Scarlet Letters

This is what I get for not checking my email for a week. While the beach was lovely, the work sure piled up while I was gone. In between final draft reviews and galley inspections, I got the release date for TANDEM: June 16. So we'll be setting a date shortly for the release chat party. Can't do it the night of, because I have theater tickets. So there. Back to the galleys...

I'm physically ill, and it's not the fries. I am sitting in McDonald's, because we have no food in the house. We've been trying to eat up all our perishable groceries while we get ready for a vacation. And because it's Thursday, therefore Restaurant Day, and nothing dissuades my son from our weekly excursion to Ronald's place. Our Town's McDonald's has a TV. There are times when I fervently wish it didn't. This time, however, it isn't Fox News that's causing my gallbladder to try to climb up my esophagus. CNN just carried a story with gruesome images I fervently wish they hadn't shown me, and it's not another bombing in Iraq. From the soulless cretins who brought you Ethnic Cleansing the Videogame, we now have Border Patrol the Videogame. Trigger-happy little bastards get to take aim at Mexicans crossing the border and watch them splatter in "amusing" bursts of blood and horrified faces of terror. Extra points for shooting a...

This is only a test. If this had been a real post, it would have contained actual content. Move along, nothing to see here...

Sequential Tart has reviewed SETTING SUNS... and loves it. http://www.sequentialtart.com/reports.php?ID=4584&issue=2006-05-01 A few choice excerpts: "A number of the stories are set in Donald's Sanctuary setting, which makes me curious to read more from it — and normally I don't even like Evil Alien Takeover-type stories. These stories are almost cruel to the reader, giving you a taste that leaves you pining. Donald, if you're reading this, I particularly would like to see more of the characters in "Memoir" (though that desire goes directly against the wisdom offered in your author notes in that story; I don't want to let Tony go!)That story, about one woman's dealings with the aliens, and the technology that helps her through it in a most unexpected way, is definitely among my favorites from the collection." "It usually takes a lot to sell me a short story, especially when it comes to sci-fi or horror, and extra-especially when stories ...