Well, I collapsed last…

Well, I collapsed last night after finishing the "Emigrant" revision, so I'm facing a scary pile of grading today. May have to pull an all-nighter; we'll see. But I'm done with one course now, and if I work hard on Wednesday on the paper for the other, then I won't actually be behind. Though I should have started that paper weeks ago, really. Not sure why I've been so blocked on it. Have subject, but no claim. Grumble grumble.

A new issue of Strange Horizons is up, with an astronomy article, an Icarus poem, a review of some of the semipro webzines, and a really good story by Mark Rudolph, "Words of Love, Soft and Tender". It may be the first we've carried with really alien aliens, so it makes me happy. One of things I love about sf is when someone (like Butler, or Cherryh) does aliens that really think very differently from us. Or if they think similarly, still have very different social structures. It's cool. :-) And it makes me revert to about ten years old, hiding up in my room with a stack of sf novels, being assaulted again and again by a sense of wonder.

We've also added a little support button to the left nav bar -- if you click on it, it'll tell you some ways that you can support Strange Horizons. If you're liking the magazine, please take a moment to direct your attention there and see if any of the options sound feasible to you. And if you're buying holiday gifts online through Amazon, please consider starting at Strange Horizons. We want your five cents, really we do. :-)

While we're plugging things, take a look at this:

That's from one of my Clarion buddies, Rick Wadholm! It's his first book, and it's being offered as an ebook through Electric Story, which is run by Bob Kruger, another of my Clarion buddies. Is that cool or what? They're both dolls, and Rick's a really good writer. He was the first of us to have a serious professional sale after Clarion -- he sold "The Ice Forests" to Asimov's. We were all so proud, 'cause it was a story he had workshopped with us, and we loved it. I haven't read the e-book yet, but I'm planning to.

Oh, I almost forgot -- Jed also has an editorial in this week's SH about short fiction. So if you're a writer trying to sell to him, or a reader of short fiction, or a reader of novels wondering why anyone bothers with short fiction, this would be a great piece to read. :-)

I'm going to get started on that grading, but I'll probably check in later. Probably in despair once I see the papers. Wish me luck!

11:45. Why does grading always take so much longer than I think it will? I haven't even gotten to the papers yet; I'm still trying to finish off these damn quizzes. If I'm not done with them by 1, I will officially despair of them. On the plus side, my living room is clean -- I even got the old wax off my glass candle tree, which has been bugging me for weeks. Now you know why grading takes so long.

A quick word of advice to Columbine, or maybe more of a request than advice -- whether or not y'all decide to get legally married, I do hope that you'll have a big dress-up party at some point, with dancing and good food, and invite me. I would love to dance at your wedding, whether legal or not. :-) Maybe for your ten-year relationship anniversary?

I guess while I'd agree that a lot of the legal things that get tied up with married really shouldn't be (they're mostly leftovers from the days when men worked and supported their families from outside the home, and women stayed home), I do think that aside from whatever a couple (or triple, or whatever) creates together, there's something to be said for community celebration. Maybe I just like having an excuse for a party, though, and a chance to wear my fancy dresses...:-)

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