Category Archives: Blog

As a memorial to the wonderful stories SCI FICTION has provided us in its six-year run, David Schwartz (snurri and snurri.blogspot.com) is putting together an appreciation at edsfproject.blogspot.com for each and every one of the over 300 works it has published. Not only is it an accolade to truly outstanding fiction from a truly outstanding publication, but the hope is that it will be noticed by those who made the decision to end SCI FICTION‘s run. He’s calling all writers, editors, and lovers of speculative fiction–anyone and everyone who has read and enjoyed these stories–to pick one, sign up for it, and write a piece to honor it. I call dibs on M.K. Hobson’s (bricoleur) “Hell Notes.”

I urge you–yeah, I’m talking to you–to add your name and words of appreciation to the list. (And if you’re one of my Tangent reviewers reading this, you really need to contribute–it’s not an editorial decree, but it is definitely a plead.)

Also, Pat Cadigan, among others, is urging people to write to Scifi.com at feedback@scifi.com, asking them to reconsider their decision to close SCI FICTION.
Tips from Pat (if you take the link to read her full comment, it’s about 4/5ths of the way down the page):

“A few tips: hold the insults and obscenities. They don’t read past the first one and they figure you’re a crank. Also, threats never to visit the site again probably won’t impress them. Instead, emphasize the vital part that written sf plays–after all, there would be no sf field and no SciFi Channel without it. The sf field is one of those things created by writers and readers, not by movies and TV shows. The movies and TV shows sprang from the written word.

“Another tip: remind them of Ellen Datlow’s accomplishments. In the past, she has brought a lot of major writers to broader notice–people like William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. She has edited people like Joyce Carol Oates, Ruth Rendell, and Robert Silverberg.”

We’re a community–fans, writers, and geeks of SF. Let’s make our voices heard! It also wouldn’t hurt to cross your fingers, click your heels, and pray to Yog-Sothoth.

Writing Stuff

9,102 / 12,000 (75.8%)

Club 100 For Writers
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500/day
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We got a notice a week or so ago from our homeowners association about a couple upcoming meetings. It seems that there’s some hubbub about people wanting to either incorporate our subdivision into Roswell, the nearby township, or annex it into a new one (thus far imaginatively dubbed “Newtown”). I sent fosteronfilm to the meetings to gather intelligence because I was eyeball deep in “Beauty’s Folly” at the time this came up. Now that I’m catching up on everything I backburnered last week, I’ve had some time to absorb the import of this furor.

It comes down to a political play of the local governments to keep the affluent north of Atlanta from benefiting the more needy south Atlanta areas with their tax dollars. As far as I can tell, that’s the sum of it. The parcel of land which includes a handful of neighborhoods (including our subdivision) is currently unincorporated. Thus, our taxes go to the big Fulton County money pool, which includes all of Atlanta. The overwhelmingly-Republican denizens of this area are aghast that their money is going to other neighborhoods to help improve the lot of those less affluent, so want to either incorporate or annex us. Apparently they’ve wanted to do this for a while, but have been unable to until the recent elections gave the conservatives the upper hand in the local legislature. Hence, they want to push this through before the government weights and balances tilt back to the Democrats, and so we can expect this to play out sometime next year. fosteronfilm and I shall have very little say in the matter, except perhaps to express whether we would prefer to be Roswellians or Newtownians.

For us, personally, it means little. Our address will remain the same (my first concern since I conduct so much business through the mail) regardless of the outcome. Our property taxes may or may not go up (but alas, certainly not down)–both the annex and incorporation sides are frothing to reassure us how superior their taxation situation will be over the other’s–and we may or may not get a sidewalk or two, or a softball field or something equally frivolous (softball’s all good and well, but I don’t play it, and therefore I don’t see why I should want to pay to have a new softball field installed when there’s perfectly serviceable ones within close driving distance) in the nearby park. Meanwhile, the tax money we don’t particularly need to maintain this prosperous north Atlanta bit of land and which those in south Atlanta could use to improve schools and other essentials, will be denied them.

All hail the greed and selfishness of Republican politics.

And my assertion that homeowners associations are the work of the Devil remains irrefutable.

Writing Stuff

But the thing is, I like this story; I’m happy with it, and it says what I want it to say. It’s meant to be light and quirky and I could so easily see it being ruined by subjecting it to too many rewrites. I think it’s ready to see the world. Going to give it another pass on paper because without the extra sets of critical eyes, I’m concerned about those typos that I always seem to miss. Then I’m sending it out.

I think the tone and tale might appeal to teenage sensibilities (although I also wonder if it would appeal to an even younger audience, given how sophisticated today’s children are), so I’m sending it to Cicada. So mote it be.

Next up: nose to grindstone on “Rue and Ruin.”

Club 100 For Writers
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Yesterday, I edited. It was not a transcendental experience. Talk about a buzz kill. Also, I slept for over nine hours straight, and am feeling somewhat less punchy. So here I am, grounded and sober. Ah, the roller-coaster ride of being a writer. So not glamorous.

Words: +500 – 2000 on “Beauty’s Folly”
As I suspected, the words I wrote close to the 2AM hour were a bit, uh, disjointed. I went back in and rewrote the ending, resulting in a cut of about 300 words and an addition of 800 (+500), and then I made fosteronfilm first reader it and went back and did a thorough edit and rewrite based upon his suggestions, resulting in a cull of about 2000 words . . . and cutting a character.

Going to give it another pass or two and then hand it off for editorial input.

Club 100 For Writers
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500/day
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First off, if you’re waiting for correspondence from me, many apologies. It’s going to be another day or so before I can start going through my overflowing inbasket.

Yesterday, all I did was write, eat, and sleep. And I took most of my meals up to the library with me so I could keep working while I ate. Today, I am dazed and exhilarated, anxious and thrilled. The story in my head is on the page, zero draft complete. While I was writing it, it was more real to me than my surroundings. Library and laptop disappeared and I heard my characters speak to me, felt their emotions and desires as they lived in the world I had created for them. Yes, I know I sound as ridiculous as the worst angsty goth poet with a glass of merlot. But this is what I yearn for as a writer, what I strain and stress and struggle to achieve.

Also, I’m a little lightheaded. I didn’t get a lot of sleep. I tapped out “The End” at 2AM and woke up at 6AM to start my first editing pass.

New words: 6700 on “Beauty’s Folly” (I even came up with a title!)
This may be a new word count record for me. I made a bouncing, baby novelette in three days. Although I am somewhat terrified that mroctober is going to want to throttle me.

Editing now, since I didn’t do any while the story was coming out. There’s going to be cutting–I’ve already chopped out 500 words in my initial half-pass this morning. I had to stop when Hobkin told me in no uncertain terms that it was mealtime NOW. But I’m pleasantly surprised at how well the story’s reading. Normally at this stage, I would expect much gnashing of teeth as paragraphs and scenes went flying to the eternal void of DELETE. ‘Course I haven’t hit the 6K I did yesterday. Odds are it will start getting ugly soon.

Club 100 For Writers
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500/day
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Watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp remake.

Pros: Tim Burton always makes beautiful movies. He has a definite style that is otherworldly and lush, no matter what the subject matter. Johnny Depp plays a very funny psychotic candy maker and has some really excellent lines. The parts of the movie where they stayed relatively faithful to the first movie were well done and amusing

Cons: The end. They added moralizing and a truly unnecessary theme to the second half–both tedious and out of character for the movie. As a result, the whole thing fails.
   

Writing Stuff

Actually, I’ve let all of my correspondences slide these last couple days. So if you’re expecting an email from me and haven’t heard back, that’s why. I shall be playing catch-up after I finish this story.

New Words: 3000 on the as-of-yet-untitled Beauty and the Beast tale.
Doubtless there will need to be some intensive cutting as I haven’t gone back and done much in the way of editing. The story plays in my head, the words come, and I release them onto the screen. Happy writer. Not necessarily good writer, but happy.

Club 100 For Writers
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500/day
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