good
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.
