When It Pours

I’ve said before that academic work is often feast or famine. Sometimes it gets piled on. At other times you get to catch your breath, and maybe even complete a thought. There is one way to predict when you’ll get hit with a pile, though, and that is whenever it will be most unpleasant for you. This is a corollary of Murphy’s Law, no doubt.

Xavier was originally scheduled to be off school on Monday, and Tuesday, October 8-9. I knew CONtraflow was the weekend prior so I scheduled two tests on Friday, the 5^th, knowing I’d be able to recover from the con and get my tests graded over those two free days. Then Hurricane Isaac hit and we lost a week, and as a result we’ve taken those two days back for classes. To accommodate CONtraflow, then, I moved one test to Monday.

It would have been tight to get to the Con and get the first test graded too, but I could handle it. Alas, I had forgotten to predict the inevitable. When I came in on Friday I also found three big research proposals waiting for me in my box for my evaluation.  I went to work on those and made some progress, though it meant that I barely made it to the meet the guests party at CONtraflow. But by Monday morning, two new research proposals had spawned in my box, and I gave another test that day. I put in almost 15 straight hours of work and made it about halfway through the pile that needed to be completed. I’ve been up working since early this morning and it’s looking like a 12 hour day is on the way. I’m taking a little break to write this.

I looked at Blogger for the first time in several days yesterday and had 283 posts in my feed. I hadn’t the strength so had to mark them all as read. If I should get through early enough today, I’ll try to make some rounds this evening. I’ll have to see.

In the meantime, Issue 6 of White Cat Magazine is out, and it looks to be a doozie.  I’m going to do a fuller review as soon as I can get out from under the work pile. Check it out. 

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New Magazine, Old Book

Some of you may be aware that White Cat Publications has announced a new magazine called Insatiable: The Magazine of Paranormal Desires. It'll be debuting in October but they are looking for submissions for the initial issue now and are paying excellent rates. Here's the link to the submission guidelines

While you're there, check out the other offerings that White Cat has.  This is a dynamic publishing organization, new and hungry.

I also got my royalty statement from Invisible College Press today, and am happy to note that the publication of Cold in the Light in ebook has given the work a new lease on life.  Cold in the Light was my first novel publication and I was, and am, immensely proud of it. It's currently discounted at Amazon at $2.84 for the ebook.  The link is here.

It's also available on Nook, at a little higher price,  here.

It's a good book.

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Telling Lies, Up at Novel Spaces

New post up at Novel Spaces this morning. I'm talking about lying in fiction and reality. I hope you can stop by.

Here's a couple of other things I want to call to your attention. Both involving White Cat Publications, which is a new independent publisher with a lot on the ball.

First, they have an April Fools flash fiction contest running. Check it out here

Second, they are running a Kickstarter project for their first book publication, a tremendously fine werewolf novel that I've actually read in manuscript form. You can find out more about that HERE. I'm in.

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A Couple of Announcements

A couple of quick things. I mentioned Treasure Island in my previous post and how I was hoping to reread it soon. Well, I found that it was free for the Kindle on Amazon and quickly downloaded it. If you want it for free, the link is: here.

Also, the second issue of Rick Moore's White Cat Publications magazine is up online. I've read a couple of stories already and they are very good. The general link is here. There's also some exciting stuff coming up over there.

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White Cat Comes Alive

I’m pleased as a good beer to let everyone know that White Cat Publications is now live and rockin’. This promises to be a great site for both readers and writers. The link to the home page is HERE, but once you’re on site you can see the richness of what is up there already, as well as get glimpses of what is to come. If you click on the “Fiction” tab you’ll even see a story by me called “Ruins & Wraiths,” as well as excellent tales by Tyree Campbell, Stewart Sternberg, Charles P. Zaglanis, and Lillian Cohen-Moore.

If you’re a reader, there’s already some good stories on the site and a lot more to come. There are reviews and links and other news for the reader’s world. (Don’t forget to click on the “Next Page” at the bottom of the home page.)

If you’re a writer, this is a paying market with an editor who knows his stuff and is open to a variety of stories and styles. There is also a lot of supporting material for writers, and heads up on issues such as internet plagiarism.

I urge everyone to have a look, and bookmark the site because it is expanding geometrically. I’m going to add it to my magazine links today.
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