Some (Good) Things July 6, 2010 – Posted in: Aberrant Normalcy, Altered Fluid, Sybil's Garage

I spent a fun Fourth of July weekend relaxing after a somewhat harrowing experience getting Sybil’s Garage ready for Readercon*.  On Monday, I spent the evening at Devin J. Poore’s house where we watched the fireworks from his rooftop deck.  Got to catch up with some old friends there too, which was nice.  Here’s what the fireworks over the Hudson looked like:

Yesterday I spent the afternoon at Jones Beach with my cousin.  We arrived at 3pm, and the temperature was still well in the 90s.  We stayed until the sun set.  It was quite beautiful. I took a photo.  Then I stopped by my folks’ house for a bit, and they promptly fed us.  Then my dad showed us his giant tomato garden (organic varieties, them all.)

So after a day in the sun and a few nights of little sleep I was somewhat cranky today.  And then Mercurio D. Rivera delighted me with news that my story “Saving Diego” has received an honorable mention in Gardner Dozois’ The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Seventh Annual Collection. My story originally appeared in Interzone #221.

Mercurio was also name-checked in the opening comments, specifically about his whimsical SF story “Dear Annabehls.”  Alaya Dawn Johnson also received an honorable mention for her story “The Yeast of Eire.”  Congrats to fellow Altered Fluidians for the mentions.

* I’ve had nightmares about the production of Sybil’s Garage.  In the latest, I received the proofs, and they were horribly wrong.  The cover was pitch dark and the images were duplicated all across the pages kaleidoscopically.  While I was looking at the mistakes, a bottle of Listerine on the stove caught fire, and I inhaled toxic fumes, which made me cough up blood.  “Never mind!” my dream self said, “There’s no time for doctors.  I’ll just open the windows, get some air, and then get back to working on Sybil’s.  I only have three days to go!”  Or some such.  Can you tell I’m stressed?  😉