Adventures of a Freelance Murray Slaughter - April 5th, 2003

So I told Ben where my lj was (like it's hard to find) and he proceeded to come and read things. And I had forgotten about, uhm, this entry. As Ben said, when he teased me about it on Thursday, 'that's a lovely shade of blush you're wearing.'

Mind you, it *was* true. Hadn't had the nerve to tell him (I think he's figured it out by now).

Thankfully I haven't been as prolific since moving to Toronto/not having the internet access as I was before, so I don't have to comb over my entries *too* much ;-

So I met with Rob Sawyer today, and I'm at the Toronto Public Library scoping my mail and journal out now.

There was a small problem in that, well...Rob had nothing to really say about my story. Said it was well written, thought it was publishable, and used the word 'charming' (honest), and in fact referred to it as 'this fine piece of writing' (I swoon, I swoon). He was surprised when I said it was a first draft (I wanted an opinion of words as they came from me and not after I'd edited them). He'd marked a couple of punctuation mistakes and 2 places where I used variants of the same word a little closely. Told me he'd had some people in where their pages were marked up all over the damn place, but that I hadn't given him much to work with in that field.

It's actually a first chapter, and he suggested I modify it to be a short story, with more of a closure to the end of it, then work on selling that while I work on the novel, which, if I get the short story published, I could then send out with 'this is an expansion of the story which I published in Blah Magazine in June 2004...' etc.

We wound up talking about the middle east, anti/pro Americanism, some SF military fiction I'm writing and where I might be able to send my story (which is quirky, but light and witty, so while it is apparently good it is possibly going to be a hard sell while people are looking for darker stuff with a more acerbic edge right now), because, well...after 20 minutes we'd discussed everything we could about the story, and I had him booked for an hour.

But it was sort of odd, because as he said he really didn't have a lot of pointers for me. Which, in and of itself, was really encouraging. Rob Sawyer's stuff is really good and thought-provoking, so that felt good

so I decided to walk from the library (College and Spadina) to the internet cafe of choice (Grey Region, a comic/game/toy store with internet stuff at Wellesley and Yonge). It's not a long walk, but not short. Anyways, I'm walking along at the intersection of Yonge & College, and I'm looking at the cop at the intersection, on the sidewalk. I've been looking at him for half a block, trying to figure out what he's doing (he's looking down Yonge and waving). Now, keep this in mind, I was watching him for half a freaking block. He never looked at me. I get to Yonge, I turn the corner when 40 POUNDS OF ICE DROPS OUT OF THE SKY AND KNOCKS MY GLASSES OFF.

The peace officer was, in theory, signalling people so that they wouldn't be killed. He just wasn't bothering to signal a damned thing down College.

Anyways, I had a massive panic attack. I mean, tears, shock, hyperventillation, the works. I can't actually say I've ever hyperventillated before, so that was new, at least. Scared the god damned bejeezus out of me.

But my glasses lived.

with everything else that's been going on around here (Ben, ice storm, Sawyer, etc.), I forgot to tell you that on Wednesday the doctor told me Chiya was dying and should be put down. She was down for the first half of the week, stopped eating even treats, and had become constipated, like Ashke had.

However, I needed some time to think about this, took her home for a night or two, and on Thursday she took a massive dump, and she's been eating again, yes, kibble, since, totally normally. I've caught her at the kibble dish repeatedly.

So if I'm lucky, that's that.

I'm so looking for a new vet.

(gods I'm posting tonnes today).

On Thursday, at the fannish pub night here in Toronto (and you're all invited, just let me know if you need more info), I was sitting with Ben, and I turned away for a moment to talk to our friend, Lance, for a moment. Turned back, and Nina is standing behind Ben, and *earnestly* asks ME, in complete seriousness, if she knows him enough to 'grope' him (she really just meant to hug him. Now, at this point, Ben and I have kissed all of once. Frankly, she baffled me, I had no idea why she'd ask me that, or ask it that way.

So I just shrugged, and said, "I have no idea. You'd need to ask *him*. I just have an option, not a lease."

what the world is going to think of Canada as a result of keeping out of the *ahem* 'Battle of Baghdad'.

I present you with this opinion article (read by next Wednesday, I'm not going to bother archiving it).

35 years ago, in Vietnam, the Vietnamese government was doing some bad things. They were using their people terribly, they were committing atrocities, they were, basically, being terrible. The U.S. intervened, and they intervened in a completely ham-handed and, in retrospect, inappropriate fashion. Canada stayed out, and indeed, turned a blind eye to draft evaders. In retrospect, Canada looks pretty damn good for staying out of Vietnam. I'm sure at the time people said much the same things. It's 13 days or whatever into this thing. You can't say 'it will be so obvious, historically...' when we're not a freaking fortnight into the war.

Being against the war is not the same as being against America. The raw fact is, I've spent my entire adult life there; I lived there 10 years, returning to Canada when I was 31. I love a number of Americans, and a lot of things about America, and I'm occasionally in culture-shock here, with a bit of 'it's not done like this where I come from' before I realize this IS where I come from, I've just been gone a lot.

Despite this, I am against this particular war. I'm not even necessarily against armed intervention in the Middle East, but *this* action is being fucked up from bow to stern.

I'm proud of my government, not because I believe in non-participation in this action, but *because* it takes a hell of a lot of courage to buck the U.S. when we're as entwined economically as we are. No, we haven't stayed as cleanly out as we want, but it's still an effort. And I think, historically, what we'll see is that, results of this action regardless, Canada is lauded for staying with the U.N. at a time when world government started to become more important.