Tired, but happy.
Stopped off at a Barnes and Noble before seeing Iron Man tonight. Not only did we find copies of Weird Tales and Apex Digest (both difficult to find in stores, in my experience) but we saw the Steampunk anthology edited by Jeff & Ann Vandermeer, which was released today, in the wild.
No writing done today, but I'm down to the last scene rewrite for my Sword and Sorceress submission. I expect that to be ready by the end of the weekend.
My first published story, a flash fiction piece titled That's Just How I Roll, is now available in the May Issue of Static Movement.
Read it, print, frame and hang it on your wall, share it with friends and family, etc. Enjoy.
Writing:
We mailed our submissions to the PARSEC Science Fiction and Fantasy
Short Story Contest last night. The theme for this years contest was "metallic feathers." It's the first contest either of us has submitted to. We should hear back by mid-June or so.
Two more submissions out the door last weekend and one rejection in. I don't feel too bad about the rejections, though. The last few have been personal ones, including an invitation to submit again. Progress.
Sword and Sorceress 23 opens to submissions this Saturday and will accept submissions until May 16th. A little known fact about me is that, as a teenager, I wrote to MZB to ask for guidelines to her magazine. I'm sure I botched the request but she still sent me them along with some little flyers and a bookmark (which still sits on my desk). Andrea has been reading the Sword and Sorceress for as long as she can remember. We're both working on stories to submit for this issue.
Last, there are two other upcoming contests I have my sights set on: the Heinlein Centennial Short Story Contest and Return to Luna, due June 1st and 15th respectively.
Taxes:
Taxes are almost done. I just need to fax the signatures over to the account for eFiling and it's done. Finally a year that I don't owe money! Of course, almost all of my refund is going to a second retainer to the divorce lawyer. Easy come, easy go.
Penguicon 6.0:
We're heading to Detroit this weekend for my 6th Penguicon (and Andrea's first). This will be my second year following the writing track rather than the tech stuff. I won't be doing the writing workshop this time, so hopefully I'll have a chance to meet some new people with writerly interests. I'm still working out how to do that, being the geeky wallflower I am, but I'm sure I'll manage somehow.
It's been a good week, chock full of writing goodness. I wrote two first drafts (a flash and a short) and started on a third. I polished up the flash piece and submitted it earlier today. Twenty-six minutes later I received an acceptance from Static Movement. My story, "That's Just How I Roll", will be published in their May issue.
Not a pro sale, but a sale nonetheless. A milestone and motivator. This is something I've been working towards seriously over the past year. While the story I sold today was less than a week old, I have to give thanks to all of the workshoppers, beta readers and loved ones who gave me their valuable feedback and encouragement. I would not be where I'm at today without each of you.
I'm still under the weather, now with an acute sinus infection, but I would be remiss in not mentioning the premier of Battlestar Galactica - Season 4 on Friday.
If you're new to the show or just want a refresher, there is an eight minute recap that will give you the gist of where we are at:
Blogging with the flu might not be a smart idea. Please forgive any spelling/gramatical errors.
My brother was in town this week. He caught the flu from my mom, and then shared it with us. Runny noses, sore throats, fever, and body aches. Not exactly how we intended to spend Easter weekend. Sharing is caring!
In between fever dreams and restless bouts of sleep, I've been reading about loglines. I'd heard of the concept, mostly applied to script writer. Ray-Anne Lutener blogged about why loglines are relevant to fiction writers.
All too often I've tried to describe a story of mine to someone and ended up confusing myself. If I haven't thought the story through enough to summarize it in one sentence, something is probably wrong. That logline can serve as a reminder as I write of what it is I'm trying to say.
I went back through some of my stories from the last year and thought about what the logline for each one would read. As I go back to revise or write new stories, I'm going to take a little time to write develop that one line summary, even if it's only useful to myself as a writing tool.
Arthur C. Clarke has died, according to the Associated Press.
:(
February was a short, busy month that ended with a bang.
I wrote and polished one new story and continued work on second.
I received one rejection and four submissions are out in the wild. A fifth story, conceived during dinner at last year's CSSF workshop, isn't far behind.
We picked up The Hard SF Renaissance edited by David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer and The New Weird edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer.
Eric Reynolds announced the Return to Luna short story contest, with the winners published in an anthology by Hadley Rille Books, whose previous anthologies Visual Journeys and Ruins Extraterrestrial have had stories recommended for a Nebula Award. Good company to be in. I'm already hard at work on my entry.
Since this was a leap year, I did something special on leap day. I won't say just what yet but it's safe to say I'm pretty pleased with the outcome.
I just took the latest meme spreading through my friends list this week and experienced deja vu:
 | I am:Philip José FarmerThis prolific author brings surprising depths to he-man adventure tales, and broke science fiction's prudery barrier. |
This sounds familiar. I guess I really am Philip José Farmer.
February is now just half over and Mother Nature can't seem to decide if it's winter or spring. In the last few days there we have seen snow, rain and thunder. The area has been under flood warnings all day and most of the snow is now melted or replaced with a layer of ice.
Andrea and I have been digging through market lists and guidelines, figuring out what deadlines are looming and what anthologies or markets we'd like to submit to. Ralans and Duotrope are invaluable resources, to be sure. Following the blogs of authors/editors I like has also yielded some leads on upcoming anthologies although I feel like there's still a secret handshake I have yet to discover.
In addition to the clockwork fable story for Shimmer due at the end of the month, I have a handful of stories in the edit pile that I'd like to get out the door and one WIP that I'd like to get finished. There may be a few anthologies with deadlines this quarter that I'll be able to submit to and the Writers of the Future quarterly deadline is just 40 or so days away.
A new year brings another round of workshops to consider. Clarion applications are due by March 1st, if I decide to apply this year. With Neil Gaiman teaching in San Diego this year and Cory
Doctorow in Seattle, it's a real temptation. There's also the CSSF workshop that I completely enjoyed and would do again in a heartbeat. Otherwise I'm just going to keep plugging away and keep on submitting.
