Sunday, October 5, 2008

Wandering through the desert

Three updates...

Update the First: One of the neat things about living in Vegas is the close proximity to Utah (as much as it sounds like the setup to a joke, I'm being sincere). Shortly after moving here four years ago, we discovered the Shakespeare Festival about 2.5 hours from here in Cedar City, and after our first season of watching plays there, we were hooked. I spent all day there Saturday, and saw a fine but slightly off-center version of Julius Caesar (set in modern day, but still spoken from the original text and language of Shakespeare), and a mind-blowing Victorian-era murder mystery called Gaslight which, for someone who spends a lot of time thinking about storytelling and dark fiction, was almost a religious experience. I knew I would have hours spent alone during the trip, so I picked up the audiobook for Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, and am about six hours in. What a great story.

Update the Second: the first re-write of Clearing was ousted by GUD, who said it "wasn't what they were presently looking for"...not very specific, so it's off to Clarkesworld without any edits.

Update the Third: I'm kind of struggling with my next project. I have two of three stories in mind that don't completely excite me, and have started picking through the bones of projects never finished. I've commited to picking a project and pushing through by tomorrow night. Between Gaslight and Neverwhere, the juices are flowing today, and I don't think I'll have a problem settling on a project soon.

4 comments:

Rob Brooks said...

I think half the fun of doing a project is deciding what to do. Good luck with that.

As much as I enjoy Neil Gaiman's writing, I didn't care for Neverwhere. I was really excited to find it, but I just couldn't get into it--ironic, considering that I've been pondering an idea of my own that is in teh same vein. I think it just wasn't the right book for me at that time.

Jeremy D Brooks said...

I have mixed feelings about it. I really enjoy playing around with ideas, but I get neurotic about it eventually; at this point, I've only sold one story, and I'm still in the "...might have been a fluke" stage, so my lack of confidence in being able to write something publishable translates into my second- and third-guessing all of my ideas. Kind of spoils the fun, but if I feel like if I don't put myself under pressure, I won't produce anything salable. I think I need to just friggin' chill and have fun with it.

Aaron Polson said...

In case you're interested, Gaslight made it to the silver screen in two versions...1940 & 1944. The '44 is a real gem, with Ingrid Bergman and Joseph Cotton. I would have loved to see the play.

Best of luck with the sub & the projects.

Cate Gardner said...

Yeah, GUD is a tough nut to crack. They get over a thousand story submissions per issue - but if you don't try, you don't know.