Still packing. Though I managed to get a short story finished that had been plaguing me for about two months. It's called "Wake Up Call" and it's about a guy who has just been dumped by his fiancee, and he realizes how drab his life has become, and is just not in a very good place. And in walks this girl. I won't say any more than that because I just finished it, and other stuff may happen or be taken out when I revise it. But I'm very excited. It's about 4400 words and as soon as I feel confident that it's ready, Gordon Van Gelder (owner and editor of F&SF) will be the first one to see it. I've sent him a bunch of stuff over the years, all promptly rejected, but the last piece I sent him, a narrative poem called "Going Home", came back with a personal reply! For a magazine as big as that one is, it's a big deal to get a personal response from the editor.

I first met him in a surreal experience at the World Horror Convention two years ago in Atlanta. I was at the big publisher party up in the con suite, not quite yet drunk but well on my way, and I walked up to Warren Lapine (owner of DNA Publications, which publishes Aboriginal SF, Dreams of Decadence, Fantastic Stories of the Imagination, Weird Tales, Mythic Delerium, Science Fiction Chronicle, and Absolute Magnitude, the last of which he personally edits) and introduced myself, told him I was then thinking about becoming an editor myself, which I was. And he proceeded to tell me all the reasons not to. He dragged Mark McLaughlin (editor of The Urbanite) and Gordon Van Gelder into the conversation, and each relayed the horror stories of being an editor. It was incredible. Three big-time editors, then me. It was probably the coolest moment in the entire convention. And it gave me a whole new respect for editors. If you're a writer, be extremely nice to these guys. Don't badger them about the story you submitted, don't send threatening notes, don't hurl bricks through their windows. They have a tough job, and they work awfully damn hard. That conversation, among other things, told me that I'd probably better stick to writing, and leave editing to the professionals.

Anyway, I've spent too much time on this already. Back to packing.