erika, I love the name of tthe article! Fingers crossed.

First title I ever wrote that I never had doubts about. Careful crossing your fingers, AmyLiz. You risk looking like our target demographic. ;)

If this gets published, it may be the first mention of slash in a disability publication.

I love this.

I love this.

Heh. So do I.

Chiming in on the title-love. Good luck, erika! (Luck is allowed in publishing, right? It's only crazy theatre people [speaking as one] that don't believe in it, yes?)

I think so. Except I'm an infrequent reader of, like, bent.org, which is a magazine for disabled gay guys...they might be talking about it. But if I'm the first, this is funny, cause I'm not a slasher. I'm also not stupid, though. Dr. Wilson and House ride off in this car that is so sexy I would almost fuck it without anybody in it, and Wilson reminds House how to drive *stick*. I think that's that subtext thing the cool kids are talking about.

Woo Hoo Deborah! Now may your agent get whatever the maximum bucks that are practical for this.

Gar, what I think we're going for is a draw against advance. Basically, an "expenses" sum - could be a thousand dollars, could be twenty five thousand - that I'd get upfront, to ensure I make something off the project, whether or not it sells.

Then when it sells - and it will, considering who he is and what the market it - the draw would be deducted from my share of the agreed-upon advance.

Also going to see about royalties and subrights.

Seriously? I want a gorgeous proposal ready for his people to hand an editor by Halloween, and that means me doing at least a third of the book by then.

Oh, my. This is a week for book stuff, apparently.

I just got an email from my friend Victoria Zackheim (she wrote a very good novel called "The Bone Weaver"). She'd asked if I wanted to participate in an anthology, about women dealing with illness or ageing in their lives, and how it affected their writing.

I said, hell yes, and sent in a one paragraph blurb for consideration: Deborah Grabien developed a fictional protagonist based on her first great love, who suffered from chronic illness. But it wasn't until her own midlife diagnosis of multiple sclerosis that she really understood what living with illness of her own is all about. I promptly forgot about it.

Just heard from Victoria, the anthology sold to Seal Press, and they want mine.

Hoo boy. Major serial, but not really....

Animate

It's wrapped in gauze, layer upon layer. It's been there a long time, hardening, petrifying, ossifying, layers. For thirty years, I've been afraid to touch it.

I'm touching it now. Somewhere under all that dust, all that hard sharp stuff that was once soft wrappings, easy songs around my heart, an arm around my shoulders whose faintest touch could turn my soul and body to butter, there are eyes, and a mystery.

Layers off, one by one. I find myself expecting flame-ruined eyes, blackened teeth, ugliness.

Instead, I find me, the mystery itself, end of story: I died in 1976.