Serendipity.

Some of the coolest things about my job are the side trips. What I find while doing research, or even while proofreading. Books I'd never heard of -- maps of London (I love maps) -- you name it. :D Stuff (she says with joy).

Being an Editor by Michael Kandel

Thanks to Ursula K. Le Guin and to Michael Kandel. Wow.


Book Promotion Tips for Hardcore Introverts... Interesting.

Cory Doctorow on publishing, on being a writer first into the field, and marketing books, and the whole [complicated messy] process.

Waterstone's planning an e-reader.

"A seamless amalgam of alternate history, epic fantasy adventure, apocalyptic horror, and heartrending romance..." with vampires. Yep, you can tell I was scoping through Twitter for the later links, eh?

Snippets, end of August.

Interesting things learned while doing research lately:

Shazam is a word from the 1960s.

A fascinating journalism article: Handling race/ethnicity in descriptions.

Studebaker made buses... and a car called the Dictator. Which last didn't sell too well in Europe!

A really cool site about how blimps work. :D


I'm really thankful Hurricane Irene was not as bad as people feared -- I'm grateful that the folks I know are alive. No one has mentioned injuries yet, so I hope (and pray) for the best.

From the Midwest, Irene sounded horrific. I still have friends suffering the aftereffects on the East Coast. May rebuilding and fixing things move quickly and well!

Hope you are well, wherever you are, and that you stay safe. Mother Nature really IS batting 1000.

A step closer...

Okay... technical support has provided a solution. I'll see tomorrow about implementing it.

Particularly as IE, despite being updated, is even crankier than Firefox. I would not have thought it possible. =shrug=

One would think that updating the browser would be a step in the right direction. Alas, not.

Hope wherever you are that you are safe, away from the oncoming hurricane, or getting away from't promptly.


If you haven't heard Ron Reagan lately, he's been guest hosting on MSNBC's Hardball this week. Two samples of Ron when he wraps up the show here: August 24 and August 25. I hadn't heard the first -- wow! Go, Ron!

But the second wrap-up is what caught my attention.

With the exception of Jon Huntsman, who seems driven either by vestigial
self-respect or a keen urge to commit political suicide, today's ambitious
Republicans tend to see facts as annoying obstacles blocking the view of their
more colorful fantasies. We don't need any stinking science! Take your
"reality-based community" and shove it!

Brilliant. So pithy, so clever, and exactly hitting it. Kudos!

Late night update.

Sorry to have vanished. I began some new projects this month; some things didn't happen as expected; and the 'Net has been very peculiar in this area lately.

I thought our ISP and cable were from the same company -- and we've had increasing problems with cable lately -- but I was mistaken.

Fall is coming, to my delight. September is a lovely month. I had meant to update my rates, but I'll work that out next month... just in time for my work anniversary.

Be well.

PSA on rates.

I just tapped the EFA website, and saw that their rates have risen for copyediting.

Starting in September 2011, I'm considering raising my hourly rates to match the EFA's current rates, which are now at $30/hour. I'll post my decision around the time EV #23 goes live in mid-August.

Note that I still accept flat-rate projects.

Without stars.

I was telling my mom earlier about Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man. The first time I read it, I was absolutely chilled by That Scene at the end. You know the one -- where Ben Reich cannot see the stars anymore. All the stars are gone.

And no one knows what he's talking about. Stars and starlight don't exist. There are no lights in the sky.

(Speaking of which, Deanna Hoak mentioned this on Twitter, and oh! has it ever got lovely pictures of the Milky Way...)

What would it be like? To be in a world where you remembered something that had always existed, something that no one else could remember, something that was inexplicably gone.

I love Bester's short fiction; he was a marvel. But his novels... well, The Demolished Man is a brilliant classic, pure and simple. But a creepy story. I was foolish enough to re-read it, and it's a once-read only.

Jo Walton is right on the money when she says "It’s a great idea book, but it’s also tense all the way through and none of the characters are people I care to spend time with."

Admittedly, I am a huge fan of Babylon 5 (and their Alfred Bester), so I really had to read this book. :D

Headlines?

Source: London Daily Mirror; image from About.com

Remember this headline?

I want to know if somewhere, someone's written something like this:

Are These the 60 Stupidest People in America?

What did they mistake about their job description as part of the United States Congress? About it being a government job, that is. A job that entails governing.

And who elected them? Was it just everyday people, Americans fed up with the way their lives and the recession's been going? Or was it, interesting enough, "health professionals... and oil and gas interests" * by any chance?

My mother suggested otherwise. It got me to thinking...

A Conspiracy of Stupid?

They said it couldn't happen again. Not on American soil. Yet it has. A conspiracy set within the Congress itself -- the strangest ever plot of al-Qaida -- to destroy America. And if they have their way, the economy of the world!

Because everyone knows that Americans will do anything, they're fanatics... and especially their newest politicians.

Where will it end???

* Source, Wikipedia article on the Tea Party Caucus


Yes, I'm upset about the debt ceiling ----. I don't even have a word I can use for it, crisis has been done to death, and nothing suits... not even brouhaha.

Maybe this made you laugh. Maybe not. I'm glad I never wanted to be a journalist, I think I would have been far better with penny dreadfuls. :D


Before I start on about people who can't do math oughtn't hold office, we'll move on. Thursday's been a historic day. I mean, not only in American politics -- today I found out Lawrence O'Donnell wrote episodes of West Wing, including one about the debt ceiling. That is surreal.

=grin= It's easier to think in terms of things that aren't apocalypses, particularly when about to goto bed.

Maybe tomorrow will prove to be the second time the Fourteenth Amendment is invoked.