National Novel Writing Month is fast approaching again. Anybody game for this year?

Has anyone else read the last Harry Potter book yet? I finished it Saturday after a marathon read. I have great sympathy for J.K. Rowling and the challenge of writing 7 books where you know a secret about a character than nobody else knows.

I had a dream... An actual dream that I think will make a really good fantasy type story. I dreamt what appears to be a pretty good episode of a television series about a guy who has visions, only they're in writing that he sees on walls or on people or on the ground. It appears in type styles and colors to match the person he's getting his vibe about and sometimes it can be very cryptic. At least that's how it seemed in my dream. My Harry Potter is arriving on Saturday! I better get this down before I get distracted. BTW, I got a company award for a weather promo I wrote, produced and edited. It's posted on my my space page if you are my space inclined people.

I've recently come up with a pretty good narrative for a full blown fantasy novel via a strange and mystical route. I'm working a bit on a mystery set in 1930s Hollywood with a director as a main character. The movie he is working on is a version of Beauty & The Beast (I needed something that never existed, but could have existed to be the movie) So I've actually ended up putting together a Beauty and the Beast story from the Beast's point of view based on the movie that never existed (been done before I know, but mine is different from the ones I've read) But I think I might want to save fleshing it out for National Novel Writing Month, as it is short and I wanted to do a fantasy this time.

Today it's been a whole month since we lost Cookie.

Yesterday, I found the diskette with most of the 2nd draft of the novel I was writing back in the 80's. When I got my first computer, the 25 MHz 386, I mostly wanted to put the novel on it. I'm not sure what happened, why I stopped. It may have been the obsession I developed with starting a career in the computer field. I remembered that 2nd draft as being incomplete, but yesterday I discovered it does have a conclusion, on typescript. So, all I have to do is finish typing it up on the computer, and I'll have a real live novel ms. The part that's already on disk is 42,000 words.

And I like it.

It's full of details I wouild never be able to remember if I tried to write it now. I had forgotten about that cord you used to pull to tell the bus driver to stop, and I didn't remember that LA RTD bus windows had a greenish tint. It's probably a general rule that you shouldn't wait to write about your experiences, that you should hone your perceptions and your ability to describe them by writing about your experience all the time.

I used to do that. When did I stop, and why?

I'm pleased with that 2nd draft. By tinkering with autobiographical material I succeeded in creating characters I like, and experiences a lot more interesting than what really happened.

Hi all. March was a long month. My cat, Cookie, passed away on Monday March 19, and I miss her so much, all the time.

I'm planning a bunch of submissions to the Writer's Digest competition, including one in the memoir/essay category I hope to write about Cookie. Writing about it helps.

I hope you all are well.

Linda

I switched to the new blogger. I've been meaning to do it for ages, but I never felt like I had the time (!) to even think about something requiring a new google account... (I hope you guys don't get mad because you need to get google accounts too!)

The 2007 Nebula awards are being held in New York City! I have no idea yet if that means I'll be able to go to any of it, because it sounds like it has to be a package deal. But imagine! (Usually nothing is held in NYC because it's too expensive. Not sci-fi or horror conventions, anyway.)

Today I started the March Asimov's that came weeks ago, but was waiting because I took a break from April Analog to read Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler. (More about that some other time...) After I finished it I missed it, and felt like reading another novel... I felt like reading "All the Birds of Hell" by Tanith Lee, only longer, like novel-length. So then I looked up novels by Tanith Lee, found she's written a great many, resolved to go to B&N ASAP, finished reading "Things That Aren't" in April Analog, & went to bed. That was last weekend.

With Analog & Asimov's I usually read the editorial first, then turn to the "Short Stories" section of the table of contents. The last name on the list was one I knew: Deborah Coates. I didn't remember what, exactly, but I knew she'd written something I loved. So I read that story, "Chainsaw On Hand", first. About halfway through I knew which story I was remembering. It's a story I've been thinking about a lot lately. I've been meaning to look up which issue it was in so I could re-read it. It was "46 Directions, None of them North" in last year's March Asimov's. I've even been trying to remember just how many directions it was! The reason I've been thinking about it is I think it captures perfectly (& banishes brilliantly) a kind of bitterness and regret I'm afraid I've been falling into, a woman I'm afraid I might turn into, or would, if I didn't have some big changes planned.

"Chainsaw" turned out to be an example of one of my favorite subgenres: Tales of I Can't Believe It Will Ever Be Warm Again. "All The Birds of Hell" is probably my favorite in this category. (I've written one, called "Always Birds", but I think it needs a lot of work.) This afternoon I sat down with the cat next to the heater and read "Chainsaw" & "Directions" in turn, in between tending to Giga Pets. (Not to mention a real pet and my daugher.) It made me think about "The Daily Grind." I think maybe there's really 2 stories bundled in there, or some themes that belong to a separate story.

There's the story that's about a future in which workers NYC needs can't afford to live anywhere near it. But there's also a story about someone who feels powerless in a work situation, which is where the title comes from. And maybe that's a separate story. Both "Chainsaw" and "Directions" are about women who feel powerless because of choices they made years ago, who don't understand how their lives "turned out" the way they did. This feeling of powerlessness is what a number of "Critters" who critiqued "Grind" reacted against, because the powerlessness remains when the story ends.

The truth is, if you are still alive, your life hasn't "turned out" any particular way and you can still make choices. DC's characters learn this, in each case through someone they love who has seized on something that seems completely insane. I want to contemplate these 2 stories in the context of revising "The Daily Grind."

Cyn, check out the link (on the left, under Authors' Pages) to Deborah Coates' blog. I think the 2 of you might get along...

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!!!!