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

I'm reading this book. It suggests that you come up with thirty titles before settling on one. I might try it this weekend. We're going to flea market and that would give me all day to sit in a corner with the computer and brainstorm. I haven't been saying much around here lately as my creativity is being taxed by having to come up with some good ideas for work and playing with my pretend blog which is taking mroe brain power than I thought it would. Also NEW TV SHOWS!!!

I found out that I got two Honorable Mentions in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror (19th annual collection). "La Noche de Duelo" was a poem that was published in the last issue of Neverary, and my novella "Winter's Dark Memory" appeared in the antho Darkness Rising 2005. Whoo!

All I found out at first was that I had two mentions, and I had to go clear across town to get the book (at the first bookstore, their one and only copy had apparently been stolen). I was very surprised by the poem's mention, since I'm hardly known for poetry and rarely-- I mean RARELY-- write it.

The second piece of good news is that my story "One in Ten Thousand" was accepted for GUD Magazine's Issue 0. It's a sad little sci-fi tale. So, it's been a nice couple of weeks. :)

Has this boosted my writing? Um...

I submitted a story to Firefox News's

It's the End of the World As We Know It

issue after all!

I went back to a story I started last winter when I was really cold, and added a version of the idea I'd been playing with for this submission, plus took it a little farther.

It's funny how when I say definitively that I'm not going to do something, sometimes that's just when I go ahead and do it.

The issue of Shimmer I ordered arrived today. It looks beautiful: high quality paper, great illustrations It even comes with a promotional bookmark! I'll start reading it tomorrow. I'd really enjoy submitting an ms to them. If it seems an appropriate venue for "Being" I'll submit that (since both they and Oceans accept simultaneous subs) and if not, I'll look forward to sending them something else!

This blog has been very boring lately, what with my phone being dead, and all. (i.e. no dialup=no internet)

I finished War of the Worlds, and I agree with Cyn that it would make a great movie just as it's written. I have now gone back to The Log from the Sea of Cortez by John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts, Jr. If that book did not have a cult following in the 60's, it should have.

"The Daily Grind" will be distrubuted with next week's batch of Critters manuscripts. I hope that will inspire me to revise it. Plus, I hope Log from the Sea will inspire me to get back to "Best Laid Plans."

Meanwhile, I've decided to stop waiting for a last minute blast of inspiration before the Sept. 1 deadline for Firefox News's "It's the End of the World As We Know It" issue. If "A Singular Being" does not get published before then, I will submit it for the "Aliens" issue, deadline March 1st.

I submitted "A Singular Being" to Oceans of the Mind.

One method I've devised for researching markets is to look up an author I like who's been published in a something I like to read, and see where else she or he has been published. Today I picked Ian Creasey, who wrote "Silence in Florence," which appeared in September Asimov's. The story's protagonist is a chambermaid in 17th Century Florence, and chamberpots play an important role in the narrative. In the blurb preceding the story, he's quoted as saying "...how often fiction concentrates on so-called important people...while relegating servants to mere background props. I wrote this story to redress the balance..."

Well, I just love that. Right now I'm reading War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells, and as always with anything 19th century, the characters can count on their meals being prepared and cleared up after with no effort of their own, at least until the heat rays start flying. (Even Wells, whose social conscience I adore. It was the socio-economic reality of the time. Back then if you didn't have a servant, you probably were one, and in any case literally had no time.)

Creasey also wrote "The Hastillan Weed," which appeared in February 2006 Asimov's, and which I liked a lot. He's had many publications, and his news listing alone yielded many possibilities. I think I've settled on 2, both of which accept simultaneous subs, for "A Singular Being"'s next destination: Oceans of the Mind, and Shimmer.

So I'm thinking that I need to start looking for an agent again. Problem is, I'm not sure I'm happy with the title(s) I came up with for the guy I submitted to before. He said that titles were about 60% of what agents look for. Just because that's what grabs the reader. So as long and hard as I worked coming up with titles for my work, I wonder if I don't need some better ones.
This particular series consists of light-hearted mysteries (I wouldn't say cozy, but they aren't exactly hard crime) My main character is Thomas Nakamatsu, a college professor and how-to book author living in a small town in Northwest Ohio. He's a southern boy from Tennessee of Japanese descent who gets pretty annoyed when people laugh at his accent. In the first book he meets the woman who will eventually become his wife a few books down the road, investigates embezzlement at the university and solves the murder of a good friend. The title I suffered to come up with was "Confesisons of a Redneck Samauri." thinking that would be the theme for the other titles and I came up with a few, "Memories of a Titanium Magnolia", "Adventures of a Virgin Vigilante." But I don't know. I wish I could feel that these were the titles I wanted, but I don't have that feeling.

104 days.

That's how long it took Asimov's to reject my ms.

I really hate their form letter. It's rude and insulting. Analog's is a million times better.

Having the occasion to look at Analog's form letter again (when comparing it with Asimov's) I noticed that one of the themes they say has been done so often it's impossible to get a fresh story out of it is when the alien world turns out to be Earth. I suppose "Being" can be seen that way. Alien scientist observing Earth. Is that corny? Maybe I should run it by the Critters...

I'm hooked on my faux blog. I'm having a hard time working on anything else. I need to make myself focus on some other stuff...

I think I'll start this off by posting something writerly: two of the very few stories I have in circulation are short-listed at magazines. So, crossing my fingers there...

Since I haven't been writing much, much of my attention is turned back toward my artwork (and studying for my travel agent's certificate- whew!). I have a shop over at Zazzle, but I wanted a nice art site that would showcase not only what I've made into products, but much of the rest of my art as well. So, I made one, heh, and today is launch day. I hope ya'll will check it out and, of course, enjoy.

Miss Millificent's World

I've created a new blog to chronicle my adventures with plants. Check it out. It's called Some Time (For Plants.)

I have finally done what I've threatened to do for awhile. I have created my mystery in blog form. Check it out here: http://simonwolfesden.blogspot.com/

Sorry I've been absent lately. I'm still in a bit of a ping-pong state of mind, even though I think I've settled on what to write. And I had to think all last week at work and that takes a lot out of a person. And unfortunately for my writing, there's a lot of stuff I want to watch on television. My obession with "So You Think You Can Dance" is a bit embarrassing.

Well, it's official, I'm a Critter!

Greetings fellow bloggers! You might have noticed I made some changes to the "Links" area (to your left.)

If anyone would like to add something in any category, or suggest a new category, please let me know. I don't want to be the only one who can pick links!

Everything in the "Resources" area (so far) is part of the Critters Workshop site. Their Submitting to the Black Hole page and the article "Query Etiquette -- or How Long is Too Long?" are helping to maintain my sanity regarding my Asimov's submission. Tomorrow it will have been 3 months . That's when, according to their guidelines, if you haven't heard you should consider it lost and resubmit. The maximum response time "Black Hole" lists for Asimov's is 174 days, which is almost 6 months (for a rejection.) That's a welcome grain of salt.

As for the next story, "The Daily Grind," I'm planning on joining Critters & submitting it for critique, which means also getting stories to critique by e-mail. They* say writing critiques is as valuable as getting critiqued. Athena's critique was very helpful, but I think I want a lot of opinions on this one! It's been through some revision since Athena, Cyn, Mom, and Michael-in-LA read it, and I'm not done yet. The trouble is preparing a submission to Critters is about as much work as a submission for publication. They* say it's worth it. After that comes "Best Laid Plans," which I think has Stanley Schmidt's name all over it, but it's still fairly early in its first draft.

* Who are they? Why, the Critters, of course!

Hooray! Cyn is back!

I love the idea of you writing from your real inner hillbilly voice! Go for it!

I think, I think I just might know what I'm going to work on next. I think I shall give all this historical stuff a break and just get back in the groove with my tried and true characters, I think there's a story I very much want to tell about them. Again, I think. I've probably written exactly one sentence since I had that nasty stomach flu (outside of work, of course. Just who's coaching your kids? Could an eco-friendly house help save the earth and save you money? Where can you get your news and weather anytime you want?)

I took a short visit home to deliver a present to my aunt (five hours down, three hours for dinner and five hours back) and got back in touch with my inner-hillbilly and I feel the need to speak in my real voice (even if it is someone else's)

I started researching tide pools after I decided my story "Best Laid Plans" might take place in one. The very first google hit on "tide pools" included this quote:

"It is advisable to look from the tide pool to the stars and then back to the tide pool again."
John Steinbeck, from The Log from the Sea of Cortez.

So my research on "Best Laid Plans" led me directly to the author of Of Mice and Men.

Turns out he wrote about tide pools in Cannery Row too.

I finished Cannery Row yesterday. Loved it. This morning I woke up and looked at Yahoo headlines on my way to the weather report, and found a story about how John Steinbeck's son Thomas is working on his first novel at 61, after publishing a book of short stories at 57, his first book.

I'm having, like, this Steinbeck synchronicity thing.