Category Archives: Blog

Colin Firth and Big Monkey

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Finally got to watch Pride and Prejudice, the mini-series with Colin Firth. Yup, there’s oodles of yumminess there. fosteronfilm was perplexed as to what it was I (and all the other Firth-fans) found so delectable about Mr. Darcy. I summed it up as “sexy-but-vulnerable-arrogance,” but I don’t think he gets it.

Also saw the new King Kong, courtesy Netflix, and I really liked it. When I saw it was 3+ hours, I thought I’d be clamoring “big monkey already, dammit!” through the whole beginning, but surprising myself, I thought it was well paced. The characters had depth, even (or perhaps especially) Jack Black’s, and I am Naomi Watts’s newest fan. Not only is she teh hotness, but I’m astonished how much emotion she managed to convey with so few lines. And, of course, there were indeed many excellent big monkey scenes. Although why anyone would ever want to go to Skull Island is beyond me. Giant leggy worms . . . *shudder*

   


Writing Stuff

It appears the Tangent forum has been discovered by spammers, and they are seriously ticking me off. There’s especially one repeat spammer who I’ve IDed and reported to their ISP’s abuse address, and he STILL keeps posting his stupid little spam links. I delete them as soon as they pop up, and I’ve asked our webmistress if there’s a way to block individual IP addresses but haven’t heard back from her yet. Anyone know of anything else I can do? Argh. So annoying.

Received:
– Contrib. copies of #292 of Ennea with “Fade to Black” in Greek in it. Rah.
– Galley proofs of “Souls of Living Wood” from William Horner for Modern Magic. Also got to see the full-sized artwork that’ll be accompanying my story, and it’s absolutely gorgeous. I don’t know if I’m allowed to display it, so if you’re curious, it’s the house illustration on the Fantasist Enterprises Modern Magic page. But bigger.
– 50-day “well received here, but . . . ” from Abyss & Apex with invite to submit again.

New words:
Zero. Zip. Nada. There’s no such thing as writer’s block. *twitch* There’snosuchthingaswriter’sblock! *pant pant pant*

Whimper.

The Heian Era is still very much at the forefront of my muse processes, and I’m wondering if I should just run with one of the stories ideas there instead of trying to force a folktale or novel chapter when those simply aren’t gelling right now.

I hate my muse.

Muse food from Lethe Press!

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Lookie what mroctober gave me! Muse food from Lethe Press! Aren’t they beautiful?


From left to right: The Story of Oriental Philosophy by L. Adams Beck, Legends of the City of Mexico by Thomas A. Janvier, Shallow Empire, poetry by Sou MacMillan, Stranger Than Fiction: Welsh Ghosts and Folklore by Mary L. Lewes, and Irish Witchcraft & Demonology by St. John D. Seymour.

I’m already nose deep into The Story of Oriental Philosophy and making periodic forays into the Sou MacMillan poetry. Squee! Thank you, Steve!!

But now I really need to grow another head so I can devote one to reading full time.

   


Writing Stuff

Got an email from a fellow writer in Budapest whom I didn’t know was Hungarian. She saw that a Hungarian translation of “All in My Mind” was forthcoming in Galaktika in April and sent me snaps. I asked her if she’d be willing, if I sent her the English version, to give me a summary of how good the translation was. I’m always a bit anxious to know how my foreign language translations turn out. One of my writers group peeps is Greek, so I’ve got a thumbs up from him on the Greek translations, and I can more or less stumble through the French on my own. But for the Polish and now Hungarian translations I’ve just been crossing my fingers.

Anyone out there read Polish?

This meme has been floating around my flist, and since my muse decided to play hide-n-seek yesterday (mostly hide), here’re my 10 things:

Ten Things I Learned from Writing Fiction

1. Write. Write more. Keep writing. Then write something else. Don’t stop writing.
2. There are stories out there begging to be written. Once you start looking for them, you’ll find them everywhere. Just remember not to get so wrapped up finding the stories that you forget to write them.
3. There are no rules to writing, just guidelines. Use what works for you and don’t angst about going against the common wisdom.
4. Get other people to read and critique your work. They’ll catch things you miss, and you will miss things, no matter how vigilant you are.
5. If you want to be published, you must have a thick skin. Rejection is a part of the biz, as is criticism–and sometimes most crushing of all, indifference. Don’t snark at folks who reject your stuff; take it in stride and either learn from it or let it roll off (or both). After all, they’re not rejecting you, just that particular configuration of words you put together.
6. Trust your instincts, but be open to suggestions. No matter how good you are (or think you are), you can always be better . . . or wrong.
7. If you thought being a writer meant you’d never have to talk in public again, you were mistaken. (*sigh*)
8. Write for you. Write what you love. Write what you want to read. Be passionate about your story, your words, and your characters. Cherish what you write with a burning, fiery, obsessive madness. It’s the best (and oftentimes only) reward for writing. Anything less and you might as well be a cubicle monkey; cubicle monkeys earn a helluva lot more for their souls.
9. Writers are insane, especially if they do it full time (see #8). If you hang out with writers, expect some dementia to pop up.
10. Writing is staggeringly hard (see #9).

Received:
– Payment from Oceans of the Mind for “The Few, the Proud, the Leech Corps.” Yay!

Editing/No new words:
My muse was not kind. I did one editing pass on the second section of The Novel, tentatively titled The Goddess of Beauty and War, and then *poof* no words. Snartleblast. Since I got so many folks clamoring for that Egyptian folktale, aiming my muse that-away instead.

Also did do a couple editing passes on “A Thread of Silk” and did indeed decide to stick on an prologue.

Club 100 For Writers
      13

Returned from the Midwest and COBRA

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We got home safe and sound. The snow stopped; the roads were clear. Hobkin was glad to see us and has spent the last couple days cuddled against my side–which makes it difficult to do anything but lie there being a skunk pillow. But now I’m refreshed and recuperated, and Hobkin is adhered to fosteronfilm‘s side. Time to charge back into the trenches.

Received official word that my COBRA benefits expire at the end of August–a fact I knew, but having them send me a reminder letter has ramped up the stress. I’m hoping that my HMO will be willing to continue covering us under an individual policy, but I’m not sure how likely that is, considering all my pre-existing health conditions. And if they do, I have no idea how much it’ll cost. Of course, if they don’t, I’m royally screwed. I keep wanting to go “I’ll worry about this later” but it’s almost April. Too much later and I’ll be out of time as well as medical coverage. Urk.

I could really go for a national health plan about now. Stupid country.

   


Writing Stuff

Alas, I didn’t make it onto the Campbell Award ballot, but I hadn’t really expected to. However, I have to admit being rather crestfallen that Tangent didn’t get a Hugo nod. Pook.

Crits for “A Thread of Silk” continue to trickle in (thanks aliettedb, basletum, and wbledbetter!). So far, it’s being well received. I’m seriously dwelling upon splitting the epilogue into an epilogue and prologue.

During a very long stretch on I-24, I plotted out the next couple scenes on my novel. If the muse is kind, I want to get those on the page today.

Received:
– Contrib. copy of Here & Now #7. Finally.
– Contrib. copy of Oceans of the Mind XIX.

Snow??

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Err, it’s snowing up here. That’s . . . unexpected, not to mention worrisome on a couple fronts: we’re taking fosteronfilm‘s dad in for some scheduled labwork today and I don’t like the idea of him being out in the cold and snow, and also we were planning on heading back to Georgia tonight. We can certainly handle some snow driving–fosteronfilm and I are both Midwestern-born and learned how to navigate snowy expanses–but I don’t like it.

Plus, it’s almost April. What’n heck is it doing snowing? Apparently I’ve forgotten some of the vagaries of the Midwestern climate.

   


Writing Stuff

Nothing on the new words front has happened for the last couple days, but I hadn’t expected it to.

Received:
– 15-day sale of “Shim Chung the Lotus Queen” to GrendelSong
– Status update from Aeon on a story I subbed there in December letting me know that they’re behind on their slush and catching up.
– A pair of Critters crits for “A Thread of Silk.”

DIL update: much relief and happiness

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Thank you to everyone who sent their support, thoughts, and well-wishes about fosteronfilm‘s dad. The news is all good. We arrived at the in-laws yesterday morning, checked in with my MIL, and then went to visit my DIL in the hospital.

He looked and sounded fantastic and was eating with appetite. The lung specialist dropped in, followed by the heart specialist, and we got the complete rundown about his condition and his prognosis, which is much better than originally thought.

He was indeed in critical condition when he came in last week, but they’re thinking that was due to an acute condition–most likely lingering effects from the infection from his earlier angiogram a couple months back–rather than a sudden worsening of his chronic heart/lung troubles. When they did an echo cardiogram of his aortic valve on Monday, it showed that what had been a critical blockage of the opening circumference on Thursdays had returned to its previous “severe” blockage–with “severe” being leaps and bounds better than critical. It’s still functioning at less than half normal, but it’s manageable and what he was at before Thursday.

It’s a degenerating condition, and they expect he’ll need to go in for the angioplasty procedure in a year or so–and it’s a variation of the standard angioplasty so needs to be done by specialist-specialists–where they’ll knock off the accumulated calcium around the valve. The procedure only has an effectiveness of about six months, due to the nature of the disease–the calcium accumulates again very rapidly–but it can be repeated. There’s 5-8% risk of stroke with the procedure due to danger of the dislodged calcium entering the bloodstream in addition to the other dangers with these sorts of procedures. But he’s holding steady now, on more meds to improve his breathing capacity, on oxygen round the clock, and they expect he should be able to maintain this level of functionality for a year, until they need to re-visit the angioplasty option.

I almost burst into tears (again) of relief when I heard the news. (I’ve been fairly useless this whole trip.) I’m so, so happy at this turnabout.

Matthew and I brought DIL home yesterday, and we all had a nice dinner together and called it an early night. Matthew’s brother swung by to get updated and caught up, and plans to come over again tonight. Matthew and I are running some chores for the in-folks today–grocery shopping and a trip to the hardware store–and we’re cooking dinner. Trying to make sure that his mom, who is intent upon bustling about and doing the attentive hostess thing, doesn’t, and instead takes it easy. And, of course, striving to ensure his DIL is comfy and doesn’t overexert himself.

I feel like the monster-beastie that’s been sitting on my chest for the last week has finally gotten off. A million hurrays.

   


Writing Stuff

Received:
– one no, one still pending, and one “this seems like more of a Weird Tales story so I passed it along to them” from Sean Wallace of Fantasy Magazine at 38-, 80-, and 79 days respectively.
– Contract from Jason Sizemore for “Nothing of Me” for Aegri Somnia.
– 48-day audio reprint SALE+contract of “The Storyteller’s Wife” to MechMuse. On a serendipitous note, I burned to CD the MP3s of issue #1 of MechMuse for the drive to Illinois and listened to over half the stories in the car, so now I’ve had a chance to hear what sort of publication it is. And lemme say that I am very impressed. The actors they hire are excellent, and the stories I’ve heard have been top notch, especially the two by David Barr Kirtley (who also happens to be a fellow Phobos Winner). The editor informs me that “Storyteller’s Wife” will be in the May ’06 issue alongside a story by Kevin J. Anderson. Sweet.

Heading north

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Got a call from fosteronfilm‘s mom. They’re not doing the surgery today, but possibly tomorrow. Matthew and I are heading up there later today. Rushing to drop Hobkin off with his godmother, pack, and get everything organized. Not sure how much I’ll be online for the next few days.

   


Writing Stuff

Received:
– My check from Cricket for “Li T’ien and the Demon Nian.” Shiny.
– Email from the editor in answer to my query regarding whether he’s still interested in considering “A Thread of Silk.” His answer: yes. But he also told me that the funding for his project got slashed, so the pay I could now expect if he wanted to buy it would be significantly below “pro” rates. Hmm. That news will require some pondering. I’ll worry about it later.

Editing:
Many passes on my rewrite of “Nobodies and Somebodies.” Stuck a fork in and sent it off to my Aberrant Dreams editor. I think it’s a stronger story; here’s hoping he agrees. It’s slated for their July issue.

Club 100 For Writers
      12

Coffee therapy and DIL update

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britzkrieg very thoughtfully lured/nudged me out of the house yesterday for coffee. I definitely needed a change in scenery. We chatted for several hours on a wide range of topics: pets, hubbies, writing/editing, our varied states of health, etc., and it was so therapeutic getting my mind off things. Felt much more focused and relaxed afterward–relaxed despite the grande mocha britzkrieg treated me to; that’s pretty salient indication that I needed an afternoon out.

fosteronfilm called his folks. His dad sounds pretty good. It was very touch and go on Friday and Saturday; he was in emergency care all that time, and they weren’t sure if he was going to make it, but he’s stabilized now, although still going through periods of disorientation. It seems the hospital folks are wanting to try something after all, according to my mom-in-law, now that they think he’s strong enough to undergo treatment. So my dad-in-law is going in for some sort of surgery on Tuesday. Unfortunately, his folks’ grasp of medical procedures leaves us a bit uncertain as to what that will be.

It seems there were two options: 1. Full open heart surgery, the cracking his ribs and putting him on a heart-lung machine variety. And 2. I believe a balloon angioplasty. I say “believe” because the description from his mom was along the lines of “some other invasive, but not that invasive surgery that involves a balloon which would have about a 6 month benefit if successful.” After a search on “heart,” “surgery,” and “balloon,” Google informed me that it’s probably an angioplasty.

DIL was all “just do the open heart and get it over with” and MIL appears to have talked him out of that and into the angioplasty. I’m agog that they were even considering open heart, but maybe they’re at the point where they’re running out of options. I wish I knew more. At least (so sez my Google-fu) it’s possible to do an angioplasty without having to administer a general anesthetic, making it a much less traumatic procedure than the alternative.

I’m clinging to optimism . . . tinged by frustrated confusion.

   


Writing Stuff

Still waiting on the notes from the editor regarding my middle-grade novel-to-picture book rewrite. Tempting to start on it without the notes. Also tempting to get back to work on the novel I’ve been neglecting. And likewise tempted to start on an Egyptian folktale. I haven’t submitted anything new to Cricket since last year, and I’ve been devouring Ancient Egyptian Magic in my non-copious free time. My brain is beginning to bubble with ideas.

So much to write. So few mes. How did I do this when I had a day job??

New Words:
600 on my rewrite of “Nobodies and Somebodies” for Aberrant Dreams. After I got back from my outing with britzkrieg, inspiration hit as to how to address the editorial request, and I was off. Going to give it another couple passes to smooth out the prose in the new section, and then send it off to ye olde editor. Pleased to have another major item (nearly) checked off my Things to Do list.

Club 100 For Writers
      11

500/day
      17

No news is . . . no news.

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Thank you to everyone who offered their kinds words of support and sympathy from my post yesterday. No further news on the state of my dad-in-law, which I’m taking as good news.

Back to waiting and hoping and trying not to implode from worry.

   


Writing Stuff

I saw that the Hungarian translation of “All in My Mind” is slated for the April 2006 issue (#193) of Galaktika. Also of note, online Hungarian to English translators suck.

Editing:
A pair of editing passes on “A Thread of Silk” and it’s at first draft. No word from the editor either yea or nay to my query regarding whether he’ll still consider it, despite its length, so I’ve gone ahead and loaded it to Critters. It should go up next week.

Club 100 For Writers
      10

Dad-in-law anxiety

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fosteronfilm‘s mom called yesterday. His dad’s in the hospital again. It’s not good. He simply can’t get enough oxygen into his system between his lung and heart problems, and there’s nothing they can do for him. It sounds like they’re just trying to make him as comfortable as they can, hooking him up to oxygen, and hoping that he rallies again.

Matthew thinks that we might be making a trip up to Illinois soon.

I’m filled with dread every time I hear the phone ring. I’ve never lost someone really close to me before, someone I love, a parent or dear friend. And my dad-in-law is all of those things to me. I started having a meltdown last night. I’m so not going to be of any use to Matthew. He’s going to have to end up comforting me instead of the other way around.

I’m terrified.

   


Writing Stuff

New Words:
850 on “A Thread of Silk” and I’m at zero draft. I’ve emailed the editor this story was originally slated for to see if he’ll still consider my submission even though it exceeds the 10K max in his GLs.

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
11,036 / 10,000
(110.4%)

Club 100 For Writers
      9

500/day
      16

Writing stuff

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Happy birthday to Jason Sizemore, editor of Apex Digest! They made their new subscriber challenge goal, so effective as of issue 6, their pay rate is $.015/word. Rah!

And The Town Drunk is once again open to submissions. Do you write funny? If so, submit, yo!

New Words:
2300 on “A Thread of Silk,” and I’m not happy with the title anymore.

It’s one epilogue away from zero draft and about 200 words over my maximum word count. Unfortunately, that’s after a thorough editing pass that chopped out about 500 words.

I think my muse wants to write a novel.

Zokutou word meter
10,187 / 10,000
(101.9%)

Club 100 For Writers
      8

500/day
      15