Publication: "Bagels and Blood"

My short story, "Bagels and Blood", is now live at Big Pulp.

EDIT: Due to changes made to my story without my knowledge or permission, this link has been removed.

No Please No

Most horrible thing to hear when you're being rolled into the ER, literally blind from a migraine:

A screaming baby.

"Croup," his mother was bellowing to admitting, "He gets croup four or five times a year."

I have since looked, and the dictionary defines 'croup' as trouble breathing.

You may want to abandon your infant on the nearest mountain if he won't stop screaming, but the mere fact that he can wail like that kind of throws out the 'trouble breathing' diagnosis.

I spent five hours in the ER.

The other random highlights I'll share for your entertainment are--

When the doctor suggested I have children, to prevent more migraines. This will forever be a WTAF, for so many bitter reasons.

and

When a nurse totally flipped her shit and began screaming at the Spousal Unit when she was reminded not to use the IV machine. IVs can drip by gravity, or there is a machine that can be used to pump them faster. This machine makes more noise than a rusted out industrial dishwasher. With a migraine breaking my brain out of skull, I will involuntarily try to thrash through the wall to get away from the machine. So, gravity works. But this nurse, I kid you not, was screaming that gravity did not have her specific rate, and then she kept shouting fine fine fine over and over. It was almost as bad as the machine, except her random hissy fit had no medical purpose at all.

I am still migraining. White flashes are going off over my vision, constantly, as if I'm surrounded by invisible paparazzi. Much like the high pitched noise I hear, it's extremely painful, and it's not 'real'. It's just the swelling in my brain pushing on the optics and my ear canals.

Dollard

I'm exactly at halfway through transcribing The Romance of Dollard for gutenberg.

It's a classic example of jotting 100 pages without saying a damn thing. Then, at random, just now, things just took a sudden turn for the really strange. Yes! Stay there! And please @god can we have a plot or something?

I'll take instructions on building a canoe, anything.

Actual Medical Quote

"What's wrong with throwing up?"

--from A Doctor.

No, really.

Shockingly, not one I'll be seeing again.

Posted to Gutenberg: The Lily and the Cross

Another book saved.

James De Mille - The Lily and the Cross has been posted to Gutenberg.

Random Notes:

This one went fast, because it was a shorter book. But the racism made it really unpleasant. Oh, you'll read worse. Especially on any random internet comment page. Still, it was present much more than in other De Mille titles, so I wasn't prepared for the ick.

I wasn't expecting slamming of the French either, seeing as how the subtitle is 'A tale of Acadia', but I guess De Mille had some serious culture / language bitterness that he needed to vomit somewhere. That, or he just knew his audience. But ew.

Also, for the first time, his girls were really lame.

One of the things that I find so interesting about De Mille is he clearly thinks girls in his time got shafted. How stupid and unfair it is, to have your life and general fortune decided by men who don't give a crap about you, to be treated as property or a burden, is pretty much a point of endless rage for most of his heroines. And please find my another classic writer who has written his chicks ARMED.

Yes, I will always choose the gals who shoot over the ones who faint.

But in this one, everybody was lamejuice.

Except the guy who gnawed on turnips.

The ending is also...weird. He goes for a wrap up out of nowhere, in about 500 wrds. I suppose he needed that next check NOW.

End point, it's still De Mille. Even when he's crap he's better than whatever else you're reading.

The Bleachers of Infamy

I just read--unwillingly--that Taylor Swift is 20.

WTF. I thought she WAS fifteen, so her music was totally understandable, because, gods forgive us all, if we released music in our early teens, it would probably sound like this.

But at 20???? OMFG. Creeper! Or a social, mental, and emotional cripple who deserves endless pity for having an unfortunate last name that can be appended with not-so?

Nah, creeper.