[metrics] Progress & reading material

Progress was made yesterday! Minimal amount of extra wordage on DOEDoGGT, but this has brought the first draft to a (very) rough and ready close. I shall sit on that for a bit while I do revisions on Wish Child and then attack it.

Does Old Earth Dream of Green, Green Things?

6176 / 6000

So yes, pleased with that.


Busy day today as I'm covering a desk for a colleague, and then interviewing all afternoon but it will bring me another day closer to my six day bank holiday weekend (what? why have one extra day when you can have three?) And it will be good to have that time off (and the house to myself (and the border collies and the cat)) as Amazon UK delivered! Waiting for my undivided attention are:

Transgressions by Erastes

False Colors by Alex Beecroft

The Turning Tide by Diana Pharoah Francis

The Trouble with Demons by Lisa Shearin


And on top of that, the latest issue of Interzone (222) has arrived so there are joy, joy feelings all 'round, basically.

Scribd launches Scribd Store

Of potential interest:

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(MARKET WIRE)--May 18, 2009 -- Scribd, the world's largest social publishing company, today announced the beta launch of Scribd Store, a first-of-its-kind e-commerce destination and publishing marketplace where anyone -- from professional publishers and authors to students and enthusiasts -- can upload and sell their written works to a readership of 60 million.

You can read the rest of the article here

It will be interesting to see how this will work - will people use this as an alternative to Lulu, or other POD/ e-download stores. I imagine some authors who already put shorts/ novellas on Scribd for free will continue to do so, but I wonder whether there will be an influx (or even a trickle) of people who haven't used Scribd before listing their work and selling it direct?

Any thoughts?

Fairytales & Interzone

The mental block I had in regard to my retelling of Beauty and the Beast has been resolved. (It's amazing what a cheese and pickle sandwich (Collier's and Branston, if you were curious) and a mocha in the student cafe can do to your thought patterns.) Along with the Sisters of Mercy. Thank God for the Pod of i.

Anyway, Beauty & the Beast - set in the future, on a spaceship. With peril, pride, and prejudice, and the odd threat of being chucked out of the airlock for bad behaviour.

And let's see if we can keep the damn thing short, shall we?


Also: Just read Aliette de Bodard's Ys in the current Interzone, liked it a lot - and I also want to go and visit Brittany now. Aliette's also no. 10 in the Reader's Poll top 20 for 2008! So way to go, Aliette!

Kim Lakin-Smith's tale in this issue of Interzone was also very compelling - a mixture of retro and futuristic which I enjoyed. I haven't read all the way through it yet, but it looks like a good issue so far.