"S" is for...

Sale--my very first fiction sale!

Shimmer--the magazine to which my story sold.

Story--a piece entitled "Chimera and Qi," which was the first story I wrote at Clarion West. (CW06ers will remember it as being called "Monster Child" back then.) I rewrote the ending (twice) after Clarion, and it's been visiting various slush piles since August.

Stoked--how I feel right now.

Chocolate and Roses

Funnily enough, this post has nothing to do with Valentine's Day, but rather with my new favorite dessert. I discovered a new ice cream at Gelson's the other day: Zambeedo's Creme de Rose. It isn't a super creamy ice cream, but it has a nice, delicate taste that reminds me of a lovely rose-petal tea. I tried it with some brownies I baked last night (on the theory that it can't really be a great dessert if it doesn't go well with chocolate). At first the chocolate was overpowering the taste of the rose, but once the ice cream melted a little and soaked into the brownie--yum.

Zambeedo's also makes a Creme de Chai ice cream that I would love to try, but they don't seem to carry it at my Gelson's. I'll have to go search for it. Incidentally, Brad saw an Indian curry ice cream up in Vancouver that sounds intriguing, as well.

Movie Sequel Idea

On my flight the other day, Pixel rode in a carrier under the seat, and when the plane took off, (despite being mildly sedated) he started clawing at the bag in a desperate escape attempt while meowing LOUDLY. It was like he suddenly metamorphosed into the Tasmanian Devil. Which made me think, surely a plane full of snakes is less scary than a plane full of tensed-up, yowling, little beasties with claws. And it's harder to try to kill them, because otherwise kitties are soooo cute.

So I think the sequel to Snakes on a Plane should be: CATS ON A PLANE (muthafucka).

I've already done up the t-shirt design, so the rest should be easy:

(If New Line wants to contact me for the script, I can knock it off in a couple of hours. Just let me know.)

Tempting Fate

I mentioned to someone in an email the other day that it seems like every time I set myself a writing deadline, life blindsides me with an emotional sucker punch. I took a few weeks off of writing after the last one to read some books, but I decided yesterday that relaxation time was over: I would have a new story done by Friday. I even announced said intention to Ben, who is succeeding admirably in being productive. Silly me. I should have heard the evil cackling from the wings as soon as I did that.

So, now my dad has had a stroke and is in the hospital. Fortunately, it was a mild stroke and he seems to be doing okay, all things considered. But I need to go down to L.A. to see him post-haste, since my stepmom is the only one there to take care of him and she has her hands full already. I haven't seen my dad nearly as often in the past year as I should have. And the twitchings of guilt are threatening to leave me unstrung.

The original plan was to head back to L.A. when my contract was up at the end of February, at which time we'd have a better grasp on whether Brad was going to sign on for another several months here and we'd have to relocate our household or if we were both returning to palm trees and sunshine. But now it looks like I'm headed back with all of that still up in the air.

Ah, well. Off to go figure things out.