What I did on my weekend…

7 Days ’til Worldcon

PETERMBALL Journal , , , , , ,

Man, I’ve been all over the place for the last week. Good stuff happened and bad stuff happened and my emotional state bounced around like one of those 20-cent rubber crazy balls you used buy from the machines out the front of the grocery store, but there was rarely a moment where stuff happened all on its own and demanded no real engagement on my part. Fortunately the last three or four days have trended towards the good rather than the bad, but I suspect any seven day period that starts with your parents ringing from the other side of the world and saying “we were almost killed in a car crash” is going to struggle to come out ahead on points.

Still, among the cool stuff:

– Doing edits and contracts for my short story, L’esprit de L’escalier, which will be coming up at Apex Magazine in the future. Astute readers may put two-and-two together and realise this was the source of much post-acceptance dancing two weeks back.

– Kicked off a whole new round of snoopy dancing, for it appears that I’ve sold a third story for the year. Once again I err on the side of vagueness until details firm up, but suffice to say that this one is rated pretty damn high on the awesomesauce scale.

– Had the yearly rejection count climb to a tantalising 19 rejections, which has spurred me to get back into the wordmines and get some new stories done.

– Picked up the inimitable Ben Francisco from the airport, whereupon there was nattering about writing and the eating of cassoulet and the planning of literary hi-jinx in the lead-up to the con.

In other news I’m still prodding my brain and saying “yo, you ready to acknowledge that there’s a book with our name on it coming out next week” and the brain continues to respond with a surly growl and a denial. I suspect I’m saving my “ZOMG…BOOK!” type squee until there’s a copy in my hands, whereupon nearby dogs will probably register my joy. I also have to figure out what I’m going to read in my reading slot at the con (logically it should be Bleed, but there’s always something a tad iffy about me reading Aster’s interior monologue); I was tempted to go with the aforementioned L’esprit de L’escalier, but then I realised I had no idea how to pronounce the title without mangling the French and thus it was shelved for another time.
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Current Writing Metrics
Consecutive Days Writing (500+ words): 1
New Short Stories Sent Into the Wild: 9/30
Rejections in 2010: 19/100
Black Candy Word Count (Finish Date: 31st August )

13 Days ‘Til Worldcon

PETERMBALL Journal

Yesterday started out okay with the job interview. Then it kind of downgraded a bit. Then the following happened and it downgraded a lot.

On The Sudden Discover that Your Parents Live their Retirement in the Same Way Most People Live their Early Twenties
A Play in One Act

Peter is at home, working on a few things after going to an interview. His parents are overseas. They’ve been taunting him with postcards from Vienna, because Peter has this thing for Vienna after watching The Third Man and Before Sunrise too many times. Peter’s Parent’s are classy like that. They send him pictures of Viennese food. They’re not actually in Vienna anymore, because old-fashioned postal systems aren’t as instant as e-mail. They’re meant to be coming home soon. The phone rings a few times. Peter rolls off the couch and answers it.

Peter’s Dad calling from distant Turkey: Hello?
Peter: Hello?
Peter’s Dad calling from distant Turkey: Hello?
Peter: Yeah, hello?
Peter’s Dad calling from distant Turkey: Hello?
Peter: I think there’s a delay. Count to five before you answer.
Peter’s Dad calling from distant Turkey: Hello.
There is counting to five.
Peter: Hello. How’s things? Count to five before you answer.
Peter’s Dad calling from distant Turkey: Let me tell you upfront we’re both fine *now* and there’s nothing to worry about…
Peter blinks a few time, processing that. He doesn’t really count to five, but that doesn’t seem to matter.
Peter: Yeah, this is not going to end well.
And lo, Peter was correct, for his parents had travelled off to distant Turkey and suffered a great calamity that shouldn’t be spoken of in any great detail. Peter feels somewhat lucky that he still has parents at this point, especially since they repeat the phrase “we’re both fine” with the kind of repetition that suggests they might not have been. Peter listens to the whole story and counts to five.
Peter: So you’re both fine.
Peter’s Dad calling from distant Turkey: Mostly fine. There are bruises.
Peter counts to five. He frets about how many details he would have left out if he was telling this story. He dislikes the use of the word Mostly.
Peter: And you’re still flying home tomorrow?
Peter’s Dad calling from distant Turkey: Yes.
Peter: Good.
Peter counts to five. Peter’s Dad calling from distant Turkey counts to five.
Peter: You know, somehow I always thought this conversation would be the opposite way around.
Peter: Also, neither of you are leaving the country EVER AGAIN.
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Current Writing Metrics
Consecutive Days Writing (500+ words): 1
New Short Stories Sent Into the Wild: 9/30
Rejections in 2010: 18/100
Black Candy Word Count (Finish Date: 31st August)

15 Days ’til Worldcon

PETERMBALL Journal

And so we have hit the slice of my calendar marked “The Cliffs of Insanity.”  For the next two weeks my days are packed – there are meetings to go to, there are house-cleanings prior to the arrival of guests, there are trips to the airport, and through a variety of circumstances there are now job interviews to attend.

I generally don’t talk about being unemployed online because a) it’s a downer and no-one needs to hear me whinging; and b) because the spam-bots come a-calling as soon as you say the word “unemployed” in an effort to convince you that you too can make thousands of dollars for a big company if you only you send them one…little…e-mail. Besides which, there’s only so many body-shots your ego can take, and when you’re skill-set largely covers “writing” and “reading” and “saying semi-intelligent things about a select sampling of the Gothic literary movement” your ego takes a battering in the current job market.

Tomorrow I’ve got an meeting for a job I rather want, though. ‘Tis a rare feeling to actually look forward to the interview.
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Current Writing Metrics
Consecutive Days Writing (500+ words): 9
New Short Stories Sent Into the Wild: 9/30
Rejections in 2010: 16/100
Black Candy Word Count (Finish Date: 31st August)
 <- Not accurate, but I’m in a hurry, so this will be updated later.