"Looking for heaven, found a devil in me."

[greygirlbeast]

0. Comments, please. Prove to me LJ is not dead (again). I'm sick to death of self-fulfilling prophecies. You comment, I'll reply. Cause and effect.

1. Never, ever tell people on Facebook that "A release date has been set for the release on my first studio CD since 1999, which is called LOVEAMOEBA (band of the same name). TBA." Because, while this looks, to me, like a very obvious practical joke, many other people will appear to take it seriously. C'mon, guys. Loveameoba? No. Anyway, apologies. This whole humor thing, this beast has yet to master it in any way as to please anyone but herself.

2. I dozed off sometime after four, and woke at nine. Ayem, that is. If there's a part of me that doesn't hurt, please write my brain a letter to that effect. Er...wait. No, if there's a bit of my anatomy that is not in agony, it needs to send a telegram to my brain. Oh, wait. I mean, it needs to phone home. Oh...shit. I mean, it needs to twat at my brain. Yeah, that's what I mean. Hold on. What year is this?

3. A long phone call with my agent yesterday, at 2 CaST (1 EST), regarding Blood Oranges, ebooks, The Drowning Girl, etc. & etc. The usual. It seemed like we talked for an hour, though I suspect it was more like twenty minutes. Still feels like an hour. Afterwards, I discovered I was still so disgusted with the travesty that is "Sexing the Weird" that I couldn't even think about writing. I went with Spooky while she ran errands, instead. Sometimes, even the bland light of late autumn in Providence is better than the light of this monitor.

4. So, yeah. A Question @ Hand will be posted here tomorrow. All replies will be screened and will be confidential. The ten responses that please me the most will appear in Sirenia Digest #72. Anyone with any last moment ideas should post them here today. You know, like "If a circle of Dante's hell were to be designed especially for me, what would it be like?" Or "If you were to choose me as the test subject for an experiment involving the effects of a genetically designed parasite, what would the organism be, and what effect would it have upon me?" See. That sort of thing.

5. If I cannot put it on my shelf, it's not book. And no, placing a Kindle or a Nook or a whatever on the shelf doesn't count. Call it a data-storage or media delivery device. I have no problem with that. But it's not a book.***

6. Later this week Kathryn will be beginning a new round of eBay auctions (the first in a long time), and we'll be including ONE signed copy of The Drowning Girl ARC. Be the first on your block and all that.

7. Last night we played too much Rift again, but this time with a new guild member, opalblack. I dusted off my Eth warrior, Indus, and it was pretty fucking cool tanking for a change. Watchers of the Unseen (Defiant side, Faeblight shard) is always looking for new members, especially those interested in RP.

8. I'm ending the Aunt Beast Book of the Month Club. Results were, at best, mixed. And I think I never recovered from that Carrie Ryan fiasco.

9. The postman just brought Nos. 1 and 2 (Fall 2010 and 2011) of Centipede Press' The Weird Fiction Review. No. 2 includes the first print appearance of my story, "Fish Bride." And, honestly, the Review is a gorgeous thing, more in the fashion of an academic literary journal than a pulp magazine. I'm very impressed. Oh, also, I've sold a poem I wrote last year, "Atlantis," to Strange Horizons. This is the first time I have ever actually sold a poem. Sure, I included "Zelda Fitzgerald" in Tales of Pain and Wonder, but that's different.

Epilogue:

Would you leave me if I told you what I've done?
And would you leave me if I told you what I've become?

~ and ~

You can't choose what stays and what fades away. ~ Florence + the Machine

Anger's Little Petri Dish,
Aunt Beast

*** Please comment on things besides ebooks. Thank you.

Comments

[ubik.livejournal.com]

Not dead, but also not as vibrant as it once was.

ereaders are not books, they may contain books, albeit virtual ones.

[sovay]

This is the first time I have ever actually sold a poem. Sure, I included "Zelda Fitzgerald" in Tales of Pain and Wonder, but that's different.

It's a great poem.

[v1ewfr0mbugtown.livejournal.com]

Sorry about the Book Club. You turned me on to "The Book Thief," and for that I am forever in your debt.

My e-reader is a tool and that is all. It has none of the aesthetic pleasures I associate with a good, solid book (smell, feel, weight.) I will say it has expanded my reading in some ways. For example, I'm currently reading Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" and can honestly confess to not recalling the last time I went and looked for any of his work in either a bookstore or the library...but I had a 2 AM idea and it was free to download.

This enables me to save my money for good solid books like "Two Worlds and In Between" which you would have to pry from my cold, dead fingers before giving up willingly. Also adore old books, like the lovely one from the late 1800's you posted a picture of recently. (now that is a real beauty!)

Congratulations on the sale of the poem.

[xjenavivex.livejournal.com]

It's been a very long day. I have a nasty headache. I am still working to get Brandon, my son's, appointment set with a neurologist. Apparently the general practitioner and the cardiologist are not sure which should place the referral. The neurologist just wants the appointment to come after the orthopedist (Dec.) and geneticist (Feb.)I am worn thin and looking forward to crawling into a book in a few moments. I hope your evening was pleasant. I read much more often than I comment right now. I do look for and look forward to your posts.

[bellarabesques.livejournal.com]

Still here. Still reading.

Sometimes I'm amazed all over again at how many years you've been blogging.

Octopus walks on dry land, video

[ladyblue56.livejournal.com]

Warning, the audio is sometimes high-pitched due to the kids in the background but the octopus footage is jaw-droppingly cool.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/donnad/octopus-walks-on-dry-land

[opalblack.livejournal.com]

For a number of us, I think the book for this month is The Best Of You.

I did not get a numbered copy, being both too slow and too broke, but nevertheless, imaginary-map-pin Nambour, on the Sunshine Coast, in Queensland, Australia, if you wish. But not permanently.

Did you or Spooky get turned into a corgi wearing a rudolph costume, at any point today? Though it was very sweet and cute, it is neither fey nor yule-ish, and I feel this whole event is similarly grossly mislabeled.

And yet, I would not object nearly as much to a month-long Halloween thing, even if it were candy-corn emptiness billed as Samhain. I would power-game the hell out of that, like an asshole.

But yes, whilst scurrying and massacring one's way across the landscape is fun, as a certain Mister The Hun knew well, we must at least line up timezones with view to RP.

After an intermittent absence ...

[mcoletti.livejournal.com]

... I'm back on LJ, for better or worse.

(Although I'll be using LJ mostly for dissertation related drek; most Real Life cruft will be posted on g+, FB, and twitter.)

(But, it's nice to see some familiar faces still hanging about in LJ-space.)