kaleidotrope

Tuesday

I neglected to mention yesterday one of the other weird things that happened, that made the day feel just slightly more unreal that usual. This week marks the United Nations General Assembly, and since our office is only a couple of short blocks from the UN itself, there’s been an increased police presence in the neighborhood. To the point that the streets between 2nd and 1st Avenue are blocked entirely, by both police barricades and officers, except to people working at or around the UN itself.

Our office is on 3rd, the UN is on 1st, and on nice days, I often eat my lunch in a little parklet — basically just a few benches in a building’s courtyard — in between. But not yesterday. “Where you going?” the police officer asked me, as I clearly wasn’t wearing an ID badge. “I guess not over there,” I said. I found another park to eat my chicken sandwich in.

I also received confirmation that my 3-Day Novel submission was received. To which my first thought was, oh yeah, I wrote a 3-day novel. It’s actually all kind of a blur. I still haven’t even re-read it, but I guess this means somebody’s going to. That’s got to be a tough job, reading and judging all of those novels written feverishly over three days. I suppose you score points just for being comprehensible after a certain point.

And that’s about it for today: more about yesterday. We had a roundtable discussion/presentation this afternoon on commissioning new textbooks, which isn’t strictly speaking something I do in my day-to-day, but I am involved in the process as a development editor, and there’s been some weird overlap at times. (I’m not an acquiring editor, but with a few revised editions from our inherited backlist, I’ve kind of become one at times.)

It was too rainy to really go looking for parks to eat my lunch in, but you still can’t miss the police presence in the neighborhood, directing car and foot traffic alike. Today’s the day the General Assembly really kicks off, and with the talk likely to center around Libya and Palestine, it’s little wonder security has been beefed up.

Still plugging away at edits for Kaleidotrope‘s next issue, still not getting enough writing of my own done. But the week is still young…ish.

Somehow it’s Friday

On the one hand, it’s hard to believe it was only a week ago that I was in Banff, since it seems like so much longer. But on the other hand, it feels like it was just yesterday. I’ve more or less gotten back into the swing of things, at least as far as work is concerned, but I don’t really feel like I’ve adjusted. I genuinely miss it, not least of all because circumstances and my own laziness have contributed to my getting practically nothing written this week. Not even the short story that seemed to have a little momentum behind it my last couple of days at the Centre.

I don’t remember missing Las Vegas nearly halfway this much the last time I actually went on vacation.

But, anyway, it’s Friday if nothing else. I hope to spend the weekend line-editing some stories for Kaleidotrope and maybe even working on some layout. Maybe do some writing. Maybe even watch a movie. I haven’t watched a movie in a few weeks. Mostly just relaxing.

Thursdaying along

Another busy day at work, although I at least seem to be making some small headway into the half dozen different projects I’ve got juggling now. Of course, I’d much rather be writing, all things being equal.

To say nothing of the many, many stories for Kaleidotrope that, it occurred to me this morning, I still need to edit and squeeze into some kind of layout. The last (print) issue might have to be “Fall 2011” instead of October, depending.

I weirdly feel like I’ve been ignoring the zine, despite having just put out an issue in July. That issue, though, was a little different than the norm, being just the single novella and and a long-form poem rather than the usual assortment. There’s never been a flood of reviews for the zine — though some nice write-ups on occasion by people like Gavin Grant or Rich Horton — but SFRevu has some kind things to say, if you’re curious.

Writing off Saturday

So let’s see…what did I do today? If this gets at all rambly or incoherent, I apologize. I appear to have ingested the world’s entire supply of caffeine.

I woke up around eight o’clock this morning and realized something: while I had packed copies of Kaleidotrope‘s latest issue into envelopes last night for contributors and subscribers, I had neglected to do the same for the couple of people who had so far bought copies of this issue alone. So I got up out of bed and addressed a few more labels, and then about an hour later I was at the post office mailing them all out.

It’s funny how they recognize me at the local post office, but seem to forget the reason they recognize me is that I’m the crazy one mailing out multiple packages both hither and yon, two or three times a year, often with dozens of envelopes in hand. Today I had far fewer packages, since this issue has only three contributors total, and I haven’t really pushed to increase my subscribers in several months, what with the upcoming move to becoming a webzine and all.

Although, seriously, if you haven’t bought a copy yet, or have let your subscription lapse, please do check this issue out. Or consider donating. I’m paying contributors a cent a word in 2012, so every little bit helps.

After the post office, I went to get a haircut, then went to the bank, then bought some allergy meds, then went back to the post office to drop off an envelope for my mother. (Hey, any excuse to walk past those charming folks outside with the Obama-in-Hitler-mustache posters again, right?) And then I spent the bulk of the day writing. And I do seriously mean the bulk of the day.

There was some goofing off involved, including an episode of Enterprise on Netflix, but I spent most of today working on a short story I’ve got percolating. It all started about a week ago when I was reading a story submitted to Kaleidotrope and noticed a striking similarity between the story’s opening sentence and this past winter’s prompt for The First Line. The wording was slightly changed, and I didn’t call the author on it — there’s no harm at all in submitting a story somewhere else if the first venue passes — so I don’t know for sure if that’s where the story originated. But I noticed it because I, too, had submitted a story for that issue and had also been rejected. And it got me thinking, “hey, I haven’t visited their site recently. I wonder what the prompts are for their upcoming issues.”

Oh, if only I’d done that several weeks earlier. Because the current first line — “Edwin spotted them the moment he stepped off the train.” — got into my brain something fierce and suggested a story, which I’ve been struggling to finish ever since. And the due date, of course, for this Fall 2011 issue is August 1.

So I’m going to make a mad rush to finish it tomorrow. I did this sort of thing earlier this month for another deadline I probably should have known about earlier, and it seemed to work. That story might very well still get rejected, but I’m proud of it, and moreover proud of finishing it. This story is a little less tied to a particular venue, and would be easier to rework if The First Line rejects it or if I can’t finish by August 1. But I really want to finish it in time. I’m a little nervous I’ll let it languish if I miss the deadline.

Either way, this is all probably a good mental workout for the 3-Day Novel Contest, for which I finally signed up. Heather ultimately convinced me, both by signing up herself and by clever use of ALL CAPS in her suggesting it. And it is the project I said I would be working on in my application to the Banff Centre, so it probably doesn’t hurt to make good on that promise. It still seems like a bit like madness, for which I might need the rest of my stay there just for recovery. But a crazy deadline does do wonders for one’s focus.

Gotta get down on Friday

It was a quiet day, if you forget the annoyingly loud construction/demolition going on all around the building. But, thanks to summer hours, the office largely clears out around one o’clock, and I think even the work crews outside took the rest of the afternoon off.

Not a whole lot planned for the weekend, beyond mailing out copies of Kaleidotrope’s new issue and trying to do some writing.