kaleidotrope

In 2008, I…

• Began, in earnest, my job as Developmental Editor. When I’m knee-deep in a manuscript with a red pen or blue pencil, when I’m looking at what the competition does and how we can do it better or do something else, that’s when I really feel like an editor.
• Published two issues of Kaleidotrope, to generally favorable reviews, including a brief mention in the Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror. I’d love to see a story or poem from the zine reprinted there in the next edition, or at least included among the honorable mentions. I’d love to see the zine reviewed in more places, like at The Fix or the Internet Review of Science Fiction. Heaven knows I send them copies. I think I need to step up the zine a little in 2009, looking at better ways to market it, and looking at ways I can maybe start paying my contributors more money. I’m very excited about the next issue, coming out in April, and already have a lot of material for future issues.
• Suffered a herniated disc. Of course, it’s not the disc so much as the nerves it presses in on that cause the pain and discomfort. In my case, that’s L5-S1, and despite three spinal steroid injections and many weeks of physical therapy, I’m not free from pain half a year later. It’s usually very manageable, however, and nothing that’s actually incapacitated me. I do miss being able to sit comfortably in chairs. I think I need to keep at the stretching every day, and maybe look at some additional strengthening exercises I can do. I liked my orthopedist, but I’d like to avoid ever seeing him again all the same. I’d like to avoid surgery altogether if I can help it. (Right this minute it’s pretty painful, I must say.)
• Traveled a little. I went to Los Angeles at Labor Day to sightsee and watch bad movies with friends — some of whom I met for the very first time in person — and then to England in November for work. We spent a gorgeous weekend in Miami in January, visiting my sister, who was down there at the time, and I spent my birthday down in New Orleans at a conference. I had to cancel going to Readercon in July, however, and would have liked to have seen the World Fantasy Convention in Calgary. But who knows what 2009 holds? It’s already been suggested I’ll be going to Chicago for business in March.
• Voted for a black man for President. Who won. Felt really damn good about that.
• Moved this blog to WordPress. I want to change the template, though.
• Continued to write, but not enough. I hope to improve on that in 2009.
• Learned that my sister is getting married. My congratulations again to her and Brian!