I found out that I got two Honorable Mentions in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror (19th annual collection). "La Noche de Duelo" was a poem that was published in the last issue of Neverary, and my novella "Winter's Dark Memory" appeared in the antho Darkness Rising 2005. Whoo!

All I found out at first was that I had two mentions, and I had to go clear across town to get the book (at the first bookstore, their one and only copy had apparently been stolen). I was very surprised by the poem's mention, since I'm hardly known for poetry and rarely-- I mean RARELY-- write it.

The second piece of good news is that my story "One in Ten Thousand" was accepted for GUD Magazine's Issue 0. It's a sad little sci-fi tale. So, it's been a nice couple of weeks. :)

Has this boosted my writing? Um...

I submitted a story to Firefox News's

It's the End of the World As We Know It

issue after all!

I went back to a story I started last winter when I was really cold, and added a version of the idea I'd been playing with for this submission, plus took it a little farther.

It's funny how when I say definitively that I'm not going to do something, sometimes that's just when I go ahead and do it.

The issue of Shimmer I ordered arrived today. It looks beautiful: high quality paper, great illustrations It even comes with a promotional bookmark! I'll start reading it tomorrow. I'd really enjoy submitting an ms to them. If it seems an appropriate venue for "Being" I'll submit that (since both they and Oceans accept simultaneous subs) and if not, I'll look forward to sending them something else!

This blog has been very boring lately, what with my phone being dead, and all. (i.e. no dialup=no internet)

I finished War of the Worlds, and I agree with Cyn that it would make a great movie just as it's written. I have now gone back to The Log from the Sea of Cortez by John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts, Jr. If that book did not have a cult following in the 60's, it should have.

"The Daily Grind" will be distrubuted with next week's batch of Critters manuscripts. I hope that will inspire me to revise it. Plus, I hope Log from the Sea will inspire me to get back to "Best Laid Plans."

Meanwhile, I've decided to stop waiting for a last minute blast of inspiration before the Sept. 1 deadline for Firefox News's "It's the End of the World As We Know It" issue. If "A Singular Being" does not get published before then, I will submit it for the "Aliens" issue, deadline March 1st.

I submitted "A Singular Being" to Oceans of the Mind.

One method I've devised for researching markets is to look up an author I like who's been published in a something I like to read, and see where else she or he has been published. Today I picked Ian Creasey, who wrote "Silence in Florence," which appeared in September Asimov's. The story's protagonist is a chambermaid in 17th Century Florence, and chamberpots play an important role in the narrative. In the blurb preceding the story, he's quoted as saying "...how often fiction concentrates on so-called important people...while relegating servants to mere background props. I wrote this story to redress the balance..."

Well, I just love that. Right now I'm reading War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells, and as always with anything 19th century, the characters can count on their meals being prepared and cleared up after with no effort of their own, at least until the heat rays start flying. (Even Wells, whose social conscience I adore. It was the socio-economic reality of the time. Back then if you didn't have a servant, you probably were one, and in any case literally had no time.)

Creasey also wrote "The Hastillan Weed," which appeared in February 2006 Asimov's, and which I liked a lot. He's had many publications, and his news listing alone yielded many possibilities. I think I've settled on 2, both of which accept simultaneous subs, for "A Singular Being"'s next destination: Oceans of the Mind, and Shimmer.

So I'm thinking that I need to start looking for an agent again. Problem is, I'm not sure I'm happy with the title(s) I came up with for the guy I submitted to before. He said that titles were about 60% of what agents look for. Just because that's what grabs the reader. So as long and hard as I worked coming up with titles for my work, I wonder if I don't need some better ones.
This particular series consists of light-hearted mysteries (I wouldn't say cozy, but they aren't exactly hard crime) My main character is Thomas Nakamatsu, a college professor and how-to book author living in a small town in Northwest Ohio. He's a southern boy from Tennessee of Japanese descent who gets pretty annoyed when people laugh at his accent. In the first book he meets the woman who will eventually become his wife a few books down the road, investigates embezzlement at the university and solves the murder of a good friend. The title I suffered to come up with was "Confesisons of a Redneck Samauri." thinking that would be the theme for the other titles and I came up with a few, "Memories of a Titanium Magnolia", "Adventures of a Virgin Vigilante." But I don't know. I wish I could feel that these were the titles I wanted, but I don't have that feeling.

104 days.

That's how long it took Asimov's to reject my ms.

I really hate their form letter. It's rude and insulting. Analog's is a million times better.

Having the occasion to look at Analog's form letter again (when comparing it with Asimov's) I noticed that one of the themes they say has been done so often it's impossible to get a fresh story out of it is when the alien world turns out to be Earth. I suppose "Being" can be seen that way. Alien scientist observing Earth. Is that corny? Maybe I should run it by the Critters...

I'm hooked on my faux blog. I'm having a hard time working on anything else. I need to make myself focus on some other stuff...

I think I'll start this off by posting something writerly: two of the very few stories I have in circulation are short-listed at magazines. So, crossing my fingers there...

Since I haven't been writing much, much of my attention is turned back toward my artwork (and studying for my travel agent's certificate- whew!). I have a shop over at Zazzle, but I wanted a nice art site that would showcase not only what I've made into products, but much of the rest of my art as well. So, I made one, heh, and today is launch day. I hope ya'll will check it out and, of course, enjoy.

Miss Millificent's World

I've created a new blog to chronicle my adventures with plants. Check it out. It's called Some Time (For Plants.)

I have finally done what I've threatened to do for awhile. I have created my mystery in blog form. Check it out here: http://simonwolfesden.blogspot.com/