Till there's only the tickets and crows here

[sovay]

I see that Pluto has been punted—back to the underworld with you. I wonder how Venetia Burney feels.

It's that time of year again: The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror has come out. lesser_celery has already listed the honorable mentions for Not One of Us; time_shark has done the same for Mythic Delirium. I have not yet seen a copy of the latest collection for myself, but I've been reliably informed that I have fourteen honorable mentions:

"A Ceiling of Amber, A Pavement of Pearl," Singing Innocence and Experience
"Asleep at Fortune's Wheel," Zahir #6
"By Sunlight," Clarity
"Doyna for August, and After" (poem), Postcards from the Province of Hyphens
"Etemmu" (poem), The Magazine of Speculative Poetry 7.1
"Gintaras" (poem), Dreams and Nightmares #70
"Growing Season" (poem), The Magazine of Speculative Poetry 7.3
"In Sight of the Seasons" (poem), Not One of Us #34
"Little Fix of Friction," Not One of Us #33
"Psyche" (poem), Not One of Us #33
"Salt and No Wounds" (poem), Postcards from the Province of Hyphens
"Tarot in the Dungeon" (poem), Mythic Delirium #12
"The White Swan," TEL: Stories
"Time May Be," Singing Innocence and Experience

All the editors who accepted and published these pieces, thank you! This sort of makes me need to readjust my head.

And write something for Pluto.

Comments

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

Excellent work.

And damn them. Damn them for Pluto, damn them for Indigo.

[sovay]

Damn them for Pluto, damn them for Indigo.

Enlighten me: Indigo?

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

Used to be considered part of the spectrum, but now isn't. At least, according to my insufferable 9th grade Earth Science Teacher circa 1990, who was also a big fan of eliminating Pluto from the list of planets.

I might have forgiven the bastards if they inducted Ceres, but no.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm glad I'm not the only one to make that connection! I admit I'm on the opposite side of the debate to you: I'd rather be left out than be put in just to make up the numbers. I find it entirely plausible that indigo was inserted into the spectrum by people who felt that there ought to be seven colours, a little harder (but not impossible) to believe that Pluto was claimed as a planet because, after all, eight's no good. Seven was fine, but now we've found Uranus, there must be a ninth...

Hence sovay's fourteen HMs, you see - obviously she couldn't make do with one or two, like a mere mortal, but you might have expected her to go for thirteen. But instead she's landed a double seven...

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

Weirdly, 8 is my favorite number, and a powerful number at that. Indigo has gradually replaced Red as my favorite color due to my congenital lefty love of the underdog, and, really, Red knows I love Red, but Indigo needs me more ;p.
I agree that inclusion for the sake of numbers is a poor reason, and I would resent being included in something solely for that reason.

That said, once included, even for the sake of numbers, to exclude again is an even larger insult.

Actually, dress it up how I want, it's the smug self-righteousness of Mrs. Cordero, who told us with great glee that Pluto wasn't really a planet, and going to be demoted "any day now."

Twice seven is an fine and worthy number of HMs.