Monday, January 23, 2006

Extra Extra!

Drum roll, please.

I am pleased to announce the publication one of my short stories in Neo-opsis Science Fiction Magazine.

*enter high-pitched squeal here*

I kindly got permission from Karl to be the first to post the cover of Issue 8, selling only my soul and a cheesecake.



*PLUG* I highly suggest subscribing, or asking your bookstore to carry them. (Tell the store they are available through the distributor Magazines Canada.) *END PLUG*

If you are a writer, author, artist, you must read this.

I come across a lot of pep talk for writers, but this one really stood out for me.

Thursday, January 19, 2006

This totally made my day

After dealing with snotty people who have no comprehension of reality or plain english, this was a great stress relief. A little gory for my liking, but funny enough.

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

If I fail to appear

Oh hey. Finish that sentence above. Great fodder. Post yours as a comment.

Here's a sample. "If I fail to appear intellectually sound, it is only due to your lack of earmuffs." Something stupid like that.

But I digress.

If I fail to appear for a while, I am busy with this damn resort business. We finally opened today, and will be going hard for a while. If it snows again, we'll last more than two days. If not, I'm going to be mud wrestling Pete for his job.

Make good things happen while I'm gone.

Monday, January 16, 2006

Real school of Wizardry

Wish I thought of this. A real Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

New Year's Decisions

Yeah yeah. It's still January. I'm good to go.

This year I will:
Exercise more. I don't do the dieting thing. Silliness. I hope to fit in a minimum of two good workouts per week, be it yoga, tai chi, biking, or heaven forbid a bit of snow this winter - snowboarding.

Write 12 more short stories. That's one a month. I figure I'll have to double up in the summer, but that's cool.

Quit smoking. Get off my case. It'll happen.

Decide between doing a few major theatre projects or throwing myself into this novel. I've been researching for four months, and think I'm ready to go. It'll break my heart to pick one or the other, but I don't have the time to do it all, and I'm tired of watching time fly by without the accomplishments that I want to see.

That's about it. I'll leave mundane things such as cleaning my house until 2007.

New find! Internet Review of Science Fiction

Visit. Sign up. Support. http://www.irosf.com

Book tag

Came across this somewhere and thought I would start my own tag.

1. Total number of books I've owned:

Bizarre. I was just discussing this last night with a friend, thinking I should do a count for ego's sake. I may have 1000 in my house, scattered from bedrooms to basements. I would have easily had that many through my childhood, as I read voraciously. I still have a couple bookshelves worth at my parents' house. I'm thinking that in another 20 years they'll be antiques. : )

2. The last book I bought:
I went into two different Chapters in two different cities while travelling over Christmas. I loaded up on clearance items, including some Ancient Egyptian reference for my collection, and Quicksilver by Neil Stephenson, cuz I haven't read him yet.

3. The last book I read:
I have just finished Amazing Journey's magazine. I was pleasantly surprised by great stories - very powerful with a lot of emotional pull. I am plowing my way through the novel O-Zone, by Paul Theroux, author of Mosquito Coast. I'm finding it... hmm... shallow?

4. Five books that mean a lot to me:

In Their Nightgowns, Dancing by Michael Armstrong. This is a script by my friend Michael and I had the honour to be part of the production. Fabulous story with fabulous writing.

The Chronicles of Prydain, by Lloyd Alexander (Taran the Pig-keeper series). This was my first introduction as a child to the Fantasy genre, and from there on Anne of Green Gables was boring as snot. I never looked back.

Any that were bought for me by friends.

5.The books in my collection where the physical object means a lot to me:

A personally autographed Serpent in the Sky by John Anthony West. A friend went out of her way to get me a copy and have it signed by John. Thanks, Leena!

My copies of Throne Price and Courtesan Prince from Lynda Williams.

Time is too short to wrack my brain any longer.

6. Tag five people and have them fill this out in their blogs.

Steph, David, Mark, Peter, Lynda

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Robert J. Sawyer gives advice aplenty.

A great post from Mark Leslie led me to this podcast by Tee Morris and Robert J. Sawyer. Robert gives his advice to authors wishing to promote their work. It was fabulous to listen to, and I recommend it to both new and accomplished authors. I hadn't had the chance to talk to Robert in person when we were at the same con, so it was nice to get a feel for the guy.

Saturday, January 07, 2006

SF Site top 2005 - VOTE!

Vote for your favourite releases of 2005.
http://www.sfsite.com/columns/neil214.htm

Thursday, January 05, 2006

Award & Nobel winning authors overlooked

Happy New Year all! I have been neglectful of my blog - and many other responsibilities. Life updates soon. :)

Click the title to read the story about prize winning books being resubmitted to publishers under an unknown name, and their subsequent gnarly rejections. It all boils down to this "“Being 29, blonde, good-looking and vaguely famous should be enough to get you a book published nowadays."

Miss, miss, miss, and miss. I'm not even blonde anymore to at least get one of 'em. Harrumph.