Spread the Word - literally

What word? This one: Procrastinatable. A task that can be put off until a later date or time.

I came up with it while blogging one day this summer. Now, your mission, if you decide to accept it is to spread it. Use it liberally. Forward this post. Let's see if we can get it in the dictionary in under a year. With the internet, I don't see why we can't. Go forth and utter!

The release of the anthology, This Ain't No Rodeo, is expected late October/early November. Here's the link. My story, "Bullheaded", can be found within.

Post Glendi Post

Thursday I accepted an offer for a FT writing job! You'd think I would have posted about it that very day. I have been looking since June. It has nothing to do with my lack of enthusiasm. I've been consumed with festival stuff before, during and after the Glendi. On the plus side, it was a very successful event. I even managed to sneak away for a few hours to the Sonoma County Book Festival.

Okay, so now I'm going to brag about the job. I'm a staff writer for a trade journal. And the best part...I can walk to work! :)

I'll blog more later. I'm exhausted.

Festivals, Mixed Up Senses and Mars

This weekend I'm doing the unthinkable. I'm sneaking away from the festival that I've been coordinating for several years to attend the book festival. I've always lamented the fact that they are always on the same weekend. Well, now that I have a book of my own, it's a no-brainer. I have to sneak over there.

For all you folks that are local, listen up! The Sonoma County Book Festival is this weekend in the Old Courthouse Square in Santa Rosa, CA. It's the literary place to be this weekend. But when you're hungry or you want to dance, well, that's when the Glendi comes in. Glendi is an ethnic food festival held in Santa Rosa with live bands, dancing and food from Eritrea, the Balkans, Russia and the Middle East. It's the best party in town. It's open 11-9 Sat and noon-6 Sun.

The following weekend, Sept. 27, I'll be reading from the new RWC (Redwood Writers Club) anthology, Vintage Voices: Four Part Harmony at North Light Books and Cafe in Cotati, CA. My piece in the anthology is "The Rosary", the true story about finding my sister. It's the two-for I mentioned a while back. It will also be included in a themed anthology about fate.

I don't have any more appearances after that until November, unless I crash an open mic around here. I have to stay close as I have a new grandson making his debut toward the end of October. :)

I just watched a show on the science channel on synesthesia called When Senses Collide. I'm fascinated by synesthesia. I read a story some time ago, probably in Asimov's, in which the protagonist was a synesthete. I think it was set in Brazil. I can't remember what particular senses were crossed with him, but the whole idea really got me thinking.

Synesthetes can hear colors, taste words, see numbers suspended in air, associate color to numbers, etc. This is more prevelant in novelists, poets and artists. Do you know someone who has mixed up senses? Do you have mixed up senses? I'd love to hear about it.

I'm reading Ben Bova's Mars Life and lovin' it. I got to wondering today whether we'll always be looking to change our environment to suit our needs or whether we'll some day be able to change ourselves to adapt to the environment. Why not? What with global warming, sun dimming, super volcanoes, meteors, etc., we may have to adapt to our own changing environment. Maybe we'll have to become Martians to live on Mars instead of Terraforming every planet we settle.

Fringe and Change

Watched the pilot of Fringe last night on Fox. Wow, what a ride! I'm hooked. Like I really needed another show I have to see every week. If you like stuff like time travel, teleportation, astral projection, etc, you'll have to see it, too. The writing was good, there were no obvious cliches and there were some moments that completely took me by surprise. That's hard to do. I don't want to spoil it for anyone so I'll only tease a bit. An airplane lands itself with the next level auto-pilot software--on time. The passengers, however, arrive with much less flesh than they started with. All dead. Two of the investigators are having "a thing" and while checking on a lead, he's infected with something similar. His romantic interest, our heroine must seek the aide of a man who's been in the loony bin for 17 years with the help of his son, who she must first fetch from Iraq.

A lot of the pilots I've seen lately are big on character development and short on action. This was an exception to be sure. If you missed it, don't worry. There's an encore presentation on Sunday.

Meanwhile, back in the real world...
I don't blog about my animals. It's like a rule with me. Plenty of people have that covered. And good for them. I just figure that this is a SF blog and therefore the blogger's pet's are irrelevant unless they're alien. George was not alien, but he was my beloved kitty for 18 years. He died in the night. At least he's no longer hurting.

On the job front, I actually applied for two FT, local writing jobs in two days! They don't come up very often. Fingers crossed. Oh, to be able to say I write for a living! :) I also have an interview with an arm of the county that I'm hopeful about.

I just signed on to do even more book reviews. I'll be reviewing books for Pantechnicon, a cool SF ezine I just stumbled upon. I've already put in requests for great upcoming titles. Stay tuned for my review of Mars Life by Ben Bova, complete with author interview.

I'm still working on the sequel to Awesome Lavratt. Poor Horace keeps coming back for more.

Literary Cereal - that's right cereal, not serial

Snap, Crackle, Pop!!! Saturday, "Your Smiling Face" went up at Every Day Fiction. Yesterday, my funny, short SF story, "Jolaneering" went up at Nanobison AND (Pop!) I sold "Bullheaded" to an anthology. It was the bull riding story I've been working on throughout the summer that was due last weekend. Very exciting to have so much happen at once. Now, it's time again for those SSIAWs (Short Story in a Week challenges) over at OWWW (Other Worlds Writers Workshop). Do I or don't I? Perhaps I'll just do two, although I should really be concentrating on the sequel to Awesome Lavratt.

I made a discovery over Labor Day weekend. I've been job hunting since June. I've figured out why it's so darned depressing, aside from the rejection. We work hard to convince ourselves and sometimes actually know that what other people think doesn't matter. We learn that our worth doesn't need to be validated by others. (If you haven't even considered this concept, run, don't walk to an al-anon meeting or get yourself a book on co-dependence or self worth.) Anyhow, then we job hunt and it's ALL about what others think of you. Suddenly we have to quantify our worth and sell ourselves. Every time I see the "must have ______ degree" or "must have ________ experience with ________ systems", which I don't, I feel inadequate. A call for an interview and I'm doing mini victory dance--until I get the mail and the Dear John/Jane letter is staring me in the face, mocking me.

There's a gem of a job out there somewhere--one that is perfectly suited to my talents and abilities. I just wish I could find it sooner rather than later, so I can get off of this emotional rollercoaster of job hunting.