Acceptance: "Chiaroscuro"

My short story, "Chiaroscuro", has been accepted for the Raven Electrick Ink antho Cinema Spec.

The publication date is unknown, so, for now, you'll just have to wander around, stalking us both, and wringing your hands impatiently.

Blood Loss

So, in an effort to prove that they are the
kings of the clusterfuck--or just to make sure I really am so insane with pain that I still want surgery, no matter freaking what--the hospital called and left a message saying that---

THEY LOST MY BLOOD.

Take a minute. Let that seep in. Let that stain you, like perhaps two vials of my blood is right now staining a wastebasket.

WTF are they DOING over there?

I am NOT taking another death trip of agony and giving them two more vials. I got enough with trying to grim up for another torture in the car for surgery day. So they just better get off their moronic asses and FIND IT...

For the love of Pete....

Blood, Sweet, and Tears

So, yesterday we had the bloodtest and pre-op.

It was a battle just getting to the hospital. The pain is terrible on its own, natch, and it's gotten so much worse, but oh how the car really aggravates it. Which is the super glossy way of saying instead of being clenched and weeping uncontrollably, it makes me flail and scream. Which is itself still a rather shiny statement.

But, much like I can't bring the surgery to me, they won't come to your house for a bloodtest, and won't do surgery without a fresh one...so as always, bring the pain.

Th pre-op was also more than usually interesting because the specialist, who is also the guy doing the surgery, was quite insistent that I would have a meeting at the hospital about my medications, allergies, etc.

But, when I got to the hospital, they denied this. Admitting took my paperwork and said someone might call me later. The spousal unit, in a moment of paranoia, went back to admitting after the bloodtest, and asked someone else. And got a different answer.

We ended up trudging off to day surgery ourselves. We got handed around a fair bit, and eventually they had to run off and grab our paperwork to where it should have been in the first place.

The hospital *so* doesn't have its shit together.

We *finally* got to talk to an anesthesiologist. Yea! Who was very supportive and well informed. Double yea! She talked to me for at least 20 minutes, making medication suggestions and such, but also telling me what to expect, and that I would be disappointed by how boring this surgery is.

I told her I had two years of way too interesting, and I would kill for some boring.

So that part of the day ended up comforting. The rest of the day went icky, but we're not going to get into that...

We are going to mention that the s.u. remains awesome. I knew, and have always known, that I've got a great partner, but wow. My body had proven to be one long cup of pure suck, but my life, isn't.

My carbon didn't turn out right. But my bonds? Those are unbreakable...

Breaking News Bulletin

Holy flaming crapmuffins!!!

I just got a phone call from the hospital, asking if I was interested in moving up my surgery.

You probably all heard me scream: "Yes!"

Instead of waiting, bed-ridden and in agony, until Feb, I'm now scheduled to have my insides jollily ripped into Nov 3. Two weeks! Just two weeks!

This is both beyond sweetly awesome and absolutely terrifying. :P

So, I have more bloodwork and the pre-op next week, and that's also when I'll have to hand in the grand essay--aka your entire medical situ in one booklet. I've been putting it off, natch, because I'm having enough trouble, you know, with the horror of existence. Paperwork was just too much. But, I guess I need to get writing...

Gutenberg: James De Mille -The Dodge Club

Another book is saved.

I just uploaded my current Gutenberg project, James De Mille - The Dodge Club. This one took me about 100 hrs to scan and proof.

The file will come in three flavours, the 7-bit, the 8-bit, and the html. Which means accents stripped, accents in, and with images.

I made my html the most accessible possible, so I kept underscores (italics are way too hard to read), and deliberately didn't specify font size, type, colour, or background colour. This will make the browser use the browser / system preferences, which will be user specified.

The main reason for the html is that it's the only way Gutenberg allows to preserve illustrations, and this text has 92 gorgeous ones that really deserve saving. It hurt to shrink them down to 600 pixels or less (pg rules again), but, I used png so at least they are lossless compression.

It will probably take a few days to go live. I'll let you know when you can get it.

Meanwhile, I've got more books to save...

*insert heroic theme song here*

Publication: "Beneath the Crook"

Well, October has been a busy month. My art has gone live in Strange, Weird, and Wonderful.

And now, my poem, "Beneath the Crook", has gone live in the Autumn issue of Goblin Fruit.

The guys at Goblin Fruit also mentioned that my poem, "The Monkey's Eye", from Goblin Fruit (Autumn 2007), received an Honourable Mention in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2008.

Acceptance: "Cooville"

My flash story, "Cooville", has been accepted by Sonar 4 and will be appearing in the September 2009 issue.

Yes, you have a long wait. Muwhahahahahaha!

Acceptance: "Whale Bone"

My flash, "Whale Bone", has been accepted by Necrography.

There's no word yet on when it will appear, so let's just say it will mosey on over, sidle up, and bite you. Probably while you're sleeping.