I haven’t seen my high school friend, Irene, since we graduated twenty years ago. She moved to Portland last year and this is the first time we’ve managed to get together. The experience was surreal and great. It was as if time had not passed, except of course that it had. A lifetime, really, so it was like time-traveling. I mean, the last time I saw her, we were both eighteen.

In my attempt to imagine what she would look like, I imagined that her mother would come to the door. Nope. Aside from a different haircut–which I didn’t expect–she looks pretty much the same as in high school. Mannerisms are unchanged. We did some catching up, and it was interesting to see where our lives diverged and where they stayed on the same path as we had set lo these twenty years ago.

The one moment of unexpected delight for me–you must understand that Irene was there with me during my Whovian days. We each had our Dr. Who characters. (She asked if I still had my scarf. I do.) So, being able to say “My story is coming out in the next Dr. Who anthology,” was tremendous fun because Irene knew exactly how cool that was for me.

It’s too bad we couldn’t get together sooner, but I’m awful glad we managed it today.

The Slush God Speaketh: Shimmer — The Pirate Issue: Table of Contents

At long last, I present the table of contents for Shimmer — The Pirate Issue:

* A Hand for Each by J. Kathleen Cheney
* Captain Blood’s B00ty by Jeremiah Tolbert
* The Blackguard of God by Melinda Selmys
* Come to the Islands by Mikal Trimm
* Interview with the Founder of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster by Jen West
* The Barbary Shore by James L. Cambias
* Pirates by Adeline Thromb Age 8 by Marissa K. Lingen
* The Sweet Realm by Jill Snider Lum
* The Furies by Rajan Khanna
* The Perfect Hook by Justine Graykin
* Hard Times for Bartleby Crow by Grant Stone

This was a lot of fun to put together. I’m really looking forward to seeing the finished product (and the artwork by James Owen!), and to hearing what people think of the stories.