Month: June 2009

“All Afternoon Those Birds Twitter Twit”

  • 07:27 On page 47 of 400 of Conjunctions: 52, Betwixt the Between by Bradford Morrow. 5* for Stephen Marche’s "The Personasts." Great gonzo jour… #
  • 07:30 twitpic.com/7zxyj – Adapting to the nonstop rain at yesterday’s party. #
  • 07:31 twitpic.com/7zxzj – This (among many other bottles) also helped us cope. #
  • 07:33 twitpic.com/7zy1l – Who dares to summon me from the flame! 😉 #
  • 07:34 Time to get myself together & hit the road. Story edits to finish!! #
  • 08:46 Departure time delayed for coffee, breakfast, & gossip! 😀 #
  • 10:56 "Home Again!" Time to get some more coffee and finish those damn edits :). ♫ blip.fm/~8mf47 #
  • 16:21 Must’ve partied too hard to do anything but sleep for the past 4 hrs. But I’m awake, at the mall bookstore, w/coffee and rarin’ to go! #
  • 17:39 Rewrites accomplished! Gonna let them cool and send them back to the editor tomorrow. I’m gonna be published again soon *w00t*!! #
  • 18:47 @JohnAnealio If by partying you mean finishing rewrites for an editor deadline with a dying netbook battery, then yes :). #
  • 18:57 twitpic.com/81v0q – A small part of the damage we did to our friend’s yard at last nite’s party. heh. #
  • 18:59 Oh, no no no–I’ve got 3 more pieces to rewrite & submit. I need yesterday’s new story idea to STFU! #

Via LoudTwitter

“All Afternoon Those Birds Twitter Twit”

  • 08:03 On page 35 of 400 of Conjunctions: 52, Betwixt the Between by Bradford Morrow. 3* for Ben Marcus’s "Secret Breathing Techniques" for subb… #
  • 08:08 We’ve secretly replaced the sidebar link categories on my blog with the titles of Chicago songs. Eh, ‘cos I could. bit.ly/GHgET #
  • 10:20 Must I really choose between overnite stay in Rochester w/friends vs finishing story edits for a deadline? *sigh* 🙁 #
  • 10:25 Screw it, I’m doing both. Why else did I pay for a netbook? #
  • 14:44 Survived the drive to Rocha-cha. Just waiting out the rain so the grillin’ can start!! #
  • 14:46 Reviewed editor-requested line edits during the drive. And came up with a new story idea! (Like I don’t have enuff to process.) #
  • 20:10 Wine & food & company more than made up for the nonstop rain! Taking a bit of time out ‘cos of my introverted tendencies, but just a bit. #

Via LoudTwitter

“All Afternoon Those Birds Twitter Twit”

  • 07:25 On page 27 of 400 of Conjunctions: 52, Betwixt the Between by Bradford Morrow. 3.5* for Elizabeth Hand’s "Hungerford Bridge." Lush descri… #
  • 07:26 Not looking forward to walking into 3 hr training 1st thing in the AM. Glad I’m leaving early today. So is my shoulder! *owie* #
  • 07:52 Next project: 3000+ word #wip. Can’t decide if it needs rewriting or cutting. Probably cutting. *snikt* #
  • 08:50 Oh, snap! RT @drmabuse And maybe they should rename Granta "Stuff White People Read." #
  • 09:26 It’s only 10 min into the training. If not for my netbook, I’d have slashed my wrists 4 minutes ago. #
  • 10:10 Training’s gotten interesting. New computer system for the dayjob is going to /rawk/! Am glad I didn’t slash my wrists, now :D. #
  • 11:38 woot!! Another story accepted!! Just gotta get the edits back. Details once it’s finalized. #
  • 12:30 @littlefluffycat @AWDawno Thanks! Unfortunately for the universal balance to be maintained, I had another story rejected just now! 🙁 #
  • 13:24 #followfriday Your summer reading list: @fantasymagazine @CoyoteWild @BrainHarvest @strangehorizons @Ideomancer @clarkesworld @chizinepub #
  • 13:24 #followfriday Your summer reading list cont: @Steampunk_Tales @RueMorgue @mbranesf @GrantaMag @McSweeneysBooks @The_Rumpus #
  • 13:28 #followfriday Also, @believermag @PasteMagazine @thaumatrope @gudmagazine @EosBooks @subpress #
  • 13:35 #followfriday Heed these people: @drmabuse @ColleenLindsay @RachelleGardner @jonrog1 @mightymur #
  • 14:13 #followfriday Folks with the coolness factor: @AWDawno @AbsoluteWrite #
  • 14:14 Almost time to leave to get my back fixed!! *owie* #
  • 16:42 Ahh, the bittersweet feeling of sore muscles slowly getting used to being where they *should* be! #
  • 16:53 @littlefluffycat I’ll tell ya, it’s better than multiple rejections in a day. I’ve had that, too :(. #
  • 16:53 Trying to sit ergonomically as I go over requested story edits =). #
  • 21:45 Thanks ;)! RT @mbranesf #followfriday @DonP Always offering some good info that you didn’t realize you needed. #
  • 21:47 Thanks too to @fantasymagazine @BrainHarvest @jbombardier #followfriday #
  • 21:51 RT @The_Rumpus The Women of McSweeneys.net bit.ly/8MTNd #
  • 22:26 #followfriday Keeping me productive: @gtdguy @PortableApps @TiddlyWiki #

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“All Afternoon Those Birds Twitter Twit”

  • 09:22 I think the rainy weather has sapped the will to live from me and more than one coworker today… 🙁 #
  • 09:50 Rediscovering my Fictionaut account. Anything to procrastinate typing up yesterday’s meeting minutes :(. #
  • 10:20 "It was only a matter of time before only literary magazines teamed up with fetish porn studios to produce events." bit.ly/I00dn #
  • 10:47 "Mega-hail destroyed almost 10,000 homes in China, while dead animals have been raining from the clouds in Japan" bit.ly/N987t #
  • 11:31 Dragging Day at the Dayjob playlist: PEACE AT LAST by The Blue Nile #
  • 11:59 RT @BoingBoing "1964 Frederick’s of Hollywood catalog tinyurl.com/nsorco " fascinating peek into the past! (via @AWDawno) #
  • 12:48 This just cemented my love for Karen Joy Fowler’s writing & her short stories: bit.ly/mKClB #
  • 14:24 Starting to whine about my shoulder like Dr. Smith from LOST IN SPACE. "Oh, the pain…the pain." #
  • 14:58 I’ve had the hardest time knowing when to stop editing w/current #wip. Well, I’m cutting myself off! #
  • 17:55 @AWDawno I’ve subscribed to you on friendfeed. Great, more ways to procrastinate 😀 #
  • 17:58 RT @fantasymagazine We’re switching #affiliate programs to #powell’s – bit.ly/1aleBV #fantasy #books #bookstores #
  • 18:00 RT @jonrog1 Spoiler! Kane and will rehearse ep207 big fight! #leverage twitpic.com/7quf9 #
  • 18:12 Massive disappointment–one of my favorite musicians closed his YouTube account! 🙁 #
  • 19:39 Trying to find a market for the #wip I just finished. Sending it off will be the only way I’ll quit trying to rewrite it! #

Via LoudTwitter

“All Afternoon Those Birds Twitter Twit”

  • 07:27 Apparently the emo version of Don Henley’s "The Boys of Summer" wasn’t enough. My ears are melting at a dance club version. #
  • 07:28 Is the singer even old enough to even know what a "Deadhead sticker" is? She doesn’t sound it. #
  • 07:30 Here–share my horror! ♫ blip.fm/~8dkq4 #
  • 10:00 Sure am glad I volunteered to take staff meeting minutes this summer. Yep. Minutes. Gotta love ’em. Yeah. #
  • 10:09 On page 243 of 272 of Black Glass: Stories by Karen Joy Fowler. "Game Night at the Fox and Goose" was slow-building but gut-wrenching at … #
  • 10:20 I KNEW I liked Karen Joy Fowler for a reason! I’d be *proud* to be "accused" of this: bit.ly/WL8QE #
  • 11:57 #blog "Can’t remember the last time I read something that made the writer in me want to pump my fist in the air." bit.ly/94snb #
  • 11:59 @gudmagazine Reading CONJUNCTIONS 52 currently. #
  • 12:05 RT @jeffvandermeer New blog post: Shared Worlds: Real Cities That Seem Fantastical/SFnal tinyurl.com/mn39kt (via @fantasymagazine) #
  • 12:28 @gudmagazine It’s a literary mag that I’ll pick up depending on who’s in it… #
  • 12:29 @gudmagazine The latest, CONJUNCTIONS 52 has fiction by Elizabeth Hand, China Mieville, Jeff VanderMeer, Shelley Jackson, &c. #
  • 14:52 Finished with Black Glass: Stories by Karen Joy Fowler. Finished the back matter. A *very* educational read. #
  • 16:39 Pain in my shoulder since Sunday now bad enough that I need the chiropractor to fix it :(. Owie. #
  • 17:39 Appt. w/chiropractor confirmed (thank Christ)! #
  • 17:43 I want to read: Generation Loss: A Novel by Elizabeth Hand – tinyurl.com/mlbzyy #
  • 17:57 twitpic.com/7nnvh – $3.99 for a book like this? I had to buy it, ‘cos it just wasn’t right! 🙂 #
  • 18:25 On page 18 of 400 of Conjunctions: 52, Betwixt the Between by Bradford Morrow. 4* for Stephen Wright’s "Brain Jelly." Great slipstream wo… #

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Ain’t Nothing Wrong With That

“I’ve often been accused of harnessing genre strategies to mainstream ends. I do concede that relationships, characters, and introspection are my primary interest. The fanciful is of a secondary order of importance; I usually use it to approach the large issue of perception, so that my fantastical elements, while intended as real within the stories, occupy some borderland between reality and psychology.”


Found this in the Reader’s Guide in the back of Karen Joy Fowler’s story collection Black Glass. Can’t remember the last time I read something that made the writer in me want to pump my fist in the air.

I wish I was good enough to be accused of that!

For simplicity’s sake, I’ve been labeling myself a “contemporary fantasy” writer to my local peers, mostly because I’m a little too lazy to explain to someone what “slipstream” or “fabulism” means–hell, I’ve read the essays in Conjunctions 39 and Feeling Very Strange and I’m still not 100% sure what they mean. But I know enough to know these terms are just the closest-size round holes that I can cram my square peg into.***

My stories aren’t Tolkien or Howard, or Heinlein or Clarke. (Not dissing–I’d love to have their careers.) But in following the example of writers who “write the kind of stuff I like to read,” it’s no surprise I find a connection with Fowler’s statement.

***(Inner Editor: “Gee, Freudian slip much?”)
(-Me: “What’s this site called again?”)

“All Afternoon Those Birds Twitter Twit”

  • 08:16 On page 229 of 272 of Black Glass: Stories by Karen Joy Fowler. "The View From Venus" is a 5* women’s fic/scifi mash-up! #
  • 08:23 "It’s such a pity to say/ Goodbye to you" [i.e. another coworker today] #lyrics ♫ blip.fm/~8bbg8 #
  • 10:19 Writer.pr0n from the notebook of @warrenellis bit.ly/88f8n #
  • 10:40 Photos of Fairy Tale characters in modern day scenarios bit.ly/kwojg #
  • 11:59 @accidentalhaiku Niiice catch! #
  • 13:33 I’m #reading We Never Talk About My Brother by Peter S. Beagle – tinyurl.com/qbfryk #
  • 13:33 I’m #reading Conjunctions: 52, Betwixt the Between by Bradford Morrow – tinyurl.com/myolom #
  • 13:34 I was only gonna buy the *one book* I ordered at the indie bookstore. Clearly went apeshit :). #
  • 15:55 I better get my free LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE tix tonite! #
  • 16:14 I want to read: Everland and Other Stories by Paul Witcover – tinyurl.com/mew87n #
  • 21:30 My consolation for never having seen LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE before tonite was seeing it for free on a big screen @TheCinemapolis! #
  • 22:11 EASTENDERS! Now my evening’s complete :). #

Via LoudTwitter

“All Afternoon Those Birds Twitter Twit”

  • 09:03 Saying goodbye to more coworkers this week; at least a couple are coming back in the fall 🙁 ♫ blip.fm/~89705 #
  • 09:13 Do I feel like risking my USB drive to see if NAV still thinks portableapps.exe is a trojan? 🙁 #
  • 09:18 Forgot I had a backup portableapps drive and tested that–so far, so good!! #
  • 09:27 Hallelujah! portableapps.exe NOT zapped by NAV! Feels like having a severed limb reattached! #
  • 10:06 Yesterday’s bimonthly critique group evisceration bit.ly/3ptcLY #blog #
  • 12:14 Local indie theater is reopening. Gonna see a free showing of LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE tomorrow! www.cinemapolis.org/ #
  • 13:02 @AWDawno Been looking forward to this opening for *weeks*! Plus, I’m ashamed to say I haven’t seen that film yet :(. #
  • 13:03 Putting yesterday’s flash fic on hold to pay attn. to the #wip I should’ve been working on! #
  • 13:22 Decided to forego this year’s "camping trip." Next year, maybe :(. #
  • 14:26 @AWDawno Then, this is for you: RT @mcsweeneysbooks It’s "amateur hour" on mcsweeneys.net today. bit.ly/XpDSl #
  • 14:28 Am almost desperate enuff to beg someone to jam a ballpoint pen into the knot underneath my shoulder blade!! 🙁 #
  • 16:23 This tune never fails to make me smile. ♫ blip.fm/~89z5w #
  • 16:45 DOCTOR WHO spoilers!! bit.ly/jGCP2 #
  • 17:35 Last minute trip to happy hour. Netbook w/the #wip and Saranac Adirondack Amber. Ah, the life… #
  • 21:50 @AWDawno Her friend Britney has been trying 3x/day for about 2 weeks now hehe. #

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Tough Love

Believe it or not, yesterday’s crit group crucifixion could’ve been much, much worse. This is what I get for bringing a story that was scribbled down after a Friday nite conversation over too much wine and untouched until the yesterday morning before the meeting. This is why John Rogers’ description of first drafts as “puke drafts” (which I’ve adopted) is so apropos.

Anyway, it was an untitled 280-word flash piece, eviscerated thusly…

FTW

  • Great idea (the opening hook, fashioned from Friday’s conversation)
  • Good opening.

Story!Fail

  • It only takes one wrong word in a flash piece (in this case, “Princess”) to throw off most readers’ sense of time and place.
  • Only 2 out of 5 readers understood my ending (better than none, I guess)…
  • …and everyone else thought it was disconnected/disjointed from my setup.
  • Minor Tense!Fail in the first paragraph

On the upside, one reader felt it only needed a “bit” of revision. And writing it did feel like a victory since I’m finally getting the hang of combining my genre and my flash writing. Hey, don’t take my word for it! (Okay okay, that was such a shameless plug hehe.)

“All Afternoon Those Birds Twitter Twit”

  • 07:52 Seem to have more than made up for Friday nite’s insomnia! Actually up at a decent hour today 🙂 #
  • 08:11 "Don’t you know by now no one gives you anything/ Don’t you wonder how you keep on moving one more day your way… ♫ blip.fm/~87d3u #
  • 08:22 My Sunday groove. If I can keep this in my head all day, I’ll be just fine :). ♫ blip.fm/~87dfd #
  • 09:11 @AWDawno That was the nite I had on Friday. Up at 2 AM and couldn’t get back to sleep until 5 🙁 #
  • 16:46 Probably shouldn’t have brought a puke draft to the crit group but the feedback wasn’t all bad! Evisceration could’ve been a lot worse. 😉 #
  • 20:04 Brain is broken going thru budget! Gah!! #
  • 21:00 New L&O:CI! My Sunday is now complete! #
  • 21:42 Jeff Goldblum’s really pulling out all the Jeff Goldblum stops in this L&0:CI ep! #

Via LoudTwitter