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Oh, if only everything I complained about could be so easily solved!We went over to Vince's dad's house tonight so Vince could set up his new printer. While Baba got dinner ready for us, ...
Posted by Summer at 02:05 AM
Posted to Summertime
Has anyone read House of Leaves? My boss, who has been a great source of fiction suggestions, told me about the book tonight and got me all amped up about it. (Thank God I work with cool people!) It looked really interesting and really weird, and ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 12:43 AM
Posted to LitBlitz
This year will be the tenth Christmas I've shared with Vince's family. From the very beginning of our relationship, we knew that we were ...
Posted by Summer at 06:11 PM
Posted to Summertime
Children's books, cookbooks and "the hard subjects -- math, science, accounting" -- go the fastest, he says. "People take books to learn a skill like accounting. They can't afford to go to school; this is how they're getting their education."
Posted by brian at 04:05 PM
Posted to Bibliotechno
Dorian has started calling me "Mommy". I'm pissed. No, really! I am such a huge bitch that I am mad that my child is calling me "Mommy" rather than my prefered appellation, &...
Posted by Summer at 06:18 PM
Posted to Summertime
Yesterday I suffered a fit of compulsive shopping. I hit Borders and managed to find a few books I wanted. I bought Vamped, by David Sosnowski (a recommendation from Brian over at Bibliotechno) and Dhalgren by Samuel Delany (a recommendation from ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 05:02 PM
Posted to LitBlitz
I just saw the news posted over on Tertia's blog that Julie of ...
Posted by Summer at 03:00 PM
Posted to Summertime
Well, I haven't quite gotten through McSweeney's No. 12 yet, and I'm still smarting from my recent, er, naivete, when I took a joke literally and started the old gnashing of the teeth. So I delved into Poppy Z. Brite's novel Liquor, which has been ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 05:20 PM
Posted to LitBlitz
I'm home! I missed everybody, but I have to admit, it was kind of nice to basically be offline for a few days. Thanksgiving was pretty much uneventful, though before bedtime my mom told me a story that really weirded me out, and made me thankful ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 04:47 PM
Posted to LitBlitz
For the six years that Vince and I lived in sin before our marriage, Thanksgiving was the cruelest holiday for us. It was a grueling marathon, a torment. Awful. Inhuman and injust. You see, we both come from ...
Posted by Summer at 06:20 PM
Posted to Summertime
Out of each grouping of 3, choose one to Marry, one to Shag and the third poor bastard gets tossed over a Cliff
Posted by brian at 10:09 AM
Posted to Bibliotechno
Happy Thanksgiving, to those of you who are Americans. And to those of you who aren't, take some days off work and enjoy life, ha! Or be happy that Friday is approaching. Anyway I probably won't be too involved with computers until Saturday (if I ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 04:09 PM
Posted to LitBlitz
Today is Day Three of the Zicam Experiment. So far, it looks like the television commercial told the truth. I have a cold, yes, but it's not nearly as bad as colds usually are for me. I'm a delicate flower, you see, ...
Posted by Summer at 07:30 PM
Posted to Summertime
But I'm tired of seeing folks my age, with less drive and ability, parading around with small armies under them at work, while I get to play the know-it-all flunky.
Posted by brian at 03:54 PM
Posted to Bibliotechno
Having only written a mere 1,000 words for NaNoWriMo over the last 3 or so days, I had the kind of nutty paranoid thought of it being a vast conspiracy to discourage beginning writers who don't have "the write stuff" (a la, The Fiction Bitch.) I ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 11:24 PM
Posted to LitBlitz
One of the most annoying things about "BUCKS" (as some annoying post-collegiate consumers I've encountered call it) is their cheesy little lingo. There's no SMALL, just TALL. No MEDIUM but instead Grande. You can't get a LARGE , only a DURANGO or a ...
Posted by brian at 05:30 AM
Posted to Bibliotechno
What joy, my blog is back online after a long, looooong weekend of "database recovery". Damn you, Blog-City hacker! But we're back, and to celebrate our return I think I'll talk about drugstore matters. Dorian's sick....
Posted by Summer at 04:07 PM
Posted to Summertime
My cultural antennae picked up the scent of a literate comedy of manners and I pounced upon the book up like a Bertie Wooster spying a gin and tonic.
Posted by brian at 01:50 PM
Posted to Bibliotechno
Okay, I haven't engaged in a full-on rant in quite some time. Well, it's time. NOW. About a month ago, I picked up McSweeney's No. 12. (I think it's No. 12. The cover is butt ugly, and hard to read.) It's from 2003, so I really should not have ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 05:42 AM
Posted to LitBlitz
Yes, that "BLAMMO!" is the sound of the writing-related brick wall, and slamming into it. I kind of felt like this weekend should have been more inspiring, on the literary level, but instead it was kind of frustrating. Right now I'm thinking it's ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 11:29 PM
Posted to LitBlitz
I spent the large portion of my morning sending the body of my work (all short stories as well as short stories that are in final draft form, meaning, basically finished, but might need a few cosmetic changes as opposed to vast overhauls) to my ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 07:44 PM
Posted to LitBlitz
I got another rejection today, from a publication that was a bit overdue for a response. However, it was very heartening. The editor said he did like the story, though it wasn't quite right, solicited me to send something else, and also gave me the ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 11:59 PM
Posted to LitBlitz
A quick take on three bookish subjects
Posted by brian at 03:08 PM
Posted to Bibliotechno
Okay, so I am at about 25,000 words for NaNoWriMo, so just about the halfway mark, and I have to say... man, this is hard. On the one hand, I can sort of write in my sleep. At certain points the descriptions, the scenes, and the dialogue have just ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 03:03 AM
Posted to LitBlitz
Since I've got nothing pressing to write about today, I'm going to bend to Jamie's wishes and tell the Miss Manners story. I've decided to take the bold move of writing this story out with the real names (no vowels ...
Posted by Summer at 03:28 PM
Posted to Summertime
A former colleague of mine saw one of my articles that I wrote for my day job and emailed me today to compliment me on it. He quit working at the organization where I work now to work on his career as a novelist, among other things. Anyway, I told ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 01:02 AM
Posted to LitBlitz
I just left the toddler strapped into his high chair eating tomato soup while I did some paniced, last-minute cleaning before guests show up. Oh my God. Even the dog is covered in savory red spots.
Posted by Summer at 05:59 PM
Posted to Summertime
Thank you Alicia, Cristin, and Sara for tossing me some support on my whiny last post. You're all right. Baby steps. Baby steps. We've only been really focusing on this dream for two weeks, and we have made ...
Posted by Summer at 05:19 PM
Posted to Summertime
This confirms what I've always believed, people won't pay for something to read just once, but they will pay to own something twice.
Posted by brian at 01:36 PM
Posted to Bibliotechno
Okay, so I'm very dull tonight. It was a rather tiresome Monday, and although I've broken 20,000 words for NaNoWriMo, I think the target for the timeframe is to be at 25,000. So I'm a bit behind. And of course, reading is falling by the wayside at ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 05:23 AM
Posted to LitBlitz
I'm feeling down today. I'm feeling like our dream is farther away than ever, and at the same time I'm feeling more and more that staying here is not an option. I love my neighborhood here in DC. I love the charming ...
Posted by Summer at 03:19 PM
Posted to Summertime
Here it is, Sunday night, and I've hardly done any writing-related activities. My roommate was looking through my CDs and there's nothing like rearranging stuff to unearth things you haven't thought about for a while. So I got out an old Dead Can ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 03:31 AM
Posted to LitBlitz
I've long been jealous of bloggers who get really bizarre hits from Google. It took me a long time to figure out how to see these one-hit searches (I have to reset my referal log frequently, or the one-hitters will ...
Posted by Summer at 07:31 PM
Posted to Summertime
So, I got my hands on an old issue of Zoetrope All-Story -- it's from 2003, it's the "Love" issue. And while I have suggested that the Zoetrope Web site was a winner for beginning writers, I have to say, I wasn't all that impressed with the issue of ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 11:37 PM
Posted to LitBlitz
I'm coming clean about the dream. I am so not good at vague! I've always been a reveal-all, share-all kind of girl. (Goes along with being a slut, ya know?) Besides, ...
Posted by Summer at 05:11 PM
Posted to Summertime
Thank God it's (almost) Friday. I've taken some time off from reading high-brow literature to reading low-brow -- namely, He's Just Not That Into You. Of course now that us women are onto the ways of men, it seems my "relationship horror" genre ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 05:08 AM
Posted to LitBlitz
Well, I haven't gotten much NaNoWriMo done today. I did manage to catch The Grudge tonight -- good flick, but nothing that's going to keep me up tonight. I'm kind of cracking myself up with my novel, which has rapidly gone downhill a bit. NaNoWriMo ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 05:18 AM
Posted to LitBlitz
(This entry was inspired by these
Posted by Summer at 01:17 AM
Posted to Summertime
I've been on vacation. A sort of forced, working vacation, if you consider taking care of children and the daily deteritus of existential errands to be work.
Posted by brian at 11:44 AM
Posted to Bibliotechno
So, for those of you who are writers, where do you keep your rejections you receive? (Or do you save them at all?) I used to keep a giant manila folder that was bulging with form rejections, and I mean bulging. I saved the personalized rejections --...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 12:18 AM
Posted to LitBlitz
Found this over at The Christian Right Issue #1 "Separation of Church and State" It is the firm belief of the Christian Right that the separation of Church and State be maintained ...
Posted by Slidge at 08:51 PM
Posted to GoFYourself
Okay, it's just another Monday and unfortunately it was difficult enough to write for work today. Hopefully I can complete some NaNoWriMo tonight. I wanted to point you guys to Hebdomeros, as he posed an interesting question in his post, "Doing the ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 11:46 PM
Posted to LitBlitz
I had checked on StoryQuarterly a few months ago and they were not accepting submissions. I checked out the site and they are now, so I thought I'd let everybody know. It's an all-fiction publication that produces print magazines that are carried ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 05:08 PM
Posted to LitBlitz
Yesterday Dorian and I went to a birthday party for a girl who used to be in our playgroup. It was a bright fall day, and we walked the 3/4 mile up to the birthday girl's house. A perfect day for a ...
Posted by Summer at 05:00 AM
Posted to Summertime
Last night, my friend (the one mentioned in yesterday's entry) came over for dinner. We'd planned this little dinner party before her ...
Posted by Summer at 07:19 PM
Posted to Summertime
Today I got a rejection from a magazine I have REALLY wanted to get into. Yes, that's bad news. The good news is, the editor had asked for something else, so I scrambled to send it a few months ago, and the rejection today said that he was sorry, my ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 05:59 AM
Posted to LitBlitz
One result of having had such a public miscarriage -- and refusing to shut up about it afterwards -- is that I've become something of the local go-to girl on matters odd and bloody. Yesterday evening,...
Posted by Summer at 08:22 PM
Posted to Summertime
Brian, thanks again for the great story! As discussed, we have donated $50 to Make A Wish in your name.
Posted by brian at 11:12 AM
Posted to Bibliotechno
Okay so I finally finished Vernon God Little, by DBC Pierre. Even though it took me a few months to finish, it's not because it wasn't good -- it actually was really good. If only for the fact that Pierre managed to create one of the most amazing ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 02:12 AM
Posted to LitBlitz
Well, I may have bragged on Day 1 of NaNoWriMo about my 8 pages, but now I have gotten about two words in in 2 days. (My last paragraph really petered off into complete LAMENESS.) Ah well. I am going to try to tack at least something in there before ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 04:45 AM
Posted to LitBlitz
What's that sound, that faint but persistent sound heard in every corner of the United States of America this morning? It sounds like... hoofbeats. Four sets of them, I think. Look, there they are!...
Posted by Summer at 04:54 PM
Posted to Summertime
As promised, some nice distracting jabber about my beach trip. Really, nothing overwhelmingly exciting happened, which is exactly what we needed. Let me scroll through the days, and share ...
Posted by Summer at 10:31 PM
Posted to Summertime
Well, Day 1 of NaNoWriMo was yesterday, and I managed to squeeze out 8 pages (double-spaced). I'm feeling pretty proud of myself right now but then again, it's weird getting used to NOT being economical with words. I packaged up a paper submission ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 10:14 PM
Posted to LitBlitz
Today, after Vince and Dorian returned from the polls, I took Dorian out on the Metro. We went to Cleveland Park, I got my hair cut (which I desperately needed, as you'll see from the
Posted by Summer at 09:23 PM
Posted to Summertime
e swore everyone to secrecy and even invented fictional biographies for the pseudonymous authors. The Stratemeyer Syndicate went on to publish about 700 titles under more than sixty-five pseudonyms.
Posted by brian at 04:02 PM
Posted to Bibliotechno
So, today's the first day of NaNoWriMo. I do intend to start on something tonight. This is looking a little bit harder all the time. Someone I know who is also doing it said it comes out to 188 pages, double-spaced. Hmm. I joked, that's a lot of ...