Category Archives: LJ

Back from Dragon*Con. Still dazed and stunned from not enough sleep. Longer, more coherent update later.

Nancy Knight, the director of the Writers Track, was great and let the Phobos squad squeeze onto the “Writing for Anthologies” panel on Sunday. Despite being terrified (and the room was full!) I think it went pretty well.

I was on a panel with Robert Asprin, Janny Wurts, and Sherrilyn Kenyon! Plus Ann Crispin called a break during her Advanced Writers Workshop to swing by with members of my DC2K writing group to give me moral support.

Anyway, pix:

From left to right:
Lawrence Barker, Robert Asprin, James Maxey (Phobos novelist and contest winner), Keith Olexa (Phobos in-house editor), me, Janny Wurts.

Check out the books in front of Keith. They’re James’ Phobos novel Nobody Gets the Girl and Pixeltown.

It was a very full panel. Wendy Webb moderated but I’m not sure if Matthew got a pic with her in it.

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Made updates to the Daily Dragon Online and we’re live for 2003!

Swung by DD headquarters yesterday to do set-up. No computers. AGH! They’re delivering them today in the AM. I was really hoping to have the network up before today in case there were (as there always are) problems. Crossing fingers that our network guru, Dean, will work his usual mojo magic and get everything up and running quickly. We’re not going to be there until later this afternoon as we need to drop Hobkin off for Dragon*Con skunk camp with his godmother, and she’s at work until then. Z’okay, got tons of packing and prep still to do here.

Busy busy busy.

Went out to eat at “Little China” the re-named “Sam’s Gourmet Vegetarian Restaurant” for Matthew’s birthday dinner and then came home for cake. My cakes never look pretty. They usually taste just fine, but they always end up looking lopsided. Matthew commented that the ancient Egyptians would have liked my cake as it resembled some of their earlier pyramid building efforts. Grumf.

I gave Matthew a bunch of DVDs for his birthday: The Complete Alec Guinness Collection, the Special Edition Casablanca set, and Soylent Green. dude_the got Matthew The Princess Bride (via UPS to arrive on time). It was a big DVD birthday for my hubby.

We watched the Alec Guinness movie The Ladykillers. Hilarious. I giggled and giggled right out loud. I’ve only seen that film once at Matthew’s parents over the holidays several years ago. I’d mostly forgotten it so it was a rediscovery.

There’s wrapping paper shredded and strewn across the living room. Hobkin wanted to “help”. He’s quite fond of tearing up paper. He also got a bit of tape stuck to his whiskers and went around rubbing his face against the couch, me, and the corners of the room, trying to get it off. Silly animal. Of course it just stuck harder. I had to catch him and pull it off.

dude_the‘s plane comes in late tonight. So many things to do before then . . .

This seemed fitting:
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It’s a three-weeker on Critters since Andrew (the Critter-herder) is going to be away at Torcon. Glad I used my MPC to bump my “squicky” story up the queue, although now I wonder if it would have made it into the current batch anyway. Oh well, not something worth fretting about.

I’m about 2000 words into a new slipstream/magic realism tale. I’m not sure where to take it. Part of me is totally inspired by Bradbury and I want to write something that’s beautiful and soothing and uplifting. But another part of me keeps wanting to make the story a little darker, a little harder-edged than that. After dwelling upon it for a couple days, I’m leaning towards going with my darker inclinations, but at the same time I want to keep a tone of soft serenity. Tricky tricky.

Today is Matthew’s birthday! I baked a cake (it still needs frosting) and there are prezzies to be opened. dude_the is flying in tomorrow. He’s staying with us all next week through Dragon*Con. Hurray for company and weekend fun! Except I’m not sure how much time I’ll be able to devote to this new story before the convention. I’d like to finish it before things become insane with D*C. Afterwards, I’m going to be pretty zombified and in heavy recovery mode, if past experience is anything to go by. My muse tends to curl up in a corner with a big “Do Not Disturb” sign around her neck for weeks after something as intense as Dragon*Con. I’d like not to set this story down and have it get lost and unfinished because I really like what I’ve got so far. We’ll see. I have picked up stories that I’ve lost the momentum on before, but they tend to be the exception rather than the rule. Maybe I can sneak in some writing time during this weekend’s AM hours when everyone else will be asleep.

Going to start doping Hobkin on Rescue Remedy today so that he doesn’t freak out as much with dude_the invading “his” territory. Also want to give him a bath. That’s always an adventure. Hobkin was a total cuddlefuzz yesterday night, crawling up beside me on the couch where I’d fallen asleep and wedging himself in my arms. Except then he woke up at around 3am and jumped down (of course waking me in the process). I stumbled off to bed, but he decided to run amuck. Poor Matthew stayed up with him rather than locking him away until I woke up, several hours later, to get ready for work and feed him (Hobkin, not Matthew) his breakfast. To say that Matthew was a bit groggy is a bit of an understatement. But hey, at least the weekend is finally here!

Woke up this morning feeling glum and depressed. I found out yesterday that someone I met at Fantasm a year ago died over the weekend. He drowned while on an outing. Just one of those freak accidents that you can’t explain and never expect. I didn’t know this person well, but from my brief association with him, he made a striking impression on me. He was sweet and funny, and full of life and energy. You could see it in him, his enthusiasm and his wicked sense of humor. I quite liked him and I’m stunned and shocked that he’s gone. I’m also exceptionally saddened that I didn’t get to know him better. I meant to, but I thought it was just one of those things that could happen in the fullness of time. Except time has stopped for him now, and all my opportunities to cobble a friendship with him are gone.

I don’t like death.

Going to go hug Matthew now.

1000 words on the Dark Fantasy story with the aid of a little caffeine. Zero draft completed; fork poised. Going to have Matthew first-reader it and then up to Critters it goes. I’m not terribly excited about this one. I wrote it just to get the words from log jamming in my head and I think it shows. I’d contemplate not subbing this one to markets, but I just can’t tell which stories of mine will appeal to an editor. My favorite pieces are still making the rounds, and stories that I thought were just fun ditties are selling to pro-markets on their first jaunt out. I just can’t figure the vagaries of the publishing industry.

Used my spare MPC to bump my “squicky” story up the Critters queue. It should be going up tomorrow.

Completed the re-write on my “weird” story. Out into the world it goes. It’s still weird, but I took out some of the references that puzzled people the most and toned down the early surreal elements. Chopped about three hundred words from the final count. The end’s still exceptionally surreal, but I like it. I do, however, think that I’ll put a little distance between me and Kurt Vonnegut Jr. for a while.

Been reading The Vintage Bradbury, a collection of some of Ray Bradbury’s best earlier works. It’s both uplifting and depressing. On the one hand, his writing is beautiful, poetic, and evocative without being a downer like a lot of Harlan Ellison’s work is (which is also beautiful, poetic, and evocative, just in an angry-bloody sort of way). But on the other hand, I’m feeling a whole heap of despair on the “I’m not worthy” front. Will I ever be able to write even a fraction as well as Bradbury? It’s dispiriting is what it is. I keep telling myself that the man worked at his writing, worked hard at it. Still does. But then I read “Dandelion Wine” or “The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit” and I just can’t believe that I’ll ever be even close to having his mastery of prose.

And I’m bummed that Bradbury can’t make Dragon*Con. I’m glad that I got to see him those several years ago at our first Dragon*Con, but I was really looking forward to having the opportunity to meet him this year.

Sigh.

Trying to catch up on my Friends List. Salient word is trying.

Yesterday was the last Dragon*Con meeting (director’s only) before the convention. I can’t believe it’s only two weeks before D-Day. Yikes. So much to do; so little time.

The convention fed us again. Gotta love the free meal thing.

On the writing front:

No new word countage this weekend but I’ve started on the re-write of my “weird” story.

Also, an idea for a character popped into my head that I’d like to write about. No story, no setting, no background, just a character. That hasn’t happened to me before. My characters tend to grow organically from the story I put them in. Now I find myself dwelling on the best situation to drop this character-concept into and it’s a strange process.

I’m not left-handed but Matthew is. I’m going to bake some cookies in observance of the holiday.

Writing Stats:

26 crits on Critters for my “weird” story. Need to dwell on the various comments for a day or so and then start on the rewrite. I’m not sure yet if I want to do a major overhaul on this tale, or just do some tweaks. Got comments across the board from “loved it” to “didn’t work for me.”

The countdown to Horrorfind Weekend continues. The Quiet Ward debuted at number 8 on the Shocklines.com Advance Order Bestseller list. Neat.

In less good news, an anthology market that had short-listed one of my stories was cancelled. Details are sketchy, but it sounds like the two co-editors had a falling out and scrapped the project. Dagnabit. Out it goes again, although I really thought this anthology was a good fit. Another tongue-in-cheek writing “milestone” is when a writer “kills” a market. Wonder if this counts as my kill?

Made some progress on the new Dark Fantasy story, about 1000 words. I’m still flogging myself for even writing the damn thing since if I finish this story it’ll be the third incarnation of this theme I’ve written. But the words keep coming, so I keep typing. Stupid muse.

Actually, Matthew and I were talking last night and discussing art and the revisiting of themes. I feel a little better rehashing old territory knowing that some of the great painting masters did the same thing with their work.

And hey, Roger Zelazny wrote the same novel over and over again, so why can’t I?

Taking a pause from writing “thank you” notes to all the Critters who’ve taken a stab at my current queue offering . . .

Saw American Wedding yesterday. Okay, I’m really not a fan of slapstick or scatological humor. I turned off Something About Mary and for the most part, Jim Carrey makes me roll my eyes and change channels. But I really like all of the American Pie movies, even this most recent incarnation which focused on one of my least favorite characters (Stifler). Somehow, the writers manage to walk the edge without crossing into “seriously not funny.” Laughed right out loud many times in the theater, although I also spent the time in a nearly perpetual state of cringing–much like how I felt watching AP I and II, actually. There was one scene which did push into “more gross than funny” but one bad scene in three movies is pretty good. And, of course, Alyson Hannigan is quite the hottie.

Turner Classic Movies is doing marathons of various famous actor-types this weekend. Yesterday was Cary Grant. I adore Cary Grant, so we spent a lot of yesterday parked in front of the television. Matthew made his delicious Eggplant Parmesan and we saw in quick succession: I Was a Male War Bride, Notorious, Father Goose, and Operation Petticoat. Fell asleep during Arsenic and Old Lace but that’s okay. We have it on DVD. Today is Jack Lemmon. It’s a good passive entertainment sort of weekend.

Actually, Thursday was Lughnasadh, but we postponed our celebration of it until yesterday. I made beer bread and cookies, and we gorged in front of the TV and watched American Pie I and II. Sort of a strange way to celebrate the Autumnal Cross Quarter, but hey, we enjoyed it. And now we’re raring to see American Wedding.

Got The Quiet Ward contract for “The Reign of the Wintergod” in the mail yesterday from Prime Books. It was just a single copy of the contract with no letter or note in it. I assume I’m supposed to sign it and send it back, but I’m more accustomed to seeing a brief letter from the person I’m supposed to address to the “attn of” on the return envelope, as well as receiving two copies of the contract, one of which I get to keep for my own records. No biggie. I’ll just make a copy of it before I mail it. But it was a little, err, brief. I assume they were rushed since everyone’s scrambling to get the book out in time for Horrorfind weekend.

Wow. In one week there will be a book in print with one of my stories in it. How cool is that?

Less cool is the whole “make a copy situation,” primarily because my scanner won’t talk to the computer anymore. I’ll just use a third party copier for the contract, but this whole scanner broken thing is really stressing me out. I hate dealing with hardware. I am totally incapable of interacting in a calm and rationale manner with malfunctioning peripherals. They scare and intimidate me. I’m leaving it to Matthew to fix.

In other news, ten critiques so far on the “weird” story I’ve got up at Critters right now. The comments are mixed. Most people like it but think there are weird bits. Well, I knew it was odd going in, but I’m pleased that people in general are liking it. Readers have given me positive comments on the style and tone I used, which is cool as it was something of a Vonnegut-inspired experiment.

Matthew finally first-readered my “squicky” story and it did indeed totally squick him out. He refused to read it through a second time so gave me my critique verbally rather than in writing. Gleep. I’m much better with critiques in writing. But the funny thing is that despite his gross-out, he still thought it was a good, powerful story. He just doesn’t want to ever read it again.

Yay, I think.

He also had some excellent comments (as usual) which I’m dwelling on before I toss up the first draft for the Critters to savage.