Hellooo.....?

Echo...echo...echo...

I just realized it's been over a week since my last post. I have been busy. No excuses. But that's why I've neither posted to G&S, nor have I read anyone else's blogs...I feel out of touch already. I need to stand in the corner of the internet until I promise to be more attentive.
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As of sometime last week--Tuesday, I think--I have begun dieting again. I hate dieting. For most of the week, I didn't take in any more than 1100-1200 calories a day, and I was so grouchy that for a few days I didn't want to talk to anyone, much less type. Being that hungry is too distracting; I lost three pounds in as many days, but at the cost of reduced productivity. I have since raised my intake a bit.
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Also, some time last week, I set up another blogspot to journal my Halloween garage haunt. Sick as I am, I've already started working on Halloween 2009. That probably deserves double-sentencing to the corner. My wife certainly thinks so.
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In reading news, I finished Straub's Ghost Story; really fun read. Actually kind of got me spooked in the second half, although there was a point in there when they could name the evil they were facing and kind of figure it out, and at that point it ceased being scary. I think the unknown is way worse. Anyway, I remembered at some point that a movie was made out of it in the 80s, and pulled it up on Netflix Watch It Now. It sucked, and I'm sorry I remembered (except that it had Alice "Borg Queen" Krige in the lead role, which was cool...also liked her in Sleepwalkers). On Saturday we went to see Coraline, and it successfully washed Ghost Story out of my prefrontal cortex.

I just started Robinson's Gilead; the reviewer's consensus on this one seems to be "just friggin' read it", so I am. Also, I also just traded Getting to Yes, a business-drone user's guide, for No Country for Old Men on Paperbackswap. Fair trade, I think.

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A couple of re-subs and re-writes on short stories, and started another longer piece: kind of a modern-day, condensed Grapes of Wrath. Seemed apropos for 2009.

Happy President's Day, and have a good week...I'm off to read some of my much-neglected internet-friends blogs, then an hour of reading before beddy-bye.

Number Two (no, the good kind of number two)

After about seven weeks in round two, I got a minor revision request from Cyberwizard for Clearing and, within a few hours of resubmitting, an acceptance for Abandoned Towers! Woohoo!

Yes, it's for the website (she gave me the choice of web or print, and I chose the former...at this point I think I need broader readership more than another hard copy ToC); and yes, it's FTL (and we all are aware of the debate stirring around that topic... apparently that thread is still active, and, if you scroll down the bottom, plumbing new depths of pettiness and backbiting). But, like I mentioned over on Aaron's blog, this is the point in my career where I need some of that free love...of the few FTLs I've subbed to since kicking this whole writing thing off in July, I have gotten some great feedback from many of them, including early feedback from the former submissions editor for Abandoned Towers...and I am incredibly grateful. So, until I'm cool enough to sell exclusively to pro and semi (that's all I've subbed to since October or so), I'll enjoy a symbiosis with folks who are in a position to cultivate talent, and take whatever attention I can get, given that this is my second published work to-date.

To summarize: WooHoo! She said she'll put it up once she gets a hard copy contract, so hopefully in a week or so.

Also, I finished the Cemetery Book...it was a very cute book packed with Neil Gaiman creepyisms, and seems to definitely be set up for a sequel. My kids are really looking forward to the Coraline movie in February as well.

Gaiman-isms and Updates

I didn't write a word yesterday, due to going to see Neil Gaiman do the keynote address for the Las Vegas Lit Festival. It's funny, I spent like 20 hours with Neil's voice listening to Neverwhere last month, so hearing him in person is like being in a meeting with someone I actually knew. Weird. Neil is full of insight and advice for writers, and the target audience last night seemed to be not only fans but writers as well, and Neil tailored his talk appropriately. He talked about how he got his start in literature (lying about his resume), what inspires him (noticing things, talking to his kids), how he decides what project to work on next (whatever makes sense), and funny anecdotes from his career (apparently he spent a couple of weeks at a bankrupt hotel in Vegas while writing American Gods, and had spent time sitting on the ratty couch in the lobby watching TV with multiple Elvises in different colored jumpsuits, and had a running issue with a "defective bible" in his room). He also read two yet-to-be-published children's books of his coming out next year. Well worth staying up late to attend...he didn't do a signing, but had pre-signed most of his published works and had them for sale in the lobby (I picked up The Graveyard Book, and I thought my kids would like Coraline).

In writing news...after finishing up Contract of Men and tossing it over to GUD (they rejected Clearing pretty quick, but I think CoM might be a better fit for their mag), I was finally able to spend some time on Mojave. I was a little worried about getting back into the flow of the story after not touching it for about a week, but I broke 11k Wednesday night, and am at a point where I'm really anxious to figure out where it goes, and am enjoying the story a lot...a couple of interesting characters (I hope).

After just over 3 months, Faith, which is the second story of my would-be career and, in retrospect, not a very well put-together story, was rejected by Glimmer Train for the August Very Short Fiction contest. Ce'st la vie...it is, after all, Glimmer Train. I don't think I'll re-write that one...at least not for a while. It's more interesting visuals and feelings but not a strong story.