The past two weeks at Realms of Fantasy have possibly been the busiest ones I've experienced since the first two weeks after Warren bought the magazine.  First I received copies of the latest issue.  Then Shawna did her latest buying round for the magazine, which cleared out all the fiction still stuck in limbo after Warren bought RoF.  The next day we reopened to submissions.  Lots of little questions and queries understandably resulted from this.  Meanwhile, new fiction meant starting the hunt for our latest artists and before I could do that I needed to reread these stories and refresh myself.  Somewhere during this time our nonfiction columnists also handed in their latest columns, which always equals a busier time for me.  Along the way, there were the countless little things for these various departments that always seem to pop up during the week.

And oh yeah, earlier this week we decided to launch a new column.  So in addition to everything else, I've also been considering applications from  number of enthusiastic and interested parties.  

Now normally I would shrug and say no big deal, this is fun.  And it's still not really a big deal, and it is still a lot of fun.  But I've been killing myself to wrap as much as possible for the magazine before I leave this Wednesday for the World Fantasy Convention.  I won't be getting back until early the morning of November 3rd, and I wanted to avoid the work piling up while I was gone.

And here's the kicker: I've been sick since last Monday.  I'm still not completely recovered, but I'm getting better each day and I'll be going to WFC come hell or high water.  But man oh man, could I have picked a worse time to get sick?  (well yes, I guess I could have gotten sick AT WFC--that would suck!)

The good news is that while it took a tremendous amount of effort (due to the whole sickness thing) I've now wrapped up just about everything on the docket for RoF.  Just  a couple of things are left to handle, and these I can take care of when I'm back.  All the most pressing stuff has been tended to.  And now, FINALLY, I can start thinking about WFC. 

Woo hoo!

So who's going?  Who should I be looking for while I'm there?
  

Sigh.

I can imagine how bummed the staff is.  Really, I can.  My sympathies to all of them.  They clearly worked hard on this magazine and cared about it.  Some folks in this industry seem obsessed with print vs. internet venues when it comes to spec short fiction, and argue the merits of one vs. the other, to the point that that some of these venues are almost spoken of as if they're the enemy.  I think this attitude is nonsense.  I root for both mediums to flourish and am sorry to see Baen's Universe going under.  I'd heard some rumors at Readercon, but was crossing my fingers it wasn't true.  Alas. 

I have nothing more to say to you tonight!

Hi Folks,

I wanted to point out that Ian Randal Strock, the editor at SFScope, is actively soliciting links to his site, as he believes it would be good for the site's success.  He's also setting up a links page for SFScope. If you want a link, you should contact him to see if this is possible.  SFScope has become my first stop to get the latest speculative news, so you anyone interested in helping this news service thrive should consider these offers.

So  I have a very simple question for the LJ Hivemind after I share with you my tale of woe and triumph.

First the woe:

My computer bugged out.  I was composing an email to Shawna when my account suddenly logged me out for no apparent reason.  I tried logging back in but I was stuck in this eternal repeating clicking looping as the computer told me it was "redirecting."  So I figured Gmail just had to work out one of its usual glitches.  I visited some other sites, came back to Gmail, but it still wouldn't let me go in.  So I did the old computer restart.  Nothing.  A little bit of experimenation revealed I could visit any other site without a problem.  But I couldn't even get far enough into Gmail to enter my username and password.  So I tried some virus scans in the hopes that would work.  Stirke two!  Then I tried resetting the internal memories to an earlier date.  You're out!  Then I shared my gmail password with one of the parental units and said try logging into my account from their computer.  Success!

So ...the problem was that I couldn't access gmail, but only from my computer.  I spent about three-and-a-half hours banging my head against the wall as I tried to get around this, annoyed at the prospect of having to pay $$$ to fix something so stupid!

Next the triumph:

I've been using Internet Explorer all along with this machine.  So suddenly a lightbulb went off in my head and I decided to download Mozilla Firefox and try logging into gmail through that.  I didn't think it would work, but I knew it wouldn't mess up my poor machine further.  Just to be safe, I didn't import any of the cookies or other tidbits to Mozilla.  And it worked!  I am not the most computer savvy individual in the world, so you have no idea how extraordinarily proud I am that I fixed this on my own.  Booya!

Now the question:

All right, how do I tabbed browsing through Firefox?  I live on tabbed browing, but I don't see how to do it here.  Help?  I know most of you know the answer!  I'm sure I could figure it out eventually, but my brain has already exceeded its computer logic quotas for the week by cracking this previous puzzler. :)
 

After some deliberation I've decided to drop my LJ slushmaster handle.  Henceforth you will be visiting http://douglascohen.livejournal.com.

*Sniff*

I'll miss my old handle, but this feels like the right move.  While I do blog about other topics, this whole livejournal has always revolved around my work as Assistant Editor at RoF, of which the slushing was a significant part.  But in the past month it's become plainly obvious that this livejournal now revolves around all of my work at RoF, which now includes the nonfiction and art departments.  Slushing is just one fun facet of this glorious trifecta of jobs I'm now juggling, and using the handle of slushmaster doesn't reflect my other work.  I want to make it easier for people to find this blog who aren't necessarily writing and/or submitting fantasy fiction.  Coupled with the fact that I'm already using my real name in my blogging gig with Tor.com and that I've received these promotions rather recently and other tidbits not worth going into, we find ourselves here.

I'll still be maintaining my slushmaster email of slushmaster@gmail.com, so the name won't be disappearing entirely.  Still, I'll miss my old handle.

Goodbye, slushmaster!  We had a great run.     

You've probably noticed I don't post much about the personal life here.  That's intentional and I mean to keep it that way.  I'm also not too interested in posting opinions on inflammatory topics, because I don't want to get sucked into flame-wars.  I've had my fill of those, thank you very.  And while I'm fine with the content I've been posting, it occurs to me that on this, the third anniversary of my blog (I remembered this year!), I would ask you, dear readers, if there is anything you'd like to see more of on this blog.  Requests to blog about the personal life or attempts to solicit opinions on politics, religion, etc. shall be ignored.  While it's possible nothing will change, all other suggestions will be given due consideration.    

If anyone needs to get in touch with me concerning RoF (or anything else), I'll be out of town tomorrow and expect to have limited internet access.  I should be back late Sunday afternoon/early evening, though there's a good chance I'll be rather tired, so don't be surprised if I don't get back to you until Monday.  FYI, these plans were in place before I received my promotion, or I wouldn't be missing a day with so much stuff still left to do with RoF.  But it is the weekend, and my friends really want me to go, so I'm going to go ahead and allow this. :)

In the past 39 hours I've spent 5 of them sleeping.  The fun started last night at midnight when I saw the Watchmen premiere.  Got to sleep around 4 a.m. before getting up at 7 a.m. for jury duty.  Got dismissed around noon (and don't have to serve for another 6 years) and passed out from 2-4 p.m.  Then a little later I met crackingdes for dinner in Manhattan.  I love hanging out with my slush survivors, and this was no exception.  Good eats, good conversation/laughs, and booze.  How can you go wrong?  Great getting to know you, Des.

BTW, you can read her story in the latest (and last) issue of RoF.  It's called "Sand Castles."  While Des wasn't my last slush survivor, she is my last published one.  And since hers is the last story in the issue, this also makes her RoF's last published author.  Such a--what's the word?--interesting?  odd?--thing to have pointed out to you.

Des also asked me why I'm not on Facebook.  I told her that my worry is maintaining a Facebook account in addition to a livejournal account would make me fritter away too much time.  She made a compelling case though, so I'm considering it.  Thoughts?  All are welcome.

Anyway, now I'm back at home.   I'm not that tired, probably because I'm overtired.  Think I'll go to sleep anyway, since I'll just regret it later if I don't.  I anticipate doing a whole lot of nothing special tomorrow, just some writing and reading and such.  But it's good to know I can still burn the candle at both ends when necessary ...especially since I'm going to Foxwoods or Atlantic City next weekend. :)