Thanks guys! I got a few more details about the book, which I'll reiterate in my next journal entry, probably, but for you dedicated board-readers: The collection is going to come out in hardcover and trade paperback, and Michaela Roessner (author of Walkabout Woman, Vanishing Point, The Stars Dispose, etc.) will write the introduction. Hee hee hee hee hee. This week I get to pick stories for the collection. I also have to come up with a title. Input on both those issues is welcome. So far, title-wise, I'm leaning toward either "Annabelle's Alphabet and Others" or "Little Gods and Other Visitations". Though I have a soft spot for the phrase Susan Groppi coined, "Quantum Physics Voodoo Love Stories".

Tim, now that is sweet. Congratulations, man.

Tim!!

That is truly fantastic news! Prime Books is a really nice outfit, speaking as a somewhat biased party here (my novelette's in the antho Strange Pelasures #2, just out from Prime) and Sean Wallace is a really nice guy to work with. Looking forward to seeing a gorgeous book from you!!!

YEAAAAH!!!

:-)

Vera

Great news, Timberry! (I think Heather authorized me to refer to you as such...) Very awesome! And welcome back!

Holy crap, big congrats, man! That is truly excellent.

Imagine! A collection of stories by Tim Pratt in my hands. Cool! Congrats, Tim.

Oh hell yeah, I'm excited.

This will be the first of many books coming from you. I'm getting tired of waiting, that's all.

Congrats, and welcome back!

Don't thank me, your stories did it.

After my collection and Nick Kaufmann's were announced in the Prime newsletter, Sean was hit with over a dozen queries for collections over the course of a couple of days. They continue to pour in -- pretty much everyone who has ever published three stories and wrote ten are flocking to him.

He accepted one. Yours.

Oh, his critique will go fine. Boy writes real nice.

So-so-so, Tim's critique is tomorrow morning. Everyone send positive emanations his way.

He went on a hike in the mountains today and went into an abandoned mine. He said it was pretty cool, going into the mountain like that. I'm both jealous and relieved the mountain didn't fall in on him or anything like that!

Nah. Just call 'em on the phone.

Mandy, what a coincidence: my goal is also to finish stuff. I think we need to organize an uncool workshop for people who write but don't finish anything. We'll hold it in your café/bookshop!

...Except that means I would probably have to finish writing up invitation letters, thereby disqualifying myself.

Shawn wants to open an Irish pub. Maybe after the as-yet-nonexistent kids are in college.

Socks rock.

I kinda like the fact that Tim’s board is getting actual traffic, even when he’s not around. It’s kinda novel. It’s important to remember that many good things often have rocky starts. In fact, this may be what Tim gets for putting a line like ‘I know you're a recluse. You know that's no excuse’ on the gateway to his board.

I can’t have a goal to join a workshop yet, because my goal is still to finish stuff. But if you guys put something together, I might have to come hat in hand to see if you’ll take people who write extremely slowly and have yet to publish anything. I don’t know if I’m New Weird, though. Weird, yes, but the right kind of weird to be a cool kid? Probably not. *sigh*

I want a café/bookshop too, though. With a nightclub/performance space, and a smoking lounge on the roof. And, separately, a big house in the country somewhere that’s good for cool people to go and chill in.

Also, a boat.

I need to win the lottery.

So, Tim didn't do much between when I talked to him this afternoon and when I spoke to him tonight. He took a nap, which was a bad idea (he's usually bewildered and cranky after a nap) and read. They had some sort of chicken for dinner, with poached pears in some sort of brandy creme for dessert. It seems to be all about food there, and, frankly, I'm jealous. Wanna know what I've been eating the past two nights? PB&J. I'm pathetic as a single person these days; I've lost the knack of it.

Anyway, he called me over an hour after he said he would because they were watching some hoppping Chinese vampire movie that Tim said was really good (!). He wanted me to understand that it was a Chinese movie, not American.

Oh, and I gave him your advice, Zakbar, and he said that Maureen McHugh was slated to cook later this week; he thinks it's an Indian meal. Tomorrow night they're putting him to work as a "sous chef" which means, of course, chop-chop-chopping.

Oh, and he had Ken Wharton buy him an alarm clock in Taos. It's clear, with liquid crystal clock hands that tell time in the analog fashion, if that makes any sense at all.

Man, can you tell that I'm procrastinating here? I've got a novel and a collab that need doing that I stared at tonight, each for about fifteen minutes. My mind is so rambly and unfocused. I blame all the peanut butter.

What I want to know is why black socks aren't sold in bulk packages like white socks are. I dunno about the rest of you, but black socks go better with my wardrobe than the white ones do, and I resent that they're more expensive.

That said, I will let you know my black sock secret: Old Navy. Still not as cheap as white socks, but at least you can buy them in packages of three there.