Runon
February 21
Sort of a bummer -- I'd planned to go to Santa Cruz this weekend, have a couple days of totally chilling, talking to Scott, drinking beer, shooting pool, eating fried foods, drinking velvet hammers, hanging at Pergolesi, drinking mimosas, going to the beach... but, alas, one of Scott's other housemates has various guests coming this weekend, so there's no room at the inn. I'll get down there in a few weeks, I'm sure, but I was looking forward to the change-of-venue mini-break.
On the bright side, things are a bit less frantic, now. I have this weekend to write reviews, and to work on short fiction, which wouldn't have happened in Santa Cruz; that means I don't have to work like crazy to write reviews tomorrow. (They're not actually due for a little while, but I don't like to wait until the last minute. It makes me nervous.) I still plan to take it easy, have good meals, try to get out of the house, try not to stress. I just have lots of stuff going on, and I always feel like I could be doing more, should be doing more; writing stories, revising novels, writing novels, submitting queries to more agents, working on my "Bestiary" series of poems, writing reviews and submitting them places other than A Certain Magazine.
I have a few friends who've sent me stories, too, and I've read the stories, and have thoughts and comments and suggestions; I just haven't articulated them and e-mailed them yet. I can do that this weekend as well.
I've been running in high-gear lately, and I just really need some down time, or I'll get frazzled and do everything badly.
Let's see... congrats to Greg for his recent sale, whoo! His kung-fu is formidable. And to Mike for his 2nd Asimov's sale! Those guys rule. I like the kind of stories they write, and they're both cool. I just want to hang out with them and eat chicken wings and drink beer for an afternoon. But they're far and away... Mike at least lives near my old stompin' grounds, so I can expect to see him sometimes... and there are always conventions...
Let's see. Got a ten-day rejection from 3rd Alternative. They've had another story since mid-December; is this a good sign, or bad? I have no idea. P'raps I should query. I'll get that story back in the mail this weekend. I know where I'm sending it, but I'm too lazy to print it out and address an envelope tonight. :)
Today I hauled artbooks upstairs (*lots* of artbooks) and organized them, and then my boss began to cull them, and I hauled the books that made the cut back downstairs and shelved them again. I did this from 9:30 until 4:15, with a half-hour break in there somewhere. Quite a day. Then I came home, washed dishes, and made dinner for Heather. We ate, then BARTed up to Berkeley to see Kelly Link read. She read from her just-completed short story, "Lull", and of course now I'm dying to read the whole thing. Good stuff. Afterward a horde of people went to Au Coquelet. It was too big a crowd to talk to all the people I wanted to talk to, alas, but I had nice chat with Ling. And I ate a club sandwich, which always perks me up.
I bought McAuley's Fairyland; I've wanted to read it.
Then a BART ride home, and a brief bit of television-watching (the blowfish episode of The Simpsons), and now here I am, thrashing out the words of my life.
February Solitary Short-Story Dare (now with bonus poetry!)
Total words written: 16,600
Words written today: Shup. I'm busy.
Stories written this month: "Henchman Blues"
"On the Underworld Line"
"Melancholy Shore"
"In the Seventh Circle"
Poems written this month: "Dreaming Apep" More chocolate bees; I've almost eaten all the ones Heather gave me.
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