It’s another really beautiful spring day…but dry. It’s incredibly dry out. I walked down to get the newspaper and the ground crunched under my feet. We’ve only had 1.25 inches of rain in April. That’s been conducive to my yard work–everything has been much slower to start growing, leafing out, etc, so I’m able to stay well ahead of things even on my modest allotment of time, and I’ve only been rained out one day since I started. But I need to lay down grass seed, and I’m wishing it would rain just so I could<\/u> get a break from going out every single frellin’ day. I work out every day as it is, and doing yard word every day, too, is getting to be a grind! Because it’s hard<\/u> work! Lots of digging, bending, pulling up not just weeds but saplings. On Wednesday, I dug out the roots of five saplings! My mattock is getting some serious use. But wow, what a transformation I’m making. And I am going to be seeding tomorrow, since it’s finally supposed to rain Monday and Tuesday.<\/p>\n
I got a rejection letter of my own! I submitted a “flash fiction” to Necrotic Tissue<\/i> and they turned it down! Oh, well…*wry smile* I don’t think I’m quite what Necrotic Tissue<\/i> is looking for, really–they said my fic “wasn’t dark enough” (everyone is dead at the end of it, I guess they don’t die horribly enough!). I don’t think I can<\/u> be dark enough for Necrotic Tissue<\/i>, it’s just not my thing. I’m looking at some other markets that are a bit more varied in their content. Sending this off was a bit of an impulse. What caught my fancy was the writing challenge: the fic has to be 100 words, precisely<\/u>. Not “100 or less,” not 99, but 100 words to the dot. I love that kind of challenge.<\/p>\n
They did say, “This was the most unique format I’ve seen in the submissions.” That’s my forte–go for the unique! And they said to keep on submitting, so maybe my muse will hack something up that’s more in their range and I’ll try again.<\/p>\n
Hey, if anyone on my f-list wants to give it a shot, see their website<\/a>, they pay $25. They accept submissions in April, July, October and January, so you have four more days to send something in. I just heard about them from the New England Horror Writers group. I went to a NEHW meetup on Tuesday and had a great time!<\/p>\n On the ego-boosting side: I went out to the library to pick up some audiobooks to use as models for producing my own. I wanted to listen to a few examples before I start recording. The library also has DVDs, and they had “Pan’s Labyrinth,” so I’m finally going to get to see it! You may recall that I donated copies of Mortal Touch<\/i> to the Pepperell and Townsend libraries last fall. It took them a while to get the copies catalogued and into the collection, but when they finally did, I would check occasionally, and I’d noticed that the Pepperell copy was often checked out. Well, today when I went to the counter with the audiobooks, the library assistant said to me, “You know, your book is circulating very well.”<\/p>\n Yay! I like to hear that! Because you know what that means: it means I’m getting good word-of-mouth. And libraries love books that circulate–especially books they didn’t have to pay for.<\/p>\n I just got off the phone with Dell Computer, ordering a replacement keyboard and a memory module for this computer. It’s a long story…*sigh* But it’s all the cats’ fault!<\/p>\n I spotted this item in the NYT: No Shoes, No Shirt, No Worries<\/a>. I miss clothes-optional recreation…alhough I don’t think I could afford these!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s another really beautiful spring day…but dry. It’s incredibly dry out. I walked down to get the newspaper and the ground crunched under my feet. We’ve only had 1.25 inches of rain in April. That’s been conducive to my yard … Continue reading