Let’s see, today I:
- graded most of a huge pile of exams (some with quite a surprising degree of insight, including a few analyses of the peculiarities of American social anxieties as encoded in the TV show Lost; others, rather disappointing)
- critiqued a student article for the campus magazine (about the decline of open-air traditional markets in South Korea)
- wrote some content for an English textbook (essaylet title: “Spider Silk and Gecko Tape”)
But most exciting, I:
- proofread the galley proofs on my second story to appear in Asimov’s SF in 2008: “Dhuluma, No More.”
Yes, exciting! Really! It’s not often proofreading is exciting, but this was. Except of course I got the galley proofs late — that’s the postal service around here! — and tomorrow’s the deadline, so since I wanted to get it done on time, today was the day!
Anyway, my little corrections are mailed in, and I should email a couple of people to let them know they’ll be appearing later this year in print… in name, anyway. A few of my friends from grad school were tuckerized into the story, one as a Tunisian climate scientist, and the other as the camerman narrating the tale.
Oddly, the third friend of this particular group with whom I hung out very regularly in those days didn’t end up in the story, I think because in a previous draft, another friend took up the only other major role in the story. Though the third cameo would have very much suited the third friend, being the second friend’s ex-wife probably wouldn’t, so, there you have it. I shall have to write a story with Jessie in it another time, I suppose.
And if I haven’t tuckerized you, dear friend or reader or whomever you may be, it doesn’t mean I don’t think of you or miss you, especially if you’re a dear friend of old and distant days. There just hasn’t been a place for you yet. Patience. I’ll get around to you sooner or later!