2 October 2002

Well, it turns out that you people, on the average, like frogs better than toads. I know they're more colorful. Toads are more textural. And it's a better word to say with a thick Minnesota accent: toad. It's almost as good as goat that way. But I think color is probably more important than texture in a kids' book, so I will write about frogs instead.

Even though I like saying toad.

Oh, hey, just a reminder: when I'm quoting people, I will quote them. I'll put their name right on it, so's you know. So, for example, when I said yesterday that people could argue and posture about whether Bush legitimately won, you were not supposed to take that as any indication that Evan had spent much time doing so, nor as an indication of what position he'd taken. Or else I'd have put his name on it. Attribution works well like that.

Twin Cities Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy has my story Butterhead up. I mentioned to them that it was under the wrong name. They haven't changed it yet. Ah well. It's still a good-looking reprint, and I remain confident that they'll get the name fixed. (Update, 11:30: it's fixed.) I'm not sure why they decided to have pages, but they're decent sized pages with clear mechanisms for turning the pages, not like Paradox12 was, so I don't mind.

Happy birthday, Grandpa Lyzenga! And many more of them, all happy. Glad we're family.

I don't think anybody here had a particularly great day yesterday, but it wasn't outstandingly horrible, and we made it through. And our Twins won their first game in the playoffs, so! That was good. Baseball noise is so comfortable. Also comforting. Sounds like home.

I just got off the phone with Michelle. Sometimes this time zone thing works in my morning-person favor. I couldn't dream of calling my friends at 8:30 in the morning just to chat. But 11:30? What a reasonable and civilized hour! (It's Michelle's reading day, so while I interrupted her work, I didn't interrupt her at work. Yay for Wednesdays.)

I love The Onion sometimes. Their piracy article amuses me greatly. Go. Read.

I finished David's selection of Gogol short stories yesterday. I enjoyed them but found myself a bit bemused. My most common reaction to his endings was, "Well, okay, I guess...." I started reading Kate Wilhelm's Margaret and I, which is not my favorite of her books but is still pretty good. I really think I'm going to regret this Wilhelm binge when I'm old and she's dead and there are no more new Kate Wilhelm books for me to read. But I'm sure enjoying it while it lasts.

I had to push hard to get through a decent number of words yesterday, but I think I got through the rough spot and can just sit down and work some more today, like reading again. I hope so. I'm looking forward to working. Which begs the question, what am I doing writing this e