I got a rejection e-mail today from John Joseph Adams for his Federations anthology.

Nichevo.

I'm moving on to another market and with another story.

Fortunately, an acquaintance of mine with a great reader's eye, who'd been indisposed has gotten in touch with me and wants to read my latest fiction stories. Return time is a few weeks.

When she's done, I'll fire it all off. I'm eking away at film script rewrites now.

Signing off.

I just subbed via e-mail an improved version of my WOTF Semi-Final story "Ra-Gho-Zu" to a major anthology market called Federations.

Very hopeful.

The anthology is edited by John Joseph Adams, (quoted from his site) "the editor of the anthologies Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse, Seeds of Change, and The Living Dead. He is also the assistant editor at The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and is the print news correspondent for SCI FI Wire (the news service of the SCI FI Channel)."

The reading period is from November 1, 2008 to January 1, 2009. Rejections will be sent out quickly, but stories being considered may be held till January 31, 2009.

I was gonna fire it off on November 1, 2008, but I got an e-mail in late October saying that my Odyssey grad crit group was being revamped and seeking submissions. I thought I'd give it a shot and run it by the group to see if it'd pick up on a bug I might've missed.

The story was subbed along with one more to the Odyssey crit group on November 1, 2008. Me and another person critiqued the other story, but mine hasn't gotten a crit so far. The Odyssey crit group works on a free choice basis. I may choose not to participate with it any more.

I got tired of waiting, I know the story is good, and I didn't want to wait too long before subbing to John Joseph Adams, who has already been receiving submissions.

I was going to sub the story to Analog a few weeks ago after being rejected by Jim Baen's Universe. But I learned about the Federations anthology, and so I waited.

It's finally out now. Woohoo!

As Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon, he is often misquoted as saying "The die is cast."

The more accurate quote is "Let the dice fly high!"

I'll be subbing another story to WOTF soon, then I'll put my screenwriting cap on for several months and work on some scripts that've been neglected for too long.

Hailing freqs closed.

It's interesting to live in one of those moments where history is being made.

I have been quiet for a while. Slogging through rewrites, work, and following the election on the Live Journal of Larry Hodges, where I've posted quite a few replies.

I will be sending out my "Ra-Gho-Zu" story to a major market some time next week. I'm just waiting on a final round of crits from people in an Odyssey grad critique group. And I'll be sending a short SF story, "The Automatic Pen" to WOTF about a week later after I get comments from the same crit group. I've decided to put my teen fantasy on hold for next year, while I read some teen novels and get back to some scripts waiting for my loving attention.

Work and the election have been taking up my time. Looking back, I suppose I could've commented a time or two on the election, but I'm not usually a political person and I'd set this blog up for chronicling my fiction/film pursuits.

Nichevo.

Anyone who's periodically checked my blog will have noticed the debates, SNL skits, etc. that I'd embedded. I hope that in some small way, I'd disseminated information that passing web surfers needed in order to decide on what to do for the 2008 election, which I believe is the most momentous in America's history to this point.

I'd debated on whether to vote early or show up on Election Day yesterday. After I'd decided to show up on Election Day, I came across articles that talked about waiting lines at early election polls of anywhere from 3-6 hours and that some polls would likely be mobbed on Election day.

Doh!

In my case, a large and spacious Greek Orthodox church that's right next door to my backyard is my local election poll. Built about 10 years ago, the church has all the frills and is rented out for weddings and parties all the time. I could've walked over, but I drove in order to be prepared to motor out of the place for work in case I had a three or so hour wait.

It took me only an hour all told of waiting, registering, and filling out my ballot. The poll opened at 7 A. I'd forced myself awake at 6 A after only 5 hours of REM time, got ready, and arrived at 6:55 A. A line had formed that stretched around one end of the church. I jogged to get a place, and the line kept forming behind me to reach around another wall.

The pace was decent, though. After about 25 minutes of waiting, I got to the front door, where volunteers were dividing the line into two for each of the two districts that could vote. The line for my district was a lot shorter and I zipped in, did my part, and drove back home to chill before work for an hour. I should've gotten a nap, but I got through the day.

I voted for Obama/Biden and a full Democratic ticket nationally and locally. First time ever. I'm an Independent and I'd voted for both parties in the past. But I voted for Obama as much as I voted against McCain and Palin. The Republican party has vowed to reform and change in order to regain the trust that George W. Bush has shattered. I am extremely skeptical of that when I consider how the GOP faithful has embraced Sarah Palin rather than be insulted at her selection by McCain as a stunt to draw disaffected Hillary voters.

Now the United States has its first black president, who has reached across age, ethnic, and other lines to gain the presidency. I believe he promises as well to be a global president as well with an Indonesian childhood, a Kenyan parentage, and a Middle Eastern name.

The honeymoon period will be sweet, but short since Obama is entering the presidency in circumstances possibly more dire than those that faced FDR: two expensive and mishandled wars in the Middle East that were needless to begin with, a skyrocketing national debt thanks to Bush Jr., rifts with the global community from Bush's "diplomacy," and sundry other issues. The Democrats also have, I believe 56 senate seats and two Independents aligned with them. Not quite filibuster-proof, but still a pretty strong position for passing vital legislation during Obama's presidency.

I believe Barack Obama promises to be an inspirational and capable executive. He'll need to be in order to fix the mess that Bush Jr. has plunged the nation into.

Hailing frequencies closed.