Not a bad problem, I suppose.

I'm having that problem again. I tend to think in novel sized ideas, and when it comes to writing short stories I spend a lot of time wondering how I'm going to get all these spectacular thoughts into 10k words. Maybe I'll have to fold all the lovely plotlines I've got going into my notebook, and just use the background notes for something...shorter. My first instinct was to say "less significant," but that's not really fair. Less grandiose, perhaps. Something where everything happens in a couple days, and the world's not in danger. That kind of thing.

You can, in fact, declaw a dog

Two or three weeks ago we had some friends over, and in course of things Phae got stepped on. Her foot, specifically. She gave a little yip and limped away, did the whole holding her paw up thing, but two minutes later she was walking around normally like nothing had happened. We didn't worry.

Couple days later, her foot looks funny. The middle claw was a little crooked, and the toe was swollen. We took her the vet and they x-rayed it. The toe wasn't broken, but looked infected. They gave us a round of antibiotics. That didn't have much effect, but we did the full course. On Saturday (with two days of antibiotics to go) the toe formed a pustular head and began to discharge. I probably should have taken her in then, but figured we should let the antibiotics finish their course. Also, by now, the middle claw was discolored near the base, and was basically sideways.

Turns out the nail was broken off at the root. When they cut the toe open, they found the bone itself was pretty infected and had to amputate up to the first joint. It's described as being pretty much the same operation as declawing a cat.

She's home now and recovering well. She can't climb stairs, so I spent last night on the couch in case she needed something. Probably there tonight, too. She's pretty good about the bandage, but we've had to cone her, anyway. Such a pie.

I'm not stoned. I'm tired.

The last week has been a mad crush at work. Between that and writing at night, my eyes are really starting to wear out. I wonder if I need to have them checked out again, maybe adjust the prescription. That's worrying, because the current Rx is pretty recent. I'd hate to think my eyes are deteriorating that rapidly. Maybe what will eventually drive me into writing full time and quitting my day job will be an inability to suffer eyestrain eleven hours a day. Maybe eleven hours is too much for anyone, regardless of eye condition.

Back to data. Workie work, busy bee.

That's just not likely

Pretty nice day for me. There's been a lot of stuff coming together for me in the last month. Today's nice thing was the Year's Best Fantasy and Horror. I didn't make the ToC, obviously, but at the start of the anthology the editors do a summation of the year, and then in the back they go through the Honorable Mention list. I made both, twice. It's an interesting thing. Ellen Datlow does the Horror section, and Gavin Grant and Kelly Link do the Fantasy selections. Ellen nodded my story The Song in Interzone, and Grant and Link pointed out A Walking of Crows in Electric Velocipede. That's pretty good for me, cuz it's every qualifying story of mine for the period. Hooray.

Next year I'm hoping for the ToC. Not likely, but what is likely?

Do you remember me?

I told myself I'd start posting here more regularly, again. Work and writing and all have been crowding my attention recently, and it's amazing how weeks can go by and you don't even notice. So here I am, trying to post something, even though I don't really have anything interesting to say.

The transition has gone smoothly enough. Like I said, it's been busy at work. We've been working with a lot of old computers, and the last software upgrade officially broke them. The good news is that we're getting new computers. The bad news is that, while we wait for the delivery, everything is taking forever and everyone is angry all the time. But hey! New computers.

I'm working on a chapter by chapter summary of the book. I got through the bits I'd already written easily enough, and I'm plowing forward through the rest. It feels good to be back on track.

The first reviews of my most recent story are coming in. I don't have a copy yet, so I'm curious to see how it's presented. Every review so far has said something along the lines of "This is Akers' fourth Veridon story, and I feel I'd be getting more out of it if I'd read the other three." which makes me think the magazine says something about it being my fourth in a series, or something.

And now I'm sending awkward emails to people I barely know, asking favors. I really need to work on my electronic people skills.