Yesterday, I was alone…

Yesterday, I was alone with baby most of the day -- fun, but also remarkably physicially exhausting. I'm not sure exactly why -- maybe it's just that she often wants to be picked up and carried, and twenty-five-ish extra pounds is noticeable? I did manage to get a bunch of e-mail and other piddly work done -- the sort of thing that can be done in 2-5 minute increments. But nothing sustained.

Next week will be the big writing week, I think, while Kevin's out of town and Jarmila is watching Kavi during the days. This morning I went shopping for back-to-school clothes, hitting the Anthropologie end-of-summer clearance sale. I didn't get anything particularly striking, but a cute cream cotton top with some crochet work at the shoulders, along with two pairs of slacks, much needed, and a basic black dress. I think I'm now up to 8 items out of the recommended 10. Yay, me.

Speaking of extra pounds, clothes shopping is painful. I've lost seven pounds so far since I started exercising with the Wii (and despite not exercising for two weeks while travelling, I didn't gain any weight back, yay), and I feel a lot stronger and healthier. But I'm still about twenty pounds heavier than pre-pregnancy, and I'd like to get rid of those pounds. For the most part it manifests when I'm trying on dresses, oddly enough -- they fit everywhere else but are they're tight in the shoulders and upper back, probably due in part to the rack o' doom. Kevin doesn't seem to mind the humongous chest, but I do! More aerobics, yoga, and push-ups in my future. Kavi let me do a short morning yoga routine this morning, but when I tried to do some step aerobics on the Wii, she climbed up on it and clung to my legs, loudly protesting. Ah well.

I'm in a cafe right now, taking a short lunch break and doing final revisions to the sf story, "Jump Space", prior to sending it out. Since Clarkesworld is closed to subs and Escape Pod is happy to do reprints, and of course, I can't submit to Strange Horizons, I think my planned order is Asimov's, F&SF, and Escape Pod. If it comes back from all of those, I'll probably just put it up on my website, I think -- there aren't really any other sf venues I'm burning to be published in right now. Unless there's something fabulous I'm missing? Gods know I'm out of the loop these days...

2 thoughts on “Yesterday, I was alone…”

  1. I recommend stopping by Duotrope’s Digest to search for potential markets.

    A couple of examples of markets that came up in a quick search there (depending on what pay rate you’re looking for): Interzone, Aurealis (but writers outside Australia should query first), Abyss & Apex (currently open for a one-month reading period; also, free and online), Baen’s Universe. You might also consider Ideomancer, though the pay’s a bit lower.

    They also note that some literary markets (like Zoetrope, whose reading period ends at the end of August) consider sf.

  2. Mary Anne Mohanraj

    Well, their guidelines confuse me, but I think Baen’s Universe is closed to submissions right now. Other than that, I think my order would be:

    Baen’s Universe
    Asimov’s
    F&SF
    Abyss & Apex
    Escape Pod

    I don’t think this story will work for lit mags — too space opera-ish. 🙂

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