Tattered Cover Bookstore

For those of you who live in Colorado, I'm sure you're familiar with The Tattered Cover Bookstore. For those of you who don't live in Colorado, you should become familiar with this store. It is one of, if not the best, independant bookstore around...certainly the best in Colorado.
The place is huge, although they will soon be moving...but the new place should be just as big.
Anyway, the point of all of this is that I'm now a Tattered Cover affiliate. On my main page, you will find a link where you can order books, and yes, I do receive a small payment for your orders...remember, it's the "Help J Escape from Subway Fund," so it's worth the order.

So, head on over to my site, and click on the link and at least have a look around. I think you'll be impressed. It has to say something for the place that Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy Award winning author Dan Simmons starts every book tour at this store.

Watch this if you've ever gamed

A while back, Mike Bortherton (http://www.mikebrotherton.com) had this link on his site. Since I was still on dial-up, I couldn't watch the movie, but now that I have high-speed, I was able to enjoy it.

I have to admit that I am an avid D&D gamer, although I haven't played in a while, and sadly, I've seen guys just like this. Of course, if you've recently been to a Con, you might have run into these guys as well.

Geeks can be great people, but some of them just scare the hell out of me!!!

I've finally joined the 21st century

After years of putting it off, I've finally gone high speed with Broadband. Hopefully it will be worth the money...

Tales of the Talisman

The new issue of Tales of the Talisman with my story "The Ancient Ones" has just been released. You can pick up your copy by clicking on the title of this post. That will take you to The Genre Mall...just scroll down to the new issue and buy a copy, and buy them for your friends as well.

MileHiCon

I've recently received my invitation to MileHiCon. I will once again be a guest at this year's con.

So, if you're planning on being in the Denver area Oct. 27-29, please stop by!!!

New story

I've finally gotten around to posting a new story on my website. It's a bit of a love story, or at least my effort at a love story...god knows it's not a subject I should be writing about.

It's hard to believe that it's been almost six years since the story was written. I was so much more prolific then...of course the quality was lower in those days...at least I think so, and I hope my readers agree.

Enjoy the story...

Great first lines

Locus Magazine published a brief list of some of the best first lines in genre fiction, here were a few of my favorites...

"A screaming came across the sky."
"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."
"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."
"It was like so, but wasn't."
"All this happened, more or less."
"It was the day my grandmother exploded."
"It was a pleasure to burn"


You might recognize some of them, but damn, I wish I'd written one or two of them...

Locus Magazine

I just got my new edition of Locus Magazine today. For those of you unfamiliar with the title, Locus is the premier magazine about the SF field. They don't publish stories or anything like that, but they do give tons of information about the business of SF publishing.

In the last few months my perspective on this magazine has changed quite a bit. Now when I read it, it's not just a bunch of names of authors to me. Instead I'll read a snippet and think, "I did a panel with that person at CopperCon," or "I remember talking to them in the bar at MileHiCon last year. They're no longer just names on a page, they're people I actually know...people I've actually talked to about the business. Pretty damn cool, if you ask me.

Now, if I could just get my name in the magazine. I've been mentioned on the website, but I'm yet to crack the magazine.

I guess I'd have to be writing in order to have a chance at that, right?

Well, maybe soon...

VACATION

After who knows how many 50-60 hour work weeks, I'm finally taking a vacation. It's only five days, so I won't even really have time to recover, but it will be nice to not have to get up hours before dawn every morning...although I was up at 5:00 today.

Who knows, maybe I'll even get some writing done...I can dream, can't I???

The best road names in America

10. Tater Peeler Road in Lebanon, Texas
9. The intersection of Count and Basie in Richmond, Va.
8. Shades of Death Road in Warren County, N.J.
7. Unexpected Road in Buena, N.J.
6. Bucket of Blood Street in Holbrook, Ariz.
5. The intersection of Clinton and Fidelity in Houston
4. The intersection of Lonesome and Hardup in Albany, Ga.
3. Farfrompoopen Road in Tennessee (the only road up to Constipation Ridge)
2. Divorce Court in Heather Highlands, Pa.
1. Psycho Path in Traverse City, Mich.

Robert Sawyer added to MileHiCon

Robert Sawyer has been added as a GoH for MileHiCon. He's a great writer, and a really nice guy. I met him at CopperCon last year when he came up and introduced himself to me...not many GoHs will do that. I'm really looking forward to MileHiCon this year...maybe I can even score a panel with him.

New merchants added to my mall

I've added some new merchants to the mall on my website. This is an affiliate type thing that I do where I get a commission off of each sale that goes through my site. So, if you're planning on buying anything from any of the merchants, I'd ask you to click through my mall and put some money in my pocket...every penny gets me that much closer to escaping from Subway!!!!!

There are even a couple of travel sites on their for a certain digger I know...plus Overstock.com is on there, which is a great place to buy just about anything.

Thanks for your support!!

Math with the insane

Obviously I've been very busy with the new job. Last week was just 50 hours, but they're early hours, and it tends to wear me down quite a bit...but I'll adjust...eventually.

One thing I've become very aware of since taking this job (actually I've known it for a while, but I'm just becoming even more acutely aware of it) is that people can't do math...and I'm even talking about supposedly intelligent people (hello, blondie). I have to do counts every morning on a wide number of items, and I'm amazed at how often people can't do proper subtraction.

On a box of delis (58-16=32)!!!! Granted, I'm especially good at math...but that's just sad, and I see it all the time. How did these people make it through high school? Better question, how do these people make it through life??? I'd hate to see them balance a checkbook!!!

A day with the twins

After working more than 100 hours in 10 days, I took yesterday off and spent the day with the twins (almost five). If you ever need to gain perspective on what's really important in life, spend some time with kids. They'll make you realize what really matters!!!

Haven't gotten any writing done in quite some time...hopefully things will settle down at work in the next week, and I'll be able to get some writing done, and maybe get caught up on the other half a million things I've fallen behind on.

Bad Editor, Bad Editor

I don't mind rejection letters (much). God knows that I have enough of them to wallpaper this little shithole that I live in at least two times over...if not three, but if an editor is going to reject a story, they should at least send a rejection letter, even a form letter.

It's just rude to send back an author's manuscript (late, I might add) with nothing. Was it really that bad???

Nothing new to report

Contrary to popular belief, I am still alive. I've been putting in a lot of hours trying to get things put back together at the "real" job, and I've also been battling my normal early year head and chest cold. So, basically I've been medicating myself to the point that I'm almost blonde, working 8-10 hours, and then coming home to sleep.

Just hoping that this doesn't turn into pleurisy like it did last year, but I don't think it will...as it seems to be leaving my system, and if I can get tomorrow off, I should be all better...

I must be crazy

Everyone's heard me bitch and moan about my job for a very long time...and as I've become more and more frustrated over the last few months, I finally decided to do what any irrational, illogical, and insane human being would do...I let them promote me!!!

Yes, I'm no longer the assistant manager at one of the busiest Subways in Colorado...I'm now the manager (or will be in a few days.) WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING???

Oh well, knowing me, and the way I thrive on stress, I'll start cranking out a story a week, and maybe I'll even finish the damn book.

One can hope, right? RIGHT? RIGHT?

P&E Poll

Preditors & Editors is having their annual readers' poll once again. Usually Sam's Dot puts together a ballot that we try to convince people to follow, but this year, I've been too busy and basically forgot...so no ballot this year.

Someone has nominated me for writer and zine editor, so I'd certainly encourage people to vote for me, but you won't find me beating the bushes for voters, as this poll tends to favor romance writers, but hey, if I could get a top ten, that would be cool.

I would encourage people to vote for Sam's Dot and Nomadic Delirium, as I really like both of those publishers....

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone. I hope 2006 brings you everything you could possibly hope for. No New Years resolutions here. I think they're a waste of time, and they're a one way ticket to depressions...because, really, how many people are able to keep their resolutions, and then we just end up getting frustrated and angry, and who needs that????

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I've officially started the novel over again. I tried to fix it from where I was, but it just wasn't happening, so now it's back to the drawing board.

Writing is easy they say.......grumble, grumble, grumble.........