i read

Rejection letter today. It's only fair, I reckon, as I sent out one myself last night. Good news on Hinterland though, I'm nearly ready to print. That's like the last ditch read-over, checking for minor stuff. I'm aiming for Thursday (once I get through my list of touch-ups) and then I'll read the whole thing front to back this weekend or Monday.

I'm reading Pratchett's Thud. If you need a giggle and you like Monty Python, run and get it. I also have the last book in a John Marco trilogy and this awesome book I found on the sale rack at B&N called The Life and Times of a Reluctant Spy. I'm fascinated by special ops, spies, CIA, and all that action. I have a file in my "favorites" called "Sniper Rifles," if that's any indication. Sean shoots a DSR-1 and his pistol is a MK 23. Both awesome accuracy. About three people have said, Why an American rifle? But I say check the stats. It sells well in Europe--private security agencies, too (read: mercenaries) and he's British. The Germans use it for their anti-terrorism ops. It's tops on accuracy, though it's on the heavy side.

But I digress. I also constantly read the New Yorker, in which I generally enjoy everything but the fiction. Ever since the talking monkey story (translated from Japanese) I just have a hard time taking any of it seriously. I mean, there's literature, and then there's talking monkeys, and granted, for a speculative fiction writer I walk that line daily, but come on. Lost in translation, indeed. It didn't help that without the talking monkey there would have been no solution to the rather mundane problem at hand.

I've taken decorating rags for years as I used to be one and I still rearange my own shelves on occasion. The best out there is House Beautiful. It's not only a good decor mag, but it should be a template for any magazine looking to hit today's tempo. I've been studying it because we're talking about E-spec and what else we might do with it and even though it's online, I think House Beautiful, with its new editor at the helm, has jewels to learn from. I did just try to read some Kelly Link stories and I can't say I love them all. It's kind of like the new Chili Peppers cd--they just included everything they wrote, obviously. Every book, like most two-disc albums, need some pruning.

Except mine, of course. :P