Happy Bunsen Burner Day!

I looked in The Herald-Dispatch today and found out it's Bunsen burner day. Are they even used anymore? I hope not. They're dangerous as hell. I used it during my senior project "The Synthesis of Heavy Metal Dithiocarbamate Derivatives". I burned my hand on one when I was trying to adjust the gas flame. Evidently, the pressure had gotten too low.

For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, a Bunsen burner is a contraption with a narrow pipe sticking up that's attached to a round base. A rubber tube leading to a source of natural gas is attached to the base. These things were used in the old days to heat liquids in chemistry classes. Normally they were placed under an asbestos pad that had a beaker full of liquid on it. As I said, dangerous as hell.

Newsletter and Comedy Club

In addition to this blog, I write a bimonthly newsletter, EEKsclamations, that summarizes my writing activity. If you want more information on just my writing, visit my website http://home.zoomnet.net/~karennew and subscribe to my free newsletter. It's free! I should have it ready sometime next week.

Today I received a postcard for free admittance for 8 people to attend a local comedy club out of town. They must be hard up for business. I can see why. There isn't much to laugh about these days, what with job losses and health care costs rising. Even in restaurants, I don't hear people laughing and joking like I did when a fortune 500 company was based here.

How Not to Get Elected

While I was online, the doorbell rang. My dad and I answered the door. A political candidate handed Dad a flyer and told him to vote for him. I was totally ignored. Big mistake. The guy was a Democrat wanting support in the primary. I'm a Democrat while Dad's a Republican.

There's no way I'm going to vote for someone who ignores women and is rude. We don't need anymore losers in public office. If he wins the primary, I'll certainly vote Republican for that office in the general election. The person outweighs the party.

Appalling Limericks

The final guidelines have been produced and Appalling Limericks will open for submissions on April 1 (no fooling). Scott Virtes is the lead editor, while Ed Cox and I are associate editors. This is my first editing project at Sam's Dot. Should be fun.

Art to be in April Afterburn SF

I got an email from Wade saying that each section and the cover will have nice artwork. I'm glad. It really helps create a professional look.

I sent out three subs today. I try to submit something every week.

The rain's finally let up here. At least the cold weather hasn't killed the daffodils in the yard.

Mammogram Monday Morning

I just came back from my mammogram. It was much easier the second time. I knew where to go and I didn't have to have it done twice (they had trouble x-raying my left breast last year). Didn't take as long either. Morning appointments are better. Fingers crossed for another good report. All women over forty should get an exam. Yes, I'm that old. Don't laugh. Beats being dead. Like the quote from Frankensein Meets the Wolfman, "Life is short. Death is long."

Found out from Wade Kimberin, head editor of Afterburn SF, that a new artist is onboard. Mr. Nicic does good work. The first issue goes live this Saturday, April 1. My story "The Reunion" will be in the horror section.

Keeping my Pants Up

This morning I put on an old pair of jeans I had in my closet. When I pulled them up, I saw that the button was missing. I had one good pair left, but I wanted to wear those tomorrow. So I decided to see how long I could wear the buttonless ones before they fell down. It's been over five hours and they're still on.

Goes to show, you don't always need the things you think you need.

Business Cards and the Meaning of Previously Published

Yesterday I got my second batch of business cards. In the first batch there was a capital letter in my website address that wasn't supposed to be there. The print shop admitted the mistake and didn't charge me for the reprinting, even after I had the cards overnight. Maybe there are some honest people left on this earth after all.

I received an email from someone who actually reads this blog. After I got over the initial shock, I found out he wanted to submit to Afterburn SF. That's great. The only problem was he wanted to submit something already online. That, my friends, is an example of an item that is previously published. Since we're an ezine, we don't want something readily available online. If you write something and put it on a website, blog, or local paper, it's previously published.

We do take reprints, but we don't pay for them. We'd prefer something fresh.

Afterburn SF

A great new ezine, Afterburn SF, is going live April 1, 2006 (and I'm not just saying that because I'm the horror editor). We need science fiction, fantasy, and horror action stories for subsequent issues. The guidelines are:

Submissions
Afterburn is looking for action oriented, well-written stories in Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror, as well as appropriately corresponding artwork. Please check out the Guidelines, then send submissions to submissions@afterburnsf.com .

Guidelines
What we are looking for - As stated above, we are looking for action oriented, well-written stories in Science fiction, Fantasy, and Horror. We want action-driven short stories that present a complete, well rounded tale, with strong characterization, clear description, and clean prose. Length should be between 1K and 10K words, although we will consider longer works based on their merits. Two to three stories in each category (SF, F, H) will be selected monthly. The stories will run for a month, and then will appear in the archive until the author contacts us and requests their removal. Please make sure you own the copyright for any work you submit.
Reprints will be considered, as long as the author owns the copyright. We cannot pay cash for reprints at this time, but we will provide advertising space if desired.
We cannot accept fan fiction, because we don't like being sued.
Types of stories we want - For Fantasy, we want action-driven traditional fantasy stories - knights, dragons, sorcerers, elves, dwarves, magic swords, skulking thieves...you get the picture. For Science Fiction, we want exploding spaceships, aliens, cyber-ninjas, rogue AIs, space marines, etc. For Horror, give us vampires, werewolves, zombies, hoodoo hexes, and monsters.
How violent/sexual/dirty/grotesque do we want it? - Ideally, we want it at a PG-13 level. That's today's PG-13 level, which actually gives you a lot of leeway. We will let some R stuff slip in, as long as it is intrinsic and important to the story, if the story merits it. We will not publish gratuitous violent/sexual/dirty/smutty/grotesque for its own sake. We're not trying to be prudish or censor anyone, but if you are looking for erotica or gross-out stories, there are plenty of sites already out there. We want to focus on good, solid speculative fiction.
Formatting - All manuscripts should be submitted electronically, triple spaced in 16 pitch Haettenschweiler font, right justified, and with every other instance of the letter 'o' replaced by a 0. Okay, just kidding. Any normally formatted word document or text file will be fine. Please send as an email attachment to submissions@afterburnsf.com .
Response Times - We will make every effort to decide about your work as quickly as possible. Our response time should be under 30 days. If 45 days go by, feel free to query regarding the status of your work.

Artwork
What we need - We are looking for professional quality artwork that matches our action oriented theme. We will choose one piece each for the Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror section. Please submit your artwork as a JPEG attachment to submissions@afterburnsf.com .
Unfortunately, at this time we cannot pay for artwork. We will cross-link to anything you like, or give you a free ad, but we just don't have the cash. We completely believe that artists deserve to be paid for their hard work, just as much as authors do. As Afterburn SF grows and matures (and starts building advertising revenue to invest!), we hope to be able to pay for art.

Rights
Afterburn SF requests one-time English language electronic publishing rights for all works that we accept. We will publish your work online in our Ezine for a period of one month. After that we will place it in our archive, unless you request otherwise. All works will be removed from the archive on author's request. Afterburn SF waives all rights beyond those stated above. Bottom line - we are here to help authors. If you resell a story that we have already published - good for you! You wrote it, after all, and it should remain yours to use in any way you see fit.

Payment
In addition to the exposure your work's placement in Afterburn will generate, Afterburn will pay $10, via Paypal, for each story that is accepted. Alternatively, authors may choose to receive a free advertising space (side banner - see below) in that month's edition. We hope to be able to begin paying semi-pro rates for stories and artwork by summer '06.