Saturday, 11 September 2004

Some marketing: I had a story that really only had one good market left to submit it to, but that I hadn't submitted because formatting it for their guidelines was going to be a pain. I thought of a way to semi-automate the process and finally did that yesterday. Today I cleaned up after the semi-automation and submitted it.

Some revising: I finished up the revisions of the providence story and sent it to a couple of critiquers. Some of that revision involved fresh prose creation, so there was real writing there, as well as revising.

Some non-writing work: In particular, some geeky fiddling around with the way I do my email. Now I'm using Prairienet as an IMAP server instead of a POP server. Makes no difference to anyone else, but it'll help me when I mix use of my desktop and laptop machines, as I was doing lately with the trip to Boston.

Some play: A game of StarCraft with Steven.

Some reading: I finished So Long Been Dreaming, which was great. I especially enjoyed Toby's story. I also started a new novel.

I find I sometimes react badly when people recommend a book too strenuously. When someone just says, "Hey, this is a great book! You should add it to your reading list," then, if I've enjoyed other stuff recommended by the same person, or the book otherwise sounds like something I might like, then I do put it on my list of things to read.

On the other hand, people sometimes say something like: "This book is awsome! Reading it changed my life! Other writers should just give up! They should bow down before the author of this book, to whom they are like ants. You should just throw all the other books on your to-read list into a corner and read this one right now!" When that happens, I tend to try to break eye contact, back away slowly, and say, "Sure. I'll, um, do that." Because, you know, I kind of like my life. A book that changes lives seems kind of threatening.

With that in mind, let me just say that Trash Sex Magic by Jennifer Stevenson is off to a great start. Even before finishing it, I'm pretty confident in saying that you should put it on your to-read list.

All in all, a great day. Nice to have a weekend when I'm not traveling and don't have a trip next week either.