Arrant Nonsense

So, you guys remember my very first pro sale, to Cosmos magazine, Fortunes of Soldiers?

The editor is going to do a reprint antho of the stories he discovered. So I'm going to share a ToC with the likes of Mary Robinette Kowal, Jay Lake, and Joe Haldeman, among many other talented and hard-working folks. And I'm getting paid again! A token payment, true, but I'll take it.

The antho will be titled "You're Not Alone." Not sure when it's coming out, but watch this space for news.

We now return you to your regularly-scheduled whining about writing.

And trust me, there's plenty to whine about on that front.

Oh, and something I didn't mention was the the Merc&theSnake story got picked up by Anthology Builder. So, that's four of my stories you can buy there now.

So, I've sent out everything I'm going to send out for the foreseeable future, and then I decided to look at the contract for the Merc&theSnake story. And now I can start sending it to reprint markets (could have awhile ago, actually), so...yay?

If we're not writing, then we're researching markets. I know the first couple of places I want to send it, but after that it's an open question. Also, it turns out that the Merc&theSnake story is so old that I don't actually have it in .doc format. So, I'll have to rectify that as well. It never ever ends...

I think I'm going to throw up the BeagleFic as a freebie with a tip jar. Mainly because I've pretty much exhausted the markets for the thing but I still think people will enjoy it because, hey, funny, right?

Actual writing? Um. No? But, later. *nods firmly*

Remember how Cosmos published my story, and I have yet to see the artwork for it because apparently my contributor copy is coming via Mars or something?

The story is up on the website.

AND THE ILLUSTRATION FOR IT.

OMGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. THAT. IS. FABULOUS. It's PERFECT.

ETA: The artist is Emrah Elmasli. Check out his website--beautiful stuff.

*dies*

I only wish I could embiggen it somehow so I could use it as wallpaper. Well, I did it in PSP--not sure how well it translates to being embiggened, BUT I DON'T CARE IT'S PERFECT PERFECT PERFECT.

So. Apparently the issue of Cosmos magazine with my story in it is out. And Damien says that the illustration is awesome.

I WANT TO SEE IT. AUGH.

Impatient agilebrit is impatient.

I don't think I have any Aussies on my flist who can run out and look at it for me.

EDIT: THERE I AM OMG.

Okay, how did that happen?

Da Boy insisted he wanted pizza for dinner last night, and offered his allowance to pay for it. So the Hubby hied them off to Little Caesar's for some Hot n Ready Pepperoni and an order of Crazy Bread. I had two breadsticks and two slices of pizza, fully expecting to gain some weight from this, as I had a baked potato for lunch.

Instead, I lost 2/10 of a pound and am now back down to my pre-Con weight.

*oddface* I'll count this as a win, but...dude. I so do not get this. At all.

In other news, I've been corresponding with one of the guys from Cosmos, and apparently they're planning on my story appearing in either April or May. THAT'S SO FAST AND I'M SO STOKED ABOUT THIS, Y'ALL. OMG. I just hope they get an image of Fluffy in the illustration for it...

And I must do a fic rec: Skynet and Stilettos by the lovely and effulgent zionangel. Tony and Pepper, all dialogue. This made me giggle like a loon and you must read it NAOW.

Dear Julie,

I'm sending this to let you know that "[Merc&theSnake]" has been forwarded for a final decision from our editors, Eric Flint and Mike Resnick. We'll contact you as soon as they've made a decision.

You know, I've felt for a long time that Baen's is a good fit for my stuff. This is the second time (and the second editor) where one of my stories has been passed on to Eric and Mike, and they usually have nice things to say about the stuff that doesn't get passed on as well.

SO CLOSE I CAN TASTE IT. OMG.

The Merc&theSnake fic has been sent to Clarkesworld.

The Werewolf Fic has been sent to Coach's Midnight Diner.

Last night, I was ready to put my fist through my laptop screen. *loathes hormones and the way they make me overreact to, like, everything* Today, I shall buckle down and WRITE.

Hear that? I will write at least 250 words.

Flist, I'm counting on you to THUMP me if I don't.

Also, some interesting discussion here and here about email vs snail mail subs. My own take on it is that I only have six or seven snail mail markets that I'm actually likely to sub to, and usually half of them are eliminated right off the bat by virtue of content (I'm not going to send a fantasy to Analog or hard SF to Realms of Fantasy) or word count.

Honestly, it's only a couple of bucks to ship off a snail mail sub, and what with the "no multiple subs" policy the snail mail markets have, I don't really see what the issue is. The Big Three are the Big Dogs, and I'm darned if I'm going to cut myself out of their markets because of some notion that they should get with the program and take esubs.

On the other hand, the markets that take esubs can be rage-inducing. It seems like many of them not only want us to write for them, they want us to be their (unpaid!) typesetters as well. While the majority of them like standard formatting just fine, others want italics instead of underline. Some want block paragraphs with a space between and no indent...others want the same but with the indent. Some want one space after a period, others want two. Next thing you know, they'll be specifying if they want the Oxford comma (which I stubbornly cling to because it looks wrong to me to leave it off) or not!

And then there are the ones who want the sub in the body of the email instead of as an attachment. Some have a webform. Some want .rtf, some want .doc.

Is it bad that I kind of long for the good old days I never had the opportunity to participate in because it could be formatted the same for everyone? Argh.

And...that turned kind of ranty. Um. Sorry.

I figured out why my word processor was being all wonky. Had to do with "widowed and orphaned" lines. Somehow the default got turned on to "don't allow this." So, the doc is fixed and formatted. Now all I have to do is save it as an .rtf file and ship it off to the next market.

Yayness.

...has an "END" at the bottom of it. I think it's a better story. I may need to add a little more emotion to it than it has, but I've only got a 47-word leeway, so I don't know. I'll poke it again tomorrow and see if I still like it.

In the meantime...

Brisco County, Jr!