Gah. Bloody typical. Just as I finish paying for my lovely little laptop, it all goes buggy on me. Something to with an svchost error. It's driving me totally mental.
Le mag
Got a couple of nice reviews of issue 2 (from the BFS & The Fix) - will try and get them on the main website in a bit. & Issue 3 seems to be going down well (which is v. nice!)
18 August 2003
04 August 2003
...and it all went very quiet..... :->
Mag stuff
And finally I managed to get the mag mailed out. Subscriber copies went out Saturday, contributor copies went out this morning. (Should have been the other way around but you have never seen a more dis-organised person in your life. Unless you're looking at little sis who's even worse...)
No prizes for spotting the bloopers of the issue...idiot-girl does it again! This time the contents page went weird on me so apologies to Joel Lane for not listing him or his story 'Premium Rate'; and apologies to Steve Dean whose story 'Orcs & Holes' I listed on the contents page as by Stuart Young. Go figure.
BFS stuff
Yeah baby! Got a volunteer to take over the stockholder stuff. Tony Mileman step on up and have a drink on me!
Mag stuff
And finally I managed to get the mag mailed out. Subscriber copies went out Saturday, contributor copies went out this morning. (Should have been the other way around but you have never seen a more dis-organised person in your life. Unless you're looking at little sis who's even worse...)
No prizes for spotting the bloopers of the issue...idiot-girl does it again! This time the contents page went weird on me so apologies to Joel Lane for not listing him or his story 'Premium Rate'; and apologies to Steve Dean whose story 'Orcs & Holes' I listed on the contents page as by Stuart Young. Go figure.
BFS stuff
Yeah baby! Got a volunteer to take over the stockholder stuff. Tony Mileman step on up and have a drink on me!
05 July 2003
Le mag
Oh yes oh yes oh yes oh yes! Issue 3 is back from the printers and great heavens but it looks gorgeous.
(Although they seem to have added an extra page and printed an extra back page....) but never mind that. It's totally wow!
I'll get everyones copies mailed out next week.
Meanwhile, I've a huge stack of submissions to get through and I'm hoping to get caught up on them soonish. (promises, promises)
BFS
Someone please volunteer to take on the Stockholder job. Please! (I don't sound desperate do I?) All you gotta do is store 3 or 4 boxes of books and do a little order related admin. Dead dead easy. In return you get free BFS membership plus other odd perks and the committee peeps really are a lovely bunch.
I've been trying to chuck it in for months but so far no one's been biting and I'm seriously running out of time do the normal stockholder stuff, plus handle the BFS cyberstore, BFS mailings, mag stuff, run the 2 other businesses I do for actual money cash and get in some fun time. :->
Oh yes oh yes oh yes oh yes! Issue 3 is back from the printers and great heavens but it looks gorgeous.
(Although they seem to have added an extra page and printed an extra back page....) but never mind that. It's totally wow!
I'll get everyones copies mailed out next week.
Meanwhile, I've a huge stack of submissions to get through and I'm hoping to get caught up on them soonish. (promises, promises)
BFS
Someone please volunteer to take on the Stockholder job. Please! (I don't sound desperate do I?) All you gotta do is store 3 or 4 boxes of books and do a little order related admin. Dead dead easy. In return you get free BFS membership plus other odd perks and the committee peeps really are a lovely bunch.
I've been trying to chuck it in for months but so far no one's been biting and I'm seriously running out of time do the normal stockholder stuff, plus handle the BFS cyberstore, BFS mailings, mag stuff, run the 2 other businesses I do for actual money cash and get in some fun time. :->
23 June 2003
Mag....nearly there.... honestly!
Okey doke, so got the first proof back, tried to fix the bugs but failed - luckily my lovely printer chap (big round of applause for Andy Cox at TTAPress) managed to work his magic and sent over a corrected proof which has now been approved and.... well now it's off to print. Finally! (And thanks for all the patience!) :->
Meanwhile, I've started putting together Issue 4 so expect to see it a couple of months after I get Ish 3 back from the printers. Phew.
That Potter chap.
So got my copy Saturday, spent all afternoon reading it (cos it was a hell of a busy week and I needed the downtime.) Bloody huge book. Seriously overhyped though - the big character death.... not that big. Really. And don't get me started on the whole Dumbledore 'something I should have told you' teaser that's been smacked around for months. Puh-lease. You could have got most of it in 'Philosphers..' without too much brain strain.
Apart from that, some good bits, some nice edge of the seat bits, and an interesting new character to pay attention to in the next couple of books.
Oooh, happy dance time
The other day I heard that I'm having a story (called 'Aftermath') published in the BFS' 'zine Dark Horizons (hurrah!) - the Autumn/Winter one I think. I'm well chuffed! Join me for a moment or two of jumping up and down on the furniture....
Okey doke, so got the first proof back, tried to fix the bugs but failed - luckily my lovely printer chap (big round of applause for Andy Cox at TTAPress) managed to work his magic and sent over a corrected proof which has now been approved and.... well now it's off to print. Finally! (And thanks for all the patience!) :->
Meanwhile, I've started putting together Issue 4 so expect to see it a couple of months after I get Ish 3 back from the printers. Phew.
That Potter chap.
So got my copy Saturday, spent all afternoon reading it (cos it was a hell of a busy week and I needed the downtime.) Bloody huge book. Seriously overhyped though - the big character death.... not that big. Really. And don't get me started on the whole Dumbledore 'something I should have told you' teaser that's been smacked around for months. Puh-lease. You could have got most of it in 'Philosphers..' without too much brain strain.
Apart from that, some good bits, some nice edge of the seat bits, and an interesting new character to pay attention to in the next couple of books.
Oooh, happy dance time
The other day I heard that I'm having a story (called 'Aftermath') published in the BFS' 'zine Dark Horizons (hurrah!) - the Autumn/Winter one I think. I'm well chuffed! Join me for a moment or two of jumping up and down on the furniture....
09 June 2003
01 June 2003
Dum de dum de dum. Still waiting to get the mag back from the printers. Thought I might see it last week, but, alas, no such luck.
Ag. Tell you what, though. Last couple of weeks have been total zombiefication time. I keep thinking every day's the 16th, I swear. So everything's stacked up horrendously. Hasn't helped that the email's been playing silly buggers.
TV time
Ooh, American Gothic's being shown on Sky one/mix at the mo. Fan-tastic. That southern accent is terribly addictive.
Ag. Tell you what, though. Last couple of weeks have been total zombiefication time. I keep thinking every day's the 16th, I swear. So everything's stacked up horrendously. Hasn't helped that the email's been playing silly buggers.
TV time
Ooh, American Gothic's being shown on Sky one/mix at the mo. Fan-tastic. That southern accent is terribly addictive.
11 May 2003
Oh, did some digging into the K J Parker pseudonym thing and although I've nothing definite, speculation runs that he/she is connected to Tom Holt (either wife, close friend, or mother!) - I think I'll stick with Ariel's assertion of it being the man himself though. I happened across an Orbit interview of KJ Parker yesterday, and some of the answers had a certain Holt wit about them.
Pout...sniffle...I used to have a great view from my window. We've got huuuuge trees around all the boundaries of our garden, nicely blocking off the view of anyone who happens to look up from the little lane that runs past the back of our house.
And our particular part of the 'burbs has enough trees left over from when it was open country/farmland, that you can't see any other red brick monstrosities (despite being able to hear the M4 which is just a mere spit away...) ...I digress... anyway, this morning all the lovely trees on our side of the fence have had major portions lopped off by Daddy dear in one of his feverish gardening fits. (as opposed to his usual pottering gardening m.o.) Grrr argh. It's all roughly sawn trunk ends and half-nekkid tree creatures now.
Still...at least it's better than when we lived near Heathrow. We lived so close to the airport that every night when planes flew over the house (very low over the house...) their headlights shone in through the window and tracked up the wall...
And our particular part of the 'burbs has enough trees left over from when it was open country/farmland, that you can't see any other red brick monstrosities (despite being able to hear the M4 which is just a mere spit away...) ...I digress... anyway, this morning all the lovely trees on our side of the fence have had major portions lopped off by Daddy dear in one of his feverish gardening fits. (as opposed to his usual pottering gardening m.o.) Grrr argh. It's all roughly sawn trunk ends and half-nekkid tree creatures now.
Still...at least it's better than when we lived near Heathrow. We lived so close to the airport that every night when planes flew over the house (very low over the house...) their headlights shone in through the window and tracked up the wall...
10 May 2003
In happier news....! Finally got around to posting something on the Dead Cities boards without the violins of neurotica interrupting things. :->
And after indulging in a top 5 books post on the BFS boards I've started reading Steve Cockayne's Wanderers and Islanders again. (Actually that should be re-reading..) I picked it up as a freebie at last year's BFS I-can't-believe-it's-not-fantasycon thing in London.
Other books I've got lined up in the reading pile are Mark Chadbourn's Devil in Green & K J Parker's Memory. (Thanks Ariel for reviewing it on Alien - I'd forgotton that it was due out.)
D'ya know, apparently K J Parker is a pseudonym for one of the other Orbit authors..... Ariel reckons it's Tom Holt in disguise. Love to know the truth of it but I reckon Ariel's got something there...
And after indulging in a top 5 books post on the BFS boards I've started reading Steve Cockayne's Wanderers and Islanders again. (Actually that should be re-reading..) I picked it up as a freebie at last year's BFS I-can't-believe-it's-not-fantasycon thing in London.
Other books I've got lined up in the reading pile are Mark Chadbourn's Devil in Green & K J Parker's Memory. (Thanks Ariel for reviewing it on Alien - I'd forgotton that it was due out.)
D'ya know, apparently K J Parker is a pseudonym for one of the other Orbit authors..... Ariel reckons it's Tom Holt in disguise. Love to know the truth of it but I reckon Ariel's got something there...
Spam bastards
Grrr, argh. Bloody spam-heads. Right up until the early part of last year, I didn't get any spam email at all. Not a single one. Knew it was too good to be true. Now? Now half my inbox is f'king spam. It's the website that's done it mostly I think (especially noticeable when I get the same f'king porno message to both the addy's on the contact page & one of the addy's is fresh enough that it hasn't been used anywhere else.)
And then this morning I get some smart arse bastard sending me 5 emails about how to get off email lists. Oh just piss off and leave me alone you morons.
So I went searching for a way to stop the wankers from doing it (I'm getting so bored with adding terms and servers to the mail blocking list) and found Junkbuster who have some interesting tips to help make things difficult for people harvesting emails.
Some of it's worth a go, I think.
Grrr, argh. Bloody spam-heads. Right up until the early part of last year, I didn't get any spam email at all. Not a single one. Knew it was too good to be true. Now? Now half my inbox is f'king spam. It's the website that's done it mostly I think (especially noticeable when I get the same f'king porno message to both the addy's on the contact page & one of the addy's is fresh enough that it hasn't been used anywhere else.)
And then this morning I get some smart arse bastard sending me 5 emails about how to get off email lists. Oh just piss off and leave me alone you morons.
So I went searching for a way to stop the wankers from doing it (I'm getting so bored with adding terms and servers to the mail blocking list) and found Junkbuster who have some interesting tips to help make things difficult for people harvesting emails.
Some of it's worth a go, I think.
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