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This one was never, ever on my bucket list, but hey, someone decided it was.

The spouse and I have food poisoning. And…no details. I won’t even suggest you use your imagination. Oh no. *shudder*

But it’s been 4 days of hair raising antics, including one trip to the emergency room, missing reviewing for the students’ toughest test before midterm, and taking the hubs back to the doctor tonight because he’s regressing, not progressing.

At any rate, you too should skip this one if you can.

My goodness, I guess February is still with us in spirit!

Your continuing Paradise Icon public service announcement:

We’re almost full for the Paradise Icon writing workshop (our fifth one!). That’s not until October, but we still have two seats. Remember, you need to have attended a well-known writing workshop like Clarion, Taos, or Viable Paradise, OR you need to talk to me and supply me with a sample of your writing.

Your new Unreliable Narrators podcast on films.

Well, a few things.

Germs: Damn. Last week was more like being 50 percent sick, so we’re still not up to steam. I’m hoping for more out of this week.

Short Story: I wrote a new one to replace Cookies. Can’t tell you about it yet, because it’s in a contest, but I have revised it and started it on the rounds.

Novel: I wrote about 1500 words last week. Not bad for the snottiest novelist on the planet.

Travel: Spent all day Saturday in the car on a junket to Des Moines. I only use the phrase because a colleague used it at a faculty association meeting last week. I mean, hey, I’m so glad I got to go to a resort like Des Moines, as opposed to a dull conference in Hawaii.

Podcast: Been scheduling interviews like woah for the podcast. That’ll bear some fruit soon.

And so, keeping out of trouble. You?

Wow. I have two items that need to compete for stickies, so you’ll be seeing a lot of the Paradise Icon announcement.

First of all, the first installment of the Unreliable Narrators radio drama went up last week. E’ville: Murder Capital. I wonder if people will recognize which voice I am. Oh, I see they tell you in the credits….

And we’re almost full for the Paradise Icon writing workshop (our fifth one!). That’s not until October, but we still have two seats. Remember, you need to have attended a well-known writing workshop like Clarion, Taos, or Viable Paradise, OR you need to talk to me and supply me with a sample of your writing.

And while the Unreliable Narrators announcement will change, and change frequently, Paradise Icon will stay up until I have those two seats filled.

You may take all your germs with you, and never return, for I have missed three days of work this month, and I am unhappy with you. What good is giving me an extra day if you take it from me? I stubbornly tried to go to the office, but NO, you made me so sick I actually had to drive home. Man, you blow chunks.

So, there I was, at home with a sinus infection, watching 5 episodes of Leverage Season One, because I so wanted to do that instead of working on this week’s chapter.

Well, tomorrow is March. In like a patient, out like a lamb? If I have to scoop snow with a sinus infection, oh the Ides of March bode ill.

And so, I leave you, Internet. I go to bed after a session with the Neti pot, and I hope for a better tomorrow, as I have three hours of class, a conversation party, a meeting with college upper admin and I so don’t want to be home tomorrow. Goooooo, Doxycycline!

Our interview with Jennifer Garam, up now at Unreliable Narrators.

Well played, Mindbridge Book Group. Well played.

The Mindbridge Book Group sets me up to read things that I would not normally pick for myself. I cannot pretend to be fond of all the selections that my science fiction peers choose for me, but they have opened my brain to reading some things that I would not read. For instance,

Cath: I don’t read high fantasy. I am so done with medieval fantasy. I can’t imagine a single fantasy I would ever want to read again.

Book Group: Well, how’s about this book called The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch.

Cath: I’ll look at it. I’ll read it. I’ll hate it…Hey, this is pretty good, really. Scott Lynch, huh?

Or this one

Cath: Why would I ever consider reading this book about time travelers changing the history of the Civil War? Come on!

Book Group: But this is a seminal writer of SF/F.

Cath: *grumble* Okay. I’ll read this dumb old Civil War book…Hey, this Turtledove guy can write, can’t he?

***

So. We do have to get outside of our comfort zone every once in a while. Sure, there have been some book club books I’ve not been wild about, and I won’t talk about those here, but suffice it to say that usually the book club gives me at least a few new books and authors to appreciate every year. Shout out to you, fellow hunters of dog-eared paper backs. You should see my copy of Bright Eyes. It’s vintage.

I want to apologize. I haven’t posted at this blog, at the Unreliable Blog, anything like that because I got SICK. Kirkwood has one big frickin’ cold, and it takes about a week of ups and downs to get over it. So, I felt so bad I couldn’t even whine about feeling bad.

This of course means I’m behind at work. I believe I’ve dug out some, but I have some communications issues I’ve got to try to remedy. Because I care. 🙂

However, while I was dying, I didn’t tell you about the following Unreliable Narrators posts, thus living up to the adjective in the name.

Taos Toolbox: For those of you who want to climb a mountain and come down better writers

Walter Jon Williams: The man, the myth, the scuba diver.

***

Since I sold a short story I am working on cranking another one out so I can have my ten circulating. Have gotten some interest in the new book again, so we’ll see what happens. I think Abigail Rath has faded back into obscurity. It’s still with an agent, but nothing will happen soon. At any rate, this new story will be done by Sunday, and I will head back to the novel.

February, you have not been kind to my fitness or my writing. You may go.

Cookies has been accepted for the Independent Women’s anthology, volume 2. You’ll be able to pick this up late April/early May.

I’m sharing the table of contents with the following writers.

Asha Bardon
Nia Nguy?n writing as Lana Bella
Joan Brown
Tara Calaby
Audrey T. Carroll
Alison Ripley-Cubitt
Willow Curry
Zen DiPietro
Jen Donohue
Kimberly Fujioka
Rage Hezekiah (who isn’t Facebook but writes a great poem!)
Anne E. Johnson
Emily K. Michael
Cantrice Janelle Penn
Catherine Schaff-Stump
Lorraine Schein
Rachel Steiger-Meister
Nillu Nasser Nabs Stelter
Kristina Webster Shue

What’s important about buying both Volume one and two of this endeavor is that after all the costs are covered, all funds will be donated to the Pixel Project, which funds the cause to end violence against women. I’m proud that Cookies, a story inspired by my background, can be part of this endeavor. More to come as things are available.

In the first of our writing workshop posts, we’ve put up a Viable Paradise podcast at Unreliable Narrators.

There’s one on Taos soon to come.