Van Nuys, California
3-25-99
NEWSFLASH!
Before I start blathering about myself, here's a big huge gigantic monumental welcome to the three new NAW members, Myke Cole and Michelle Leigh Larson, and Nikki Burris! I started reading their journals, and hell, you're damn good, people, you know that? Oh, and if there's anyone else out there who is considering to join the NAW, can you guys wait a bit and not all rush to join in daily droves? Heck, you are all scaring me! Can we please slow down this exponential fungus growth, folks? Geez! *grin*
You may have also noticed the new look of the NAW links page, which now includes people's blurbs. That was something we kinda mutually voted on, and I guess that's how it is for now. Any questions? Good.
Well, my classes at LTU are over, but did that make me less busy?
*Peals of manic laughter resound through the virtual halls*
Okay. First, the Citizenship front. Some of you -- especially folks who read my newsgroup -- have been following the struggling journey of mine, to obtain US Citizenship. The last tragi-comic installment (since November '98) had left me and my mom basically all fingerprinted so to say, and ready to go. The ball was in INS's court. Well, that's what we thought. Now we got this new notice, and my mom has to go back and get re-fingerprinted for the 5th time (yes, really), because the INS says the fingerprints have expired again. So anyway, that will happen this coming Monday. I'll be sure to let you all know. *snarf*
On the writing front, I just handed in my final revisions for my story in THE AGE OF REASON anthology to Kurt Roth, and also returned a contract to Alexlit.com for the one reprint, and incidentally submitted a couple more reprint stories for consideration there.
Haven't heard back from the couple of markets I have stories at, and in the meantime I am actively "brain-writing" the story that I have in mind for MZB's SWORD AND SORCERESS #17. I may even get to write some of it down this weekend. I also have another story in the works that I kinda have aimed at STARLIGHT 3 (insert *peals of laughter* here), and two more for other anthology markets. After that, I will get back to the Ruricca novel, I swear to god. No more short fiction distractions.
And before I forget, a huge congratulations to Jenn for getting accepted to Clarion, and to Toby for considering it! Also, congrats to Erin and Marcie and anyone else who's had sales (I forget now, geezuz, there's too damn many of you dearies!)
3-17-99
NEWSFLASH!
Okay, that's it. I can't hold back any longer. I must fess up...
I LOVED Starbuck. I mean, I was -- just like Lisa, and Jenn, and Tamela -- madly and impossibly in love with Starbuck, aka Dirk Benedict, from "Battlestar Galactica." He was my biggest school crush. I had pictures of him from the TV Guide, I drew sketches of him, I watched every stupid movie (including "Sssss") and every stupid show (including "The A-Team") where he was featured. Starbuck was my obsession.... When he had crash-landed on that planet with the Cylon, and then gave up his only chance to get rescued on his ship to that alien woman and his "child," I cried.
Wow, what memories that brings... :-)
As for Star Wars -- odd, but I may be the only person who missed that phenomenon. I was never allowed to go to movies as a kid (besides, we never had money), so I never got to see Star Wars when it just came out. I saw it years later on TV, and the effect was just not there. So, I am totally indifferent to the whole Star Wars thing, barely remember who is who and none of the fine details of the plot, and feel oddly envious of those folks who were able to live the dream....
3-12-99
NEWSFLASH!
First, a great big warm'n'fuzzy welcome to Samantha Liu, and John Savage, and Marcie Lynn Tentchoff to the Not-A-Webring writing gang! Good to have you all, folks. :-)
A belated happy birthday to Zette Gifford! Sorry I didn't holler immediately, but I've just had the busiest week (which is now thankfully over)...
A huge congrats to Kurt Roth for his sale to Visionair SF, and to James Hartley for his sale to FAERIE GOLD. Go, dudes, go! ;-)
Well, I am finally done teaching the novel writing class at THE LEARNING TREE UNIVERSITY, and can concentrate on running the SWORD AND SORCERESS workshop, and getting back to some writing of my own. Boy, that feels good! :-)
I have a pretty solid idea for a S&S story (and even wrote a page of it), thanks to our own John Sullivan's journal carnival descriptions of Mardi Gras.... Intense images just came flickering to mind.... Weird where we get our ideas, eh? Thanks, John! If the story sells, I'm dedicating it to you. :-)
Yes, I do love dedicating all my stories. I don't know what it is, maybe a sense of pulling my friends along with me, sharing the joy of seeing my work in print? Almost everything I've sold has had a dedication to someone. Unfortunately the dedications don't always show up in the final galleys.
Douglas Shumaker asks what kind of drag queen you'd chose to be, if you were to be one. I dunno, but just like Tippi, I can imagine doing Frank'n'furter from Rocky Horror, but I'd do the "Sweet Transvestite" routine... *smirk* Love it.
Oh, and Diana, whatever happens with this specific dog you have set your sights on now, please, even if this one doesn't work out, do rescue another one from death by euthenasia from your local pound! Bless you for doing that. :-)
And hey, Samantha my dear, I had no idea there was a big deal made when you asked my age during IRC chat. Sorry if you got that impression, at least from me, but the only thing I ever get annoyed with is that people always think I look like a kid. Totally the opposite of what you thought. I am 32, and it is highly bizarre to be carded for buying alcohol (I don't drink myself, but I have occasionally had to buy it for others), or to be told by your dentist that you have too many cavities for a teenager... Hello?
*grin*
3-2-99
NEWSFLASH!
On Saturday, I stood at the bow of a small boat, staring at a slate-grey horizon, where earth met sky, and the sun fractured into white splinters of fire. Wind struck my face with cold wonderful madness, until my skin lost feeling... I saw shapes of rich darkness flash forward, surface and reappear in the waves. To the side of me, the Channel Islands of the Pacific. I watched a pod of 3 grey whales, and then 4 orcas.... Awesome!
And then I thought of Lisa who loves whales and orcas so much! Thus, a joyful welcome back to Lisa Silverthorne's journal, since after all, who would we be without the one original Not-A-Webring founding member, who was making those first group-like links to us before we even had our name? *grin*
A huge amazing congrats to Ron Collins who has just sold a story to Analog, thus achieving a sale to one of the classic Big Three "A" Markets! You are Duh Man, Ron!!! Another double-congrats to Paula Fleming on her sales to Tales of the Unanticipated and Space Ways Weekly, and to Erin Cashier for her sale to Jackhammer. A congrats to Dawn Pasley for her nice new Egyptian-looking journal page... :-)
A different kind of congrats to Johnzo Aegard on his touch fooball trophy! :-) And a congrats for a gorgeous animated Not-A-Webring Java Applet goes to A.L. Sirois! Incidentally, Al also gets the Brave Critic award for taking on a certain Pleistocene monstrosity.... ;-)
Happy belated birthday to Stephen Leigh!
And in contrast, sympathies and hugs to Erin Cashier on the passing of her grandfather.
A bon voyage to Dorothy Rothschild who is about to travel to Romania and England... :-) Ahh, what fascinating places!
Kurt Roth brings up a subject that has been secretly bothering me for a long time now -- the ability to read for joy and pleasure, for the pure love of it. I am afraid that just like Kurt, I had lost this ability about 5 years ago, if not earlier. A very odd thing indeed. Indeed, I have memories of loving to read, and needing to read, or losing track of days while reading. Now, I merely gaze with nostalgia and impotent greed at a mountain of wonderful books I have bought over the last 5+ years that I cannot make myself open. Although, on another level, I am dying to read them, to drown in them....
So, what exactly happens to me when I start to read? Let me see if I can explain. It is not so much a critical appraisal and automatic dissection of every turn of phrase -- although yes, that is definitely there -- but more of a simple restlessness and anxiety. A sense of touch and go, a waffling on the edge, a vertigo of the mind, as my imagination is sorta standing perched on the edge of the abandonment precipice, and I am kinda testing the waters with one foot, and constantly looking back to my own internal precipice wherein lie my own created worlds of wonder.
The question springs eternal: should I abandon myself *here* in someone else's world, or simply retreat back into my own wonders? I so love my own inner world now, especially since I have so little time to write, that I find every precious free moment is seen by me as an opportunity to write. It doesn't mean I don't waste time (of course I do!), or take mindless breaks to watch Xena and Hercules or Star Trek, or ER.... I do that upon occasion (rather, I tape it all weekly, then take a day to marathon-watch everything). But reading is so much more intimate, so much more of a commitment to abandon.... I can work online and watch Xena from the corner of my eye. But when I read a book, I have to be all there for it. I have to focus.
And honestly, I can no longer allow myself to do that. The guilt, or the inner creative slave-driving creature, or whatever it is, holds me back.
I therefore open books, read a chapter, then space out, if it doesn't capture me enough -- or, simply drop it while the creative need rises to a boiling point within me, and makes me mad to... to... to... oh, I don't know exactly what.
Does anyone out there know a cure for this bizarre malady?
On another subject, I just found this cover art today -- thanks to Tippi. :-) I absolutely love this cover! Can't wait for the SWORD AND SORCERESS #16 anthology to hit the stores, later this year, around July....
![[SWORD AND SORCERESS #16]](ss16.jpg)