Woke up coughing. …

Woke up coughing. Dammit. I managed to go one week without being ill, and then here it is again. Does dry air and high altitudes make one more prone to colds? It certainly feels like I've been sicker here than I was in California, but perhaps that's just a frustrated perspective at play...

Despite all that, there's some good news to relate. Chip and Shannon had their baby! This probably means nothing to you, but Chip's a long-time journal reader and one of my development staff at SH, and I'm just thrilled. I'll be happier when I hear they're all home safe, though -- it was apparently a very difficult birth, involving an emergency C-section. Oof. Think happy thoughts for them, okay? Happy, placid, sleepy-baby, healing-momma thoughts...

On a completely different scale of good news, Zak's been spiffying up the SH site, sharpening graphics, fixing background problems that have been going on forever, etc. I am so happy to see these difficulties going away, I cannot tell you. If you notice any graphical difficulties with the site, now would be a good time to let me know. I can then dump them on Zak. Yay, Zak!

Of course, you should go to the site anyway, because what day is it today? It's Monday! And hopefully we can make the start of your week brighter with a new issue, including an article by David on Iain Banks's Culture novels (good stuff, if you haven't read them), an only slight-insane story by Nick Mamatas, "Time of Day", another of Ben Rosenbaum's fabulous short-shorts, "Ylla's Choice", poetry, and even a review. How wonderful is my magazine? Too darn wonderful, that's what it is.

It's nice to see that recognized -- it's been consistently at the top of the Preditors & Editors poll for the last two weeks or so. Fingers crossed that we hold that position; it's not a Hugo, but it can't hurt. :-)

Speaking of Hugo's -- have you voted yet? Only 10 days left! Please vote!

My mind is zipping all over the place like a hectic and busy little bee. I meant to start this entry by telling you what I did last night, but somehow all this other stuff crept in. But now I will force all the other stuff out, and note that I read half of the Vintage Bradbury yesterday -- very wonderful, although reading several of his stories in a row, I am struck by how extremely recognizable his style is. Not just in terms of use of language, but the overall composition of his stories -- it affects his characterization, his plotting...odd. Do my stories do that? I suspect they do. Then I sat down at the computer and wrote Tim Pratt a poem for his new gig at Star*Line. We'll see what he thinks of it. I find that I'm only motivated to submit poetry if I know the poetry editor. Kind of funny. I started by publishing poetry, after all, but that was long ago and far away. In practical terms, I probably should've sent the poem to Gardner at Asimov's first, but heck with it. I'd rather Tim had it. After I sent that off, I wrote another poem, which you've seen. Then I settled down on the couch with Bradbury...and Kevin called. We ended up chatting for a couple of hours, until I went to sleep. Was nice, and only occasionally melancholic.

Today...well, various and sundry bits of work, but mostly revising fellowship application stuff. We'll see how long that takes, and then worry about the rest. Have a good day, munchkins.

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