Chillin' and Shillin'

OK, day-job stuff is put aside, dinner has been eaten, blogs have been read, and the kiddies are off doing kiddie things...time to write. After a blog post. Ahem.

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One more reason I want to be Neil Gaiman when I grow up: instead of posting things like "whine whine worked all day and now I get to write until midnight bitch moan", I would get to post things like "When my friend Lisa Snellings came out to install the statue in the nook, ... " and "So from Tuesday for ten days I'll be New York, Paris, London."

So, yeah. Time to write.

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Of course, after I shill my latest article on Examiner.com: How to (try and) protect your company from interweb flashmobs, like the one that almost killed Spore, is boxing Amazon around like a pillow, and has successfully turned the MPAA and RIAA into divisions of LexCorp.

February Already?

Crap, I was just getting used to January. Now it's gone.

Last month held more writing than submitting for me, and definitely more rejecting than accepting.

Wrote a big chunk of D1 of Mojave, which currently sits in the experienced critical hands of Mari Adkins.

I took a week off of Mojave to knock out a couple of short stories and polish one that was rejected; by ten minutes before midnight last night (in between voyeur sessions of peering out the window watching my neighbor get dragged away for drunk driving by six patrol cars chock full-o Vegas' finest), I submitted a new story, Oilrag, and a redux of Filtered White Light, both to different semi-pro literary mags. My second new story may never see the light of day, unless I work it over for a flash market...just no ending for it yet. Tonight, back on Mojave after dinner.

50 Books in 2009: I finished the audiobook for American Gods, started Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, decided I was too impatient for Faulkner this month (I am commited to trying again, but I feel like my reading time is so limited right now that if I have to put that much work into understanding a book, I need to devote one big block of time to it), and put it aside to read Straub's Ghost Story, which I am enjoying very much.

And I'm 0 and 1 for the year, with five in the field.

Slashdot, the geek temple of the world, has an article today on the death of Realms of Fantasy, and Fantasy and Science Fiction moving from monthly to quarterly. I don't recall if either announcement is new information, but, keeping mind that Slashdot has millions of readers, many (or most) of whom are intellegent and literate and enjoy various forms of genre fiction: if you sub to scifi or fantasy markets, it may be of use to browse through the 183 comments to see if there is anything in that little impromptu focus group for you. Keep in mind, it is Slashdot, and, as such, the comments are a handful of insightful comments surrounded by offtopic musings and troll shit.

Ladies of light, and ladies of darkness

Neil Gaiman posted links to some early reviews of his new children's book Blueberry Girl this AM...well, I suppose it sits on the children's book shelf, but it seems like more of a book for a parent to read to a daughter and explain the words like "paradox" and "never-you-mind"; my girls are a bit old for this level of book, but it reminded me that he read it aloud at the book fair here in Vegas last year (I think he read it in most cities on his tour, and told the story about how it was a gift to Tori Amos for her yet-to-be-born daughter).  It also reminded me how wonderful poetry can be when it's accessible to philistines like myself, and gives me renewed respect for those who can pull it off:

Help her to help herself, help her to stand

Help her to lose and to find

Teach her we're only as big as our dreams

Show her that fortune is blind

I sent the first 26k of so of Mojave off to Mari Adkins this week for a critique. Not sure how long it will take, but I've decided to take a few days off before I dig back into that story and knock out a short. In a similar manner to what Aaron posted today, I was inspired by a building this week. I've had this vague notion of a story in the back of my head, but couldn't figure out exactly what the story was about. At lunch Wednesday I took a walk downtown and found an abandoned building (there are no shortage of those downtown in Las Vegas), looked in the window, and thought about the things that may happen there during the day, and the things that may happen there when the good people of the world are asleep. So, I started on that creepy little tale last night, written from the perspective of one of the residents of the building. It promises, so far at least, to be one of the more disturbing things I've written.

In other news, I got my first rejection for the new year from AGNI at Boston University. Next week I'll re-work that story a bit and keep bouncing it out to literary markets (I'm trying to stick to my "start pro and work downward" strategy...we'll see how that works out, and if my fragile ego and resolve can take the endless string of rejections that path holds).

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.

Mojave Update and Advice from the Past

No new news, really, but in keeping in the habit of updating my bloggy-dee-dum...

1. Just cracked 9100 words on Mojave. Been a fun story so far and have kept momentum, although finding time to write between family and work continues to be a struggle...sound familiar? I just wrote a class of monster (what is this, D&D?) that actually gives me the willies to think about. That's pretty cool.

2. Saw Shaun of the Dead Saturday night-- Best. Movie. Ever.

3. I'm going to try and resist cheating and submitting Mojave to NaNoWriMo (hopefully well past 25k words by 11/1), but I definitely won't be starting a new project. In thinking about NaNoWriMo, I remembered some of the well-timed emails they sent out last year with advice from people who make a living at this game. As this seems to be the Year of Neil Gaiman, I thought I'd reminisce on Neil's helpful advice for the midpoint of a novel, posted at NaNoWriMo.

The Plan...

OK, so based on my feedback from Champagne Shivers (which was pretty basic stuff: grab attention earlier in the story, cut the non-important junk, etc), I'm making a change to my writing strategy: I need to read more. And not just read, but study. As I look back over the past year, it seems like I've done a lot of reading, but I realize that it's been mostly business-oriented publications and an Ayn Rand novel I've been stuck on for six or seven months (damn you interesting but extremely long lectures on objectivism!!! (shakes fist)). I'm putting Atlas Shrugged down as a challenge for another time, and have started reading/studying a collection of Asimov stories I've had for a while but haven't cracked. I'm devoting half of the time I've been using to write to learning how to write. Also, I need to sit on my stories longer; I think I've been submitting first-draft, B material as finished because I'm impatient.

Also, got a newsletter from the Clark County Library District last night: Neil Gaiman will be here in Vegas in November doing a lecture, reading, and book signing! Woo Hoo!

Next in the chute

First order of business: Catherine J Gardner was kind enough to give me a "I Love Your Blog" award! Which, per process, entails me now nominating seven blogs in turn (except Cate...against the rules)...so...I don't spend a lot of time reading blogs so this might be tough; but there are a few that I do like and read regularly, including a few that I've picked up since I started blogging on this site (including CJG's):

1. Felicity Dowker, Jamie Eyberg, and Aaron Polson all have great blogs that I enjoy reading; it's very motivating to read other struggling authors' notes on writing and life. I'm sure I'll find more once I dig deeper into blogger.com, it's a struggle to find the time right now, though.
2. My wife Amy Brooks, a Government Relations professional and Econ grad student has a nifty blog called What I Read Today, featuring interesting things she reads throughout the week and some things of note from her schoolwork.
3. Neil Gaiman has a swell blog...man, I want his life.
4. As much as I fucking hate MySpace, I check up on Roman Dirge periodically.
5. Everything else I just kind of read ad hoc looking for info or chasing something interesting down a rabbit hole...I'm not a regular anywhere, except Slashdot, but that strains the concept of "blog" a bit.

So, thanks again, Cate!

Secondly, I took another look at Singsong Friday night, and then again Saturday, and again today. Made some very minor tweaks, and it's off to the mercies of Potter's Field 3. I need to start working on something new in the next couple of days...hate losing momentum.

I've been sick all week, and the Nyquil just kicked in...time for bed.