Despite

August 20

Despite physical disintegration and a certain amount of secondhand psychic distress and personal anxiety, I'm in good spirits.

Physical disintegration: My gums are bleeding. This annoys me greatly, because I've recently started flossing regularly, and damn it, someone as tooth-care-virtuous as I have recently become shouldn't have to contend with such things. Of course, I realize that the reason my gums are bleeding is because I'm flossing regularly for the first time in, oh, forever, and it's freaking the poor sheltered gums out. But still.

The other part of the physical disintegration is my ear. Stupid ear. I think I have an ear infection. It started hurting last night. This sucks. There's no over-the-counter remedy for such things, and I'm between health insurance policies at the moment...

(I just talked to mom, the amazing paramedic. She says it sounds like I have swimmer's ear, and suggested some ways to remedy it myself. It seems to be helping, but it'll be a while before I really know)

Secondhand psychic distress: Heather had some stress last night, and I spent the evening cuddling her, loving her, getting dinner for her, watching Buffy with her (I know, such a sacrifice), and so on. Her being hurt hurts me a lot. I like happy Heathers. And she'd been so very happy lately, too, everything starting to go well for her... Ah, well. She'll get through it. I'll help as much as possible.

There's other stuff, too; Scott's having major major knee surgery soon, so I'm worried about him. And my 14-year-old cousin is in rehab for her meth problem. Not good stuff.

Personal anxiety: I am freaking busy, yo. This was supposed to be catch-up week, but with my nasty ear, I don't know how much I'm going to be able to really crank on work.

Details: I am now so far behind on e-mail that I may never catch up. I'm behind on journal reading. I owe everyone in the world crits. I like giving my friends crits, and I love reading their stories, but of necessity, crits come after my other work, which means they sometimes get put off indefinitely, which leads to all sorts of ucksome guilt feelings. I am behind on my reading-reading. I have not been corresponding enough with my friends. I must read poetry slush. I haven't even opened the inbox in two weeks. I have a novel to write, and I'm excited about writing it, but I'm not spending as much time on it as I would like (I'm thinking of pulling a Mike and getting up at 5 a.m. to write. Though that would entail going to bed at 11, which is so in opposition to my physical rhythms... but I could get up at 6:30, maybe...). It's harder to write a novel when you have a social life. I would not trade that socialness, no way, but it occurs to me that it was once easier for me to write a novel in six weeks than it is now.

Sigh. I could go on and on. So much of it is good, stuff I want to do, but there's still so much. I need to prioritize. I need triage.

So. The reason for my against-all-odds good spirits are as follows. I got a "hold" on a story from Chiaroscuro, with the amusing caveat: "But, bear in mind, if we *do* accept this one, we won't be running it till issue #12, you bastard--we will NOT become the Tim Pratt 'Zine!! "

I think the world of literature would be well served by a Tim Pratt 'Zine. But I s'pose I see his point.

I also got an out-of-the-blue request for a story from an anthology editor. It doesn't mean he'll accept the story, but it's promising, and it's oh-so-nice to be asked. Makes me feel all wanted and cool and such.

Yesterday I made a little Photoshop magic, and sent it to Karen, and she liked the result enough to put it in her journal. (Go on, follow the link, look)

Fear the Tot. The Tot is mighty.

Work is going well. I had a lot of fun today. This issue of A Certain Magazine has to be done in time for WorldCon (would that I could go! Ah, well, next year), so we're cranking along to get it finished. I don't think I'm doing any more harm than good in that effort, though I'm still learning, and screwing things up as a consequence. And yet, despite being confused and messing up and so on, I'm really enjoying the work-- I left today smiling despite cramped shoulders from computer work.

(Ear update: Ear is much better. Mom is awesome.)

(And on that note... I'm off. Maybe more later tonight. We shall see)