• I need the power of Twitter to push Hurricane Earl away from the Northeast on the day I'm supposed to fly to Atlanta for D*Con. #
• RT @clarkesworld: Recruiting volunteers for our slush army! http://clarkesworld.livejournal.com/161339.html #
• *giggles* Listening to the Inception soundtrack while I work makes me feel like a super spy. Lots of urgency implied to the mundane. #
• RT @NathanFillion: That's right, folks. Today is Flatterday! Don't have anything nice to say? Pour yourself a nice glass of Shut Up. TY! #
• Hrm. Earl. You and I won't be friends if you keep cozying up to my coast so closely. #
• Just tried on the shoes that came for the steampunk costume for d*con. The whole costume looks great! #
• I am ANGRY. For no apparent reason though. Nope. None at all. #
• Hello from 35000 feet! #
• In "What Editor's Want" panel right now. Great stuff for new writers. #
• Attending parsec awards at four today in hyatt ballroom v come see me! #
• Sitting in line for parsec awards… In steampunk goggles at front of line come say hi #
• Omg it is too early sitting in the hugo breakfast #
• Congrats to @starshipsofa #
• Omg omg omg #
• Thank you everyone! I still maintain I have the best job in the world #
• Wooooo Peter Watts! Abyss of belief works don't it #

• RT @mattkressel: N.K. Jemisin heaps praise on Sybil's Garage No. 7 over at Scalzi's Whatever blog: http://bit.ly/dpIzGi #
• RT @TheHugoAwards: New blog post: Follow the Hugo Award Ceremony at Dragon*Con http://bit.ly/cIgiVr #
• RT @Nayad: New post in Nayadica: Creepy behavior in social media. http://bit.ly/aGeE5Y (Excellent post.) #
• RT @nkjemisin: Congrats all! RT @locusmag News: 2009 World Fantasy Awards Nominees http://tinyurl.com/234bmfd #
• Going to sleep with various soundtracks playing. Wondering what my dreams will be like. See you on the other side. #
• RT @lclarke522: Liking: Toast in a box and a World Fantasy Nomination http://bit.ly/9L8qkr #
• RT @ecmyers: Reminder: I'm on @JimFreund's HotW at 5am tonight (WBAI 99.5FM) w/ other Sybil's Garage writers & editors, incl. @mattkressel . #
• Omg, I'm actually up to begin my journey to NYC to be on the Hour of the Wolf. Wish me luck! #
• So I am finally home. Nothing like 21 hours of no sleep! Hour of the Wolf was amazing as was hanging out with the Sybil's Garage crew. #
• Now, I shall go to bed before the hallucinations start. #
• Omg – *blush* Excellent and humbling write-up of what I do in podcasting – http://bit.ly/cR0gDJ #

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World – ‘Black Sheep’ Music Video from Louis S on Vimeo.

If you haven’t seen this movie, go see it before it’s gone from the theater. It was fantastic and fun and cute and wonderful.

If you are a friend of this blog, you know that I’ve been over at John Scalzi’s site, being all managerial and stuffs. I’ve also been swamped with the real life day jobbe, the night life narration job and the raising of three kids.

Here’s a brief update on everything:

Site Management for katebaker.net

1.) I’ve updated the front page of katebaker.net. Now complete with monsters. My friend Pete says they are dinosaurs. I’m going with a pure logic thing here. They are attacking people and eating them. Unless you subscribe to the whole Creationism thing, they are monsters. Because monsters can totally co-exist with humans. Dinosaurs can’t. So there. Nyah.

2.) I’ve also put a link up on the front page to the book in which I was recently published. Sybil’s Garage is a great read if I may say so myself. Help support Matt Kressel and the wonderful job he and his associate editors do every year.

3.) I’ve updated the narration page. Whew. I’ve read a lot this year so far. I can’t wait until I do the tally at the end of the year.

Kids & Dad

1.) William is in his second week of football. I couldn’t be more proud of him for sticking with the tough practices and I can’t wait to see him on the field.

2.) Lexie and Allie are getting ready for school. Lexie has received her 4th grade room assignment as has Allie for kindergarten. I promise I won’t cry on the first day of school.

3.) Dad continues to be in good health and we continue to celebrate it. He’s been out flying his remote control plane and hopes to add another to his collection.

Me

1.) I will be doing a lot of traveling in the coming months. I have muliple meetings planned for the day jobbe. I’ll be in Boston, Vegas and probably Miami Beach again.

2.) Interspersed with that is the fun stuff.

• On August 28th, I will be traveling to NYC to be on The Hour of the Wolf with the awesome folks of Sybil’s Garage. I might even be able to read my story on air if time allows.
• On September 3rd, I will be traveling to DragonCon. I am participating in Stroll with the Stars, along with attending the Parsec Awards as a nominee, and will be getting up early on Sunday to partake in the Hugo Awards breakfast. It looks to be a very exciting weekend. Wish Clarkesworld Magazine and me luck.
• In November, I will be going camping again in Southeastern Oklahoma.

3.) I start college classes again next week. Mondays will be Digital Photography. Tuesdays will be Lit & Comp. Online course consists of Children’s Literature. Wish me luck with an already very busy schedule.

I will definitely update here more often. I have learned through my stint over on the Whatever, that writing in general helps with the craft of writing. If I am to get any more stories published, I’ll need all the practice I can get.

Hat tip to Pete Hodges. Actually a really cool song, though.

Dancing Pigeons – Ritalin from Blink on Vimeo.

So I totally missed the bandwagon last Wednesday and forgot to blog about Sybil’s Garage No 7. Despite having hit the social networks like Twitter and Facebook, I still wanted to show you the awesome cover and links here as well. Isn’t she absolutely gorgeous?

Table of Contents

Fiction

“By Some Illusion” — Kathryn E. Baker
“Suicide Club” — Amy Sisson
“The Noise” — Richard Larson
“A History of Worms” — Amelia Shackelford
“Thinking Woman’s Crop of Fools” — Tom Crosshill
“The Unbeing of Once-Leela” — Swapna Kishore
“How the Future Got Better” — Eric Schaller
“The Telescope” — Megan Kurashige
“Under the Leaves” — A.C. Wise
“The Ferryman’s Toll” — Sam Ferree
“The Tale of the Six Monkeys’ Tails” — Hal Duncan
“The Poincaré Sutra” — Anil Menon
“Kid Despair in Love” — M.K. Hobson
“My Father’s Eyes” — E.C. Myers
“An Orange Tree Framed Your Body” — Alex Dally MacFarlane
“The Watcher Thorn” — Cheryl Barkauskas
“Other Things” — Terence Kuch
“The Dead Boy’s Last Poem” — Kelly Barnhill

Poetry

“Seven League”s — Lyn C. A. Gardner
“One October Night in Baltimore” — Jaqueline West
“Indian Delight” — Alexandra Seidel
“Candle for the Tetragrammaton” — Sonya Taaffe
“Emigrant” — Linsdey Duncan
“Schehirrazade” — Amal El-Mohtar
“The Hyacinth Girl” — Adrienne J. Odasso
“Pathways Marked in Silver” — Marcie Lynn Tentchoff
“Rain ” — Juliet Gillies

Non-Fiction

“Glourious Homage: Quentin Tarantino’s Love Letter to Cinema” — Avi Kotzer — ««click to read now

Did you see that? I am the opening story! When I saw the proofs of the anthology, I sent a letter back to Matt Kressel and was like, “Really? You’re putting me first?” How exciting!

Sybil’s Garage No. 7 can be purchased at the following places:

Sybil’s Garage No. 7 at Senses Five Press (information & purchasing info, print, ePub):
http://www.sensesfive.com/publications/sybils-garage-no-7/

At Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0979624614/alteredfluid-20

At Barnes & Noble.com:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/books/e/9780979624612/

At Omnilit.com (ePub version):
http://www.omnilit.com/product-sybilsgarageno7-444059-235.html

In addition, SG7 will soon be available in the UK at Amazon.co.uk, and also within the Apple iBookstore.

My second piece of news is Clarkesworld related:

Have you graduated to an e-reader? Maybe you purchased a Nook, Kindle or IPad. Well, if you happen to be a Clarkesworld Magazine fan, you can now take your favorite shorts wherever you go! Downloadable for a small price, you can choose between MOBI and EPUB formats. An excellent way to show continued support for this highly acclaimed publication (and incidentally, help me keep my job there as Podcast Director).

I’ve been waiting to write this post, because it means I actually have to convince myself that Readercon is over. I guess I can’t live in the fog of surreality forever. I must come out and enjoy the sun. It’s been a week, I know. Allow me my dreams!

I arrived on Friday and instantly met up with Neil Clarke. For some odd reason, I have that weird, “omg I must find a friend so I don’t look like a complete idiot standing around in halls pretending I’m taking a phone call, so no one realizes that I’m too timid  to just come over and say hi” hang-up.  In fact, every time I’ve seen the Goddess known as Cat Valente roaming the halls with her posse, I’ve wanted to go over and say hello and gush about how much I love her writing.  Instead, I end up staring like a jackass.

I have gotten better at this in general and will muster the courage. In fact, from a recent twitter posting — it sounds like she’s just finished a story for Clarkesworld! Yay! Perhaps I’ll have something with which to introduce myself!

Where was I? Oh! Friday night. So I meet up with Neil Clarke who hands me a box of Clarkesworld business cards! I don’t think I showed the first squee I had of the night properly. How cool is it that I’ve been an official member of staff for almost 11 months? I’m almost at the two year mark for narrations!

So as I’m saying hello to Sean Wallace and his most lovely wife, Neil then surprises me with a copy of Sybil’s Garage No.7 that he just bought at a neighboring dealer’s table. I squealed with delight when he showed me. I squeed even more when he asked me for my first autograph! That has to rank right up there with one of the coolest moments of my life. I danced with my book. I didn’t care who was watching.

I went to a “Futures of Magazines” panel at 8:00 that night that included the likes of Neil, K. Tempest Bradford, Liz Gorinsky, Matt Kressel and Michael J. Deluca.  I was going to run up and introduce myself to Matt after the panel but I caught his eye and shyly waved. Much to my surprise and delight, he jumped up, ran over and gave me a warm hug. If I could meet everyone like that, I would be so happy.

Later that night, Neil and I were sitting on the floor having wonderful conversation with whomever decided to stop by and join when, David Mercurio Rivera, Devin Poore, E.C. Myers and Rajan Khanna came over to introduce themselves. I can’t say enough how cool and welcoming these guys were. Devin confessed he was the one who pulled my story out of the slush and sent it on to the other editors. It doesn’t get any better than that! Trying not to be socially retarded, I tried to hide most of my excitement. I think I failed.

Saturday was equally cool. I got up and read for a roomful of people attending the Rhysling poetry awards. I read Susan Slaverio’s “The Reaper’s Wife”. The tongue tripped up on the word, “hagiographer” but it was smooth sailing after that. Special thanks goes to Susanne Reynolds-Alpert who introduced herself and calmed my nerves with some warm words of encouragement.

I caught Mary Robinette Kowal in the lobby, said hello to her busy self and got to hold her upcoming first novel Shades of Milk and Honey. It is a gorgeous book and I can’t wait to read it when it comes out.

John Anealio stopped by the Clarkesworld booth and said hello as well. It’s always great to meet someone who’ve you been conversing with on any online medium and I was delighted he hung out with us after dinner. If you haven’t taken the time to go listen to his music, go do it now!

I got to talk a little with the ever wonderful Charlie Stross and the lovely Margaret Ronald. I wish the time had not gone so quickly.

So by now, if you attended Readercon, you know about the not-so-secret party that Matt Kressel held in his room. A celebration of sorts for the release of Sybil’s Garage NO. 7, he asked if the contributors would read their stories at the gathering. Again, another inside snoopy dance for me. See, I read other people’s work. I can’t get over the fact that I was standing in a crowded room, reading my story! Holy crap. Lots of praise for both the narration and the story left me reeling. I was very nervous that the experience of reading into a microphone in a private environment where I could correct my mistakes would translate poorly to a live medium. I am happy to report I was wrong about that.

After a lovely breakfast with Nora Jemisin on Sunday, I participated in the Clockwork Phoenix 3 reading with a wonderful panel. Gemma Files, Ken Schneyer, Mike Allen, Nicole Kohner-Stace, Claire Suzanne Elizabeth Cooney and Amal El-Mohtar did wonderful jobs with their material. I read from the Cat Rambo story, “Surrogates”. I can only hope I did the story justice!

Afterward, I ran over to the  reading where Chang Terhune was reading along with other graduates from the workshop. It was fantastic! Now, I know I’m missing someone, or something I did. In all, every person I met made this convention truly amazing. It was an event in my life that I will never, ever forget so thank you to everyone who made that possible.

I can’t wait until next year.

(Picture above by Matt Kressel — more photos here)

I must warn you. This is a cautionary tale of belief; of wishing for things and calling out for help to an uncaring universe.

2009 was a year that I’d like to forget. 2010 started off much the same way for both me and friends who are quite dear. I wanted things to change and found myself frustrated that good intentions and well-wishes only carried one so far.

As I perused the shelves of indoor plants at Home Depot, a thought crossed my mind that I could try to wield the power to change fortune. To beg for release from horrid fates yet to befall.

Lucky bamboo.

She was beautiful as she sat in her green pot on a top shelf. Twisted carefully at delicate angles with little leaves that seemed to wave hello.  At almost six feet tall I can usually reach anything, yet I had to stand on the tips of my toes to pull her down. A sister plant in a burgundy pot accompanied us through the checkout line and home.

She stood strong in the window, watered and ready to meet her new owner. I targeted this plant for Neil after a conversation at Boskone. The question that started this very unfortunate series of events went something like this:

“Out of every story that you’ve published for Clarkesworld, in which one would you call home?”

His answer — Nora Jemisin’s, “Non-zero Probabilities”.

A story where belief in things was a game changer. Whispered prayers and rituals around sentimental trinkets would protect from harm. If you wished hard enough to get well from disease, you would. Playing upon the theme of that particular universe, the gift was half gag and half sincerity. I wanted to believe.

Two days after I brought Lucky home, she showed me where I could shove those optimistic thoughts. As I packed for LunaCon, setting aside the plant for travel, I ran downstairs to get clothes from the dryer. It was then I tripped over my own feet, down the stairs and broke my ankle. No LunaCon.

I missed PAX East as well. I joked with Neil that the plant wasn’t working. Six months passed in the blink of an eye and despite my gross inattention,  Lucky survived. She grew. She waited patiently. Readercon was coming.

I placed her in the back seat of the CR-V with my bag and left for Massachusetts. As I rounded the corner of an on-ramp, she fell. Spilled her rocks all over the back seat and onto the floor. I think I actually heard her cry out. Pulling off to the side, I gathered as many of the small stones that I could and re-potted her. She came up front with me then, strapped into the seat. I played her music, she seemed okay. Perhaps it was the universe’s attempt at balancing the scales.

Now, I feel guilty for giving Lucky to Neil. I hope she lives. I hope she finally knows what she’s doing.  Maybe in the beginning,  I didn’t believe in her enough to work.

Hopefully, he will.

P.S. Burgundy says hi.

As I finished Mass Effect 2, which was an awesome game, the final battle sounds a bit like Doctor Who music. So, if you’re eagerly awaiting the soundtrack to season five as I am, this should tide you over nicely. The similar “Doctor is about to solve a crisis” music starts at 41 seconds. Enjoy.

Update: As I played this video, my five year old came running in thinking I was watching Matt Smith.

Here’s something to get your weekend started.

Sean Paul, Whitney Houston and Cindy Lauper.