(From the beginning of the novel I’m currently about halfway through)
It was Fish Day at Archie McPhee’s.
In another kind of store, Fish Day might have signaled a sale on salmon or fresh herring.
Here in the novelty store, against a backdrop of bins filled with rubber eyeballs and plastic beetles, it meant the appearance of the enormous Wheel of Fish.
The vast, obviously-handmade cardboard construction took up three square yards of space. The clerk kept knocking things off shelves as she maneuvered it among the aisles in order to let customers spin, leaving a trail of hula-shirted dashdboard dolls and a flock of pink plastic flamingoes scattered in her wake.
Each customer she managed to present it to spun, winning, in rapid succession, a rubber shark, a glow in the dark squid, and goldfish earrings.
Casey grinned, watching a teenager don the last item. This was what she loved about Archie McPhee. So wonderfully random.
Picking up a basket, she wandered the aisles, fingering band-aids printed with bacon, an action figure of ancient Greek philosopher Socrates, a golden mustache, an enormous plastic raven that squawked “Nevermore, Lenore” when you pressed a button. While she touched things, she sent her luck sense whispering out, tasting each object’s subtle flavor.
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"(On the writing F&SF workshop) Wanted to crow and say thanks: the first story I wrote after taking your class was my very first sale. Coincidence? nah….thanks so much."
~K. Richardson
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Recent Writing/Publishing Related Links, 4/11/2013
One of my favorite pictures of Elizabeth Cady Stanton (sitting) and Susan B. Anthony, late in their lives.On some other boards I frequent, the question of how to make a publication more diverse has been coming up. Here’s a couple of pieces related to that. The editors of Tin House and Granta discuss how they worked to make their publications more diverse. Anne Finch talks about similar editorial practices. For a breakdown of what the gender ratio was of book reviewers and books reviewed, see the 2012 VIDA count.
StumbleUpon Resources (For the Spring 2012 Blogging Class)
As we all know, the true purpose of the Internet is the collection of cat photos, and StumbleUpon is a great source of them. This is Raven, emerging from a box
StumbleUpon is a social bookmarking site. Users submit links to content they want to share, an act that is called “stumbling” the link. Other users can give a link a thumbs up or a thumbs down using the StumbleUpon toolbar, which a user can install when registering a StumbleUpon account. Content is tagged according to interests, and users randomly browsing content (also called “stumbling”) will see more popular content more often.
StumbleUpon is an addictivepastime, particularly for bored workers. They’re stumbling for stuff that they’re actively interested in, and I know as a writer that there’s plenty of engaged speculative fiction fans in that pool of users.
StumbleUpon’s paid attention to the growing number of people accessing the Internet through mobile devices, a trend that will only continue.
Basic StumbleUpon tips:
As with any social networking or bookmarking site, quality is crucial. An account that has a long-time record of interesting sites will do better than a new account with a handful of suspiciously similar links. Don’t stumble your own stuff more than occasionally (at most).
Set up a complete profile.
Stumble other people’s content.
Connect with other people by following them.
Join channels pertinent to your content.
Include images.
Use the service.
Use the Stumbleupon shortlink, as Kathryn Hawkins details here.
