Update

[morganminstrel]

Ok, the insurance thing is...not fixed, but fixable. I just need to drop a check off at the agent's office and all will be well. (Didn't do it today because I forgot my checkbook when I went out.) So that's good.

Returned the cardkey to the temp agency; my rep was out of the office, so I didn't get any more details about what went down with my last job. I told them I was available for work and left.

Went to the bank, fighting depression, deposited my paycheck and decided to go to Half Price Books, just to check for a few things and maybe cheer myself up a bit. I made a deal with myself--I was looking for specific titles and would not even consider anything else unless it popped out at me. Something special. Well, I found one thing I was specifically looking for (Red Harvest by Dashiel Hammett) and then one thing that "popped" (Backwards, the third Red Dwarf novel by Rob Grant, which I'm pretty sure I haven't read). Picked them both up for $4 plus tax. I also saw an issue of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine (as it was called then) from 1988 that I have very strong memories of reading/owning when it came out. I had a subscription to IASFM from about 1985-1991 or 1992; I dropped it once I was at college for a bit because I discovered the issues were piling up without getting read, but for those first five years or so I read each issue as it came in the mail from cover-to-cover. Seeing this random issue there made me remember having that big shelf full of great magazines, some stories read time after time after time. (As it turns out, the cover story of the issue I found was one of those, though it was alas the third story in a series.) I have no idea where the magazines are now. My memory is of coming home from college and finding them gone, though I suppose I could have packed them up and forgotten about it. It's still my hope that I'll find the box one day when I have time to poke around in my parents' basement. There were some fantastic stories in there, as well as great essays by Asimov and others.

Anyway, finding the magazine gave me a bittersweet feeling and didn't really help so much, but I guess I felt kind of better thinking and remembering, a bit.

So yeah. Still kind of depressed, but I'm surviving. We're hoping for a happy Thanksgiving, and then I start really looking again. More to say, probably, but this is already too long. And I still owe y'all a post on my reading over the past month or two. Maybe later.

Comments

[marag.livejournal.com]

Would you like lots of F&SF, IASFM, and Analog? (Mostly Analog, but a substantial number of the other two from the past several decades.) We've got boxes and boxes and boxes and we can't toss 'em, but we really don't want to store all of them either. Any time you're back in the area, feel free to come and raid the boxes! We'd love to send some issues to a good home.

[morganminstrel.livejournal.com]

Wow, livejournal never sent me this comment, so this is the first I'm seeing of it.

What I really want is my run of IASFM, but I'd definitely check out your boxes! We've been talking about getting a F&SF subscription (I've really been enjoying the issues I've bought off the stands lately), but keep putting it off thanks to job instability. I'm discovering how much I missed a monthly dose of new SF (and fantasy) stories!

[marag.livejournal.com]

So far I've already seen most of the back comments LJ sends, but not all!

Anyway, I'd love for you to take some of the magazines! I'm not sure how much IASFM we've got, but there's lots of good stuff. There are some issues I'd specifically like to keep (e.g., if it's got a Connie Willis story) but it'd be great fun to go through the boxes with you and discuss the authors on the covers :)

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

I re-read Red Harvest, just last year--having first done so in my teens. First time around, I was just interested in noirishness in general. Second time around, I was struck by the historicity--the background for Hammet's story is closely related to the elements of Northwest and labor history covered in J. Anthony Lucas' Big Trouble--which has plenty of noirish and dramatic charms of its own, btw (and a cast of "characters" ranging from Clarence Darrow and T.R. to Big Bill Heywood--very colorful, interesting slice of history).

[morganminstrel.livejournal.com]

I got it because I've just been reading his "Continental Op" stories (took them on the trip to NJ) and have been really enjoying them, so I decided to read his CO novels as well. I'll definitely keep your thoughts in mind when I eventually read the book, though. And I may very well check out the other book you mentioned at some point. :-)