Here’s the final cover for Jane Quiet. Elena got the proofs and inevitably, we noticed a few things that we need to change. Argh — editing is not my strength. Gene, of course, has a careful eye and spotted a few things that could be improved. The process of publishing is a lot of hurry…
Category: frustration
Whirling
The positive aspect of snow is that it can force you into slowing down. I must admit it’s hard to find the good in the freezing rain that’s supposed to come this afternoon, but an excuse to be stationary is probably enough. Friday I had my last two finals back to back, ending with the…
Happy Natal Day, Mr. Blake
I still have my WWWBD? page with the red dragon pinned to my bulletin board. It’s good to remember how filled with pain and rejection his life was, yet he soldiered on, confident in his vision. My co-editor and I have finally received a thumbs down on our Old English charms volume from the publisher…
The Consolation of Philosophy
It’s funny how many parallels you can find if you look for them. Among the things I was teaching today (which is to say, the things I blathered on about and hoped the students were taking in) was the Knight’s Tale from Chaucer. In it he makes reference to the mutability of Fortune, personified as…
Ars est celare artem
I meant to get around to talking about Eric Idle’s Road to Mars before now, but I haven’t had the time or idleness, I suppose. I still don’t. But he uses Ovid’s famous observation that the true art is to conceal art (or, I suppose, Crispinus might want me to be more direct and say…
Publication Updates
Happy Rosh Hashanah, Miss Wendy! Wish we could be there tonight, but we’ll be there tomorrow to devour the leftovers. Mmm — kugel! Mmmm — pâté! Or as we like to pronounce it, “pate”! I’m happy to announce that my Blake-inspired short story “Eating the Dream” will be appearing in an upcoming issue of Femspec,…
Other People’s Words
By way of John Van Druten (in Playwright at Work), here’s Robert Graves’ “A Pinch of Salt”: When a dream is born in you With a sudden clamorous pain, When you know the dream is true And lovely, with no flaw nor strain, O then, be careful, or with sudden clutchYou’ll hurt the delicate thing…
More Quiet
Over at Elena’s there are more pages of our comic, Jane Quiet. She writes, “It’s amazing the amount of time it’s taking to draw something which in the end, a person can pick up and read in about five minutes.” Ain’t it the truth? Years sometimes spent writing a book that an excited reader can…
Caution Tape
I tried to go in to my office to work after picking Gene up from the airport this morning. Not only are they still not done with the driveway, but they had caution tape across the front porch (presumably because the new steps had been poured — hey, no more gaping hole!). I needed to…