Uncategorized – Page 21 – Caroline M. Yoachim

Japan Highlights: Tsukiji Fish Market

Now that I’m back, and recovered from jet lag (and the flu I picked up on the way home), I figured I’d do a few blog posts on the highlights from the trip my husband and I recently took (to Japan). First up is the Tsukiji fish market, a bustling market where it is possible to buy almost anything that lives in the sea in the early hours of the morning. Well, most mornings. We thought that it would be a great idea to visit the market the first day in Tokyo, seeing as how we’d likely be awake anyway …

Pictures from Japan

Pictures from my trip to Japan are up on flickr. I took lots of pictures early in the trip, but didn’t take as many pictures as I expected at Worldcon — the few that I did take at the convention are in the ‘Yokohama’ set.

Alas

Rejections 48 and 49:

R48 – A few weeks ago, a 68-day rejection from Tin House.
R49 – A 167-day rejection from Writers of the Future, after having made the finals for quarter 2.

I’m still feeling pretty confident about both stories, and I should be able to get them subbed again by tomorrow.

Back from Japan

After a very long day of traveling yesterday, I’m now back in Austin. I’ll be making several posts about the trip as soon as I’ve had a chance to sort through some of the accompanying pictures.

I’m massively jet-lagged. I woke up about an hour ago (after having slept 12 hours) and I really want to go back to bed and sleep. Hopefully I’ll be able to distract myself by unpacking the last of the boxes (Peter did lots of unpacking before I got back, mostly only the kitchen boxes are left) and sorting out the photos I took in …

Off to Japan

I’ve been in Texas for a week, and am still only partially unpacked, but tomorrow I’m off to Japan for Worldcon. My husband and I are sightseeing in Tokyo and Kyoto beforehand, which I’m quite excited about. I’ve never been to Japan before (or anywhere in Asia, for that matter).

Added to my list of things I’ve learned this week:

– lifting heavy things is not good for people with wrist problems
– crickets, in addition to being icky, are noisy
– brand new mattresses are really really comfy

We’re still not unpacked enough for the apartment to …

Officially Texan

Well, after several long days of driving, I arrived in Austin on Monday night. Here’s what I’ve learned so far:

– Texas is HOT.
– The speed limit from El Paso to Austin is mostly 80 mph. You can make pretty good time driving across Texas.
– If you’re trying to get somewhere in Austin, go in the opposite direction, then make a U-turn. It is impossible to go somewhere by moving toward your destination.
– Tacos here are cheap and tasty.
– Airconditioning is good.
– Giant swarms of crickets are icky.
– …

Write-a-thon Wrap-up

I’ve finished my write-a-thon goal of six chapters in six weeks. Yay! When I was setting my goal, a chapter a week felt like it might be too easy, almost like cheating. BUT I knew the end would be crazy with moving, and that this year was not the time for aggressive write-a-thon goals. Next year, I’ll set myself a bigger goal. Under the circumstances, a chapter per week (especially this last week), was plenty for this time around.

Chapter six: 3,300 words
Total words: 18,500 words

A big thank-you to all of my sponsors!! Clarion West definitely appreciates …

Sub Away, Rejection, WaT final stretch

This week:
Submission #57 (to Strange Horizons, my 6th there)
Rejection #47 – 44 days, from Heliotrope. I’m a bit more disappointed about this one than usual, since the story was under consideration for a long-ish time for the market, and I had my hopes up. Oh well.

* * *

The end of chapter six is in sight, hopefully I can crank it out this morning, and then spend the bulk of the day finishing off the surprisingly large amount of packing that still remains. This week has been a rough one, WaT-wise, with all the pre-move …

And a partridge in a pear tree…

Today:

1500 words
4 boxes packed
1 submission sent
and an email rejection from The Town Drunk.

So today we finally got started on packing. The problem with packing is not so much the actual packing of items into boxes (I like that part, it’s a bit like 3d tetris) but the sorting. Do we really want to move this book/stack of papers/thingamajiggit, or can we recycle/donate/etc it? Does this need to come with us on our drive, or does it go into boxes for the moving pods? *sigh* I do feel better that we’ve at least …

5 down, 1 to go

My husband passed his dissertation defense yesterday (Yay Peter!!) and after much celebration and merriment yesterday, I settled back into writing today and finished off this week’s write-a-thon quota.

Wordcount for the WaT so far: 15,200 words

Chapter five wrapped up at just over 2,800 words, which means I’ve only got one chapter left to complete my Write-a-Thon goal of six chapters :)

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