Welcome to my LiveJournal. I'm a science fiction writer with a growing collection of published short stories, and my collection Unwelcome Bodies is currently available from Apex Publications. It includes, among other stories, "Captive Girl," which was a 2007 Nebula finalist and which made the 2007 Gaylactic Spectrum Awards short list. I started this journal to have a place to talk about writing and the writing life, although you'll probably notice various digressions into belly dance and politics.

Please note that anonymous comments that aren't signed will be deleted.

Thursday: Despite my fears, my reading was very well-attended (mostly by people I knew, but there was a decent-sized contingent of strangers there as well), and the "Ghosts of New York" was well-received.

Friday: This was the one day that I attended a lot of programming. I hit panels, I went to the Ellen Klages (klages) kaffeeklatsch, I helped set up the Broad Universe table in the dealers room, I went to more panels. Then, when 5:00 hit, Andy and I looked at each other and agreed we were cooked, so we went home, had dinner, and caught up on Torchwood. Then I put on a skirt and heels and went back to the con for the Meet the Pros(e) party, which was a lot of fun, as usual. People seemed to like the story quote on my stickers, and when I got home, I confirmed that it was indeed Googleable (it's a quote from "Organ Nell").

Saturday: Not so much programming happened for me this day. I spent two hours at the Broad Universe table, went to one panel, and then attended Ellen Klages's Improv for Writers workshop. I was fairly chicken at first, but eventually warmed up to actually doing some improv once I'd watched it long enough to feel like I had a handle on it, at one point ending up with Dungeon Master Jim at my feet. Also doing improv, among others, were prusik and vylarkaftan, both of whom rocked. I had fun, but didn't come away feeling like I was any kind of improv star, which was fine with me, because I have no time for a new hobby. Once the workshop was over, Andy and I headed home. I pondered going back for the Viable Paradise group dinner, but decided to watch some stuff that was piling up on the TiVo instead, and then get "Headlights" done and handed off to the anthology editor.

Sunday: I helped set up the Viable Paradise brunch, ate some delicious bagels, then headed out to a panel, before going back to the Broad Universe table to discuss our Mary Shelley Birthday Party Weekend events. Then we were all off to the Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading, which had a small, but responsive audience. On the way to that reading, I was cornered in the hallway by Ellen Klages, who said I was quite good in the improv workshop and asked if I'd done it ever before. Color me stunned. I confessed that I'd only done it once before, and I'd actually rehearsed my shtick in advance that previous time, so it wasn't really improv. This was a lovely moment of egoboo. Ellen is someone who I enjoy impressing, because she's so damned impressive herself. Then more time at the Broad Universe table, where only one of my books sold all weekend, and the con was over.

The end :)

"Headlights" has been handed to the invite anthology that requested it, and now I have no promised stories sitting on my plate. Next up, revising Chameleon, hopefully for the final time. I'll start in on that next week, maybe even as early as tomorrow. We shall see. I may need a week break first.

This morning, I finally figured out an ending to "Headlights" that I think works. I've written it, and threaded in the earlier bits that support it, and will look at it again tonight when I'm back from Day 3 of Readercon. If I still like it, then I'm submitting it, and then my decks will finally be cleared of promised short stories, which means I'll finally be able to turn back to novel revisions. I would dearly love to get Chameleon into publishable shape and onto my agent's desk.

I've now watched all five parts of Torchwood: Children of Earth. I'd planned to wait for them to show on BBC America, because I'd heard that they would air here the same day that they aired in the U.K., and wouldn't be cut beyond some f-bombs. But when I found out that they would be aired earlier in the U.K. after all, I figured I couldn't trust them on the cutting issue, and went to the magical internet fairies for them. I'd been warned that episode 4 would make me angry, and...

( Well, here's where the major spoilers start. Seriously, they're massive. )

Spoilers are welcome in the comments.

My 100 word zombie story "'Til Death Do Us Part" is in the premiere issue of Shock Totem, which is now available to purchase here: http://www.shocktotem.com/shop.html

Or if you're going to NECON, you'll be getting a free copy with your con schwag.

And the invite antho bought "Kindest Cut". Huzzah! I'll release details when I get the thumbs-up.

The acceptance email was great all-around, as acceptance letters tend to be, although I was particularly pleased that it called out the first paragraph of the story specifically, as my writing group had a grand old discussion about it. In fact, that paragraph is pretty much the only thing that remained intact between the version that the writing group saw, and the version that I submitted.

I'm heading out for night one of Readercon -- http://www.readercon.org -- where I'll be reading "Ghosts of New York" at 8:30.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/07/mass_to_challen.html

Excerpt:

Mass. challenges federal Defense of Marriage Act

Massachusetts, the first state in the nation to legalize gay marriage, has become the first to challenge the constitutionality of a federal law that defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman, saying Congress intruded into a matter that should be left to individual states.

"Our familes, our communities, and even our economy have seen the many important benefits that have come from recognizing equal marriage rights and, frankly, no downside," Attorney General Martha Coakley said this afternoon at a news conference announcing the lawsuit. "However, we have also seen how many of our married residents and their families are being hurt by a discriminatory, unprecedented, and, we believe, unconstitutional law."

My dream started with me meeting my agent face-to-face for the first time. He told me that the opening of my novel was crap, and it needed yet another revision, but not to bother giving it to him because he was dropping me as a client. All the editors he'd pitched my novel to had rejected it, but he hadn't had time to tell me because he'd been so busy with clients who were actually selling their work.

Then the dream transitioned to me getting together with two fabulous bellydancers (Rachel from Moire and Melina) so we could all go together to a show to dance. Melina knew the way, so we formed a caravan of three cars, with me at the rear, only I couldn't keep up, and I struggled not to lose them on the highway.

And these are my creative releases?

This morning, I put "A Brother by Moonlight" in the mail to Asimov's, which will be this story's eighth market. When they reject it, the other potentials on the list are Abyss and Apex, Ideomancer, Lady Churchill's, and Electric Velocipede, all depending on who's open at the time.

And I just emailed "Kindest Cut" to an invite antho. If they don't take it, well, the story's pretty rough. I may try F&SF and Asimov's with it, or I might just jump to the dark markets.

My story "...That Has Such People in It" is in the latest issue of Apex Magazine:

http://www.apexbookcompany.com/apex-online/

Please leave a little money in the tip jar on your way out if you want the magazine to keep publishing!

I just got my Readercon schedule. My only item is my reading. Which is at 8:30 on Thursday night. Yes, Thursday, when there's a whopping two hours of programming. Hell, I've never even bothered going to con on Thursday night before. But I guess my continued inability to make a big sale makes it make sense to stuff me in such an unappealing time slot.

So, is anyone going to be there on Thursday night? I want to know if there's any point in me even showing up for my reading.

*sigh* Hopefully, Broad Universe will let me read with them on Sunday, even though I technically have a reading slot of my own.

ETA: Actually, it turns out Readercon does have me scheduled to read with Broad Universe. When I searched the program grid for my name, all I saw was the solo reading, but the schedule email they sent me had that listed *below* the .sig line. In my defense, I'm not used to emails having information below the .sig so I stopped reading when I got to that part and didn't notice that I could keep scrolling.

I was looking at pictures of vitiligo sufferers online, and it occurs to me that the only way I'd be able to tell that I had it would be if the freckles on my arms started disappearing. The disease seems to take people with pigment in their skin and turn them my color. And I mean *exactly* my color. Although it can apparently affect your hair as well, so perhaps I'll just blame my grays on vitiligo ;)

(Why, yes, I am doing random web surfing to cleanse my brain between story drafts. Why do you ask?)

It took four attempts, but I have finally finished a draft of "The Kindest Cut" that I'm reasonably pleased with. My protagonist is an active character, her motivations are clear, and she works to drive her own story, even if it does get taken away from her at the end. (Hey, this is one of my stories, after all.) And, of course, it's nearly 1,400 words over the soft word limit for the anthology. I've written to the editor to see how much I need to shrink it in revisions. We shall see what he says. And if I can't get it down to a good length for him, or if he doesn't think it's a good fit for the antho, hopefully Apex will still be open ;)

I see that the July issue of Locus reviews The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Volume 3. If anyone out there subscribes to Locus, can you let me know if my story is mentioned in the review, and if so, if they liked it? (If no one gets Locus, I'll just find a copy at Readercon next weekend and read it for myself.)

I was one of those kids that either got something or didn't. Reading? Got it at age three-and-a-half. Multiplication? Didn't get it until long after everyone else did. Dinosaurs? Got 'em. Riding a bike? Let's just say that my mother had to point out that if I started to fall, I could actually put my foot down to stop myself from hitting the pavement.

At some point, those of us who get things quickly start running out of things to get, and all that's left are things that are hard work. And for most people like us, things that take hard work aren't nearly as much fun as things that come naturally.

( [more] )

Not only did "A Brother by Moonlight" not win the Glimmer Train "Family Matters" contest, but it didn't even place in the top 25.

*grumble*

I may just throw caution to the wind and send it to Asimov's next. If nothing else, it'll be nice to show Sheila Williams that I can write pleasant stories as well as unpleasant ones, even though it'll be rejected all the same.

I made a dent in the WIP that's been driving me nuts for a couple of months now. Who knows? I might actually have something to submit to that final invite-only antho after all! Of course, I haven't tackled the hard part of the story yet, but I'll get there.

Norm Coleman conceded when the Minnesota Supremes ruled against him. I appear to have a teensy shred of respect for the man. I'm sure it won't last.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/30/minnesota-decision-al-fra_n_223258.html

I just realized that the two shows I want to try to dance in at the end of August are the same weekend as the Broad Universe Mary Shelley Birthday Party events that I promised to help out with.

*sobbing*

So I'll do the Saturday workshop/show, and the Sunday Broad Universe events, and feel rotten about what I'm skipping both days.