deborahjross | Entries tagged with humor

Originally posted by

I was at the hardware store--my version of the shoe store--when I received a text from Aran: "I got a call from a computer company saying that there are errors on my laptop. They are getting rid of them, but the bad part is that the charge is $500."

I froze. This was a scam. I've heard of it. I've gotten it. A guy calls, claims to be from Microsoft, and says there are errors on the computer. They'll fix them for a fee. It's an obvious scam, simplicity in itself to spot--unless you're autistic and naturally trusting.

I called Aran. "Did you give them your debit card number?"

"Yes," he said.

By now I was running toward the door.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: roflmao

Originally posted by

jimhines at It’s Alive!

Hugo Awards: I started up a #HugoProposal tag on Twitter the other day, trying to create a bit of humor in the midst of this mess. Here’s one of my favorites:

Three Hugos for Mil-SF and their space marines;

Seven for the grimdark-lords in their halls of blood;

Nine for mortal fans doomed to blog;

One for Neil Gaiman on his dark throne

In the Land of Worldcon where the Shadows lie.

Thanks to Jim for allowing me to repost this marvelous bit of perspective.

Current Mood: amused

When a friend or family member is diagnosed with cancer, the effects ripple through the community. If we and our friend are relatively young, we may feel shock but also a sense of insulation. We have not yet begun to consider our own mortality, or the likelihood of losing our peers to accident or one disease or another. It hasn’t happened to us yet and the odds are still in our favor, particularly if we don’t smoke or drive drunk, we exercise and eat many leafy green vegetables. As the years and the decades go by, most of us will see an increase in morbidity if not mortality in our friends. They – and we – may develop osteoarthritis or Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, all those common ailments of aging. Some of us will get cancer.

When my best friend Bonnie was diagnosed with ovarian cancer about 5 years ago, she was the closest friend I had who had cancer. Since then, other friends have been diagnosed and some have died; Bonnie died in October (peacefully, at home). One of the things Bonnie did way back when was find support groups for women with cancer. Maybe it’s a holdover from the consciousness-raising groups of the 1970s, but it’s practically a reflex: whatever is going on in your life, you grab a bunch of women to talk it through. Do men do this, too? If so, it’s a secret from me.

It turned out that a cluster of women who were at college with us at the same time and who still lived in the area wandered through these groups at one time or another, or were otherwise associated with this community. Some have also died, some aren’t doing too well the last I heard, and some are thriving. One of these is my friend Constance Emerson Crooker.

Connie and I weren’t close in college, but it was a small school and everybody pretty much knew one another in passing. She wasn’t an avid folk dancer or a Biology major like me, but she and Bonnie stayed in touch so I’d hear about her from time to time. Connie was one of those who stepped up to the plate in Bonnie’s final weeks, and I was not only grateful for the extra and very competent pair of hands but for the chance to get to know her better.

( Read more... )

Contents of Maggie Stiefvater's Brain | Novelist error messages.

Truly giggleworthy.

Current Mood: giggly

First of all, a Happy Editor dance... [dance, dance, dance]

This is the first anthology I've edited (actually, co-edited with Phyllis Irene Radford) for Book View Cafe. It began, lo these many many months ago, with an in-house discussion along the lines of "Hey, wouldn't it be fun to..." Book View Cafe has already published several anthologies (Rocket Boy and the Geek Girls, Dragon Lords and Warrior Women -- which has a story of mine! -- The Shadow Conspiracy I and II), so there was some precedent. We knew to ask things like, Will this be reprint, original stories, or both? Will it be a benefit for BVC or will the authors receive shares of the proceeds? How will we define the theme? At a certain point, we'd reached a sufficient level of enthusiasm and clarity so that someone had to put on an organizational (aka editor's) hat.

Thinking this would be marvelous fun, I volunteered, and the way it worked out, Phyl co-edited it with me. I supplied time and my own editorial experience, and she had the expertise of working with the BVC anthology publication procedures. Because there were two of us, we could submit our own stories to one another, thereby avoiding the editing-your-own-work scenario.

One of the things I love about editing anthologies is watching the process, the landscape of that adventure, unfold, discovering moments of truth and hilarity and heart-wrenching sadness and sheer beauty and poetry in prose. Beyond Grimm was no exception. Although we started with "let's retell classic fairy tales," our imaginations took us in other directions as well - the sun-drenched islands of Greek mythology, legends from the frozen north, Arthurian tales, nursery rhymes, even my own riff on the plots of classical ballets. Fairy-tale lands, contemporary urban settings, magical and not-so-magical steeds, spells and epistles of the people's revolution, mysterious locked chambers and shape-shifters...moonlight and storms.

Here's the blurb:

Not your grandmother's fairy tales...
From the far-ranging imaginations of Book View Café authors comes this delirious collection of classic tales newly twisted into dark, dangerous, and occasionally hilarious re-tellings. From the golden isles of Greece to the frozen north, from fairytale castles to urban slums, join us on an unforgettable journey!

And....drum roll....

The Table of Contents...

Through Forests Dark and Grimm...
Hair Raising, by Pati Nagle
No Newt Taxes, by Patricia Rice
Rum Pelt Stilt’s Skin, by Alma Alexander
Of Rats and Cats and Teenagers, by Irene Radford
Tinderbox, by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff
Any Brave Boy, by Laura Anne Gilman

Across Golden Seas...
Elfleda, by Vonda N. McIntyre
Harpies Discover Sex, by Deborah J. Ross
To Serve A Prince, by Brenda Clough
The Rapture of Ancient Danger, by Sherwood Smith

In Another Part of the Forest...
Mending Souls, by Judith Tarr
Sister Anne, by Sylvia Kelso
Princess Dancer, by Sue Lange
Nimuë's Tale, by Madeleine E. Robins
Ricky Cowlicky, by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff
Little Red in the Hood, by Irene Radford

Around A Campfire...
Hero/Monster, by Amy Sterling Casil
To Ride Beyond the Wide World's End, by Judith Tarr
Turnabout, by Deborah J. Ross

Secrets Unveiled... [this last part is author bios, every bit as delightful and fanciful as the stories they contributed!]
Here's where to buy it, for only $4.99.

The cover photo was taken by my husband, Dave Trowbridge, and is the maze in our back yard.

Mirrored from my blog.

Current Mood: celebratory

From Discover magazine's blog:

Periodic Table of Storytelling by *ComputerSherpa on deviantART

This is quite wonderful. Thanks to

janni

I guess amazon.com has now achieved scam notoriety, along with banks, foreign governments, and various Nigerian personages:

Amazon - Account reactivation form,

Because of possible unauthorized access, we have temporarily
deactivated your account.

To remove the suspension, please confirm that your card was not
stolen.
To do this, please download and complete the attached html form.

We are sorry for the inconvenience, but your security is our top
priority.

Kind Regards,
Customer Service

Current Mood: amused

This is making the rounds, too good not to pass on.

Current Mood: cheerful

From Mother Jones

But if you’re the type of sicko who likes holing up in a tiny, closed office with reporters of questionable hygiene to build databases from scratch by hand-entering thousands of pages of documents to take on powerful people and institutions that wish you were dead, all for the glorious reward of having readers pick up the paper and glance at your potential prize-winning epic as they flip their way to the Jumble… well, if that sounds like journalism Heaven, then you’re our kind of sicko.

Check out Sleep Talkin' Man, in which a wife recounts the utterances of her normally mild-mannered English husband. A few samples:

"I'm baking pillows. Burn them slowly, keeps them fluffy! Mmmmmm, pillows."

"Potato bags. I can't find my potato bags. I need them! [desperately] Who's got my potato bags? Oh, fuck it! I'll have to use something else."

"Dogs' scrotums. They stretch."

"Hey, don't... don't say anything. Why don't you put it in an email, then I can ignore it at my pleasure."

"Deedoo. It's a deedoo. A deedoo...Oh, it's not a deedoo. I have no idea what it is."

Current Mood: hilarious

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30

Deborah's Journal

A safe & friendly place to talk about writing and life

Entries tagged with humor

Hilarious Post from spiziks: Aran and the Scammers

[poetry] Jim C. Hines rhapsodizes the Hugo Awards

Memoir, Cancer, And Tent Camping: My Friend Connie

[link] Maggie Stiefvater's Novelist error messages.

A New Anthology: Beyond Grimm: Tales Newly Twisted

"The Writing Process"

Periodic Table of Storytelling

amazon.com scam

Baby Penguin Tickles

Great want ad for a journalist job

Definitely not work safe

Profile

November 2020

Syndicate

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags