Sunday, August 31, 2003As you can see from the sudden appreance of posts that for some reason the connection between the blog and the posting wasn't happening. It all looked alright from this end, but for some reason the psoits just didn't appear at yours...but, thank God, it seems to have fixed itself. And really, that's all this post is about, seeing if it's really ok.
By the way, Neil Gaiman won a Hugo for Best Novella for Coraline! It was up against Paul di Fillipo's A Year in the Linear City, and so I was having a hard time knowing who to root for. What? You don't beleive me? Well, anyway...check out: The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America News site for a list of winners and some pics, including our hero, looking utterly delighted...and keep an eye on Hour 25. The do an annual Hugo awards show...last year (I *think* it was last year that Neil won for American Gods...) they had the acceptance speeches...it's still up, in fact. You get to Hear Neil say "Fu**, I got a Hugo." Which is rather fun.
Oh, darn. I've used up my Neil Gaiman references for the month. Thank goodness tomorrow's the first. :D
What? You don't feel like clicking on the links? OK. :D Wait a second...Conversations With Dead People? Does that mean Buffy the Vampire Slayer won a HUGO????? YAY!
The Winners Are:
Best Novel: Hominids by Robert J. Sawyer (Analog 1-4/02; Tor)
Best Novella: Coraline by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins)
Best Novelette: "Slow Life" by Michael Swanwick (Analog 12/02)
Best Short Story Category: "Falling Onto Mars" by Geoffrey A. Landis (Analog 7-8/02)
Best Related Book: Better to Have Loved: The Life of Judith Merril, Judith Merril and Emily Pohl-Weary
Best Dramatic Presentation: "Conversations With Dead People" (20th Century Fox Television/Mutant Enemy Inc.) Directed by Nick Marck; Teleplay by Jane Espenson & Drew Goddard Firefly
Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form Category:) The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (New Line Cinema) Directed by Peter Jackson; Screenplay by Fran Walsh, Phillippa Boyens, Stephen Sinclair & Peter Jackson; based on the novel by J. R. R. Tolkien
Best Professional Editor: Gardner Dozois
Best Professional Artist: Bob Eggleton
Best Semiprozine: Locus edited by Charles N. Brown, Jennifer A. Hall, and Kirsten Gong-Wong
Best Fanzine: Mimosa edited by Rich and Nicki Lynch
Permalink Cindy scribed this at 3:08 PM
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Saturday, August 30, 2003Hmmm...fixed the counter code, I think. It looks like Bravenet's becoming more and more of a paid service, so I'll be looking for a new counter place soon, I think. It's not that I'm against them making money, it's just that I can't see, for what I do, paying 10 bucks a month to have a counter with stats. What would I do with 25 counters?
Permalink Cindy scribed this at 6:36 PM
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So, today is my friend's big book launch party, and I can't be there, so I send her an ecard from a free site....I have them send me a copy, too. When it comes, it says "Unknown Reciepient" in the subject line.
Now, I've gotten a ton of these..."Unknown Recepient: An Ecard is waiting for you"...and, being hyper spam/virus concious, I deleted them. I figured that if they weren't a scam, they'd have my buddy's name in the sender thing....I know this because I know they collect your email.
So, the point is, if you ever picked me out a purty card and emailed it to me, and I never said anything, chances were that I foolishly delted it. I'm terribly sorry if that's happened, but am also very grateful to you for the bother you went through.
If I'm not back on before Monday....for those of you who celebrate it: have a lovely Labour Day, and come home safe!
Permalink Cindy scribed this at 11:08 AM
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Friday, August 29, 2003We have this Mulberry Tree (I use the term tree lightly) out in the back yard. It's made up of several trunks that, every once in awhile decide to peel off for no apparent reason. So after the huge storms Tuesday the rest of it finally came down, and we've been chopping it up.
So why is this notable? Because right now...I kid you not...there are five groundhogs, three deer and what I think may be the world's largest squirrel gathered around, noshing down on the various piles of scantlily berried, heavily leafed branches. Some of you may be wondering why I'm not out there eating the berries myself...or at least gathering them for a pie or something. This is because mulberries, at least this tree's, have no taste. They're the biggest why bother in the history of natural foods.
But it's rather fun too look out and see the animals. That's the one thing I'll miss about this tree. In the height of berry season you look out, and even on a windless, still day the branches are whipping around, teeming with birds and chipmunks and squirrels, even the occasional racoon. (The first trunk to peel itself off was actually a victim of two very fat racoons chasing each other.)
Yesterday marked the fourth month my MS has been at the publishers. I'm working on month five, reminding myself that L&P, agents, rejected me after holding onto BA for five months. So if Luna holds out a little over a month before rejecting me, they'll have beat that record.
I got a press kit in the mail today with a book...it had a small, bound short story in it, it's cardboard paper cover partially matching the cover of the book it came with...and it made me think, maybe I should write a Blue Moon Short story to go with my book if it ever gets published? Maybe that, and the Andromeda Pendragon/Balancing Act story (called "A Picture of Leaves") that I have half finished would be better for giving you an idea of what the books are like than the excepts. (EEK. Still have to replace my Balancing Act Excerpt.) I wish that Blog Pro had comments...this would be a great chance for you to tell me what you think.
Ooh...how long has the counter been down. Better go fix it. I'm also thinking of a site redesign, but thought I'd wait until I got rejected. :D
Permalink Cindy scribed this at 4:55 PM
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I write like a boy!
Friday, August 22, 2003So, stole this link to the gender genie off of Neil Gaiman's site...what it's meant to do is guess the gender of the writer, but no matter what I cut and paste, it keeps calling me a boy! Wah!!!
Also, read Blankets today, by Craig Thompson...just got my copy today, and I couldn't help but sit and read it all the way through. Such brilance and beauty.
Now to see if I can delte that darn double post.
Permalink Cindy scribed this at 5:28 PM
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My trip to the Den of Iniquity
Thursday, August 21, 2003So, we went on another long, winding drive. We bugged my father to take us to this gambling place on the way. Not to gamble, but because the building is *huge* and from the highway there are all of these store fronts, so me and my mum thought that there were other things besides slots going on at this place. So we pull in at 2:30...the parking lot is already loaded, most of the people going to the doors were elderly (and the people...apart from me and mi familia...that weren't old, looked like they were in uniform) kind of slow, dragging in the heat. When we got close to all the old time storefronts, we found that they were just trip slapped onto the side of the building, the windows blacked out, the displays just for show and on only one side of the building...the side facing the road, of course. The doorknobs turned freely in the doors, but not attached so they could open.
So we go inside.
The inside, except for a trio of "suites" we didn't see, was made up of three huge, dark rooms. The rooms were stuffed with slot machines, neon lights flashing, one room looking vaguely like an old fashioned boardwalk, one trying quarter heartedly to remind us of the golden age of gangsters. The lights were pretty...neon in the dark is *always* pretty...but the room was filled with the din of a single, tonal ringing, a constant racket that was exactly the same and came from each machine...a nasty noise that seemed primarily designed to numb the patrons. The people didn't seem to be happy...in fact, the people slumped at the machines all looked kind of miserable. After a few moments as we wandered past, I started to feel embarrassed to look at them. There was nothing but slots. Three....HUGE....rooms....of slots. Nothing else. I'm sure, because I asked one of the bored looking security guards if there was. He looked surprised for a second that I asked, then sort of, well, disappointed. "No," he said, "Nothing else at all."
We were there only a few minutes, all totaled. I used the ladies, and that was the highpoint of that adventure. As we left, a little lady in a small black car was following us down the parking lot. I walked over to the side and waited for her to pass, and she pulled up and told me that she was, honestly, following us...if we were leaving. So I lead her to where we were parked, then we blocked things while two other people waited impatiently in their cars for the space that we made certain the lady got.
Experience: Dismal. I'm very happy to say that I didn't spend any money there....partially because of the misery, partially because I couldn't stand putting my pathetic pennies in machines with titles like "Filthy Rich" and "Money to Burn."
Permalink Cindy scribed this at 8:42 PM
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Oh, yeah, I'm a writer.
Tuesday, August 19, 2003Forgot about that. I keep letting other things get in the way, lately. Even my jaunt over to Epinions was a fun and unique way to trick myself into believing I was doing something "important" for my writing self. Not that that'll stop me from adding a few more. The people at Epinions (despite my whining) are a rather nifty lot.
So, anyway, I finally finished a short story last night, and edited it. When I went to print it, eager and excited to have my moma read it (no, "Aw, did she put it up on the refrigerator?" comments, please.... ;P ) I found out that Compaq printer cartridges do, indeedy, have a shelf life. That drilling a hole and adding ink every so often doesn't mean your printer head is immortal. Both of my printer heads died at the same time, and so I had to go and buy a pair today. Oh well. I was able to make my cartridges last over a year. :)
(The previous was a public service announcement to those who are addicted to refilling their printer ink.)
I am also now editing Zumaya. :) So, I do have a job. One at Zumaya, and one at The Hype Magazine. I'm praying I find another, steadier line of work, soon. Or, more preferable, the extremely unstable world of being a published book writer. See, there's this saying that all editors are failed writers, and I'm rather hoping that isn't the truth.
I haven't failed! I have not yet begun to be rejected!
Speaking of rejections, I wondered why I'd never heard what this one online magazine thought of the story I sent them, so I did a web search for the magazine. Couldn't find them anywhere. I was beginning to believe that I'd imagined the whole thing until I went over to the majestic and ever invaluable www.ralan.com. There I discovered that the magazine is now in the defunct pile.
Gee, I didn't think the story was *that* bad....
Permalink Cindy scribed this at 8:05 PM
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Sunday, August 17, 2003I'm such a whiner. Why do you put up with me?
Grateful to you, anyway.
Permalink Cindy scribed this at 10:20 PM
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Ok, so *that* wasn't a good idea.
Last night, I'm making up pages and posting my revies on this site, and I thought, "Cool, why don't I post some of the ones of books I really like on Epinions.com? I've belonged there a long time! It'll be fun!" Of course, my member name was different from my real name...
And so a bunch of them are now rated unhelpful because despite all beleife, people recognized them. I know people do read them, but never have thought that people would have read them *and* remembered them. I'm thinking I maybe won't bother adding any more on. I liked the idea of having feedback...but, well, it just doesn't feel worth it. Besides, I did get some feedback from someone who basically said I don't write enough, that the quality of my reviews would improve if I wrote fewer and spent more time on the reviews, and now I feel like all my reviews must be crap. I guess I'm just not ready for prime time. It's stupid....because I wasn't looking for "You're amazing!" feedback. I guess I was looking for "Didn't you just love this part...?" (As an aside, I can take rejections perfectly well. If you don't like something you don't like it. OK. I can move on. I don't know why I'm all goofy on this review thing. I guess I'm just weird. Overly sensitive. Psychotic. I don't know. I do feel defensive, which is not really healthy in this profession. I wanted to say that when I wrote the review, I wrote all I thought of to write. That I write a lot of reviews because I love to read and I'm getting to read things I wouldn't get to otherwise...and so yes, perhaps I don't go over each book as thoroughly as I might because I don't want to repeat too much from review to review (there's only so many times you can exposit on charcater and setting and plot...you sort of do that in each review, but you can only say so many things on each, so you end up spending much more time on the special things.) ...instead I pick out a few outstanding qualities, exposit on them, then finish up...my whole idea is to give the reader an idea if this is something that they want to bother looking into reading. But then, that would prove her point, wouldn't it?)
I shouldn't post this. But I will. I can always delete it.
Permalink Cindy scribed this at 5:39 PM
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Saturday, August 16, 2003Let's see.
Well, I'm slowly, slowly catching up with things...I've got only...gasp...26 books on the to be read pile! I'm trying to get done with everything by the 23rd of next month, where I plan to take some time off to pretend the fact I'm going to be one year less 30 doesn't bother me.
I've finsihed my training and now am an AOL community leader. Which I'm not sure if I'm suppossed to tell anyone...AOL tries to teach us to be very, very careful, which I think is sweet. It's weird. I've gone from being an AOL hater to being someone who is fairly dependent on it. I even enjoy being part of it. :) Now that I've got enough memory to keep everything running.
The thing you have to be careful with, when yu join any page hoster, is that you still keep your copy right. If you make a homepage on AOL, Yahoo, etc....you don't precisely lose your Copy right, but you do "give" them permission to repost your work.
I'm blathering. Brain dead. Vile. I'd better go.
Permalink Cindy scribed this at 8:36 PM
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