May
20
2008
I’m making fine progress on my Return to Luna story. It’s not exactly going the way I intended but I’m not unhappy with the results. I’m around 1,600 words in (guesstimate since my first drafts are hand-written) and I suspect I’ll come in close to the 4,000 word limit, if not a little over. This story is a departure from anything I’ve written before. It feels good to stretch beyond the familiar.
My original idea is still rattling around and bugging me enough that I’ll probably tackle that one next.
May
17
2008
Writing:
It’s been all but impossible to do any writing this past week. The day job has been out of control. I worked close to eighty hours. I did manage to sneak in the research I needed to do for my Return to Luna story.
No plans for the weekend, other than mowing the lawn, watching the hockey playoffs and writing. I should be able to finish most if not all of this first draft.
Submissions:
I have four stories out right now, in limbo ranging from ten to thirty-five days. Three to markets I’ve never submitted to before.
I’m a little concerned about my submission to Andromeda Spaceways (ASIM). I’ve heard nothing but positive things about their submission process. Tracking numbers are sent to authors within a week of receiving the submission and you can track your story through the three round reading process.
After thirty-five days I have not received a tracking number nor a response to my query (sent per their guidelines). I know of at least one other person having the same experience. Their submission tracking page hasn’t been updated in more than a month. The only sign of movement came yesterday, with a reported response on Duotrope after a one month lag. I’m still holding out hope that they are just very behind.
May
17
2008
The California Supreme Court overturned a ruling against gay marriage this week. The fight wages on as supporters on both sides rally for the battle to make the ruling permanent. Obviously, there are plenty of heated discussions going on. Jed Hartman has a nice summary of what the ruling really means.
I summed up my feeling on the issue over on Chris McKitterick’s journal yesterday:
I’ve never quite understood how it can be claimed that we (the United States) have separation between church and state, yet the concept of a legal union is inseparable from a religious ceremony in the minds of so many.
In my mind, any man or woman, in any combination, should be able to be legally “married” and obtain all legal benefits of such.
Religion should play absolutely no part in the legal process of marriage. Perhaps it’s my limited perspective, but the majority of those I see/hear/read about are protesting and complaining based on their personal religious views.
To me, it’s really that simple. There is absolutely no reason a person should be treated differently based on their ethnic group, gender, sexual preference, or social status. In short, people should be judged on their actions.
May
13
2008
NASA is holding a
press conference tomorrow afternoon to
announce the discovery of an object that astronomers have been hunting for more than fifty years. I’ve seen some wild speculation, ranging from a black hole to evidence of life on Mars. Whatever it is, though, I swear that
I had nothing to do with it.
May
13
2008
I’m experimenting with Wordpress 2.5 and cross-posting to LiveJournal.
It appears that Wordpress 2.5 and the LiveJournal cross-poster are much improved since the last time I tested them. I’m going to knock around with this for a day and see how it fits.
I’ve ripped out the relevant portions of the LJ theme that I like and applied it to the theme here. I’ll try to keep my tests to this one post so I don’t mess up anyone’s feed.
Update:
Fairly happy with the changes so far. There are things I need to do, blanks that need to be filled, but everything critical is done.
Issues:
- The LiveJournal cross-poster doesn’t seem to copy my tags over correctly
- There doesn’t seem to be a way of changing the order of widgets in the sidebar. Drag and drop is broken in Wordpress 2.5.1
May
02
2008
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.
