doorwindowwall
A stunning collection of images sure to delight anyone with a penchant for architectural elements, this talented community, largely from New York, is hoping to attract new members from around the world. Featuring an eclectic variety of photos depicting doors, windows, and walls, there's an interesting balance of interior and exterior shots, many from urban streets, some from ramshackle rural farmhouses. Wonderful!

There's a kerfuffle going on in the SF side of the SFF world about short story pay rates. It's easy to find if you're interested. The question is raised for me, tho, is whither the urban fantasy short story market?

Obviously, there are anthologies out there--several FFF members are in some very cool collections. I like these conceptually.

What I don't know is, is there a website/magazine venue to get your uf shorts jollies? I know ostensively something like The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and Realms of Fantasy and maybe ClarkesWorld are outlets, but I've never perceived them as go-to places for uf/paranormal shorts. Is there one?

disclaimer: I'm not a short story writer and this isn't an attempt to get people to do my homework. I'm interested as a reader and curious from a market standpoint. I know there are websites and blogs out there, but are there so-called "majors?" You know, like when you tell me, I'm gonna feel stoopid for not thinking of them. :)

Timothy Karpinski. Portland. Oregon.



( +17 )

Though it was frigid outside with snow on the ground, I got my tree eyes project completed today! I made three sets: straight, right, and left looking eyes. I mounted these with small nails and then colored the nail heads black with a sharpie. Did I mention that there is snow on the ground! My hands are still cold!



( More pics of close-ups behind the cut! )

x posted

The White Card Project. Brought to you by Dummypress.

Unobtrusive white cards are printed with single words, phrases, thoughts and other lovely things and distributed throughout the world by you. Cards can be left on the bus, tucked into a book at your local store, left on the table at a coffeehouse, handed directly to the recipient, hidden somewhere, slipped in with a gift or a letter or kept in your sock drawer for the next 85 years.

The idea is to inspire thought, a laugh, a conversation, collaboration and a sense of discovery.

**FINAL EDIT Thu Dec 10 02:15:47 UTC 2009**

So there is the final update... Over the past day we have processed around 11 million jobs out of the 12 million that were in queue at that time. Please bear in mind that over this past day, more jobs for notifications are also created. So while the queue has been dropping, we are still not fully caught up at this point, due to backlog and new jobs. We have roughly 3 million jobs still pending that involve the notification system in some manner. We had hoped we could have fully cleared the queue in a day, but unfortunately we can't clear it too quickly, since we need the rest of the site to operate normally. From our current perspective on the amount of jobs that are left in queue, and how many it has processed thus far, we believe it will take around another 8 - 12 hours to process everything.

And finally some answers to some questions:

( Read More and Get Some Answers... )

freeskiers
While some of us long to escape the cold, dark stretch of winter for hot tropical beaches, for others, there's nothing quite like whoooooshing down those shimmering sugar alps. If you're fond of freestyle skiing, get ready to slide down the slippery slopes in good company. This passionate, international community shares travel/gear tips, anecdotes, photos, and videos for those who can't get enough of the sweet stuff.

seasonal_icons
Need some extra twinkle to decorate your place? Check out these dazzling holiday-themed icons. If you're an artist, you can post your own creations, provided you abide by the simple rules (which is to say, all cheer and no politicking). Be sure to comment and give credit if you wish to borrow a little spirit (no direct links, please). If you're feeling a touch of humbug this season, this is an instant shot of festivity.

handmade_gifts
High on creativity, but low on cash? You'll find tons of brilliant suggestions for do-it-yourself crafts sure to please everyone on your holiday gift list. Offering detailed instructions, photos, budgets, timelines, and active support, you'll soon turn spare remnants of fabric and time into cherished keepsakes. Be sure to search entries and read user guidelines before you post for help!

"Truffles"
November 2009
8.5"x10" pen on paper

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110465682644
polymer clay

Haven't posted here in a while. Hope everyone's well! I thought I'd x-post this writing related post from my lj:

One of the clean-up rules I use in writing is something I learned as a freshman in high school. I had an odd English writing teacher by the name of Br. Brian Casey. He was a short, stout hobbit-looking guy who was prone to screaming. Not hobbit-like. He also had one of the worst hairstyles a human male can wear: thick frizzy hair worn long to the base of the skull and parted on the side---starting from the top of the ear. It often flew out into the air on the other side of his head and he would paw at it through class. The class was focused on creative writing, and much of what he taught has stuck with me, the most important being the "Really Very Beautiful Rule." The rule, in short, is don't use those three words. They don't mean anything. They don't add anything.

What is the describable difference between "cold" and "very cold?"
What is the describable difference between "hard" and "really hard?"
If "beautiful" describes Megan Fox and Reese Witherspoon, what does that word mean?

Br. Casey's point was that we should think about how to describe things meaningfully to get our images across. Use similes. Use synonyms. Describe scenes that evoke images and feelings. Let the reader see what we see.

After I finish writing something, I do a word search for those three words. Br. Casey had zero tolerance, which, when teaching high school freshman howto write, isn't a bad idea. I don't go that far. I think the words work fine in dialog because people talk that way. I also think they have their stylistic uses. Probably the most important take-away, though, is that it prompts me to think "Could I have described this better?"

90% of the time, Br. Casey was right. At least on this point. That hair, though, was another matter entirely.

**EDIT Thu Dec 3 23:24:15 UTC 2009 **

Hey Everyone, we are about to run the last alter job that we need to on our database servers. This will effect userpics / scrapbook / vgift images for the next few hours. Have no fear, your images aren't lost, there is just a really intensive process running on the servers which store the information for mogilefs. Thank you for your understanding and all the LJ love...

Hey LJers,

I just wanted to let you all know that we are going to be performing some mogilefs maintenance over the next few days. We will be upgrading our current version to latest stable as well as changing some db config information to better handle the amount of files we are currently hosting. This shouldn't cause a big impact on site stability, but you may see some minor delays with userpic / scrapbook images appearing or other requests associated with our mogilefs. We would love to not have that happen, but unfortunately with some of the steps we need to take we have to cause a delay with images. I figured this was a better solution than taking down all of LiveJournal because well lets face it, we all need our daily LJ fix ;)

Thanks,

The following FFF titles released in November and were submitted by FFF members for showcasing. They're still out there, so it's not too late to pick up copies for yourself or someone else.

The December releases are posted on the updated FFF sidebar, just in time for holiday gift giving. :)

Happy reading/shopping!

S. J. Day

The backgrounds, borders, clip arts are great for: scrabooking, card design, invitations, stickers, jewelry, paper crafts, web design, small commercial products, t-shirt design or button design, plus many more.

Anna Silivonchik
"Winter dream " 2009. 60х50cm. Oil on canvas
silivonchik.ru/