Alright, I realized that that last post probably seemed a little whiny, so I figure I should probably mention all the great stuff that has happened recently.
At the Clarion West party on Friday, I met and spoke with Elizabeth Bear for about an hour. This is going to be a great week. One of the best things about talking to “Bear” as she likes to be called, is that there is one underlying conversation, and then a dozen tangents that she feels free to pursue while always returning to the core conversation. We spoke about her writing style, media fiction and paying the bills with your writing, and even about Racefail09. She mentioned the concept about Roving Internet Flash Mobs, of which I was not aware, but now totally believe in. She’s funny and awesome and not afraid to speak her mind. This is going to be a lovely week.
Unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to Karen Joy Fowler, who is one heck of a decent human being. I think, thanks to her, everyone now believes in themselves just a little bit more, and that’s a hell of a gift. Nate came up with the idea to buy her a giant plush squish because, for some odd reason “tentacle love” seemed to come up as a theme all week, and Karen mentioned the concept of a “squid on the mantlepiece”, which is a term covered in the Turkey City Lexicon. We gave her the gift and then this NYT Bestselling author and Nebula Winner, put the squid on her head and wore it like a hat. I’m certainly going to miss her.
Steve, Lucas, Derek and I spent the 4th of July watching “The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra“, which is a spoof of 50s sci-fi movies and probably cost 20K to make. It was quite awesome. We followed that up with “Monty Python’s The Life of Brian” a one-two punch of comedy. Lots of laughter last night.
I FINALLY figure out how to start my insect story. I needed to find the voice of the piece, and I think I’ve done that. We’ll see how it works out. I need to practically finish it today if I want a decent submission for Tuesday, so it’ll be a fun day of writing awesomeness.
Thanks for all the love you guys have been sending me in the comments, though I’ve been pretty poor at responding to them. Your support is really helping me get through this. TTFN.