WORKSHOP. DEC 2002 Vol 22 No 254 SF AND FANTASY. PROTECTING YOUR IDENTITY by Diana Carolyn Ice

SF AND FANTASY WORKSHOP DEC 2002 Vol 22 No 254 PROTECTING YOUR IDENTITY by Diana Carolyn Ice Identity theft. You think it won't happen to you. But sometimes it does! It happened to me. I live in New York, so I was amazed one night to get a phone call from my car insurance company telling me that I would get much cheaper rates since I'd moved to Kansas.... Who me? I got a giddy "Twilight Zone" feeling and actually looked out the window to be sure. Yep. Same mountains. Same trees. Still in New York. Someone was trying to steal my identity! It was the beginning of a nightmare that took months to unravel. I eventually discovered that someone living in Lawrence, Kansas had gotten hold of a piece of my mail that went astray, or somehow found some bit of information that let them divert my mail, including bank statements, dividend checks, credit card bills, investment statements, and insurance bills to their address. Once started, they sent in change of address forms and constantly obtained more and more information. For example, my bank used to put social security numbers on their statements as "Taxpayer ID numbers." If your bank does this, complain! My bank changed their policy shortly after I complained, and although I don't know if my complaint was the reason, it didn't hurt. If a bank statement gets lost in the mail, it is bad enough that whoever intercepts it has your account number and knows how much you have in the bank without giving them your social security number, too. But most information we innocently provide ourselves. From the credit bureaus, my bank, and a friend who is a private detective, I picked up hints I'd like to share with you: 1. Don't put your social security number on a manuscript. As a writer, you are often asked to include your social security number with your name, address, and phone number. This makes it easier for the publisher if they pay you for the piece. But if they buy from you, they will usually send a contract and ask for your number anyway, or they will phone and ask. You have no idea who is working in their mailrooms or who else may have access to their slush pile. Better to lose a sale than your identity. 2. If you write a bio for an article or a story, keep it as general as possible. Avoid giving details someone might use, such as: date of college graduation, name of town or street where you live, family information (like your mother's maiden name), names of companies you've worked for, etc. 3. Don't write credit card account numbers on checks when paying your bill. Many credit card companies want it there because it is easier for them. But when you write that number on there, anyone that sees your check has enough information to rob you: your name, address, bank account number, credit card number, even your signature. Plus, if your statement and checks are lost in the mail, everything you write on your checks is lost as well. 4. If your bank insists you put your account number on strangers' personal checks you cash, protest vehemently. When the check is returned to them that stranger will have your signature, your bank account number, and the name and branch of your bank (from where the bank stamps it). 5. Don't put your phone number or your driver's license number on your checks. In fact, always avoid revealing your driver's license number if possible. 6. Keep track on a calendar of when you expect to receive bills, premium notices, checks, statements, replacement credit cards, etc. If you don't receive things when you think you should, call immediately. Things get lost in the mail, and someone else may have received it. 7. Before you toss it out, shred or burn every pre-approved credit card application and piece of mail that has on it your credit card number, social security number, bank account numbers, car insurance policy number, etc. Baddies go through the trash looking for these things. 8. Be careful giving out your birthdate. If you must reveal it, avoid giving out the whole date. If your age is what is important, just give the year. In offices, if they want to know for birthday parties, tell only the month and day, or if you can get away with it, only the month. 9. Don't tell anyone you don't know well the city and state of your birth. They can easily obtain a copy of your birth certificate and go from there. 10. Don't tell anyone your mother's maiden name or use it in naming children. (Living in a small town, I thought that was a hoot, but unfortunately the big city types have decided that is something most people wouldn't know about you and they use it to confirm people's identity. What they do with the new trend toward hyphenated surnames, I don't know, but if you use one for yourself or your kids, you should know you're opening yourself or them to a danger.) If your middle name is your mother's maiden name, it should be concealed as much as possible by using a middle initial, or even better, simply ignored. (Sort of defeats the whole purpose, doesn't it?) 11. Don't list your address in the phone directory. Your name and phone number is enough. If it's a friend or a legitimate business they can call you for directions. 12. Don't give out your phone number or your address without good reason. Some baddies hold "raffles" just to collect such information. Consider getting a post office box address. (I thought that was pretty funny too, since all we have here are PO boxes--we have no house delivery.) But it is better to avoid telling strangers where you live. 13. And of course, don't give out information over the phone unless you have initiated the call and know the outfit you're dealing with. If they call you, and it seems important, get their name and/or extension and call them back on the 800 or other number you have in your records. Don't rely on what they tell you the number is. It could be the number at their friend's apartment. A long distance call is cheap compared to what it

might cost you. 14. Request and study your credit reports from the three credit bureaus: Experian (formerly TRW) 1-800-301-7195, P.O. Box 9532, Allen, Texas 75013-9532; Equifax 1-800-525-6285; and TransUnion 1-800-680-7269, P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, California 92834-6790 at least once a year. If you're not careful someone can open a new credit account using your name, birthdate, and social security number. When they don't pay the charges, your credit can be damaged or destroyed. Or they can open a bank account in your name and take out a loan or write bad checks. It is all too easy for someone to call up credit card issuers, insurance companies, etc. and change your address to theirs. Proving that you are indeed who you say you are in the midst of such an "identity crisis" is one of the most difficult tasks you can imagine. And expensive, too. I had to pay bank fees and late charges, cancel accounts, and change insurance companies. In short, I guess the main thing is to know what pieces of information are important and keep those as private as possible. We're almost back to the ancient idea that no one should know your true name except your family, because there is power in the true name of a person or a thing. Writing these up for you all, it occurs to me that I may have a few story ideas in there. I wonder how someone might go about stealing someone's identity in my fantasy world. And what good would it do them? Take care. It's a dangerous world out there! Copyright 2002 by Diana C. Ice HOW TO STAY MOTIVATED WITH YOUR WRITING: TIPS TO HELP YOU LICK THE WRITING BLUES by Ron Vitale You've worked late for longer than you can remember, the kids have tons of extra homework they need help with, the house repairs have become a must, or you've writer's block so badly that you can't even touch a book. Do any of these writing issues strike a cord with you? Add these types of problems up and a writer can quickly lose her motivation. No matter if you're an unpublished writer, have had a few pieces in print, or just finished your latest book tour, developing coping skills to help you remain motivated will allow you to get through the rough times. Jot It All Down On a personal level, I find that journal writing is a therapeutic way of helping me remain grounded. Sitting down in front of the computer (or scribbling your thoughts down in a journal) and allowing your thoughts to drain onto the page is a great way to acknowledge and accept that you're having a problem with writing. Each writer has his/her own struggles to overcome: lack of time, inspiration, energy, and the stresses of everyday life. Writing your angst down in a journal can help ease your frustrations and also enable you to pinpoint ways to help re-motivate yourself. And with your journal writing, I would suggest that you incorporate the "free will" rule. By allowing yourself the freedom to write whatever you want and without correcting any spelling/grammar mistakes, the ease of writing will come back to you. Not all writing has to be complicated or perfect. Writing for your own enjoyment can be uplifting and motivating. If you are in the midst of writer's block and are still finding it difficult to write, then I've heard professional writers describe how they simply type over and over again: "I don't feel like writing and don't know what to write." Sooner or later the pure boredom of writing the same thing might change your feeling to: "Writing this same line over and over is driving me nuts!" Eventually, you'll allow yourself the freedom to be honest and open with why you're not working. Writing down the issue and hashing it out on paper is an effective way of dealing with and solving the problem. Make Time Finding the time to write is not a problem, because most times there is never an ideal moment to write! Scheduling time and sticking to the plan, might help you become more productive. Here are some suggestions: If you're a morning person, set your clock one hour earlier and go to your writing area and go to town. Maybe you have free time at work during lunch? Take the time to write then, save your work to disk, or e-mail it to yourself at home. If you do not have access to a computer, then a pen and paper will do the job nicely. Working late at night is also another option for night owls, but I find that early morning on the weekends is the best time to do the job. Of course, as I've mentioned, keeping to a schedule can be difficult. Do not berate yourself if you have a family, are working hard, and you cannot make the time as you had planned. Such self-destructive feelings will only weaken your resolve to write. A Room of One's Own I've found that having one's own workplace to write does wonders for motivation. If you're lucky enough to have your own room, then make it your own. Set space up to write on your computer, curled up on a couch with a big, yellow legal pad, or type away on an electric typewriter. Set your resources near you (dictionary, thesaurus, grammar books, etc.) and make your room comfortable. For those of you who do not have your own room, claim some space somewhere. I've written on the floor with a laptop, handwritten notes in a copybook on my bed, or stolen away to the basement of a library to find a quiet spot. The key to this tip is to find a place which is close to home and allows you to have privacy and quiet. Distractions can easily exacerbate the problem. A ringing doorbell or phone can sap your strength. If you live alone, close the door to your room and don't come out until you've had enough time to work. You will be amazed at how much more interested you will be in writing if you set space for yourself. The "room of one's own" mentality helps to clear the mind and set the stage for you to write. Work with your significant other, friends, or family to create an atmosphere that will allow you to work in privacy. Music for One's Soul Listening to music is an excellent tool to calm your nerves and help you become motivated. There are times in which certain songs inspire me to write and keep on writing. My rule of thumb is to write down what music I am listening to while writing my notes so that I can re-create the mood for later. When in the deep, dark funk of inactivity, I play music that will help exorcise my blues. Another tip is to incorporate several techniques together: I often listen to music and write in my journal at the same time. Try this experiment if you can touch type: close your eyes while

listening to a favorite piece of music and just type. Do not open your eyes to see if you hit the right key, just type as fast as you can and type whatever you want. You'll be amazed at what you allow yourself to write when uninhibited. The purpose of this type of activity is to help free up the way you look at writing. With the overwhelming responsibilities of today's world, writing for pure fun and enjoyment might help bring back your motivation to finish that story. Exercise the Mind and Body When the weather is nice and you have some time to relax, take a backpack with you (filled with a notebook and pens) and go for a walk. Walk through the woods, on the beach, through city streets, whatever you desire. Just let your feet do the walking and watch all that you see. Maybe you might catch something amazing that you just have to write down. Or better yet, maybe an idea pops in out of the blue, and you can stop and jot the basic framework of the story or article down in your notebook. Physical exercise helps lift the spirits and allows endorphins to course through your body. Try using this natural technique to help you. It's free and it works. If you're not able to exercise the body or don't have the time, meditation is another way to achieve the same results. Meditation means meditating and not worrying about problems. There are many books available (or websites) to help teach you a technique. My favorite technique involves a mixture of relaxing the muscles and clearing the mind. Put yourself in a relaxed position (lying down is great for this) and inhale deeply through your nose. As you inhale, keep your eyes closed, clench your fists tightly together and imagine a warm light entering your body through your mouth and slowly filling your body. Hold the breath for a moment and then exhale through your mouth. When exhaling, envision a darkness (that represents all your problems, angst, or worry) coming out of your body. Move through this visualization technique to clench your stomach muscles, legs, feet, shoulders, squeeze your eyes tight, and finally clench up all your muscles in your body at once, hold, and then release. Granted this technique might appear odd for me to list in a writing article, but this form of relaxation has helped me undo the worries of life and enabled me to get back to my writing. Don't Give Up Using a combination of these techniques, will hopefully help motivate you to get back to writing. No matter what technique you use--be it one listed here or not--remember that you are not alone and that other writers struggle with the same problems. Keep yourself in a positive frame of mind and don't give up. Many writers believe that perseverance is one of the top attributes that differentiates an unpublished writer from a published one. With this thought in mind, remember the tips mentioned here and try them. If you give them half a try, some might help you get out of that blue funk! Copyright 2002 by Ron Vitale ARTISTIC TRUTH or IDEAS ON WHY MANSFIELD PARK IS NOT A GREAT BOOK by Sherwood Smith Most Austen aficionados agree that PRIDE AND PREJUDICE is a great book. Jane Austen thought it might be too "light and bright and sparkling"--that its comedy might outshine its serious points--but its continued popularity today indicates that her recipe for brilliance contained just the right ingredients. There are a few scholars who have maintained, (some rather lugubriously) that MANSFIELD PARK is her best novel. I haven't seen any discussion that convinces me. Frequently leveled criticisms: Fanny is a stick. Well, Fanny is certainly no Elizabeth, but then neither is Anne of PERSUASION or Eleanor of SENSE AND SENSIBILITY. Neither of them show much humor, and each of them makes her life difficult over scruples that seem, well, overscrupulous to the modern reader. The first evidence of Fanny's 'stickness' is her refusal to participate in the acting scheme got up by her cousins and their friends. To a modern reader, this makes her seem dull and puritanical. Some scholars have pegged MANSFIELD PARK as a harbinger of Victorian times based on this episode--and on the ending, more about which anon. Overlooked are the evidences of a sense of humor in Fanny (moreso, in fact, than either Anne or Eleanor show); consider this bit in Book One, Chapter XII, where Tom has just come in during a hastily-arranged ball, and is bitching to Fanny: "...they need all be in love, to find any amusement in such folly--and so they are, I fancy. If you look at them, you may see they are so many couple of lovers--all but Yates and Mrs. Grant--and, between ourselves, she poor woman! must want a lover as much as any one of them. A desperate dull life hers must be with the doctor," making a sly face as he spoke toward the chair of the latter, who proving, however, to be close at his elbow, made so instantaneous a change of expression and subject necessary, as Fanny, in spite of everything, could hardly help laughing at. "A strange business this in America, Dr. Grant! What is your opinion? I always come to you to know what I am to think of public matters." Fanny's character is retiring, but that's understandable considering the way she's been raised. Austen--who had a brother adopted into a wealthy relation's family--seems to understand what it would be like for a young person to be taken from the home and raised in a completely different manner--and manor. Fanny is an acute observer, at least as acute as Mary Crawford is, and probably moreso, for Fanny was able to descry emotional changes in both Mary and Edmund as well as her more readable cousins, and Mary--while seeing Julia's plight, and shrugging it off--did not see Fanny's adoration for her Cousin Edmund; she was also able to talk herself into believing Fanny's unswerving politeness to Henry was love. Fanny sees into everyone's heart, and feels for them all, deserving or not--excepting only Henry. Second problem: the ending--fanny marrying her dull cousin Edmund--is disgusting. Well, it is disgusting. Marrying cousins is a genetically proven nono for modern people, so we pretty much grow up regarding our cousins as being as off-limits as siblings. My teenaged daughter, on reading Austen's novels, was only slightly less repulsed by the marriage of cousins than she was at Emma's marrying a guy well old enough to be her father--and acting like one more often than not. (Although, she felt, and I do too, Emma got what she deserved. But that's another riff.) Then there is the matter of Edmund's personality. Is he really dull? He exhibits about as much of a sense of humor as does

Mr. Darcy, which is to say very little. When he's with Fanny he is, at best, the kindly, well-meaning, but rather patronizing older brother. Edmund is at his worst in his scenes with Fanny. He's insensitive and condescending--in fact, he's stupid--in the early scene when he tries to talk Fanny into being glad to live with Aunt Norris. Was he truly so blind to Aunt Norris's cruelties? In all their other scenes, he's unfailingly kind (except when he permits Mary to monopolize Fanyy's horse), and when he tries to bully Fanny into marrying Henry--despite his vaunted principles, which he knows Henry doesn't share. He does care about Fanny in his own peculiar way, but there is absolutely no chemistry; he calls her sister right until the end, when he wants to denounce his own sisters for straying from societal norms, so that Austen's unconvincing narrative that he fell in love "after just the right amount of time" carries a strong whiff of incest. Edmund also comes off poorly when he discusses Mary Crawford with Fanny, metaphorically wrinkling his nose over her rather free speech and attributing her frankly expressed opinions to bad upbringing. Later he proves himself a first class hypocrite when he denounces the acting scheme, but then gives in because Mary wants to act--and then he's so involved with Mary that he totally overlooks the more serious trouble going on between his sisters over Henry. The evidence is there--fanny sees it--but Edmund doesn't. Mary falls for him in spite of herself, and it's through her eyes that Edmund becomes mildly interesting. "He was not pleasant by any common rule, he talked no nonsense, he paid no compliments, his opinions were unbending, his attentions tranquil and simple." She's fascinated by this kind of guy--she's never met one before--and in her company, Edmund comes alive. In some of their passages he exhibits intelligence and even a semblance of wit. One wonders if she would have been happy with him longterm--especially after what she observed about marriage during one of the early conversations--but perhaps she could have succeeded in waking Edmund up enough to make a good partner. That she craved some kind of peace and security was clear enough. But to get back to the novel at hand: if one speculates, as I do, about what comes after The End of each novel, it's easy to see Edmund carrying a torch for Mary Crawford for the rest of his life--and Fanny knowing it. There's too much a sense of settling for second best when he marries Fanny--which brings us to the biggest problem of all. In his essay on Mansfield Park in LECTURES ON LITERATURE, Vladimir Nabokov says, "An original author always invents an original world, and if a character or an action fits into the pattern of that world, then we experience the pleasurable shock of artistic truth, no matter how unlikely the person or thing may seem if transferred into what book reviewers, poor hacks, call "real life." There is no such thing as real life for an author of genius: he must create it himself and then create the consequences." The weakest point in PRIDE AND PREJUDICE is the coincidence that brings Darcy and Elizabeth face to face at Pemberley. Jane Austen tried to smooth it as much as she could, having had Mrs. Gardiner grow up in the area, and making it possible for Elizabeth to visit because she is safe in the knowledge that the Darcy family are away. But still, when he comes round the side of the stable and their eyes meet, it's an interesting moment, and a moment we hoped for, but not an inevitable moment. In MANSFIELD PARK, there are no coincidences. Each action unfolds with dramatic integrity, flowing logically from the preceding. Where the consequences falter is in the third book, and it's interesting that Austen kept the crucial actions off-stage, telling the reader rather than showing. It has been argued that all the indelicate scenes in her books--those having to do with adultery or sex or children out of wedlock--take place off-stage, a deliberate move in the interests of delicacy. Yet Austen still manages to make the events immediate, usually through the retailing after-the-fact by a character who is closely concerned: Lydia's letter as read by Jane and Elizabeth, and then later her own account of her wedding; the Colonel's personal history told to Eleanor in SENSE AND SENSIBILITY. In MANSFIELD PARK, we never see Henry's sudden decision to throw over Fanny, and everything he has worked for, to run off with Maria Rushworth--we only learn about it very briefly in narrative after the fact. It is the first really unconvincing moment in the book, and it remains unconvincing because all of the consequences of this action are kept off-stage, with Fanny sitting at her parents' house waiting for word. Previous to this Henry has shown all the evidence of having fallen truly, deeply, madly in love, for the first time, a love that makes him reform his life, and his lust for Maria Rushworth just doesn't measure against it. If he'd really wanted Maria, he could have spoken up after the play fiasco; Maria made it clear that she's ready, willing, and desperate. The impetus, supposedly, is Maria's anger toward him. We have seen that Henry is fascinated by opposition, having experienced it seldom. This is initially what causes him to sit back, throw a letter he'd written carelessly across a table, and announce to his sister that he's decided to make Fanny Price fall in love with him. But he outgrows it, regrets it, and comes to love her for herself. I don't believe that Maria's facade of anger would cause him to throw everything away to run off with a married woman; even in his most careless moments he exhibited more social finesse than that. Finally, in Fanny's and Henry's relationship there is that fascinating element of the reformed rake, the taming of the beast, that was as much a draw to women readers in Romantic poetry (check out Byron--and the reactions from his audience, in old letters and articles) as it is now. I wonder if, in fact, readers 200 years ago were as disappointed with this ending as modern readers are now--saying out loud, "Well, this is the way it ought to be," but internally rewriting the story so that Fanny gets her passionate and reformed Henry, rewarding him with all that devotion and sensitivity that seem wasted on Edmund. Opinions in Austen's circle seemed to be mixed. Why did Austen end it the way she did? The assumption that a good and pure woman only falls in love once is common thorugh the entire 19th Century. Particularly in Trollope's books, we see as a theme over and over that a woman who falls in love once is as shopworn and undeserving of a second love as if she'd had sex. Emma is the only one who flirts with being in love, but Austen makes it clear that those flirtations weren't the real McCoy; all her heroines fall in love once, and Fanny's, Anne's, and Eleanor's stories come out of the suffering these steadfast women endure while staying loyal to their men. Setting aside the absurdity of that attitude for people today--thank goodness--let's consider this: were Fanny's feelings for Edmund real love? They don't read that way to me.

It could be my opinion is colored by Edmund's reactions to Fanny, for chemistry has to go two ways if it's to be sustained, but her admiration, sparked so early in her teens, seems the kind of crush romantic youngsters form and then grow out of. She's clear-sighted enough to see Edmund's faults concerning Mary, but she doesn't seem to see any others. She does see Henry's faults, but at the very end, it seems she is slowly being won over through his alterations; when they walk together in Portsmouth on a Sunday morning, energy seems to spark between them. She cares for his opinion, she watches him. It seems to me that this is the start of real love, the love of a mature woman. But then, quite suddenly, it all is thrown away, the more unconvincing because Austen resorts to telling us what to think, after an entire novel in which she had shown, so beautifully, living and breathing characters. Consistency, in Nabakov's sense, is sacrificed; moral truth is firmly asserted, at the cost of artistic truth. Copyright 1997 by Sherwood Smith (reprinted by permission of the author) QUEENS PRIESTESSES AND PHARAOHS WOMEN OF ANCIENT EGYPT VII by Karen L. Kobylarz When you hear the words queen of Egypt, what do you think of? The Sphinx? Pyramids? Royal mummies? Cleopatra? Of all Egyptian queens, Cleopatra is probably the most famous. But she wasn't the only one to strike out on her own or leave her mark on history. If you've studied ancient Egypt, you may have heard of Queen-King Hatshepsut, sometimes called "the first great woman in history," or Nefertiti, the queen famous for her beauty. But there were more queens than Hatshepsut who took the throne of Egypt for their own, and there was more to Nefertiti than her good looks. Their stories are here, along with those of other women who made a difference along the banks of the Nile. NEFERTARI (1279-1255 B.C.E.) Some fifty years after Ankhesenamun vanished from the scene, another "mystery woman" became queen of Egypt. Her name was Nefertari-meritmut, though her friends probably just called her Nefertari. After King Tut's death, Egypt had a string of commoner pharaohs--the old advisor Ay and a couple of army men named Horemhab and Ramesses I. And it was Ramesses I who finally gave Egypt its new ruling family. Nefertari, however, wasn't part of this family. In fact, we have no clue who her parents were, though we know who they weren't. As she was never called "king's daughter" or "king's sister," we can be pretty sure she wasn't royal to start with. She was called "hereditary noblewoman," which tells us that her parents were probably well-to-do, and the "meritmut" part of her name, meaning "beloved of the goddess Mut," suggests she came from the city of Thebes, where that goddess was very popular. When she was a teenager, Nefertari went to the royal court, where she married Ramesses I's grandson, who was also named Ramesses. Eight years passed, and this younger Ramesses Ramesses II--became pharaoh with Nefertari as his chief queen. Because she was pretty, Nefertari--the name means "beautiful companion" might have had people wondering: She definitely had the looks, but did she have the brains? But she would prove that she was no bimbo. As soon as her husband inherited the throne, Nefertari showed herself to be another Queen Tiye. She accompanied Ramesses to all important events, and if someone wanted to carve a picture of her and Ramesses, they had to show her as pharaoh's equal in height. Nefertari also received all of Tiye's titles and then some. She was Great Royal Wife, Lady of the Two Lands, Mistress of the Two Lands, Mistress of the South and North, and Mistress of All Lands. She was also called "one who appeases the gods," which suggests that, like other queens before her, Nefertari played an important part in religious affairs. Nefertari took an active role in foreign policy as well, particularly in Egypt's relationship with Hatti. That relationship hadn't been too hot over the years, especially after Egyptian troops had murdered the prince that Hatti's king had sent to Ankhesenamun. In fact, near the beginning of his reign, Ramesses had fought a nasty battle with these people. Although Ramesses claimed he'd won a victory, the battle really ended in a stalemate. So Ramesses and Nefertari decided to turn this no-win situation into a win-win one. Their solution: a peace treaty. The king and queen of Hatti thought this was a good idea, too, and the two sets of rulers became political pen-pals. After the treaty was signed, Nefertari sent this Hallmark-worthy greeting to Queen Puduhepa of Hatti: "May the sun god of Egypt and the storm god of Hatti bring you joy; and may the sun god cause the peace to be good... I am in friendship... with... the great queen of Hatti now and forever." No doubt Nefertari enjoyed her political and religious clout, but her life did have one downside. She was married to the most egotistical pharaoh of all time. Of course, pharaohs weren't supposed to be modest or shy, but Ramesses tended to take things to the extreme. He loved building things and slapping his image all over them, and if he liked a temple that someone else had built, he'd just erase that pharaoh's name and replace it with his own. And he gave himself flashy titles, too, like "Ramesses the Great" and "King of Kings." But if anyone could cut him down to size and get away with it, Nefertari probably could, for Ramesses really seems to have loved her. On monuments, he called her "rich of praise," "lady of charm," "sweet of love," and "beautiful of face." He even built her a temple of her very own and ordered a lavishly-painted tomb to be made for her in the Valley of the Queens. Unfortunately none too soon. Nefertari died in the twenty-fourth year of Ramesses's reign, and over the years, many wives would take her place as pharaoh's chief queen. But none of them would enjoy the honors Nefertari had. Ramesses built them no temples, gave them no special titles, and never let them be shown as his equal in any work of art. None could inspire him the way Nefertari had. Copyright 2002 by Karen L. Kobylarz BIBLIOGRAPY Corzo, Miguel Angel, ed. WALL PAINTINGS OF THE TOMB OF NEFERTARI. Century City, California: J. Paul Getty Trust, 1987.

Hawass, Zahi. SILENT IMAGES: WOMEN IN PHARAONIC EGYPT. Cairo, Egypt: Cultural Development Fund, 1995. McDonald, John K. HOUSE OF ETERNITY: THE TOMB OF NEFERTARI. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Trust, 1996. Robins, Gay. WOMEN IN ANCIENT EGYPT. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1993. ADVENTURES IN MARKETING KITCHEN-SINKING IT by Varda One The Kitchen-Sink Story. A story overwhelmed by the inclusion of any and every new idea that occurs to the author in the process of writing it.--attributed to Damon Knight I've recently watched two videos: DOLORES CLAIBORNE and THE SPITFIRE GRILL. They share these features: l. Produced about the same time 2. About equal length 3. Leads are women--one younger, the other at least a generation older, and their acting is excellent. 4. Set in small remote Maine towns in present time 5. Contain complex backstory events which happened before the main plot Yet DC works and TSG doesn't despite its beautiful scenery, haunting score, and authentic Maine accents. The difference is mostly in the writing of the last point. DC was adapted from a Stephen King novel by a screenwriter and directed by a third person. TSG was written for the screen by its director. The backstory is narrated so the camera is fixed and we have talking heads. Because not all the dialogue is clearly enunciated, we miss crucial words. Cinematic values are lost, perhaps because the writer and director were the same person. In DC, there's two deaths. We need to know if the older lead caused them and if they were accidental, murder, or manslaughter. The backstory is revealed in flashbacks. The flashbacks not only make everything vivid and clear, they're stylistically riveting because they include the present-age and earlier-age character in the same scene. There's another problem that hurts TSG and that's kitchensinking too much to absorb. As best as I can figure out in two viewings (I never watch movies twice but I did so because of this article), the theme is redemption of the characters, the environment, the society. There's much too much scope: l. The older lead has a son who was the town hero. He's a Vietnam vet who lives as a hermit in the woods. We don't know why but assume that war trauma has caused his isolation. He's redeemed by love. 2. The younger lead has been impregnated and has a miscarriage, both caused by her father. She kills him and is imprisoned for manslaughter. 3. A young couple has two problems. The wife needs to learn assertiveness. She is helped in this by the ex-con younger lead. The husband wants to sell the property of the older lead so he can develop its mineral resources. 4. The older lead wants to sell her restaurant. She has an essay contest with $100 cash fee per entrant best essays wins the restaurant. Hundreds of entries come in, the entire town is enlisted to read them. 5. The younger lead has a romance. Her beau longs to revive his clear-cut forest because the bark of the trees that have returned are valuable for medicine. The town is called Gilead; the Biblical Gilead produced balm from tree resin. Good (medicine) can come from evil (clear-cutting) redemption again. 6. Balm (which comes from the word balsam) also means a healing agency or influence. The Vietnam vet was such an influence. When he retreats into the woods, the town is stagnant, resistant to change, until the younger lead comes from prison, acts as the new balm by suggesting the essay contest and helping people like the bullied wife, the vet, and his mother. 7. The beau has a father who doesn't communicate. Essay-reading redeems him by reviving his interest in life. 8. There is a mixup in the theft of the essay cash receipts. There's more, but that's enough you get the kitchen sink drift. The salient theme of TSG is redemption, but it was underscored by so many subplots that I got confused. TSG tries to make the whole town the main character and that's way too many people. If it sounds overwhelming in print, imagine how much more confusing it is when it's rolling by at film speed. The focus of DC was guilt or innocence and motivation. Basically, it's a study of a wife dealing with an abusive husband, a man who was incesting their child. How does she deal with this? Moral: Less is more. The more tangents you pack into your work, the more you confuse and lose your audience. You convey your message best when you isolate your main point and let everything serve that. Copyright 2001 by Varda One WRITING AS ADVENTURE by Varda One is on sale online or by phone at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and xlibris.com UNICORNS Part 3: Cartazon by Diana Carolyn Ice In the last two issues, we discussed the Oriental unicorn, ki-lin, and the Middle Eastern karkadann. The third major kind of unicorn is the European unicorn (Monoceros europus), of which there are two subspecies--the cartazon and the abyrne deor. The cartazon of southern Europe was first described by Claudius Aelianus in the 3rd century AD. Sometimes known as the "Roman cartazon," this unicorn originally ranged from Italy through Spain, but is now confined to deserted mountain tops and isolated valleys in the Alps and the Pyrenees, where it can find the remote and unspoiled woods with scattered open glades and unpolluted waters that it prefers. Standing from some three and a half feet high at the shoulder upwards to the size of a small horse, the feisty cartazon is noted for its great strength and speed, and will often fight to the death even with its own kind. It possesses large, brownish eyes, a well-developed mane, and a fairly shaggy coat (like a mustang) which may be any color from black through bay and rich chestnut to tawny gold, with the bays often having a black mane and tail. In winter, the unicorns' heavier coat generally lightens to a fawn or cream. But unlike a horse, the cartazon has a long goat-like tail and three-inch-long cloven hooves, which vary in color from gold to brown to black. And as they age, the males acquire a shaggy

beard under their chins, although it is not unknown for some colts to be born with a tiny beard. In addition to size, the cartazon may be distinguished most easily from its distant cousins, the smaller ki-lin and the larger karkadann, by the fact that its sharply pointed horn is almost straight, where theirs tend to be sinuous. The cartazon has keen vision and hearing, making it difficult to sneak up on. The best time to hunt a cartazon is during the September-October breeding season. The mating call of the male is a dissonant braying or sad wail. The female's warning call to her foal is similar to a sneeze, and the foal's cry to its mother is a soft bleating. The foals are usually black at birth and have a nubbin of a horn, which may be white, gold, black, or multicolored. The adults' horns average four feet in length, are usually black with natural rings, and taper to a very sharp point. Over the centuries many legends and myths have grown up around the European unicorn. The killing of one is even blamed for the coming of the Black Death. The most common lore involves the unique horn. The unicorn's horn, known as an alicorn, was believed to sweat in the presence of poison, and was considered to be the most effective panacea for a variety of ills. Any poisonous plant or animal brought near the horn was supposed to die. In the Middle Ages, small pieces of alicorn were kept in almost all castles and churches and were used to deal with sickness and the bites of mad dogs, spiders, and scorpions. Cups, spoons, and salt cellars made from alicorn for the rich sold at formidable prices, and were rated among the most precious items of princely and papal treasure. Wealthy families often kept an alicorn hanging on a chain on the wall in the rooms where feasts were held. At the beginning of a meal, a servant carried the horn around the table, touching all the food and drink with it to test for poison. This ritual was still performed at the court of the King of France until 1789. For the poor there were scrapings of horn or powdered horn available, or simply water into which a horn had been dipped. This water was called l'eau a la licorne. Apothecaries, even as late as 1600, kept an alicorn chained to their counters, and the unicorn head was the common symbol for apothecary shops into the 17th century. In Part 4, we will discuss the northern European abyrne deor. Copyright 2002 by Diana C Ice MARKET REPORT by Kathleen Woodbury SPECULATIONS reports: QUANTUM SURGE has been cancelled due to lack of publisher and funds. New ezine ABYSS & APEX: MAGAZINE OF SPECULATIVE FICTION apparently pays 3 cents/word for SF/F/magic realism. Executive Editor, C.M.S Burrell; Managing Editor, Elizabeth Bear; Submissions Editor, Leah Bobet. Detailed guidelines are at www.klio.net/byrenlee/abyssandapex. New, triannual magazine PARADOX seeks "historical/f/sf/h. Pays 3-5 cents/word ($450 max) for any length (within reason; prefers 2-9k)." No reprints or e-subs. Christopher M. Cevasco, Editor, PO Box 22897, Brooklyn, NY 11202-2897; paradox@nyc.rr.com; home.nyc.rr.com/paradoxmag/index.html. Debut: 5/15/03. TRISPEC is a new "magazine of speculative fiction and poetry (SF/F/H) under 1,000 words. Launch date is [1/03]. Pay is 3 cents US/word. John Garrett, Editor, 297 Duke St, Saint John, NB E2L1P Canada; jlewisgarrett@hotmail.com; www.geocities.com/z4ho.rm/trispec-submissions.html DREAMS OF DECADENCE (www.dnapublications.com/dreams) has updated its guidelines. "Pays 1-5 cents/word on publication for FNASR for original fiction." Angela Kessler, Editor, PO Box 2988, Radford, VA 24143-2988; info only, dnapublications@iname.com "New Century Writing Contest (www.newcenturywriter.org/5th_ncwa_2002_entry_call.htm): Short Stories (in association with Scissor Press). Grand Prize winner for 2003 receives a Ray Bradbury Short Story Fellowship to the Zoetrope Short Story Writers' Workshop in Belize, Central America. Winner announced in [5/03]. The trip takes place the first week of [7/03]. 1st Place: $1000 cash; 2nd Place: $750 rd cash; 3 Place $500 cash. The TOP 10 short stories will be published in the NCWA Best-of paperback original antho. Short Story Submission." Deadline, 1/31/03 (postmark). No street address given. Also from SPECULATIONS, some Science-Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) Alerts: SFWA warns: "If you're an author with titles from Harlequin or any of its imprints, your copyrights may not be registered with the US Copyright Office." For further info, including details on registering your work, go to www.sfwa.org/beware/general.html#alert. Also from SFWA: "The San Angelo Police Department in San Angelo, Texas, is gathering info about the practices of Texas-based Helping Hand Literary Service/Janet Kay & Associates, run by George Harrison Titsworth and Janet Kay Titsworth... Clients and former clients... are asked to contact Detective Brian Elkins either by phone [915-657-4351] or e-mail [det_brian_elkins@yahoo.com]... [SFWA's] Writer Beware [would] appreciate it if you'd also drop [them] a line: beware@sfwa.org." SFWA has issued an "Alert for Clients or Former Clients of Martha Ivery, a.k.a. Kelly O'Donnell, and/or Press-Tige Publishing. Martha Ivery/Press-Tige Publishing, Inc. (a.k.a. Kelly O'Donnell Literary Agency, O'Donnell Literary Services, Writers Information USAgency, New Millennium Publishers, and others...) is currently under criminal investigation for various federal offenses...inquiries and info should be directed to: Paul Silver - Criminal Analyst, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 200 McCarty Avenue, Albany, NY 12209-2095; (518) 465-7551." Details at www.sfwa.org/beware/general.html#alert "The [SFWA] e-piracy Committee urges members to go to www.northernlight.com and search for possibly pirated stories that [Northern Light] is selling for profit." www.ralan.com reports that GOTHIC.NET is closed to fiction indefinitely and that STRANGE HORIZONS is closed to fiction for Christmas. Also from ralan.com: a couple of markets that open 1 January 2003 POLYPHONY 3, Deborah Layne, Publisher & Fiction Editor, Jay Lake, Fiction Co-Editor, Wheatland Press, P. O. Box 1818, Wilsonville, OR 97070; email (no subs, info only): inquiries@wheatlandpress.com; website: www.wheatlandpress.com

"Wheatland Press announces an open reading period for POLYPHONY 3, the third volume in the critically-acclaimed POLYPHONY anthology series. The publisher and editors are committed to finding outstanding cutting edge fiction from new writers as well as from established writers. We will be looking for stories that stretch (or break) the boundaries of traditional genres. Send us your magic realism, surrealism, literary stories with a genre sensibility, and other hard-to-classify stories with strong literary values, compelling characters, engaging tone and unique voice. If you really want to know what we are looking for, check out the first volume of POLYPHONY, available directly from Wheatland Press, genre booksellers or online booksellers. We will accept submissions by lettermail only at our P.O. Box, postmarked from 1 January 2003 through 15 February 2003. Manuscripts received with a postmark date outside the designated reading period will be discarded unopened. Any manuscripts received by e-mail will be deleted unread. If you live overseas or otherwise need to request an exception to this policy, query us at inquiries@wheatlandpress.com. Please follow standard manuscript formatting and submission conventions, especially including no simultaneous or multiple submissions. It is our intention to respond to all submissions by 15 April 2003. We pay $0.06 per word for First Print and Electronic North American Anthology Rights, on acceptance, along with two author's copies on publication. These guidelines may be redistributed freely in their entirety. We look forward to seeing your best work." THE DECAY WITHIN, Elizabeth R. Peake, Editor/Publisher, e-subs & info: editor@3fpublications.com; website: www.3fpublications.com "The reading period for our next anthology project, "The Decay Within," is 1 January 2003 to 31 March 2003. A few authors will be personally invited to contribute. All others are invited to try. 1. Your short story MUST contain something decayed or rotting. 2. Word Limit is 3000-6000 words. 3. Zombies are okay, but surely you can find another type of decay or rot to write about. 4. No vampires, werewolves or the like. 5. Keep the sex intricate to the story. 6. We pay 5 cents a word, send us only your best. 7. Payment upon publication, if st you are accepted. 8. The reading period will begin April 1, 2003 and the publication date is set for October 1st, 2003. 9. No submissions before January 1 or after March 31, 2003. 10. We can't stress enough to edit your story thoroughly. We will overlook a mistake or two, but not much more than that. 11. No reprints 12. Send your story in an email as a Word attachment, and the words THE DECAY WITHIN in the subject line, to the above e-mail address." One more item from ralan.com: THE YEAR'S BEST FANTASY & HORROR #16, Ellen Datlow, Horror Editor, Terri Windling, Fantasy Editor "Send HORROR submissions to: Ellen Datlow, PMB 391, 511 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10011-8436 (Note: place "YEAR'S BEST HORROR" on envelope) "Send FANTASY submissions to: The Year's Best Fantasy, c/o Richard and Mardelle Kunz, 2509 N. Campbell PMB 402, Tucson, AZ 85719-3304 (From Ellen Datlow:) "I co-edit the World Fantasy Award winning anthology series The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror (St. Martin's Press) with Terri Windling. The fifteen annual collection will be out in July 2002. We are now reading for the sixteenth volume, which will include all material published in the year 2002. I am looking for stories from all branches of horror: from the traditional-supernatural to the borderline, including high-tech science fiction horror, psychological horror or anything else that might qualify. If in doubt, send it. This is a reprint anthology so I am only reading material published in or about to be published during the year 2002. Submission deadline for stories is December 15th 2002. Anything sent after this deadline will reach me too late. If a magazine you edit will be coming out by December 31st 2002 you can send me galleys or manuscripts so that I can judge the stories in time. No e-mail submissions. There are summations of "the year in horror," and "the year in fantasy" in the front of each volume. These include magazine and publishing news concerning the horror and fantasy fields, novels we've read and liked, and in my section, "odds and ends"-- material that doesn't fit anywhere else but that I feel might interest the horror reader (like strange nonfiction titles, art books, etc). But I have to be aware of this material in order to mention it. The deadline for this section is January 30th, 2003. When sending me material (to the above mailing address) please put YEAR'S BEST HORROR on the envelope. "Terri Windling's submissions (fantasy) should be sent to the Tucson mailing address appearing above. Terri covers fantasy and I cover horror. If you consider something both, send to each of us. We do not confer on our choices. ****I do not want to receive manuscripts from authors of stories from venues that it's likely I already receive regularly (like Interzone, The Third Alternative, Cemetery Dance, etc) or from anthologies, unless I don't have that anthology. And please do not send a SASE. If I choose a story you will be informed. If you want to confirm that I've received something, enclose a self-addressed-stamped postcard and I will let you know the date it arrived. For stories that appear on the web, please send me (or have the publisher send me) print-outs of your story." Updates (#123) by J.W. Donnelly This section deals primarily with editorial changes at the markets, mainly at the major publishing houses, though some payment and format changes are also included as we head into 2003. 1. Liz Holiday will edit the new BIG ENGINE pro SF magazine 2. Dave Clark is new editor at THE EDGE 3. FLESH AND BLOOD raised rates to 2-3 cents/word 4. DEEP OUTSIDE only accepts email submissions 5. Nancy Bennett left Hicks 6. Patrick Foran is an editorial assistant at Warner Aspect SF 7. Trevor Quachri is associate editor at ANALOG 8. Jennifer Heddle is an editor at Penguin/NAL 9. Don D'Auria is now an executive editor at Leisure Books 10. IMAGININGS only looks at stories longer than 8,000 words 11. ABSOLUTE MAGNITUDE now pays between 7-10 cents/word 12. BYLINE no longer buys sf, f, or h 13. URBANITE is going to a yearly anthology format 14. Diana Gill is senior editor at Harper Collins 15. Devi Pillai is assistant editor at Warner Aspect 16. Brett A. Savory is editor-in-chief at CHIZINE