News or Comments? vera.nazarian@sff.net
Check out my home page and my newsgroup, good visitor # 2750
Van Nuys, California
4-28-99
NEWSFLASH!
Mary had a baby! Mary Soon Lee, that is! Huge CONGRATULATIONS to our Mary and Andrew on the birth of their first child, son William Chye Lee Moore, on Thursday, April 22nd, 1999!
Huge congratulations to Terry Kanago on her first sale to Quantum SF! :-)
Myke and Corinna wanted to know what cons we'll be attending. Well, I'd love to get together, but this year I am limiting my travel to California. I'll definitely be at Conucopia NASFIC where I will most likely host an SFF Net Party, and LosCon 26. :-)
On the writing front, I did finish an S&S story and send it out this Saturday. It's a bit of a long shot this year, and I only have one story submission, so if it comes back from MZB like a boomerang, oh well... *crossing appendages*
4-21-99
NEWSFLASH!
So much to do, so little time.... How utterly blase and yet true. :-)
First and foremost, congratulations to Kurt Roth on his wonderful mystery genre sale! It is a special feeling to break into a new genre, and Kurt is in that unique position now -- best of luck and a clean new vista!
Congratulations to Linda Dunn for another first of sorts, a sale of a longer work, and one that you feel is all our own! You rock, Linda! And congratulations to Mary "Interzone" Soon Lee for you know what! ;-)
And as for the Clarion East NAW Trio -- Toby, Jenn, and John -- I am mighty proud of you folks! And I want to hear all about it as it's happening!
There has been so much wise thought-provoking vibrant stuff around the NAW lately that I don't even know where to begin -- underwear or none, and definitions of being a writer, sex habits of pigeons, and being invisible, pen names, and tragic shootings in a school. What can I say that hasn't been said already? *grin*
Chiara, bless you my dear, I am so glad all is well! And Tippi, thank goodness that old Bax is well after all too!
As for me, a bit of good news last night -- Kathy Ice of Alexandria Digital Literature (alexlit.com) is buying specialized electronic distribution rights for two more of my reprint stories, "The Stone Face, The Giant, And The Paradox," and "Bonds of Light."
You all know that MZB's Sword and Sorceress reading window has just opened, right? Good. Hope you take advantage of one of the best genre anthology markets out there. :-) Yes, I am still working on my story, and hopefully it will be ready to go out this coming Monday. Whether or not I sell to S&S this year, I feel energized with that unique high that happens every year at this time, when this market opens. I am very proud of the work of my S&S workshop, and I think many of these good folks' stories will actually sell! Best of luck to you, gang, I am rooting for you all the way! :-)
Before I forget, I do want to mention that I am exactly what Ron Collins's Idea Generator Sidebar calls a Sleep Camel. In other words, I sleep about 3-4 hours a night (or less, eeek!) during the weekdays, and then sleep all day on the weekend. It's a horrible life, really. Trust me, if I could change, I would. Do you think I like being an insomniac? It is hell. Let me tell you, if there was one thing I could ask of a Higher Deity (besides having my novels see print), it would be to be able to have the chance to get 5-8 hours of sleep every night. I mean, is that too much to ask? But no. I have to get up to an early morning day job with a 75 mile round trip commute (yes, I am familiar with road rage *grin*). I come home, exhausted, and I start the REAL day, when I can actually think of writing.
I am a night owl stuck in a morning lark world. I am dying from it. I can't change my nature. And I cannot take any time off either, because I am in debt, and have a family to provide for. *sigh* My eternal dilemma.
On a lighter note (honest, I am not trying to whine here, just stating a fact, re my sleeping patterns), I am quite happy with my S&S story this year, the way it's turning out to be... :-)
Oh, and more good stuff -- I just came home and found the signed contract and check payment for my story "Rossia Moya" that will appear in THE AGE OF REASON. Yippee! :-)
4-11-99
NEWSFLASH!
Happy Russian Orthodox Easter.
Today my home page counter clicked past 10,000. A qool but meaningless milestone. :-)
Happy birthday to Terry Kanago! Congratulations to Corinna Bolon for her poem sale to a Quill Books anthology, to Mary Soon Lee for her story reprint sale to Papyrus, and to Paula Fleming on her article sale to Jackhammer!
Nikki Burris, love your pencil kidnapping! *grin*
I was supposed to be working on my S&S story all weekend, but guess what this fool did? I stayed up all night till 5:30 AM finishing up my Starlight-bound story! It came out of me like a searing white fire, and kept me locked in a mental storm of creative energy. It is an experimental SF piece, tentatively called "Words," and I still need to add a whole lot to it, but as of now, I feel I've let it pour out of me freely.... Wow! That was intense!
Ok, maybe today I'll do some S&S writing. I have 3 crits lined up to do for the S&S workshop I'm running, so that'll probably come first. Yes, folks, I haven't forgotten you. :-)
4-8-99
NEWSFLASH!
FANTASTIC NEWS!!! I don't know even how to start, so I'll pretend I am Locus, because I betcha this is how the announcement will read:
Terry McGarry sold ILLUMINATION, a first novel, fantasy, to editor Jenna Felice at Tor through agent Russ Galen.
Now, since I am not Locus, this is how I'd really say it:
WOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TERYR, YAH DAH WOMAN!!!!!!
Wow, this is indeed a year to remember! A beginning of the best darn millennium ever, folks I knew it, I KNEW it! MUAHAHAHAH!!!
*Wanders off trailing joyful insanities...*
4-7-99
NEWSFLASH!
Did I ever tell you guys I am involved in the SFWA Musketeers? Well, I am. The SFWA Musketeers was born in Elizabeth Moon's SFF Net newsgroup, only a couple of months ago, as a result of a bunch of folks who like to fence, blabbing up a storm. In fact, now that I think about it, I do recall I came up with the name myself, Elizabeth and the others liked it, and then the whole thing took off from there, with Elizabeth Moon, our noble Musketeer Captain taking charge, and suddenly here we were, a new semi-formal wacky organization within SFWA! If you're wondering what the heck this is all about, check us out... ;-) Incidentally, fellow NAW member Jenn is also a Musketeer. :-)
So today, off I'll be going, foraging for some new fencing supplies, and a dagger for my left hand (my weapon of choice, SCA-style).... Fun fun fun.
In the other news, happy birthday to John Sullivan -- yes indeed, a household name, I say! And congratulations to Paula Fleming on her sales, and to Tippi N. Blevins on her wonderful story "The Dog-Faced Boy & the Amazing Winged Man" making the SPECULATIONS Poll ballot! Wooohoo!!! Incidentally, this story is getting quite a number of Nebula recommendations, and I remind any SFWAn who may be reading this -- e-mail me or Tippi for a copy of the story!
Today's NAWticism comes from Zette Gifford: "I had gotten my first 35mm camera (Pentax K1000) and began really enjoying the fine art of bird watching. But I didn't know the names of birds. We kept seeing these nice looking black birds with red wings but I had no idea what they were. We finally invested in a very nice set of Audubon Society Field Guides. I looked the bird up and learned that it was called -- a red-winged black bird."
*grin*
4-4-99
NEWSFLASH!
Have you ever noticed that if you slow down for a moment, stop doing, feeling, thinking, moving, a sort of emptiness sets in? You suddenly feel this sense of draining away, and everything becomes dull, formless, sad. With a pang you sense a kind of futility, and it brings you plummeting down into a hollow silent abyss....
What the hell is that?
I refuse to let this feeling affect me. And so should you. By wallowing in that freaky moment, we become weak, bogged down, heavy. It is devious. It can spring upon you at any moment. Any time, when you least suspect it. So, is there a solution?
Sure.
First you have to understand what it is, that moment, that urge.
It is the death urge. The moment of completion after each act of our lives. If we let it rule us, it becomes a thing in itself. But if we see it for what it is, a transition point, then we are empowered to live it out, and then fast-forward on to the next moment, the next set of action and consequence which will bring with it energy, empowerment, a will, a life force.
It is an endless cycle of plummeting and soaring. Like a Phoenix of life-will rising out of the ashes of emptiness, it is inevitable.
All we need to do is remember to ride it out, and we too come to rise again.
Happy Easter.
4-1-99
NEWSFLASH!
ADDENDUM: Came home to find that my contract for THE AGE OF REASON had arrived, and it will be going back out tomorrow, signed and dated and all that good stuff. I feel wonderful about this story, "Rossia Moya," and can't wait to see it in print some time in the fall of 1999. :-)
Congratulations to Jon Hansen on his poetry sale to Aboriginal Science Fiction! And a belated happy birthday to Paula Fleming!
* * *
Hello, o April Fool. :-) Here we are, a quarter of the way into 1999, and it feels like no time has passed at all, or a whole millennium happened in a blink of a flabbergasted eye....
Notice any changes around the NAW? Yeah, I bet. Well, in a nutshell, we have reached critical mass, and in order to preserve the intimate nature of our group, decided to "freeze" membership -- after having internal e-mail debates of SFWA Membership Reform proportions. *grin*. A hearty welcome to Corinna Bolon, our last official new member before the so-called "freeze." No offense to all the other wonderful potential NAW type folks out there, but if you really want to be a member of an online group with real personality like this, start your own! Really! It's very easy, all it takes is a little warmth and a willingness to reach out to strangers and draw them in as friends. :-)
Congratulations to James Hartley for his sale to the Canadian publication Challenging Destiny! Congrats to all other folksies with sales. And also, all you travel journal followers (of Chiara and Jenn's fabulous adventures), I recommend you check out Jon Hansen's Some Notes on the Experiences of Traveling.
Oh, and hey! I've decided to post occasional sharp and witty quotes garnered from around the NAW. I wish I'd come up with this kind of thing earlier, so I could commemorate such classics as Ron Collins's axe-battle with his frozen mailbox, or Stephen Leigh's adventures in electrical wiring, or AL Sirois' work-in-progress editorial critique by none other than Word 97, but I figure a single quote is just as good a thing to note. So, without much further ado, I will start this new "NAWticism" tradition with a hilarious quote which may or may not be hilarious to you, but which certainly made me cackle absurdly -- from John Sullivan: "I've pretty much decided the government should ship nuclear waste to Adventures of Sword and Sorcery because by the time it comes back it will be safe." Oh, and a honorable mention NAWticism goes to Myke Cole's discussion of porn movie turnons (or lack of such)....
