I switched to the new blogger. I've been meaning to do it for ages, but I never felt like I had the time (!) to even think about something requiring a new google account... (I hope you guys don't get mad because you need to get google accounts too!)

The 2007 Nebula awards are being held in New York City! I have no idea yet if that means I'll be able to go to any of it, because it sounds like it has to be a package deal. But imagine! (Usually nothing is held in NYC because it's too expensive. Not sci-fi or horror conventions, anyway.)

Today I started the March Asimov's that came weeks ago, but was waiting because I took a break from April Analog to read Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler. (More about that some other time...) After I finished it I missed it, and felt like reading another novel... I felt like reading "All the Birds of Hell" by Tanith Lee, only longer, like novel-length. So then I looked up novels by Tanith Lee, found she's written a great many, resolved to go to B&N ASAP, finished reading "Things That Aren't" in April Analog, & went to bed. That was last weekend.

With Analog & Asimov's I usually read the editorial first, then turn to the "Short Stories" section of the table of contents. The last name on the list was one I knew: Deborah Coates. I didn't remember what, exactly, but I knew she'd written something I loved. So I read that story, "Chainsaw On Hand", first. About halfway through I knew which story I was remembering. It's a story I've been thinking about a lot lately. I've been meaning to look up which issue it was in so I could re-read it. It was "46 Directions, None of them North" in last year's March Asimov's. I've even been trying to remember just how many directions it was! The reason I've been thinking about it is I think it captures perfectly (& banishes brilliantly) a kind of bitterness and regret I'm afraid I've been falling into, a woman I'm afraid I might turn into, or would, if I didn't have some big changes planned.

"Chainsaw" turned out to be an example of one of my favorite subgenres: Tales of I Can't Believe It Will Ever Be Warm Again. "All The Birds of Hell" is probably my favorite in this category. (I've written one, called "Always Birds", but I think it needs a lot of work.) This afternoon I sat down with the cat next to the heater and read "Chainsaw" & "Directions" in turn, in between tending to Giga Pets. (Not to mention a real pet and my daugher.) It made me think about "The Daily Grind." I think maybe there's really 2 stories bundled in there, or some themes that belong to a separate story.

There's the story that's about a future in which workers NYC needs can't afford to live anywhere near it. But there's also a story about someone who feels powerless in a work situation, which is where the title comes from. And maybe that's a separate story. Both "Chainsaw" and "Directions" are about women who feel powerless because of choices they made years ago, who don't understand how their lives "turned out" the way they did. This feeling of powerlessness is what a number of "Critters" who critiqued "Grind" reacted against, because the powerlessness remains when the story ends.

The truth is, if you are still alive, your life hasn't "turned out" any particular way and you can still make choices. DC's characters learn this, in each case through someone they love who has seized on something that seems completely insane. I want to contemplate these 2 stories in the context of revising "The Daily Grind."

Cyn, check out the link (on the left, under Authors' Pages) to Deborah Coates' blog. I think the 2 of you might get along...