In which I require the internet

On October 24, 2015October 24, 2015 By Luther M. SilerIn Stories5 Comments

Calm_890c76_254933 Longshot here, as Google has already failed me, so I need somebody who reads as much as I do, but has a better memory.

I’m trying to track down a short story. I suspect it’s been at least a decade since I’ve read it and considerably longer is entirely possible. It may have been as long as a novella, but I’m thinking no more than 5-6000 words.

The basic premise, to the best of my memory, was that a wizard’s power was in some way connected to being able to keep something secret. Every magic user had a secret of some kind, and if someone else found your secret, something bad would or at least could happen. I don’t recall the details. Anyway, that was the scenario, and the big twist at the end of the story was a wizard using an illusion spell to convince a woman (who may herself have been a wizard, or may simply have been a spy for one) that she’d spent the night in a torrid lovemaking session with him.

His secret was that he was a woman, you see. That was the big twist at the end. One presumes that the torrid lovemaking session involved some illusionary man-penis, but I don’t remember the story being quite that explicit.

My best theory is that I read this in Dragon magazine at some point, which means that it probably came out in the late eighties or early nineties, but again it could have been later than that. I never really did a lot of reading of short stories, so that’s not too awful a guess, but if I’m wrong I’m completely out of ideas.

Anybody remember this? I’ll send you an autographed copy of the Luther Siler book of your choice if you can figure out what the story was called and where to find it.

(EDIT: Holy hell, Little Red Pen found it:

Whining: do not read

On October 18, 2015 By Luther M. SilerIn idiocy3 Comments

whining4 Blech.

An announcement: I’m tired of basically the entire world right now, particularly the American politics and Internet parts of the world, but also including wide swaths of the entertainment and publishing and technology industries. I have this weird Need for a New Thing going on right now that might indicate that capitalism has finally carved an unfillable hole in my soul and may just indicate that I’ve spent most of the last three weeks sitting around the house and not doing much.

Also possible: that I’m just Sundaying. My doctor has already told me I’m not going back to work next week, meaning the next day that I need/get to leave the house to earn a living will be a week from Tuesday, since we’ve got a fall break coming up next weekend. I need, somehow, to put together lesson plans when I have no real idea what’s gone on in my classroom for the next two days and don’t actually have any textbooks or materials handy. That’s going to be interestingly tricky, and by “interestingly tricky” I mean “I very well may try to have one of the other fifth grade teachers write my lesson plans for me.” Which I’m sure they’ll be very happy to do, seeing as how I’ve been totally useless to anyone I work with for the entire month of October.

I need to find something to do today other than kvetching and staring at electronic screens. I have a couple of fiction projects that I want to work on this week but I feel like I probably ought not to worry about them today in favor of… something else. Anything else. I just dunno what.

What’s new in your life? Gimme something interesting I don’t know about that I need to check out.

In which I should be working or in bed or maybe working in bed, I dunno

On October 12, 2015 By Luther M. SilerIn idiocy3 Comments

I didn’t sleep well last night. I don’t say that as an intro to discussing my physical or mental health, just noting that I’m tired– y’know, like anybody might be. I’ve been sitting in my living room either staring glassily at my computer or trying to get minor things done and so far have managed a few sentences of fiction and not much else. I can’t go anywhere on the Internet because I know there are Walking Dead spoilers out there waiting for me and I won’t be able to watch last night’s episode for another three hours or so. If I’m still awake.

(Realizes he hasn’t actually bought this season of TWD; fixes that problem.)

(Writes a paragraph, deletes it.)

I may need a nap.

Hello internet

On May 20, 2015 By Luther M. SilerIn Uncategorized4 Comments

Taking the night off; talk among yourselves. Amongst yourselves? Screw it, just talk.

In which nowhere is safe

On March 30, 2015March 29, 2015 By Luther M. SilerIn idiocy, Television1 Comment

I’m writing this at 9 PM on Sunday.

Be aware that as of the time you read this I’m about 11 hours into a 24-hour internet blackout. I won’t be posting again or even looking at the blog until after I’ve seen THE WALKING DEAD, and notifications for all my interwubz apps except for text messaging are turned off on my phone.

OMG RUN WILD EVERYBODY

In which I happydance

On March 2, 2015 By Luther M. SilerIn Blogwanking5 Comments

Anybody else seeing this yet?

Okay, they need to fiddle with the contrast a bit, but views and visitors are on the same page again! Woohoo!

Amazon marketing services: an update

On February 22, 2015February 22, 2015 By Luther M. SilerIn Writing1 Comment

You may recall the post from a couple of days ago where I posted this image:

That 1414 number– which, remember, was over 2100 at one point– has jumped around repeatedly over the last few days, and was down to 27o this morning. Apparently I should have screenshotted it then, because now it looks like this:

Note that the click is gone and that they’re no longer pretending even to charge me the $0.25 they were charging earlier. That click has appeared and disappeared at least three or four times.

At this point I’m going to strongly recommend that authors avoid this service until it’s ready for prime time; this is ridiculous.

(7:45 PM check-in: the number is now 1122.)