8 August 2001

There's a new issue of Speculon up, with stories by Tim and Kate (which I have read) and lots of other stuff (which I have not yet). Go. Enjoy.

I really, really love this job. I really do. I was standing in line at the library yesterday behind a middle-aged man and his two young teenaged daughters. And he poked one of the girls and said, "Now that's checking out books," pointing at my stack. She said, "That's a lot of books." I said, "Well, I have a lot of research to do. I'm a writer." The father asked me what kind of books, and I told them. And the two girls looked at each other and looked at me like I had just claimed to be a rock star. They were in line with a science fiction/fantasy writer! Oh. Their. God! That was so cool! They didn't ask what I had published. They didn't ask how much it paid. They didn't ask any of the questions that people always get around to asking. They were in line with an actual SF/fantasy writer, and that was quite thrill enough. So I asked them who they liked and agreed that I liked those people, too, which was even cooler. One of them ventured that she liked to draw, but that she had to have a specific idea in her head before she got going. I suggested that illustration work was perfect for that kind of thing, book covers and the like. Oh. Their. God! They had not even thought of such a thing. And the actual SF/fantasy writer suggested it.

I love love love my job.

So I start tutoring (my supplemental job, in case we need it) next week. Should be interesting. I'm wondering how many students I'll deal with, how many of them will be blind/sight-impaired, how many of the different age levels...lots of unknowns here, but I miss working with kids, so I'm looking forward to it. And if the kids aren't there, I can just get paid to sit and write or whatever, and really, how could that go wrong? What's the worst that could happen?

Never ask Mark what's the worst that could happen. It may involve ninjas and rappelling.