Contributor copies
My contributor copies of Wet just arrived, and I'm totally thrilled. This is only the third time my fiction's appeared in a printed book. It looks all professional and stuff. Very cool.
(Note: the above link goes to Amazon's page for the book; those of you reading this at work may not want to follow it. Also, the book won't be officially published for another month yet, though Amazon will let you order advance copies.)
I'm also pleased to be sharing a ToC with a bunch of cool writers, and surprised to note that I've met half of them (either in person or via email unconnected with the book).
In this entry, I was going to rant about UPS, which has a policy of not delivering to apartments without getting a signature in person (no signature waivers, no leave-it-in-a-safe-place-by-the-door). Last time someone sent me something via UPS, I ended up having to go to their office in Sunnyvale or somewhere and stand in line for a rather long time, in the middle of a weekday, to get my package. This time I opted to work at home in the morning, which I can do without much problem but it's a little inconvenient to be forced into it, especially since the package might not have arrived 'til 2 p.m.
But I chatted a little with the UPS guy, and he said that now that he knows I live here, he can probably arrange to leave stuff if I leave a note on the door (assuming the sender hasn't required an in-person signature).
Last time around, the UPS people-in-charge told me that since I live in an apartment, leaving a package for me without an in-person signature could never be done, no exceptions, no way, and that any UPS delivery person who did it was violating firm UPS policy (with a sort of hint that they might be subject to disciplinary action). This came as a shock to me; I'd been getting UPS packages left at my door all day for two or three years by that point, with never a problem. But the managers insisted that this was absolutely against the rules under all circumstances. If I wanted to complain about it, they said, I could write to corporate headquarters.
I meant to, but as with so many things, I never got around to it. Oh, well. Anyway, I should've known that as usual, arbitrary stupid rules don't mean anything if you can have a friendly chat with the individuals who have the ability to get around those rules; guess I was just talking with the wrong people. Sigh.
Anyway. What all of that really means is that I'd better head off to work now.
But gosh, it's a lovely book. Nicely designed, nicely put together, great colorful cover. (I like the internal photos too, though I'd like them more if the people had heads.) Looking forward to reading it.