Generals and viziers always seem so unhappy unless they got a war

[vovat]

It's been unseasonably warm today. I'm glad of that, even if I AM spending pretty much the entire day inside.

Yesterday (or sometime this past week, anyway; I wasn't able to check my mail until yesterday), I received the 2005 Oziana, the annual short fiction collection from the International Wizard of Oz Club. I don't believe the issue is for sale yet, but it should be soon. The first story, "Jinjur's Journal," tells about how the former conqueror of the Emerald City settles into rural married life, and unwittingly makes enemies of her new neighbors. I think the author does a good job reflecting Jinjur's personality. She consistently refers to her husband as "Mr. Popp," and never by his first name. It took me a while to realize the pun here, but my knowledge of minor Oz characters immediately made me think of a different Mr. Popp, the corkscrew lawyer from Utensia in The Emerald City of Oz. I don't think the two Popps are related. {g} The second story is in verse, and tells of the Patchwork Girl's search for a pet. But the longest story in the volume, concerning an invasion by the deposed King of the Quadlings, is by some upstart newcomer named Nathan. Okay, enough with the corniness; it's MY story, and the first one I've ever had published, too. It's cool to see something I wrote in a professional publication (even a non-profit one), complete with illustrations. The last thing in the volume is a game that's said to "work the same way as the puzzles called 'sudoku' or 'number place,' except that they use nine Oz characters or letters instead of nine numerals." Several people on my friends list have mentioned doing sudoku puzzles, and I never had any idea what they were talking about. I guess now I will. {g}

Happy belated birthday to zaph, onib, and skylark_king. I really should start paying more attention to when people's birthdays are coming up.

I've almost finished reading Lies Across America (all I have left are the appendices), so I should have some comments on it soon.

Comments

[countblastula.livejournal.com]

I love Stephen King's take:

"Is Sudoku the stupidest game to ever appear in newspapers, or what? Before you answer that, remember that the Sudoku frenzy is not only postliterate but post-arithmetic (no adding, subtracting, or other computational skills needed). If you can count from 1 to 9, you can play Sudoku. Maybe I'm wrong, but this adds up to a big duh in my book."

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Well, I used to play solitaire quite a bit, and that doesn't require much more knowledge than that.

[slfcllednowhere.livejournal.com]

Congratulations Nathan!!! Wow, that's so exciting. I got poems accepted by a couple of literary magazines but they never sent me my copies, grr.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I think the only other thing I ever really submitted for publication was a paper I wrote for my Religions of India class. It wasn't accepted, but I DID get to read it at a conference.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! Go wave it in everyone you know's face!

It's funny, about sudoku, GAMES magazine has been publishing such puzzles (with letters AND numbers AND oddly shaped frames) for AGES, but now all of a sudden it's some big thing, so now GAMES is even acting like it's the latest great craze WHEN THEY'VE BEEN PUBLISHING THEM FOREVER... but okay, I guess that's not really important at all. That's just my thought on it. Anyway, though, it doesn't matter what symbols you use, it's just a logic puzzle, basically.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!

Thank you!

It's funny, about sudoku, GAMES magazine has been publishing such puzzles (with letters AND numbers AND oddly shaped frames) for AGES, but now all of a sudden it's some big thing, so now GAMES is even acting like it's the latest great craze WHEN THEY'VE BEEN PUBLISHING THEM FOREVER...

Yeah, but that's often the way of things, isn't it? Something becomes popular after having been around for a long time, and everyone acts like it's something new. It can be annoying to people who were into that thing BEFORE it became popular.

[loz]

Ooooh :D Published and everything. Congratulations.

I suck at sudoku. I play the junior version and still suck at it.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[bethje.livejournal.com]

Congratso! I will read it this week, if you bring it on over.

I thought Jinjur was definitely one of the better characters that I know of. Did I ever tell you that? 'S true.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I will bring over a copy. They gave me three, actually.

I thought Jinjur was definitely one of the better characters that I know of. Did I ever tell you that?

I don't remember. I know you said you liked the Sawhorse.