Amy Sisson... librarian, SF fan, writer, Clarion West alum (2000), book reviewer, not necessarily in that order. I live with my husband, Paul, and the cats we've found in various parking lots, in Houston, Texas. Please visit my webpage at www.amysisson.com.
| Guess it would help to include my email:
jkarr (at) mindspring (dot) com You'll land in the suspect folder but I'll fish you out |
| Hi Amy,
thx for the congrats. And you on your sale to Strange Horizons. I'd rather not post the publisher's name, as they did not ask to be webbed out. However, if you'd like to send an email to me, I'll send it after I get to the home computer as long as you agree not to post it. |
| Congrats on the Strange Horizons sale, Amy! Rock on, girl! |
| Great sale, Amy! |
| That's fantastic! Congratulations! |
| Yay on the Strange Horizons sale! Congratulations. :)
Sarah |
| Thanks for all the kind words!
Oddly (or not?), litter boxes were never an issue for Agamemnon or Kira, his ex-feral little sister (she was MUCH easier to socialize; she was probably about eight months old when we trapped her). In fact, the only litter box problems we've had have been with Pixel, who clearly was with people who abused and/or neglected him severely -- when we took a trip once he got so upset he urinated on our bed and in our laundry pile. And that was with a professional petsitter coming in twice a day! Now when we travel, Pixel gets boarded at a place where he has a "VIP" suite with his own bay window. He seems pretty happy there. The other kitties stay at home and seem to do fine with twice-a-day petsitter, but Pixel needs that extra little bit of attention..... Fleas and other parasties -- yes, you'll definitely get those with strays you bring in, but they're very easily dealt with. One feral kitten we brought in to our house had been so used to living in dark holes (I literally pulled him out from a hole dug under the library I worked in at the time) that he found a way to crawl into our bathroom wall and got stuck. We had to have a contractor saw a hole in the wall to get him out. So warning: if you do bring in a small feral kitten, be prepared they will try hard to hide, and they're very good at it! Happy Fourth two days early, everyone! |
| Yay, Amy! Yay, Agamemnon! That is SO cool! Just think - you've turned a little creature's life from nasty, brutal and short to warm, loved, and spoiled rotten! What a great thing!!! :^D Good on you! |
| Well done! The wild cat I had as a child never really cuddled, but he got to the point where he would sit quietly with me. He really taught me the value of quiet company. Good for you!
Alice |
| They can be a challenge. Our cats were strays/abandoned, and we had to deal with fleas, litterbox issues...amd they weren't even truly feral. But if you're up to the challenge, you can save a life. |
| That's awesome. I want to adopt a feral cat one day, preferrably in the kitten phase. |
| You did a good thing. |
| This is so not about writing, but I can't help it.
One of our (many) cats is an ex-feral, warrior-like, battle-scarred tomcat that we named Agamemnon. The vet figured he was between one and two years old when we trapped him, and we don't believe he'd ever been with people before. Almost everyone except the vet said he was too old to socialize. Well, today he reached another milestone. Earlier milestones included when he stopped hissing and spitting every time we walked into a room (3 months after we trapped him), when he started letting us touch him (approx. six months), when he figured out it was OK to play with toys (not sure when; he still mostly does it when we're not looking), when he purred for the first time (a year and a half after we trapped him!), and when he let us pick him up for the first time (about 2 1/2 years -- although this consists of picking him up, holding him for a few seconds so he can see the world won't end, and putting him right back down). This afternoon (about 3 1/2 years post-trapping), I was taking a nap and he came up on the bed. He's done that before, just to investigate when I might get up and feed him, or to lay down near the bottom of the bed where he can still get away quickly if necessary. But today he came up, settled himself down in the between my arm and my ribs, started purring and rolled over to get comfortable, and cuddled with me for a good 20 minutes. I am such a happy camper. And the first day he jumps up in my lap while I'm sitting in a chair, I will open a bottle of champagne to celebrate. I don't care if it takes another ten years; I can wait! |
| Glad you're all safe. |
| Poor you and Paul and kitties. I'm glad you're out of there, though. I hope its not as bad going home as it was getting out. |
| Glad to hear you and Paul are safe and sound. |
| Excellent news, Amy. I'll keep my fingers crossed for your home, too. |
| Thank goodness you're Ok! I hope your house will be all right. |
| Paul and I made it out of Houston, and we're staying with friends in the Ft. Worth area. It took us 20 hours to drive two cars with 7 cats to a place it usually takes 4-5 hours to get to -- and we were the lucky ones. That was the worst experience of my life (although it may be topped if we get back to find our house gone or destroyed -- I don't think it will be completely destroyed, but possibly flooded if the drainage sewers can't keep up with the rainfall). I was terrified we would run out of gas, even though we started with full tanks. We couldn't even find a place with a restroom until we had been on the road for 12 hours.
But we're safe, with our cats. That's what's important. We're just anxious for friends who are still in Houston. |
| Matt, looking forward to seeing you! |
| Hi, Amy! See ya in Seattle! |
| My Cascadia Con (NasFic) schedule is as follows. I'm excited!
Thursday 4:00 p.m. (Eliot B) Dissecting the Half-Blood Prince Friday 4:00 p.m. (Flight) (moderator) Buying Art at Conventions Friday 7:00 p.m. (Satellite) (moderator) Media Tie-Ins: Lit or Fluff Friday 9:00 p.m. (Flight) Clarion Workshops: Threat or Menace Sunday 12:00 p.m. (Chaps) The Future Classroom Sunday 4:00 p.m. (Flight) (moderator) No Such Thing as a Bad Review |
| Will do. Thanks! |
| Darja,
I think they went out about a week ago -- I'm in Texas and they're mailed directly from the printer in Seattle, so I don't usually know they've gone out until I get my own copy, which in this case was a few days ago. If you don't have it by Monday or Tuesday, let me know and I'll follow up on it. Thanks! |
| Hey Amy! I've heard rumors about the Seventh Week having hit mailboxes recently, but I've not received one yet. Do you happen to know how long ago those were sent out?
Thanks! |
| Best thing heard at ConDFW last weekend:
"Real soldiers are dying in their Hummers so you can play soldier in yours." Yes! |
| Sue, I'll happily proof your translation if you do one. |
| I'm taking a course this semester at UH Clear Lake, just for fun, titled "The American City in Literature and Art". It examines the way American cities have been portrayed in fiction, poetry, history, film, and painting.
The book list is: Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie Erik Larson, Devil in the White City F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby Trey Ellis, Platitudes Samuel R. Delany, Times Square Red/Times Square Hugh Ferriss, Metropolis of Tomorrow Kristin McCloy, Some Girls Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives How cool is that?! Sadly, I get no tuition benefit even though I work at UH. After one year, I will get a limited tuition benefit at UH, but it doesn't work at the other UH system schools like Clear Lake. Too bad. But this course sounded too interesting to pass up. |
| yeah, well it begs for a "personal" translation, and brother, can I do that!
:) SueO2 |
| It's in my head, Sue.
I get a few requests for it each year, but I always tell people to translate it themselves. It's only about 400 words long, and besides, it loses quite a bit in the translation. |
| hey, Lawrence -- so, where is the translation to that short-short you have in vol 3?
SueO2 |
| No Klingon was ever spoken in those first three years, Amy, so how interesting could TOS stories be? Huh? Huh? |
| Sue02,
Thanks for the kind words! I myself struggle with the classic Trek stories in the SNW volumes as I have never seen that series apart from 3 or 4 episodes, so I rarely understand the references in those stories. Have a great day! |
| Amy, I have been reading this weekend and buzzed through your delightful little tale. Very nice ... thanks for submitting it to the contest.
(Generally, the stories in SNWs are easy reads and fun, as they are meant to be. There have been only one or two that I found somewhat confusing, but that is no doubt because I have not memorized all the episodes and movies.) SueO2 |
| Heck, free books? Of course you're glad you found it. Supposedly I got an Amazon gift certificate from Brother #2 for Christmas but was either never notified or mistakenly deleted it as spam. I need to check with them
Cool about SNW. See, if I can get my certificate I can order the book.... law |
| It's the little things that keep us sane, IMO. :) |
| All the more reason to be glad of a little good news. |
| Happy happy. My husband just found two things we thought sure we'd lost forever -- in fact, we thought I'd accidentally recycled them (I recycled my checkbook once by accident).
The first was a savings bond that I purchased when I was in the fourth grade. Not worth much, to be sure, but it seemed like a big purchase to me back then, and I don't imagine I'll ever be in a position where I could or would turn my nose up at even this small amount of money. The second was a generous Booksense gift certificate, the kind that can be used at independent bookstores all over the U.S. This was a gift given to me by my co-workers when I left upstate NY a little over a year ago. Even better, we thought for sure the gift certificate expired within a year, and we were preparing ourselves to beg for a little leeway.... and then we noticed that it's actually good for two years. Of course, all of this seems quite trivial in light of what is happening in the world. I urge people to give what they can to relief efforts; we have done the same and will hopefully be able to do more. |
| SueO2, that's very kind of you! I hope you enjoy the stories. |
| Amy, my B&N; just got a new batch of SNW7 in today, so I picked up a copy and look forward to reading your (and all) the stories.
Congratulations, and keep up the good work. SueO2 |
| Congratulations on SNW! I hope to read the story when the anthology comes out. |
| Congratulations on the Star Trek win, Amy. |
| Amy,
I thought I had recipes on my computer but can't find them. I have other people who have wanted my menu too so I'll get it written up in the next couple of weeks. Maybe I could attach it to an email for you instead of putting it on the board? Whatdayathink? |
| Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, and here's wishing good travel vibes to anyone traveling.
And thank goodness I'm not traveling. Even without traveling, I've had interesting transportation issues this week. On Monday, that small plane crash outside of Houston happened on the toll road I take to work. It happened around 6:20 a.m. and I'm not on the road until 8:00 a.m. or so. I had to take a 45 minute detour, but that's no big deal in the scheme of things. I have nightmares about seeing planes crash -- not being in a plane crash, but seeing them happen. I'm glad I didn't see this crash but I'm still pretty bummed about the three people who lost their lives. I'm glad that Bush Sr. was not already on the plane. (I voted vehemently against Junior, but I certainly don't wish any harm on his family.) Last night (Tues) I had to pick up my husband at the airport -- he was returning from a work-related trip. His flight was two hours late but I had checked online so I knew ahead of time. I had a sore throat and had not gone to work, and still wasn't feeling well, but didn't want him to have to take a taxi. Anyhow, I got to the airport -- and then crawled through traffic within the airport perimeter for 30 minutes trying to get to where I could pick him up. (You had to do the same thing even if you were going to park.) An hour after his plane landed, they evacuated the air traffic control tower due to high winds, and started diverting traffic away from Houston. (They resumed landing another hour after that.) I have vowed that I will never, never, never travel at Thanksgiving again. Well, maybe a car ride, maximum of one hour or so, but I will not fly at Thanksgiving time. Christmas... well, maybe. When my inlaws lived in Manitoba, Canada, we would have to take three flights, through Minneapolis and Winnipeg. There would always be storms, there were always delays, Northwest didn't serve food anymore, and there was too little time between flights to reliably get food at the airport. It was a 12 to 14-hour exhausting nightmare. Rambling at this point.... Again, happy Thanksgiving! |
| Hey Amy, Did you ever get a gmail account from Patrick? If not, I have a few invites. Send me an email at threeoutside A T gmail D O T com and I'll send you one. (This is an open invitation to others, too, first come first served except Amy gets first dibs since this is her topic, heh).
Terry |
| Yeah, that's a good dream to have. I'd take that. :) |
| I had the most wonderful dream shortly before waking up this morning.
A story of mine was accepted by a well-respected small press magazine. Then, an editor of a larger market wanted the story too. As often happens in dreams, I had a moment of panic, thinking "I couldn't have sim subbed it, could I? I don't remember doing that!" But then there was relief, as I remembered that the large market editor had already rejected it, so I had done nothing wrong. And now that editor had reconsidered, so not one but two markets wanted it. I went with the small press market, because they had already done all the web work of visually representing my story -- not exactly illustration, but a three-dimensional visual rendering of the story. And it was gorgeous. Then I woke up. The story in question currently is at a small press market, and it has already been rejected by the larger market, but somehow I think that's the closest my dream is likely to get to reality! But it was a nice dream. And if only I could figure out how to visually render the stories in addition to writing them.... |
| Thanks Amy and ET! I just got my quarter-finalist notification by email too (I guess I should have waited a day or two to ask the question!) so from now on, I won't bother with an SASE either. Excellent! |
| Stephanie, I didn't bother with an SASE this quarter (the one just starting, not the one I'm still waiting for a reply for). After all, the guidelines do mention e-mail as a viable alternative. I asked KD at the WotF SFF newsgroup, and she said she's sure that if I got semi-finalist they'd be willing to pay themselves for sending the critique (since, after all, they're also sending a certificate, and I imagine they don't put it in the #10 envelope). |
| I haven't heard back anything either -- but I've also moved, so it's possible that the polite form letter is floating around the old address somewhere. :)
-Patrick |
| Stephanie, I looked back over my sub, and I included a business SASE and indicated that the manuscript itself was "recyclable". Now if they're doing a crit, they'll have to use a bigger envelope and put postage on it, so I feel a little guilty about that. Probably more trouble than it's worth, though (even for them), for me to send another envelope w/more postage now, because they'd have to match it up.....
ET, yes, I do consider the crit a big plus, and I'm not too frustrated (I'm pleased with myself that rejection doesn't bother me too much. Of course, five years down the line, I might feel differently). I was just worried that I had somehow conveyed more than was the case. |
| Hi Amy,
I was just wondering--did you ask WoTF to let you know by email (and not bother with an SASE)? Or were you surprised to hear from them that way? I'm living in England right now, so I'm always happy to get rid of the whole snail-mail SASE postage issue! And I know how frustrating those near-misses are...but congratulations anyway for all the reasons ET said. |
| Amy, regarding the WotF semi-finalist, I agree that it's not a sale in any way, and is a miss in that respect, but I do think it's a win in some ways -- at least more than a personal rejection. You know that your story is one of the 18 best stories in this quarter, and you got (or will get) a prize: a critique and a certificate.
Obviously it's not a great consolation, and I know I'd feel the same feeling of a near miss if I get this outcome, since I've already tried the top 3 mags on the story in this quarter (got a nice response from Stanley Schmidt, to whom I sent it first, although that's on an earlier version -- I might have killed it with over-revision). Still, I think I'd consider a critique as a sort of a win, and treasure the certificate. |
| I'm still waiting for a response too -- somewhat nervously now. I know that my acknowledgement e-mail in July slipped in my spam folder and I nearly missed it. I usually scan through them now, just in case, but when you get fifty junk messages a day and you don't really expect a real message to be in there things can get missed.
WOTF responses seem to have trickled it more slowly this year than in previous years...I've been watching the Reject/Accept log like a hawk and so far only seen three. |
| Congrats on being semi-finalist at WotF. I'm still waiting for my response. KD said in the newsgroup that semi-finalists also get a nice certificate ("at some later point"). |
| I've found that gmail filters at least 75% into the spam folder. The only false positives so far have been one person on a specific mailing list, for some unfathomable reason.
Note that it deletes spam after 30 days, so if you're worried about false positives you should skim through the spam folder every few days. |
| Woohoo! The computer guys got my drive booted back up -- apparently some corrupted system files. Problem is probably still there, but in the meantime, I got me a sweet little gigabyte jump drive and I have my data back! I'm not entirely certain how successfully I'll be able to re-import the Outlook e-mail, address book, and contacts, but theoretically it should work.
And the other stuff is much more important. As penance, when I went out to buy the jump drive today at lunch, my car had a flat tire. Just to remind me not to get too cocky. Also as penance, I promised the Computer Spirits that I would begin preaching (and practicing) the Gospel of Backing Up. Oh, and thanks to Patrick and David for offering gmail invites -- I'm all squared on that: amy.a.sisson at you-know-where. (For experienced gmail users, any comments on how good it is at blocking spam yet?) |
| Crap. Amy, do you need a Gmail account? I've got invites, and with that much space, you can e-mail yourself every draft of every story you ever write and have it as a net-based backup.
-Patrick |
| Hi folks. I seem to have had a hard drive crash over the weekend. Assuming the data is not recoverable (although I will try), I've lost all the e-mail addresses in my address book, so if I owed you an e-mail, please drop me a line at amysisson(-at-)prodigy.net. Or if you want to say hi and tell me how sorry you feel for me (and not say, "You didn't back up, you idiot?!)
Trying to keep a sense of humor about this.... ;-) |
| Hi, Amy. I forgot to answer the question you posted in my topic a few days ago. Yes, I have read some of Steven Gould's books. I really enjoyed Wildside, but I didn't like Helm quite so much. I haven't read any of his other works, though.
Another book set in Texas that I read recently and found very odd, almost surreal in fact, and quite engrossing was Sean Stewart's Galveston. You might give it a try sometime. :-) |
| Amy, drop me a note at jlake@jlake.com when you get a chance.
Jay Lake |
| Amy--
per a discussion that went over three topics-- e-mail me at mtrimm@austin.rr.com, since I don't have an addy for you. As far as the story in question--I'm Slipstream-Boy. It either works for the reader or it doesn't, but it takes traditional roots and runs with them. I'd love to see what you think of it, but I'll give you enough rope to hang me with as well--the old 'this isn't the kind of thing I read' is a perfectly acceptable answer... |
| Amy - no great story (or degree of creativity) involved with origins of nomer - SueO had already been taken on the Mill (many O'Sullivans, I suppose), so I went with O2, a "title" given to me when I worked for a bank. (Seems, that while the name Osthaus, and its variants, is uncommon, not so in banking. My cube was around the corner from a Sue Ostenheimer (not AMY Ostenheimer or NANCY Ostenheimer), and at the main branch was a Sue Osterhauser, so, in order for the mail delivery person and all others to get us straigt, she was SueO1 - tenture - and I became SueO2. It does have a nice ring to it.)
SueO2 PS - while mailing list chatterers often comment on the commonality of names like Michele and James and Bob, no one comments on the commonality of SUSAN. I had at least 2 other Susans in every class in school and often work with at least one, so ... Not a name I would have chosen, nor a name my father would have chosen (he wanted to name me Corliss) -- my mother was pushing for Judy, but a neighbor beat her to it, so my aunt suggested Susan. |
| Ah-I'm kind of doing that with a novel right now. It has 1 plot, no subplot, and it feels kinda scanty. |
| Melissa, no, I didn't start writing flash. But I tend to have 1-punch story ideas -- not sure what else to call it. By that I mean I have a single story idea, a kernel (sp?), but rarely know how to turn it into effective plot. So I have to painstakingly add plot, character, setting.... and since it's unpleasantly like pulling teeth, I tend to do as little of it as possible.
Mikal, yes, ArmadilloCon for sure! My husband and I will be arriving late Friday. I'll be starting a new job that week, and I don't feel comfortable asking to duck out early the very first Friday, so we'll have to drive up (over? I need to learn my TX geography!) after work. Sue02, when we meet at Worldcon you can tell me the origin of your nickname. I like it! Short & sweet. |
| Well, I should pay more attention to these author's topics:
Amy, I used to write very terse 2500 word stories -- and no one got them. I suspect I pared them down so much that I poked holes into them. Then, as part of my practice novel syndrome, I began to "add" and the word count grew. Add to this my tendency to work with "ideas too big" and ... My name, Susan Osthaus, will be on my world con badge, but I suppose I can add SueO2 to it somewhere. Again, looking forward to meeting you and a host of other Millers. SueO2 |
| Where'd you send the 8,000 word one, may I ask?
(I have an 8,800 word baby looking for a home.) |
| Same here--2000 words was my happy medium.
My last two stories? 5400 and 8000 words, respectively. (Makes it a LOT harder to write a story a week, I'll tell ya!) Le sigh... We hookin' up at Armadillocon? |
| Amy, I tend to write short too. Did you start out writing Flash? I got so used to cutting every possible word, it's become a habit. |
| Sue02,
I have the exact opposite problem -- I write short. Really short. I don't think I've written a story over 4500 words. Look forward to meeting you as well! Will Sue02 be your badge name, or should I look for someone else? ;-) |
| (moving this to Amy's topic)
Amy: I have browsed the stories in the Strange New Worlds anthology and have been noted that each successive issue has produced better and better (and certainly professional) stories. I have been impressed with the quality and really enjoyed the ones I have read. I have also discovered I am not much of a short story writer. I try, but my ideas are too large to easily fit inside 2500 words or so (or longer). Looking forward to meeting you at World Con. SueO2 |
| Lawrence,
Exhilerated and slightly intimidated (although not by anyone's actions or demeanor -- everyone was incredibly nice). But more of the first than the second! It was great to meet you in person. I stayed over until Monday, and it was dang lonely around that hotel Sunday night. Although they did have the great "Monty Sauron and the Flying Nazgul" skit at 6 p.m. It was written by Peter Daivd and had a guest appearance (via videotape) by George Takei. Worldcon is next and will no doubt be here long before I'm ready. -- Amy |
| So, Amy, now that you've survived your first convention as a pro, how do you feel? :) |
| Gregory, Thanks so much for the kind words! Um, I didn't know I had a topic, although I do remember typing that description at some point. Guess I didn't realize registering started an author topic.
Doughnut, first thing in the a.m.! -- Amy Amy Sisson |
| Just saw your "first sale" (which should actually be (FIRST SALE!!!!!!!) announcement in the R/A log. Fine work. It is a milestone.Now to follow it up with more sales so it doesn't become a millstone...
Have a doughnut. Two even. Best regards, Gregory Koster Gregory Koster |