Marilyn's Room

A Curious Note on Censorship, Part Two

2012-02-08T23:29:52Z

(Continued from yesterday)

So I was lying in the dark, feeling persecuted... And then it occurred to me that no way is there an actual human being over at Amazon who is reading all these manuscripts from (virtual) cover to (virtual) cover; there are simply too many manuscripts and the reply came too quickly. This isn't personal. They must have some sort of software, I realized, that screens these manuscripts for keywords that send up (virtual) flares. And excuse me if I am inadvertently insulting any other Kindle erotica authors, but this software can't possibly be scanning for story quality; it's got to be scanning for content.

So I switched my busy brainwaves from feeling persecuted, over to scanning the content of each of the stories in this particular collection myself.

It's probably not my story "Anal" that they have a problem with, I thought. Nowadays, everybody does anal. It's probably not the girl doing it to the guy while wearing a strap-on, either, because a lot of straight guys are into that nowadays, too. Hmm. Can't imagine what's the matter with the heterosexual swingers getting frisky in a Manhattan highrise. Or the guy-girl-guy threeway with light bondage on some girl's birthday. Or the two dykes doing it in a motel in the desert. Oh no -- wait, I thought. The guy in the mortuary after dark who accidentally ejaculates when he sees the nude body of the girl he loves on the slab in that refrigerator thingy that they have in mortuaries. Perhaps that was considered going too far, even for an award-winning writer of literary erotica such as myself...

But then I realized that the story wasn't depicting actual sex with dead people. It wasn't sex with corpses. It was just some guy looking at a pretty dead girl and he accidentally comes on himself. Surely I can't be the only person in all of the Kindle store who has a character uncomfortably attracted to the body of the girl he loves even though she's dead, can I?

Besides, the way I'd written it, it wouldn't have had any of the necessary keywords. "Cold body" is not a corpse. There was no intercourse -- not even close. Later on, when the guy's a lot older, he has sex with one of those fake rubber vaginas that he keeps in his refrigerator -- but that's not sex with a dead person, either. That's just sex with an icy-cold item that anyone at all -- including me, here, right now -- could buy from any mail order sex toy catalogue anywhere in the country. Surely, that is not the story that Kindle is telling me (repeatedly, as it turned out -- I submitted the manuscript two more times) that they are refusing to publish because it is pornographic and obscene...

Then I thought, No...no, no,no. It can't be. Not "Muriel" -- but what else is left but "Muriel the Magnificent"? A short story that women all over the globe have been loving now for 11 years!! A story that has been for sale on Amazon that entire time, and was carried in print in the notoriously conservative Barnes & Noble nationwide. Surely, the fact that Muriel Bing starts out that story as a seven-year-old is not what is triggering the entirety of Kindle to REJECT me??!!

One way to find out, I figured, was to revise the manuscript so that where it said Muriel was seven, I could add a "ty" and then run it up the Kindle flagpole again.

But then I thought, did I really want to do that to an unsuspecting reader who would be paying money to read that suddenly insane story -- Muriel starting out life as a seventy-year-old, her hair in two long braids as she swings high up into the sky in her backyard??? Wouldn't it make this new reader wonder not only about the voracity of my coveted reputation as an award-winning writer of literary erotica, but also wonder about the questionable tastes of any of those editors, judges, publishers who gave me so much as a kudo over the years?

Not even in my sudden quest to discover if the word "seven," when used in connection with a human being, could keep an entire, easily-obtainable-elsewhere manuscript from gaining entrance into the Kindle store, could I risk cheating a reader.

What to do, what to do... I have a career-long stance on anti-censorship. I've gone to the proverbial mat for writers and artists from all over the place; I've shown up to testify in Federal Court in the most conservative outfit I could pull together while being so terrified, I had to keep running to the bathroom; I've donated to causes, attended rallies, worked the phones and the Internet... Now, here I was at age 51, realizing that if I didn't change the word seven to seventy, I would have to delete that word altogether. That, my friends, is censorship because the story "Muriel the Magnificent" simply does not break any laws.

(Continued tomorrow, gang!!)

A Curious Note on Censorship, Part One

2012-02-07T13:56:25Z

As usual, I am dumbfounded by reality.

As loyal readers of this lofty blog know so well by now: it doesn't take much to dumbfound me. I basically just have to get out of bed in the morning and that does it. I open my eyes, I encounter reality and I'm dumbfounded by it.

I could take you down the lesser known corridors of my mind and regale you with how dumbfounded I am by the resounding & continuous fallout from some of the unbelievably inexplicable choices I've made in my life. That actually is my full-time job -- staying dumbfounded by all that.

However, what I'm currently mulling over has to do with the post below, from nearly a week ago. Where I announced that Volume One, in a three volume set of my early erotica, was now for sale.

I'll start off by saying that you can buy 99% of my older erotica just about anywhere; in most countries, in a couple different languages, and at anytime of the night or day. A whole lot of it -- thanks to Google-- you can actually "google" (active verb) and then read instantly on the Internet, absolutely free of charge! Without even worrying that I might get some sort of remuneration or royalty out of it.

In fact, if you're worrying that I might be getting any sort of remuneration or royalty out of 99% of the fiction and nonfiction I've written in the past 23 years, rest assured this is not the case. Some of my writing went out there free of charge in the first place, but most of it went out for a flat fee that I received long, long ago. Or, in most cases involving my actual books as opposed to individual stories, any royalties I could receive are instead offset -- or perhaps obliterated by -- people purchasing my books used (primarily on Amazon) rather than new, which would of course cause unseemly royalties to trickle my way...

Whatever. I'm too old, too wise, too tired to fight City Hall. I have learned to just be grateful people want to read my work at all, regardless of how they get their hands & minds on it.

Still, I thought I would just toss some of my older stories and novellas out there onto the pile of it that's already available everywhere, in the event that I might be able to make a sale of my own here and there, over time. (I've got all the time in the world now, btw.) So I put together the first volume, and a friend took a painting that I liked from 1912 (Nude Girl on a Rug, by Lovis-Corinth) and diddled with it in PhotoShop and made a cool cover for me. (The painting is 100 years old and in the public domain -- unlike my own work which is not 100 years old but is, for the most part, in the public domain...)

Well, so up the book went onto Smashwords -- the Universe's greatest gift to writers to come along in a long time (followed closely by LULU if you want great-looking POD versions of your titles). And then a slightly re-formatted version went into the publishing queue at Kindle.

Unlike Smashwords, which publishes you in moments (it takes longer to get approved for the premium catalogue, but the actual publishing takes moments), Kindle puts you in a queue that can take many hours, even up to a day or two.

I was not at all alarmed by this. I have other titles published with Kindle so I'm used to this. What did alarm me was the email I got from them late in the day, saying Kindle would not be publishing my book on the grounds that it was pornographic, obscene, and violated their standards of what was acceptable for publication on Kindle.

Luckily, my mind is resilient. It gets fucked with a lot, but it bounces back. I tried to "be reasonable" with Kindle. I sent an email into the labyrinth of e-formletter emails that is Kindle. I mentioned, politely, that every single one of the stories in Volume One of The Muse Revisited was currently available for sale on Amazon and had been for 8 years already (I cited my anthology, Lust) and some of the stories are available in other anthologies on Amazon that are even older than that.

I also wanted to say that the stories in Dirty Filthy Lovely (a current Kindle title that has been selling for close to a year and half already) had way filthier stories in it than anything in Volume One of The Muse Revisited. But then, unaccustomed as I am to living in a fascist dictatorship, I immediately feared that drawing attention to the filthiness of Dirty Filthy Lovely would only cause Kindle to yank that title from their catalogue posthaste.

Yes, I became PARANOID.

I even went into the Kindle store (this is a purely mental action -- no physical action happens except for typing) and did a search of "erotica" in an effort to assure myself that I wasn't dreaming and that Kindle does in fact publish erotica, as well as "erotica" that perhaps borders on "pornographic" and maybe even a little "obscene". It was with great relief that I encountered a cavalcade of titles that promised gangbangs, slutty wives, sex with babysitters, filthy anal sex, orgies, people who sell their sister for sex, etc., etc.

However, while I was relieved to encounter that I wasn't wrong and that Kindle does indeed publish a wide variety of erotica, I moved from feeling paranoid to feeling PERSECUTED. I lay in bed in the dark, fretting over why Kindle had singled-out me, had blocked me and my award-winning literary erotica from being carried in the precious and much sought after Kindle store...

(Continued tomorrow, gang!!)

Now available!

2012-02-02T15:35:59Z

The Muse Revisited is a specially-priced, three volume set of my early erotic stories and novellas.

Volume One, Early Erotica, is now available for download in all electronic formats on Smashwords for $1.99.

A Kindle edition is coming later this week.

Consternation!!

2012-02-01T16:21:52Z

We have had such unseasonably mild and rainy weather for January that ALL of my spring flowers have begun to come up in my gardens. Tulips, daffodils, etc., etc. It is kind of freaking me out because it is only February 1st. Surely, we are going to get some sort of snow, then they will get snowed upon and might not bloom this spring!!!

This requires chocolate!! (Not for the flowerbeds, for me!!) And I have run out of chocolate, so I think I will go take a walk on this mild February day (it is 55 degrees Fahrenheit right now), go buy some dark chocolate and ponder this situation...

OMG, I kid you not!!

2012-01-29T18:10:38Z

I just turned on the Hallmark Channel to have some noise in the background while I got ready to go take a shower, and what do you suppose they were showing????

Pollyanna!! Good lord!! (See post from earlier today...)

I don't know about you, gang...

2012-01-29T13:31:56Z

But the Hallmark Channel is rapidly becoming my most favorite channel on earth!!

Why, you might ask?? [Insert your "why" here or something similar. Do not use this space for questions not pertaining to the Hallmark Channel.] [You can use this space to ask questions regarding my use of that double negative just now.]

Okay. Hallmark Channel answer: Because I recently discovered that when I wake up at 4, 4:30, or 5 AM, the Hallmark Channel is showing the best re-runs, over and over and over!! Yay! How cool, to be in bed in the dark, still in my jammies, sipping a piping hot cup of freshly perked coffee and have a wonderfully snarky old episode of Frasier come on the TV!! Followed by endless episodes of I Love Lucy!!! And sometimes even The Golden Girls!!! (Yes, I am this old. I can get excited by episodes of The Golden Girls! I don't necessarily laugh at the jokes, but I was huge fan of Bea Arthur. I loved her. I wish I could have seen her on Broadway but it's too late now. If wishes were horses then beggars would ride, you know.)

I absolutely refuse to watch things like the news or the weather at 4:30 in the morning. There is just no way any kind of news like that is going to be good or even relevant. (Meaning, who needs to know what the weather is like at 4:30 AM when it is still pitch dark out?)

And even old standbys like Turner Classic Movies are kind of useless at 4:30 AM. Once in a blue moon they will have a really great movie on at that hour, but usually it's movies like the original 1974 version of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three! Even though this is better than watching the news at 4:30 AM, it is still in the same violent, emotionally disruptive, and cheerless vein. So I was indescribably delighted to discover, almost by accident but certainly out of desperation, that Frasier was on in all its glory at 4:15 AM this past Friday morning, followed, happily, by another episode of Frasier, and then by about 17 episodes of I Love Lucy!!!

And my day went great. Even though I didn't know what the weather was until I looked outside when the sun came up and saw that it was rainy and windy (and cold, as it turned out, this still being January and all); nor did I know about the homeless guy who had passed out in a dumpster and then was inadvertently crushed to death by the garbage collection truck. ("Really, Marilyn? You didn't know about that? It was all over the news this morning...")

Yes, imagine; I still had a great day! Yes, here in the world of Pollyanna, miracles happen!!

Okay, on that note -- have a terrific Sunday, gang, wherever you are!! Thanks for popping in. See ya!

[Don't know the weather, don't know the news, don't even care -- still just plain GLAD.]

A typo...

2012-01-27T12:33:04Z

I see now that there is a typo on that image of the book cover below, but on the actual book, my name is spelled correctly...

Available Now!

2012-01-27T12:28:28Z

No -- not me, personally! But another book I'm in!!

It is a "best of the best" collection from the Mammoth Book publishers, edited by Maxim Jakubowski.

For some reason, I can't find this yet on Amazon in the States, but it is available in the UK:

A life well lived; RIP Dick Tufeld

2012-01-26T11:01:53Z

Dick Tufeld, voice of 'Lost in Space" robot, dies

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Dick Tufeld, a radio and TV announcer best known as the voice of the robot in the 1960s television show "Lost in Space," has died. He was 85.

Mt. Sinai Memorial Parks says Tufeld died Sunday at home in the Studio City area of Los Angeles.

Tufeld's career included announcing for the 1950s radio show "Space Patrol." He also worked on hundreds of commercials, sports and news programs and TV shows ranging from "Zorro" to "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea."

However, Tufeld is perhaps best known for voicing the "Lost in Space" robot, whose warnings of "Danger, Will Robinson!" became a catchphrase.

An obituary released by his family says services will be held Friday at Mt. Sinai Hollywood Hills.

A quiet note from Ernest Hogan...

2012-01-25T11:27:09Z

ERNESTO TO JUDGE THE BLACK MARKS LITERARY AWARD

A black robe, powdered wig, and gavel may be in order – I'm going to be a judge . . . of the first Black Marks Literary Award that is. It'll be for a perviously unpublished science fiction novel. There will be a cash prize of $500, plus the option of publication.

So, if you have a virgin science fiction novel manuscript kicking around that you think is a winner, check out the guidelines, and read them carefully, because they warn:

Any guidelines that aren't expressly followed are grounds for automatic disqualification.

What will I be looking for in picking the winner? What I usually look for in the genre – I hope to get my mind blown. Give me daring feats of the imagination!

I like my sci-fi psychedelic rather than narcotic.

Or, to use a bullfighting metaphor: For me, science fiction should be a burladero rather than a querencia.

For those of you non-aficonados out there, here are the definitions from Hemingway's Death in the Afternoon:

Burladero: a shelter of planks set close together and a little out from the corral or barrera behind which the bullfighters and herders can dodge if pursued.

Querencia: part of the ring that the bull prefers to be in; where he feels at home.

These days, too much science fiction is hunkered down in a querencia rather than surviving close calls in a burladero.

So, go ahead, leave the safe zone, try to blow my mind. It'll make my day. But it won't be easy, I've been soaking my brain in all kinds of weirdness since my Atomic Age childhood. It's made me a bit jaded.

But what's life without challenges?

Hugo & Rango -- Yay!

2012-01-24T14:21:02Z

Both movies are up for various Academy Awards. Yay!! (Please don't tell me that I have to say why I am saying 'yay'! Please don't make me write the name 'Johnny Depp' for the zillionth time on this lofty blog...)

You know what, though -- there are some seriously cool and talented people up for Oscars this year. It should actually be an interesting show. I will probably watch!! (I don't usually watch awards shows, or I watch for maybe half an hour and then get bored and go to sleep.) (I know; I'm almost unbearably exciting!!)

Well, as long as we're on the Oscar topic... Good news!! I actually got two pages written on the new screenplay yesterday. Not the three pages I was aiming for, but still a whole lot better than the three sentences I wrote on Sunday evening (which I wound up deleting yesterday, btw). So I'm pretty happy!! (I think I meant to say: I'm pretty and happy!! But that probably goes without saying!)

Seriously, though, that's the main writing project on my plate right now and I need a first draft completed posthaste, so that's kind of why I am ridiculously busy these days. (And no, it's not really for "the movies"; it's for TV.) So I'm sorry, but sometimes this blog takes a backseat to my over-fried brain.

Okay! For all you sci-fi writers out there, the Black Marks Literary Award opens its mighty doors for submissions in 8 more days!! And M. Christian and I recently made an important decision: If your manuscript is currently under consideration with a publisher but hasn't been published yet it is still eligible for the award. (As long as it won't be published before the award is announced.)

I think that's it for today, gang. I have a lot to do here so I'm gonna scoot. Have a Terrific Tuesday wherever you are!! Thanks for visiting. See ya!

[Almost as good as winning the Black Marks Literary Award!]

Aren't PJs great???!!!

2012-01-23T12:32:13Z

It was a first for me, gang! I did not get out of my PJs until 6 PM yesterday afternoon!! I didn't actually stay in bed -- I made the bed early in the morning, but I hung out on the bed for most of the day, snuggling with Fluffy and a really old comforter that I bought at the (now long-gone) E.14th Street Woolworth's back in 1986, and I was in my PJs the entire time.

I managed to park myself in front of the laptop at 4 o'clock and worked for 2 hours on the new screenplay. Wrote THREE killer sentences in the space of 2 hours, so I finally conceded that most great writers simply couldn't ask for more productivity than that, and I shut down the laptop, got into my yoga clothes and worked out for 2 hours. (I don't do yoga for two hours -- I do other stuff first; then the yoga, then I'm usually in Blissland.)

Then I got into a different pair of PJs, got back in bed and watched an old episode of Sherlock Holmes (the series that starred the late, great Jeremy Brett.) And then I fell asleep by 8 o'clock!!

I know!! Life is getting just too glamorous for words, gang! It's called: Unbelievable exhaustion!! (And guess what?? I'm getting tired of it! ha ha)

Today, however, is going to be a little different. I am already dressed (good sign) and sitting at the computer. And it would be nice if I could perhaps write 3 pages as opposed to 3 sentences -- we shall see! And then I'm leaving here at 5 to go see The Artist with a friend. I am very, very eager to finally see that film finally. Yay. (I guess I'm really into that "finally" idea...)

Oh, and for those of you out there (i.e., "my mom") who are worried that I am really taking speed -- I don't take anything more powerful than aspirin these days. I was just being funny. ha ha ha.

Okay. Have a good Monday wherever you are, folks. Thanks for visiting!! See ya.

[Hard at work on the new screenplay...]

Sorry -- here I am!!

2012-01-18T12:28:12Z

Yep, I was gone for a couple days again, doing that "trying to manage my schedule" insanity. And I finally came to a decision!!

Yes!! That's right!! I decided to start taking SPEED again!! Yippee ki yi yay! And, no, not meth amphetamines, but the old-fashioned speed; once known as pep pills or uppers. They are both highly addictive and highly effective!! As you can see here! (I just snapped this photo of myself just now!!)

How else would I be able to have baked and frosted a chocolate layer cake by 11 minutes after 7 in the morning?? And on a Wednesday, to boot??

I think I am going to seriously like my new life on speed!!

In other (less-illegal) news...

The official opening day for submissions for the inaugural Black Marks Literary Award is inching ever closer, gang!! That's right, the opening bell will be clanging away on February 1st!! Please visit the Black Marks web site for all the pertinent info.

And please note that our guest judge for the inaugural awards is Ernest Hogan. A few days back, I inadvertently referred to him in an administrative capacity. But he is, in fact, our guest judge for 2012. (Clearly I am taking a little too much speed...sorry about that! As soon as I'm through baking cakes and stuff, I'll cut back on my dosage.)

Seriously, though, I apologize for that bit of weirdness. Thank god I didn't call him a secretary or something like that!! ha ha ha

All righty, gang. I gotta scoot. Gotta get Wednesday happening around here!! I hope it's a good one for you guys, wherever you are!! Thanks for visiting! See ya.

How the heck can it already be Sunday??

2012-01-15T13:27:07Z

First of all, allow me to get political on you. If you, like moi, find yourself stupidly busy these days with little inclination to extend even a modicum of effort to stay politically informed... why not try out POPVOX??

You can find out what the current Bills in front of Congress are, and instantly send your opinions to your Reps and Senators. Meaning you can send a basic internet-generated letter, or draft your own letter, and it gets sent instantly to your elected official. (If you're a heavy craigslist user, as I am, you might want to check out SOPA and weigh-in on that with your Representatives posthaste.)

Here's something else I really like, although I haven't actually used it yet -- Reverse Robocall!! You can record your opinion and have it sent to your Representatives' phones!! Just like they do to you!! Endlessly!! All during the election year!! And even worse when it's almost Election Day!! Yay. Reverse Robocall will let you know how your Reps. are planning to vote on any given issue, or if they are still undecided. They give you this info in a nanosecond! That's exactly how I like my information given to me -- I only have a nanosecond to spare these days...

...and that's mostly because I've spent about twelve (!!) nanoseconds trying to find out if there is an official trailer yet for Dark Shadows!! Come on! Who has this kind of time??!! Just make it simple: is there a trailer yet or not?? And I mean an official trailer. Not these weird fake trailers that non-official people are making -- utterly, utterly, utterly wasting 12 nanoseconds of my precious time!!

The other day, Disney, or EW, or somebody along those lines released yet another weird photo from the upcoming joyfest that I feel certain will be Dark Shadows, and I still can't get any idea whatsoever what the fuck is going on with that film. The stills have just been so weird. And not in the usual weird Tim Burton-y way; just weird. So it makes me wonder what the fuck is up with that film that I am breathlessly waiting to see! (And since my stalwart cousin is breathlessly awaiting the arrival of her very first grandchild, and since I usually rely on her to send me links to official trailers, and to keep me generally abreast of opening days of Johnny Depp movies everywhere, to the choice of movie times and theater locations, and to where & when we will be meeting for dinner beforehand along with links to the restaurant's current menu so that I will be ready to order my dinner before I even walk through the restaurant's door... Since I rely on her to keep me abreast of this important information up to one full year before I actually need this information... Well, now I am feeling in the dark about Dark Shadows because absolutely no Dark Shadows information has been forthcoming from the grandmother-to-be's neck of the woods.

So I had to venture forth onto Google on my own and it was 12 nanoseconds of precious time wasted. Well, not totally wasted; I have at least determined that there isn't an official trailer out yet. Hmmm. It seems like that movie is going to be opening any day now. And by that, I think I mean the month of May (??). To me, the month of May is "any day now." Time flies so damn fast!! In fact, I shiver to think of the billions of projects I will be drowning in by May...Projects fling themselves at me with alarming alacrity these days. I walk around with projects stuck all over me now. It makes it look as though I've put on weight, but I haven't; it's just projects stuck all over me!

(Are you following this line of insanity??!! If you are, I kinda feel sorry for you. It means you probably need a vacation, too, or at the very least a trip to a top-quality day spa...) oh, ha ha ha.

Yes, I'm taking up all these paragraphs to once again simply say that I am really busy around here -- and that there is no official trailer yet for Dark Shadows to waste time ogling at on YouTube. So, I guess that means I have to get back to work. (Yes, it's Sunday, but I'm working. On my own stuff for a change! Wow. Did you forget I was actually a writer??? I sometimes do...)

Okay, gang! Thanks for visiting and enjoy Sunday wherever you are! It's a balmy 9 degrees Fahrenheit here this morning. Snow on the ground. In essence -- winter. Okay, see ya!!

[Official Dark Shadows trailer!!] [Click here; waste 12 nanoseconds that you will never get back.]

Snow, snow! Come out in the snow!!

2012-01-13T12:37:10Z

Does anybody (besides me) remember this book from their childhood???

I loved this book! When I was very little, we were members (in good-standing, most likely!) of the Dr. Suess "I Can Read It All By Myself" book club!!

Having spent my (idyllic) childhood in Cleveland (the idyllic-ness of life fell apart shortly after our exodus from Cleveland in 1971 and is only just now pulling itself back together again). Anyway, I learned to love snow in Cleveland, basically from the word go. (Sorry, if English is not your native language, I can't really describe what that phrase means.) And loving snow made me love the book pictured above.

The text on the first page was: Snow!
The text on the second page was: Snow!
The text on the third page was: Come out in the snow!

Hence, our subject line for today!

Oh, btw, it snowed here during the night!! Yay!!

Here is a non-snow-related book mention. Another one of my favorite books from that same book club. They were sneaky, though.They taught us how to count to ten!!

Oh, and here is another book I loved. This one didn't teach us anything except really, really, REALLY stupid jokes, whose punchlines I still remember to this day.

For instance:
Q: Why did the little boy throw the clock out the window?
A: He wanted to see time fly!

Too bad these types of jokes do little to enhance my party-going repartee as an adult...Unfortunately, I have no memory for truly funny jokes. I only remember the stupidest jokes on the planet. I remember laughing really, really hard at truly funny jokes, I just can't remember why! I completely forget the jokes. (I guess that's why I keep to myself at parties and drink copious amounts of free wine. Otherwise, some handsome stranger might come up to me and strike up some small talk, to which I would contribute: "Why did the little boy throw the clock out the window??") ha ha. The real joke, of course, is that I never go to parties...

All righty, gang!! If you live in this part of the woods, enjoy that snow out there today!! Yay!! If not, well then just enjoy the day wherever you are! See ya, gang! Thanks for visiting!!

What is it about January???

2012-01-11T14:13:19Z

Is it always this insane and I simply forgot??!! I thought I remembered January as being this mellow, slow-moving, often-snowy time of the calendar, after all the craziness of the holidays.

Au contraire! I'm moving a mile a minute around here and still falling behind!

Oh, and here's something interesting that you might want to avoid doing: when you switch your primary email address to a new one, and you have had the same one for 6 years, and you do business with people all over the world so you find it might behoove you to hire a service to announce your move and also send an auto response to anyone who uses your old address, alerting them to your new address... okay, you MIGHT want to delete every single solitary person you ever dated and stopped dating from your contact list before the aforementioned company blasts them with your new email address!!! It kinda makes it seem like you're suddenly interested in hearing from them... (And I mean EVERY SINGLE SOLITARY PERSON YOU EVER DATED! Crimony.)

Deep sigh. Onward we move however, into a fresh, bold year!!

[For some inexplicable reason, this photo from a stage production of West Side Story came up when I googled 'fresh, bold year'... so I regale you with it's fresh boldness here! See ya, gang!!] [Thanks for visiting!!]

Bone white full moon

2012-01-09T13:11:36Z

How about that full moon, gang?? Is she as bright-white where you are as she is here? (And have you noticed how testy people can get when there is a full moon? Wow. I had people biting my quite comely head off by 6:09 this morning!!)

But onward, gang!! I'm tough!! I can handle it!! [sniffle, sniffle -- can I borrow a Kleenex?]

Okay, gang, I am basically caught up around here, email-wise, so if you still haven't heard from me, it could be that you've gotten so thin and attractive that you've slipped through the cracks!! Oh no!! But write to me again, and you'll have my complete, undivided attention.

Don't forget -- I have a new primary email address. Write to me at:

marilynjayelewis@yahoo.com

Other than that, it's a fine and -- dare I say? -- "happy" Monday here, gang. It should be a terrific week! And what is my recipe for a terrific week, you might be wondering? Even though I am going to be stupidly busy -- too busy to think straight-- and people are already biting my head off because of that full moon?? I'll tell you!

Recipe for a Terrific Week

Combine:
1 week overloaded with clients
1 week overloaded with writing projects
1 week overloaded with editing projects

Mix thoroughly with:
1 full moon making everyone testy

Then ignore all of it, smile to yourself and say, "It's going to be a terrific week!"

That's from my upcoming cookbook, entitled: Pollyanna Cooks! Yay!!

Okey-dokey! I'm done being silly for now, gang. I need to go and get put on hold for half an hour by the phone company, so I'm outta here. Have a great Monday wherever you are and just keep smiling. See ya!

Just beautiful

2012-01-08T13:38:20Z

This piece in the New York Times Book Review section today was just beautiful. It captures an era, a world, a life in publishing that is totally, thoroughly, 100% long, long gone...

How to Be an Avant-Garde Publisher

THE TENDER HOUR OF TWILIGHT

Paris in the ’50s, New York in the ’60s: A Memoir of Publishing’s Golden Age

By Richard Seaver

Edited by Jeannette Seaver. Illustrated. 457 pp. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. $35.

I am THRILLED to announce....

2012-01-07T14:15:21Z

Actually, M. Christian and I are both thrilled to announce that for our inaugural year of the Black Marks Literary Award for best unpublished science fiction novel, the cash award will be $500.

The winning prize also includes the option of electronic publication with a long-standing eBook publisher with outstanding international distribution. If you do not wish to be published upon winning the prize, it is entirely up to you. Winners are free to shop their winning manuscript to any publisher they want to; you do not forfeit the cash prize if you do not choose publication with us.

The prize will also include possible Print-on-Demand trade paper publication with the same publisher. (The POD option is largely based on initial electronic sales figures, among other financial considerations.)

Okay, remember: Submissions for the contest opens February 1st!!

A fine and happy Friday to ye!! (pronounced YEE)

2012-01-06T12:31:32Z

From your wee bonnie friend, me! Yay.

I hope it's a great one wherever you are and whatever you wind up doing. I don't know about you (or yee, as it were), gang, but I am kinda excited to see a weekend roll around that doesn't include a manic holiday tucked within it. I still have plenty of stuff to do -- as loyal readers of this recently spotty blog know so well by now -- but it just seems quieter without the idea of a holiday thrown in. And I am really looking forward to that.

Yes, we already had our first snow, so that was pretty. However, it came after I had already decided to start taking down some of the Christmas lights. The tree was (is) still up so I hurried to get that turned back on while the snow was falling!! Tried to make it an official "white Christmas" -- better late then never. Still, I'm ready to move on into 2012. Snow or no snow.

(And I don't want to get all feisty and political right now, because I'm in a really sweet mood this morning, but YAY for America now that Michele Bachmann is officially out of the fucking race!!)

Okay! On that happy winter weekend note... Make it a good one wherever you are!! What could be better than Friday, gang?? See ya.

[Me, having a happy winter! Okay, okay, BEFORE my hair turned grey...but I can still fit into that outfit!! I'm wearing it right now, in fact.]