Tuesday

So it’s turning out to be an interesting week.

It’s snowish, for one thing, or at least it was in the city, where it turned mostly into rain or too wet to stick. But here on Long Island, there was actually some accumulation. Not as much as in that photo up top — that’s from this past February, when it snowed a lot — but enough that I think this qualifies as our first proper snowfall of the season. We’ve had little bits and light dustings so far, but nothing really that would have lasted through the night.

We got a new coffee machine at the office. And while it’s very weird and perhaps needlessly complicated — little packs instead of little cups, no choice of serving size, and our mugs just barely fit — but it seems to make a better cup of coffee.

Two of the textbooks I’ve worked on published this week: one I was expecting and another I wasn’t, at least not for a couple of weeks.

I’m making some good progress on a short story, rather unexpectedly. Except tonight, when I was distracted by copyediting some stories for Kaleiodtrope‘s next issue, which it occurred to me this weekend is next month. (And I need to give authors time to respond.) I also spent some time re-creating a lost spreadsheet which had all of the stories and poems I’ve already accepted for 2014 and 2015. I essentially have the next six issues mapped out, or at least filled up, but reminding myself of which stories will fill those issues was good, as I’ll admit I’ve been feeling my enthusiasm for the zine lag a bit lately. It can feel like an expensive hobby that garners some very good but limited attention. I’m trying more ways of imprinting my own personal stamp on it. (Hence things like the fake advice column.)

Oh, and I haven’t mentioned that I will almost certainly be going back to the Banff Centre near the start of next fall. I still need to confirm the dates at work — still waiting til we can request 2014 time off — but my application for a self-directed residency was accepted. So that’s cool.

But, really, it’s all about that new coffee machine.