According to the calendar, I didn't post at all last month.

[feuervogel]

Whoops.

Uh, let's see. I rewrote the fucking novel again, and it's off at beta readers'. One already got it back to me, but I'm not looking at comments until next month. I'm Not Dealing With It right now so I can do other things.

I'm about 3/4 of the way through the beginning conversation class. Some of my students are more comfortable with unknown words and global reading than others, so what I need to do is figure out how to convince them that knowing every single word isn't important, so they should look for keywords.

Another teacher suggested having them highlight all the things they do recognize, then looking up a limited number of unknown words, so they a) focus on how much they already know and b) don't get hung up on every single word.

It's about time to gauge interest in the next class, so we'll see if I have another class coming up. Though it'll get into summer and the travel season, and I'm going to have to miss half of June anyway... I don't know how that works here.

Convention planning continues apace. The Shatterdome has a full complement of artists for artists alley, but we're always looking for a few good panelists.

Uh, what else? There's a huge mess surrounding this year's Hugo awards, and I don't feel like writing about it here.

I'm still trying to make a #&%!^*%# sale of short fiction. I've gotten some helpful personal rejections (and some total forms), but apparently I'm not hitting the right editor at the right time. I'm thinking about making them into an ebook and selling them on amazon and ebooks.com and smashwords, either individually or as a collection. IDK.

My sister's baby is 2 months old. She thinks she looks like baby pictures of me. All I can tell is that it is a small human with a round, bald head. I am nervous about going home to visit, because there may be expectations of cooing and holding.

Comments

[groovesinorbit]

Good luck with the cooing and holding. When my nephew and his wife (soon to be ex- as previously mentioned) brought home their first baby, we went to visit when we were in MD. Everyone else was all "Ooh! Baby!" but I was "Ooh! You have cats."

I ponder a short story collection self-pubbed, too. It scares me, though.

[feuervogel]

Thanks. I mean, my sister should know by now that I'm not into babies (it's not a secret or anything). So I'll smile politely, maybe play peekaboo or make a couple funny faces so she laughs, that kind of thing (I hear babies are into that). But I draw the line at "oh how cute!" and holding them.

Yeah, the whole idea is scary. Selling a story online for a dollar is OK, but how do you promote it? How do you let people know it exists? Then there's the whole formatting and cover and ARGH.

[groovesinorbit]

Yeah, I don't hold babies or change their diapers. Never have done the latter, and I'm hoping I can get through my whole life without doing so. (ya gotta have goals ;)

So much ARGH! I start thinking about all that and just want to crawl into a cave and never come out.

[heavenscalyx]

Have been watching wife's short fiction getting rejected left, right, and center. Low risk-taking on the part of editors (with new writers)? Can't tell.

Strength to your Send-button-pushing-finger.

[feuervogel]

Thanks. From what I can tell, the market is just really tough, because there are so many writers competing for the same few spaces. I thought the space dockworker was totally going to get in to the antho I submitted to, but it didn't make the final cut (literally--the next day, people started posting acceptances).

It's frustrating as hell.

[heavenscalyx]

Yeah, one of hers was a late rejection from an antho too. Augh.

Of course, I'm all long-form subs, and I've gotten some very nice rejections (including one that referred to my "charming novel", which was very flattering given the agent it came from) and some form rejections. But all rejections. Sigh. Very frustrating.

[groovesinorbit]

Hey, I know you!