• 22:04 @therinth HIGH FIVE!!!!! book done bayyybeee! #
• 05:08 special for @jay_lake rt @Foodimentary November 6 is National Nachos Day. Who wants to celebrate? #TodayNFood #
• 05:45 at Starbucks enjoying an espresso truffle (hot chocolate and caffeine, wow!) preparing to review, edit, and write. I also juggle. #
• 05:45 stole a mauve rose from neighbor tom. he calls the scent 'intoxicating.' I have to agree. #
• 08:39 Found a religious hate tract in the bathroom (shredded it.) Found myself saying, "I don't have any tolerance for hate." *sigh* #
• 09:37 task one for the day completed almost. On to the next one. hey, @ragnarwalton , did you get cake mix or shall I? #
• 10:05 okey dokey, a&a editorial tasks done for the nonce. does this mean I can write fictions now? #
• 10:39 so... gmail is down? bleak, bleak my life! #
• 10:40 @mbranesf if you stand before a firing squad: SERPENTINE! Oh wait. That might just be my generation :) #
• 11:13 Sure on my way home now. #
• 13:29 I knew it was your birthday so I'm bakin' a cake :) bakin' a cake, yeah bakin' a cake. #
• 14:09 anyone else having gmail issues? cuz mine just spins and spins :( #

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Oh, I'll probably regret this. But here goes.

A while back, Doug Cohen of Realms of Fantasy polled for reviewers of the new iteration of the magazine. Be one of the first to post on my lj, he said, and I'll send you a copy of the magazine to review on your blog.

Nice. I've always loved the fiction in ROF and looked forward to the opportunity to read the new iteration and review it here.

I sent Doug Cohen my mailing address (the street address where I live, as I did not have a PO Box at that time.)

Sadly, the magazine copy never showed up.

What DID show up was a subscription request.

I DESPISE subscription renewals... and this was worded as a renewal. One of the reasons I don't regularly subscribe to magazines (any magazines) is because I dislike receiving these bills. Being unemployed/underemployed and constantly on the edge of broke, the last thing I need is another bill, even one that is less than a month's Starbuck's indulgence. It really isn't the amount, it's the fact of a bill. The physical presence.

I mentioned this to Doug Cohen and he said, "Lots of people are getting the review copy late, don't worry, it'll show up; and call customer service about the subscription notice."

Hello? Broke me here: I have a pay as I go phone which charges me even yes for 800 numbers... so no, not gonna pay the various phone companies to cancel a subscription request I did not make. Seems far too much like an opt-out scam to me.

Here we are a few months later and I have not received a review copy of ROF (don't expect to, either) but I've received several subscription renewal dunning notices.

One arrived yesterday. In an official size 10 white envelope on white paper. Last chance, it says, to subscribe at the old rate.

I mentioned in Doug Cohen's lj that a. love the new TOC (ROF fiction is always a thing of beauty and joy) and b. I'd received another dun note. His response?

"I mentioned something the first time you told me about this. There isn't much more I can personally do, as it's not my department. You can try calling customer service directly to see if that gets you anywhere: 877-318-3269"

I feel this is an inadequate solution as I did not SEND my address to the customer service department, I sent my address to Doug Cohen. I'm quite willing to continue to let the customer service department send me dun notices, but I reserve the right to complain about it.

And so. This is me. Complaining.

Strikeforce is going to have a MMA show on CBS tomorrow. The main event looks to get pretty interesting—Fedor vs. Brett Rogers. This could mean a lot to the #2 MMA promotion in the country, though the product needs to be slicked up a bit. The UFC, for example, will use subtitles for many of their pay-per-views, like "Ill Will" or "Bedlam" or "The Comeback." Strikeforce doesn't really differentiate their shows in such a way. Too bad too, as the main event is rich with thematic possibilities.



Strikeforce on CBS: Four-Dollar Haircut Night

Well, the most recent run through the slush wasn't really warlike, sadly it wasn't terribly productive either. Only two or three died in one line, and several make it over five pages, which just means it took longer to get to some form of "no".

I really do want to thank the person who gifted me with NAVU, I'm quite glad I didn't have anything in my mouth I'd have ruined keyboard and monitor. I think I laughed for a good five minutes.


Sadly, nothing I felt was strong enough for the market at this point, but I soldier on.

Tags: submissions
Current Music: She's like the wind - Patrick Swayze; Wendy Fraser

Please see my review of Cinema Spec here:

http://abyssandapex.livejournal.com/6401.html#cutid1

Twas better than I thought it would be.

I had planned to only be at work for a couple hours this morning, since I'd burned up so many extra hours this week doing trainings. Instead, I wound up staying a bit longer. Oh well.

Then I get an email from my boss asking me to respond to a question someone else had sent him. I had to write back explaining that this other person had asked for his input to a question I had originally set in motion, passing it off to a third party to handle because I was busy all week with trainings. Ooops.

I did manage to get my hair cut, followed by a nice sushi lunch, as well as read some pages in an Alastair Reynolds novel (hooray!).

Then I thought to print out the draft of a nonfiction piece that's due today (!) and read it over while I wait for my pilates instructor to show (she'd called to say she might be a couple minutes late) only to discover that my computer has died. WTF?!

Then, as I was heading out the door to go to the pilates studio (sans MS), my instructor phones again to say that the street repair people that have torn up the entrance to her studio have left a mess that looos like it will puncture car tires! So now we've canceled today's session.

Then I spent more time trying to revive the computer, but to no avail. Crap.

The good news is: 1) the nonfiction piece was written in the cloud, so I should be able to access it via my secondary computer, and 2) I backed up the 18K novel-in-progress last night onto an auxiliary hard drive.

Tonight, assuming I get some work done first, I'll go out to hear Brandon Sanderson read. He's doing a book tour for his Wheel o' Time novel, and it's come to nearby West Chester.

Current Mood: weird

Just got a hilarious call from the KU IT department. Well, it would be hilarious if it weren't so pitiful: On Monday, one of my students was unable to log in to his website via FTP to move some files up there for his class assignment. The Help Desk person responsible called me to ask about it. To give you an idea of her technical depth, here are some snippets from the conversation:

"Do you know what problems he encountered?" she asked.
"He was unable to log in to his FTP program" I answered. (Note that she already knew this, because she had stated it when I answered.)
"How did he get permission to use FTP?" she asked.
*blink-blink*
"You need to use secure FTP to move files to a KU Web server," I said. "He was trying to upload files to his People site at KU."

I mean, huh? What did these questions have to do with anything? It was about the simplest issue ever: Someone was unable to log in to a secure site. So of course the first thing Help Desk does is call the professor. Um?

Your tax and tuition dollars at work, people.

Chris

Tags: decline of civilization

Any designers out there looking for a job? Check this "ad" out from our design mavens at Realms of Fantasy:

Applicants should include "references and links to your work. We are looking for someone that can hand in the finished layout and design in seven days from when they receive all materials. If you're the kind of person who needs extensions or is uncertain whether you could handle this sort of deadline, don't bother applying. Being late with the work is not an option. We would like to hire someone who is willing to maintain the current look of the magazine. Some creative tweaks are acceptable, but we are not looking for any kind of radical redesigns. Writers are often told to read a magazine before submitting to it. If you're interested in this position, you would be wise to purchase a copy of the latest issue and flip through it with an eye toward its layout and design."


Could be a good gig. I'd recommend to those with an online portfolio arbitrarily putting the words HARRY POTTER on all your stuff.

I'm not a veteran novelist.  In my career as a writer, I've written two complete novels and two significant chunks of novels that I haven't completed yet.  Most of my experience is with short stories, so, while I was writing this morning, I realized how much I'm enjoying the exploratory nature of novel writing.  I feel like (at least in rough draft) I have room to poke my imagination into the corners of my character's lives.  The writing is less pressured in some ways.  In a short story I'm always driven by the idea that every single word has to be bent to the story's ending.  Short stories are about unity of purpose, but the novel doesn't feel that way to me.  Maybe it's because the novel's purpose accretes more gradually than the short story.

In the end, I believe, every word of a novel has to work the same way every word in a short story does.  The words have the same responsibility.  But while I'm composing in the novel, I don't feel the pressure.  I quite enjoy the sensation.

Below the cut you'll find a bit from this morning's writing.  One of my view point characters, Anitchka Paraskevi, a second year teacher at Low High, is talking to a veteran teacher in the building about her classroom.  Comments welcome.
 
**********

( Work in Progress from Low High Sophomores )

Tags: writing
Current Mood: content
Current Music: "A Bad Dream," Keane

• 22:15 so now I'm wondering about occasional dragons. #
• 05:42 a cautionary tale for our times: rt @ForbiddenPlanet Remember, remember, the fifth of November... forbiddenplanet.com/... #
• 08:36 annie lennox sang the end title song for bram stoker's dracula. pretty. bit.ly/2y0fwD #
• 12:04 At starbucks reading @paolo_bacigalupi 's new novel the windup girl. Savory. #

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