First Post of June

Tomorrow my son arrives for his two week leave. We've got an extended family visit/Disneyland trip all lined up for next weekend. My posting for the next two weeks may be sporadic, we'll see.

I don't send much snail mail. So when the postage went up I hadn't gone to buy any forever stamps at the lower price. I just now had to go dig up a 2 cent stamp to add to one of my old 39 cent stamp to send a letter. I had put this letter in my purse with the intent of mailing at the PO after I bought some forever stamps, but the other day, due to what I'm certain is the complete onrush of total senility, I stuck it, unstamped, in my mailbox and put up the "pick up" flag. My husband brought it in with the mail today and I think there was some rolling of the eyes when I realized what I'd done.

so I go to my file folder with stamps and return address labels (I am somewhat organized) to grab a couple stamps for the letter. Turns out I have quite a few stamps in there - even some 37 cent ones from two Christmases ago (Christmas is when I send the most snail mail in the form of cards). I will need to go grab a long strip of 2 cent stamps to use and while I'm at it, I'll pick up some of those forevers. The way I don't go through stamps, they just might last "forever".

I need to ship some stuff, too, so the trip to the Post Office is getting up to the urgent level. I need to get organized again and caught up with my backlogged to do list. Well, I wrote that about an hour ago. I took a break to grab my full page sticky label paper to print out a label to put on the box that now contains my daughter's purses that she left in my car the last time she was down here(some of the stuff I need to ship, along with a way overdue prize to Rob from Standing Rule for making the 2000th post on a thread I started some time ago on AW). I mentioned that I need to get organized? It took me most of that hour to re-arrange all the stuff that's piling up in my office to find the dang sticker package. However, I now have a bit more open space on the floor.

Coyote Wild's submissions period is open again. Do you write short (under 10k in length) speculative fiction? Think about subbing to Coyote Wild. Non-fiction (query first), Flash fic and poetry are also accepted. Please read the guidelines in the link above.

POD People has openings for reviewers. Email me if interested.

I've been reading (on and off this evening) a Salon article about a Harry Potter fan con down in New Orleans and this quote about a presenter just made me giggle where I've italicized. (The article may be in the Premium section, but you can get a free day pass)

At a session called "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Colonialism," 22-year-old Tracy Douglas was giving a persuasive, Edward Said-influenced reading of the post-colonial overtones of Rowling's fourth book. She pointed out the focus on the eroticized "other" -- Fleur Delacour, Cho Chang, Padma and Parvati Patil -- as the female sexual ideal. Douglas' paper sounded like it could have been given at the Modern Language Association conference. Except that afterward, she thanked her mother. Also, at the MLA, you see fewer people with stuffed owls.

Perhaps the MLA needs to think about that. Reading this article makes me think fondly about the upcoming NasFic in St. Louis. I put a countdown ticker in my AW signature:




Check out my meebo chat widget in the sidebar. Meebo allows you to use one chat program (and it's browser based so no need to download an application) to sign in to any IM, Yahoo, Aim, Google, etc. I decided to give it a try because of the widget.

dawno