The good morning, good night thread

[desertwomble]

Nice one, Geoff - but just remember, the filling in the sandwich is tastier than the bread (if that doesn't sound too weird).

DW

[Geoff_N]

Continuing my roll - okay, just one acceptance this year so far - my ARIA: Left Luggage won first place in the P&E Readers' poll for best SF novel of 2012. I was up against 84 other books. Thanks CDoomers for your votes. Probably the best thing for my voting was the support of Les Floyd - who is a latent member of Cafe Doom - who tweeted my request for votes to his 108,204 twitter followers many times!
Waiting for the emblem before blogging and annoying everyone else with it now

Tally page is at http://critters.org/predpoll/final_tally_novelsf.ht

[delboy]

Great news, Geoff!! Well done, well deserved 

Just checked my little black book and it's 18 month since I've had an acceptance...

I don't think I've ever been on a roll, but I still have a couple of things out there so at any time my inertia might end and I might be on, at least, a twitch.

Kind regards
Derek

[marc_chagall]

Congrats, Geoff! I think I ended up about 7th in my category, which considering I hadn't thought to tweet Les about it, isn't too bad.

[Rev. Austin]

Congrats, Geoff!  You too, Delph!

I'm managing to stick to my new discipline of putting aside a few hours every evening to write (well, I'm not FAILING at it haha) and have got a few ideas on the go at once. It's been a while since my last acceptance, but I haven't subbed anything in ages - and the last thing I did didn't get sent because my email was playing up 

I've also started looking back at possible markets to write for/sub to, and in this regard, I think it's fair that duotrope now charge - the amount of times their 'donation' meter thing was in the red...besides, there's still Ralan and, you know, Google, people can use to search for submission details 

[Ed]

So much for surfacing after the cold -- went down hill again. Been laid up for over a week now. Turns out I've got pneumonia. Never had that before, and I can't say I recommend it.

[marc_chagall]

Had it myself, years ago. Temperature rocketed and I went a bit doolally for a while, but I got over it. 

Plenty of rest, keep warm, and look after yourself. I was in hospital with it, and their fancy drugs weren't doing much so they tried me on good old-fashioned friar's balsam. It worked.

[delboy]

Fingers crossed you get better soon, Ed. Pneumonia is no fun at all.

and I went a bit doolally for a while

When I had it I was dosed up on all sorts of stuff and one night I had a dream about a horse winning a race. It was Cheltenham race week and lo and behold a horse with that name was running the next day (I assume I'd seen the name in the paper). Naturally I put a wager on the horse...

[Pharosian]

So much for surfacing after the cold -- went down hill again. Been laid up for over a week now. Turns out I've got pneumonia. Never had that before, and I can't say I recommend it.

That's terrible, Ed! It seems you've had more than your share of bad luck lately. How are you getting on after the tooth incident? Did you get the feeling back?

Hope you start feeling better soon.

[Ed]

Thanks for the sympathies, guys. I don't think the antibiotics are working, because I don't feel much better, but I'll give them a couple more days. My faith in them isn't helped by the fact the paperwork for them specifically says, "Care should be taken when prescribing this antibiotic for pneumonia, as it may not work." The doc actually said he had prescribed them for another guy with pneumonia and they hadn't worked for him, but I thought no more about it until my wife read out the side effects sheet. I never read the sheet, otherwise you end up with everything on it plus a few more

I know what you mean about the vivid dreams. I had a couple of very strange ones during my delirium.

Donna -- nope, my tongue is still numb. It doesn't help when you don't feel like eating anything to start with. Everything tastes and feels like cardboard in my mouth. No fun at all. I think I might feel some change in it, though. I felt some hot liquid at the back a couple days ago, which I don't remember feeling before, so IU haven't given up hope yet. I'll know for sure whether it's going to be permanent in about six months.

[delboy]

Amazing artwork by this guy:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-21234214

Pencil drawings that look very much like photos.

Superb!

[Geoff_N]

Thanks for the congrats peeps - I'm still floating. Not floating too high cos while Ed has had it bad I had a less severe lergy. Throat like red-hot barbed wire, body hot and cold, and I've had to prepare a presentation.

I am part of a small team of BSFA writers giving presentations at BAM (British Academy of Management) on Feb 6. I'm nattering on how some scence fiction could lead to technological innovations and how SF can explore social consequences blah blah. Should be fun. I'll report back.

[Ed]

So much for surfacing after the cold -- went down hill again. Been laid up for over a week now. Turns out I've got pneumonia. Never had that before, and I can't say I recommend it.

That's terrible, Ed! It seems you've had more than your share of bad luck lately. How are you getting on after the tooth incident? Did you get the feeling back?

Hope you start feeling better soon.

Sorry Pharo -- I just realised I called you Donna above I have no idea why. I'm not functioning very well at the moment.

[starktheground]

Poor Ed! Don't feel bad . . . I never function well.

[Pharosian]

Amazing artwork by this guy:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-21234214

Pencil drawings that look very much like photos.

Superb!

Thanks for sharing that! Those portraits are terrific!