See that doofus in the corner?

I have a talent for making myself look incompetent and instilling doubt in those who I need to inspire most. This morning's current victim happens to be Gary Westfahl. I'm working on several entries for The Encyclopedia of Themes in Science Fiction and Fantasy which is being edited by Westfahl and to be published by Greenwood Press. The deadline is June 1, so naturally I'm gearing up to move beyond my research-gathering phase and actually write those articles which will warp untold generations of speculative fiction scholars for ages to come.

Only come to find out, I've managed to lose the guidelines. The guidelines, sample articles, cross-reference entries, everything. In both hardcopy and the electronic files. I have no idea what happened to them--I turned my office upside down last night, and found quite a few things that made me exclaim, "So that's where that go to!" but, alas, no Encyclopedia materials. Repeated scans of the computer hard drive turned up empty as well.

So this morning I swallow my pride and do the inevitable: I email Westfahl and request a resend. Cleverly, I disguise it by including "updated" contact information, which obviously didn't fool him for a moment. Fortunately, he had good grace not to ask if I was a complete moron, but I'm certain he was thinking it. I'm quite certain he was also thinking, "I entrusted Cliff Simak's City to this yahoo? What was I thinking?"

Now Playing: The Kinks Schoolboys in Disgrace