17h shift

Not so bad, as far as shifts go but I've slept only 5h in the last 40 and those have been in 45 minute naps (for some reason I couldn't sleep when I got back home and then somebody called on the phone...) Needless to say I'm grumpy and busted and exhausted from my 3 hours of doctorate course (dealing mostly with proteins and antioxidants that are toxic in the doses needed to do their antioxidant business--but these cell biologists wouldn't know that). I haven't written much in the past 6 months and haven't finished a story. So doubly grumpy.

I'm writing a fantasy story now, and it sort of seems to be working even if I'm screwing with the rules more than usual and don't know whether it will see the light of day.

So, if anyone knows of any really cool anthos that could motivate me to write, comment away.
Or, if anyone would like to see some Genge stuff on their magazine/ezine suggest away. I could probably finish something if I were writing with an objective in mind. Or maybe not.

What the World is thinking about the US now

Oooohhhh, wasn't the speech luvely? And we really liked Michelle's outfits (the white dress more than the suit) and isn't Barack handsome? You can tell he's really in love with his wife by the way he twirls her around and steps on her dress (WTF??? SRSL!) And American's sure know how to throw a ceremony. And isn't the curious mix of formality and familiarity such an American thing? The daaaarlings. Americans are cute and cuddly. Cute and cuddly like a bear eating honey. A feral bear eating honey before he tears your limbs apart. Oh, yes, cute and cuddly Americans.

And best of all, Americans are suddenly not so horrible anymore because Obama's daughters are SWEET!

(By God, you/we better live up to this, people.)

200 subs. Stats

I've been writing and submitting since 2006. I created an account in Duotrope and logged in my first sub on July 13th 2006. By that time, I'd been subbing for a few months and had sold my first story to Strange Horizons so the stats here are skewed. My 200th submission (to ASIM) came back rejected on December 16th. Anyway, in case anyone is interested, here's some juicy bits of statistical nonsense I thought I'd share.

200 subs, 17 accepted pieces, that's an 8.5% acceptance rate, assuming that all 6 of my pending subs gets rejected. Of course, many of those pieces were subbed multiple times before being accepted and some of them are reprints which get counted several times. I told you the data was wrong!

A total of 12 different markets bought my stories. One market bought 3 stories, 3 markets bought 2 and the rest bought one each. Six of these stories were (or will be) published online only, 7 went to print markets (these may have online pdf copies available, but they're considered mainly print mags) and 4 went to markets like Shimmer who favor neither print nor e-formats but offer both.

Three stories were sold in 2006, seven in 2007 and six in 2008 which shows just how little I've been writing in 2008 (new job, new home, new life basically).

I don't know how useful any of this is, but here you go, my end-of-two-years stats. Enjoy.

Apex Raffle

Just a quick reminder: it's not too late to enter the Apex raffle. There are plenty of quirky gifts to choose from. If you can't decide, you can always buy a chance to win everything for 25$.

And remember: the small press needs you.

And on the sad passing of Prop 8...

... I want to take every demarried person in California, bring them over to Spain, hook them up on the big tit of Social Security (Medicine, pensions, unemployment) and give them a bear hug. Because I just cannot fathom how horrible it must be to have a loving, legal marriage be broken up without consent of the parties actually involved in said marriage. This is spiritual rape. Anyone claiming otherwise is deluded.

2012: FOUR MORE YEARS

... 'cause it's my job to think ahead of the crowd.

"The Gong" in Weird Tales

The September-October issue of Weird Tales is out! And here I was, not knowing it. It's an international issue and I share TOC with... (drum roll) Rochita Loenen-Ruiz! From Villa Diodati 3! The same who writes awesome slipstream! And cooks!

I'm going off to squee somewhere.