Thursday 2 September 2010

Apologies One and Two

Apology No. 1

To all who received a spam email from me yesterday... My google mail was hacked. Sorry. 'Tis all fixed now (she hopes) and I have new industrial strength passwords. It was so scary to wake up and find my blog supposedly 'deleted' and not able to access my gmail. Thankfully my mobile was charged (which is unusual as I never use the darn thing) and I was able to provide google with the phone number so they could send me a verification code and all (fingers crossed) is well.


Apology No. 2

About three weeks ago, the wonderful (deletes several expletives) Mercedes challenged a bunch of us over on the non-timewasting Twitter to sub 10 stories by September 1st. I'll admit, I knew from day one I wasn't going to make it. I was writing Fred (may he rest in confetti pieces), all my stories (about five) were out in the big bad world already and I had nothing new fermenting. That didn't mean I didn't want to play though. I offered twitter a maniacal grin and it offered me one back and we agreed, what the hell, you never know. Erm, well okay, I sorta did. Anyhow, here are the subs I did manage to make during the bet (thanks to some thoughtful rejections)...

A World of Cardboard Houses - time travelling, helter skelter madness - subbed to Shimmer on 31st Aug 2010


Kodak Dragons - a near-future, far too-positive (and according to Asimov's - cute) sci-fi journey about holding onto things lost - subbed to Daily Science Fiction on 25th Aug 2010


The Stars Blink Out, One by One - a tale of fairies, a doomed trip to the moon and spindly illuminator men - subbed to Arkham Tales on 20th Aug 2010


Nameless - as in literally; a short competition piece to win an ARC of 'Please Ignore Vera Dietz?; (hey, Mercedes said it counts) - entered on 16th Aug 2010

Pathetic, I know. Get over it. I did manage to write three new stories in that time-period though - all of which are drying on my jingle bell line and will be edited this month and then sent out or left to dry again. I know, I know, it's too late now.

So here comes the grovelling...

Dear Mercedes, Anthony, Simon, Katey and everyone else who was playing, I most heartily apologise for not getting ten subs out. I've spent this afternoon washing my mouth out with soap and rubbing bleach into my eyeballs and I've sliced through the back of my neck so my head tips reverently forward to your majesticselves. I shall spend the next 30 days writing 'I will not let my sub parters down again' on every available space I find be it wall, floor or faces.


Yours grovellingly,
Cate

14 comments:

Rich said...

Hey Cate,

Don't feel too bad, after all my male posturing, I didn't even make the one sub for Electric Velocipede! I had it all ready and then got distracted by Lost or something.

Very, very lame of me. :)

Rich

Unknown said...

Shame, shame, Cate. :)

Anthony Rapino said...

Apology accepted. ;-)

Anonymous said...

I accept your grovelling apology, since it was charmingly abject. ;)

You're a wonderful sport, good lady. Cheers!

Aaron Polson said...

Being a victim of hacking myself, no apology is needed. One of the curses of the 21st century, I'm afraid.

K.C. Shaw said...

I'm just glad your blog is back. When I couldn't access it yesterday, I was certain I'd either messed up the link or had missed an announcement from you about a new URL or something. I hope you're safe from hackers from now on. Erm, I may go update my own password now.

Anonymous said...

Cate, you're beautiful and your groveling stirs my soul. Fantastic subs! I definitely put out more things because of our #10bythen challenge,and one of them was accepted today! Hooray! Want to do it again?

I'm so glad that your blog is up and running! It was like the universe suddenly tilted or something.

-Mercedes

Andrea Allison said...

I don't think I've been hacked before, but I know its coming. I know my luck isn't that good. Glad you managed to get everything in the green again.

Carrie Harris said...

Pish. You're apologizing for all that progress? I feel like a slacker now.

Barry Napier said...

Wanna hear something odd? IN college, I nearly joined a band called The Stars Blink Out One By One...

Cate Gardner said...

That's a shame, Rich.

Head hanging low, Jeremy.

Very gracious, good Anthony

Thanks, Simon (and congrats)

Thanks, Aaron

Kate, my scream woke up everyone in the street when I thought my blog had been deleted.

Yes, I'm up for another challenge, Mercedes. And this time, I shall succeed. Ooh, and congrats.

Fingers crossed you don't get hacked, Andrea. And if you are, it's not as bad as you think. A quick virus check and a change of passwords.

Ha, Miss I'm preparing to take over the world with my book Harris.

Barry, was I the lead singer?

Katey said...

YAY I'm glad your blog is back too!

What a pretty apology, but seeing as I failed spectacularly, well, I hardly deserved it! It was a good bet though--we'll have to do it again some time. I already got two acceptances out of it! (And one rejection. Waaaaa~)

Awesome subs, too!

A.S. King said...

Entering my contests ALWAYS counts.

Cate Gardner said...

Katey, go you with two acceptances. So far I have one rejection out of it, but that means I can cheat and add the story to this months count.


Ha, A.S. :D