foloow-ups on var & sundry

Some day I want to have a pair of matched Abby cats named Var and Sundry. Just because it amuses me.

In other words, despite the sunshine-induced laziness, I managed to get several thousand words written yesterday, and even kept almost all of them. Yay me! Then watched the last three episodes of Firefly which made me once again very happy for the movie-to-come. And started me thinking about Firefly fic. Which I'm not going to write, because if I wrote anything ficcish I still owe people several installments of the senex amans series, and then there's the Probe fic I can't quite rid myself of, and...

safer to stick with the stuff they pay me for.


And speaking of that, had a meeting this morning for a writing gig that may turn out to be nothing, but may be a total mind-feeding, money-making orgy of giggles and stress. We'll see.

That was the var, on to the sundry.

Ended up last night, toally by accident (okay, I admit it, I was ego-googling) reading my story "Apparent Horizon" over on http://www.marsdust.com/horiz.htm. And I was reminded of the earlier discussion about using your trauma for fun and profit. I knew I was writing out of a particular emotional observation at the time, but re-reading it now, with much water on the bridge, I'm amazed to see how much more was there than I was consciously aware of.

It's a damn good story. If I do say so myself.

And with that in mind (I do not suck! I can make this scene work) it's time to get my head back into the book. Because while deadlines make neat noises as they whooosh on past, the editorial noises that inevitably follow are not quite so much fun.


(and I pause here to watch the DHL delivery guy pull up.. and nope, going to another house. Darn. I do love getting packages, I do...)

And tomorrow I am meeting with an editor, and have to get my ducks all lined up and organized, because there's a project I want her very much to buy, and another project I want her co-worker very much to buy, and there's nothing quite like pitching to someone over lunch they're buying to make you feel all writer-y. *grin*

From the Meerkat's Kitchen

Tonight's dinner. Not too spicy, but extremely tasty.

( sedate cajun meatloaf recipe )

Even I, who have been feeling anti-food for many weeks now, ate my fill of this. Served with a garden salad, although garlic mashed potatoes would be a nice cold-weather addition.

end of an era

from SciFi Wire:

Gardner Dozois is stepping down as editor at Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine to “pursue other projects, including his own writing,” according to a press release from Asimov’s publisher Dell Magazines. Current executive editor Sheila Williams will replace Dozois, who will remain as a contributing editor.

Sheila's first issue filling the Gardner-shaped space will be January 2005.



Change is good. I know this from personal experience. Sameness deadens and dulls. Change invigorates. Change reinvents. Change is very very weird.

In other, less earth-shattering writing news, I'm closing in on 2,000 words for the day and feeling pretty good. I also have the shimmerings of not one but two new stories in my brain. We'll see what, if anything, rises from them.