Category Archives: Blog

Having pronounced shortness of breath issues again. Inhaler isn’t doing squat except for increasing my heart rate so I feel dizzy and light-headed in addition to short of breath. Lovely.

Had weird dreams last night of being late or under prepared for a major exam. I hate those. Where are they coming from and why can’t I solve the underlying anxiety which is spawning them? Stupid psyche.

Writing Stuff:
Received a 30-day rejection from Interzone with invite to send more. Out it goes again. No reply from either LCRW or Talebones to queries. One of the stories I’ve got at Cricket is cresting toward its 100-day mark, always a good sign. But it could be another month+ before I hear anything. I think I’m beginning to jones for another sale. And, of course, there’s no USPS today because of Columbus Day. I need to grow a new patience. My old one is worn to the nubbins.

26 critiques so far on Critters on my current offering. The feedback I’m getting is across the board. There’s been lots of conflicting opinions, much more so than usual, as well as more than a significant number of people saying “this ain’t horror, this is fantasy.” (I’m thinking people are fixating a bit much on that little letter indicator.) Aside from some line-edits, I haven’t gotten anything really zingy that makes me inclined to make larger changes. For the readers that it worked for, it seems to have really worked for them. For the ones that it didn’t, I don’t think there’s anything I can do without utterly remaking the story that would please them. I’m aiming to get this to market by Wednesday or Thursday.

500 or so new words on the Halloween story. I’ve missed the deadline of my writers group for the Shelley challenge, but I’m hoping to still get this story wrapped up. Except I seem to be losing control of it. Blah.

My Tangent editor, once again, appears to me MIA. Three weeks have gone by and he hasn’t published my last couple Sci-Fiction reviews. *grumble*

Writing Stuff:
Another, rare “Friends Only” post. I must be feeling furtive.

Four critiques from Critters so far. It’s been a mixed bag. I’m trying to be introspective-ish and determine whether I’m feeling argumentative or if I just hit two in a row that were abnormally ucky. Typically, I rattle off a fairly short, neutral “thank you” to my critiques regardless of what they say (unless I know the person or they say something interesting or their critique was particularly helpful, in which case my “thank you”s are often longer and chatty). But this time, I took up arms not once but TWICE. Not because I had problems with what they said in their critiques regarding whether they liked something, or whether the story worked for them, but because one of them was wrong and the other seemed either terribly misguided or terribly judgmental.

One critter informed me that I should decrease my use of adverbs. Now, “less is more with adverbs” is a philosophy I agree with, and espouse. But then he went on to point out instances of my “adverb” usage to illustrate his point. To whit:
“The words hung like gossamer threads before fading away.”

Do you see an adverb in there? I don’t. He took issue with the “like gossamer threads” part. That isn’t an adverb; it’s a simile. My similes, metaphors, symbolism, and analogies are intentional, often carefully and painstakingly crafted constructs. They ain’t no adverbs.

Okay, English grammar is confusing. I’ve had people say dumber things in critiques, no biggie. But then he went on to say that I overused personal pronouns and it was a “woman thing” to do so. The sentence in question: “She stroked a paw over her soft ear.” This critter thought I should change “her” to “the.” Aside from the character in question (a rabbit), there’s a bear and a roomful of men in this room. I think I’m well within my rights to point out whose ear is being stroked. Fine, he didn’t agree. But it’s girlie to use personal pronouns? WTF?

Then I got a critique from someone who apparently had some major issues with the subject matter. I did warn at the very top that there was “Mention of graphic violence and child abuse” in it–yes, in my bunny and bear story. It’s also clearly labeled as horror. But she read it anyway. Her comments:
“It’s well-suited to a dark fantasy-horror publication, one with a readership that craves twisted tales of abuse and murder. Hopefully in such a magazine, it would serve as a catharsis to whatever antisocial urges the readers possess, and not as a springboard propelling those with pre-existing psychological and/or sexual aberrations to justify re-enacting the depressing deeds -i.e. rape as entertainment – herein described.”

I got the implication here that she thinks that all readers (and writers) of horror and dark fantasy are sickos who have antisocial urges and “pre-existing psychological and/or sexual aberrations” that they unleash by reading/writing, which otherwise they’d slake in some less socially acceptable manner. *blink*

Maybe I’m reading too much into these critiques, but they served to miff me. I haven’t sent my responses yet. I’m sitting on them until I’m certain I want to. Normally I consider myself thick-skinned when it comes to both feedback and rejection. Is it me, or did I coincidentally run into two extremes in a row?

Watched Scooby Doo 2 last night. That’s nearly two hours of my life I won’t be getting back. I went in with low expectations, and they were set too high. Blah.

Writing Stuff:
Did a story critique and reviewed this week’s Sci-Fiction story for Tangent. Emailed both to the relevant parties

Heard back from the car people. It was the alternator in my Accord. Apparently it broke. The strange whining noise we heard was the bearings humming and whirling around where they shouldn’t be. It cost $560 to fix. Ugh.

Finished reading Incubus Dreams. LKH has definitely made her writing much more erotic and much less horror and mayhem of late. The plot parts did pick up toward the end, but she didn’t wrap up the crime case she’d opened, just jammed a sort of placeholder in, not exactly a cliff-hanger, but not a proper “it’s done” resolution either. I prefer there to be more storyline in 650+ pages. There were juicy sex scenes, but there were so damn many of them that I ended up feeling rather jaded from all the various and sundry Anita boinking, not to mention my suspension of disbelief was pretty put upon. Plus, one of my favorite characters is Asher, and he didn’t get any screen-time at all.

Still, it was fun. LKH continues to write well enough to keep me sucked in, but there’s a decided diminishing in quality to this series. Sigh. Pretty par for any series, so I guess I shouldn’t be disappointed. And yet . . .

Writing Stuff:
I’m up at Critters. Words have been elusive.

Definitely feeling better today. I’m still either oversleeping or undersleeping, but I think I’m doing more over than under. Regardless of my questionable sleep habits, I think my mood is beginning to lighten. It’s amazing how therapeutic weekends can be.

Watched the debate on Thursday. Well, actually, watched mostly the second half of the debate. I slept through the beginning. Generally, I found it to be an exercise in frustration. Unsurprisingly, George W. debates like a babbling idiot. He utterly failed to give any sort of reasonable accounting of his various and myriad failures with regard to his overseas policies. He repeated himself a lot, which got tedious fast. And his stammering, uncertain presentation–par for his public speaking skills–continued to be a resounding confidence dimmer. I’m totally sympathetic with people being hesitant, weak public speakers, as long as they’re not the President of the United States. George W. needs remedial Toastmasters training.

On the other hand, Kerry missed some really obvious zingers. George W. said (about half a dozen times) that if the U.S. hadn’t moved against Iraq, they would have kept doing what they were doing . . . which was nothing. Yet Kerry didn’t hammer that point. And why didn’t Kerry pounce on the fact that George W. refers to the U.S.’s invasion of Iraq as a victory? George W. thinks contractors being kidnapped and beheaded, and Iraqi children getting bombed when they’re being given candy by U.S. soldiers constitutes a “victory”? Puhleeze.

Blah. As debates go, that was exceedingly lame. Although at least it should be obvious who won. Kerry was informed, confident, and poised. George W. was a blustering, blithering, tongue-tied fool who perpetually looked like he’d just bitten into a lemon.

On that note, an amusing link: Students for an Orwellian Society. “Because 2004 is 20 years too late”

Writing Stuff:
I did another pass on the recently revived story, had Matthew first reader it, did another pass, and then lobbed it on Critters. It should go up Wednesday. I’m loving this pro, bump-up-the-queue thing.

Also wrote two critiques for my Critter Litter writers group. It was a revise and critique sort of night.

Since the aggressive self-medication tactic didn’t work out so well, I went back to my usual mug of green tea this morning. Ended up with a throbbing headache and pronounced shortness of breath. I think my body is out to get me.

My mother and my step-dad are flying in this weekend for a short visit. I wonder if the stress from that impending encounter is contributing to my overall state of misery–ya think? They aren’t staying for very long, but I’m still fretful.

Writing Stuff:
Fantasy story progress: Hacked out a couple pages with a liberal use of the DELETE key, and managed about 500 words going in the right direction.

Halloween story progress: 230 words.

Another project I picked up after dropping a couple years ago: 1.6K words (completing the story at something over 4K). It’s very rough, and I’m definitely not achieving the emotional impact I was going for, which was the reason I set it aside in the first place. But I forced myself to finish it working on the philosophy that it’s easier to rewrite once I have something down, rather than agonize over how to do it. It’s at zero draft, but it still needs a lot of work before I want to show it to Matthew to first reader.

I seem to be on a “finish unfinished works” kick, which is great, but weird.