Liese, you always kill me.

Thanks, guys. I think it's just the subject matter I tend to have. That, and all the latent bitter! Heh.

Liese, I saw that with the sailors I was stationed with in Spain. All the clubs on base had slot machines and there were guys who would blow their entire paychecks on them in one night. It made me sick to see it.

I’m not a gambler, especially if you discount the rough”first step” that was my entry in the planet, and makes everything more of a game of chance than it should be, or my unpredictable artist’s pen that made it hard to imagine safely writing copy about widgets. They are the only exciting things about a measured , good-girl’s personality that never even served detention and was proud about that for an embarrassingly long time. But I’m not fifteen now, and I’ve got love and pain and life experience burning a hole in my pocket. It’s time to find something that I can put all my chips on, even knowing I could lose. That’s where the thrill comes from: risking everything before you have a chance to over-think. I just want to get in the game. But I’m not even sure which one.

Mid-life Non-crisis (100 words, excluding title)

I looked into her eyes across the cheap formica table, waiting for the appetizers. Glittering, magnificent, full of the promise of sultry wit and civilised bawdiness. Twenty years ago, I thought, I would have gambled it all right here, made the loud jokes and put on the hesitant bravado, tried for a time to be the charming knight in attention-getting armour. It wouldn't have worked, of course; a week later there would have been a "you're such a good friend" conversation, my sorrows drowned in a litre of vodka, waking to a sour stomach and a head blaring rationalised cynicism.

Low Stakes

What we're fighting for changes every day. Safety, security, freedom, humanitarianism, democracy, preventing civil war, ending the civil war. Or perhaps it never changes; perhaps it has never been about anything but oil, and money and power, and winning elections and showing Daddy who the real man of the family is. But the point, but the point, but the point, but the point point point point point is is is, - the gamble is with American and British and Iraqi and Afghani and maybe soon Iranian and Syrian kids. Other peoples lives. So why not keep doubling the bet until you win?

Thanks for a great run, Teppy. I'm sure we'd love to see a drabble or several of yours, when you get a few minutes.

Gambling:

"I don't gamble," she said, foot harder on the accelerator and a car in the oncoming lane.

"I don't believe in it," she glanced at ten minutes still on the parking meter before walking away from the car.

"There's no such thing as luck," she grinned as she flicked spilt salt grains over her left shoulder.

"I won't start," she averts her gaze from the slots as she passes by. "Because I know me, and if I ever let myself believe, I'll never stop. And it will be just one bargain with fate after another.

"And I'll lose them all."

Just read this at Cocktail Party Physics, and thought to post here. Wondering if it's Press-worthy?

Girls and Science: Call for Proposals

The Feminist Press, in collaboration with The National Science Foundation, is exploring new ways to get girls and young women interested in science. While there are many library resources featuring biographies of women scientists that are suitable for school reports, these are rarely the books that girls seek out themselves to read for pleasure. What would a book, or series of books, about science that girls really want to read look like? That is the question we want to answer.

You’ll find several requests for specific proposals at our website. One calls for scientific detective stories based on the life, research, and discoveries of real women scientists. Another calls for stories featuring real young women—aspiring gymnasts, ice skaters, actors, dancers--using a knowledge of science to help them become really good at what they do. A third recognizes how popular Manga and graphic novels are with girls, and asks for imaginative new collaborations between Manga writers and artists to create adventures about girls who use real science to accomplish their goals. If any of these three book ideas interest you, please check out our website (www.feministpress.org) for more information about deadline and how to submit proposals.

But we do not want to limit our exploration. If you are a writer and have an idea for a book or series of books that is guaranteed to get girls excited about science, we want to hear from you. You may want to create a girl detective series featuring a set of friends—from geeks to sports nuts to mechanical geniuses—each with a knowledge of science that helps in solving crimes. You may want to create a story about a shy girl who goes on field trips with her favorite aunt, a forensic anthropologist, and helps to solve problems as she learns to think like a Dr. Bones. You may want to tell the story of a young science fiction writer who needs to study different fields of science in order to create her adventures. Whatever your vision, if you can write like a dream and can create works that are guaranteed to instill a curiosity about science in girls and young women, send us your proposals. We want to hear from you.

All proposals will be reviewed. Several proposals will be offered standard contracts.

Publisher: The Feminist Press at City University of New York as part of a National Science Foundation grant. (see feministpress.org)

Deadline: October 31, 2006

Format: Proposals should describe the project, the plot, characters, and length. No more than ten pages please.

How to submit: Electronic submission (word doc) to fhowe@gc.cuny.edu with the subject line "Girls and Science." Please include in the body of your email your address, phone number, email address and a short bio. Please also attach a brief sample of your writing (about five pages), and a resume that includes information about publications.

More info at [link]

Thanks for that, Allyson! Stuff to think about.

Great drabble, Bev. The last line really hurts.

PopTarts:

In less interesting (more?) and far less edifying news, I have to write jacket copy for an erotic romance (insert raised eyebrows here) about a satyr. Yes, a satyr. And his *two* lances of love, one of which is magical and appears only for procreating purposes.

I may need to lie down for a bit. Or very possibly start drinking.