Eugie · Foster's · Self-Indulgent · Musings

It's that time of the year again for flu shots, so yesterday on my day off, fosteronfilm and I bopped down to the K-P clinic. While there, I also had my bimonthly test tubes of blood extracted*. The phlebotomist was competent, but I still ended up bruising, and I'm also achy from the flu shot. Meh. I don't have a problem with needles, but it was a bit of a pincushiony sort of day.

But, for the first time ever, we accidentally left the gate to Hobkin's area open when we went out. When one of us is home to supervise—which is most of the time—he gets free run, but when we're out, we lock him in his rover gated area.

We came home to discover that not only had we forgotten to lock the gate, we'd also left the doors to the master bathroom+walk-in closet open—two places where he's not allowed to go 'cause of the various high potential skunk-induced mischief/danger items therein.

After confirming Hobkin's whereabouts (napping peacefully in his usual place) and that he wasn't in any distress, I began a mad-thorough search, checking to see if he'd gotten into anything scary: the sundry meds or first-aid supplies in the cabinet under the sink, the "do not injest" packets of desiccant in shoe boxes, the dental floss in the trash can, etc. And it seems that while he did indeed tip the trash can over, which fortunately had nothing more hazardous in it than a couple tissues, he didn't riffle through anything else. He didn't open any of the cabinets or de-box any shoes or anything. Huh. What a good boy! I mean he knows he's not allowed in those rooms, and it's obvious he did check them out, but he didn't get into any of the Eugie-heart-attack-causing mayhem that he could have.

Relief-amazement-relief-amusement-relief.

---

*I take the immunosuppressant Imuran to keep my lupus/MCTD at bay, and it can cause a drop in white blood count as well as liver toxicity, so I have regular blood tests done to monitor those.

   

Writing Stuff

New Words:
• around 1.7K on The Stupid Novel. Momentum? What momentum?

Received:
• Payment from Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Mangazine for "The Better To..."

Seems that the world's economy is catching up to the badness of the U.S.'s. When I first made the sale, the same payment amount (in AUD) would've netted me about $10 USD more than it did yesterday. But that was when the U.S. dollar was tanking and other currencies were still holding steady. It seems the currency exchange rates between AUD and USD have now equalized out to close to their usual rates. Drat.

I suspect that will also be the case for whenever I get payment from Interzone (paid in GBP) for "Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast." Double drat. Although I'm gun-jumping there, as the story hasn't even come out yet.
• Shiny contrib. copies of the Nov-Dec '08 issue of Cricket:

There was much squeeage when I discovered that "Cuhiya's Husband" is the lead story! As always, the Cricket folks put together a gorgeous product. Absolutely lovely.

Thanks to everyone who expressed concern and well-wishes about Hobkin. He's still limping, but both fosteronfilm and I think he's better today than he was on Tuesday. We didn't end up taking him to the vet, as what they'd probably want to do is take an x-ray, and I'm pretty sure it's a soft tissue injury, and the x-ray procedure (the whole vet experience, actually) would undoubtedly agitate him which would risk aggrevating his injury. But we did call his godmother—the person he stays with when we're out of town or at Dragon*Con—and got some suggestions for treatment.

It seems that a lot of domesticated skunks suffer from hip dysplasia, which is not surprising considering that most of them are from a single place which is undoubtedly causing some inbreeding issues. Although Hobkin is notably not from there, so I'm hoping that this isn't hip dysplasia manifesting.

I do think it's likely that this might be a sign of arthritis—although I don't believe it's the sole culprit, here. Hobkin is six years old, officially classified as a "senior" skunk, and I've noticed particularly with this season's coat blowing* that there's a lot more white around his muzzle and paws than a couple years ago. It sort of freaks me out thinking of our little guy as being "old." I'm clinging to the hope that he'll be one of the pet skunks who live a couple decades, but I know that's unlikely. I also know that it's inevitable that one day he will break my heart—the unavoidable consequence of loving someone who has a significantly shorter life expectancy than we do. It's something I try not to dwell upon much, but this (baffling) injury has sort of brought that to the forefront of my mind.

Going to continue trying not to dwell upon that now . . .

---

*My GAWD there's skunk fur everywhere! My car is coated in skunk fur, and that was only from one back and forth to his godmother's last week. I'm worried that our vacuum cleaner is going to belly up from choking on skunk fur!

   

Writing Stuff

New Words:
• around 200 on Taijiya. Did some clean-up, a bit of bridging, and some culling of words, so was a bit more productive than that count shows. Total words: 27.1K.

Club 100 for Writers: 4

Received:
• Contrib. copies of Triangulation: Taking Flight with my (reprint) story, "The Life and Times of Penguin."
Shiny cover:

So Hobkin started limping last night. He was curled up next to me on the couch napping after dinner, he hopped down to use the litter pan--and by "hopped" I mean he casually crawled down the "doggie" steps--and fosteronfilm called me over 'cause he saw that Hobkin was wobbling and unsteady. After some anxious observation, we determined that he's favoring his left hind leg. We think. It's hard to gauge with 100% certainty exactly which side is the culprit on a critter with such stumpy legs. But I also tried to do a check of his "resistance" strength on both hind legs by picking him up and getting him to push at my hand with each paw, and his left was much weaker than his right. I also checked to see if anything seemed broken or dislocated, and I think we're okay on that front, too.

We're not sure what happened. Someone's with him just about 24x7, so it's unlikely that he injured himself earlier yesterday without us seeing. And he was fine when he climbed up beside me. I wasn't watching him when he left to use the bathroom, but he didn't make any noise or give any sign of hurting himself as he was leaving; I would have noticed that. The only thing we can figure is that he injured his hind leg while he was asleep . . . which is rather baffling.

Unsurprisingly, I was totally and utterly freaking out last night. When we had ferrets, one of the first overt signs of the onset of neurological or other major medical problems was weak hind legs. But Hobkin's appetite is fine. He's using the litter pan fine; actually, I'm pretty amazed at how good he's being on that front, considering he's limping. And he doesn't appear to be in pain. Although it's hard to evaluate pain in a skunk. Hobkin's almost completely silent, except for a couple notable occasions when he's been either frightened or angry. I don't know if skunks vocalize when they're in distress like a dog or keep quiet like a cat. I'm inclined to bet the latter.

Going to see how he does today, and if he doesn't show improvement or looks to be getting worse, then it's off to the vet's. He was still limping this morning when he got up for breakfast, and I had to stifle an impulse to rush him to the vet today. But the vet is always a traumatic experience for the little guy, and if he's strained or pulled a muscle, it's possible he'll hurt himself worse from vet-related agitation.

Poor Hobkin! Wah!

   

Writing Stuff

Was up north visiting the mom-in-law last week. Didn't get nearly as much done as I had planned to (I never do; I don't know why I keep expecting to be productive when I'm there). And got zero words down on the novel. @%&^*! Well, I did edit a load of Dragon*Con guest bios for the program book. And, with the much appreciated editorial assistance of elemess, full_fathom5, and terracinque, we finished all 400+ of them. So I did get some stuff done.

New Words:
• 2.5K on The Stupid Novel since we got back from Illinois. Working title: Taijiya. Total words: 26.9K.

It is now officially the most words I've managed to get down on a single work of fiction. It's unlikely that I'll be able to make zero draft as I'm rapidly hitting the point where I'm going to have to drop everything that isn't Dragon*Con-related. But I'd like to make 30K. 40K, of course, would be better. . .

Club 100 for Writers: 3 (sigh)

Received:
• Notice from the fine folks at Aeon that my story, "Black Swan, White Swan," will be in the upcoming issue, #15. Also, they listed me on the cover (*squee!*):

Hobkin doesn't like the heat. It makes him grumpy and stompy and prone to tearing about the house huffing at things. We were hoping to be able to hold off on turning on the air conditioning for a little while longer, but ended up switching it on this weekend. I feel sorry for the little guy, after all he's got a fur coat on, and I don’t think he can tolerate as much heat as we can—especially since he doesn't drink water.

We've now switched ISPs, and not only is our connection speed noticeably faster, but part of the package deal was switching from our Dish TV to AT&T's cable—with a DVR thrown in. Really loving the DVR! I can record cartoons (from my computer, even!) and save them up to watch on weekend mornings. Rah!

   

Writing Stuff

Published:
• Part 2 of “Writing Multicultural Fiction for Children” (nonfiction reprint) is now up at Absolute Write.
• "A Thread of Silk" is now up in the June, 2008, issue of Baen's Universe with illustrations by Anthony Hochrein.

I've waited a looong time for this one to see print. I subbed this right before Baen's was taking an extended slush holiday, resulting in unusually long RTs. But the wait was worth it.

I want to give a huge "thank you!" to everyone who answered the eleventh hour plea for volunteers and came out to help rescue fifteen pallets of Meisha Merlin books last week! Y'all rawk.

This past weekend was a three-dayer for me, since we Georgia government employees get Confederate Memorial Day off. Yep, Confederate Memorial Day. And how exactly does one celebrate Confederate Memorial Day? By bathing a skunk, of course!

It actually went better than usual. I did not get smacked in the face by a sudsy tail—the first time that hasn't happened, I might add. And, while Hobkin was obviously displeased at being plunked into a bathtub full of lukewarm water and lathered up with baby shampoo, he put up less of a fuss about it than we know from experience he's capable of. Also, he did not (this time) go running amok through the house afterwards, collecting dust mice and lint in his still-damp, newly washed fur.

Of course, I was compelled to snap a couple pictures to compound the indignity of his ordeal:

Doesn't he look piteous?

"Umf. Must escape bathtub!"

   

Writing Stuff

New Words/Editing:
• Back to work on WiP, "Morozko." A major editing pass to hack out around 500 superfluous words and then hammer out 600 new ones gives me a net gain of 100 words. Making progress.
• 1400 on "Cthulhu Editing."
• 550 on a new story that I started just to get some words going. It worked, but I'm not sure if I've enough enthusiasm to see this one through. Had a bunch of imagery that needed an outlet, but the story's pretty nebulous.

Published:
• "Daughter of Bòtú" in the August, 2008 issue of Realms of Fantasy. Yay! Actually, I don't think the issue's out yet (haven't received my contrib. copies). But I got to see an e-ARC. Happy shiny.

Hobkin's tummy has been iffy this week. He sicked up his dinner on Wednesday and exhibited troubled tummy symptoms on Thursday. Last night, he sort of coughed-gagged before dinner, so we dosed him with his anti-nausea med, Metoclopramide, before feeding him.

Dinner gobbled, Hobkin crawled up beside me and was out, skunkie snores and all-four-paws-in-the-air out, and fosteronfilm and I put on a DVD to watch. Hobkin woke up in the middle of it to hop down to use the litter box. I kept an eye on him to make sure he wasn't going to sick up--I continue to be VERY thankful that our little one is obliging enough to sick up in his area and not on me, the carpet, or the furniture--and noticed that he was staggering as he exited his bathroom. He couldn't seem to walk a straight line, wobbling and stumbling drunkenly. He headed back to me and the couch, but he couldn't seem to make it, flopping instead on the floor in "flat skunk" mode. So I went and picked him up and set him on the couch beside me, whereupon he rolled onto his back and began snoring again.

Now, I freely admit that I'm an overprotective skunk mommy, and the staggering, wobbling, and stumbling were worrisome. Skunks are prone to seizures, a concern perpetually at the back of my mind, so I checked him over:

- Rigid limbs? Nope, limp as a rag skunk.
- Irregular breathing patterns? No, he's snoring regularly.
- Body or muscle twisting, spasming, shaking, or thrashing? Nope, see above re: rag skunk.
- Pupil dilation? Hard to tell since his eyes are burgundy-black. But probably not.
- Any prior odd activity like drooling, uncontrollable bodily fluids, trembling? Nope, nope, and nope. Plus he got up to use the bathroom on his own.
- Any post seizure activity like temporary blindness, disorientation, pacing, restlessness? Nope again. After his bathroom break, he knew he was coming back to the couch and where the couch was, but he just sort of ran out of pep halfway.

Okay, probably not a seizure. But as I was looking him over, I also noticed how extremely out of it he was. I could pull back his lips and rub his gums (no excess salivation or tongue twitches, check) without waking him. Normally the fastest way to get him up and scampering away in a huff is to try to mess with his teeth or gums. Very unusual.

It was like he was . . . drugged!

Scrambling to get his anti-nausea medicine bottle revealed there, on the side, the warning sticker: "MEDICATION MAY CAUSE DROWSINESS OR DIZZINESS."

Ah hah!

Yep, our skunk was drugged. We've never observed this degree of side effect before, but it's also possible that he wasn't actually sicking up before dinner, that he just had fur in his throat (since it is shedding season), and without symptoms to mitigate, the side effects were more pronounced.

So, after reassuring myself as to the cause of Hobkin's extreme sleepies, I took advantage of it and used a q-tip to brush his teeth and gums. La!

   

Writing Stuff

New Words:
- 355 on the Fox Princess novel. Didn't get as much writing done yesterday as I wanted. Still, progress is progress.

5,350 / 40,000 (13.4%)

Club 100 for Writers: 9

terracinque and I managed to get off work early enough to catch the advance screening of Pan's Labyrinth with fosteronfilm on Wednesday. I've never been to the Midtown Art before. It's a very nice theater, although I think I like the Tara--where we saw Miss Potter--better. Had a chance to gab with sfeley, who was also there to catch Pan's Labyrinth, while the hubby was off buying popcorn, and chatted briefly with lord_darkseid while waiting for terracinque to park.

The movie was gorgeous. Words like "lush" and "evocative" spill off the tongue when describing the cinematography. It was also gritty and dark, the non-fantasy parts particularly, but the fantasy elements were also darker than the typical treatment given to such subject matter by Hollywood. While I quite enjoyed the fantasy part--the faun and the Pale Man as well as the flitting EFX fairies were phenomenal--the real world brutality left me wide-eyed and in need of a fuzzy animal to squeeze. Honestly, I felt somewhat traumatized by movie's end; my ability to handle gore and squick is pretty unimpressive, and there was much violence. Fortunately, we've got a very squeezable fuzzy animal at home, so it's all good.

On the fuzzy animal front, Hobkin's been getting the hiccups a lot recently. It's rather dramatic when a critter as small as he is gets the hiccups. His whole body jounces with each one. Wish I knew what was causing them and if there was something we could do to decrease their frequency. Right now, all we can do is hold and pet him while he hics. At least they don't seem to trouble him all that much. Probably distresses me more than him.

Session is going great, so far. I've even gotten a couple kudos from the attorneys and secretaries on my work, which makes me inordinantly warm-and-glowy. It has been busy, and I've had to stay late every night since it began, but I continue not to feel unduly stressed or overwhelmed. 'Course the General Assembly has been out of session this last week as it hammers out the budget; I fully expect the scary-busy-stress to ramp up next week.

I continue to stay off the java. I'm drinking tons of tea, but I've only had one mug of coffee since session began. The coffee monkey is still hovering about, waiting in the wings, but at least it's not on my shoulder anymore.

   

Writing Stuff
Received:
- Note from mroctober listing the tentative ToC for Magic in the Mirrorstone, the anthology slated for a spring '08 release from Mirrorstone Books. My story, "Princess Bufo marinus, I Call Her Amy," will be sharing a ToC with an amazing bunch of authors including Beth Bernobich (beth_bernobich), Holly Black (blackholly), Cassandra Clare (cassandraclare), Gregory Frost (frostokovich), Jim C. Hines (jimhines), Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Lawrence M. Schoen (klingonguy), E. Sedia (squirrel_monkey), and Janni Lee Simner (janni). *Squee!*
- Email from oldcharliebrown letting me know that the Weird Tales editors are passing on a submission (RT: 80-days), but also that he read and liked the story. Alas, it's too long for Fantasy Magazine, but I'm pleased regardless to have Sean's thumbs up on it.
- 9-day pleasant pass from Murky Depths with an invite to submit again.

Patrick and Christie came by last night to watch School for Scoundrels, the 1960 one with Alastair Sim, not the recent abomination starring Billy Bob Thornton. Good fun and good movie, unfortunately, Hobkin was not well. He's been doing great this whole week, ever since I started putting a few drops of Rescue Remedy in his dinner. But this was a different sort of GI unhappiness, and I've been wracking my brain, trying to figure out what could be causing it.

I'm wondering now if he ate a sliver of dark chocolate. I had a couple pieces of dark chocolate yesterday morning, and when I was breaking the squares off the bar, a crumb or two fell on the floor. I wiped them up with a damp paper towel, but Hobkin was at my feet when it happened, and he might've snarfed up a tiny sliver--and I do mean tiny, as in much, much less than chocolate frosting on a birthday candle or a single semi-sweet chocolate chip. But it's dark chocolate, which is much more toxic to little beasties than milk chocolate or cocoa powder.

Fortunately, after a lot of Pepto-Bismol on bread, Hobkin seems to be over whatever it was.

I, however, remain guilt-stricken.

   

Writing Stuff
New Words/Editing:
- 800 or so on my next Writing for Young Readers column, several editing passes, and sent it off to ye olde editor. Anuzzer hamster out the door.

Hobkin came thiiiis close to being turned into a stew this morning. Been staying up late both because I'm doing the frantic-circus-juggler-with-too-many-hamsters dance, and because my time sense is still wonked out from last week. Got to sleep last night near 2AM, and at 6, the little fuzzwit decided it was time for breakfast.

Y'know, it's well-nigh impossible to sleep through being walked on by a skunk. And if a person can somehow manage that feat, a snuffling nose in the ear is really the final nail in the "just five more minutes" coffin.

So yeah, four hours of sleep and I get up to launch into my day o' work. Ugh. Thank God for Adderall.

In other, less sleep-deprived news, britzkrieg swung by yesterday so we could exchange refrigerator magnets for purposes related to The Town Drunk (I think klingonguy will be pleased). We go live in six days on the 20th with our first "issue." Woot!

And Patrick and Christie have been popping over to help fosteronfilm with Dragon*Con film festival screenings these last two nights, which means I've been watching film slush, an activity I've been actively striving to avoid this year. At least it's 2nd tier film slush. But the fabu company makes it worth it.

   

Writing Stuff
Spent some time hunting around online for an Internet fax program. There's now been a couple freelance clients that have wanted me to fax contracts/confidentiality documents to them (although I think the fax machine is a relic of antiquated business practices, much like the ticker tape machine, and should in all properness be laid to rest) and I wanted to see what my "I'm not buying a fax machine, dammit" options were.

There's a bunch of online pay services where I could email them a document, they fax it over for me, and then they scan in and email me any incoming faxes, but I wanting software that would allow me to send faxes directly from my own computer over my modem since I don't foresee having enough fax needs to want to keep paying a regular fee. Plus the confidentiality and privacy issues made me a bit leery. I was contemplating a trial version of Fax Wizard, and then it occurred to me that since I'm on broadband using a Wi-Fi hookup, I don't have any way to access a standard fax protocol like a dial-up modem could. While I might be able to theoretically convert documents and send them as faxes from my cable Internet connection, I sure as heck wouldn't be able to receive them. So I gave up and emailed the client asking if they'd rather I snail-mailed the signed document to them or scanned it into a secured PDF and emailed it.

Faxes. Feh, I sez.

Also sent out a Daily Dragon "please confirm, yo!" staff email yesterday, and good thing too. I lost one of my reporters (*grumble* he had to wait until I contacted him before telling me he couldn't make it?), but I'm hopeful that yukinooruoni will be able to help me out in finding a replacement.

New Words:
- 1200 for a freelance gig.
- 300 on my column article for Writing-World.com.

I wanna get back to fiction *whine*. Maybe after this next batch of articles gets out the door I can return to writing stories.

Received:
- A note from Shawna at Realms of Fantasy that the taped-shut-but-empty SASE I'd received was just a mix-up and hadn't at any time contained my contract for "The Devil and Mrs. Comstock's Snickerdoodles." Whew.
- Shiny check from a freelance gig. $$$

It is sometimes difficult to figure which end of a skunk is up.

The other night I went to retrieve Hobkin for purposes of cuddling. In the shadows under the hutch and me without corrective eye wear, I had a moment's confusion, unsure which end of the snoozing fur lump truncated in a nose and which a tail. Making what I thought was an accurate determination, I bundled Hobkin in my arms and carted him off.

fosteronfilm came in, and I squinted and commented offhandedly: "Wasn't sure which end of Hobkin was which."

Since I am myopic unto blind without my glasses, I couldn't see his expression, but the tone of his voice was expressive. He replied, "Still haven't worked it out, I see."

Seems I was lugging a groggy and very perplexed skunk around head down. Of course, I righted him as soon as I realized, but he was miffed and wide awake by that time (usually I can carry him from the hutch to the chaise without waking him, and he just nestles in my arms). He glared at me and rightly decided he didn't want to snuggle with the crazy lady; he scampered back to the hutch in a huff.

Oops.

On the non-upside down skunk front, our friend, Chris-from-Tennessee, came a'visiting over the weekend. He's a Biology professor specializing in Ichthyological paleontology, and he's conducting a summer seminar in Mexico. He drove to Chez Foster a couple days before his flight from Hartsfield-Jackson so we could hang out and catch up. It was a nice diversion from nose-to-the-keyboard, and he's got a toddler daughter who I love hearing about. Chris's wife is from China, and she speaks Mandarin to their daughter while he speaks English to her. I'm fascinated by the linguistic progress of an emergent bilingual child.

   

Writing Stuff

Been mulling my recent lack of fiction progress. The hamsters have been most troublesome even though I've slung away some of the bitier ones. And it occurred to me, as in bolt-out-of-the-blue smack-me-in-the face occurred to me, that I've been undermining the intrinsic motivation of my writing by pairing it too closely with financial reward.

There's heaps of psychological studies that show how both creativity and interest decline whenever something once done for the pure joy of it is set on a reward schedule. As soon as gain becomes the driving purpose behind creative expression, enjoyment evaporates, and art becomes work--to the detriment of art and artist.

While I am indeed a working writer, struggling to pay the bills and all, there's got to be a way to achieve a balance here. Yes, they're linked in reality, but I need to isolate the money-making from the creative part on an emotional level. Already, I'm finding myself thinking along the lines of "these 300 words of website content that I'm ghostwriting will get me such-and-such amount, while I'll be lucky if these 300 words of fiction--more grueling and draining to produce--will get me a fraction of that if I'm lucky." And so I'm ending up cranking out the money-words and neglecting my fiction.

But how? Hrm. I need to implement a new reward structure, I think. So here's what I came up with: From now on, fiction writing is no longer "work." It is the reward for making progress on my freelance gigs, which are "work." If I finish a reasonable daily quota of "work" I'm free to indulge my muse.

Well, the theory sounds good. 'Course the true test is whether my restructuring results in any fiction productivity gains. Will revisit this as needed.

Man, when I unearthed my repressed psychologist, she went amok. Beware berserk psychology researcher . . .

New Words:
- 600 on the freelance gig.
- 1K on the resuscitated Swan Lake story. Hurray, fiction!

Received:
- Check from Faeries for "Returning My Sister's Face." In Euros. I anticipate wacky fun when I go to deposit it. I wonder how much my bank will try to shaft me for. Oh well, it can't possibly be worse than their foreign wire transfer fee.

Club 100 For Writers
      36

500/day
      46

So yeah, the guy from the other day called back. Not really something worthy of all the fretting. I'd subbed my info to a self-employed workers organization that offered health insurance to its members, and asked their insurance provider to contact me with details. I very carefully clicked the "only contact me through email" button, but apparently that's only there for ornamental purposes. *snort* Insurance guy was all jolly and upbeat until I said "lupus" and then you could've heard the crash and burn.

Yep, I'm an automatic decline. Lovely.

Been reading the "A New Horror Subgenre: Health Insurance For the Self-Employed" article by Doranna Durgin in the last issue of the SFWA Bulletin. It's depressing beyond depressing how many options for health insurance I don't have.

Twelve weeks until my COBRA runs out.

In lighter news, Hobkin is shedding like fuzz has gone out of fashion. There's rolling drifts of white fluff tumbleweed billowing through our house. So yesterday after dinner, I got out the brush, waited for Hobkin to curl up beside me on the couch and start snoring, and then I went to work.

fosteronfilm helped collect the fuzzy detritus, and soon had a pretty impressive ball of shed fur next to him. And he sez: "You're going to brush Hobkin until there's nothing left, and then *poof*, he'll be beside me instead."

I giggled.

Didn't manage to execute a feat of skunk-teleportation-via-brush, but Hobkin looks decidedly sleeker. I think he'll be more comfortable now.

   

Writing Stuff

Pimpage:
You can now pre-order Aegri Somnia, both the trade paperback ($14.95) and the shiny, shiny limited edition hardcover ($29.95).

Release date: Early December 2006. The first 200 trade paperback and 50 hardback copies pre-ordered and purchased will be signed by the contributors, the cover artist, and the editor. (Oof, that's 250 signature plates I'll be scribbling on soon.)

Aegri Somnia contributors:
Cherie Priest (cmpriest), Scott Nicholson, Steven Savile, Lavie Tidhar, Christopher Rowe, Mari Adkins, Rhonda Eudaly (reudaly), Angeline Hawkes (angelinehawkes), Nancy Fulda, Jennifer Pelland (jenwrites), Eugie Foster, and Bryn Sparks.

Also, Sages & Swords is selling out, and they're not doing another print run!

From the publisher: "If you haven't purchased your copy of Pitch-Black's critically acclaimed heroic fantasy anthology Sages and Swords, you'd better hurry! The anthology will not be reprinted upon sell-through. There are currently very few copies available in-house and not many more in our distributor's warehouse.

Sages and Swords includes 14 heroic fantasy stories from authors such as Tanith Lee, Eugie Foster, Howard Andrew Jones, Harold Lamb, and many others."

New Words:
- 800 on the current freelance gig.

Club 100 For Writers
      30

500/day
      41

Discovered the limits of Hobkin's heat tolerance yesterday. We'd set the A/C to 81, trying to save energy and money, but it seems that's too warm for the lil guy. Yesterday morning, he had a bad tummy and then wasn't interested in breakfast. Loss of appetite is extremely worrisome in a skunk, so much fretting commenced.

fosteronfilm suggested that Hobkin might be dehydrated from his bad tummy, so, feeling rather dubious, I scooped him up to see whether I could force some water into him.

Normally, Hobkin doesn't drink water. And I mean at all. The closest he's come to drinking out of his water bowl is dipping his paw in and then licking it, and even that's pretty rare. We still leave fresh water out for him, just in case, but he's knocked the bowl over more often than he's drunk from it--and it takes quite a bit of effort to tip it as it's secured to his pen. In the past, when I've tried to feed him water out of a syringe, he's batted it out of my hands and spat or shook what little fluid I could get into his mouth back out. He just doesn't like water, the goofball.

But yesterday, although he whined and glared at me, he readily swallowed something like 12ccs. It seems the heat had dehydrated him, and he wasn't hungry because he was thirsty. But figuring out the problem didn't get us much closer to a solution. How does one re-hydrate an animal that doesn't drink and won't eat? We could take him to the vet's and have them inject fluid into him subcutaneously, but that would've stressed and freaked him out. Plus, I didn't think he was that badly dehydrated. We could try buying some flavored Pedialyte or Gatorade, but that's a last-ditch sort of effort as I don't like the idea of him having all that sugar. Also, there's no guarantee he'd like that any better. When we had to force electrolytes and fluids into the ferrets they were quite underwhelmed by the stuff (as I am--Gatorade, yuk). Also, last I checked, fresh watermelon wasn't quite in season, and again, re-hydrating him with watermelon would've involved more sugar than I'm comfortable with him having.

After some brainstorming and much anxiety, I came up with the answer: A cottage cheese smoothie. I used a fork to mush up a teaspoon of cottage cheese in about 18ccs of water and added some diced bok choy, and Hobkin lapped it right up! Three servings of cottage cheese smoothie later, and he's himself again--running amok, stomping at shadows, and begging for treats. Whew. I kept pushing liquids the rest of the day; his lunch was more smoothie along with bok choy and celery, vegetables high in liquid, and I added enough water to his dinner lentils and rice mixture to make it a pudding.

Definitely going to keep that in mind for future need. My next plan had been to make him a veggie shake--cottage cheese, a bit of milk, plenty of water, and various vegetables in a blender. But fortunately I didn't have to break out the blender.

And yes, we've now cranked on the A/C.

   

Writing Stuff
Got an email from Lynne Jamneck--a writer who I'll be sharing a ToC with in mroctober's So Fey antho--asking for an interview and inviting me to contribute to an anthology she's editing, Lesbian Sleuths & the Supernatural, to be published by Regal Crest Enterprises. Of course, I said yes to both. The anthology also has an open call for submissions:

---

An Anthology of Lesbian Sleuths & the Supernatural
(Women Writers Only)

Word Length: 7,000 - 10,000 words
Payment: $100 Flat Fee Per Story
Submission Period: July 2006 - November 2006
Reading Period: December 2006 - April 2007

Ghosts, haunted castles, and things that go bump in the night. A trip to Egypt; the mummies and the pull of a primordial tomb. Ancient Aztec ruins and the burning fever of a jungle. Is a sinister cult operating in a small town near you? Do you feel the pull of something otherworldly just beyond the veil of everyday? The supernatural have existed in cultures for thousands of years, all around the world.

I am looking for stories that explore these and other weird happenings, and are centered around a 'whodunit' type conundrum. The sleuth of the story-whether amateur or professional-must be a lesbian character. No excessive violence. Humor is welcome. No fan fiction. Character driven stories with strong emphasis on storytelling essential.

If you're looking for a reference/indication of the types of stories I'm looking for, you should familiarize yourself with the following authors:

H.P. Lovecraft
Agatha Christie
Ray Bradbury
Arthur Conan Doyle
Harlan Ellison
Kim Antieau
Kathe Koja

Submissions should be unpublished, original short stories. If you feel you have a story that does not fit that word count but would be perfect for the anthology, please query to superantho@gmail.com. Be sure your submission includes your surface mailing address and phone number in addition to a valid return email address.

Submissions (disposable copies) should be sent to:

Lynne Jamneck
129 Layard Street
Invercargill, 9501
New Zealand

Exceptions can be made for email subs, but query first to: superantho@gmail.com

---

New Words:
- 1100 on the article for Writing-World and it's at zero draft. It needs a few editing passes, but I'm hoping to send it off today.

Received:
- 60-day "although it's a really fun concept and a wonderfully creative POV choice, this one doesn't quite work for Escape Pod" with invitation to submit again from sfeley on a reprint. Snartleblast. But I'll show him! I just launched two new submissions his way, mwa ha ha haaaa!

Erm, yeah. My wingstubs have been really hurting these last few days. I popped two Tramadol, and they're not helping the pain, but I think they've made me a loopy.

Club 100 For Writers
      25

500/day
      37

And it's back to the daily grind.

After hearing how much happier yukinooruoni's cats are in summer after being sheared, I wondered if Hobkin wouldn't prefer to carry less fur weight around during the hot months. And then I remembered how much he hates being brushed and having his nails clipped (although, oddly, he doesn't have a problem with me cleaning his ears), and I'm thinking we'd lose digits if we tried it. Ergo, skunk shall remain fluffy.

Wingstubs giving me some major grief, so I took a Tramadol last night. And not only didn't it knock me out, but it seems to have given me a bit of a zing. I was up until 4AM, working. Huh.

   

Writing Stuff

In an effort to continue spring-boarding more paying work off my psych. degree, I went on a guidelines spree. And, of course, I found an ideal market right under my nose. The Cricket folks put out a Parent's Companion publication as accompaniment to their 'zine for 2-6 year-olds, Ladybug. They're looking for articles written with "a thorough, up-to-date understanding of child development." Bing!

Went through my old grad. papers for inspiration--which were stored in Lotus's Word Pro, of all applications, and I had to scour the Internet looking for a freeware program that would let me open them before I could read them. So I spent most of last night compiling notes, references, and checking out new research, and I hope to get an article written this weekend. This one's on spec rather than of the query-->greeen light variety, but I'm thinking the topic matter is such that it should be sellable to other venues if they turn it down. Assuming I don't totally botch the job and write gibberish, of course.

Also put together a query/pitch for a nonfiction article for the China-themed issue of the kid 'zine, Faces, and sent it off. They've got a pretty formal process for queries that includes a word count, an outline, and a reference list, with the end result being that I've all but written the thing by the time I finished putting together my query. It should definitely make writing it a no-brainer, should I get the green light.

Initially I hesitated about querying them because their guidelines specify that they buy all rights, and I've been assiduously avoiding selling all rights to my work, but I realized I'm far less possessive about my nonfic stuff. After all, I've been ghostwriting routinely since I started picking up more freelance work, and haven't had any qualms about the "all rights" nature of that. Of course, they'll probably send me a "thanks but no thanks," which would make all this waffling moot.

Received:
- Contrib. copies of the June issue of Spider with "The Tax Collector's Cow" in it. I was delighted to see five illustrations (by Jennifer Hewitson) for my story. Very shiny.
- Contract and payment from Best New Fantasy: 2005 for "Returning My Sister's Face."
- Payment for my last freelance gig.
- 1-day rejection from Escape Velocity on a reprint; they don't take reprints. Oops.
- Comment at MySpace from the MechMuse folks that their audio production of "The Storyteller's Wife" is proceeding apace. Quite looking forward to that, I is. I'll be sharing a ToC with Kevin J. Anderson!

Club 100 For Writers
      23

500/day
      35

Went out to feed the cat this morning, and I saw the teeniest, tiniest, adorablest snail latched onto the edge of her food dish, undoubtedly brought out by the deluge we had last night:

That's my thumb on the left for size comparison.

I think the kitty knows I'm trying to get closer to her. She's been visiting and chowing down on the food I set out during the wee hours of the night when I'm unlikely to be peering out the window. Getting a little anxious; I'm running out of leftover ferret food.

In other beastie-related news, Hobkin hasn't sicked up in over a week, which makes me very, very happy.

   

Writing Stuff
I've hit the Eugie-overwhelmed, brain-useless-now stage of my research project, so I switched from poring over theory to writing up the applied sections. Making good progress. I've got three out of seven sections completed--give or take a citation or two. Hoping to have a couple more squared away by the end of this weekend.

Received:
- Preliminary sketch from Dragonfly Spirit for "A Patch of Jewels in the Sky." I know it's not industry practice to involve the writer in the art selection or development, so I don't expect to be consulted, but I always really appreciate it when I am. Also, *squee!* I think it's going to turn out to be quite spectacular.
- 91-day form "no" from Polphony. Sigh.