Tuesday, October 7, 2008

The Dangers of Nyquil

After 4 days, Clearing was jettisoned by Clarkesworld with a form letter...yesterday, I submitted a query letter for Clearing to Abandoned Towers, got a positive response, submitted the story, and just now received another positive response from the sub editor, saying it "seemed well written and put together with nice clean dialogue" and has passed it on to the editorial group...not an acceptance, but I'll take it, even with the word seemed attached. That makes me happy.

I'm sick yet again, and had to choke back some Nyquil, mostly so that my poor wife can sleep through my gasping and choking and coughing. Since Sunday, I have been thinking through a story that really sounds fun (I'll share more as I progress, but kind of a what-if story around the proposed nuclear waste dump in Yucca Mountain just north of Vegas)...but, as I dig more into this story, it has to be a full length thing--at least 50-70k words. Which is daunting, as I'm yet to complete anything that long. Last night, in a diphenhydramine daze, I dreamt chunks of the storyline, which makes me even more excited to work on it. I don't want to blow this, so I'm going to take a few more days of outlining and character development before I start work.

7 comments:

Rob Brooks said...

Good luck. That's a long project and lot of work. But I bet it's really rewarding!

Jamie Eyberg said...

good luck. It is a good time to create something that long. a painfully good time.

Jeremy D Brooks said...

Thanks, guys...I'm getting calluses just thinking about it...

Jamie Eyberg said...

sadly enough, in college I could kill a cold with half a bottle of nyquil (don't try this at home, i had a really good liver when I was young) and a couple of shots of vodka as a chaser. I would wake up feeling pretty good in the morning and I never did have a cold to speak of.

Jeremy D Brooks said...

Oooo...ouch. When I was 33, I discovered I have gout, which is a type of arthritis caused by the liver not being able to properly filter the bloodstream. I blame my condition on my putting, um, "difficult to metabolize" things into my bloodstream in large quantities as a lad...

Gotta be careful now or I'm on a cane for a week.

Jamie Eyberg said...

Like I said, I don't recommend that for anyone.

Cate Gardner said...

The words 'NaNoWriMo' spring to mind with regards to your novel. :)