Category Archives: Uncategorized

Inequal rights for equal folks

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The California Supreme Court overturned a ruling against gay marriage this week. The fight wages on as supporters on both sides rally for the battle to make the ruling permanent. Obviously, there are plenty of heated discussions going on. Jed Hartman has a nice summary of what the ruling really means.

I summed up my feeling on the issue over on Chris McKitterick‘s journal yesterday:

I’ve never quite understood how it can be claimed that we (the United States) have separation between church and state, yet the concept of a legal union is inseparable from a religious ceremony in the minds of so many.

In my mind, any man or woman, in any combination, should be able to be legally “married” and obtain all legal benefits of such.

Religion should play absolutely no part in the legal process of marriage. Perhaps it’s my limited perspective, but the majority of those I see/hear/read about are protesting and complaining based on their personal religious views.

To me, it’s really that simple. There is absolutely no reason a person should be treated differently based on their ethnic group, gender, sexual preference, or social status. In short, people should be judged on their actions.

Testing WordPress

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I’m experimenting with WordPress 2.5 and cross-posting to LiveJournal.

It appears that WordPress 2.5 and the LiveJournal cross-poster are much improved since the last time I tested them. I’m going to knock around with this for a day and see how it fits.

I’ve ripped out the relevant portions of the LJ theme that I like and applied it to the theme here. I’ll try to keep my tests to this one post so I don’t mess up anyone’s feed.

Update:

Fairly happy with the changes so far. There are things I need to do, blanks that need to be filled, but everything critical is done.

Issues:

  • The LiveJournal cross-poster doesn’t seem to copy my tags over correctly
  • There doesn’t seem to be a way of changing the order of widgets in the sidebar. Drag and drop is broken in WordPress 2.5.1

Tirpy

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Tired, but happy.

Stopped off at a Barnes and Noble before seeing Iron Man tonight. Not only did we find copies of Weird Tales and Apex Digest (both difficult to find in stores, in my experience) but we saw the Steampunk anthology edited by Jeff & Ann Vandermeer, which was released today, in the wild.

No writing done today, but I’m down to the last scene rewrite for my Sword and Sorceress submission. I expect that to be ready by the end of the weekend.

April 15th

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Writing:

We mailed our submissions to the PARSEC Science Fiction and Fantasy
Short Story Contest last night. The theme for this years contest was “metallic feathers.” It’s the first contest either of us has submitted to. We should hear back by mid-June or so.

Two more submissions out the door last weekend and one rejection in. I don’t feel too bad about the rejections, though. The last few have been personal ones, including an invitation to submit again. Progress.

Sword and Sorceress 23 opens to submissions this Saturday and will accept submissions until May 16th. A little known fact about me is that, as a teenager, I wrote to MZB to ask for guidelines to her magazine. I’m sure I botched the request but she still sent me them along with some little flyers and a bookmark (which still sits on my desk). Andrea has been reading the Sword and Sorceress for as long as she can remember. We’re both working on stories to submit for this issue.

Last, there are two other upcoming contests I have my sights set on: the Heinlein Centennial Short Story Contest and Return to Luna, due June 1st and 15th respectively.

Taxes:

Taxes are almost done. I just need to fax the signatures over to the account for eFiling and it’s done. Finally a year that I don’t owe money! Of course, almost all of my refund is going to a second retainer to the divorce lawyer. Easy come, easy go.

Penguicon 6.0:

We’re heading to Detroit this weekend for my 6th Penguicon (and Andrea’s first). This will be my second year following the writing track rather than the tech stuff. I won’t be doing the writing workshop this time, so hopefully I’ll have a chance to meet some new people with writerly interests. I’m still working out how to do that, being the geeky wallflower I am, but I’m sure I’ll manage somehow.

First fiction sale!

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It’s been a good week, chock full of writing goodness. I wrote two first drafts (a flash and a short) and started on a third. I polished up the flash piece and submitted it earlier today. Twenty-six minutes later I received an acceptance from Static Movement. My story, “That’s Just How I Roll”, will be published in their May issue.

Not a pro sale, but a sale nonetheless. A milestone and motivator. This is something I’ve been working towards seriously over the past year. While the story I sold today was less than a week old, I have to give thanks to all of the workshoppers, beta readers and loved ones who gave me their valuable feedback and encouragement. I would not be where I’m at today without each of you.

What the Frak?

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I’m still under the weather, now with an acute sinus infection, but I would be remiss in not mentioning the premier of Battlestar Galactica – Season 4 on Friday.

If you’re new to the show or just want a refresher, there is an eight minute recap that will give you the gist of where we are at:

Flu and Loglines

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Blogging with the flu might not be a smart idea. Please forgive any spelling/gramatical errors.

My brother was in town this week. He caught the flu from my mom, and then shared it with us. Runny noses, sore throats, fever, and body aches. Not exactly how we intended to spend Easter weekend. Sharing is caring!

In between fever dreams and restless bouts of sleep, I’ve been reading about loglines. I’d heard of the concept, mostly applied to script writer. Ray-Anne Lutener blogged about why loglines are relevant to fiction writers.

All too often I’ve tried to describe a story of mine to someone and ended up confusing myself. If I haven’t thought the story through enough to summarize it in one sentence, something is probably wrong. That logline can serve as a reminder as I write of what it is I’m trying to say.

I went back through some of my stories from the last year and thought about what the logline for each one would read. As I go back to revise or write new stories, I’m going to take a little time to write develop that one line summary, even if it’s only useful to myself as a writing tool.