New in comics...
This week are Stephen King's "The Dark Tower" and an adaptation of Laurell K. Hamilton's "Anita Blake Vampire Hunter" books. The guys at the comic store say the graphic novels are drawing in scads of "civilians" to try out the books.

As I've said before, I'm terrible at writing fantasy. (Well, everything I write is technically my fantasy, but it doesn't fall into the genre of fantasy) But I had a dream last night that I almost think I could make something out of. It was about a young man, whose parents were famous garden designers/architects who is somewhat ignored by them and very into botany, gardening and nature who discovers that his long-time female friend is actually a garden fairy. I think it may be the result of reading the Dresden Files books and receiving my Martha Stewart Gardening Special Issue. Or maybe from discussing Laurell K. Hamilton and her pornographic fairy books with the guy at the Comic store.

I've been pondering the subject of translating books into good television series. I recently watched "The Dresden Files" on Sci-Fi and decided to give the books a try. Often the translation process ends up with some pretty bad TV. I like "Bones", though it really has nothing to do with Kathy Reich's novels except the main character sharing a name. Which I think is fine, since what works great in a novel does not often translate to TV. I thought the Showtime program "Dexter" was a spot-on rendering of the book, even if they did have to soften it ever-so-slightly just so they don't run out of supporting characters. I've always thought Laurell K. Hamilton's books read like a good cheapie syndicated series along the lines of Highlander. (at least until she took that unfortunate turn into what I consider to be poorly written porn) I've heard many people say that HBO's The Wire is more like a novel than a TV series. I'm not sure what my point is, as I've said. There was pondering.

Also, I got an idea for a novel, not scifi or horror but historical romance. I've written an outline. Don't know how committed i am to actually writing it.

Plus I just joined a Gigapet message board.

Right after I posted about my new insight on story, Ela Thier sent out a new article about something very similar, about knowing the difference between the story itself (in her metaphor, the fossil, or in one that also works well, a sculpure) and the dust & debris from excavating/carving it. The article is on her Story Writing page. The title is Story Structure, Dinosaurs, and Stephen King.

I had another insight about the difference between story and setting. A lot of my scifi ideas are essentially settings. The story is what happens in that setting. While reading a story called "Brain Raid" in the current F&SF, I thought it's really about a young man and his career angst in a troubled industry, which could occur in many settings. This one happened to be in a setting involving rogue AI's (artificial intelligence) and specialists who hunt them down. The scifi is in the setting more than the story. Analog's guidelines say something about how if you take the science out of the story there's no story as a guide to what they're looking for, but I think many successful scifi stories could be told in a different setting that is not scifi.

Congratulations on all NaNoWriMo achievements!

I suddenly had a revision breakthrough this week while reading "Outgoing" by Alex Wilson in February Asimov's. An incredible story, I see award nominations in its future. The blurb says it's his first professional fiction sale.

I realized that the way the story unfolds as you're composing it may not be the same as how you want it to unfold for the reader. When I was writing "A Singular Being" a lot of free association went on as the story emerged. I see now that not every step along the way needs to be included in the final story. Putting this insight together with the many excellent critiques I received from Critters, I began revising. It's a start. I now have a manuscript I can take to lunch with me at the deli with the wonderful library tables. I've missed doing that since "The Daily Grind" bogged down.

I guess my insight is about process vs. product. I hope I can apply it to "Grind". I got an image of being violently flung around by big machines and having no control, & started writing. For some reason the descriptions were sounds rather than sights. The story as it stands emerged from there. So far I've been trying to rethink the machines & kitchen equipment so I can describe them more visually & I'm not sure how well it's going.

Do you have any thoughts on process vs. product? How does your process of creating a story work?

Jingle, jingle to all!

HAVE A MERRY ONE!

Just offering a little news on what's going on with me, writing-wise (although I posted in Cyn's entry about where my book is at the moment): The first issue of GUD Magazine is out, with my story "One in Ten Thousand". It's available in PDF as well. The editors nicely nominated it for a Pushcart Prize, so that was a nice surprise (I think I found out on vacation)!

I'm going to be in an e-collection with Jason Sizemore (editor of Apex Digest) and Bryn Sparks entitled, "The Horror of it All". All our stories are reprints, with my offering numbering five. It'll be coming out on Fictionwise, and I'll post the link when it's up. I'm not sure if you can purchase individual stories or you have to get the whole book.

Lastly, I sold my story "Atomic Runner" to a new zine, Fusion Fragment. Here's a little backstory on that: I sold this story months ago to another online zine. But the edits made to the story completely changed one of the messages I was trying to convey (yes, I try to slip in a little social consciousness from time to time ;)), so I felt no other choice but to withdraw it. Nice that it's found a new home.

That was definitely a weird experience-- I've never had to deal with that kind of editing before, but in the end, I never felt bad about it, or felt regret, so in the end it's all worked out fine.

Any of you ladies ever dealt with something like that?

Other than all that, I've got about a handful of stories out that I hope will find homes and readers. Merry Christmas!

My book cover:

What's everybody up to? I'm trying to put the finishing touches on my Nanowrimo book "American Goth." so I can give it as a Christmas gift to some friends. My co-worker is even making a book cover for me. I will post when I get the art.

"A Singular Being" is up in the Critters queue this week! (That went fast!)

I went to check what's up because I was looking for something to read/crit, & what's up was me! No crits yet, though. I might not get as many as for "Grind" because it's longer, which discourages some critters. (5000 words as opposed to 3000.)

Me & Eugie Foster in the same week!

Linda, how goes the revising? I shudder at the thought :)

I did it, too!!!!

Bye, ladies! I'm off on vacation with my husband until next Saturday night, but I hope ya'll had a great Turkey Day; and to also wish Cyn good luck with the rest of November and NaNoWriMo. :)

Hi all! Sorry I've been scarce. Congrats on all nanowrimo work!

The revision of "The Daily Grind" is difficult. I've just submitted "A Singular Being" to Critters with the hope of sending it back to ANALOG eventually.

That's the news, good night and have a pleasant tomorrow.

I finished.

Well, not the entire novel, but as of this morning and after twenty-five days of work, I have 51,648 words under my belt. I wrote damn near 4,000 words this morning.

It's an understatement to say that I'm pleased, really pleased. Everything's falling into place in the book, too-- I have the denouement all planned out (that was a nice epiphany in the car!), and everything else that I've wanted to write will be coming out in the next few weeks (months?).

I'm looking forward to relaxing about this, too. Hell, I might even give myself Sundays off! ;) NOT looking forward to all the editing I have to do, though.

Now it's time to pump up Cyn. Go, Cyn, GO! :D

I just saw a preview of "Stranger than Fiction." It is so good! A must-see for writers. I really related to it. If you get a chance please go see it. I'd like to hear what everyone else thinks of it.

I worked all last week for my husband so he could catch up on all his backwork (he has his own business that he runs from home), so I didn't get a chance to get over to NaNoWriMo until this morning. I love the layout and the way your excerpt is presented in bookform! So, even though I'm not getting the little banner or anything when I'm done (and hey, I started early, too), I went ahead and uploaded an excerpt, and also put down my stats for six days' work (I keep a running daily record at my personal blog). Anyone interested can go read it (it's under Athena_Workman).

Parentheses much in that last paragraph? ;)

Cyn, I read a lot of your excerpt, too. Sounds like a good one! How is your writing going?

The past few days for me have been pretty good, but as I approached the 30,000-word mark, it was really like pulling teeth, going from establishing the story to the need to really get things moving; at the same while not wanting to give too much away too early. And I'm not used to writing this way-- not doing much editing, not going back and cutting huge chunks that don't work just so I can keep up my total, etc. There are already several things that need major changes (specifically, I'm going to change one character's overall demeanor), and I suppose when I'm done with the first draft I'll go back and make those changes.

But all in all, damn, it's good to get back to writing just straight-ahead horror. Also, it's nice to have that feeling back: the one where you're in the grips of a story, and you walk around a lot thinking about it, planning it. Makes me feel like I'm my old self again. :D

Is anyone doing NaNoWriMo this year? I've never done it before, but after giving it some thought, and giving in to that writing itch I've been feeling over the past couple of months, I decided to go ahead and register. But while I was registering, I remembered that my husband and I are going out of town from November 25-December 2 for our fifteenth anniversary trip. Counting Thanksgiving, when I have to cook all day, and a day of packing and giving instructions to my mother-in-law (who's totally terrific for flying in to take care of the kids), that would mean I'd only have about twenty-three days to write 50,000 words.

Um, no. While my average is higher than the 1,666 words you'd have to write a day to get done in a month, I wasn't comfortable with that limit. So, I started NaNoWriMo early. It won't count, but I'm treating it as if it will.

I started on Tuesday, October 17, and my last day will be November 16. On day four, I have 8,294 words, so my average is almost 2,100 words a day. If I keep this up, I'll be able to make it, although I'm sure the novel will be longer than 50,000.

I just can't concentrate on short stories anymore. I've got enough good credits for my bio, and it's time to write a novel again (I actually have one in the can, but it's WAY too long to be sellable as a first novel from an unknown). Although I'm very happy with my renewed art career, I've once again got the writing itch, so I suppose I'll never rest easy until I get a book published. It's okay. ;)

Lastly, the writing itself is going... well. I hesitate to say "Great!" because I'm a bit superstitious. But I'm happy, and though the going's tough, it's also very satisfying. And it's a horror/suspense novel, which I never thought I'd be able to write-- my other attempts sucked. But I'm pretty sure I can manage this one.

Any new writing news from you ladies? :)

Sorry I've been out to lunch for awhile. My end of summer blues somehow ran into High Holiday Fever which led directly to the baseball postseason and Miranda's 9th birthday.

My November Analog was in 2 pieces weeks ago. It split right in the middle of "Man, Descendant" by Carl Frederick, the spine no doubt weakened when I turned back one too many times to ascertain exactly where that first escape pod was headed. Then my subscription kicked in and I got the December issues of Analog and Asimov's by mail.

It bugs me how flimsy these magazines are. The stories are well worth the time I spend on them. Why can't the magazine stay in one piece until I'm finished reading it?

Athena, your news is really exciting! Way to go!

Linda