Day in the Life of an Idiot

 The reading last night at Dreamhaven went pretty much exactly as I expected it would.

As Eric pointed out in his introduction, the Speculation Reading Series has been going for something like forty years and I've been one of its most frequent readers. So... to put it less flatteringly, everyone who has ever wanted to see me read, out loud, has had more than their fair share of opportunities to do so.

Five people came.

They were, at least, five people I knew and like and am always happy to hang out with. *waves at abracanabra *  

I dressed up for the event, but was, admittedly, less prepared than I would have been if I thought there was going to be a packed house, standing room only. I read the full manuscript of the story that will be published in the shared-world dragon anthology. The dumb thing about that story is that this was the second time I've read it out loud and the second time that the ending of it (which, I'm going to be brutally honest is not worth this) made me sob and blubber like a complete sap. I mean, the ending is powerful in its way? But, what actually happens to me when I'm reading it is that I know all the news stories I drew on and THOSE are the things that actually trigger the tears, not my sort of low-stakes version of them in the story. I'm going to have to figure out how to get over it because it's actually a nice size, delightful little story, otherwise. 

Anyway, there's nothing like blubbering your way through your own story and looking up to see every eye is dry in the house, EXCEPT YOUR OWN.

Good times.

I didn't feel like an idiot at all.

*sigh*

But, then after that, I really didn't have anything else I wanted to read. I would have called it early, myself, and/or just hung out with everyone and chatted, but Eric seemed rather insistent that I go the whole time. So, I pulled out my computer long enough to discover that I couldn't easily get on to Dreamhaven's wifi, and then, like the modern 21st century woman I am, I pulled out my phone and read from "Lesbians in SPAAAAACE," the much-stalled out novel that I've been laboring through for the past couple of years.

So, I mean, other people might have considered this a bit of a disaster? I thought it was OK. 

The thing I was the most happiest about was that it was over quickly enough that I could still make it to D&D, which was only important because last night was the final showdown with the Prince of Rhyme and Frost and basically the "Season Finale," since after this, some of us will be switching out to alternate players for a change of pace (same world, same plot continues, however.)

 The first thing I want to report is that I revised a short story I've been working on for a shared-world anthology, and have now sent it off to my second writers' group for critique. Hooray!

Secondly, it seems that my Loft Zoom class is finally settling into a good rhythm, I think. We had a great class last night, at any rate. I was actually able to prod people to talk, possibly because I like to teach plotting by using my own failures to create story as an example. I have a very specific story idea that should work, but refuses to gel that I will trot out for class. I think people generally like to offer advice, and so when I say, "Please help me fix this broken thing and let's talk about why it's broken," works actually fairly well as a method to get people to really think about what elements have to come together to start a story.

Then, I had them watch a YouTube video recording of Kurt Vonnegut talking about story plots, so we pretended we had a posthumous guest lecturer.  

The last half of the class was the first time we rolled up our sleeves and started critiquing and that went very well, as well. Like I say, a success all around.

In other news I am putting the finishing touches on the sheep + octopus quilt and then it will be on to the next one, which will be deep-sea themed.


Image: deep sea fabric

The Reinvented Heart Anthology is out in e-book!!!

My short story "Sincerely Yours" is in this anthology. I am extremely proud of this one. It's a kind of pandemic story, but it's really about female friendship through letter-writing, only space-age. Oh, and Fandom. It was very much inspired by my long distance fan friendships as well as ways that I coped (and still cope) in the early days of the pandemic. It's also about social anxiety and how extroverts can respect that as a friend.

So, at any rate, here are the details:

The Reinvented Heart is released in eBook form now.

• Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Reinvented-Heart-Jane-Yolen-ebook/dp/B092JNGX85/
• BN: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-reinvented-heart-jane-yolen/1139229735
• Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-reinvented-heart
• Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/id1562923075

The print copy will be released on May 31st.

• BN: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-reinvented-heart-caezik/1139312391?ean=9781647100421
• Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Reinvented-Heart-Tales-Futuristic-Relationships/dp/1647100429/

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I will post something about the rest of my life later today, because as a Midwesterner I know I'm not supposed to run around yelling about how awesome I am and asking you to buy my things. (Although did you see all the other cool people who are in this anthology, holy crap!!)

 Today is the big cover reveal day for The Reinvented Heart Anthology, coming February, 2022, edited by Jennifer Brozek and Cat Rambo.  Check it out!!



This is an anthology I'm REALLY excited to be part of for a lot of reasons. First of all, the cover reveal is the first time I've seen some of the names of my fellow contributors and Adam Stemple's mom! (aka Jane Yolen)!! Seanan McGuire!! Naomi Kritzer!  Lisa Morton!  Mercedes M. Yardley!  I AM IN GOOD COMPANY.

But, also? I really, really love the story I submitted to them. It's a very personal story in that it is partly based on a couple of my Real Life (tm) relationships smooshed together, in the way that writers have. First, is my longtime friendship with Josey in Wales. We forged an amazing relationship that at this point has survived YEARS having never, ever met each other in person and entirely based on a shared fandom.  She is someone I learned a lot about extreme introversion from and that is very much a part of the story here. Secondly, I am so incredibly honored to be sharing this anthology with Naomi, because this story is also based on the fact that our friendship is surviving in the pandemic based on picking up and returning to the long form email missive, like we used to send each other in the 1990s.  So, long distance friendships built on archaic technology is also centered in this story.
 

It's a very personal story about women's friendships, in particular, but also the care and feeding of introverts and those among us who are socially anxious. Anyway, I am thrilled!

 I am sitting down to write this to you a little later than usual during the day. I just spent the morning, while it was cool and before the supposed thunderstorms roll back in, turning the compost pile. 


Image: a bunch of dirt. I am uncertain what I thought you'd see here? "Black gold" as some gardeners call compost?

I once took a master gardener class in composting. I tell you this because I am objectively fairly terrible at composting. I do what I believe experts call "the slow method," which is to say: nothing.  Or rather, next to nothing. I put together these lovely bins which actually work surprisingly well. After all, here we are, years later, and I can, in fact, still unclip the little holders keeping the fence together and swing open a "gate" to get at the dirt.

One of the few things I do, however, is periodically flip the compost and move it from one bin to another. 

And add to it, of course. In that lovely dark compost pictured above is all my yard waste, kitchen scraps, and... a sock, a couple of Legos, and weird plastic bits of garbage that find their way in due to living in a busy urban area. I honestly think one of my favorite things of turning compost is discovering what ended up in there accidentally. One year, I found a pair of my glasses. 

Oddly, that was fun. Tiring, but weirdly rewarding, as I shoved out all of the super dark dirt and mulched it around my various gardens. Surprisingly, there wasn't  a ton, so I spread some in the O-Jizo-sama garden (aka the established shade garden) because it has always had pretty poor soil. Every year, it seems to sink below the line of my lawn, the plants are so hungry for nutrients. The other place I amended the soil was where my jack-in-the-pulpit and the baby jacks are kind of struggling. Hopefully, this will help? I'm also making plans for a trip to the garden store to get some other soil amendment stuffs.

So there you go. Several paragraphs and a photo about DIRT.

We are still waiting on the results of Mason's COVID test. Hopefully, we will hear today.  The phone rang just now and I jumped up to get it thinking that was it, but for some weird reason I couldn't actually pick up the phone (this is our ancient landline.) I'm sure Mason gave his cell phone number to the health care workers, anyway. I am annoyed in general the extent to which telemarketers have taken advantage of the fact that we all kind of have to pick-up unknown calls these days, since it can be test results or an tele-appointment or, in our case, sometimes Mason's teachers making a checking-in call.  

Of course, that last one isn't a concern any more. As of Tuesday, we have a high school senior (final year before college/university for my friends in the rest of the world) in the house. Whoo!

Other things going on in my life include the fact that I will probably spend some time this evening baking cookies, because I signed up for a Zoom Pride event: Drag Queen Cookie Decorating.  Apparently, on Friday night, we are making drag queen cookies, not, alas, being taught to bake cookies BY drag queens, but whatever. Out Front Minnesota has sent me a number of Pride Event notifications and, while I almost never went to a lot of Pride events now that it's become so commercialized, I am super down for queer baking.

The other thing is that rachelmanija put out a call for submissions for her charity anthology (https://rachelmanija.dreamwidth.org/2377903.html)  to benefit Outright Action International and I have answered. In fact, I wrote about 2,000 words already so I should have zero problem making the October 1 deadline. Although, as is my custom these days, I have informed Mason that I have a deadline, so that he can start nagging me about whether or not I am writing. I'm actually having way too much for with this and that's kind of new? I have really been struggling to write ANYTHING during the pandemic/riots and so I guess that's a big THANK YOU to Rachel for inspiring me.

How have y'all been?

I was updating my static web site and it occurred to me that I should probably let folks over here know what I'm up to.

A lot of people have asked me if any of the AngeLINK books will ever be available in electronic formate. The answer is yes. I am working on reformatting a very messy electronic file for Archangel Protocol that I had to steal (from myself) off Torrent. The other books, I have in e-files that are still in usable form. So, I suspect once I get through that, the others will quickly follow. I am hiring someone to do a nice job of them. They should be available in all e-reader formats. Hopefully, that will happen this year.

I had some short story sales that I haven't mentioned.

Tim Leider has accepted "God Box," a science fictional retelling of the golden hemmeroid story from Sammuel 1, for KING DAVID AND THE SPIDERS OF MARS. KING DAVID... is the second Biblical horror anthology to come out from Dybbuk Press, and is a follow-up to the wildly popular SHE NAILED A STAKE THROUGH HIS HEAD (in which my story "Jawbone of an Ass" appears.)

Earlier, I sold a reprint of "Tutivillius" to Michael Mirriam for his second Northern Lights Anthology. For those few who came to the Diversicon reading of this story, it's the one about a female demon who has been charged with collecting words mangeled during the performance of Mass. It's my most Catholic story (there's even a discussion about transubstantiation in it,) but it's also very sweet. I'm pleased it's found a bigger home. It's only previous publication was in a Wyrdsmiths' chapbook.

Speaking of chapbooks, I'm currenly working on an AngeLINK short story that will appear in the Galyaxicon 2012 program book/chapbook. Apparently, Wendy Pini will also be producing some original art for the chapbook, so this is definately something y'all will want to get your hands on if at all possible. Be sure to check out http://www.gaylaxicon2012.org/ for information!

Okay, I think that's everything!