Remember, Remember, the month of November

OK, time for the November roundup...

• Mrs. Marsupial's Tea Party, written and submitted to the Cafe Doom contest in October, took the silver medal for good behavior at Cafe Doom...subbed it to Clarkesworld (rejected), and is now in-slush with Sybil's Garage.
• Started and completed Contract of Men, which now sits with GUD.
• Started and completed Filtered White Light, out with AGNI.
• Started and completed The Tucker Farm Incident for Dark Jesters (also pending).
• Knocked out about 20k of Mojave, doubted my storyline, and put it aside to simmer.
• Clearing (version 2.2) (does everyone version their stories, or just me?) accepted for the online edition of Abandoned Towers
• Inspired by the story started in Tucker Farm, started a new story-of-indeterminate-length called Seattle Pizza Company v. The State of Washington. I knocked out about 3100 words last night, which I think is my one-day record.

Given that I got one acceptance and some positive feedback for Mrs. M, I'm calling November a success.

In addition to working an insanely busy job in banking, raising a family, trying to keep my old house from falling over, having a year-round infatuation with Halloween special effects, and trying to break into writing, I also do some programming on the side, and just knocked out a massive project that has been dogging me for over a month--which frees up a little more time for the other things on the list, and takes the stress quotient down a bit.

It's 8:30am on the west coast, and is now time to concentrate on the job that pays the bills. Tonight, back to the Seattle Pizza Company.

Free as in Beer, and Doldroms

Some of you may have gotten this email as well, but GUD Magazine is having a lottery-style magazine sale...I picked up the summer issue for like $.56, or something crazy like that. In addition, they sent me a voucher for some lucky individual to get a copy of same (on PDF form) for free. If you're interested in using my voucher, first one to post their email addy here can have it (I'm sure they will want to put you on a mailing list afterward, but their mail volume seems reasonable...only a couple this month).

Obviously this is a way for GUD to increase readership and populate their marketing lists, but this made me think, though...how long will it be before the U.S. economic downturn really starts affecting the markets we all depend on for selling stories, poems, essays, and pictures? Markets come and go, but we can only hope that not too many of these good magazines and websites fold in the next year, or become FTL-only. My personal opinion, for what its worth (taking into consideration that I have spent the last decade with one of the largest banks around, and may have some perspective), is that we have another 9-12 months of doldrums ahead, and things will get better, gradually. It's just getting through 2009 that will be tricky.

This really feels a lot like the post-9/11 economic world...it was tough and scary and full of uncertainties, but I try to remember to take the long view on what's in the bank, and the short view on what's in my pocket. I guess the point this thinking is leading me to is that one of the best things that we writers can do to help the markets survive long enough for us to be able to feed our hobbies, help us express ourselves, pay the bills, or keep working toward that career-launching story, as the case may be, is to subscribe and support. I personally need to make a list of at least 2-3 magazines that I can subscribe to and stay within my comfort zone financially (not including the occasional donation to Ralan and/or Duotrope).

I'm certain that I (and my waistline) can survive one week without eating out so that Glimmer Train can survive long enough to reject more of my stories...

(steps off of soapbox)

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.

Sa-mokin'!

Wow...exceptionally productive Monday. I finished my re-write of Clearing from the weekend, re-read it about 73 thousand times, and sent it off to Greatest Uncommon Denominator. Although it's focused on the relationship between a scientist and his computer, it's not as geeky as it sounds. it's really kind of sad. In my mind, it feels much more literary, so I thought I'd try a slipstream magazine first. I really want this one to sell, and I suspect I'm willing to re-write it several more times to do so.

Also, I made some edits to the Hotel Guignol screenplay and sent it off: a seven-ish minute piece called Welcome Back, Mr. Callaghan. According to their website, they are getting about 300 screenplays a day, so my odds are pretty friggin' slim. But, hey...it was fun, and I learned a little about formatting a screenplay. I have to say, I enjoy writing literature more. Screenplay writing is cool because you really have to visualize it, but it's too...I dunno. Cut and dry. "Bob stands up and walks to the table. There is a crystal ashtray on it. Inside of the ashtray is a leprechaun. Bob: Hello, leprechaun." it puts kind of a weird filter on the creative process, I guess.