I’ll have to pick it up. Is it out yet?

Let’s just pretend I actually read your entire one-sentence post and didn’t just ask the question you already answered, shall we?

Congratulations! You so rock. ;>

Wow! This is becoming a regular thing. It’s been years since I read Analog regularly but at this rate I might need to subscribe again. Congratulations!

Cool! I’ll have to go pick up a copy.

First of all thank you. Second of all, this cracked me up. I thought, finally! a writer with an attention span as short as my own.

Ha! Thanks, Luke. I’d like to think I have my moments (too few, though, too few).

Well, my writing output is uneven—there’s nothing in the pipeline right now, so it will be a while before there’s another Analog byline.

Thanks, Kathryn—I appreciate the moral support.

It’s still a streak. You just don’t know, you might get slapped upside the face by the muse any second. No need to get hit by a van, like some writers, though. Just sayin’.

Ha, thanks! That’s oddly reassuring (that the muse might strike at any moment, and not necessarily with the grille of an econoline).

Hey, great! This guarantees that I’ll look for and pick up this issue. Congrats, Bob! Looking forward to reading it.

Excellent! I’m looking forward to reading it too.

I’m sorry, what was — oooh, shiny!

I obviously don’t have this yet, but CONGRATULATIONS on ANOTHER sale, and…..and….

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!!!

Nice to see your writing again

Read your feedback email account.

Hey, Mark, thanks! I imagine it will make it to the Upper-Left-Hand Corner any day now.

Thanks, Lee—I appreciate the kind words.

Thank you, thank you—yes, I have one foot in the grave and the other on the gas pedal. I appreciate the EXUBERANT congratulations!

Re: Nice to see your writing again

Already answered the e-mail. What, it would’ve killed you to leave a name?

Yeah, yeah…don’t ever say I don’t help you guys imagine my vocal tones and inflections.

Ausgesichnicht! (sp?)

I have two copies in my sweaty little hands, having mostly cleaned out the B&N at 54th Street.

A copy shall be mine.

Assuming, of course, I survive the New Jersey roads. There’s a traffic circle between me and the nearest bookstore. Very scary.

I have the Best friends (a theme on which I’ll be elaborating here shortly).

I think (hope) you mean “ausgezeichnet.” A literal translation of Ausgesichnicht might be “not out of itself.” Very SFnal, but I’ll be damned if I can make it out to be a compliment.

P.S.—Don’t feel bad: people named “Bill” are apparently handicapped when it comes to the German language. Mason and I labored under the Prussian browbeating of Herr Leo for three years at Brooklyn College, and Mason now speaks less German than when we started.

“Ausgesichnicht” =
“Not out of itself” =
“Not out of its mind” =
“Not crazy.”

See? Compliment!

Hey John—thanks!

(Boy, you can take a horror writer out of the genre… From the gothic syntax of “A copy shall be mine,” to the unerring ability to see the macabre just beneath the surface of ordinary suburbia.)

Hmm… where is James Michael Mooney when you need him? He had taught me two phrases before he vanished off the face of the earth. Slightly more than Herr Leo had taught me in three years. One was how to request oral sex (which I choose not to use here) and the other was a direction for someone to do something rude to themselves. Consider it used! (I forget how to spell it and you’d make fun of me anyway)

Bill

Achtung! Wütenderkrüppel!

Hey, that’s handicapable, pal!

Say, where’s your party membership card…?

Aw, Bill: don’t think of it as making fun of you—think of it as, um, well…

(Okay, this is why I have so few friends.)

And for those of you who need to request oral sex in German—courtesy of Jim Mooney: Blas mir an. (“To Blow” is “anblasen,” slang useage the same as English.)

Re: Achtung! Wütenderkrüppel!

ROTFL!

This killed me! Boy, just reading this blog will get you sent to hell.

I am so pleased for you, and I can’t wait to read it!

And congratulations on becoming 40, which is where I’m sticking, anyway.

Ha! I lurve the graphic, BTW.

Hey you! Thanks!

Yes, I’m renewing my 40 license again this year. You, my dear, are ageless.

This birthday greeting from . (Imagine, while you take in this feast for the eyes, Julie Andrews singing “My Favorite Things.”) It’s a little scary, how well Laurie gets me.

…or is that immature? I always get those mixed up.:g:.

Boss, Boss, “immature” is not you: “immature” is a slur that rigid, unimaginitive, freedom-hating ass-biters use. Because they’re jealous of your childlike capacity for wonder. And your beauty, yeah, yeah, your beauty. Also your millions of adoring siphonaptera fans.

And we are charmed by them, trust me.

Re: Achtung! Wütenderkrüppel!

I just wish LJ had rendered the damn HTML escape entities as proper ü’s.

Cig isle!

Scary indeed how she zeroed in on all that. 🙂

Basically, all but the boobs were filler, ha ha.

When you presented the postcard Bill and Laura got you a while back, I could feel the glee jumping- no, LEAPING- off the page.

Normally it would be inappropriate for me to post boobie pics, but this little lady…I think she’s just absurd enough to convey the tone I was shooting for .

Laurie, it is never inappropriate for anyone to post boobie pictures. Where on Earth did you ever get that idea?

I blame you for this.

Yes, because I’m the one who’s been writing this blog all along.

Dear Bob –

I’ve been so inattentive to LJ for so long that I missed this post until this morning when I cracked open my December Analog… lo and behold, it contains a story by Robert J. Howe!

Congratulations! *tucks it into his backpack to read it tonight*

Chris