Fridays here are almost always host to a film, which when I began was a conscious effort to replicate the sense of glee felt by school children (at least, those in my generation) when the day’s activities included passive absorption of moving pictures. Well, today I realized that the terminal guidance phase of back-to-school insertion is underway, and to mark that I’m going to do something a little different. I’m going to encourage you to leave this site, and go read some comics.
A friend recently showed me this site, and… well, it may be a small virus I appear to be nurturing, but there’s something about the combinations of words and pictures that makes me weepy at the end of just about every comic. And because it’s the right sort of weeping, the kind that fertilizes the inward sprouts of humanity, I want to share with you. So, off you go, have a good cry.
I’ll also mention another story acceptance, which had also somewhat affected my ability to concentrate on the day’s writing. As with the previous, I’m going to withhold details until things are more solid (both are more of a non-Newtonian fluid, currently, but setting is underway), but having two acceptances strike within two weeks of each other is making me feel like I might actually be causing some sparks when I bang words together. A gratifying sensation indeed.
I believe I’ve mentioned that there is a fairly rural bent to the rhythms of my home province, which is generally a good way of remembering where food comes from, although there is a price to be paid in pick-up trucks and country music. We hear much of crop projections (good year for wheat, you market speculators), and how well things have grown.
All of which is very, very tangential in its connection to this:
*This story has forced me to care as much about word choice as poets do (or at least, should); I’m only now at the point when I dare to show it to my test-readers. If I had any talent in that direction, it would probably be better as a poem than prose, for reasons hinted at by the title, but… well, as Harry Callahan once said, a man’s got to know his limitations.
Given that I’m still cruising on the good news which I got yesterday (tentative, tentative, no assumptions until fruition…), the only message behind today’s bit of animate nonsense is this: “Gosh, it’s been ages since I’ve seen that.”
A good lie down seems like a fine idea on a Friday afternoon, though, doesn’t it?
*Some of today’s writing time was devoted to enjoying a large chocolate chip cookie, my prize to myself in the wake of what I will call a tentative acceptance of one of my stories. I phrase it thus because until the actual publication, anything may go wrong; the acceptance is phrased in definite terms, but still… I’m trying to keep excitement down to a pitch where it doesn’t blow the ears right off of my head.
When the story appears, which I’m told will be before the end of September (and in a smooth-running world, a good deal sooner), I will certainly be festooning this place with links, so all may share in my glee.
There’s an AWFUL lot of political chatter drifting across the border from the US. Here’s some more (and if you can’t face it, I’ve got a new story up on my other front that you may enjoy).
Yep. Still scared of what that election is going to produce.
But what of Monday? It was a long weekend; perhaps not true where you are (I know Newfoundland was business as usual, to add to its other small woes), but such was the case here. Pens were not idle, the e-Motion and the final dregs in the now-resting OMAS going into long-delayed correspondence, but that’s extracurricular.
A quick note about an exciting development– a little while ago, I mentioned that OMAS was being shuttered. I didn’t mention directly that it was being done in a very hostile way, and that there was little hope for the company to emerge from the flames of its destruction.
Well, we hear that there is an egg in the ashes, and that it may be a phoenix. Over the weekend, there was a post on the FPN from the chap who gave Eversharp a bit of a shove at the end of the previous century and what looks like a more permanent reanimation a couple of years ago, revealing that he had successfully concluded a negotiation with the disgruntled Chinese owners of OMAS for whatever had not yet been irretrievably smashed.
He also noted that to run up some of the necessary capital to refloat OMAS, he’s planning the sale all the unsold finished pens now in his hands, limited editions included, at various discounts running from comfortable up to ridiculous. Even at a ridiculous discount, my own funds don’t run to OMAS buying but if you’ve got some spare heaps of cash to devote to what is for the pen world an excellent cause, the rebirth of a long-standing pen-maker (and employer of specialized artisans) under benign management, keep an eye on omasoutlet.com; the site isn’t functional yet, but should be soon. You may get a grail pen in the bargain, which you had thought lost forever!
What's up at Ravens March. 