kaleidotrope

Thursday swelter

Another average day, notable mostly only because there was no air conditioning on my train home this evening. And while it was slightly cooler today that earlier this week, thanks to a tiny bit of rain in the morning, the temperature was still hovering around 90°F all day. The air conditioning was still sorely needed. It meant that I got a seat all to myself, in a mostly empty car, as other passengers went in search of fabled (and possibly nonexistent) cooler cars, but it also meant that we were rolling along in a sauna for some forty minutes. Still, as I overheard one other passenger say, “If I move, it’ll probably be just as bad, and I’ll be crowded with a whole bunch of people. I’d rather sweat all over myself alone.”

Beyond that, I’m just trying to get the latest issue of Kaleidotrope together…and realizing that I probably won’t until next weekend. Electronic copies have gone out to some reviewers, but it looks like contributor and subscriber copies just won’t be ready in time to mail them on Saturday like I’d hoped. I’m pretty confident they’ll be ready next weekend, all collated and stapled, so they’ll definitely mail out in early July.

And if you’d still like a copy of the latest issue — or better yet, a four-issue subscription — there’s no time like the present to act on that. Your copy is just a PayPal link — or money sent directly to me — away.

Meanwhile, I think I’m going to close the zine to submissions again for awhile, starting likely in September and running to the end of 2010. I really do want to go back to only two issues for next year, and this seems like the best way to ensure that I’m not so overstuffed with accepted stories as to require three issues again. An extra issue this July hasn’t proved too onerous, but it is an added expense, and the cost of producing an issue — certainly of mailing an issue — can be considerable. Anything I accept at this point is quite possibly not going to appear until April of 2012, and that’s edging into the ridiculous. I don’t want to start telling writers I’ll print their stories, but not for another two or more years.

So I think instituting a reading period is a definite necessity at this point. Then again, given what I’ve already accepted, another July issue might also be needed.

We’ll see.

“If what you seek is strangeness…”

I neglected to mention yesterday that the April 2010 issue of Kaleidotrope was recently reviewed. (I’ve been sending out electronic copies of the July issue, but it’s much too soon for anything to have come of that yet.) It’s a mixed review, with some genuine criticisms, but overall it’s very positive. I think so far it’s my favorite of the three reviews they’ve posted of past issues.

It’s probably a good thing I forgot to mention it yesterday, though, since there’s precious little to write about today. Mostly just your average (albeit still much too hot) Wednesday.

Wednesday various

  • It’s as I always suspected: Twilight will kill you.
  • Heaven knows Kaleidotrope contributor Genevieve Valentine isn’t a fan:

    The good news is that if you are seeing a Twilight movie to mock it, you’ll feast every time.

  • The Fab Faux’s live cover of Abbey Road raises a really interesting question: what is the difference between a really great cover band and a classical orchestra? [via]
  • Meanwhile, Janis Ian covers herself (with a few tweaks) for this year’s Nebula Awards. [via]
  • And finally, also meanwhile, all those covers on Glee would probably get the school in a lot of trouble [via]:

    These worlds don’t match. Both Glee and the RIAA can’t be right. It’s hard to imagine glee club coach Will Schuester giving his students a tough speech on how they can’t do mash-ups anymore because of copyright law (but if he did, it might make people rethink the law). Instead, copyright violations are rewarded in Glee — after Sue’s Physical video goes viral, Olivia Newton-John contacts Sue so they can film a new, improved video together.

July Third

I spent today doing mostly what I expected, although I was surprised to discover the local library was closed all weekend, not just tomorrow and Monday. I have a couple of books on reserve, and I guess I won’t get a chance to pick them up until later in the week, if not next weekend.

So I spent the day reading some Kaleidotrope submissions, and just hanging around the house. I also mowed the front lawn, did a little bit of writing, and watched a cute movie called TiMER, starring Emma Caulfield of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame. She and the movie were both quite good; I’m not sure I loved the ending, but it’s sweet and funny and intelligent, which can be rare qualities in a romantic comedy.

Otherwise, just enjoying the long weekend.

Enter title here

Woke up this morning and discovered that somebody had left a TV on our lawn, right near the curb, in the middle of the night. It was gone by the time I got home this evening, so either the garbage collectors took it or, more likely, somebody else drove by and thought, hey, free TV.

That’s about as exciting as the day got. It’s oppressively muggy and hot, not particularly improved by frequent short-lived rainstorms, but at least there’s air conditioning.

I did update the Kaleidotrope website, with the table of contents for next month’s issue. It’s still a work in progress — as is the whole idea of doing a July issue — but I like the idea of running the whole thing off of WordPress, to make updating it considerably easier and all in one spot.

Anyway, that was my Monday, such as it was.