Random Yappings

I can't believe I'm down to one post a week now...I think the problem is I've been so busy with the day job, coupled with my not working on any short stories--and there really isn't any news to report on the novel, other than word counts, and that's boring as all fugg. And, I've started suckling at the teet of Facebook, which is a time-thief. If I announce I've signed up for Twitter, someone please send me cynide-laced pastries.

So, them's my excuses. Apply liberally, use only as directed.

I did get one more rejection for a poem I've had out since January; it was a very nice but non-specific rejection from 42 Magazine which said it was "interesting premise", which to me says "I'm too nice to tell you to keep your day job"...but hey, it's the first and only poem I've written. I may re-tool it and try to find a home in May.

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I often work from home for my day job, which keeps me bolted to my chair for 9-10 hours a day, at least. When I'm done there, I make dinner for the family (yes, I'm the cook), and, many days, come right back to that same chair and fire up some writin' work. 13 hours of sitting in the same chair day after day is starting to drive me just a little bit bananas, so I've decided that the best way to keep my sanity is to buy a little mini-laptop. I can't afford a full-size unit, and I'm hoping getting a little Acer netbook for $300 will at least give me a little flexibility in where I'm sitting and, hopefully, keep the few marbles that I have left.

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Nice article from Apex with submission pet-peeves from all of their editors. Now that Apex Magazine is on hiatus and they are only dealing in books, good things to keep in mind if you have novels/novellas you're sending their way (or, for that matter, anyone's way).

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Lastly, a review of X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

"Meh."

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Really-lastly, for absolutely no reason whatsoever, Aneka from Krod Mandoon.

Back ta woik, ya bum.

It's been a nice, relaxing winter break, visiting relatives in Arizona, watching lots of movies (we are extremely grateful that the kids are getting older and we can watch grown-up movies like Benjamin Button and Valkyrie while they're still in the theaters, and the kids can go watch their movies in the next room).

But, it's time to go back to work.

I gave myself a deadline of 1/15 to get my ~30k MS off for Mari at Apex to critique, and I still have some work to do to prepare. 

To that end: I took Robert Swartwood's advice when we got back to Vegas and ran down to the library and picked up a David Morrell book on fiction writing best-practices. It's been very valuable so far (thanks a bunch, Robert). One of the excercises I found particularly telling to guage the strength of a story early on in the process is a kind of self-dialogue to 'discuss' the story...with the assistance of that as a vetting mechanism for my next steps, I've decided that I want to continue on with Mojave with some additional development work, and will build that out to use as my MS for Mari (as opposed to Seattle Pizza, which I still like but will focus on later). Here is an excerpt from my discussion with myself on Mojave (this was not only a valuable excercise, but actually kind of fun to do):

Why is the Vegas compound an interesting topic for a story?

It would be interesting to watch it grow as a commercial, well-funded petri dish experiment.

Why is that interesting?

Because it explores commercialism and greed as a lord of the flies-type microcosm outside of government oversight.

Why should anyone besides sociologists care?

Because it helps people explore their own personal feelings about greed, society, rules, roles, and beliefs.

Word.

Indeed. Word.

...and so on for several pages, until the story and characters (and holes therein) really start to take shape in a much stronger way than just writing front-to-back or working off of an outline. You basically have to convince yourself that it's a story worth reading.

As for 2008...I decided I wanted to (attempt to) become a writer, against all odds and rational judgement. Since July, I have written eight short stories and a short screenplay, submitted them collectively to seventeen markets, had two published, one take the silver medal in a contest, and still have five of the seventeen submissions pending. I started two novels, and have aged close to seven years in the last six months. And I have learned that the stinging backhand of a rejection letter is all part of the process and, I've heard, it does, eventually, get easier. Or numbs faster. Either works.

And I have met some great and helpful folks in the literary blogosphere. Here's to all of us getting fat book deals in 2009, keeping our sanity through the economic turmoil, and generally having a great year.

No news is no news

No writing today, nor yesterday...over the last few weeks we've had a fresh influx of scorpions (Katy got a nasy sting Wednesday night), and I've spent the last couple of days sealing up the house like a ziploc baggie (the lastest in a four year effort). And, tonight is our tenth anniversary, and tomorrow is my 26th birthday...so, no writing tonight. Once Amy gets home from work, we're off to have dinner at a place in the Palms Casino called Little Buddha.

Since learning about winning the critque from Apex, I've been pushing to get as much done on Seattle Pizza as possible so I can at least present a second draft of the first half of the book, and not writing for more than a day makes me feel tremendously stressed out.

But, duty calls...I had to at the very least blog today so I didn't feel entirely worthless for writing work.

What a strange thing to pay for...

So, Jamie was the first to tell me this afternoon that Apex drew names for their charity auction, and Jeremy winned something! Woots all around! (Jamie won too, which also rocks).

Something pretty gee-darned cool, too. If memory serves, they had like 4 or 5 critiques of varying lengths offered, and I bought 2-3 tickets for each one. The one I scored is with Apex Editor Mari Adkins, and it's for up to 30k words. And I need it...at this point in my would-be career, that is probably what I need the most (besides not dancing about writing). So now, I just need to grind through a long enough manuscript to give her something to read. I am having a lot of fun with The Seattle Pizza Company; that's the one I want her to critique.

Isn't there something kind of BDSM-ish about paying someone to tell me how bad my writing is?

In other news, I started Douglas Clegg's Afterlife, and am having trouble getting into it. I did OK until two characters engaged in a dialogue, and they used langage that bugged me for some reason. It just didn't seem like a real discussion, like Clegg had never actually heard two people in that circumstance have that kind of intimate discussion. Or maybe my life experiences would have forced me to write it differently. But, Clegg is a well-liked author and obviously leaps and bounds more successful than I at the craft...it just struck me at how easy it is for language to derail what could be a very good story.