The Namazu-Spindrift Parts Catalog

stale_hermit @ 2008-07-16T11:03:00

2008-07-16T15:08:08Z

Hey! The Editor-in-Question answered my (final--I promised myself that) email query and said they check must've gone to my old address. Anyway, there is a new one on the way, to my current address. It should get here while I'm at Readercon.

Got the tooth temporarily fixed yesterday afternoon. Novocaine is my friend. So is Tylenol.

Now back to work.

Beset by the ordinary

2008-07-15T14:53:56Z

Let's see: reviews hanging over my head; need to get the vehicle inspected, but it's First Come, First Served, in little places with tiny parking lots that are already full, so it's catch-as-catch can: meaning, I'm still trying to get the truck inspected.

Oh yeah, and my cracked tooth (from last year) has become a broken tooth--yes, another medical thing, once again, crops up Right Before I'm supposed to go to Readercon. This is only the second time, sure, after the Great Beaver Dam Infection Incident of 2006, but we'll see what the dentist says. I managed to get a 4:30pm appointment today, right after I pick up the urchin from his science camp.

Real Writing done? None to speak of. Just reviews and, in the meantime, scratching notes for things in the notebook and on assorted pieces of paper which, hopefully, I won't lose. And adding things to the To-Do list.

But: the new plates are on the truck, and I did 6 loads of laundry yesterday so now I have clean underwear again. Triaged some more of my books and got them listed for sale online. That's the successfully "done" so far.

And now it's time to walk the dog.

Let's not discuss the approaching GM lay-offs, shall we?

Assorted Things & Stuff

2008-07-07T13:09:29Z

Huzzah, the first "real" run of the new Adventure! game went well last night, right down to the cliffhanger. This is a small group (4 PCs, one of whom is my own, and I'm the current GM).

We have in the House:

one superbly skilled botanist/explorer who will no doubt make a fine mad scientist;

one escape artist/magician with a grudge;

one (slightly identity-confused) jazz trumpeter who may also become an engineer/inventor of some sort;

and a possibly unstable NY socialite with a strange connection to a costumed character spotted late at night high above the city streets.

Ummmmm. Guess which one's mine.

Okay, enough chortling. Time to get back to work.

Paying the bills

2008-07-06T19:49:52Z

There is writing, and then there is getting paid for it--or not, as in this case.

The market-in-question's guidelines say it pays on publication. My piece ran at the beginning of April. I have sent the editor two polite emails since then letting him know that I haven't received a check yet, and reminding him that my snail address has changed since he bought the piece, just in case that's the problem.

The editor hasn't responded. At all.

The magazine is still up and running. Still publishing stories. Just, apparently, not paying much attention to me.

So...this editor will be at Readercon. I am planning to ask him there, face to face, if he's sent a check out. I suppose he could have completely failed to notice my snail note in December about an address change, as well as emails in January, April, and June... but frankly, even if the check had been misaddressed and forwarded from my old address, I should've received it by now.

And after that, I guess I have to go to semi-official channels through SFWA. Which I've done before, when Galaxy Online disappeared without paying me for an article.

overwhelmed by Things & Stuff

2008-07-01T12:20:36Z

Man, the advent of summer vacation has really thrown me for a loop. Between urchin and household maintenance & stuff like drs appts (why do they always end up all in the same week??), my brain has been elsewhere, and not having much fun doing any of it. Trying to get back on track now.

I've made it to the Y twice--yesterday at 5:45am, because there's no programming there for kids until 4:30pm. No surprise, I was one of many others all there too, because of commitments at other times. There is not much to do at that time except cardio and weights; there's a class for something like tai chi on the schedule from 5:45-7:15am (just barely fits my schedule, since spouse leaves the house at 7:30am), only it turns out it's been canceled for the summer. I doubt I'll make any evening classes (Can't stand coming home to a dirty kitchen,etc., and I know I would) but there's 1/2 slot for an open swim at 2pm so I may get the urchin there then.

But I still have to get the work done, and deal with the latest spate of Little Things To Be Fixed in Pepperell, and my brain is really in "Don't want to do THIS!" mode. So far four people have looked at the house. Only one expressed any interest. Spouse still hasn't talked to Board of Health re: septic issues. It all just makes me tired to think about it.

and onwards

2008-06-28T15:00:51Z

Got some good feedback from my now-way-too-distant writers group back in Acton on the first half of unfinished "Bushido". Thanks, guys!

Still not caught up, but I scribbled a three-page (maybe four-page?) messy to-do list last night, only 1/4 of which was for writing projects. And so it goes.

We have joined the local YMCA. Everyone in the family's been but me (well, and the dog). I get to go today. (Note to self: must order swim suit. Doubt that swimming in sports bra and shorts is quite the thing here in Pittsford.)

Meeting up with our possible addition to the Adventure game today. Hopefully he will have scrounged the $15 for the book; honestly, when (cue old music,) I was a starving student (and starving R&D geek-type later on), I may not have had much, but I did have my gaming stuff. I knew my priorities, dadburnit. So we'll see.

Urchin is off to a birthday party at the local theater; lucky stiff gets to see "Wall-E", which apparently is pretty good, according to the reviews I've seen so far. Spouse wants to go out to lunch during this rare "free" interval--this, after the usual complaints about the stock market being down(er), having no money, house demands, etc. Ha Ha, I say.

But I certainly wouldn't mind some serious curry, or a nice chicken & Thai basil or.... (I found some gra prao at the local farmer's market last weekend. Bought one plant. Just one. Oh, I could roll in that stuff.)

Got to get to the theater now!

summer vacation begins

2008-06-27T13:06:58Z

and I am, so far, not adapting well.

Fallen behind on Everything. I wish, sometimes, that I could produce a writerly blog full of great thoughts (TM) and cheerful advice on the job of producing great stories, but since I am currently neither successful nor even organized (and dealing with all the household crap for two houses isn't helping!) I can only apologize. Lamely. Once again.

I have been thinking (yearning?) for halcyon days of yore in the early 90s when, even though I spent 6:30am - 2pm every Tuesday-Sunday slinging muffins and coffee for $5.50/hr, I could come home, grab a shower, and sit down and just WRITE. I really produced then. I was probably, technically, not as skilled as I am now, but I was actually writing and not hobbled by internal editor demons and Must-do-this-other-thing-first demons and the But-it's-time-to-walk-the-dog demon, and the We're-supposed-to-exercise-sometime-today demon as well. Somehow I need to grab hold of things, triage out the stuff that really isn't important, and get focused.

But first I have to get a bunch of books boxed up and get to the post office.

95% of the world is Stuff

2008-06-23T14:28:11Z

That's why it takes so long to wade through it so you can get to the good bits.

low-lights of the week

2008-06-20T13:25:08Z

I am either going to get pizza from Pontillo's for lunch ($5 for 2 slices of evil pepperoni and a can of Coke) or a gyro (also about $5, but no drink) from Aladdin's across the canal in Schoen Place. Someone is going to cook for me, for a change.

"Bushido" -- haven't worked on it since Tuesday. Still not pulled together.

I've got 2 book reviews to churn out by Monday.

Also have gathered my notes and done some basic research for pitches to write up and send to ASK magazine. note to self: can not get writing job if you don't query first. This is life.

Started one short piece for Playgirl that should be ready to go out by next Tuesday.

Theoretically we're supposed to be playing Adventure tomorrow night. Must call host and confirm this, or I'm wasting my time on prep.

Sundry household needs still left undone, but at least there's clean laundry and dishes. Must buy new pants; down to two pair of jeans now.

Next Tuesday is the last day of school here. Allow me to say, "Arghhhhhh!"

Darwinian Fitness

2008-06-16T14:46:07Z

Quote from last Thursday's family AD&D game:

John (urchin) to Bjorn (daddy): "You have ten hit points. You go first."

Didn't make the deadline for subbing to the R-SPEC anthology. The story lies here in chunks (again) and I'm trying to figure out what to throw out and how to get the remaining pieces in the right order, and what new stuff I absolutely have to add. A story's a story; it'll get sent elsewhere, and it's not like there's any pressure to do PW reviews now.

Enlightenment -- sort of

2008-06-13T13:56:04Z

I _think_ I figured out what to do with "Bushido"--but this will make it yet another grim story for the files, rather than the nice little redemptive piece it was (and which didn't really work quite right). If I can pull this off, it will definitely work, but it won't be a nice story anymore.

I have to do BAD things to my characters. Not that I find it hard to do this, usually. I think it's because this story has been in its "nice" redemptive form for so bloody long, I find it hard to steal away the characters' happy ending.

So I've changed the "hero's" name, and may have to change the "heroine" (the MC) too. That should psych me into it more easily. And after all, having a character named "Connor" (which shortens almost too nicely to "Con") works, in a thematic sense. The female lead began as "Crystal", which still works overall. Strange that I have to change _his_name and not hers. Guess my female characters are just more naturally psychotic than the males....

Adventure tonight!

2008-06-12T13:12:47Z

By that, I actually mean, we're playing the 2nd session of "Family D&D Night", not the rpg "Adventure" (although I would _love_ to be doing that as well; that will have to wait until _next_ weekend when I do the very first run of that new game)

"Bushido" is still not up to snuff for R-SPEC submission, but hopefully it will be there by Saturday (deadline is 6/15)

The %$@^&^#@!&** House in Pepperell now needs a new septic system. This will probably cost 15-20k. Arrrghhhh! Methinks I just heard my hoped-for Readercon trip get flushed.

Mwwa-haw-haw-haw! (I'm so proud!)

2008-06-06T15:57:57Z

Yes, it's true. We've totally corrupted the urchin. First it was the little MegaBlocks people we named "Brad & Janet". Then he took to my old dinosaurs--right away. He can recite great swaths of "Calvin & Hobbes" from memory.

And now he plays D&D.

We had our first run last night. With pizza, of course. He and spouse both need better names for their characters (urchin= 'John' and spouse="Bjorn") but he grasped the abstract connection between the numbers on the character sheet and the character pretty well. "John" is a MU/Thief (I know, I know....but he's not worried about levels yet, and neither am I. Spouse, of course, thinks they should both sit down tonight and tweak their characters (spouse, as many of you will know, is infamous for his obsessive tweaking; he managed to put together a ranger/cleric, but all last evening waffled over whether he should be "just a ranger". You get the picture.)

They started off as young 1st level adventurer wanna-bees in a small town, off to investigate the mysterious livestock thefts that have been plaguing local farmers. One battle with stirges and one with orcs later, they _may_ have found an old abandoned temple to explore. We'll see next week.

Highlights were:
* Bjorn fumbles his "move silent" in the marsh and steps on a frog which croaks really LOUDLY. Urchin really liked that part.
* Stirge fumbled on attacking the urchin, got its mosquito nose stuck in a tree, and was stuck there for the entire battle.
* John rolled 08 for a "move silent" and snuck up on an orc camp soft as the wind.

When we ended last night at 9pm (definitely bedtime!) urchin said, "I want to play some more tomorrow and Saturday and Sunday--" Oh, that slippery slope. No. I think, we'll keep this to Thursdays only.

Entropy wins again

2008-06-04T12:33:53Z

After two weeks of sick, I'm finally starting to get a voice again. Urchin's been home sick for the past two days--but back in school today!--so I missed poetry group at the library on Monday. Also missed last night's monthly meeting of R-SPEC, the local SF&F group because with spouse away on biz trip, there was no one to watch over the urchin when he crashed at 4:00pm, didn't want to wake for food at 6pm, and conked out for the rest of the night (until 6am this morning, of course).

OTOH, three book reviews are out of the way. Got to get as many in as possible before the rate drops on June 15th. Sheesh.

I heard from the interim editor at ASK--not the same person who we were told to query, but anyway, she happened upon my LJ fretting and emailed to reassure me the article will run and I will be paid. Thank you, Meg!

Putting together a pitch for the next ish, and another book review to work on. Also need to get some books back to the local library. Work progresses. Still don't have "Bushido" nailed down for that R-SPEC contest and I need to squeeze in time between reviews for that. Deadline is 6/15. Clearly a major cosmic shakeup, that date.

progress

2008-05-28T13:31:52Z

Got to make this short; my battery's v. low. Carried laptop to the mt to get on internet, easier than messing with cables and spouse's single working USB port. Queried ASK re: evolution article: email bounce-back said that editor is on vacation until next week. Queried possible connection at Scholastic News. Have a list of new things to add to my writing CV.

Actual writing done so far today: zero. But some biz out of the way, and the green gunk coming out of my sinuses isn't quite so green today. This is progress.

Time for a change

2008-05-27T21:45:33Z

The (freelance) editor for Carus pubs ASK, MUSE and CLICK has quit. I haven't heard back from ASK re: the article I wrote for them, via that editor, three months ago. The now-defunct editor loved it. Let us hope ASK will still pay for the darned thing, since it turned into explaining evolution and mutation to 8 yr olds and I was rather proud of it.

And, of course, it'd be nice to get paid.

Stuffed up

2008-05-22T13:36:58Z

First bad cold of the spring. My brain is running at half-speed, maybe, and I can't take any decongestants because they raise blood pressure. Fun times.

I may just sneak a few anyway.

On tap for today:
One non-fic book review of a book I plowed through and have little memory of, beyond the thought that much of what the author said was all very obvious, and it would have been nice if he'd gone on and pushed it a bit farther--although this is, no doubt, partly the SF writer coming out and saying, "Yeah, that's nice, but what if you did this? I'll bet that would really mess things up."

Meanwhile another part of the brain is saying, 'hey, the author is local; there's got to be a way to leverage this into an article or interview for somebody.' Unfortunately newspapers don't buy reviews anymore (they pull them off the wire to which they've subscribed) and the lead time is too short for most magazines. Must think on this....

Yes, I worry a lot about money. I didn't used to. But now I do. Spouse lay-offs and illness and bills piling up can do that to you. The latest Stupid Thing is, while trying to get the Volvo registered in NYS, we found the car needed new power-steering hardware before it could pass inspection. We're thinking, why put $700 (minimum--that's if we use parts from the junk yard) into it? Let's just give in and finally trade it in for a car that works? Ah-ha, but it has to pass inspection first. Meanwhile, the truck's registration expires at the end of May and so it, too needs to be registered and inspected. I have been picking up all the "Sell the House in Pepperell" work so I informed spouse at the beginning of May that he was in change of dealing with automobiles. Which, I suppose, is why it's all been put off until the end of the month. So: we are likely to have to stuff ourselves all into the truck to go anywhere for the next week or so. Spouse will be dealing with getting car fixed, and truck's Ma reg. will expire, making truck undriveable (legally), meaning I will get stuck dealing with this, too, next month.

No wonder I can't get any bloody work done. (No wonder I have high blood pressure.)

Off to write book review while it's still worth $50, and blow by dose some more.

Monday again

2008-05-19T13:22:07Z

So there's a local SF group of fans and writers ( R-SPEC ) that meets at the B&N up the road once a month. And they're taking subs for an anthology about life in Rochester in 2034. Which doesn't sound all that far away, but then earlier today I happened on an article about how everyday life changed when people shifted from horses to engines, so...the pt is, things do change. That's the whole reason behind the "What If?" story, right?

Anyway, the deadline is June 15 and I'm thinking, well, that's great but I can't possibly figure out a story set in Rochester and make it work in that time span--except I already do have one in the trunk. Some 15 years ago (give or take) "Bushido" garnered "like it, but not enough to buy it" rejections from everywhere. Methinks it's time to pull it out and try to massage it into shape for a new phase of rejections.

Of course, by "massage" I mean rip out all the crap that doesn't work and nail in the new, improved bits without losing what made me want to tell this story in the first place.

Arghhhh`

2008-05-14T14:18:23Z

Excuse me a moment while I complain about things spouse promised he would do, which I am now doing, because otherwise it won't get done. Like, finding more than one (Outrageous!) quote for someone to clean the house back in Pepperell so we can finally get it on the market?!!!?!

Sheeeesh.

I hate being the secretary. I also hate paying for upkeep (over a barrel!!) on something I'm not living in, which is now getting far more $$$ dropped on it than it even did when I was there.

opening #1

2008-05-05T17:46:58Z

Because getting the right opening sets the whole tone for the book--for the author getting started, as well as the reader...

Here's the start of The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson:

"No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone."

Why it works-- This is three sentences, almost dreamlike, each full of images connected by your favorite and mine, the sneaky and knowing semi-colon. Semi-colons warn you that the sentence isn't done, there's more to come, and with sentences that build a sense of deep foreboding, as these do, it works beautifully. They're also, to me, sentences that 'sing'; you can hear a voice behind this paragraph. I hear a woman's voice, calm and uninflected, although maybe it's female only because I know the author is female--but I'd like to think it would be an offstage female narrator, either way. In my head, that suits this tone very well.

Nothing can live for long, and remain sane, without dreaming. "Hill House, not sane", does not dream. It holds within its walls a reality that must, by definition here, be insane. Also note the phrasing "not sane" vs "insane". The former is colder, inhuman almost, a nice contrast to the idea of the house "holding darkness within" like a living thing, a person (not sane) keeping secrets hidden. And note how the house stands "against its hills" -- "its hills", not the hills. This is a well-defended house, ready, prepared for anything. Just with that simple description, I'm already getting nervous.

"Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut" continues with the idea of this place in a defensive posture, under control, unquestionably in a condition of "absolute reality"; and thus, not sane.

"Sensibly shut" -- I love this double-edged description. Sensible: yes, of course. Who could quibble? Let's keep the drafts down, let's muffle the noise, let's hide what we don't want others to see, or know. A house with mysterious, awful things to hide.

"Silence lay steadily against the wood and stone..." like a living blanket capable of smothering anything that would disturb it? Or maybe more tightly, like a shroud...

"Whatever walked there, walked alone." -- Self-explanatory.

Sigh. Lovely.

-----
Oh, and, for my "Stella Wars" cohort: remember those pesky Merekats? The main character of Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle is named "Merricat". I know I read that book in high school. So that's another name nicked from long-past reading, just like good old Hissarlik.

Before I get back to the book review

2008-05-02T12:47:22Z

here's an interesting article from the latest "Clarksworld":

"Of Dice and Men: Modern Fantasists and the Influence of Role-Playing Games"

My perspective, for what's it's worth: my brain cooks better when it's warmed by GMing or playing in a good game, but there's also a definite bent toward wanting to write your own gaming fanfic instead of Something Original. I'm weak on plotting (and probably other things, too, but let's stick with that one) and sometimes when I can't figure out what happens next, I need to mentally throw the plot to the gamers in my head to let them figure out what really does happen next.

Free Ice Cream

2008-04-30T13:04:42Z

at the local Ben & Jerry's yesterday. Man, nothing makes people happy like free ice cream.

"Chocolate Therapy" -- highly recommended.

And there was "Phish Food", too, (the surf & turf edition!!) but I didn't see it in time.

Book reviews-yeah, those things. Well, the stack is back. That didn't take long.

hey, look---some Time!

2008-04-28T22:07:25Z

Finished a book review this morning and realized that, for now, there is nothing else on the pile requiring immediate reviewing attention. Holy Cow!

So I've been reading: Lynn Abbey's Jerlayne, which I've only had since 1999. And today, because a chance mention got me thinking about it a week ago, I borrowed Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House from the library. It's just about the only book I've ever read that actually scared me. (Okay, movies: "The Birds" did, too--just thinking about that scene in the attic gives me the cauld grue. And I've never seen "Psycho"--no, really! but I bet that would scare me too!)

The movie made from the Jackson novel was more than effectively frightening, too--the original one (I saw it in very effective B&W on tv when I was probably around 8; our tv was B&W, so it may actually be in color. I suppose we could NetFlix it. Actually, that would be an interesting experiment....)

So. I can gorge myself on my own reading, and get some actual big chunks of fiction down, but I also need to pick up some more science writing markets, so time for researching and sending off queries and tearsheets. I have about a month or so before many kids magazines that publish with the school year will be assigning stuff for Sept and October.

And somewhere in there I can frustrate the hell of out myself by jiggering around with the wireless problems on my laptop. Bah. I'd much rather read.

Little help??

2008-04-26T15:05:30Z

I have been squatting on Mark's desktop PC's web connection because my own wireless connection Will Not Work. This has been an immensely frustrating month. Anyone with any idea as to what I can try to fix this, please let me know.-

The problem came on little by little throughout March. Sometimes I'd try to open my browser (firefox, usually, but IE won't work either) and it wouldn't load the page. "check the connection". I'd check the connection, reboot the DSL box, restart my laptop, and eventually it'd come back up, not by any pattern I can note. Until the day it didn't.

I can plug the DSL line right into the laptop and it works fine.

Windows on the laptop can "see" our household network. But-- the Linksys wireless card icon in the laptop toolbar is grayed out. When I run through the Linksys setups, everything looks fine. Linksys says it's all correct. It just won't "connect".

Interestingly enough. The browser _will_ connect to a local neighborhood network: one where the homepage loads and the site asks for a credit card number to let you actually use that access pt. So I haven't actually done that.

I can probably scrape up $50 or so for a new wireless card, but I'm not convinced I need to, or even that it will help. What am I missing from this puzzle????

U.N.C.L.E

2008-04-25T12:30:02Z

Have been watching the first season of "The Man From U.N.C.L.E" on DVD (yes, this is another show from long-ago childhood that I remember watching and enjoying, though I'm surprised I don't remember it as well as I did "The Prisoner". Must've been the rovers....) The first season ran in 1964. I was two years old, so probably the bits I remember are from the third season; "The Prisoner" ran in the U.S. in 1966.

Anyway, while enjoying the show, I've been making mental notes for "Adventure", etc., and have come to the following conclusions:

* Doc Archer didn't karate-chop enough people.

* We definitely didn't use poison/knock-out gas frequently enough.

* Nothing says "scenery-chewing" like William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and Werner Kemperer (yes, the Commandant from "Hogan's Heroes") in the wonderfully whiplashed plot of "The Project Stigas Affair."

* Villains with secret installations must all use the same contractor for their ventilation systems.

* The 1963 Corvette was a very sexy car.

* American housewives make very good spies. (No surprise, really. It was the 60s, after all.)

* Reanimating Hitler has always been a bad idea.

* Never put the villain's radio tracker device on the collar of a dog who likes you.

* Griffith Observatory makes a great exterior set for a supervillain hideout. Heck, the road up the mountain even goes through a tunnel suitable for car chases and fight scenes.