I can't wait to shut up about this paper

[delight]

Well, I have 46.1% of my edits made, and three visualizations that aren't complete disasters (talk to me about how it took over an hour to make a circle! or maybe don't) and I'm really tired of it. It's due tomorrow night and I want to stop looking at it.

Today also included:

– Taking Trip to CGC class which resulted in him also managing to eat a hot dog and a very very little bit of ice cream in his own bowl. Carvel has a dog size.

– Being dared to submit something to Clarkesworld, and realizing I have nothing that meets the parameters, so trying to figure out if I should write something new or not? The dare had monetary parts. My usual fiction editor (btw if you need an editor, she's taking more clients, actually legitimately talk to me about that one) is down to try it out.

– Keeping the dog out of the house for the entire time it was being worked on so that he didn't do his scaredy-dog thing where he sat in a corner and growled.

– Not melting to death, but only barely.


ETA: Searching for stickers on Redbubble for my grant notebook and ... why are all the kitsune one-tailed? I need a(n obvious) kitsune for this thing, not just a fox. Nothing against just-foxes.

Comments

unsolicited writing advice

[yhlee]

I've sold to Clarkesworld (and gotten my share of rejections as well) and, uh. I've never been able to pin Neil's tastes beyond "he often likes weird, depressing stuff." I'm actually really good at weird, depressing stuff so this works out, but trying to figure him out can be tough. OTOH unless you're talking about something COMPLETELY outside the zine's purview (e.g. non-speculative historical bodice-ripper???), don't pre-reject! Sometimes an editor doesn't know they want something until they get a chance to see it.

Sympathies on the heat.

And if you find kitsune stickers, PLEASE SHARE. My fiction frequently features the Korean version (gumiho, literally "nine tail fox") so I have an interest.

unsolicited advice is welcome whenever comments aren't locked!

[delight]

It's basically my mom's favorite zine; thus this is her fault. She has published short stories in magazines before, I have not (I have a self-pubbed novella that's actually down right now for re-release for Reasons that are Amazon's fault and not mine and sold some microfiction) and don't actually know how to write anything shorter than 15k words that actually tells an entirestory. You would think fanfic would have helped with that. I don't think it did, really.

Here is the one I bought! This fellow has only six tails, not quite so impressive as nine (and I feel like in stories I only see odd numbers, so they're an unusual little guy) but very handsome. The unofficial mascot of my new behavioral health program (we open June 5th aaaa). According to me. He'll get stuck on the cover of my enormous project notebook and on my work laptop.

Re: unsolicited advice is welcome whenever comments aren't locked!

[yhlee]

Fanfic and profic have complementary but different skill sets is what I've found, so being really good at one does not automatically teach you everything you need to do the other. (I went profic --> fanfic --> profic so I, uh, struggled with both ends. Heh.)

Thank you for the link!

[lemon_badgeress]

If you're specific to redbubble for Reasons I can't help, but if you're not and flip over to Etsy the first page of search results had multiple multitailed kitsune options in a variety of art styles?

[delight]

My reasons for being mostly a Redbubble person is the quality/size/removable-ness of their stickers, but I'll definitely poke around~

[hitokage]

I mean, to be fair, "kitsune" literally just means fox and that really is all they are. Just foxes that have lived a long, long time. /takes pedantic folklorist self elsewhere ^^;;

[delight]

Oh. Well. Yes. I just needed ones with more tails. :D 3 as a minimum. Pedantry is always welcome here!

[worlds_of_smoke]

I'm tempted to ask for contact info for your editor, but I have like 11k of a story with a general idea of where it's going, and 1 story that's in the middle of being rebuilt, and another story that I've barely touched, though I know where I'm going. XD

Plus I don't even know if I want to publish! XD

[delight]

If/when you decide you do, let me know! She mostly works for indie authors, but probably wouldn't mind going over something for submission for sale.

[worlds_of_smoke]

I would probably go indie? Because most of my characters are POC, disabled, queer, or something else non-standard, and I wouldn't want any of that erased if I could avoid it. And I think a regular publisher would try to do that. (Or add romance. -gag-)

[trascendenza]

There are some publishers out there now who are specifically seeking stories with marginalized characters, so it may be worth looking into! Of course going indie has its own benefits, too, but just to put it out there that you may have options :)

[worlds_of_smoke]

-laughs- That's good to know. I think I probably need more than 12,000 words and a good idea where the story's going for my current project, tho'. XD

[kalmialatifolia]

okay to be fair that is a fairly detailed circle...

yes write something new! yes! yes!

i have to know. why do you need a kitsune. =P

[delight]

Just explained to yhlee, but rather than be lazy and copy paste I will tl;dr - the program I'm working on now/assistant-to-director-ing (making me the only full-time employee of the program, everyone else is part time and actually works for me) goes live on June 5, I will be working on it for two years, I have a ginormous project tracking notebook and also a computer and the director and I had a conversation about zenko (the mythical creature, not the internet company) and wanting one for an Unofficial Mascot just for us. For ... luck? Scheming?

[kalmialatifolia]

i can't find you a sticker but i can find you a fox for sure =P CONGRATULATIONS on your job, by the way, i didn't congratulate you before, i think. so. congratulations. you're amazing.

[delight]

Also yeah, it is a circle that was an enormous pain in the ass, but its sibling the map is even worse. I am probably going to just not include it. The bar graphs have been playing very nicely, though.

[trascendenza]

I submitted to Clarkesworld and got second reviewed before receiving the "almost, but not quite" rejection. For what it's worth as an additional data point, it fit into the parameters that yhlee mentioned -- both weird and depressing.