"... he had that look you very rarely find / the haunted, hunted kind..."
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Monday, December 12, 2011
Winter Solstice Fire
Yesterday, I bought some beeswax candles so I can be ready for the Solstice.
Every Winter Solstice, around noon, I like to use a magnifying lens to ignite a match and then set the flame on a candle. From that candle, we light the candles in our fireplace and then watch them as the day grows darker.
This year the solstice is 9:30 PM on Dec 21, so I'm calling the noon of the 21st the Solstice Noon. If it is not too cloudy, stop by with a candle after noon and I will light it with solstice fire. Um, no, I'm not going to sing any Doors songs or do a re-enactment of Rent.
Hmmm. Maybe I can light the BBQ with solstice fire too....
Every Winter Solstice, around noon, I like to use a magnifying lens to ignite a match and then set the flame on a candle. From that candle, we light the candles in our fireplace and then watch them as the day grows darker.
This year the solstice is 9:30 PM on Dec 21, so I'm calling the noon of the 21st the Solstice Noon. If it is not too cloudy, stop by with a candle after noon and I will light it with solstice fire. Um, no, I'm not going to sing any Doors songs or do a re-enactment of Rent.
Hmmm. Maybe I can light the BBQ with solstice fire too....
Sunday, December 04, 2011
Masculinity & Steampunk
 |
| Santos Dumont Wikimedia Commons |
My story involves a small airship, slightly larger than the one Santos Dumont flew around the Eiffel Tower circa 1900. (The really big airships, like the zeppelins of Germany, didn't appear in historical skies until about 1910. Transatlantic and trans-US crossings didn't happen until the 1930's.)
 | |
| Lewis Hine, 1920. Power house mechanic working on steam pump. Wikimedia Commons |
So I have to examine how to write masculinity. On one hand is the "muscular Christianity" that E.M. Forester commented on, with its homo-social prep-schools filled with fine young men learning Greek and honing their bodies with athletic games. With the alternate-religion of the world, I think I can focus on the strong body, strong mind ethic to help preserve that old English Empire feel. And since The Father and The Mother of the Quartet are equals, there's less pressure to have a "The spiritually manly man is the head of his household" morality.
 |
| Oscar Wilde Wikimedia Commons |
Anyway... that's been what's peculating in the back of my head. Now... onto writing the story. And I think I'm going to try my hand at more Steampunk, if only to try different ways of queering it.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Oscar Wilde Steampunk Challenge
Last night -- after I had confessed that it had taken me something like four years to realize that the Borg character from ST:Voyager was supposed to be uber-sexy -- I was challenged by @gralinnaea and @shanna_germain to write an Oscar Wilde Steampunk story. There's monetary incentives and fuzzy dice involved.
Anyway, I had started a story on the train to OryCon that was supposed to be Steampunk, and so I've accepted...
Which leads me to to muse on, what makes a story a story that queers a genre? Shanna's take (from what I can gather after one guest post) is that steampunk is inherently sexy. But I'm not sure that just swapping out Eve for Steve in a Victorian Era story with Airships counts as queering steampunk.
And then there's the question of how historical to be. This is the era of Oscar Wilde, Bram Stroker and Gilbert & Sullivan. Having recently finished Dracula, I can tell you that Women's Equality had not quite made it into the Victorian sensibility (at least as it appeared on the written page). And society's reaction to Wilde as an aesthetic defined what it meant to be a Manly Man in the late 1800's and early 1900.
And does having a gay male character as the protagonist of a story even make it queer any more? I mean, sure, in the late 1990's... but that was fifteen years ago.
I'm still thinking about this, but I have a feeling that no matter what, there's going to be an airship called The Peacock.
Anyway, I had started a story on the train to OryCon that was supposed to be Steampunk, and so I've accepted...
Which leads me to to muse on, what makes a story a story that queers a genre? Shanna's take (from what I can gather after one guest post) is that steampunk is inherently sexy. But I'm not sure that just swapping out Eve for Steve in a Victorian Era story with Airships counts as queering steampunk.
And then there's the question of how historical to be. This is the era of Oscar Wilde, Bram Stroker and Gilbert & Sullivan. Having recently finished Dracula, I can tell you that Women's Equality had not quite made it into the Victorian sensibility (at least as it appeared on the written page). And society's reaction to Wilde as an aesthetic defined what it meant to be a Manly Man in the late 1800's and early 1900.
And does having a gay male character as the protagonist of a story even make it queer any more? I mean, sure, in the late 1990's... but that was fifteen years ago.
I'm still thinking about this, but I have a feeling that no matter what, there's going to be an airship called The Peacock.
Monday, November 14, 2011
OryCon 2011 Redux
Friday
Taking the train is fun, especially if you travel with another writer. But expect that the train will be a little late.
2:00PM-3:00PM -- Hawthorne Political Systems in SF
Political Scientist and Anthropologists and Cultural Historians throw your stories across the room when you over-simplify The Evil Overlord's Government for the same reasons that Physicists do when you Do the Kessle Run in 2.5 Parsecs.
3:00PM-4:00PM -- Story Outline in an Hour
Give the character something they love, threaten it, and then imagine worse things. Mileua, Idea, Character, Event will filter how you show the story.
4:00PM-5:00PM -- Gender and Writing
Write complex characters. As a writer and as a reader, you have basic assumptions about men and women. You can use your writing to explore gender (and the other) but make sure to write a good story (that challenges peoples' assumptions) without being preachy.
5:00PM-6:00PM -- Designing believable archaeology and anthropology
Do your research. When doing your research on another culture's religion, make a note of if the material is written by a believer or a non-believer.
6:00PM-7:00PM -- FOOD!
7:00PM-7:30PM -- Endeavour Awards
Saturday
9:00 AM - Wordos Breakfast
More Food.
10:00AM-11:00AM -- Spicing up Your Hero
Heros are people who pick up the mess that other people would rather not so that nobody actually steps into the mess. Heros are not always Knights of Light, so much as they are folks working against the Dark; anti-evil doesn't always equal good. Your hero doesn't have to be the point of view character. Give your hero weaknesses; give your hero a dirty secret. Be aware of the biases that filter a hero's perceptions (we all have them). Be aware of how being a hero will affect how they interact with culture (i.e. Awful Good).
11:00AM-12:00PM -- Using Social Media to get Published
Social media is like a Con on the internet that never shuts down. Decide how much you want to share with people and then use that to make a connection with your readers. Don't bitch about people. Make sure that you use cross-posting so you so you limit the time you spend on social media.
12:00PM-1:00PM -- My Villain is Too Mwa Ha Ha. Help!
The villain is always the hero in his or her own mind. Make sure that the reader can see the motivation behind the villain's action so the villain's actions don't appear to be violent or evil just for violence's or evil's sake.
Oh, also: Dracula is Evil because he is a perversion of the Christian rite of Communion and a being operating outside of the circle of God's grace.
1:00PM-2:00PM -- Alien Etiquette
An alien culture can be broken down into Morals (what's right and wrong), Manners (how an individual acts and reacts in situation), Money (how they trade), Monogamy (is it a good idea or not), and The Marx Brothers (what is funny).
Make the alien POV an emotional reaction to something.
2:00PM-3:00PM -- Hawthorne But I thought it was perfect!
Play nice. Being part of a critique group is to practice critiquing manuscripts (easy) so that you can see how to critique your own (harder). A good critique group will have procedural rules to protect people emotionally; the foremost being, critique the text, not the person.
3:00PM-4:00PM -- Writers of the Future
Writers of the Future is a great beginner's market from which to launch your career. It's the most money you'll be paid for a story for quite a while. Regularly submitting to Writers of the Future is a good way to start good writing habits. It's cool, it's validating, it's network building. And... remember, have a What Next Goal ready for after you win.
4:00PM-5:00PM -- The Physics of Magic
Figure out how magic is used in your world, is it via words, or objects, or ritual or Divine Intervention, or...?
A good magic system will have limits -- the cost of using magic is prohibitive, magic spells are too specific to be of general use, and magic should be bound by a set of consistent (possibly logical) rules. If magic is unlimited, the story turns into wish fulfillment.
The use and limitations of magic should aid the story's flow.
Editors want New And Different Magic Systems, but not too new and different.
Sunday
12:00PM-1:00PM -- The Unique Challenges of Urban Fantasy
Urban Fantasy, which has some cross-over with paranormal romance, can trace its roots to detective and noir genres. It's an exploration of being outside and The Other. When writing Urban Fantasy, its helpful to think of the magic (and the magical culture) in the story as being a part of the story's main culture (which makes it alternate history), a sub-culture within the main culture, or an unknown element hidden from the main culture.
1:00PM-2:00PM -- Podcasting Primer
Decide how often you want to podcast (daily, weekly, monthly...) Decide if you want to podcast for fun (friends and family) or to build a fanbase (readings of your work) or as a soapbox/forum or ... a mix of all of these.
How often you podcast will affect your choice of podcast host - if your podcast becomes very popular, you may run into streaming issues (and be charged accordingly).
Skype is very difficult to get good sound quality from. Record in a closet or under covers to help dampen sound. Use a windsock or make one to cut down on pops in speech. You'll need to do post-recording production clean-up of hisses and pops if you want a good product.
Podcasting can eat up your life (just like other social media).
Post OryCon
When -- ahem -- new writers wish to push their mystical autobiographical science-fiction mystery thriller manuscript upon you hoping that you can back-door it to a Famous Editor (or wave a magical writing pen over the manuscript and turn it into solid writing gold) a good answer is, "Well, my editing rates are..."
Insert post-signing -- ahem -- discussion about the virtues of Scrivener here.
Taking the train is fun, especially if you travel with another writer. But expect that the train will be a little late.
2:00PM-3:00PM -- Hawthorne Political Systems in SF
Political Scientist and Anthropologists and Cultural Historians throw your stories across the room when you over-simplify The Evil Overlord's Government for the same reasons that Physicists do when you Do the Kessle Run in 2.5 Parsecs.
3:00PM-4:00PM -- Story Outline in an Hour
Give the character something they love, threaten it, and then imagine worse things. Mileua, Idea, Character, Event will filter how you show the story.
4:00PM-5:00PM -- Gender and Writing
Write complex characters. As a writer and as a reader, you have basic assumptions about men and women. You can use your writing to explore gender (and the other) but make sure to write a good story (that challenges peoples' assumptions) without being preachy.
5:00PM-6:00PM -- Designing believable archaeology and anthropology
Do your research. When doing your research on another culture's religion, make a note of if the material is written by a believer or a non-believer.
6:00PM-7:00PM -- FOOD!
7:00PM-7:30PM -- Endeavour Awards
Saturday
9:00 AM - Wordos Breakfast
More Food.
10:00AM-11:00AM -- Spicing up Your Hero
Heros are people who pick up the mess that other people would rather not so that nobody actually steps into the mess. Heros are not always Knights of Light, so much as they are folks working against the Dark; anti-evil doesn't always equal good. Your hero doesn't have to be the point of view character. Give your hero weaknesses; give your hero a dirty secret. Be aware of the biases that filter a hero's perceptions (we all have them). Be aware of how being a hero will affect how they interact with culture (i.e. Awful Good).
11:00AM-12:00PM -- Using Social Media to get Published
Social media is like a Con on the internet that never shuts down. Decide how much you want to share with people and then use that to make a connection with your readers. Don't bitch about people. Make sure that you use cross-posting so you so you limit the time you spend on social media.
12:00PM-1:00PM -- My Villain is Too Mwa Ha Ha. Help!
The villain is always the hero in his or her own mind. Make sure that the reader can see the motivation behind the villain's action so the villain's actions don't appear to be violent or evil just for violence's or evil's sake.
Oh, also: Dracula is Evil because he is a perversion of the Christian rite of Communion and a being operating outside of the circle of God's grace.
1:00PM-2:00PM -- Alien Etiquette
An alien culture can be broken down into Morals (what's right and wrong), Manners (how an individual acts and reacts in situation), Money (how they trade), Monogamy (is it a good idea or not), and The Marx Brothers (what is funny).
Make the alien POV an emotional reaction to something.
2:00PM-3:00PM -- Hawthorne But I thought it was perfect!
Play nice. Being part of a critique group is to practice critiquing manuscripts (easy) so that you can see how to critique your own (harder). A good critique group will have procedural rules to protect people emotionally; the foremost being, critique the text, not the person.
3:00PM-4:00PM -- Writers of the Future
Writers of the Future is a great beginner's market from which to launch your career. It's the most money you'll be paid for a story for quite a while. Regularly submitting to Writers of the Future is a good way to start good writing habits. It's cool, it's validating, it's network building. And... remember, have a What Next Goal ready for after you win.
4:00PM-5:00PM -- The Physics of Magic
Figure out how magic is used in your world, is it via words, or objects, or ritual or Divine Intervention, or...?
A good magic system will have limits -- the cost of using magic is prohibitive, magic spells are too specific to be of general use, and magic should be bound by a set of consistent (possibly logical) rules. If magic is unlimited, the story turns into wish fulfillment.
The use and limitations of magic should aid the story's flow.
Editors want New And Different Magic Systems, but not too new and different.
Sunday
12:00PM-1:00PM -- The Unique Challenges of Urban Fantasy
Urban Fantasy, which has some cross-over with paranormal romance, can trace its roots to detective and noir genres. It's an exploration of being outside and The Other. When writing Urban Fantasy, its helpful to think of the magic (and the magical culture) in the story as being a part of the story's main culture (which makes it alternate history), a sub-culture within the main culture, or an unknown element hidden from the main culture.
1:00PM-2:00PM -- Podcasting Primer
Decide how often you want to podcast (daily, weekly, monthly...) Decide if you want to podcast for fun (friends and family) or to build a fanbase (readings of your work) or as a soapbox/forum or ... a mix of all of these.
How often you podcast will affect your choice of podcast host - if your podcast becomes very popular, you may run into streaming issues (and be charged accordingly).
Skype is very difficult to get good sound quality from. Record in a closet or under covers to help dampen sound. Use a windsock or make one to cut down on pops in speech. You'll need to do post-recording production clean-up of hisses and pops if you want a good product.
Podcasting can eat up your life (just like other social media).
Post OryCon
When -- ahem -- new writers wish to push their mystical autobiographical science-fiction mystery thriller manuscript upon you hoping that you can back-door it to a Famous Editor (or wave a magical writing pen over the manuscript and turn it into solid writing gold) a good answer is, "Well, my editing rates are..."
Insert post-signing -- ahem -- discussion about the virtues of Scrivener here.
Wednesday, November 09, 2011
OryCon 33 Schedule
Here's an incomplete OryCon Schedule. Of course, it appears that several of the panels I'd like to attend happen at the same time (mostly on Saturday). And I need to figure out when I'm going to eat. An additional complication is that I won't be staying at the OryCon hotel, but at another venue several blocks away....
Friday
Arrival at PDX train station: 11:35 AM -- insert possibly late train and figuring how to take the Green MAX to The Portland Doubletree here (...find stop 7763 and take it to stop 8343, Lloyd Center/NE 11th stop).
12:00PM-1:00PM
2:00PM-3:00PM
3:00PM-4:00PM
4:00PM-5:00PM
5:00PM-6:00PM
6:00PM-7:00PM
7:00PM-7:30PM
8:00PM-9:00PM
Saturday
9:00 AM - Wordos Breakfast
10:00AM-11:00AM
11:00AM-12:00PM
12:00PM-1:00PM
1:00PM-2:00PM
2:00PM-3:00PM
3:00PM-4:00PM
4:00PM-5:00PM
Sunday
12:00PM-1:00PM
1:00PM-2:00PM
.... Departure will be tricky. I've got a train ticket for the 6 PM train, but domestic bliss would be better served if I changed it to a 3 PM train... so on one hand, there are a few last panels that I could squeeze in, but on the other hand I may be too fried by Sunday afternoon to take any of it in. Oh well.
Friday
Arrival at PDX train station: 11:35 AM -- insert possibly late train and figuring how to take the Green MAX to The Portland Doubletree here (...find stop 7763 and take it to stop 8343, Lloyd Center/NE 11th stop).
12:00PM-1:00PM
- Alaska Pros At Cons Jess Hartley, Cat Rambo, Dave Howell
- Hawthorne Twisted history Paul Guinan, Mary Robinette Kowal, EE Knight, Irene Radford
2:00PM-3:00PM
- Hawthorne Political Systems in SF Rory Miller, Elton Elliott, Jim Fiscus, Andrew Nisbet, Mike Shepherd Moscoe
- Idaho Drowning in slush Grá Linnaea, Leslie What, Lizzy Shannon, Wendy Wagner
3:00PM-4:00PM
- Hamilton Workshop: Story Outline in an hour David D. Levine, Mary Robinette Kowal
- Mult/Holl Cover Art in the Age of E-books EE Knight, Jim Pavelec, Carolyn Nicita
4:00PM-5:00PM
- Broadway Running conventions Rick Lindsley, Suzanne Tompkins, [unlisted]
- Hawthorne Theme Grá Linnaea, Karen Azinger, Bill Johnson, Richard A. Lovett
- Lincoln Gender and Writing Cat Rambo, J. A. Pitts, Rhiannon Held
5:00PM-6:00PM
- Idaho The fine art of description David W. Goldman, Bill Johnson, Devon Monk, Alma Alexander, Victoria Blake
- Madison Protagonists vs. Antagonists Mark J. Ferrari, Adrian Phoenix, Sheila Finch, Louise Marley
- Ross/Morr Designing believable archaeology and anthropology Rhiannon Held, Rhiannon Louve, Pat MacEwen, [unlisted]
6:00PM-7:00PM
- Idaho Organizing a Successful Critique Group Bruce Taylor, Sonia Orin Lyris, Garth Upshaw, Ray Vukcevich
7:00PM-7:30PM
- Mult/Holl Endeavour Awards Jim Fiscus, Sara A. Mueller, Devon Monk, Sheila Simonson
8:00PM-9:00PM
- Ross/Morr NASA Fashion Show
Saturday
9:00 AM - Wordos Breakfast
10:00AM-11:00AM
- Hamilton Spicing up Your Hero Rory Miller, Dianna Rodgers, Chris Lester, Karen Azinger, Kami Miller
- Hawthorne Steampunk: Victorian marvels of science fantastic Irene Radford, Janet Borkowski, Laurel Anne Hill, Guy Letourneau, Mary Lou Sullivan
- Jefferson/Adams Playing God: Apocalyptic storytelling EE Knight, Victoria Blake, Daniel H. Wilson
- Lincoln How to Find an Agent Jess Hartley, Camille Alexa
- Roosevelt So you want to be a writer? Devon Monk, Ken Scholes, Jim Kling, Louise Marley
- Ross/Morr Research for alternate history: Mining real history for good fiction. Alma Alexander, Steven Barnes, Jim Fiscus, Nisi Shawl, Bob Brown
11:00AM-12:00PM
- Alaska Using Social Media to get Published Mary Rosenblum/Mary Freeman, M.K. Hobson, Chris Lester, Cat Rambo
- Broadway Funny Horror Fiction Scott Allie, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Victoria Blake
12:00PM-1:00PM
- Hamilton My villain is too mwa ha ha. Help! Jess Hartley, Kami Miller, Chris Lester, Sara A. Mueller, Adrian Phoenix
- Idaho Science Fiction as a Tool for Social Change Rhiannon Louve, Brenda Cooper, Grá Linnaea, Edward Morris, G. David Nordley
- Madison The structure of writing S. A. Bolich, Devon Monk, Jason V Brock, Richard A. Lovett, Victoria Blake
1:00PM-2:00PM
- Broadway Alien Etiquette Mary Robinette Kowal, David W. Goldman, Judith R. Conly, Ann Wilkes, Louise Owen
- Idaho Writing Formidable Women Steve Perry, Scott Allie, M.K. Hobson, Adrian Phoenix, Karen Azinger, Victoria Blake
- Mult/Holl EE Knight - Reimagining Vampires and Dragons EE Knight
2:00PM-3:00PM
- Hawthorne But I thought it was perfect! Mary Rosenblum/Mary Freeman, Grá Linnaea, Bill Johnson, Joan Gaustad, Richard A. Lovett
- Mult/Holl Intro to Steampunk Lorien Stormfeather, Diana Vick, Janet Borkowski, Mary Lou Sullivan
3:00PM-4:00PM
- Roosevelt Writers of the Future Ken Scholes, Aimee C. Amodio, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Grá Linnaea
4:00PM-5:00PM
- Lincoln The physics of magic Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, Devon Monk, Karen Azinger, Scott Allie, Howard Davidson
Sunday
12:00PM-1:00PM
- Hawthorne Spaceships, Colonists, and Castaways David D. Levine, Camille Alexa, G. David Nordley, Krista Wohlfeil
- Idaho The unique challenges of urban fantasy Devon Monk, J. A. Pitts, Adrian Phoenix, Mary Robinette Kowal, Rhiannon Held
- Jefferson/Adams Creatures of Magic Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, Judith R. Conly, Vonda N. McIntyre, EE Knight
1:00PM-2:00PM
- Roosevelt Podcasting Primer M.K. Hobson, Laurel Anne Hill
.... Departure will be tricky. I've got a train ticket for the 6 PM train, but domestic bliss would be better served if I changed it to a 3 PM train... so on one hand, there are a few last panels that I could squeeze in, but on the other hand I may be too fried by Sunday afternoon to take any of it in. Oh well.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Machine of Death - Keep hanging tight, everybody
Keeping my fingers crossed that my story will be one of the 35 stories out of 2000 to make it into the Machine of Death anthology: Machine of Death - Keep hanging tight, everybody This will be an interesting twist on Halloween.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
This is Halloween !
I was so singing, "Making Christmas" last night during the photo session when I took this shot.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Gearing Up for Halloween
If we only take out one or two things a day Mark won't get Halloween fatigue.Friday, October 14, 2011
Thinking of OryCon
I'm going to OryCon in a few weeks. I haven't been in a few years, mostly because it's in Portland and it's kind of expensive. I'm looking forward to seeing folks. As soon as I know what my schedule is, I'll post it (I have a feeling it will be pretty flexible).
My fantasy is to take the train up on Friday and then come home by train Sunday. Amtrak has an annoying habit of swapping out the train for a bus. Not that the buses are old and smelly or anything, but you really can't walk around on them and it's harder to pretend you're on the Orient Express.
My fantasy is to take the train up on Friday and then come home by train Sunday. Amtrak has an annoying habit of swapping out the train for a bus. Not that the buses are old and smelly or anything, but you really can't walk around on them and it's harder to pretend you're on the Orient Express.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
More Cafe John
The weather was nice enough that I wanted to have some tea at Cafe John. I also wanted to write... and somehow that didn't happen. Today is one of those days where just as I sit down to write the phone rings, or a ton of other little distractions crop up. Like blogging. And tea. And e-mail. And more little distractions.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
I Feel Geeky
(Cue the Sondheim!!)
I feel geeky! Oh so geeky!
Can't be sneaky how geeky I feel!
And so techie, that I hardly can believe I'm real.
(la la la la la la la la!)
(bridge)
Point your cell phone
at that pixellated QR tag
What can that infograhic be ?
Just a little link
Just a little tale
Just a little bit about ME!
I feel geeky! Oh so geeky!
Can't be sneaky how geeky I feel!
And so techie, that I hardly can believe I'm real.
(la la la la la la la la!)
(bridge)
Point your cell phone
at that pixellated QR tag
What can that infograhic be ?
Just a little link
Just a little tale
Just a little bit about ME!
Sunday, October 09, 2011
Domesticity
Today was a deep-cleaning day.
Actually, it's been a deep-cleaning few days.
Domesticity began Thursday night, when Mark and I planted a magnolia tree. Okay, Mark did about 90% of the digging and I helped move the tree from the back of his truck and into the back yard. We're pretty pleased with the tree, which is evergreen, and which should provide some extra privacy between our breakfast nook and the backdoor neighbor's house.
When I haven't been gardening (or writing), I've been cleaning up my office. My office is a closet. Literally. I moved my grandfathers old oak desk out of the closet, and it made a big difference. I suppose when I get around to replacing the ancient Windows98 desktop and its mondo CTR, I'll have even more space. I suppose that I should retire the machine, but I have a ton of old Illustrator files on it that wont run on any of my other machines. Oh well, it's there and available, and I am looking forward to more writing sessions actually in my office.
Sunday was cleaning day. We cleaned the kitchen, the bathroom, and the living room. Well, okay; Mark did most of the work while I moved things around. And did dishes. And vacuume out the fireplace (we only light candles in it, so I don't know how it got so dirty).
And then it was time to cook. I started the rice. Just as I'd turned the burner on, I got a phone call from a friend. We were discussing the logistics of next our next visit. As I gazed across our clean living room, I became aware of a layer of haze floating about four feet off the ground. It was like the fog was trying to come into the house. I excused myself from the phone conversation for a moment, walked into the smoke-filled kitchen. A white plume rose from the cast iron pan filled with boiling bacon grease on the front burner (note to self, RR and RF mean two different thing).
I picked up the pan. It was still smoldering, so I naively blew on it to try to stop the smoke.
With a foom and a whoosh, the bacon grease burst into flame.
I laughed, because it was kind of funny, and took the flaming pan outside.
Eventually, I did get back to my phone call.
Actually, it's been a deep-cleaning few days.
Domesticity began Thursday night, when Mark and I planted a magnolia tree. Okay, Mark did about 90% of the digging and I helped move the tree from the back of his truck and into the back yard. We're pretty pleased with the tree, which is evergreen, and which should provide some extra privacy between our breakfast nook and the backdoor neighbor's house.
When I haven't been gardening (or writing), I've been cleaning up my office. My office is a closet. Literally. I moved my grandfathers old oak desk out of the closet, and it made a big difference. I suppose when I get around to replacing the ancient Windows98 desktop and its mondo CTR, I'll have even more space. I suppose that I should retire the machine, but I have a ton of old Illustrator files on it that wont run on any of my other machines. Oh well, it's there and available, and I am looking forward to more writing sessions actually in my office.
Sunday was cleaning day. We cleaned the kitchen, the bathroom, and the living room. Well, okay; Mark did most of the work while I moved things around. And did dishes. And vacuume out the fireplace (we only light candles in it, so I don't know how it got so dirty).
And then it was time to cook. I started the rice. Just as I'd turned the burner on, I got a phone call from a friend. We were discussing the logistics of next our next visit. As I gazed across our clean living room, I became aware of a layer of haze floating about four feet off the ground. It was like the fog was trying to come into the house. I excused myself from the phone conversation for a moment, walked into the smoke-filled kitchen. A white plume rose from the cast iron pan filled with boiling bacon grease on the front burner (note to self, RR and RF mean two different thing).
I picked up the pan. It was still smoldering, so I naively blew on it to try to stop the smoke.
With a foom and a whoosh, the bacon grease burst into flame.
I laughed, because it was kind of funny, and took the flaming pan outside.
Eventually, I did get back to my phone call.
Saturday, October 08, 2011
Last Hurrah at Cafe John
October has come, and with it have come the heavy rains. Today is an exceptioin, so I'm outside at Cafe John enjoying one last moment of sunshine. Then I'll roll up the indoor/outdoor carpet for another season of Very Grey Days.
Sunday, October 02, 2011
Sale to Twisted Tales Anthology
I discovered last week that I managed to sell a 66 word story to Delving Press. It will join 65 other similar dark stories in an anthology called "Twisted Tales."
From the Delving Press website:
Twisted Tales is a collection of 66 stories that will terrify and creep under your skin like a flesh eating virus...each story is only 66 words in length, but like the the microscopic size of ebola will eat away at your subconscious and seep into your dreams when the lights are low and the sounds of darkness frighten your every sense...
I'm happy because this was a fun story to write, I can now say that I write horror (who knew?), and I'm in an anthology with Damon Kaswell and Alethea Kontis. ... and I pretty much had the same reaction Alethea has on her blog.
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