Harvard Crimson - Class of 1981 Feature

This weekend, I'll be attending my 15th anniversary college reunion, so my mind is on reunions and history. I plan to write a few posts about the reunion, and what people are up to.

But for the moment, I'm looking not at my class, but an earlier one. Today is Harvard's Commencement, and as usual, the Harvard Crimson has put together an issue that looks at the current group of graduates and the milestone reunion classes. The Class of 1981 is celebrating their 25th reunion this weekend, and at The Harvard Crimson :: Special Packages :: Class of 1981 you can find the whole section devoted to the class.

The section is divided into two general sections. The first section is devoted to news stories that were taking place at Harvard 25 years ago. In some ways, the more things change, the more they remain the same.

The second section is devoted to a few members of the Class of 1981 that they chose to feature. The members of the class they profile include journalist Susan Faludi, Lost co-executive producer (and creator of The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. ) A. Carlton Cuse...and science-fiction writer Melissa Scott, which I suspect might be of more than passing interest to some of you.

CowParade Boston 2006 Map!

Well, the Official Boston CowParade page may still have a dearth of information, but thaks to the Boston Herald (yes, I'm thanking the Herald), you can find a list and map of all the cows at http://theedge.bostonherald.com/cows/.

Thanks to Universal Hub for the link.

Pluto Is A Planet!

sdelmonte reports here that the International Astronomical Union plans to define the word "planet" in September. This may lead to the final resolution of Pluto's status, and I worry that they may decide to redefine Pluto as a non-planet. If they take away Pluto's status as a planet, I'm thinking of protesting over at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. I plan to carry a sign on a stick that says "Pluto IS a planet" and chant the following:

P-L-U!
P-L-A!
Pluto as a planet
Is here to stay!

Who wants to join me?

Anthology Invites

Writer and editor Jim C. Hines has posted an excellent little essay on how to get invited to submit stories to anthologies. In the essay, Anthology Invites, he tells his own story of trying to get into invitation-only anthologies, and then gives a few bullet points based on what he learned, such as the following:

• "When you get the opportunity to do this, be a pro. Don't blow the deadline. Don't turn in a dusty old trunk story (unless you revise the heck out of it to make it shiny and brilliant and new). Be polite, and show the editor that you're someone they'll want to work with again."
  
• "Make your story stand out. If three people write a story based on the same idea, there's a chance the editor will buy all three. There's also a chance they'll pick one and bounce the other two."
  

I recommend this essay highly to any writer who wants to learn how to get invited into anthologies. Go read.