Today I installed a floresent light above the stove in the apartment. Rob picked it up for me at Home Depot when he was out getting a replacement part for the toilet, which was leaking. The light helps a lot with the stove.

I also submitted Cerbo en Vitro ujo today and started on a rewrite of Hand in my Colon.

While I normally avoid discussing politics on my journal, I watched the State of the Union tonight. I’m…unsurprised and yet still angry. I do not expect everyone who reads my blog to share my views, but I do feel that if I say nothing that implies my acceptance.

So, I thought I would share the ACLU’s thoughts on the State of the Union. That way, you can go read the political stuff if you want to, or you can skip it.

I went to Nia’s house for dinner last night with a gaggle of other writers. Truly, I only drove as far as Murfreesboro and then carpooled the rest of the way to Nashville with Steve and Alethea. It was fun and the food was yummy. We had black beans, tomatillo rice, mache salad with almonds and cranberries. And then, Nia brought out the oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I’m telling you, life was good.

This morning, while Alethea went to work at Ingram, Steve helped me hammer out a few of the problems I’d been having with Cerbo en Vitro ujo. Then we trotted off to have lunch with Alethea, who told us the most fabulous news and that’s all I’ll say about it until it’s on her blog. It’s really, really terrific though, and I’m very excited and proud of her.

That’s about it.

Oh wait. Have I mentioned that I am giddy that my story is on Strange Horizons?

Check out my story on Strange Horizons Fiction: Portrait of Ari.

Check out Jason’s latest post about Chattacon: Drowning in the Fun.

The truck dropped its entire gearbox, so they have to get a new truck. We’re hoping that they’ll be able to get one today, though not holding our breath, because it’s supposed to rain for the next two days, which means that we’d have to wait another four days past that four the ground to dry out sufficiently for them to move it.

Meanwhile, they moved the fiberglass greenhouse down to the creek.

Of course they set their truck on fire first, but the house is about to roll!

I don’t know if this will work, but you can try downloading a short clip of the house rolling.

As you know, my parents are having the log house moved from Walter’s property down to ours. Today, the movers dropped an oak tree on it. Yep. A tree. Not a small one either. The plus side is that it just knocked the eave of the corner of the house.

But really. Do you think that maybe they didn’t notice a house sitting there when they decided to knock the tree down? It’s not like there are other houses on the property so they had nine acres to play with. Why push it down towards the house?

I’ve been waiting to hear back about Salt of the Earth, which was at the Writer’s of the Future contest. And finally queried because I was paranoid that my response had been lost in the mail.

Dear Mary,

Your story made semifinalist for the 4th quarter contest! This is a very high achievement. You will be receiving a critique from the coordinating judge, K.D. Wentworth, and a certificate of merit.

Thanks very much for your patience!

Please send another story soon!

Best Wishes,

Judy
Contest Administrator

Short Fiction

Waiting for Rain: In India, a winemaker has beggared himself to pay for his daughter’s wedding and can no longer pay his weather bills.

Body Language : Near-future. Saskia, a puppeteer, is called in to help solve a kidnapping because the only witness is eDawg, a toy for which she did the motion-capture work. The kidnappers demand that the ransom be sent in on eDawg, and Saskia has to manipulate the puppet while pretending to be nothing more than a toy.

Some Other Day – Josie’s father managed to rid the world of mosquitoes when she was little. The unintended consequences still affect both the adult Josie and the world.

Trip, Trap, Tripping – The three Billy Goats Gruff retold in a NY walk-up, with a single mother and her tap-dancing daughters as the goats, and the guy downstairs as the troll. (I want to do a series of these, but darn, where do I market them?)

This Little Pig – Near-future. After the Oil Wars, private vehicles are largely considered taboo, but a young boy in the Netherlands covets a 1952 MG-TD. He starts work at a pig farm/methane factory where things go horribly, horribly wrong.

My Friend Anna - 61 word flash involving a tapeworm, bathtub and pregnancy.

Horizontal Rain – A New York contractor discovers that his job in Iceland is being held up because the crew believes in trolls.

Birthright – Near-future flash. In a world with severe birth control regulations, a couple has to decide whether to give up their birthright in exchange for enough money to finish college.

Death Comes But Twice – Epistolary short. A Georgian-era Doctor has discovered a cure for death, but it only works for twenty-four hours.

A Hand in My Colon – Bitter monologue by dying puppet.

The Promise of Chocolate – An unhappy single mother makes cupcakes for her son’s birthday. One of them contains cyanide.

Changed Itinerary - UFOlogist is abducted by aliens.

Salt of the Earth – On a sodium-poor world, where every scrap of salt is saved, a salt merchant’s daughter is killed by a salt-overdose.

Chrysalis : The Husiths undergo Chrysalis to become an adult, but the enzymes involved in the process scramble their memories. As a culture, they are obsessed with documenting their pupaehood, which is when the serious work takes place, before becoming a playful adult. Geroth is determined to put off his Chrysalis so he can finish his mathmatical treatise. He hires a human documentarian to help him retain his memories after Chrysalis.

Novel

Journey to the East: The Legend of the Monkey King YA Novel – Two American kids find themselves caught up in the oldest legend in China as they struggle to rescue their baby sister from the Bone

Short Fiction

Beauty Will Come requel to “Beauty and the Beast” from the Beast’s mother’s POV.

The Case at Landon Manor: In 1924, Ginger Carrington, the glamorous young heiress, must use her skills as a medium to solve a haunting.

Shades of Milk and Honey: Regency Romance, with fantasy. Magic is a woman’s art, like painting or music. Jane uses it to prove that Mr. Dunkirk is wooing her and her sister at the same time.

Novels

Virus Attached SF murder/mystery – Scott Huang and his AI partner Metta are trying to solve a murder, when Metta’s chasis (containing her memory) is stolen. She is rebooted from her last back-up, which occurred six hours previously. She and Huang must find her original version before the perpetrator can use it to hack into the police department and erase all evidence of his crime.

Good Housekeeping: Contemporary Fantasy. The Faerie Queen sent a human changeling, Grace, back to try to keep the old ways alive in the world. Grace uses the internet to manage a network of Goodwives who let brownies, elves and other housefolk live in their homes. But the Unseelie Court has decided to drive out all of the housefolk to diminish the Faerie Queen’s power. Grace has to try to save the Housefolk while adjusting to life as a human.

Jason Sizemore has posted photos of us hanging out at Chattacon. I swear, I only pulled the puppet out because Steve had been disappointed that I didn’t have one when I went to Leecon. And it was out for no more than five minutes. It’s not my fault Jason posted three pictures of it.

He’s very cool, besides the puppet fixation.

This evening we went to Aunt Gen and Uncle Marvin’s for dinner.

For those of you who are curious, yes, I ate the chicken. It tasted like tempeh.

We had a grand time there, and I heard some stories about Mom that I’d never heard before. Apparently when she was very young, she had a high fever. High enough that she was hallucinating. So, in the middle of the night, she got out of bed, went into the kitchen and got a butcher knife so she could kill her older sister.

Somehow, I’m really glad I didn’t know this story when I was growing up.

Rob walked to the library today, and made a new friend. As he was walking, this dog came bounding across the road to meet him. Traffic screeched to a halt, trying to avoid hitting the dog, so Rob grabbed him by the collar to keep him from bounding back across the road.

The dog evidentally decided that this meant that Rob was his person. The dog followed him to the library, waited and then followed him back to Woodthrush Woods. About an eight mile trip, all told.

I decided to set the 1920’s ghost/mystery story aside for a bit because I found a fantastic book at Chattacon called Your Psychic Powers and How to Develop Them by Hereward Carrington. It was originally published in 1920 and is such the perfect research material that I want to read it before continuing.

Meanwhile, I started a new story today with the working title of Cerbo en Vitra ujo .

Here are the current first thirteen lines.

Cerbo en Vitra ujo

     Behind the steady drone of garden’s humidifiers, Grete caught the woosh-snick of the airlock door opening. She kept her attention on her Sunset-Glory rose to give Kaj a chance to sneak up on her. His footsteps pounded between the raised beds, without a hint of stealth. Grete put her pruning shears down as he barreled around the Milhollen’s prize Emperor artichoke.
     Something was wrong. Kaj’s chocolate skin seemed covered by a layer of ash. Gerta’s breath quickened to match his. “Kaj?”
     He stopped short of her, rocking on his toes. “I don’t know what to do.”
     She took his hand, cradling his long, delicate fingers. “What’s wrong?”
     ”Mom and Dad got me an in at a down-planet school.” He covered his face with his other hand. “Some scholarship came through.”