So I wrote a short story.

(I don't normally write short stories.)

1208 words in this format; it could probably do with a little tweaking here and there, but it's more or less complete. Conception to conclusion probably under twelve hours.

It comes out sort of political, and mostly depressing -- even if the best-of-all-possible-worlds outcome of the ambiguous conclusion is the true one.

I wonder where to send it. It's the first short thing I've written in ages that isn't completely the wrong length for the short story market.


Mood and music are not intentionally resonant.

Further writing notes.

Have shared depressing short story with teinedreugan (for technical and military-language proofing), ibnfirnas, annwyd, and oneironaut.

I say "Do you think someone might buy it?"
Eastman (annwyd) says "They might."
Tesla (oneironaut) says "I would. It's good."
Eastman says "Yeah, uh, since I didn't say so specifically, it *is* good."
Eastman says "And Tesla, read my frothage!"
Tesla says "I mean ... it's one thirty in the morning and I spent all day walking around and my eyeballs are on fire, and it still sucked me in."
Tesla says "That's very frothy."
I say "Mmmm, frothy flaming eyeballs."
Tesla says "It sounds like a novelty drink."
Tesla says "A cappuchino with alcohol and capsaicin?"
I say "Better than the alcoholic milkshake with tabasco idea which was the best my fried brains could come up with."
Whitney, all about the milkshakes lately.
I say "But I want one with good vanilla, damnit."
Tesla grins.

It was really depressing vanilla. I feel a need to reiterate this. Flat and bland and not terribly vanilla.

Word counts:

The short story is still 1208 words. Tentatively titled "Reunion" at this point, for maximum ouch factor.

Section 115 (picking up work after the hiatus of holiday at last): 701 words.

Have helped annwyd plot and scheme for a userpic, for I am a wicked temptress.

Life prowls onwards.

A couple new book reviews came up on the Cauldron, and I went to peer at them and then went to note down what I wanted in my list o'stuff. Then I went prowling for a bit, and encountered in my recommendations the work of Ali Jihad Racy, who I'm pretty sure is the artist that niankhsekhmet recommended to me. So that went on the list too. (I need to win the lottery or something.)

Having a discussion with jonsinger about glazes and such; need to follow up on that and drop him an email. He gave me a recommendation of a book that I must own. (teinedreugan asked me to wait a month so PantheaCon successfully gets swallowed up in the recovery of the bank account, but as I said, I'm in no extreme hurry.) I have this weird little notion of actually setting up a business of sorts in a couple-three years, and so research and resources so that I can learn the stuff that was pretty much rote-from-recipe in school, like glazecraft. (I know there's a market for traditionally-styled offering bowls, because people keep telling me they'd buy them if I made them.)

I dropped my mother a line since she's had an arts business for as long as I remember, asking her about how she organised it and such. (elisem, do you have any thoughts on the organisation of sales of crafted shinies?)

Peering at drak.net stuff, too; I'm thinking of at some point using them as a hosting service, jenett likes them and has made good points about supporting pagan-owned woman-owned small businesses. I need somewhere to stash The Adventures of Fairly Standard Man if oneironaut and I ever get that project off the ground; if I go that pottery-dealing route I'd want somewhere to stash that; I also have another project that's still in the "I'm not admitting I have a project" stage, but which wants webspace someday.

My father called from the airport; I wished him a happy almost his birthday. He's going to Turkey. I told him about the gay penguins and their adopted egg, and it improved his day.

I think I need a spare body. I'd deputise a few of me to going and doing things with it, and maybe accomplish a more significant fraction of the things that want accomplishing.

(I should wash the strawberry stencil and make progress on the hallway, too.)