Tag Archives: for great science

Brushing the dust off, getting back on the horse.

Well, I got word last night that Crossed Genres is not going to pick up “Thus Have I Heard.” They didn’t cite any problems with the story, which they are usually kind enough to do when I fumble something. And I don’t mean that sarcastically. The fact that they usually take the time to point out weaknesses means a lot to me, and influences my desire to continue submitting to them. So that may mean the story is fine, despite my self-critical frustrations with my execution. Or it may mean they were just crazy busy this month. ;)
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Another Day in the Word Mines

Class is starting to wind down. We’re in the work-shopping phase, which is sort of a mixed blessing. On the upside hand, I’m getting really rigorous and relentless feedback. On the downside, I’m getting really rigorous and relentless feedback. It’s hard to face the prospect that I’m not the sparkling princess of awesome writing I hoped I was. =P I’ve gotten past the initial jolt and am feeling better, but it took me a little bit to get my feet under me.
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My brain feels like an over-squeezed lemon.

Work on writing last night got borked when I remembered that I wanted to go to the Buddhist Center, especially since someone I hadn’t seen in years was visiting from England. So I went out and got my dharma on.

Today has been spent at the Wayward, working on my synopsis for A Sunless Garden and doing a first round of polish for the excerpt. Since the girl has unexpected email access out in BFE, I will email my stuff off to her. Once I get some feedback and do a second wave of changes, I’ll probably start begging people to give it another round of looking.
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This is me, busy as a bee.

Slowly chugging away on my short story. I had this realization that I had my plot arc well mapped out, but my protagonist did not have a whole lot of soul. Currently at 2,892 words. Think I might have another couple thousand before I’m done. It’s a bit different from my other stuff, so I’m feeling less confident. Plus there’s all that, “Agh, I’ve learned this stuff but I don’t know how to apply it well! Instead I’m just freaking out about it!”

Haven’t touched my excerpt/synopsis for A Sunless Garden. Need to do that soon. I keep telling myself, “I’ll do it when I’m done with the short I’m working on.” I think I’m within spitting distance of done with the short, though. I just find it fascinating how much more time it takes to write parts of a short story than it does an equivalent word count in NaNoWriMo. =P

Feeling kinda anxious about my last submission to Crossed Genres. They received a record high number of submissions. I’m feeling kinda anxious about whether or not it will get accepted. Heck, since they now have slush readers, I’m not sure if I even made it past the slush readers. Ah, the suspense.

I’ve made a Twitter account for myself. I also made a Page for myself on Facebook. And now this blog feeds into Facebook, which then feeds into Twitter. It’s like a massive circle. Massive.

State of the Writing

I’ve been meaning to write a post-NaNo reflection. This is not that post. Between the hectic schedule of NaNoWriMo and the hectic travel schedule we’ve had, I haven’t had much time to blog. But here’s a quick recap of where I’m at with my writing.

– With November 30th come and gone, I’m taking one-month a break from the novel. In a couple weeks I’ll get back on the horse, but I haven’t decided what I want to do. Finish the novel I was writing? Go back to one of my earlier unfinished novels? There’s also the possibility that I could write more shorts, though I’m a little leery of that. I spent last year churning out shorts for Crossed Genres, some good some not so good. In the end it killed my ability to work on the novel. Some of it was just “busy with other stuff.” Some of it was that I didn’t have as rigorous a writing regimen as I do now. We’ll see.

– I finished the first draft of a short story for their “Any Previous Genre” issue. I’d started out trying to write humor with a dash of folklore. It seems a bit more serious than intended, so it may be “folklore with a dash of humor.” More on this later.

– I’m also mulling around ideas for their “Eastern” issue. It’s dedicated to “Eastern cultures.” I have two ideas for stories, both with Buddhisty themes. One is a bit stronger in my head but is not as strictly Eastern as the other one. Not sure what I’ll do.

– Sometime next month, my short story “A Necessity of the Present” will be available at Wily Writers. It will be available in both text and audio format. Both are free, but there is a donation button.

– I sent off the revised contract to Seraphim Guard for the game I wrote for them several years ago. I think it will appear sometime next year, barring misfortune. (There’s a reason it hasn’t seen the light of day yet.)

Ummmm… I think that’s it.

*dong*

Oh, wait. I think it should be *ding*.

I technically hit 50K Saturday night. But we were in a cabin out in Neah Bay that did not have the free wi-fi it theoretically had. (We didn’t realize there was supposed to be Wi-Fi until we checked in, but were extra frustrated that we couldn’t seem to find this free wi-fi.) And apparently Verizon is the only cell carrier that works that far northwest in Washington. Which meant our snazzy iPhones were pretty useless in terms of telecommunications. =(

When we finally got on the internet again, holed up in a tiny coffee shop in Port Angeles, handling email was more a triage issue. I didn’t bother posting to LJ.

I have thoughts on what I learned this year, but I won’t post them just yet. I have a stack of stuff to wade through, like a recap of AmberCon Northwest over at <lj user="defconone">.