Oddments

July 15

Hello, dear ones. I hope you've had a glorious weekend. I have. There are lots of little things to recount, so I'll begin...

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Jack Fisher at Flesh and Blood is holding one of my stories; he wants to see if it still affects him as strongly in a few days as it did upon the first read. Fair enough. He's rejected four of my stories in the past two weeks, and it would please me to sell him one.

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Black October rejected my story "The Tyrant in Love" (which is incidentally Heather's favorite of all my stories that she's read), saying that they don't think it's horror, but fantasy. But they praised the writing and asked to see more. I think "Tyrant" is one of the more unambiguously horrific stories I've ever written, though it has very little blood, and absolutely no monsters... at least, no inhuman ones. Ah, well. I'll send it elsewhere, and send Black October something else.

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Today I was invited to join Not-A-Webring. Very, very cool. I'm extremely honored. There are some fabulous journals therein. The Web Rats and Not-A-Webring are pretty much my favorite bunches of writerly journals in the world, and now I'm a part of both of them. So extremely happy-making.

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Congrats to M'ris for finishing the draft of Reprogramming (or, as I like to call it, Robellion-- I don't know why she refuses to acknowledge the superiority of that title...). Alas, I couldn't join her on her celebratory ice-cream run... I hope she had fun.

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Iteration, by Patrick, is no more. Sigh. I've been reading that journal for as long as I've been reading journals, pretty much. First we lose pamie, and now Patrick... but he certainly has good reasons. I'm glad he's pursuing his other writing more seriously; he's good. If I ever thought for a moment that this journal interfered with my fiction or poetry writing... well, that would be the end of Tropism. I don't see that happening, but I can certainly see how it's a valid problem for others. Patrick contributed mightily to my love of online journals, and for that, I thank him.

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Today Heather and I wrote a short story together! It's my first ever collaboration. We did it round-robin style; I wrote a few hundred words, then she did, then I did, then she did, and so on until completion. No prior discussion of what the story would be about, just taking turns, trying to write one another into a corner. I started the story and she finished it. It's pretty gonzo; very strangeness-and-sex. It's called "Blue Chuck Does Thrilltown," and it was fun. Lots of cool scenes and great lines and a nifty story. It's not great literature, but it was a blast, and I'm very happy with it, especially as a first collaboration. I guess it wound up at around 2600 words, total...

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Heather and I did a hot tub last night with her friends Carol and Jodie. I was a bit uncomfortable going into it, not because of the nudity-- after two years of dating Blah and going to her quite-naked parties, nudity-with-strangers is a total non-issue for me-- but because I tend to get quiet around people I don't know, and I was afraid I'd become conspicuous by my quietness, or that Heather's friends would think I was a dumb quiet boy... I had a really good time, though. I wasn't totally comfortable with them, but it's hard to be tense in a hot tub, and all was well. I even contributed somewhat to the conversation. Very nice. They're good people... We did the hot tub at Well Within, a lovely little spa right around the corner from my house, across the street from Pergolesi. Mmm. The comforts of Santa Cruz.

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Heather and I had (are having) a beautiful weekend. She's presently watching The Mists of Avalon. I wasn't really getting into it, though, so I slipped in here to write this. I'm also multi-tasking by chatting with Amily, so forgive any bad writing; I'm just working with a divided mind.

Anyway, Heather and this weekend... Great sex. I mean, great conversations, great breakfasts together, great walks, great staying-up-until 4 a.m. talking for the past two nights, great everything... but really great sex. The kind of building euphoria that you think can't be sustained, but then it is, it just goes on and on... we've synched up so beautifully this weekend, it's been as good as it's ever been, and that's amazingly good. Six very's worth of good. Maybe seven. Whoo.

Anyway. Sorry if y'all don't want to hear about such things. But I'm a tremendously happy and satisfied and very-much-in-love boy.

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I'm reading Wild Seed, which I read in college, but which didn't stick in my head very well. It's great. I should finish it tonight, maybe tomorrow. Definitely tomorrow, I would think, since I have to go to the DMV (Dreadful Miserable Venue), where I will no doubt be left to entertain myself, despite having secured an appointment.

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Okay. I'm gonna go hang out with Heather now. G'night.