Kelly Link! I Know Her!

N.B.: The title of this post needs to be read in the manner of Will Ferrell shouting out "Santa!" in the movie Elf.

Apparently, Kelly Link--sweet, amazing, all-around-good-person-who-might-spill-something-on-you-telling-you-it's-chocolate-scented-perfume writer person--has had her latest story collection--Magic for Beginners--listed as one of five (FIVE!) fiction books by Time Magazine as part of their best books of 2005.

She's listed with other luminaries like Salman Rushdie and E. L. Docotorow. Wow. This is so cool. If you haven't read the book yet, you NEED to pick up a copy of it. Gwenda Bond agrees with me. As does Jonathan Strahan. This is great news for Kelly and Gavin.

This is a perfect last-minute gift if you're still looking. Great for yourself, for anyone you know. Kelly has that extraordinary thing about her of being a truly unique writer. There is no one else that writes like her. She takes the mundane world around us and makes it feel special. And yet utterly normal at the same time.

Congrats Kelly. You deserve this and so much more.

John Klima

Four on the Floor

From Gwenda:

Four jobs you've had in your life: fry guy (Wendy's); baker; truck scale operator (Waste Management); editor
Four movies you could watch over and over: Coming to America; Singin' in the Rain; White Christmas; Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Four places you've lived: Brookfield, WI; Madison, WI; Edison, NJ; Somerset, NJ
Four TV shows you love to watch: Lost; The Office (US); Jeopardy; Good Eats
Four places you've been on vacation: London; Glasgow; Montreal; New Orleans
Four websites you visit daily: Bloglines; IMDB; ESPN; Night Shade Books Discussion Board
Four of your favorite foods: caramel; pistachios/peanuts (in the shell); fish 'n' chips; pizza;
Four places you'd rather be: (since I'm home with my wife and child-to-be, I'm where I want to be, but...) Madison, WI; New Orleans; throwing a frisbee around; sleeping

This is the end, my beautiful friend, the end

With apologies to the Jim Morrison estate.

Not quite the end, but close enough for horseshoes and stuff like that. Yesterday I had the last class meeting for two of my four classes. Tomorrow is the last day of my internship and the last class meeting for my Thursday night class. I presented last week in class so tomorrow night I just have to sit back and listen. I'll have a short paper to write up about my internship experience, but that won't take much.

The end of school is so close. I can actually see it from here. It finally seems real. It happened last night when I was leaving class and people were talking about the classes they are taking next spring. Hmmm. I don't have any classes for the spring. Then I saw the guarded jealous looks from my classmates who weren't graduating. I was almost done. Only a few more hours and the whole thing is done.

It was a very liberating feeling. It helped to drive home the idea that I was completing my master's.

Next week Monday I'm not planning on doing anything. I'm going to get up late, watch tv, etc.

And then I'll be bored and have to find something to do. I'll ask my wife to leave me a list.

Plus, Monday is when the zine re-opens for submissions, so I expect I'll be flooded with stories. :)

John Klima
Editor
Electric Velocipede

So, how you doing?

I am a mere week away from completing my coursework for my MLIS (that a Master's in Information and Library Science) degree. Hard to believe this is almost done. I feel like I've been working on it forever, but I only started a year ago in the Fall of 2004.

While there's an overwhelming sense of relief of not having to work so hard--I always at least worked full-time while going to school full-time, and this semester I was working two part-time jobs and an internship while going to school full-time--there's also a little uneasiness at losing some of the structure of my life.

You see, I've gotten used to school + work. Will I be able to fill my time while I'm 'only' doing work? Thankfully there's a baby coming in March to unsettle my life again.

But the unease is tempered by the fact that I do have work. And it's real work; work that's relevant to my degree.

I'll be working part-time at Franklin Township library as a reference librarian. I'll be there about 18 hours a week. The library is going through a renovation right now, so the space is a little cramped and a little 'This Old House' before Bob Villa comes in to help. But the people are extraordinarily nice (hi Ann!), it's close to my house, the pay is decent, and did I mention it's relevant to my career. I can't remember if I've ever had a job that I just wanted to stay at, that I looked forward to going to like this job.

I'll also be working for Rutgers and their digital library, specifically on the New Jersey Digital Highway project. This is pretty exciting. While the Franklin work is very traditional library work, this is much more cutting edge. I think both jobs work very well together to give me some amazing experience.

You see, as excited as I am about this jobs, they're both part-time and that means no benefits. We get benefits through my wife's work, but there's that baby coming, and if I don't have benefits, that means that she has to keep working, which means the little one needs to go somewhere during the day. In the short-term, these jobs are excellent. In the long-term, I need to find full-time work. I would love it if either of these jobs could transform into a full-time job, but I can't cross my fingers and hope.

All the same, I'm very excited about what I'll be doing for the upcoming future.

What have you been up to?

John Klima
Editor
Electric Velocipede

PS--as I said before, I'm reprinting issue #9 and getting ready to start editing issue #10. The zine goes on. :)