that noise you hear in the background is my brain squeaking

[realthog]

So I started writing this piece about our expedition yesterday for me to read at the KGB Bar in Manhattan: the reading was by four authors with stories in the ellen_datlow  anthology Inferno. I'm currently ruing my bravado in undergoing this trip, flu-buggered as I am; we got home at about 1am, with me in such a comatic state that poor pds_lit  was subjected to me being  jolly.

There are depths.

Pam is currently slumbering. We'd assumed she'd missed out on the super-extra-nasty flu that hit me last Thursday/Friday (how come you rarely got hit by these bugs in the past, Paul? because I was a slave to Socialized Medicine, I confess it, wot a total bumhead I am), but we seem to have been wrong.

My description of the KGB wonderama was destroyed by LJ's software because I couldn't recall offhand Elizabeth Bear's LJ name. I went away to look, and by the time I got back there was a blank page.

So: My co-readers were Nathan Ballingrud (nballingrud ), Elizabeth "Difficult Moniker To Remember" Bear (matociquala ) and Jeffrey Ford (14theditch ). I think we did OK. I was just amazed that my voice held up.

Whatever, forget my egocentric crap: go over to pastorbear , who's in real difficulties. She's worth far more than this stuff.

UPDATE: Ellen Datlow has put pix at http://tinyurl.com/29w9ta.

Comments

[nick-kaufmann.livejournal.com]

I think you did just fine, Paul. And again, it was a pleasure meeting you and Pam!

[realthog.livejournal.com]

And a pleasure meeting you!

(Coughs. Locates spittoon. Coughs more accurately.)

[nballingrud.livejournal.com]

I thought we did pretty good too. And it was great meeting you and your wife. I look forward to the next time.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Great meeting you, too. Are you home yet, or still stuck in NYC?

[hutch0.livejournal.com]

You're obviously ill; according to pds_lit you enjoyed a visit to a quilting shop.

[sarcobatus.livejournal.com]

What a great post! He picked out a pattern, too, it seems -- from the dollar bin.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

"according to pds_lit you enjoyed a visit to a quilting shop"

She exaggerated. What she was trying to say was we could have visited cliffs afterwards without her usual post-fabric-shop worry about me jumping off them.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Assuming I was handcuffed to a tree, that is.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

And powerfully sedated.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Twice.

[hutch0.livejournal.com]

Picked out a pattern too, huh? Hmm...

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Not quite. As we were leaving I pointed to the shelves by the door and like an idiot said, "Look cough spit hack they have a cough spit hack clearance sale on cough spit hack and the stuff's only cough spit hack a dollar a yard. At that price you could cough spit hack use it for cough spit hack toilet paper."

To my alarm I was taken at my word.

I'm now hoping I haven't lined myself up for an embarrassing few minutes explaining to a proctologist where the paisley pattern came from.

[hutch0.livejournal.com]

Yeah, right. Come on, admit it - you're just dying to release your inner quilter.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

I've never heard it called that before.

[hutch0.livejournal.com]

Actually, joking aside, I just looked at the photos and, for someone coming down with the flu, you look great. The black and white one of you and Pam is terrific.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

"The black and white one of you and Pam is terrific."

That's because Pam's in the picture.

[hutch0.livejournal.com]

That's true.

[charlesatan.livejournal.com]

Hope you recover soon!

[realthog.livejournal.com]

So do I . . .

[sarcobatus.livejournal.com]

Get well!

[realthog.livejournal.com]

I'll try . . .

[jmward14.livejournal.com]

Adding to the roster of get well wishes {{{{thog}}}}. Sending lots of cyber-chicken soup. Believe me, it's better than what I make in RL. ;-) Hygenic hugs, Jean Marie

[realthog.livejournal.com]

"Believe me, it's better than what I make in RL."

Oh, I do believe you, honest.

Love.

[al-zorra.livejournal.com]

It was a pleasure meeting you and Pam in rl. I hope she isn't really going down with that virus. BTW, Pam's hair is the most beautiful color.

Your story was elegantly chilling.

Love, C.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Thanks again for the kind words!

"I hope she isn't really going down with that virus."

Unfortunately . . .

"Pam's hair is the most beautiful color"

Oho, so it's Blondes Stick Together Day, is it?

[al-zorra.livejournal.com]

We're very different blondes!

Pam's a lioness blonde, the best and most beautiful kind.

Love, C.

[lonfiction.livejournal.com]

A splendid reading. Hope you get over that flu faster than I did.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the kind words!

"Hope you get over that flu faster than I did."

So do I. I thought on Friday or so that it was on its way out, but no such luck. And poor Pam's in a really bad way.

[lonfiction.livejournal.com]

It went on about 6 hellish days for me, followed by a neverending dry cough. Lucky for me no one's asking me to do readings! :)

[realthog.livejournal.com]

"It went on about 6 hellish days for me"

You were lucky. I've had about ten so far.

In reality, it's been since about the turn of the year that Pam and I have been just generally under weather with what seemed to us to be recurring bouts of a mild flu -- not enough to have any symptoms you could point at but just enough to drain energy and initiative, and then after three or four days we'd feel okay . . . until it came back again a few days later. And so on. When this current bout started I thought it was just the next encore, as it were, but wowee was I wrong.

[lonfiction.livejournal.com]

Here's sending you both all-natural holistic "get well" vibes-- over LJ just like they used to do it in the old wive's tales. :)

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

I see you have mild qualms about Scrybe Press, hm?

[lonfiction.livejournal.com]

Indeed. I managed to wise up, eventually. The phrase "once bitten twice shy" implies you are smart enough not to let the dog bite you for two or three years without stopping.

But I guess those are the bites you REALLY remember and learn something from. :)

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Have you put Dave Langford at Ansible in the picture? He might be interested in what's going on.

[lonfiction.livejournal.com]

I just sent them an email with the link. I didn't think of them in reference to market warnings. I had previously info's Preditors & Editors and Duotrope market lists. Just saw P&E has a note attached now.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

"I didn't think of them in reference to market warnings"

It struck me Dave might be interested in it as a news item. 'Course, I could be entirely wrong!

[lonfiction.livejournal.com]

Appears he is. It's linked now!