Reading: SFWA Bulletin #158
Music: Presidents of the United States of America and Velvet Crush
TV/Movie:Family Guy, the BDSM episode
Link o' the Day: Penny Arcade

And the new work week doth begin.

Quite a good day overall. I had a great night sleeping (and not sleeping, then sleeping again), sent a story off to MoF&SF, edited an article, and picked up The Summer issue of the SFWA Bulletin. I must say, the Bulletin looks fabulous. I'll have to make a scan of the cover and post that. Subscriber issues were delivered to the post office today so they should be arriving hopefully within the next week or two.

I have to say that the smartest thing I've done with the Bulletin was switching over to a PDF workflow. It's made things easier and quicker, plus I don't have to worry about missing image links or fonts when it goes to the printer. I hope that future Production Editors for the Bulletin do something similar. Saves a lot of heartache.

And while I'm going on and on about the Bulletin, if anyone sees a copy either in the mail or at bookstores, let me know what you think about the new layout. It's nothing radical or anything, but I thought it was time for a bit of a change. Each Production Editor seems put their own stamp on the issues under their reign and it was time for me to do mine.

Freelance-wise, I'm currently working on the Baby Snooks book. It's a bit of a riot. I don't know if it's the sort of thing that's encouraged or discouraged people to have children. Think Dennis the Menace in a dress. Anyway, it's a fun book.

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Last night Pretty Maggie went out to buy a scratching post for Nemo. Unfortunately, there was a problem with the pieces so she's off now exchanging it. It'll be arriving just in time. Nemo has learned that he has claws and he's growing far too quickly. I've been fairly lucky so far as I am safely off at work during the day and usually wear long pants. Pretty Maggie won't be starting her new job for another week, and tends to prefer shorts, so her legs have been scratched up something fierce. We're hoping that giving the little anklebiter something else to scratch that he'll ease up on his humans.

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Sleight of Hand Issue the second just got itself yet another new article. rich brown (aka Dr. Gafia) regales readers with the time he met Isaac Asimov and got his foot stepped on by everyone's favorite dirty old man. Currently we have articles also by Terry Carr, Ted White, Chris Pierson, Dave Locke, and possibly one other if I can make room (in addition to my own ramblings).

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Today's link is another repeat: Penny Arcade. Why this webcomic again? Because these folks have many thousands of readers per day, and I'm sure hundreds of responses daily to their work, yet Tycho, the writer half of the duo, has always taken the time to respond to silly comments from yours truly. In today's post, he practically begs people not to write in to complain--so I of course ignore that and send in a humorous complaint of sorts. A few hours later I get an e-mail from Tycho essentially agreeing with me. Hell, I may just end up joining their dang fanclub after all.

Anyway, if you're a computer gamer and are irreverent, or both, check out Penny Arcade. Gabe's artwork is a lot of fun, but the big secret behind PA's success is Tycho's writing. He's going to go places.

Cheers!