Monthly Archives: October 2003

Just People

I just received news that the annual Hallowe’en party for which I create my costume has been cancelled this year. On one hand, this is bad news; I love this party. On the other hand, it’s just fine, because the only investment I’ve made in my costume this year so far is make-up. It also means I can tuck this idea away and use it next year. Voila! I am so prepared for 2004!

I had a wonderul weekend with Trish Telesco, our most recent visiting author. It’s always a good sign when the first thing an author says after she’s introduced to you is, “She’s wonderful! Can I take her home?” Turns out she’s done work under a pen name in the past for the US publisher I’ve signed on with, so we ended up talking business about potential titles over dinner on Saturday night. (Further proof that it is, indeed, a Very Small World.) There was a moment over dessert that made me freeze up under a coolness wave, when I realised that if she writes a title for this new series, I’ll be writing a two-page preface for it.

Having worked in the book business for twelve years means that I’ve met more than my share of authors, and have discovered that they’re Just People. More than that, being a writer myself, I know that creating books is Work, Hard Work. So when I hang out with authors, they’re just people who do the same thing I do. Of course, there’s a tiny part of my brain screaming that they’re Famous People Who Do What I Do, but that’s the fangirl part of me which is kept firmly under control. (At least, gods, I hope so! I don’t remember ever gushing to any of the authors I’ve hosted…)

Booky Rant

I have to rant.

If you work in a bookstore, and a book has in its title, oh, I don’t know, “Wicca”, and you have a section called “Wicca”, don’t you think the book should go in that section instead of a completely unrelated section? (Substitute “Christianity”, or “Buddhism”, or whatever floats your boat. It goes in that section, not a section marked “Islam” or “VoDoun”.)

And if you’re shelving a book, shouldn’t it go next to the other copies of that book already on the shelf, rather than two shelves below it next to a completely different book? (If you try to use the shelving by title excuse, you automatically die.)

If someone wants to pay me for reshelving books that are already put out, I’ll do it. But otherwise, there’s no excuse. If you’re a bookstore employee and have been for any period of time over one month, you should understand the sections of that bookstore (clearly marked) and the methods of operation utilised within that bookstore (clearly outlined in the handbook and reiterated several times at staff meetings).

On the other hand, and completely unrelated, the graffitti in high school washrooms amuses me. They call each other “hoes”. I wonder if they understand that by misspelling the insult, they’re comparing themselves to gardening implements.

Slowly But Surely

Ah, the first cold I’ve had in months. I so have not missed being sick. The general ache, the out-of-it feeling due to the sinus pressure, the boxes and boxes of tissue….

Thursday night I had a dynamic pair of students in a workshop, which was an enjoyable switch from the usual silent note-taking type. Friday night I got to make a flying visit to the first Montreal NaNo coffee gathering and met some terrific new people while re-acquainting myself with terrific people I’d met last year. And, as a result of a highly amusing misunderstanding, I have resolved that my story will have a psychic ferret involved in it somewhere (you just had to be there). (And I called Tal insane. Ah, well. There’s a reason we’re related by choice.)

It was a lovely Thanksgiving weekend (apart from the cold, of course, which ensured that I couldn’t taste my in-laws’ wonderful harvest feast to the degree it deserved), with a nice gift at the end: Salem, my favourite local cat-who-is-not-mine, ate about 30 ccs of food after refusing to eat for a period of days. Sure, it took three of us to hold her (including one and a half animal techs), but she ate; she even ate willingly after being force-fed a bit of it. Then I got to cuddle a corn snake while I watched the new trailers for Matrix Revolutions and The Return of the King.

This afternoon is a legal presence at the Palais de Justice (no worries, it’s all good), and then an intimate get-together at Hurley’s to celebrate a few different milestones achieved over the past three months.

(Palais de Justice, for our non-Quebec-resident readership, is the fancy French term for the city courthouse. It does not, in fact, have anything to do with a superhero team. More’s the pity.)

Slowly but surely, I’m getting my mind back into the writing mode. I managed to get my printer working again (using the popular kick-it-hard method combined with replacing an ink cartridge) and printed out the existing copy of two half-finished stories, then took them to the Second Cup with me Friday afternoon to edit and add to them. Re-reading work that I haven’t touched in months is a remarkably good carrot to use when I’m stuck; it’s often better than I remember it being. Must stop drinking lattes and mochas while doing it, though. Herbal tea all the way!

Real

Oh my sweet gods — I have a contract.

It’s full of legalese, and I just read it in shock, so I’ll have to try again tomorrow. But —

I have a contract.

I keep having this awful feeling that eventually they’ll figure out who I really am, and take it all back in horror. I mean, they’re using me as a selling point. Me, for heaven’s sake.

Tomorrow. It will be different tomorrow.

Not Dead

I’m not dead. I took Monday off — no phone, no computer — and I worked yesterday on author promotion, as I’ll be doing today and tomorrow.

The Salon Occulte was great; insane hours, hence truly exhausting, but fun. More updates when I get to sit down again on my own time at my own desk, which will likely not be until Friday as I’m at a lecture tonight, and I’m teaching tomorrow night.