In the last couple of days, there have been rumors that Brutarian would be vanishing as one of the best science fiction markets. I’m happy to say that those rumors weren’t true.

I do hope Mr. Stewart is not spreading the rumor that we are defunct as we are not. Gene and I had creative differences that could not be resolved and so we had a parting of the ways. Brutarian will continue to publish until I am dead or in a permanent coma so not to worry.
In the interim, I hope that you will let everyone know that we are more than alive and kicking and still paying the highest rates in the biz aside from majors like Time, and Playboy and well, you know those publications with mega circulations.
If you get the chance could you get the message out to all these sites you frequent and let them know the situation. Or let me know where to go – no puns here, not now – and post the announcement.
Cheers,
Dominick

Read More

At the end of my hall, several parties were held. On Sunday night, I hadn’t looked at the party list at all, so I just trundled down the hall, not expecting anything in particular.

All the people were facing the same way, which was unusual for a party. And then the audio started and everyone started singing: Bohemian Polka from Weird Al, which is of course set to the tune of Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen (with all the original lyrics, just done polka-style).

During the song, a woman came over holding a tray and asked, “Twinkie Wiener?” The tray contained hot dogs surrounded by bisected twinkies, as seen in the Weird Al movie UHF. If I hadn’t been allergic to wheat, I’d have had one.

Read More

BASFA members Cheryl Morgan and Frank Wu won Hugo awards tonight. Not bad for a club that typically has 10-20 members at each meeting.

Oh, and: Go, Cheryl! Go, Frank!

Read Cheryl’s account here.

Read More

I was looking over my msses last night, trying to get a grip on whether I was primarily a fantasy writer or an SF writer.

It turns out that I’ve got almost twice as many science fiction manuscripts as fantasy ones, but the total word count for them is 1/3 of the word count for the fantasy pieces. So, not surprisingly, my fantasy is longer, on average. Why isn’t this news?

Read More

So two people recommended Mövenpick (aka Marché) for breakfast, so Michael and I tried it (Rick having been hungry and gone off earlier than we were ready).

Nice format (many little stations), reasonable prices, and, as with any cafeteria-style format, quick service.

Read More

Skipped all the panels, hung out in Autographings for a while, took a nap, then went out to dinner with Serah Eley, Erin Cashier, Lawrence Watt-Evans, and others. Great fun!
It was mostly a Viable Paradise alumni gathering, though not strictly so.

Read More

A friend saw Terry Pratchett wearing a t-shirt that went something like this:

Tolkein is Dead
J.K. Rowling said No
…
Hi, I’m Terry Pratchett

Melanie Miller Fletcher offered a better transcription:

Terry Pratchett (the Guest of Honor this year) ambled by wearing
a t-shirt that will go down in fan history. It read, in decreasing font
size:
Tolkien’s dead.
J.K. Rowling said no.
Phillip Pullman couldn’t make it.
Hi, I’m Terry Pratchett.

Read More

So, I got my MA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill, specializing in science fiction and fantasy. No doubt, the romance writers have had the greatest success (in part because of the huge number of romance novels printed each year).

So I’m reading the first alumni newsletter, mentally saying “romance,” “romance,” “more romance” and starting to feel grumbly.

And then there’s me!

I feel happy now. 🙂

I am going to pick up Marta Dana’s book. She’s amazing.

Also, in fairness, a couple of the other pieces weren’t romance.

Anyhow, go, me!

Read More

AlphaSmart makes great gadgets. If you attend any writer’s conference, especially romance writers, you’ll find a bunch of them using AlphaSmarts. They’ve finally come out with the Neo, which is a successor to their 3000 rather than their more powerful PalmOS Dana.

Some serious production writers use AlphaSmarts in lieu of computers because:

1. Fewer distractions.
2. Longer battery life. An AlphaSmart 3000 can have up to 700 hours.
3. Rugged. Pretty polycarbonate.

Once upon a time, I interviewed with AlphaSmart, who then sent me for a final interview in Salt Lake City. I didn’t get job, but the interview occurred during the Olympics. I was scheduled on flights that allowed me to catch one Olympic event (women’s hockey) before catching my flight home. And for that, I’ll always think they’re a great company.

Read More

I hadn’t really read the manual carefully, so I’ll need a different kind of Bluetooth adaptor for my Canon i80. Not surprised, really, but it doesn’t matter — the extra adaptor and gender changer will come in handy anyhow.

Read More

Occasionally, I’m amazed at the attempt for a technological solution to solve a social problem. Today, this is the source of my amazement.

Thinking back, I can’t say I’ve been so tickled by a display of geek bravado since, well, Flo Control, which was, admittedly, a very long time ago.

Normally, I’m very anti-graffiti in any form, but the amazement is that someone bothered to think the whole thing through and do it.

Read More

Laura Branigan died the same way my late husband did — of a sudden brain aneurysm. Like him, she also had headaches she’d been complaining about.

If you have headaches, especially if the level of them increases, please make an appointment to get a cat scan or an MRI. It could save your life.

Read More

I’m sure this one will probably get kicked up to the Supremes, but in the meantime, a federal appeals court has restored a $6 million award for violating a couple’s rights under bankruptcy and debt collection laws.

Read More

Well, I went out to look for the wonky USB adaptor I have. I didn’t find it at Fry’s, so I almost came to the conclusion it doesn’t exist.

I found it on eBay in 2 minutes flat. Cost less than the gas to get to Fry’s, too.

Read More

Got my used Sony Ericsson t68i today, a tri-band GSM bluetooth phone. With Bluetooth.

Go, me!

Oops, stealing from the cat’s lingo again.

Naturally, I had to get a couple of el cheapo Bluetooth adaptors too.

Catch is, even though I have a Canon i80 printer, seems I forgot that printers use a variant form of the USB connector. Bad me. I realized it at 9:02 p.m., two minutes after Fry’s closed. Hrm.

Read More