Tonight I'm attending Ela Thier's monthly free sample screenwriting workshop. Topic: STORY STRUCTURE AND CREATIVE EXPLORATIONS. I'll let you know how it goes. (I found out about this from the NYU alumni mailing list.)

Do you ever find yourself unintentionally copying the style or lifting phrases from authors whose work you admire? I have been reading a series of books by Laurie R. King about the adventures of a sixtyish Sherlock Holmes and his fifteen year old female apprentice. Oddly, I don't think these books are derivative of Conan-Doyle, but I almost feel as if the relationship, the moral and ethical issues they confront and habit they have of quoting from literature is lifted from whole cloth out of Dorthy L. Sayers Lord Peter Wimsey books. She uses some of the same quotes and phrases from the Wimsey books. The heroine is a scholar at Oxford like Harriet Vane. She has a character named Peter who has to be Lord Peter Wimsey even make a cameo in one of the books. I like these books very much. They are my favorite thing I've picked up to read in ages. Recent efforts by some of my favorite authors have been disappointing, so I was happy to find her work. But I'm still a bit bothered. I am a big fan of the Wimsey/Vane books and probably have them close to memorized. The estate allowed Jill Paton Walsh to flesh out and complete some of her unfinished work on Wimsey, and I had the books so well memorized that I kept finding mistakes in her works. But that being the case, I think I can be quite a derivative writer myself, so I struggle not to do that.

Congratulations to us all! This blog is now big enough not to fit on a single page! We have achieved archives!

Today marks the 1 month anniversary since I sent "A Singular Being" to Asimov's. 30 days without a rejection letter! Waytago Pneumia! (That's my protagonist's name.)

The link I just added (to your left, under "Links") for Edward M. Lerner is his fictionwise.com ebook page. His page at SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America) gives a better overview of his work, but I loved the bio on the ebook page. Aside from what an obviously cool person he is (which also shows up in ANOOT) it reminds me how much I love science & techie stuff, which probably has something to do with why I love science fiction, and I think I should read a lot more "science fact" as us Analog fans like to call it. I first heard the phrase "science fact," and of the existence of Analog and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction when I fell in love for the first time when I was 14 years old.

I think I'm having an endorphin rush.

I am deep into third installment of A New Order of Things in July/August Analog. It's great! The only trouble is reading it on the playground, the unicorn on the cover attracts 5 year-old girls. Why is there a unicorn on the cover of Analog? I'll let you know when I get to that story... (It better be from a planet of intelligent spacefaring unicorns, and an expert in 7-dimensional particle physics...)

I've spent more time on the sequence of events (is that called plotting?) for my new story than on any other. It's a pretty tight sequence. It's fun to work on.

On the other hand, I was so exhausted today I'm amazed I'm still awake at 10 o'clock.

Oh, and I finished Angela's Ashes today. Couple more sobfests and some grins, and at least he got laid at the end.

I'd like to know the cry-to-laugh ratio different people have experienced reading this book. For me, Teacher Man was a lot funnier, but it made me cry too.

I started the new story today, in my notebook at the laundromat, where else? (The other most likely location: a bench in the Avenue A playground in Tompkins Square Park. Or at a table at the deli where I have lunch near work.)

I just completed a "rough draft" of my new story. The rough draft is a technique I learned from Writer's Journal Magazine, Vol 26 Number 5 Sep/Oct 2005, "The Art of the Rough Draft: Learn to Tell, and Then Show" by Sidney C. Blaylock, Jr. (In other words, how to tell yourself what's going to happen so you can then show the reader.) For me this doesn't usually come first - I usually start writing, then when I get stuck because I don't know what happens next I write the rough draft. But it can also be useful during that cold feet period that seems to precede beginning a new project.

I got a groovy new pink cell phone for my birthday. Slim with a big screen, it accesses the Internet, checks my e-mail, lets me talk and text and use a day planner. It comes with a matching wireless pink earpiece that lets me use voice commands to call people. So I started thinking about how current technology has surpassed the technology we saw in science fiction. My earpice works a lot like a Star Trek communicator pin from Next Generation. Only, I think it does more. I was talking to a friend about how I thought the Hitchhikers's Guide to the Galaxy movie came out much too late since now you really can access nearly all the information in the known universe on palm-sized computers that you carry with you.

Speaking of memoir, I forgot to mention that I wrote a 3,000 word essay that's the story of my life with the job/career puzzle, and submitted it in February to a webzine called Moondance. They e-mailed me a couple of weeks ago and said they wanted to publish it in the next issue! I replied saying "Awesome! Here's my updated bio with url, and when's the next issue?" So far, they have not replied to that e-mail. That's why I haven't posted about it or made an announcement. I'm mentioning it now because it means I have written autobiographical material without it being a wretched experience, and it's pretty light-hearted and probably a fun read.

How do find what voice to write in? It's not like I ever actually decide to go first-person, it just happens. I worked for quite a long time trying to get started on writing the series of mysteries that I'm working on now, but it just never started until I sat down one day and it came out in first person. That was strange for me since my main character was a Japanese-American College professor and a guy. I wasn't sure if I could find a male voice, but the guys who read it say it is. We have a big in common, my character and I. We're both hillbillies, we don't like undercooked meat, we like cats and both watch Magnum P.I. But I'm not sure why I hear his voice and not others. I've spun off other characters in this little Cyndaverse of mine to their own stories, but I don't write them in first person. They just don't talk to me that way. And on that subject, do other people have control over their characters? Can you make them do and say anything you want or do you just write what they say. I mean, I could write something down on paper they don't want to say, but it would never sound right and never fit in. I really feel like I do have a muse. Perhaps if I wasn't creative I'd be in a cell talking about the voices. But I often feel I have no real control over the plot. It does what it does and I've been surprised to go back and read my own stuff and see that I've foreshadowed things that would happen three or four books laters without consciensely meaning to do it.

No Time circa 1917... I picked up a compliation of newspaper columns by Laura Ingalls Wilder (famous for her Little House books) One jumped right out at me. It was about how, even though they had all sorts of modern conveniences like the telephone and the motorcar that nobody seemed to have much time for anything anymore. Nobody had time to visit or write letters or do any of the things they used to do so easily. She wondered where all the time saved by the time-saving devices went and how come people never visited for whole afternoons anymore. Just where did all that time go, when obviously the days and nights were as long as they ever were. There were some other interesting topics in there as well; such as the concern over a growing teen suicide rate and the failure of schools to adequately teach children. Hmmm... could it be that there is nothing new under the sun. Anyway, the book is rather inappropriately titled Little House in the Ozarks, but it as interesting look at her career. She tells many of the stories that later ended up in the books and it's interesting to see what someone was really thinking at that time about issues such as women voting, the War and the Avian Influenza epidemic. (Any of these topics seem familiar?)

I can't picture writing straight fiction, set in what our senses insist is the ordinary reality we all live in. If I'm telling a story, it seems to be either fiction set in some speculative reality, or an account of what actually happened.

I've been toying with the idea of writing a memoir. That's why I was interested in attending "A Conversation with Frank McCourt" as part of NYU's alumni weekend last week, since he's someone who's famous for writing a memoir, rather than someone who "wrote" a memoir because he was famous.

Then I tried to read his memoir, Angela's Ashes. It was tbe most depressing thing I"ve ever read in my life. It had me weeping on subway platforms. I still haven't finished it, though I'm close. I had to stop reading it to read Teacher Man, the book the "Conversation" was supposed to be about. I saw a connection between the 2 books, between his inauspicious beginnings in AA (crushing poverty, year after year) and the way, for decades of his life, he seemed to be trying to be anything but what and who he was. I could totally relate to that.

For a week I've written bits of my memoir, turning it over in my mind and writing journal, the way I do with any current project. A miserable week. And picked up where I left off with A New Order of Things by Edward M. Lerner, installment 2 of 4, serialized in June Analog.

Walking home with my daughter in a drizzle this evening, I decided not to focus on the memoir. Maybe a chapter here and there when I'm in a certain mood. I felt like a weight had been lifted off my chest.

Instead, I think I'll work on one or more of the many sci-fi ideas I've had this past year, or maybe a new one.

"K'Choi Gwu ka was old and tired and insane, and she knew it."
A New Order of Things by Edward M. Lerner in June Analog, p. 100

And I can totally relate to that too!

No time, no time, no time, but I'm thrilled to see Athena's name under contributors. Welcome Athena!

It's 11:00pm, and I hate to admit this outside of a horror story, but my daughter is FINALLY in bed. I am absolutely determined to watch the video I rented last weekend, or at least start it (The Others.) So I don't have time to investigate much further, but I found this:
Forum for Free
FREE HOSTED FORUMS

I will check it out.

Athena, if you do stop by I would love your comments on Blogger vs. Livejournal. Cyn, do you have an opinion on this crucial issue?

Wouldn't it be hilarious if Blogger went around deleting positive references to Livejournal?

Hurray! Sue Lange has visted No Time! I appreciate Sue's comments on blogging vs. forum discussion.

You know what I hate about blogs? (Aside from being stuck in a unidirectional linear chronological rut.) I wish people who visit could do more than just comment, or that comments could be displayed more prominently. (I just turned off the "show comments in pop-up window" feature because it was annoying and made the print too small.) I wish visitors could request to join, or anyone could post. There must be other options that I don't know about. Maybe LiveJournal is better than Blogger...?

You look at anyone's blog, and it's just them them them. I'm so glad you're here, Cyn! But so far the 4 other people I've invited have not accepted the invitation. Christine W. Murphy commented and Sue Lange said she would check it out, but that was in response to the e-mails I sent them, before I discovered the "invite new member" feature. I've been wanting to invite Athena Workman, and I finally found an e-mail address for her! I finally managed to scratch beneath the surface of Apex's blog.

OK, so all my author picks have appeared in Apex Digest.

Athena Workman is on LiveJournal and I think that's what powers Apex's blog too.

Maybe we should move.

I don't know if I'm out of the woods yet.

On April 26 I sent my story "A Singular Being" to Asimov's Science Fiction, after extensive, exhaustive editing. After completing the fourth draft I realized I'd never actually read my copy of The Elements of Style by Strunk & White, so I did, then proceeded to "Strunk-&-Whiteify" my story before sending it out. How both Strunk and White would hate the way I've made their names into a verb!

Strunk-&-Whiteify, verb
To edit a piece of writing for fluency, to simplify, to OMIT UNNECESSARY WORDS, OMIT UNNECESSARY WORDS,OMIT UNNECESSARY WORDS!

"Being" lost about 100 words in the process. No, this wasn't my first submission , but I wanted to make this one count. I love "Being" passionately, and I love Sheila Williams and her benign reign over Asimov's almost as much.

So by the time I was done I had been working exclusively on that one project for 2 or 3 weeks. Once the ms. was on its way, I felt a little lost.

I think I'm over it now. I'm returning to a process that feels better to me, taking turns between a number of projects. I have 7 to choose from.

I've been thinking a lot about what defines a genre. Where is the line between Sci-Fi, Horror and Fantasy. Or even Mystery, Romance and Fantasy. I've noticed a lot of melding of genres. I read a lot of mysteries and more and more they are incorporating elements of fantasy to include Vampire Detectives, Psychic Detectives, Ghost Detectives. I've read mysteries set in the future. I've seen these same books with strong doses of romance elements. So what is what? I've found I've had trouble describing my mystery works because they have some elements of a "cozy" mystery but there are harder edges here and there along with some language and a little sex. And I guess maybe even a little hint of the supernatural since I've got a couple of characters with an odd little sixth sense. I think of fabulous books like "Tea With The Black Dragon" and "Bellwether" which are classified as fantasies, though truly nothing particularly supernatural happens. And with the explosion of Vampire/Romance/Mystery type books, just where do you put those books at in the store. Do you spread them around the sections? I had the opportunity to speak with an agent on the phone and when he asked me what my particular genre of mystery was I didn't really know what to say.

The installer program for the forum is working! Maybe I can get that puppy running!

Tax/Record keeping question:
Is a Schedule C the way to report earnings from writing?

I'm also wondering about Paypal. If you get paid via Paypal, or pay for subscriptions with it, do you have an acceptable record for tax purposes? Is it worth insisting on getting paid by or paying by check?

Hurray! Cyn has joined! Welcome Cyn!

I've invited 2 favorite authors, and have been attempting to locate the e-mail address of a third. I hope they join too!

So I uploaded the forum software, and am at the point where the installer script gets a cgi error, and once upon a time I would have kept at it with the help of panix's cgi troubleshooting page until it worked. Those were the days, all right. I used to have a whole forum just for talking about dolls. I didn't have a job then.

Actually, I did once have a job writing and debugging cgi scripts for a "new media startup." I had a Unix workstation on my desk and everything. But that's a story for another day.

I'll get the forum going eventually. I hope.

At least I picked a template for this blog with print big enough so I don't go blind, and added links to my favorite magazines. Now to invite some guests!

You guessed it. I don't have time for this. I have to get my daughter ready for school, and go to work. And my cat likes to bite my hands while they're wiggling on the keyboard, so I had to take her off my lap.

Welcome to the No Time blog.