I'm a writer, editor and accredited public relations professional from Louisiana -- though I lived in Austin, Texas, for 14 years, and it's the home of my heart. I live with four cats whose indulgence of my writing has begun to wane. The occasional attempts to sit on my laptop's keyboard are becoming ever more frequent.
I have 15 years of experience in business and professional writing and have been published by local, regional, national and international print publications and websites. I write fantasy and speculative fiction short stories and poetry in my "spare time," and have several unfinished novels lurking on my hard drive. Early influences were Tolkien (thanks to my grandmother, who gave me The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings when I was 11), Anne McCaffrey, C.S. Lewis, Jane Yolen and ElfQuest.
My first professional fiction sale came in August 2004 when Strange Horizons published my poem "Mother of Atlantis." In early 2005 I was astounded to be told the poem had been nominated for a Rhysling Award, an honor given to "the best science fiction, fantasy and horror poetry" of the year. Although my poem was not selected to win, I was so proud to see it in the Rhysling Anthology, and I have since joined the Science Fiction Poetry Association -- which I enjoy very much.
My poems have also appeared in Astropoetica, the print and online versions of Scifaikuest, ChiZine, Breath & Shadow and The Shantytown Anomaly. My short story "Cold Blooded" appeared in the January 2005 issue of Reflection's Edge.
Drop me a line, especially if you have a comment on any of my stories or poems. And thank you for visiting!
| antcbd at aol.com
Look forward to reading your essay and am on a blissful road with my interrogation of SF, life, living, and that eternal breech between man and man;
"Revelation occurs one-on-one!"
Between the humanist and theologian we tend to create limited extremes. The humanist belies his label forsakeing homo-religiousity for carnal interpretation. The theologian attempts to command Providence--a word most deserving of capitalization to set it apart from human comprehension.
With the furth....
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| D, would you be willing to share your e-mail address so we can dialog further outside of this semi-public space? Mine is robin (at) hieran (dot) com. Also, I would love to send you my story about my mother's message.
More soon! R. |
| Robin;
Don't forget to share that essay you wrote, if by "if your're interested" means you were offering to share it with me. I love reading and discussing folk's stuff, espiecially if they are conducive to my often trivial articulations. I won't critique unless you ask but will hope to gain some insight from it in my own peculiar way of linking ideas and having faith in the way they arrive.
I think you should read the "Pope of the Chimps" that was linked somewhere at Speculations. I can see from your p....
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| Robin;
As you might have guessed, I loved your story at Reflections. After jotting comments in my usual manner through the first frame or page, I became entralled at the significance of the story in terms of all I've been spewing lately about the importance of SF to creating unity and inclusive readership and audiences. Perhaps I will send a note with my 13 comments that range from semantic to real to scholarly to aesthetic to cultural to metaphysic.
I salute you twice and hope to find more of your work....
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| Three sales to report this week -- all to Scifaikuest, all answered in about one month. Two ku will appear in the August 2005 print version and one ku will be in the August online version.
::happydance:: I thought I should provide the link to my poem in ChiZine, referred to by Jackie in an earlier post. Also, the Rhysling Award winners were announced last weekend. My poem was not a winner, but the winning poems are all excellent and deserving! I congratulate the winning poets! :-) Robin |
| Thanks, Jackie! :-)
I'm very happy about it -- thrilled to be in ChiZine, and happy to see this poem published! Take care! Robin |
| Congrats on the CHIZINE sale!
-- Jackie |
| Robin --
Ditto. I'm always pleased to meet other Louisiana writers...even though it's been decades since I've been home, I still miss it, and miss the people. Nevada lacks a lot of the - greeness - I loved about growing up there, in MC. Dragnas? Can't say that I do...my guys were Couvilliers, LeBlancs, Angerons, and Morgans. Doesn't mean that I never met any, just that if I had, I just didn't know the family name. One of my sisters is in Baton Rouge. Most of the family, however, remain in Morgan City. Willis Couvillier |
| Ralan - I'll be happy to send you the story "off-list." Be on the lookout for it in your in-box. :-)
Robin |
| Hey, Willis --
Nice to hear from you. :-) I'm quite familiar with Morgan City. Do you happen to know any Dragnas? A good friend of mine from high school has a bunch of family in Morgan City. They are probably battening down hatches right now as Arlene approaches the coast. *My* favorite thing people do when they hear I am from Louisiana is ask immediately, "Ooh! Are you Cajun?" And if I tell them I'm from Baton Rouge, they either say, in a lame French accent, "Ahh, BAT-ahn Ruuuuge," or they ask, "Where is that in relation to New Orleans?" Thanks for posting -- it's always nice to "meet" another South Louisiana native. Robin |
| Robin --
Greetings. You live near MY home of my heart. I am originally from Louisiana...Morgan City, a bit farther south than Baton Rouge. I've been away for half my life, and still consider it home, there. And I HATE when people out here, in Nevada, try to say New Orleans. They make a big deal out of the way the South says Nevada, then turn around and do the same...and I say, nothin'g LEAN about New Or-LANS! Smiles... Willis Couvillier |
| Hi Robyn,
As someone who lost his mother last year and am, in the next month, facing her birth and death days I'd be very interested in hearing about the message from your mom. Any way I can get a peek? Thanks, Ralan |
| Dear Lon and Ahmed,
Thank you so kindly for your kudos! I really appreciate it! I have received some really wonderful, unexpected feedback from this story. I am off to check out Ahmed's announcement! Thank you again-- Robin |
| Ditto Ahmed on the Congrats. The first will always be special to you. Here's to many more sales coming your way!
Lon |
| Congratulations, Robin, on your first fiction sale. I saw your announcement in the "Good News for the Ego Shelf" topic when I went there to post my announcement today.
Ahmed A. Khan ahmedakhan.journalspace.com |
| I have a slightly silly idea that I nevertheless am going to propose to the rest of the writers here, as well as following it myself.
I'd like to challenge other authors who make sales to some of the semi-pro zines that don't charge for subscriptions and that live or die by donations and the like to donate their payments back to the zines. I've donated my $20 payment from the poem I sold to Strange Horizons back to them, and I plan to do the same with the two $5 fees for poems sold to Astropoetica. Maybe it's easy for me to say because I have a good-paying day job. But I really don't *need* that thirty bucks ... and it helps out the publications just a little. Think about it! R. |
| Hi Terry,
Thanks for the advice. Luckily my friend has found a computer neep angel who's taking a look at her computer even as we speak! She thinks she can fix my friend's computer and possible recover her data as well. Whew. She is still disconnected from her internet friends for the moment, but I think that the friend has a machine she can borrow for a while. Thanks, Robin |
| Robin, have you posted this in the Urgent Announcement topic? I think it would fit there, too. |
| Evening all--
I posted this message in the computer neep topic as well, but I figured I'd also post it here to try to spread the word. A friend of mine -- an editor and writer -- has been out of work for quite some time and is struggling financially. Her laptop, a G3 iBook (Macintosh, for those who might not know), just died -- total hard drive failure. I wondered if by some wild chance there is anyone with a laptop they aren't using anymore who might be willing to donate it to my friend, or at least sell it for a special Starving Writer Discount(tm). She's absolutely in despair right now ... not only at the loss of all her data and stories, but at her sudden, forcible disconnection from the online world. Please let me know if anyone can help ... feel free to e me off the boards at robin@hieran.com if you like. Thanks so much... Robin |
| Thanks so much, Terry! :-)
I couldn't be more excited. I've just been on a cloud for the last 24 hours. My family and coworkers were all very happy and proud. I got a rare burst of real enthusiasm from my calm-cool-collected dad. :-) I got home from work today to see the following in my inbox. I get this message daily, and I just grinned when I saw today's topic. So appropriate! I wanted to share. Thanks again, Robin The Written Word -- Quote a Day 7/13/04: Persistence "You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer. You send that work out again and again, while you're working on another one. If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success -- but only if you persist." --Isaac Asimov The Written Word (http://www.topica.com/lists/TheWrittenWordEZine) is a daily source of inspiration for writers, editors and publishers. If you would like to submit a publishing-related quote, please e-mail the quotation with the accurate source to Maidenfate@aol.com. Use the subject heading "The Written Word." We do not accept anonymous quotes. Feel free to forward these quotes on to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. If you would like to unsubscribe from this list, simply e-mail TheWrittenWordEZine-unsubscribe@topica.com. |
| Woo hoo! Way to go, Robin!!
:::flings confetti everywhere::: Enjoy! |
| Well, since this is MY page, I feel like I can post my good news here if nowhere else ... I have, after a couple of weeks of extra-hard work, had a poem accepted by Strange Horizons!
Yay! Yippee! and yaHOO!!! I can hardly believe it ... my first "real" fiction sale. And after several disheartening rejections in the past week... The poem is called "Mother of Atlantis," and is definitely speculative, but a little different from the space/astronomy poetry I've been writing more of lately. I'm just thrilled that somebody liked my work enough to publish it. Yay! again! Robin |
| Amy!
IS RevelCon a fanfic con? Heh. It is THE fanfic con! No, in all seriousness -- I think you will enjoy RevelCon hugely, if fanfiction and fanzines are your bag. It's held in Houston every year -- I think the last one was the 14th or 15th edition -- and billed as a "relaxacon." The schedule is usually Friday afternoon through Sunday night. Friday night is the video contest (fan-created music videos), costume contest and talent show. Saturday and Sunday are devoted to panel discussions, an art show/auction, shopping in the dealer's room and general hanging out. There is always a reading room stocked with tons of fanzines, and the dealer's room also features all the fanzines you could want, from vintage Star Trek: TOS Kirk/Spock slash to the very newest/latest shows. It's a very laid-back, informal con, but the emphasis is very much on fanfic and fan art. I wasn't able to go this year as I mentioned, but I try not to miss it -- it's only about a five-hour drive from Baton Rouge to Houston. Robin |
| Hey Terry,
Thanks a bunch for your support. I'll keep you all posted. I'll probably have surgery in mid-July, and once I'm out of the hospital I'll have plenty of time to drive everyone here nuts with 24-hour-a-day posting. :-) Robin |
| Robin--just wandering through the Fresh Stuff list and saw that you're having serious femur problems. Thought I'd add my good wishes for luck with that! I hope your writing thrives and blossoms and blooms and SELLS! - lol - and we'll be reading you all over the place.
Meantime, keep us posted, OK? Terry |
| Robin,
Is RevelCon a fanfic (or fanzine -- not necessarily fic) con? I may give it a try next year. I'm usually ready for a con round about that time of year! Good luck on the surgery. I'm sure we'll cross paths one of these days! -- Amy |
| Hi Amy,
Although I still get back to Austin as often as I can, I probably won't make it to ArmadilloCon this year. That's partly because of my surgery, which is likely to make it difficult for me to travel for several months. Also, my cousin, who lives in Austin, is getting married in September, so I will already be traveling there once (recuperation permitting) in the fall. If you're in Houston, though, we may see each other next March at RevelCon. Are you familiar with that? Robin |
| Lawrence - wait - I thought you said you DID google me. But if you screen the riff raff out, how come I'm still able to post here?!?
/lame attempt at humor off To elaborate a bit on my earlier post -- I have just learned that I do need another operation to try to fix my fractured femur (cool - alliteration!). This will be the sixth surgery on that particular spot, which just refuses to heal properly. It's quite the medical mystery. It looks like I'll go under the knife in mid-July, and I'm hoping that one small positive thing that will come out of that is time to think and to write - time off work whether I like it or not, that I can spend on my own projects. Robin |
| Robin, of course I googled. I have to screen everyone who posts in my newsgroup. How else could I keep the riff raff out? |
| Hi Robin,
Since you're from Austin, have you attended ArmadilloCon? If so, will you continue to attend? (We continue to attend a small local con in Fargo, North Dakota even though we moved away from there 10 years ago!) We recently moved to Houston and will be going to this year's ArmadilloCon for the first time. -- Amy Sisson |
| Howdy Lawrence!
Thanks for visiting! You've been googling? :-) My femur is not doing so well, I'm afraid, but hey -- being forcibly off my feet gives me a good excuse to spend ALLL my time reading and writing! cya, Robin |
| Hi, Robin!
I don't know you, but since you posted in my group I thought I'd return the favor. So, how's that femur doing? |