* What was the last story you read?

I'm currently reading Vanessa Gebbie's short-story collection "Words From Glass Bubbles", which she was kind enough to send to GUD as a review book, and the most recent story I read was "On the Edge". Vanessa writes apparently straightforward stories that are full of meaning, and I usually find I need to put the book down after each one, and have a think, then come back to it :).

* What was the last poem you read?

I recently read a poem by John Masefield because it was quoted in G.H.P. Muhlhauser's "The Voyage of the Amaryllis". Muhlhauser doesn't give the title...lemme see...ah yes. Roadways.

* What was the last comic you read?

I have xkcd's feed on my friends page, and the latest one was this.

* What was the last movie you watched?

Uh, the Amityville Horror remake, last night on tv :). No, I'm not proud of it! But it was better than the original in many ways. More, umm, believable?

* What song are you listening to now? Say something about it--what it means to you, who introduced you to it, something like that.

After some months if not years of wilfully hiding from me, my Reveal album (REM) suddenly turned up today. I slammed it in and it's been on infinipeat ever since. The current track is "All The Way to Reno (You're Gonna Be a Star)". I discovered REM when Automatic for the People was released, and "Everybody Hurts" was constantly playing. After buying the album, I discovered that there were other songs on it that I liked better. And I've been a solid REM fan ever since. Their music batters my brain until it stops thinking about things it shouldn't, or gets me up and dancing around, or makes me think, or sometimes all three at once (and more). I'm even a "friend" of theirs on MySpace--how fangirly can you get!

* What's your guilty-reading pleasure?

Umm?

Er?

I don't have to own up, do I?

(in very small letters: Georgette Heyer's Regency Romances)

* Say something about the last poem you wrote!

I don't write much poetry, but it just so happens that Poor Mojo's Almanac(k) recently published my poem "The Bankside". Unfortunately, I don't have a working link to it at the moment! But that was the first poem I'd written in years, so it was especially gratifying to find a home for it.

* Say something about a story you're writing now!

I wish I could.

* If you were a fictional character, who would be writing you?

Thomas Hardy. The bastard.

* Last story you recommended to someone?

Honestly, I can't remember. I sent my dad a copy of Connie Willis's "To Say Nothing of the Dog" recently--because I loved it so much, and thought he would, too--does that count?

* And a link to your favorite magazine, because they probably need your help. ;)

You know who that has to be, don't you? GUD!

* Lastly, link to a friend's copy of this quiz!

Here be kaolin

There are several important milestones in the creation of a magazine from a pile of slush.

Today, GUD passed yet another on the road to Issue Three. All the final edits on the stories and poems for the issue have been completed. Yay!

It all started when we closed to slush at the beginning of this year. The stories and poems were painstakingly stripped of headers, footers, author information, and any other stuff that had sneaked in, then standardised to the format we use for copyediting and to house style.

Then the first edit began. As Three is my issue, I did the first edits--checking that house style was enforced, examining spelling and grammar, looking for plot holes and simple honest mistakes, etc. Then Julia, GUD's founding copyeditor, took over for the second edit.

In some ways, the second edit is harder. The second copyeditor has to ensure that not only has the first copyeditor caught everything there was to be caught--and you can bet she never, EVER, has--she also has to make sure the first copyeditor hasn't introduced any new problems--and you can bet she always, ALWAYS, has. On top of that, Julia fact-checks each piece, takes a good hard look at the language, liaises with the authors, and generally makes an invaluable contribution to shaping the stories and poems into the best they can be.

Then they come back to me, packed with comments and deletions and insertions that need to be evaluated, acted on, accepted and/or rejected. That done, there's a final read-through just in case any new, new mistakes have appeared. Which they often have.

That's the stage we've just completed. Whew.

After that, it's on to the .pdf stage. That's the job of the layout department (ie Sue). But that's a whole 'nother story :).

This year's WisCon is being held at the Concourse Hotel in Madison, Wisconsin from the 23rd May to the 26th--and GUD is going to be there.

Read more.

The Fix has reviewed GUD Issue 2.

With fifteen stories, this magazine is the size of a full anthology. Its scope is wide enough to please many tastes, as well as convince readers to immerse themselves in stories normally not to their tastes! And there is also a good helping of poetry that is diverse, yet shows a common creativity and fascination with language.

Just look at them. All those GUD magazines, hot off the presses and looking for new homes where they'll be, yanno, appreciated. All those stories and poems waiting to be lovingly read. All that art hoping for warm, caring eyes.

Give GUD a home today!

Well, not quite :). Issue 3 is now closed to fiction, scripts, poetry, comics, but still open to art and reports.

Art should demonstrate a sound grasp of composition, and should riff on the Mechanical Flight theme rather than directly illustrating it. Reports should discuss complex and/or technical issues in accessible terms, but offbeat is better than a rehash of generally available information.

Space is tight, though, so send quickly before we're filled. And spare a thought for the Instigator, who's short-listed more fiction than she can possibly fit into the magazine, and is now faced with some heart-rending choices.

Issue 3 will be the first-ever issue of GUD to have a theme. But don't worry, even if you're not enthused by Mechanical Flight (although why wouldn't you be?), there'll be lots there for you to enjoy. Gorgeous poetry, some reflecting the theme, and some not, and entertaining Flash fiction that's never been near the theme in its life. Art that's always beautiful, and sometimes strange.

So, now it's a question of whittling down the shortlist, sorting out the layout and finding a cover. Meanwhile, the Issue 4 Instigator is waiting for submissions!

See this book?



If you're in the EU, you stand a chance of winning a copy. Check out the comments on my review to find out how :).

(Closes 17th January, midnight Pacific Time)