A Faeryside Chat
August 10, again
I'm tandem-reading, again. The Starlight 2 antho, and Tiptree's Crown of Stars. Good short-story mojo. I'm not sure why I'm so into short stuff just now; the next project is a novel. I'm still planning to start the new book on Sunday (bookending a dinner with M'ris, Timprov, Mark &tc. with writing).
No real movement on the writing front today. I don't feel as bad about the comments about my writing that I received from Horror Garage; according to the Rumor Mill, lots of people are hearing similar things. So I assume the editors there like lean, spare prose... which is fine, and a good thing to know, and I might have something more appropriate for them...
Thanks to everyone who's written me about "Entropy's Paintbrush"-- I don't think any other story of mine's gotten such a positive and enthusiastic response. I'm glad you like it; I do, too.
I found my old poetry notebooks today, dating back to 1996. Lots of dreck therein, but some good stuff, too-- both "Incident" and "Bacchanal" (my Asimov's publications) were originally written in '96. Reading the poems brought back some memories, full-force... there's some painful stuff in those spiral-bound notebooks. Both painful in subject matter, and painful in awkward execution. The title of today's entry is from a line in that earliest notebook; it's kind of cute, I think.
Work was fun, again. I suspect it'll stay that way, adjusting for normal ups-and-downs. I had lunch with my boss at a super nice Chinese restaurant in Emeryville. The back of the restaurant is all windows, and it looks out onto the bay. Gorgeous. The food was quite yummy, too. Crab cakes, mmm. Also I did work.
Had another fun night of dinner-and-Buffy. (I'm such a freakin' stereotypical journaller, now. Spec fic fan, watcher of Buffy, I'm even goddamn polyamorous... ah, well). We had a lovely dinner of potstickers and tater tots.
(Shup. It's good)
("Shup" is a particularly whiny and sullen and abashed rendering of "Shut up." Part of my basic linguistic toolbox)
Hmm. Is there any content to this entry? Let's see. Oh, cool thing: a quote from my review of Pavane for a Cyber-Princess is appearing in an ad for the book. Bruce Boston sent me the ad-- it's here, if you wanna see it. My first review ever, and I get in an ad. Pretty groovy.
I talked to Amily for a while on the phone tonight, chatting about books and friends and careers, house-buying and kid-having. Some of my old friends are moving right along into grown-up-dom... I guess me moving in with a lover is a big deal, too (and Heather wrote a bit today about her own difficulties adjusting)... but it doesn't feel like such a huge thing to me, not compared to buying a house or getting married or having kids. Moving in with Heather felt natural, like exactly the right thing to do, not really scary at all.
So maybe, someday, getting married and having kids will feel like exactly the right thing to do. Hmm.
Wish Heather luck tomorrow (Saturday)-- she's getting up early and going to take the CBEST, the substitute-teacher-test. Send her good thoughts. I don't really think sending her good thoughts will help, since I don't particularly believe in the power of external thought-emanations, but it's unlikely to hurt, and my skepticism could be in error, so give it a try...
I unpacked a box today, and found some compact discs that haven't been unpacked since I moved from North Carolina. Among them was Notes From Home volume 4. Notes is a yearly (I think) compilation of music from the Carolinas and Virginia. Notes vol. 4 features a rendition of Oasis's "Champagne Supernova" performed in country style by Ben Folds Five.
Overall, though, I don't like this disc as well as some of the others in the series. More forgettable boring popish stuff on this one. Which may explain why I didn't bother unpacking it for a year.
I also lost Pablo Honey by Radiohead, at some point. I have the case, but no disc.
Sigh. Such are the travails of my life.
