I'm having trouble logging into my work, or I'd email you all. If you asked to get a badge from us, you need to pick it up at the exhibitors' badge station.

See you at the con! It's CRAZY.

We've seen the arguments that Obama is too inexperienced to be President - to which the inevitable response is that he's a lawyer from Illinois with a fair amount of service in the state legislature and a couple of years in Congress, and the last time we elected a President with that resume, he turned out to be pretty good.

Not equating Obama with that other guy, of course; just saying that you'll have to come up with a better argument.

Well, here's a shot. He's too young. On the grounds that young presidents have committed blunders. Hey, so have old presidents. James Buchanan, the worst President up to his time, was also the oldest - and the most politically experienced - up to his time, too.

Actually, I'm reminded of an argument submitted by the more desperate breed of Richard III apologist, in this case I think it was Thomas B. Costain. This is that Richard was justified in deposing his nephew because he was a child. Previous child kings, Henry III and Richard II, had not turned out too well when they grew up, so Richard was trying to save England from another bad reign, taking the whole burden on himself. Wasn't that nice of him?

Originally published at Inkstuds. You can comment here or there.

Chris Von Szombathy Joins us to discuss his book, Fire Away. As a part of the Petit Livre series from Drawn and Quarterly, Chris’s book is an outstanding collection of beautifully rendered pop-culture rejection. Not only is Chris a talented artist, the music that accompanies the interview is also by him as well. Check out Audio Ahdeo Awdio and Tour De Fours.

...Guess who got their laptop back yesterday afternoon? ^_^ *nodnodnod* Yes! And they fixed it right up, cleaned it out, even updated the BIOS, and all under warranty! And this was after the comp guys tried ever so hard to prepare me for the likelihood that I'd have to pay, because the damage was to the casing, not the guts. ASUS, I tip my hat to you, and would recommend you to my friends. *G*

Anyway. I finally finished some ficcage, and good god, this one was difficult to get done. I will never, ever say, "Oh, alliteration is easy," ever again. Gah. ...Who was the idiot who thought this whole story cycle would be a good idea? *facepalm* So, um... follow the fake cut at the bottom to see what's been tormenting me for a good couple months now. Yay and stuff.

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Title: May: Alliteration
Author: Galadriel (caras_galadhon)
Fandom: LotRPS
Pairing: Viggo/Bean
Rating: G
Archive: Lothlorien, sons_of_gondor, and Green Opals.
Feedback: Always appreciated.
Disclaimer: Absolutely did not happen. Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
Summary: May finds Sean satisfied with his solitary state.
Notes: This ficlet follows approximately a month after April: Personification (which in turn follows after January: Pathetic Fallacy, February: Meiosis and March: Dissonance ), but can be read as a standalone if so desired. Much, much love to savageseraph, who singlehandedly marched me through this part, ignoring the moans that it was too hard and too frustrating, doling out reward and punishment as needed to get me across the finish line. I honestly couldn't have done it without her. ♥ Additionally, this fic is for shegollum and brigantine1. Happy Belated Birthday, ladies!

"[A]lliteration, (also known as 'head rhyme' or 'initial rhyme'), the repetition of the same sounds--usually initial consonants of words or of stressed syllables--in an sequence of neighbouring words."
~From The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms by Chris Baldick.
(The hotel was heaven; hot towels, tubs and tea, all at the touch of a button...)

Ran around seeing where everybody was and saying hello to everybody.

Darwin Cooke has a project coming out via IDW -- Crime Fiction. Parker graphic novels to be exact. Looks awesome.

I finally, finally, FINALLY got to meet two people in the flesh. Rachel (rae_is), and James Owen (coppervale). I've known James online for 10+ years, but until tonight, never in person. I got a copy of Red Dragon. :)

It almost goes without saying that I stopped off at CBLDF and Rolling Thunder.

Tomorrow -- the (glorious) insanity starts kicks into high gear.

I love this drawing so very much.

Here's the artist's website.

Г.В.Бернадский


Раннее утро у моря - самое время купаться, пока еще не так жарко

It's not loaded. Please don't sic PETA on my ass.

Frankie insisted on the grainy, B/W, assassin-in-the-newspaper filter. He also says his next victim is going to be a certain ferret-faced little social climber who co-owns a trendy Uptown bar and has been telling his wine guys to discourage other restaurants from hiring Chris because of Chris' alleged "unreliability" and "family problems." Of course, the wine guys just grin and nod as one tends to do in the presence of a loony, then call Chris to laugh about it.

Michael Cisco, the author of the Traitor, has just written about his experience with Prime Books:

d) What was it you published again?

Prime's idea of publicity is sticking your book under a rock and informing the wind. You will have to do absolutely everything yourself. Blurbs, getting your text to reviewers, everything. Prime takes authors they believe are already being talked about precisely to as to avoid having to do publicity. I firmly believe Prime's neglect helped to scuttle my last TWO novels.

How many novels do you have to burn?

Prime is an attractive publisher for a variety of reasons, and I would advise any new writer to consider submitting material thereto, but do so forewarned and forearmed. You will not be told what is going on, your requests for information will be met with stalling, ignorance real or feigned, or - most often - silence. All the real legwork will be left to you. Payment will involve unnecessary headaches and a whole lot of waiting - if not outright defrauding (which has yet to be seen).

Sounds familiar, huh?

In fairness, I should point out that my payments from Prime came pretty quickly and easily, be it with short fiction or the novel. I whole McDonalds Meal could I buy with the cash, but cash it was, and I had no hassle.

However, based off my experience of a print run, then no print run, of the book being tossed out suddenly, of it having errors, of the drama, of the headache, and so on and so forth, which you can check by following the tag at the bottom of this post... however, based off all that, there's not a whole lot to disagree with in Cisco's post.

No doubt someone will be along shortly to set him 'straight', of course.

(In other news, I appear to have discovered a cold in the last thirty minutes.)

When I arrived home from work today, there were two surprises waiting for me. The first was a microphone that couldn't plug into my Mac Mini. The second was a half-improv shadow puppet show put on my Salad and Mango Eater.

Did you think that subject header was metaphorical?

The main story started out with a monkey telling a dog (both shadows cast from stuffed animals) that she would be taking a rocket into space. Cut to a scene where the monkey looks up at the sky as a rocket ship (actually a pointy candle) blasted upwards. Monkey: "The first dog in space!!"

I couldn't stop grinning after that.

DESPITE the fact that the easy PayPal buttons have been taken down from the Mythcon 39 website, you can still register and buy the room & board or meal packages until the end of July.  Email me (mythcon AT mythsoc DOT org) or our lovely registrar (see website) for detailed instructions.

Just don't tell lisa_marli!  (kidding, really - it's okay with her, she's letting us play like grown-ups and everything).

DO COME to Mythcon!

The Lord of the Ringos will be performing again... more instruments... hey!

July 23, 2008 Progress Notes:

"The Shower Angel Story"

Words today: 1500.
Words total: 1500.
Reason for stopping: I need to figure out how the hell to get the angel out of the shower.
Munchies: ...and to get dinner.

Darling du Jour: Thou saith unto the angel: I am in the shower.
The angel saith: I care not.
Thou saith: I am naked.
The angel saith: Nakedness is nothing before a servant of the LORD.
Well it is something to man, thou replieth, and place thy loofah before thy shame. This is not Eden, it is Compton, and thou hast not been innocent for several years now.

Mean Things: Angel in the shower. And he's kinda sleazy.
Research Roundup: Compton, what e.g. stands for, nephilim, name of the NKVD (which I now know is the NKVD), summoning angels, hierarchy of angels.
Books in progress: M.T. Anderson, Feed.
The glamour: Some gardening, some kitchen-cleaning. Rearranging the desk to accomodate the flatscreen monitor that Mary Sue has. Job applications.

---

The world really does not need a story written in second person present in the style of the King James Bible.

I will do this anyway. Why? Because I write Unsaleable Monstrosities With Pretty Illustrations!

(General update: mood much improved with sleep and eating proper food, versus the stuff they give you on trains. Floor still buckled and air conditioner still making scary grinding noise when turned on, even though I put in the work order yesterday morning. Tomorrow I go down to yell at them. Apartment in better order. New planter with beans and peas and cucumber has exploded with plants. And I have three cucumber flowers.

Still kinda introverting post-con.

That is the news.)