Blurred Line

Got back from California yesterday and spent pretty much all of Saturday working. Hell of a way to start a weekend. Anyhow, California was quite nice, even if the weather was only so-so (it rained the whole time), and I was working the whole time (the picture, complete with a helpful diagram to prove I was actually in California, was taken right before going into a meeting). Also, San Francisco pretty much closes up shop at 8 PM. What's with that?

Most of the trip, unfortunately, was spent in transit. So, some stories about that; first, both trips were pretty comfortable, since the flights weren't that full and I didn't have anyone beside me. I got to stretch out a little bit and watch a bunch of movies -- Air Canada has one of those little touchscreen monitors in the seat back with a nice selection of movies and TV shows to watch. However, they don't become operational until the plane is done its climb, which they really need to tell people early on. A woman sitting across from me kept pushing the screen, with more and more intensity, until I couldn't stand it anymore and I had to let her know that it wasn't going to work. Plus, I was a little worried the guy in front of her was going to bitch-slap her.

On the final leg of my return flight from Toronto to Ottawa, the guy who sat beside me was telling the woman on the other side about how he'd just spent a month abroad and was forced into an arranged marriage (some background here, he was an Albanian Muslim), and now he was going to have to tell the Jewish girl he was in love with that they couldn't be together. I felt bad for the guy, and even moreso when the woman he was telling the story to, who turned out to be one of the fundamentalist Christian types, made some vaguely anti-Semitic remarks, then spent the next half-hour talking about how incredibly hard it'd be for him and the strength with which she was going to be praying for him. By the time the flight touched down, the guy looked like he was going to burst into tears.

And, with complete disregard for any kind of segue, something I find really irritating as an editor: people who send queries or submissions that say things like "let's make some money together" or "send the check as soon as possible, I need some money". Yes, I understand that you're trying to be funny, but it just makes me feel cheap and dirty. Like a hooker. And not a Julia Roberts-in-Pretty-Woman-hooker. You can't buy my love, people. Well, you probably could, but you couldn't afford it. Not if you're a writer.


Profile Editor. Writer. 9-5er. Lord of the Dance. Blurredline.com Apodis Publishing Fusion Fragment cterrill(at)blurredline.com Buy Goodbye, Darwin Amazon.com Amazon.ca Chapters.ca Barnes&Noble.com Read it free in PDF Format Buy Blurred Line Amazon.com Amazon.ca Chapters.ca Barnes&Noble.com Read it free in PDF Format The Short Stuff "Learning Magic From Mint" - published May 2007 in Atomjack "Between Eternities" - published October 2005 at Speculative.ca "Smoke and Mirrors" - published June 2005 in Byzarium Submissions Log Total Subs: 25 Acceptances: 3 Rejections: 17 Withdrawals: 3 Subs Out: 2 Quality Blogs Scalzi's Whatever Dave's Blogography Bookslut The Struggling Writer SF Signal the0phrastus Paperback Writer Scribe's Writing Desk Nathan Bransford Lyons Literary LLC The World in the Satin Bag Book In The Oven The Word Perhaps We Learned Something... Words, etc. Archives March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 Et Cetera Cavan @ Last.fm Cavan @ LibraryThing Feeds Atom Feed RSS Feed	Saturday, February 07, 2009 - Photographic evidence; California flying; Like Romeo and Juliet, but more depressing; I'm not a hooker Got back from California yesterday and spent pretty much all of Saturday working. Hell of a way to start a weekend. Anyhow, California was quite nice, even if the weather was only so-so (it rained the whole time), and I was working the whole time (the picture, complete with a helpful diagram to prove I was actually in California, was taken right before going into a meeting). Also, San Francisco pretty much closes up shop at 8 PM. What's with that? Most of the trip, unfortunately, was spent in transit. So, some stories about that; first, both trips were pretty comfortable, since the flights weren't that full and I didn't have anyone beside me. I got to stretch out a little bit and watch a bunch of movies -- Air Canada has one of those little touchscreen monitors in the seat back with a nice selection of movies and TV shows to watch. However, they don't become operational until the plane is done its climb, which they really need to tell people early on. A woman sitting across from me kept pushing the screen, with more and more intensity, until I couldn't stand it anymore and I had to let her know that it wasn't going to work. Plus, I was a little worried the guy in front of her was going to bitch-slap her. On the final leg of my return flight from Toronto to Ottawa, the guy who sat beside me was telling the woman on the other side about how he'd just spent a month abroad and was forced into an arranged marriage (some background here, he was an Albanian Muslim), and now he was going to have to tell the Jewish girl he was in love with that they couldn't be together. I felt bad for the guy, and even moreso when the woman he was telling the story to, who turned out to be one of the fundamentalist Christian types, made some vaguely anti-Semitic remarks, then spent the next half-hour talking about how incredibly hard it'd be for him and the strength with which she was going to be praying for him. By the time the flight touched down, the guy looked like he was going to burst into tears. And, with complete disregard for any kind of segue, something I find really irritating as an editor: people who send queries or submissions that say things like "let's make some money together" or "send the check as soon as possible, I need some money". Yes, I understand that you're trying to be funny, but it just makes me feel cheap and dirty. Like a hooker. And not a Julia Roberts-in-Pretty-Woman-hooker. You can't buy my love, people. Well, you probably could, but you couldn't afford it. Not if you're a writer. Cavan blogged at 7:03 PM \| 2 comments	Progress Zilch! 0/0 Listening A.J. Croce - "Maybe I'm Amazed" My Music Reading Bright Lights, Big City - Jay McInerney My Library Watching Black Book: B Sweet and Lowdown: C Breakfast on Pluto: B Wishlist Bridge of Sighs - Richard Russo Rachael Yamagata - Elephants...Teeth Sinking Into Heart