8/19/06: Another one in the mail

Up until a few days ago I considered the F&SF Slush Bomb of women writers proposed by ccfinlay for 8/18 (see here) to be of only academic interest to me. But late Wednesday I realized that the New Orleans story, which I was planning to revise and submit to F&SF as soon as I was done with the revisions on the novella, had a female co-author. Duh! So I took the train to work on Thursday, laptop in hand, and tackled the revisions during my commute.

I finished the revisions on Thursday night, then we joined my co-author andrine and her housemates at their home on Friday for a previously-planned get-together. After a truly wonderful dinner, we looked at Andrine's photos from her trip to New Orleans (it was weird to see actual photographs of scenes that until now I'd only visualized from Andrine's diary -- many of which made it into the story), after which I gave a reading of the story. I put it into an envelope that night, though it wasn't picked up by my mail carrier until today.

I don't know if this really counts as part of the Slush Bomb, both because I'm not of the designated gender and because it lacks the 8/18 postmark. But it is done and in the mail.

I feel pretty good about this one. I've never written anything so explicitly based on real people and incidents (in addition to andrine and the other members of her troupe, it features bearfuz and melancharisbron as minor characters -- by their request, I hasten to add!), and it makes me a little nervous, but since I have everyone's permission I'm sure it's okay.

Today we attended a delightful backyard party where various fans and geeks, many of whom I hadn't seen in years, feasted on fresh roasted corn and burgers. In the evening we watched the intriguing and puzzling film Primer (I enjoyed it, which is not to say I understood it completely) and I added nearly a hundred words to the novella. And now to bed -- tomorrow is my last day before the Worldcon with any free time and I have a lot to get done.

Oh, and Bento is back from the printer and looks fabulous. We'll be handing out copies at the Worldcon, and mailing them shortly thereafter to people who aren't there.