saycestsay

Originally posted by will_couvillier at James Gunn's Online Workshop

Just had a moment. Received an email titled "Submission: Superlative For Goodbye" and thought, eh, rejection, then thought, Superlative For ??? which story is that? Wait, what? That's not one of my titles, where? Who?? Then I clicked it open and saw it's a contract for my 100 word micro thing I sold to GRAND SCIENCE FICTION!

Ooohhhh. Click BEFORE panic.

They didn't say when it would be published but they said I could squee now :) This is relieved squeeing.

BTW, did you know the word "last" is a superlative?

I'm a graduate of Clarion West 2010, plus I participated in the Write-a-thon last year. And this year too. It's a great tool for motivation PLUS a great way to help broke students financially.

Sign up now for Clarion West’s ninth annual Write-a-thon

The ninth annual Clarion West Write-a-thon is open for participant sign-up now through June 16. Every summer since 2004, famous authors and emerging ones have announced their six-week writing goals on individual web pages hosted by Clarion West. Clarion West gets donations from their supporters when those goals are met. Michael Swanwick and several others have offered Tuckerized story appearanced to their supporting donors.

Award-winners Vonda N. McIntyre, Rachel Swirsky, and Nisi Shawl are already signed up. The goal is to have at least 200 participating writers by June 16; four supporters have offered to give Clarion West $2000 if that happens.

Also known as “the shadow workshop,” the Clarion West Write-a-thon runs in conjunction with our six-week summer workshop. More details on how the Write-a-thon works and how you can take part are available at www.clarionwest.org/writeathon.

Clarion West is a 501 c 3 nonprofit organization which presents writing workshops for those preparing for careers as professional writers in the fantastic genres.

Originally posted by ravenelectrick at Spec-tacular now available as a Kindle e-book

I've been home a few days (worked and slept, mostly.) Today is a day off and it's gray cloud cold and rainy. Seattle followed me home! Well, not Sunday's Seattle, which was crystal clear and almost warm. I saw snow capped cloud wreathed Rainier in one direction and lace-capped sharp Olympias in the other. And stood outside without my peacoat. But that was Sunday.

Saturday night I hung out with Marta Murvosh and had dinner with the Writers Cramp group in the bar. Mmmm, spice-rubbed steak! Yum, cuba libre! Oh. Yeah. Writers. Anyway, they left precipitously to catch their friend's reading.

"No one knows him but he's been in Asimov's and Fantasy & Science Fiction," Marta told me. "I had to convince him to come here." Who is this friend? "Tim McDaniel," Marta said.

No dimes dropped. AFAIWC, another writer, probably someone who wrote great prose that no one read, certainly I'd never heard of him.

I stayed behind to collect change from the tabs paid. Ho hum, no hurry. I got the money arranged then strolled to his reading, 20 mins after the hour, 5 mins to go.

The guy up front says, "I'll finish up by reading my flash that was in Fantasy & Science Fiction a couple years ago, "Why the Aliens Did What They Did To that Suburb of Madison, Wisconsin"."

I'd settled into a seat in the back row. His words stunned me. "You mean you're that guy? You wrote that?" I blurted.

Cuz, you know, it's memorable. I've taken delight in sharing it with friends and family over the last couple of years.

http://www.bestsf.net/the-magazine-of-fantasy-science-fiction-june-2006/

Tim was quite delighted that I interrupted him. Afterwards, he said it was one of those things a writer dreams for: an unknown person who has read and enjoyed his work. And ya know, he's right.

Still a day late (but not a dollar short) with this A to Z Blogging challenge. As I type this I'm struggling to figure out a suitable "d" subject to blog a couple hundred words about. Denmark? Danish? Diamonds? dogs? dwarves? Oh wait, dexter. How could I forget Dexter?

D is for Dexter.

from wikipedia:

Dexter is an American television drama series, which debuted on Showtime on October 1, 2006. The sixth season premiered on October 2, 2011. The series centers on Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall), a blood spatter pattern analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department who moonlights as a serial killer. Set in Miami, the show's first season was largely based on the novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay, the first of his Dexter series novels. Subsequent seasons have evolved independently of Lindsay's works; several are based on short stories by Lindsay's friend, Stephen R. Pastore. It was adapted for television by screenwriter James Manos, Jr., who wrote the first episode.


What fascinates me most about Dexter's character is that here is this cold-blooded intelligent murderer, and we root for him. Hannibal is a cold-blooded intelligent murderer and we do NOT root for him, we get chills just watching him. But Dexter? He's our brother, our friend, our Dark Avenger. The Dexter of the books is incredibly insulting and does not like people, and honestly I have trouble reading the books (the attitude and the vibe turn me off. Sorry, Jeff Lindsay.) The Dexter of the tv show has no problem killing anyone who gets in his way and plots murders with all the intensity trained into him by his father, Harry the cop, and his job as a police homicide department "splatter expert." I'm pretty sure, btw, that homicide departments do not operate with the lab closeted next door to the detectives' desks, but then, it's a tv show, and who am I to quibble?

So I think that the tv Dexter is a more interesting examination of duality, for the writer's toolbox, than the book Dexter, who pulls out of his problems with lots of deus ex machina. I've wondered about Dexter (tv) and his avowed "I'm a sociopath with no ability to form human connections" because obviously he does indeed have emotional depth. He just struggles with sharing. Because he's scared of his ability to kill.

I believe that killing is not an easy thing for a human to do, but once a person kills, it becomes an emotional game changer. I think Dexter is a character that never had that borderline built into his fiber, never had the doubts and hesitations about killing. I think the redirection of Dexter's abilities/compulsions into a Dark Avenger was a stroke of brilliance, but something that would compound the character's guilt. And we see a lot of that in Dexter's breakdown after Rita's death. It's his fault, he cries. He did it.

Anyway, I love Dexter's character. The tv Dexter would be good to meet in real life. The snake-like creature from the novels? Not so much.

My favorite cookie is Mint Chocolate Chip Raisin, which is a regular chocolate chip recipe (tollhouse, I prefer a soft cookie to a crisp one) with half the vanilla replaced by mint extract and raisins rather than nuts (I don't like nuts in my cookies.)

Though I do love peanut butter cookies. Smooth, not crunchy. I've wondered sometimes about the traditional peanut butter cookie pattern: a pound sign placed with fork tines. What's up with that? And yet it just makes the cookie taste better.

I like making ppeffernusse. Anything with honey, anise seed, ginger, and powdered sugar? Heaven.

The cooking shows are descending into reality tv hell and they do have a Cookie Challenge. The judges do try to be honest but, dude? Seriously? It's a cookie. You're supposed to enjoy the damned thing.

I'm also a fan of lemon cookies. Almost any kind of lemon cookie. Sandwich? Yep, I consume them with tea or coffee. Lemon coolers? Aside from the messy powdered sugar, yep, love 'em. Girl Scout Lemonaides? I bought 5 boxes of them this year. Don't ask.

Boysenberry

I craved boysenberry pie when I was pregnant. My only craving, but strong. Strong. Cravings are like unfed addictions: building pressure, uneasiness, developing strategies to cope, then finally admitting helplessness. My husband was pleased to help feed my craving. Luckily we live in an era of close-by markets and frozens pies abound. The smell of baking boysenberry, sweet and tart, browned crust and warming sugar, a big belly kicking me with its promise of life, memories of growing up near Knott's Berry Farm and the annual trek to savor the boysenberry ices and pies and raw fruit from the bushes. Wisely he didn't try to share the pie with me. Even pregnant, I couldn't eat an entire pie, not in one sitting, not in a reasonably short time, but that was all right. It was the first bite that satisfied the anxiety. Having a child, channeling childhood pleasures, the tang that summoned the memories, a tang better than any candy. Boysenberry.

Blackberry

The best bushes, fat with black fruit ripened by Tennessee summer, sat on the bit of ground just below the house. This was in the years before Grandpa dug the hole to build the septic tank; this was where the toilet outflow settled. I didn't walk into that swamp, not in tennies, certainly not barefoot (my favorite Tennessee summer footwear), but I could reach. I didn't have a bucket to fill. I used salad bowls and Mason jars and I'd give what I found to Grandma. She'd make pies. Or pastries. Or put the fruit on vanilla ice cream. Once we together set a jar on the kitchen table, a wobbly formica thing, stirred some sugar into it and capped it with muslin. Didn't take too long to ferment, a few days, a week. Blackberry wine. We giggled when we drank it, my grandma and me, feeling sinful and dizzy. I remember the flavor even now, when the days are warm and bees circle. That store-bought stuff on the shelf doesn't possess the same ability to summon the memories. Those blackberries exist in my mind.

Yes, it did say ALIEN previously. Yes, ALIEN and the alien franchise comprise my favorite bits of cinema. Yes, as a science fiction writer and writer of fantasy I contemplate the use of aliens to illustrate my messages and explore the human condition.

But damn. ARCHER rocks!



The show does feature the voices of some serious actors, most recently guest starring Bryan Cranston and Burt Reynolds, and starring (as Archer's power-mad drunken mother Malory Archer: Jessica Walter) but the stars of the show are Archer, Sterling Archer, and his sometime paramour and always sociopathic Lana Kane.

Of course, Archer himself is childish, disorganized, and sociopathic. But deadly with a weapon and always able to get himself out of the inevitable fixes he gets himself into.

Someone asked me if this was a cartoon GET SMART. Naw. It's the same genre: spy vs spy (in this case, Archer's ISIS vs "The Other Guys." Whomever they might be, ranging from Russians to Caribbean pirates to astronauts bent on populating Mars.

This is more James Bond and less Get Smart, more Pink Panther and less South Park, more Sawyer and less Jack (did I mention I just watched the entire series of LOST? Hurley rules! ahem.) And that's just Archer.

Lana is a wonderful kick ass better-operative-than-you who always seems to go against her own better judgement (characterized by her drawled, "Nooooooo!") to save ISIS, the world, and Sterling Archer (usually in that order.)

There's plenty of gross bloody bits, stupid sexual perversion jokes, and at least two robots plus one holographic continuing characters, two of whom are marriage-minded.

A favorite character is Woodhouse, Archer's butler, who has a not-too-subtle heroin addiction and the long-suffering-attitude of a totally lost man who will occasionally find a way to trip up Archer.

I live for the end moments, since the comedic timing of each episode is cut just a little sharp and rough. It's a verbal joke that adds icing to the visual cake of ARCHER. Highly recommended. For mature audiences only.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1486217/

Originally posted by mckitterick at Hadley Rille Books is having an April Fool's ebooks sale - no foolin'!

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**I stole this from Chris because I couldn't be pants to get the links myself. I have stories in several Hadley Rille Books too; and plus being Hadley Rille Books is a lovely enterprise helmed by the wonderful and talented Mr Eric The Reynolds!