Rules for email

Folks, I'm just saying, don't start your email subject lines with "TOP SECRET!!!!" It looks like spam. I just missed out on the surprise 50th birthday party for my great friend Mark Askwith from Space: The Imagination Station because I didn't get the email invitation.

The invitation went out while I was at Worldcon, and I don't know for sure that it ended up in my spam trap, 'cause I wasn't looking that carefully at stuff while I was on the road, but ALL CAPS and strings of exclamation marks will cause trouble for lots of people's email filters.

(Email to my sfwriter.com domain is mirrored to two separate mailboxes on other services; at this late date, there's no sign of the message, but the copy that was forwarded to me today did have a valid email address for me.)

I'm really, really bummed about missing this party, but at least let me say publicly what I didn't get to say privately: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MARK!

(Pictured: Mark holding the mike; videographer Don Wright)