flaming Spearhead of Cognition
February 16
Two days, in fragments:
My story "Behemoth" from Brainbox II has been chosen as an "Honorable Mention" for the next Year's Best Fantasy & Horror. This is very nice. The first volume of that anthology series was one of the books that sparked my love affair with speculative fiction, introducing me to the work of Jonathan Carroll and Charles de Lint. If I went back to the Wayne County library (assuming they haven't totally re-arranged), I could still walk right to the shelf where I found that book when I was 12 or 13. And now, over a decade later, my name's going to appear in one of those anthologies... in a list at the back, yes, not in the table of contents... but that will happen in time, in time. I'm happy.
I wrote to Ellen Datlow and thanked her for choosing my story. She wrote back and said she liked it quite a bit, and that Behemoth was a "lovely, lonely, mournful monster -- thank you for creating him." Mmm.
"Little Gods" got a good review in Tangent Online, la...
Heather has good news, too. I won't give it away, but she'll write about it soon... more cause for celebration. If you simply can't contain your curiosity until her next journal update, e-mail her at gryffyn@there.net and ask her about it...
Heather and I rose early today and went to Sacramento to see Sean Klein and Ling and Karen Joy Fowler and Kelly Link for brunch. It was very cool... we talked about writing, and novel structure, and the Problem of Middles, and joked and chatted and ate delicious chili and each carmelized our own sugar for the crème brulee and looked at Sean's amazingly beautiful house... it was lovely, lovely. Sean's working on a novel, and was asking for suggestions about how to deal with various things... I gave some input, sure, but I was in a room with Karen Fowler and Kelly Link. I felt like a part-time high-school music teacher in a room with Beethoven and Bach, you know? At least I was able to talk to Kelly this time; when I met her at WisCon I was so awed that I was basically unable to speak; you'd think that the hero-worship thing would diminish as I meet more and more writers, but there are some authors I admire so much... it helped that Kelly complimented "Little Gods". Mmm. That made me feel good, I assure you.
So we came home in the afternoon, and I napped, then roused myself and went up to Au Coquelet in Berkeley for a club sandwich and a pear Italian soda (a new flavor for them; somewhat disappointing; it's back to blackberry next time). While at the coffee shop I wrote about 3200 words to finish the story I began in Indiana, the psuedo-Victorian contained-nightmare. I think it's called "In the Seventh Circle", though that may change if a better title occurs to me. I'm also reading Martyrs by Edo Van Belkom, which I'll probably review...
That's all for now. No plans at all tomorrow, which is nice... relaxation. It's a hectic few weeks ahead...
February Solitary Short-Story Dare (now with bonus poetry!)
Total words written: 15,750
Words written today: 3,200
Stories written this month: "Henchman Blues"
"On the Underworld Line"
"Melancholy Shore"
"In the Seventh Circle"
Poems written this month: "Dreaming Apep" No applause, please. I can't hear you. Just sent money.
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