03.25.2008
I spent the last four days in Las Vegas and I'll tell you what, the weather there is unbelievable. It's, what? Thirty-nine degrees here in the big NYC? I don't think it ever dropped below seventy when I was there. And that was some perfect weather to spend around the Bellagio's pool in.
Fucking amazing, let me tell you.
Plus, I'm no longer the whitest man on the planet.
On a side note, I always hate returning to California for Christmas because, for the last eight or so years, I've been living in New York. For my West Coast readers, that means we have actual weather here. Like snow and shit. I know, freaked the fuck out of me, too. I don't even have to drive to see the stuff.
But actual weather means that the sun isn't out, well, for about six months. And when it does manage to peak out, it's about as effective as a fucking candle in a snow storm. Yeah, I can see but it ain't doing shit as far as warmth.
This means that when I visit California and see my brother, who lives in LA, and my father and sister, who live in the East Bay, I look like freak'n Casper next to them. If it weren't for my rakish and manly beard, I doubt you would be able to tell my jaw line from my neck because there would be no color differentiation. I'm so pale, my skin's damn near translucent.
Needless to say, I attempted to rectify this while in Vegas. I think I spent a total of twelve hours around the pool, sitting in that wonderful sun. And in the process, I finally have some color. Some of it may be in the pinkish range but color is color, my friends.
Anyway, I returned to check my email and postal mail and discovered that I have no rejections. None. This is strange because I have stories out at Clarkesworld and IGMS that have both been there for seventy-three days. That's a lot of days. I was hoping I would hear something from one or both but, alas, I have not.
I also have stories at Asimov's, which I don't expect to hear from for another fifteen days or so, Andromeda Spaceways, which could come at any time because they're cool like that, and Strange Horizons which probably needs another twenty-five or so before that one comes back.
For those keeping score at home, that's five stories currently out.
I'm thinking about sending my story Environments out to Fantasy & Science-Fiction because they're great for a quick rejection and then follow it up with Matriarchy and Varad Ranjani just to get a rejection each under their belts. Neither of the latter two have been rejected yet and they're looking kind of lonely.
And just so you don't think I'm slacking on the writing/editing front, I may not be working on a new story at the moment but I am doing a final line edit revision on Rebellion and a full revision on one of my personal favorites, Liz Carter.
So it's good times, people! Look out for updates to come, hopefully any day now.