I’m trying to figure out what percentage of eligible writers belong to SFWA and what lies behind the percentage. If you are genre writer, could I ask you to answer the following questions:

(In comments, would you please let me know if you’re eligible, why do you belong or not belong? Anonymous comments are fine.)

(In comments, would you please let me know if you’re eligible, why or why not? Anonymous comments are fine.)

Please pass the word along. I’d like to get a bigger cross-section than just the people who read my website and LJ.

Edited to add: I would prefer it if the comments on this post were restricted to your opinions and experience only. Please do not refute others’ comments at this time, no matter how tempting it gets. Thanks!

Further edited to add: To make an anonymous comment, use an obviously fake name. Your email will not show up and is only used to verify that you are not a spambot.

I thought you might be curious to know how it ended up…

Neil says:

The three covers in the poll were presented in chronological order and represent a sampling of our favorites. During the 24 hour period prior to the poll, there was a lot of discussion about color, framing, fonts, and such. I have to admit to being a bit of a troublemaker. As reflected in the poll, there was a lot of support for cover #1. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get past the portal-effect the framing had on the art I had selected, so we pressed onward.

REALMS is now available for preorder at the Wyrm Publishing website and should be listed at Amazon and (hopefully) other bookstores within the next few weeks.

In appreciation for all the input I received, for the next week, I’m running a special 30% off promotion on preorders for this book.

I’m doing the cover design for Realms, the anthology of Clarkesworld Magazine. There is a poll to see which of the three versions people respond to most. Please hop over to the Wyrm Publishing webpage and cast your vote.

Which one do you most want to read?

Cover 1	Cover 2	Cover 3

Okay. So I recognize that in the light of everything going on, this is a very trivial question, but it rocked my world today. I was trying to tell Rob this convoluted story about Norwescon and Easter. During the course of which, I said, “And I got to tell one of my favorite bad jokes. ‘Why does the Easter Bunny hide his eggs?’”

“Is the Easter Bunny a boy?”

I stared at him goggle-eyed. “Peter Cottontail?”

He shrugged and shook his head. At this point the joke was totally blown. We spent the next five minutes with me trying to supply evidence that the Easter Bunny is, in fact, male. He insists that he always thought the Bunny was girl.

Oh my. Jason Sizemore is running a poll about the Apex issue six stories of which my “Cerbo en Vitro ujo” is one. The comments make me chuckle because everytime someone compliments a story it’s with phrases that would be perjorative if it weren’t about horror. Who knew that disturbing people was so much fun?

All I can really say is, have fun.

Jackson Pollock by Miltos Manetas

I saw the Northern Lights for the first time last night. No pictures, sorry. Jodi called me about ten o’clock and told me to go outside to look for them. He had to describe what I was looking for, because they were fairly pale.

If you imagine a night sky with vertical folds of quartz projected faintly against it, and have the folds undulate slowly then you might get a vague sense of what I saw. There’s light pollution in my area, but I imagine the lights seem much brighter out of the city.