Dreams of Suckitude

Several months back, I had a dream that that one of my upcoming publications with Daily Science Fiction had gone out and readers were unanimously agreed that it sucked as hard as a story could possibly suck, and then some.

The story went out for real this morning, so I woke up full of everyone’s-going-to-hate-it paranoia thanks to that stupid dream. Much to my relief, the first reader comment on DSF’s Facebook page was “not bad.” Irrational me had to refrain from dancing around the room chanting, “It’s not bad! I don’t totally suck!”

Stupid anxiety dreams.

These are not the keyword results you are looking for

For me, one of the best parts of using website tracking tools is seeing some of the odd keyword searches that have led people to my blog or website. Some are just entertaining. Others leave me wondering, "What in Jeebus’ name was this person hoping to find?"

My short story "Love Spells" once received a rather snarky rejection that said the story was a few tweaks away from becoming a trashy bodice ripper. So in a few entries on my blog (I was using Blogger at the time), I referred to the story as "my would-be trashy bodice ripper." Since then, the most popular keyword search leading to that blog has become, not my name, but "ripped bodice" or variations thereof. One of my favorite variations is "what is inside a ripped bodice." I mean, really? You have to ask? Equally entertaining were the keyword searches for "tortured ripped bodices" and "reaped bodice."

Here are some of the other strange and entertaining keyword searches that have led folks to my internet babblings:

viking bunnies of doom
how do i make my words big?
thing guess
incoherent sentences exercises
screwing barbara stewart
death star slug
wackiness august 29
i am slug
musicophilia galactica
how to avoid pesky holes
castrated husbands

Anyone else have entertaining keyword searches of their own to share?

Two Quick & Shiny Things

First, my story “Dumping the Dead” was selected for inclusion in The Best of Every Day Fiction Three.

And second, a review of “Mortis Persona” at Tangent Online says, among other things, “Barnett’s lush prose does a fantastic job of building this world.” I don’t think I’ve ever had my prose described as lush before, but it’s a description I’ll happily accept.

The FUBAR is strong with this one

2011 and I do not seem to have gotten off on the right foot. These last two days have been rather strong with the FUBAR side of the Force, but it’s all stupid trivial crap which has the added annoyance of making me feel bad for wanting to complain because it’s, well, stupid trivial crap.

Trying to look to the positive: this week will likely continue to be all manner of FUBAR, but next week I’ll be a part-time, working-from-home gal again. Hopefully that will mean some time to start a new short story. My silly poll for which idea I should tackle next ended in a tie between the My Big Fat Epic Fantasy Novel prequel and the town where dying is forbidden. That means my muse, Jim Bob, has the tie-breaking vote. He just glanced at his tool belt, belched, and told me we’ve got the tools and materials already set out for the MBFEFN story, so we should work on that. And then he belched again.

The 2010 Writerly Recap

Yup, it’s that time of year again. Set your phasers to navel gazing!

This time last year, there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth and feeling like all things writerly were taking a plunge into the abyss of despair. But 2010? I kind of love you, 2010. You proved to me why it’s important to keep plugging away in the face of mountainous piles of suck. Because you never know when a streak of awesomeness will suddenly strike.

Continue reading “The 2010 Writerly Recap” →

Shiny New Stuff for the (Almost) New Year

1) Shiny new website look here at http://www.babarnett.com. The previous version was adequate, but limited in what I could add to it and not particularly interesting. This version is much more fun.

2) Daily Science Fiction‘s January line-up has been announced, and my story “A Song Never Tasted” is slated for January 14. If you’d like to see the story in your inbox that morning (and receive lots of other fiction on a daily basis to boot), you can subscribe to DSF for free. If you’d rather read it later, you can wait a week until the story’s up on DSF’s website. And if you don’t want to read it at all, then fine, be that way. Make me cry.

3) Shiny new reviews! (Oh, Google Alerts, what would my ego do without you?) “The Wounded House” is called “remarkably well-written” in D.F. Lewis’ real-time review of Black Static 20, and a review by Nicole McClain at The Portal has many lovely things to say about “Mortis Persona.”

Turning Personal Experience Into Fiction: “The Wounded House”

Black Static 20, which includes my story “The Wounded House,” is now out. I’m thrilled to be included in an awesome publication with awesome company, and it gives me a good excuse to babble about the story’s evolution. (For anyone planning to read the issue, I am obliged to warn that there are slight spoilers ahead for my story.)

Continue reading “Turning Personal Experience Into Fiction: “The Wounded House”” →

Welcome to my shiny new WordPress blog

Just like the subject line says: welcome to my shiny new WordPress blog. This is going to be a work-in-progress for another few weeks yet, so bear with me. I was originally going to import entries from Livejournal since I’ll likely be cross-posting between here and there from this point forward, but I decided that I’d rather start this blog with a clean slate. Anyone interested in my previous ramblings can find them at my Livejournal blog, Writerly Wackiness. But for the uninitiated, a quick rundown of some things I often reference:

AsYouKnowBob = my awesome husband
My muse is a surly plumber named Jim Bob
I usually refer to the novel I’m working on as My Big Fat Epic Fantasy Novel