Whew. What a couple weeks.
Publishing News!
Let me start today by getting a couple “businessy” things noted. First, I’ve seen some reaction starting to roll in regarding my story “Survivors,” which is in the June issue of Analog, and it’s all been pretty nice.
- Two separate reviewers (Harlen Bayha & Clancy Weeks) at Tangent liked it quite a bit
- Sam Tomaino at SFRevue calls it a “nicely done, bittersweet little story.”
Second, I’m happy to note that Mercedes Lackey had accepted my short story “Nwah” for inclusion in her next anthology of Valdemar stories. This is very exciting for me, as it will be my first one for her in that world.
Life News
Lisa and I went a bit dark to the net for some time because we were off on a cruise to celebrate our 30 years of marriage, which is a really pretty danged cool. Turns out it was a pretty great cruise, but a not so great week.
*** From here out, this post is going to be a bit of a downer, so if that’s not for you, maybe just plan to come back tomorrow when I promise I’ll be a bit more upbeat. Anyway … you’ve been warned ***
“It was a lot like life,” Lisa said a couple days ago. And it was. There was a lot of great stuff involved–how could there not be … we were on a cruise of the Caribbean, after all? But amid the sun and the stops in Jamaica and Mexico, and along with the music and playing of games, and along with the food and other fun, came two not-so-fun bits, specifically the fact that Lisa got a bug that knocked her out for a day, and specifically that we received the heart-wrenching news that Keiko, our little kitty, was under distress.
Like I said, I’ll post more on the good stuff over the next couple days. I’ve got pictures and other bits to have fun with here. But today I’m going to spend a minute documenting the fact that Keiko got sick quickly while we were away, and … well … she is no more. She was in failing health for the past several months, but had been living an active and robust life, even as we were leaving the house. However, as life can do, she took a very rapid turn for the worst. Thanks go to poor Brigid, who had to manage a lot of this from afar, and to our poor heart-of-gold neighbor, who suddenly found herself in the middle of more than she had any reason to expect when she agreed to feed the cat.
So, as I’ve taken to saying over the past couple days, it was a good cruise but a pretty bad week. I spent most of yesterday dealing with the process of rebooting the regular churn of life (laundry, grocery), as well as arranging things left behind. And I admit that I’ve also spent many moments yesterday and today catching myself thinking things as if Keiko is here, and doing things that I now realize are just part of my daily act of living. I find myself looking under my writing desk before I move to make sure I don’t kick her accidentally. I remind myself to leave a small bit of milk at the bottom of my cereal bowl for her. I glance into the living room as I climb the stairs, because I wonder if she’s sitting at one of her favorite spots by the heating vent.
So, yeah. We miss her.
She was a beautiful little scaredy-cat.
