But first, a shameless bid for attention...
I've been participating in a thread over at
Jay Lake's Facebook page. The thread's upshot: how what some people use as normal, everyday vocabulary is seen by others as too smart, too show-offy, or even as newly-invented words, not to mention providing fuel for hot and cold running malapropisms. Mind you, I'm giving a polite distillation here.
I mentioned the time a creative writing professor had accused me of plagiarism: "...until I showed him my notes. Then he said he thought the piece was publishable. I thought it was crap. Our assignment had been to write a short story draft in one week, so I just threw something down on the page. (I still remember a line from it -- 'So cold, that telescope's shaft!' I hang my head in shame...)"
Jay pointed out the line's potential to be part of a "brilliant" haiku. To which I replied:
The stroke of midnight --
So cold, that telescope's shaft!
Burn, you swollen stars.
:-p~~
I remember the story's title, too -- "In Magnification of Touch." Did I mention I'd been reading a lot of Freud in those days?
(Thanks for the thread, Jay.)
![Elissa Malcohn and Display](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_sjgYhhE0FVloI2DpjFaKEIA-0y4yMNiQ76y_xK2rA2WTW3f_540c6qnzugN7SamzL_bk5Ff2i7-FRjQTc_2FCR6O_1cN7gA5-yKeoBfjzuNT5hwuTRyw11uuqw8SaDb9U=s0-d)
The Land O'Lakes Library in Pasco County, FL, held its inaugural Author Fair on Saturday, March 20. I drove down with
Lakisha Spletzer and her daughter Alea. Thanks to both of them for helping me haul my load to and from the car!
My display included:
1.
Deviations: Covenant (paperback, Aisling Press).
2.
Covenant and
Appetite on CD (click
here for more info and free downloads).
3.
Riffing on Strings: Creative Writing Inspired by String Theory (Scriblerus Press, IPPY Silver Medalist; contains my story "Arachne").
4.
Unspeakable Horror: From the Shadows of the Closet (Dark Scribe Press, Bram Stoker Award winner; contains my story "Memento Mori").
5. Issue 14,
Electric Velocipede (Hugo Award winner; contains my story "Hermit Crabs," which is on the recommended reading list in
The Year's Best Science Fiction, 26th Annual Edition).
6. Oct./Nov. 2009
Asimov's (Contains my novelette "Flotsam" and poem "Derivative Work").
7.
Vampyr Verse (Popcorn Press; contains my poem "Neighbors").
8. General info flyers, and flyers advertising forthcoming work, including
She Nailed A Stake Through His Head: Tales of Biblical Terror (Dybbuk Press), which will contain my story "Judgment at Naioth."
Kisha also took a video of me at the event, accessible
here. Videos of more authors attending can be seen on her
Kishaz Worlds Facebook page.
![Author Fair, Land O'Lakes Library 4](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_spnbocib46eIAUiuT1j7fAaHIs7tSr-I__-_dIJJiBxQ_Nmbr_KL05nvKU5rrOovsn5R3RIleF5U-jFuauBTRAF5TgEmsM2mBw_4360k1fLO1JHcT_VL2X27rwkcKt3sQ=s0-d)
L-R: unidentified, Valerie Anne Faulkner, Susan Noe Harmon.
![Author Fair, Land O'Lakes Library, Chris Coad Taylor](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_urWVXWx-IiPSySVOjSkSHIT5hVv8GXU56uWQz0Gs0IYCDE_t5Py_cyXnXjdkj9eY9XlureO93Zj4F2HbJ7xekUhtzqUtOEniTuLTySoqdMdo6D8-bIpE9J-oXJE6r2pA=s0-d)
Chris Coad Taylor.
![Author Fair, Land O'Lakes Library 10](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_s8VjIgOvIlguqtJgvAdfgWpEl8mBEjUxlb0I9h6sY8HuNs7jYaC2vJfH2K6fHGONzuzUqxRqVu_nQP6Yd5OezHimEAWq2SxvnYcdXTAOMeIDvcnAee5_vVpHIUwDTEXGg=s0-d)
Seated, L-R: Philip Rice, Toni Martin, Rebecca Nunez. The books at far left were authored by Henley Holbrook.
![Author Fair, Land O'Lakes Library: Lakisha Spletzer and Alea](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_umvRTbIr-p3wi4PeH9j8YS9kO0jkWAQLflX4AqjRBa7wZC4L048G6mwk-JyYIk5_0LZcR1fv0lKfPOqTF5RttusNoVTb6U1g5T9QYKU0FZfaLalg6i5HYKUgDyyqVZM2g=s0-d)
Kisha and her daughter Alea.
![Alea](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uawB33Af_lfQxNvt9uoC4LfN1muFdRPDW8ewkgVMxe4vxlwn6P92Z00JGqJTHkhugrlGpWtUAK3Giav3TxOVrFw32oe_GN6L57KN2aKOVDQncHpG4fdOS3065rQdNUshk=s0-d)
Alea sits at my display, alternately writing her own story and editing her mother's book
Werelove: Dusk Conspiracy.
![Author Fair, Land O'Lakes Library 16](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uN-c266aTmjARTmD2CSC4p2DcusP_20JsiEbV2EQxOHsAlwhmpWjy24DIvAiNUE05_Gr8wffCJAxPaHp4-iztLBH2hjBqNH-x-Hw7BfOgnd2jVrNYdiJY1_CsWDjQkV5k=s0-d)
Seated at far right: Fred Tomasello, Jr. The books at far right were authored by Kal Rosenberg.
![Author Fair, Land O'Lakes Library 21](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vqM9_u_Rv8SQ3TuMg_B-d4X_oqYxhJJI8XTQZG4eOR5s0lNcHAgXPuaFtrIgAtd-u2lAs-BoT2VorLtooY1fPbZH4rAqlNHxJw4hU7Xy-86DKkWgXlv41Dsg2aX9EHRPM=s0-d)
Standing at left, L-R: Michael Dalton, Wendy Van Horn, Jerry Teske.
![Author Fair, Land O'Lakes Library 17](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vUHboEa_R3DSCsToAmgMARLXd5v-46PtVDHcsbuKPeICn5v2Ez_nmS5pSJu8hGOpHbFd4W64LfoxXEc16anP2QIeg0TfXScA6p4gPrGsL8cd9veAF3uS_xVLfaCiKMD8A=s0-d)
Coming up: I join
Loretta Rogers to do cold read critiques at the Homosassa Public Library on Saturday, March 27.
Elissa Malcohn's Deviations and Other Journeys
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Vol. 1, Deviations: Covenant (2nd Ed.) Vol. 2, Deviations: Appetite Vol. 3, Deviations: Destiny Free downloads at the Deviations website and on Smashwords.
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