Getting from There to Here
Strange New Worlds 10 is out...
...and my inbox has the flood to prove it. :}
Jim Johnson (ineti), one of the other writers in the collection, sent out a batch email to those of us who're going to be at Shore Leave this weekend, leading to a back-and-forth of twenty-seven messages (at last count) waiting to be read.
There've been lots of things going on lately in relation to the book beyond those emails, though, and I've been eager to post about them as they happened...so naturally, my computer has been on the fritz for the past week and a half. :/
This is the first extended period I've spent online since the beginning of the month as a result, and I'm still making sure everything is all right. (In fact, if you sent any email to my home address around Canada Day weekend, you might want to resend it, just in case...) Ironically, the main hardware problem I had was the hard drive I wasn't using, so with luck, there won't be any serious problems now.
I have a lot to do today, but I'll quickly try to hit the highlights.
Since I'm still worried about making a good impression at Shore Leave, I've been doing a bunch of clothes-shopping, starting around the end of June. Thanks to some expert sartorial advice, I think I'm in good shape, after quite a bit of experimentation...
(I'm not sure there'll be Outfit of the Day posts in my future, though...sorry, guys.)
I was also looking to pick up a new set of glasses (a long time coming, really), so I headed over to my optician the day after I first hunted for wardrobe. The focus was on a new set of frames (insert your own "focus" joke here), so I didn't really care if they just used my existing prescription, but they insisted that it was too old. Annoyed, I asked them why I couldn't just get the frames if I was wearing that prescription right now, especially since I'd tried to make an optometrist's appointment and they had "nothing available" before mid-August. The two offices are affiliated, so they looked into it--and oh, all of a sudden, I can get an appointment the next week after all. Funny how (figuratively) waving a wad of bills in front of them has that effect.
At any rate, "the next week" was a week ago today, and I paid seventy dollars to discover that...I still have the exact same prescription as I had before. *sigh* At least they sold me the glasses this time.
The day I failed to get the glasses wasn't all bad, though, as I managed to pick up the issue of Star Trek Magazine I mentioned previously (Issue #6, still on newsstands ;)). The article ended up being more of a sidebar amidst other news about upcoming Star Trek publications, with a tiny little paragraph per story in the anthology. All told, one sentence of my interview showed up in that sidebar, but it's all good--I still had something to show prettydark when I ran into her later that afternoon. :)
The flight to Baltimore and the hotel room are all taken of now, too. The flight ended up costing somewhat less than I expected, which was a pleasant surprise, but I ended up having to go with one of the alternate hotels as opposed to the Hunt Valley Inn, where the con is actually taking place. (The phone number they gave to be placed on a waiting list never even called me back. :/)
Late last week, I received my first Royalty Statement in the mail from Simon & Schuster...but with the book not out yet, there wasn't exactly a lot on it. :} Having said that, I noticed the same day that both North American Amazon sites were now listing the book as In Stock, so I started getting excited...
...which brings us to Saturday.
I headed out to search for more clothing and brought along some rather old Chapters Gift Cards (despite what I said about how staying out of that store was good for my wallet), since the store "reserves the right to expire" their value and I wanted to make the most of them while I could. Although the main goal was picking up some additional outfits, along with assorted household items for The New Place, I was hoping to get Firefly: The Official Companion (which I felt bad about not owning already, given how long it's been out) and some of the Trek books I wanted to catch up on. I knew SNW 10 was supposed to come out soon, too...but imagine my surprise when I saw three copies of it sitting on the shelf. :D
Keep in mind that I haven't received my copies from the publisher yet, so this was my first contact with the real, physical book, story and all. It was a great moment...
...and needless to say, part of my purchase was now a sure thing. ;)
That copy ultimately isn't for me, but since it's the copy I have right now, I've been working my way through it anyway. I've looked at all the bios and skimmed through my own story, quickly noting that they didn't go along with most of my copyediting feedback--but I've also already noticed one glaring typo (in one of the bios, where it's really easy to notice :/), so I'm not sure what's going on there.
Beyond that, I've only read one other story in the anthology so far, but I'll give some more thorough thoughts once I've gotten through the whole collection (i.e. after my trip). I'll also get an annotation page up for the story as soon as I have the chance to put it together.
In the meantime, however, there is much to be done before tomorrow...
Amazon.com Sales Rank: #7265 in Books
Amazon.ca Sales Rank: #3840 in Books
...and my inbox has the flood to prove it. :}
Jim Johnson (ineti), one of the other writers in the collection, sent out a batch email to those of us who're going to be at Shore Leave this weekend, leading to a back-and-forth of twenty-seven messages (at last count) waiting to be read.
There've been lots of things going on lately in relation to the book beyond those emails, though, and I've been eager to post about them as they happened...so naturally, my computer has been on the fritz for the past week and a half. :/
This is the first extended period I've spent online since the beginning of the month as a result, and I'm still making sure everything is all right. (In fact, if you sent any email to my home address around Canada Day weekend, you might want to resend it, just in case...) Ironically, the main hardware problem I had was the hard drive I wasn't using, so with luck, there won't be any serious problems now.
I have a lot to do today, but I'll quickly try to hit the highlights.
Since I'm still worried about making a good impression at Shore Leave, I've been doing a bunch of clothes-shopping, starting around the end of June. Thanks to some expert sartorial advice, I think I'm in good shape, after quite a bit of experimentation...
(I'm not sure there'll be Outfit of the Day posts in my future, though...sorry, guys.)
I was also looking to pick up a new set of glasses (a long time coming, really), so I headed over to my optician the day after I first hunted for wardrobe. The focus was on a new set of frames (insert your own "focus" joke here), so I didn't really care if they just used my existing prescription, but they insisted that it was too old. Annoyed, I asked them why I couldn't just get the frames if I was wearing that prescription right now, especially since I'd tried to make an optometrist's appointment and they had "nothing available" before mid-August. The two offices are affiliated, so they looked into it--and oh, all of a sudden, I can get an appointment the next week after all. Funny how (figuratively) waving a wad of bills in front of them has that effect.
At any rate, "the next week" was a week ago today, and I paid seventy dollars to discover that...I still have the exact same prescription as I had before. *sigh* At least they sold me the glasses this time.
The day I failed to get the glasses wasn't all bad, though, as I managed to pick up the issue of Star Trek Magazine I mentioned previously (Issue #6, still on newsstands ;)). The article ended up being more of a sidebar amidst other news about upcoming Star Trek publications, with a tiny little paragraph per story in the anthology. All told, one sentence of my interview showed up in that sidebar, but it's all good--I still had something to show prettydark when I ran into her later that afternoon. :)
The flight to Baltimore and the hotel room are all taken of now, too. The flight ended up costing somewhat less than I expected, which was a pleasant surprise, but I ended up having to go with one of the alternate hotels as opposed to the Hunt Valley Inn, where the con is actually taking place. (The phone number they gave to be placed on a waiting list never even called me back. :/)
Late last week, I received my first Royalty Statement in the mail from Simon & Schuster...but with the book not out yet, there wasn't exactly a lot on it. :} Having said that, I noticed the same day that both North American Amazon sites were now listing the book as In Stock, so I started getting excited...
...which brings us to Saturday.
I headed out to search for more clothing and brought along some rather old Chapters Gift Cards (despite what I said about how staying out of that store was good for my wallet), since the store "reserves the right to expire" their value and I wanted to make the most of them while I could. Although the main goal was picking up some additional outfits, along with assorted household items for The New Place, I was hoping to get Firefly: The Official Companion (which I felt bad about not owning already, given how long it's been out) and some of the Trek books I wanted to catch up on. I knew SNW 10 was supposed to come out soon, too...but imagine my surprise when I saw three copies of it sitting on the shelf. :D
Keep in mind that I haven't received my copies from the publisher yet, so this was my first contact with the real, physical book, story and all. It was a great moment...
...and needless to say, part of my purchase was now a sure thing. ;)
That copy ultimately isn't for me, but since it's the copy I have right now, I've been working my way through it anyway. I've looked at all the bios and skimmed through my own story, quickly noting that they didn't go along with most of my copyediting feedback--but I've also already noticed one glaring typo (in one of the bios, where it's really easy to notice :/), so I'm not sure what's going on there.
Beyond that, I've only read one other story in the anthology so far, but I'll give some more thorough thoughts once I've gotten through the whole collection (i.e. after my trip). I'll also get an annotation page up for the story as soon as I have the chance to put it together.
In the meantime, however, there is much to be done before tomorrow...
Amazon.com Sales Rank: #7265 in Books
Amazon.ca Sales Rank: #3840 in Books