GUD magazine

I got a freebie from GUD magazine. GUD stands for Greatest Uncommon Denominator, "a print/pdf magazine with two hundred pages of literary and genre fiction, poetry, art, and articles".

I love freebies - don't we all.

In this case the freebie was a story, "Baby Edward", and it was weird.

I like weird. The baby is kipt locked up in a VW Bus in the yard, but he's growing - and carnivorous. And the narrator's girlfriend wants a picnic in the yard, near the bus. Of course she doesn't know about Edward. How do you start to explain a thing like that to your girlfriend?

This sounds odd, but it's hard to say whether I enjoyed the story. Certainly I never got the urge to get out an editing pen - you wouldn't expect that at GUD anyway. I didn't have any strong feelings about it either way. Only I can't forget it.

I suppose that makes it good.

Plastic bags

I came across an interesting fact today.

The average plastic bag is used for about 20 minutes, and takes 400 years to completely decompose.

I have a couple of cotton tote bags that I take to the supermarket. I don't make a religious duty out of it or anything. If I forget them, or I need a third bag, I get a plastic one. Even so, I calculate that I'm saving about 100 plastic bags a year.

And it's completely painless.

Lard neutral

I went to see my friend Norma for a delicious, full English breakfast. Since I had to climb up the hill, I hope I burned almost as many calories as I ate. We talked about my novel-in-progress and her CD-in-progress, and Ruido magazine. And then, as per usual, I started taking photos. There's something about the light at her house that sets me off. That and her amazing tolerance as I start shifting around her furniture to get the perfect composition.

And here's the result.

Bib

This is Bib, one of our cats.

I finally got the Christmas decorations put away!

They ahven't still been up on the walls, you understand. I dumped them in the guest room to get them out of the way, pending a sort through, because I know darn well I'll never sort through them in December. Well this morning I finally did it. I didtched the tatty stuff and mended the nativity scene, and packed it all away neatly.

And the novel's up to 72,023 words.