Doot Da Doo! The new edition of Banshee Studios, Lughnasadh, is up and out! Doyce won the short story contest with “Vayland Rd.” And, of course, yours truly wrote a book review for Stories of Your Lives and Others, by Ted Chiang. I haven’t read anything else yet 🙂

Submission. “On Hold (The Uncanny Adventure of Mrs. Kurtz)” has been submitted to Quantum Muse. A pretty readable site; the editors are in a state of grace due to excess alcohol and thus aren’t scrabbling for money. Or so they say.

Neat. For those of you who don’t get here through Doyce’s site, he posted a story online during the blogathon this Saturday past. It’s called Vayland Rd. I liked it. Note: Read from the bottom up. I’m sure he’ll post the whole thing in regular order as soon as he has time. [Snorkle.]

Frustrating. You know what’s frustrating? Non-paying websites that want more than non-paying rights. I’m trying to find a place for the serial I put up here, Mrs. Kurtz, but I’m having problems. Guess what? The places I’d consider sending it out to don’t want it, because I put it up here. One place even wanted

No. Turns out that Ray does better going through her day if you say “No” and mean it sometimes. The interdiction doesn’t last very long (thirty seconds), and she’s upset, but she isn’t hurt. She seems happier dealing with a straight-out “no” than a general sense of annoyance. It seems obvious, but I’d always wondered.

Raynews. She now has two teeth. She can stand on her own for five seconds at a time, but she doesn’t try to walk yet. She can nest dishes inside each other. We took her to her nine-month doctor’s appointment on Thursday. She may not eat whatever she wants, although not to the point where

Park.Lee and Joe and Ray and I went to the park. We each had our separate picanic lunches (Ray got a couple of funny looks when she had hers), fed old bread to the ducks, and played on the playground equipment. Playing on the playground equipment was mostly Ray and myself, of course, the guys

Review. Five Novels, by Daniel Pinkwater. Not much needs to be said about Slaves of Spiegel, Young Adult Novel, The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death, Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars, and The Last Guru, because you can say it like this: “Daniel Pinkwater writes Tim Robbins novels for kids.” I wish I’d

What’s the word? Have you ever noticed the particular moment when you’re just over it? Whatever it is? I don’t know if anybody’s noticed, but the last two years have been rough.* I tend to keep a straight face for everybody but family — a grand midwestern tradition, I think. Anyway, I had a couple

Up? Things may be getting a little better. Lee’s finally been offered a full-time job at Best Buy, supposedly with raise. And I’m finally done paying off the maternity leave (they decided that I hadn’t been working there long enough to get the full, full-time benefits, so they…took it back). So we may be able