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
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
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.
Mar
22
2008
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.