Category: Writing

The Writerly Update: Rising from the Grave Edition

Holy crap, has it really been that long since I’ve posted something? Sorry not to have been keeping up lately, but life has continued to dance on the insane side of the fence. Hopefully come fall I’ll be able to settle back into a blog reading and writing routine. Until then, I’ll probably remain my current scattershot, occasionally resurfacing self.

In the meantime, here’s the bullet points of what I’ve been up to in the writing department:

* My zombie apocalypse story “The Holy Spear” has been accepted by Black Static. This will be my second appearance in their pages, which I’m thrilled about.

* Speaking of Black Static, reviewer Peter Tennant wrote a nice post about my story “The Wounded House” from issue 20 on his blog.

* Received my shiny contributor copy of Aoife’s Kiss (10th anniversary issue) this morning. Pretty.

* Gearing up for this summer’s TNEO workshop for Odyssey alum. As of last night, all the critiques I had to do are officially done! I’ve still got a ton of other things to do, but it’s nice to put a big fat check mark next to that beast of an item.

* Unfortunately, progress on the writing front has been mostly non-existent. I got in a good afternoon of revision work on My Big Fat Epic Fantasy Novel a couple weeks ago, but otherwise, that’s been kind of it. But now that TNEO critiques are out of the way, I can hopefully get back in gear. I’ve got some revisions to do on a short story, several flash pieces I should probably polish up and send out somewhere (anyone have suggestions on where to send an unabashedly liberal-leaning gay superhero flash story?), and then back to the novel grind.

A sale, and unexpected responses to saying you write fantasy

I’m happy to say that I’ve sold a twisted little flash piece of mine called “Mr. Fluffy” to the wonderfully named Untied Shoelaces of the Mind.

And on a non-pimpage note, I’ve now encountered the following situation enough that I’m curious to know if any of my fellow fantasy writers have as well:

I’ll be in a conversation with a non-writer and/or non-speculative fiction reader who finds out I’m a writer and asks, “What kind of stories do you write?” The “science fiction” and “horror” parts of my answer usually go over as expected, but saying “fantasy” often earns me awkward silence and a strange, questioning look. So, even though I’ve never written anything with an elf in it, I elaborate with, “Elves, magic, Lord of the Rings, that sort of thing.” The person then laughs in relief and says, “Oh, when you said fantasy, I thought you meant like sexual fantasies.”

Erm, no, I did not. At least not unless one of my characters has a sexual fantasy relevant to the plot.

Three things make a long overdue post

1) First, I’ll get the pimpage out of the way: The Best of Every Day Fiction, which includes my story “Dumping the Dead” and a slew of other flash fiction stories (including some fellow flisters), is now available.

2) Today the procrastination gods compelled me to take a look at the “ideas” folder on my computer where I throw whatever crumb of an idea lodges itself in my brain–from quotes I’ve overhead to phrases or titles that have popped into my head to full-fledged plot sketches. The crumbs in there stretch all the way back to high school, so there was a lot of…well, dreck. Cliches. Ideas that have been done to death and that I had no original spin on. Some that were just plain stupid. So I jettisoned some of the dead weight (though not all of it; occasionally, I’ve been able to mine something cool out of an otherwise craptastic idea). But most of the stuff in that folder is there for a good reason, so I now I find myself wanting to write 20 short stories all at once. Stupid lack of a clone.

3) I’ve been feeling restless. In need of some change–which will soon be coming, but not soon enough for impatient me. Appropriately, it wasn’t all that long ago that a discussion group I was participating in raised a question about change and whether you’re someone who resists it or welcomes it. As with so many things for me, it depends.

With some things, I easily fall into patterns. I’m the type of person who tends to gravitate toward sitting in the same seat on the train and will find myself getting irrationally annoyed if someone is already in it. But with a lot of other things, I get restless if things stay the same too long. I get bored if I have to perform the same piece of music too many times. One of the things I loved about college was having a different class schedule every semester, so I’m looking forward to that again with grad school. And one of the many things that appeals to me about writing fiction is that I can write a story, and then do something completely different with the next one. Different genre, different style, different point of view, different tense, you name it.

So now that I’m done rambling, feel free to chime in with your own thoughts on dealing with change. Love it? Hate it? Too busy changing your hair color to answer?

Podcasts & Pimpage

I mentioned in a recent post that my story “Final Report” would be getting some podcast love in the near future. Well, the future is now. Or rather, the future was Saturday. So the future is the past? Anyway, “Final Report” was read on episode 258 of Paul Cole’s Beam Me Up! program, and you can have a listen here: Beam Me Up!

And so it’s not all about me, I’m going to pimp  ‘s story Lavanya and Deepika at Demeter’s Spicebox. I had the chance to critique an earlier version of it and found it pretty awesome then, so I imagine it’s even more awesome now.

Three Squiggly Things Make a Post

~ Much to my surprise, on Monday I cranked out the first draft of a short story I hadn’t planned to work on that night let alone finish. It felt rather reinvigorating. I wrote 1,000 not totally crappy words in under an hour, which is unusually fast for me. Onto the second draft de-crapification process! (And here’s hoping I find a decent title for the story along the way.) But because my brain doesn’t like to let me enjoy such minor triumphs of productivity for too long…

~ The online world doesn’t need me to offer yet another link to a certain NY Times review of a certain HBO show based on the novels by a certain George RR Martin. But as a chick working on an epic fantasy novel, subsequent commentary and discussion generated by that review have sent my brain into overdrive on pondering women in epic fantasy—as writers, readers, and characters. Unfortunately, my brain is such a jumble right now and my time so limited that I don’t feel like I could put my thoughts down in coherent form at present. Part of that brain jumble has resulted from me obsessing over things to the point of it becoming paralyzing—this fear that, while I know what I’m trying to do with my novel, I’m going to get it wrong and end up with something used as an example of everything that is wrong with epic fantasy. I know nothing is going to please everyone, but Irrational Me, being irrational, isn’t listening to Rational Me.

~ While Irrational Me and Rational Me duke it out, I’m going to go re-caffeinate and get some more Ye Olde Day Job work done.

Escape from the Void Of Too Much Else To Do

Urgh, so much for resurfacing on the blogosphere. Well, I did resurface. I just got sucked right back into the Void Of Too Much Else To Do. I have a feeling that’s going to be happening a lot over the next few months.

So the bulleted version of what this writer has been up to:

* I’ve been encountering far too much lately that has led to forehead slapping and *head desk* moments.

* After much demanding from my brain, I returned to the slow-going revisions on My Big Fat Epic Fantasy Novel–so of course a short story idea immediately started jumping up and down and waving its arms around and asking for a little love. Stupid brain.

* I began my dive into the critique fest that is TNEO.

* I changed the look of my website.

* More details to come, but it looks like my story “Final Report” (from issue 4 of the sadly short-lived Darker Matter) will get some podcast love in the near future.

* The last few months spewed so much crazy all over the place that my attempts at establishing a routine were repeatedly thwarted. That really needs to change. I was determined to get myself onto something resembling a consistent schedule starting today. It’s not even noon yet and that plan’s already gone to pot.

And on that note, I think hear the unmistakable sucking sound that is the Void Of Too Much Else To Do.

Coming up for air

Hey, look at that, I have a blog. Hello, poor neglected blog.

I haven’t had a chance to read or post  the last couple of weeks. Busy, busy, busy, with a side of busy. I hope you’ve all been up to incredibly exciting things that I’m going to feel bad for having missed.

As for me, my main accomplishment amid all the crazy that’s been keeping me away is that I finished a new short story, “The Girl Who Welcomed Death to Svalgearyen.” I’d wield the productivity stick in celebration, but I’m much too tired and headachy.

More conversations with my brain

Oh, brain, must we have the same conversation with every first draft?

ME: Ok, brain, let’s get to work.

BRAIN: No.

ME: What’s your problem this time?

BRAIN: You can’t do this.

ME: Why not?

BRAIN: Because you suck.

ME: That attitude is helping no one.

BRAIN: And the attitude that you don’t suck isn’t helping your solitaire score.

ME: Way to focus on what’s important, you lazy piece of–

BRAIN: Face it, you don’t know how to write anymore. All your character has to do is walk from point A to point B, but you don’t know how the hell to describe it. You don’t even have a clue where you’re going with this story.

ME: You said that with the last story, yet we got through the first draft and saw how wrong you were.

BRAIN: That was an exception.

ME: And the story before that…

BRAIN: Another exception.

ME: And the one before that…

BRAIN: That was–hey, look, something shiny!

In other words, the current WIP has been far more a slog than it should be. But as always, I plow through regardless. I think I might even be able to finish the first draft this week. But still, stupid brain.