Kelly McCullough's Blog, page 62

Let Me Serve As an Example

...of what not to do!

I need to get to work on my revisions, but first I have to rant about my own stupidity. I was looking at fiction markets for a friend, and I noticed that there were a few that will take reprints and I started thinking, "What do I have that I could consider sending in?" My mind went back to my very first published science fiction story, "Twelve Traditions" which appeared in the May issue of SF AGE (now defunct.) I have about two zillion paper copies of the magazine because, as I mentioned, it was my first EVA professionally published short story (technically I'd sold "Irish Dreams" to Dreams of Decadance, but at the time that mag was considered semi-pro.)

Do I have an electronic copy of that story anywhere?

Oh, sure, one of those little square disk-thingies probably has a version of it, but do I have one on any media I can ACTUALLY READ!!!????

No.

The ironic part of this? I should know better. My partner can laugh right into my face when she reads this. Shawn, if you don't know, is an electronic records specalist (among her many duties at the Minnesota Historical Society) and I've listened to her practice her talks about migration and all the things you need to do in order to keep your files readable in the future.

I should also note that my made-of-awesome archivist partner DOES, in point of fact, have CDs which we can still read on our tower computer that have back-ups of all my writing files from as far back as September 2001. Given that the short story I'm looking for was published in 1999, I had hope that I would have kept an electronic copy of it... but no. So all the blame falls squarely on my shoulder. In fact, I can very easily see me saying to myself, "Well, this is in print now. Why would I ever need another copy of it?"

I have a partial of it on my website, but not the whole thing. I think one of my weekend projects after I finish my revisions and do some more work on the NEW short story I've been plotting, is to sit down with the magazine and re-key the damn thing.

*sigh*

So, listen up, kids! Save your work. Then, when you get a new computer, transfer your old work. Some day you may be facing the same problem I am: you've got all those pen drives sitting in a dish, but the new interface in your brain only takes data crystals! The future is closer than you think!!!

Sea Monkey Diary: Day 2

I've been saving my nickels for this since Christmas.

Sea Monkeys: Day 2

I've been saving my nickels for this since Christmas.

High Art

In an effort to introduce high art and class to our blog, I offer you: Vincent Van Gogh's Vision of Mordor.

Sea Monkey Diary: Day 1

You'll never guess what I brought home from Newbury Comics today. Aside from this wicked awesome Newbury Comics bag, that is.

Sea Monkeys: Day 1

You'll never guess what I brought home from Newbury Comics today. Aside from this wicked awesome Newbury Comics bag, that is.

Silliness and Superheroes

In case you haven't seen this, SF Signals has a link to "How Thor Should Have Ended."

It's silly, but fun.

Gender in SF

Cheryl Morgan has an interesting post called "Checking the Gender" balance over at the SFWA site today. Among other things, she discusses the recent Guardian article that causes a small ripple in the community a while back.

What is SF?

An interesting discussion about the Nebula Award winning short story "Leviathan, Wherefor Art Thou" over at Barth Anderson's Facebook page.

Dinos!

A pair of dinosaurs discovered together up for auction -- an allosaur that had it's mouth clamped around the leg of a stegosaur. My birthday is in November, that's all I'm sayin'!