Sunday, February 16, 2003
We had warm weather yesterday. Not some shoddy approximation of warmth, but actual warm weather. I wasn't able to leave the apartment until evening, but I could still smell the faint scent of warm asphalt from the street. Warm asphalt and growing things. Two of the finest odors on Earth. I was able to go out to dinner without a coat. I know there will be more cold weather, but I also know this is the first genuine sign of spring. This morning it's rainy, but not too cold.
So, something to stand against the annoying mopiness which has dogged me the last few days.
Lord, I need to buy some new clothes . . . but I suppose that's not very interesting.
This morning, before breakfast, I read "Playing God in Other People's Sandboxes," the introduction I wrote for From Weird and Distant Shores, and was amazed to see that I'd written it way back in July of 1999. It sure doesn't seem that long ago. The book was only released in 2002. Of course, there was a delay because Mike Paduana (owner of the now-defunct Sideshow Books and the originally-intended publisher) vanished from the face of the earth, owing me and lots of other people money. Fortunately, Bill Schafer was there to get the project back on track. Paduana's still MIA, as far as I know. I think there's still a website out there for Sideshow, listing From Weird and Distant Shores as one of its forthcoming titles. Yep. Here it is: Sideshow Books. Just scroll down a little ways from the top and you'll see what I mean. The last update to the page appears to have been on 10/02/00. The web favours derelicts, drifting endlessly, half-remembered Mary Celestes built of html and jpegs, doomed to wander phosphor oceans until someone finally pulls the plug. Did I just mix metaphors? Who gives a shit. "Not me," said the little red hen. But then, you can never be too careful about these things.
Oh, and as long as I'm beating dead horses, "Angels You Can See Through" was originally written, at Mike Paduana's request, for Midnight Hour #2, which was never published, so the story was eventually first published in Tales of Pain ands Wonder (the first edition of which mistakenly acknowledges Midnight Hour #2 as the place of the story's first appearance). There's still a website for the zine, too, complete with cover mock up for the second issue and mention of my story's inclusion. Derelict Two. Things that never happened, but, still, we have websites that imply otherwise.
"What the hell's that sound?" Spooky said just now. "Sounds like pipes." But hey, stuff like that happens all the time around here.
Last night, we started watching the Best of Bowie DVD, which I really can't recommend too highly. 47 videos/performace clips, amounting to more than four hours of footage.
I should at least pretend to work, lest I attract the goblins.
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