That Slow Dog
June 27
Lookit! I'm writing a journal entry! Woo!
It's been a busy week, y'all. I'm not even sure why -- I sure as hell haven't accomplished much. (Look at my rolling word count! That shit's pitiful!).
Let me hop on the wayback train and try to remember what's befallen me this week...
Nope. Can't do it. Chronology is lost, which is always a danger when I go this long without updating. So, here it is, what I can recall, hit-or-miss:
My collaboration with Heather, "The Ever After Book Shoppe", is online at Slow Trains. Go us!
I got edits on my Coraline review back, and they were minimal (the editor noted that some authors might just as well "send their works directly to the galleys"). I've often been told I require little editing. I like that. The review will go up next week; I'll remind you.
In other collaborative news, we got a 19-day rejection for one of our other collabs. Ah, well.
I got contracts for Songs from Dead Singers, which should be debuting at the Horrorfind Weekend in August, lord willing and the river don't rise. The antho apparently has some good blurbs from Tim Lebbon, Simon Clark, and John Pelan. Very nice. I like the story I have in that anthology. Hope the readers do, too...
I got paid for my July reviews today, which is pleasant, and I should get paid for two poems and a review upcoming in Strange Horizons within a couple of weeks. All this money is going to directly to Tim's Worldcon Fund, so that I can afford to eat and stuff at the con...
At work, I'm putting together the August issue, and I'm mentioned in two different reviews, one of Realms and one of the Year's Best antho, both reviews more-or-less favorable regarding me (one more so, one less so). Which is nice... some of my friends are mentioned in the same issue, too. So much talent! So many good people! I'm lucky to be counted among them.
I'm sure there's more writerly stuff... I wrote my two reviews for the next issue of A Certain Magazine (just barely squeaking in under the drop-dead date! Hear me squeak, mouselike!), finishing up, oh, half an hour ago. I covered Wetware by Craig Nova (really quite excellent) and Dead Ground by Chris Amies (pretty good), so look for those in the August ish (unless they get cut, which is always, I suppose, a possibility, especially when I turn them in this late). Much of this week was spent reading those two books...
In addition to those things, I watched a couple of movies with Heather. Requiem For a Dream, which was just depressing. Some nice moments, but in the end it felt malicious and mean-spirited, and I certainly wouldn't want to see it again. We watched Men in Black as a warm up to seeing Men in Black II (which we plan to see, I dunno, sometime), and though I'd seen it twice before, it was a nice antidote to Requiem. Tonight we have Cube, which Heather's never seen... it's a deeply flawed movie, but I like it a lot anyway, and am looking forward to seeing it again.
Mmm. Tanya Donnelly rocks. I'm listening to the first Belly album. It rules. "And if you bore me, you lose your soul to me..."
I went to the gym last night and worked out, did 350 ab-crunchy-things, and it was easy! I have strong stomach muscles. Under the flab. Cardio killed me (metaphorically, I mean. I am not actually among the dead or even the un-dead). That's what happens when you skip four days...
I'm very much looking forward to the weekend, and to being able to write some fiction. I'd like to tick over the odometer, finish 100,000 words before the end of June, you know? Just for the aesthetic. Wish me luck.
Words written since February 1, 2002: 95,780
Words written since last entry: 1000
Send me Pancho Villa's mummified hands, please. It's not for me. It's for a friend.
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