Indifference Day
July 5
So, Tuesday, the 3rd. Great day. I had a copy of Bruce Boston's Pavane for a Cyber-Princess in my mailbox. My first ever review copy as an editor! Being an editor rules. Free stuff. Whoo! I sat in the papasan with my feet propped on the windowsill (my very most favorite way to read at home) and read it. Then I read it again. Then I read it again. It's an awesome poem, erudite and inventive and clever and cool... but I'm going to review it for the next ish of Speculon, so I'll refrain from further exuberances for now.
Heather arrived, and we cuddled and lounged and talked and then walked three blocks to stand in line for Ani DiFranco. We got there about ten minutes before they opened the doors, hee. We were at the end of the line, way around the block, but the line moved quickly and it was general admission and we wound up very quite close to the stage-- closer than I was for the Old 97's show, even. Pretty cool.
Heather bought a cute (read: tight and small and fetching) black tank top. Yum.
Sekou Sundiata opened for Ani-- he's her old poetry teacher, and his band does music and poetry, song and spoken word... beautiful stuff. I greatly enjoyed it.
Then Ani came out. Mmm. It was a great show. One of the best live performances I've ever seen. I'd love to see her in concert again sometime. She talked some about the 4th of July, gave a nice little rambly speech about freedom and such, which boiled down to Twain's famous statement, "Loyalty to the country always, loyalty to the government when it deserves it."
We left the show, and since it was so close to my house, we didn't have to deal with any of the stuff that I hate about concerts, which is the crowds and the traffic-- we just walked home. Whee!
Yesterday, the 4th, was fun and tremendously productive.
Heather and I rose and breakfasted on strawberry pancakes and tea. Then straight to work! I answered all my poetry slush, rejecting a slew of poems and sending out a couple of "maybes." I'm striving for diversity in my poetry selections-- I'm pretty pleased with the variety I had in Speculon's last issue, and I want that to continue. I'm looking for hard-science-ish poems now, and mythic poetry... I've got a good horror/fairy tale piece, and a good sorta soft science fiction poem... I'm holding other good poems, and I can make a nice issue with what I have, but it's not exactly the variety I'm looking for. So if any of you have the kind of work I'm looking for, or know someone who does, submit to poetry@speculon.com. Make me happy and maybe get 20 bucks.
After much slush reading, I did some revisions. I got another story into the mail, hurrah!
I helped Heather a bit with getting some of her stuff in the mail (she sent out 4 stories yesterday-- she rules!). I typed a little bit for her, helped her find market info, etc. Fun.
We took a dinner break and went to Saturn in the afternoon, had some yummy food (and slow service, and they never did bring me my soup, but they gave us our milkshakes for free, so it's okay). Then back home, for more work!
I finally, finally, finally finished my Mr. Li story, "Battering Jack and the Headless Man." I'm not even sure how long it is; I wrote about 2000 words on it yesterday, so I guess it's probably 6K, total. Tonight I'll give it a re-read and a polish and send it off. I'm so glad to be (practically) finished with that.
Heather and I braved the traffic and went to Scott's Valley to see fireworks. A pretty good show-- I've seen better. I couldn't have asked for better company, though.
Hmm. We came home. We lolled about and watched television. We went into my room and had a sleepy amorous fun time and then slept...
In other news... I'm reading King Rat, still. I have things to say about it, but I'll save them for when I finish the book... At the grocery store last night there was a big rack with 50-cent used paperbacks, and I bought Elie Wiesel's Night, K.W. Jeter's Infernal Devices, and Michael Swanwick's In the Drift. Yay! Just when I was nearly out of books, too.
Bye for now.
