Hah! Meeting over. Usual level on gossip and thrashing out of things I'm sure were covered a couple of months ago.
And they booked a works do. At Reading dog track. Oh joy. (Points for not choosing the usual places in Windsor, though.)

Reading Dogs is not a new thing for me which is why I'm easily containing my excitement here! Y'see, background info dump time - me old grandad was a rabid gambler. Anything, anytime. And Reading dogs was one of his haunts so we used to be down there just about every month. Trust me, you can have too much of that particular venue.
One thing in particular I do remember about it was when my aunt (grandad's sis) used to come down from London (she's a pure Cockney sparra, that one), she used to stalk gamblers and eavesdrop on what bets they were making and what tips they were discussing with their mates, then when she'd got what she figured was a hot tip, she'd be off like the clappers, elbowing her way to the nearest tote to make her bet.

Take a moment to picture it - this short, pudgy old lady with a hook nose, Mallorcan tan and purple velour track suit thingy, charging around the dog track on her top secret mission of gamblers espionage. And about half time she'd shuttle back to where the rest of us were freezing our asses off and put on her conspirators voice (which was at least 20 decibels louder than her normal voice) and start gesturing wildly at wherever the tip came from. Subtle spy work, y'understand!
And she was married to an East-end gangster too! (But that's another story for another time!)

Just a posted a couple of short reviews on the BFS boards, of Wonderland by Mark Chadbourn & Cape Wrath by Paul Finch (both from Telos Publishing, coincidentally)
Loved both books, in case you wanted the short version!

Ag. I'm lousy at writing reviews, I usually end up sounding like a brainless gushing moron. Never mind, it's done and I figure the the point of those ones was to share the joy and kick off a convo or two. So don't leave me lonely over there...

Colour fun
So tonight I've got to troll off to the monthly work meeting. Blech. Complaints....snooze......this months trippy new procedures... yawn.....same old same old. So I decided today would be the perfect time to test out all the different hair colour dyes I've got stashed. Give me some entertainment when I hit the meeting later. :-> (What...? They're easily freaked out...!)
Today's colours are purple, dark green and flame red stripes. The results: the green looks fab, the purple blends in with my natural hair colour so it's not that noticeable, and the flame red? Don't get me started. It's practically invisible and more like a honey blond colour then red. Sheesh.

Well, the you-know-what's at the printers, the inventory stuff is so quiet I can almost see the rigor mortis, so what's a girl to do.

Well, mostly I've been running rampant on the BFS message boards (again!) Plus I'm in the middle of doing a few reviews to post in the reviews section. It's an open section so anyone can do it, the idea is that people then comment/argue etc. on the whatever's been reviewed. So hop over and do that, right!
Heh. Reviews. I swore I'd never do those again. Somebody check my head.....

Then, of course, comes the random surfing.
This week - pagan humour. First up we got a nifty piece about the Pagan Olympics, then there's the Top Ten Ways to annoy a Pagan (and freakily I've had about 7 out of the 10 spouted at me at various times..).. finally, there's Wombat Wicca - the wicked alternative to the Gardnerian book of shadows. Heh! Worth a smile any time!

And I stumbled across a few more blogs too. There's Chaz Brenchley - who's a lovely guy. (He was especially nice when I had to interview him at the last minute during an Fcon, and made a right bollocks up of it. Not one of nature's interviewers, me.)
Then there's James Barclay, author of the fantastic Raven Chronicles. Which I didn't like the couple of times I tried to read the 1st book - then a few months back it clicked and, cwor. Nice one.
Lastly on the blog front there's Warren Ellis lord of Transmet! That one takes a little while to load but it's funky stuff.

Aah, messageboards. I love 'em, but I'm such an incessant lurker that I never get around to posting anything. It's a self-confidence thing, I think.
On the ones I want to post on, everyone else sounds incredibly intelligent with well thought out points and the wisdom of experience etc. etc.
And then I go to do a reply and realise that it's off-topic/several posts too late/just plain stooopid. So I delete it and continue my campaign of lurking.

Until this week. The BFS have a new set of boards so, naturally I went over to play. Cos if there's one thing I do know how to talk about, it's BFS stuff. (And apparently I'm a moderator there, too) They're still sorting out things like further sub-forums but it's fun to splash about in.
:->

And then there are the TTA boards. They're very smart people over there :-> and I do keep meaning to post in various topics - like for eg., the women writers in mags (a topic I'm in at least some small position to comment on..!)... hey, I may even make it to one of their Friday night chats soon! Just as soon as I find my backbone! (If I do make it, I'll be the one hiding in the corner throwing in 1 word comments every so often...)

There's also the boards at SFFworld to play on. I've been stalking one of Issue 2's author chappies there! :-> But seriously, their writing forum's rather interesting (and the occasional H&N plug there is nice too!). I found those ones through a referral from the hit count people ages back and I've never gotten around to posting anything 'til the other day.

And, of course, never forgetting my favourite boards of all time (at least until the BFS ones get going some more!) - Barbelith Underground - where you can find talk on comics, magick, activism, philosophy and a bundle of other lovelies. (Coincidentally, that's where I found my Danger:Mages... cartoon guy.)

The lovely H&N
Just proofing Issue Three so it'll go to print in the next couple of days. One of the things I'm particularly chuffed about is the last minute inclusion of some absolutely fantastic cartoons going by the name Danger! Mages in Training. (Just finalising the deal, so techinically, I'm being a bit previous, but damn they're good - I know this because when I printed a couple out and showed them to silent assistant-editor/evil twin sis she took one look and went into seismics. A sure sign of excellence!)

The Dead Zone
In other news Big Engine's fantasy mag '3SF' has ceased to be, due to the publishers insolvency. Bugger. Another Brit mag gone. He's looking for peeps to possibly take over both the book imprint and the mag publication so if you've the urge, go to their site and get in contact with Ben Jeapes.

E-zine fun
The build up has been going on since the latter parts of last year, and come the launch date I hopped over to visit the already legendary S1ngularity to check it out and what did I get? Nowt but an enigmatic black screen.
So last week I finally remembered to go back and check it out again and woohoo! Access all areas! Was it worth the wait? You're damn right it was. It's bloody fantastic. Totally cracking articles & fiction and slick design... (jealous, much!). Go check it out immediately... if not before.

In vaguely related news, the keen eyed might notice that the main website's been updated with a bunch of stuff, including previews of the next 3 issues (after the one that's imminent, that is) I'm still looking for more UK submissions, and I want even more genre-centric faction for each of the issues. And more art'd be nice too :->

Le mag...

Sorry, did I say beginning of April? I meant the end. Oy vey. That's my final offer.