I win!

Woohoo! I won a Ragamuffin ARC (advanced readers copy) from Tobias. Yehaw.

Of course, I was also the only entrant, it seems. "Since Steve was the only one to jump in, Steve, email me your snail mail address for the ARC prize!"

That might or might not be high snark, but I don't care. I'm going to get a copy of Ragamuffin! Woohoo!

Chick-lits? No, Ficlets!

John Scalzi (Ha! did you know about this post?) points to an interesting experiement, Ficlets. I've done this exercise before, someone writes a part, next person writes a part or a begining, iterate. It'll be interesting to see where this goes. I hope for John's sake (as he's a part of this) that it goes up. I'll probably use this to get juices flowing. I thought it might be good story bones, but the Creative Commons licensing bounces that idea. But it could be a lot of fun.

Edited 03-14-07, 8:20am. John gives props out to some people for Ficlets, AOL's Kevin Lawver and John Anderson. Good job, dudes. I hope it goes well for your sakes as well.

And Now With More Story!

The muse keeps giving. I don't know what I did, but I think we're rolling again. And I'm getting stuff about the whole story, not just the bone. I know the begining, and how I think it will end, along with the twist. Now I'm getting details. Who the main character is, Mathias "Megs" Thompson. All around bad guy. I don't have much of the middle, other than the pointers saying, "this is the character's goals, these are the antagonists' goals" and a few details about how each would get to their goals. This is going to be fun. Now I just need the time.

"The handwritten note pinned to the door read, 'The cabin is unlocked, so you don't need to break the door.'"

I've seen it raining fire in the sky

Colorado finally acknowledges common sense and names "Rocky Mountain High" their state song. 'Bout damn time, dudes. Yet there was still opposition because of the word "High." Are will that crazy, still?

He was born in the summer of his 27th year
Comin' home to a place he'd never been before
He left yesterday behind him, you might say he was born again
You might say he found a key for every door...

And the Colorado rocky mountain high
I've seen it rainin' fire in the sky
I know he'd be a poorer man if he never saw an eagle fly
Rocky mountain high.

Because I'm Told to Do So

In the comments on another post I talked about the Muse being slightly upset with me. I must have been a good boy because she just dropped an interesting story bone in my head. Yes. Dark, foreboding, like that dream where you're trying to get someplace and just can't seem to get there. All of it. He he he. Yes, my darling, I'm listening, it is written down. From the ash bed stirs the flame waiting for tinder to ignite.

And Me Without My Incense

The Slush God has posted a progress report on his reading for the Pirate Issue of Shimmer. I'm in there somewhere. Mine was over the 5000-word limit, but hopefully I'm not in the reject file.

Did I post this one from the Capts. VanderMeer?

That Thing Before Xmas

You might remember me saying that things around Xmas were slightly bumming me out. Well, here is the promised picture. This was the result of a fire the Monday before Xmas, two doors down from us. About midnight Bette woke me up saying the fire trucks just went by. I went out on my deck and saw this house of fire. It was fully involved. Think of the house being outlined in fire, that was what this was like. For a moment I thought it was our neighbor's house. As you can see, we have a lot of woods. So I threw on some clothes and went out with my neighbors to bear witness.

This was the most silent fire I ever heard. Nothing. Really. I could hear the fireman's equiment jangeling. All our trucks were out, Rome and Windsor had also responded. A friend of mine was one of the first responders, the fire was called in by two other guys two minutes before he got on scene (he used ot be a firefighter, and he was in the right place to respond). Three minutes later our trucks started showing up. They couldn't get in the house. Silent fire.

I was pretty sure, after hearing the reports, that the old man who lived here would be found inside. I went home to call the mayor. The guys would need a pick up, Larry can do that. On the way back home I knew the old man was dead. There is a smell particular to human flesh burning. I couldn't smell it near the fire, I could on my lawn.

I knew they wouldn't find much. Just look at the house. It's gone. Two hours was the total burn time. Plus, once the fire was mostly out our firemen started searching form the outside. Just look at the house, our chief wasn't going to send somebody through that (don't know what's good floor and what's not). At that point I figured he was in the center of the house. And he was there, you can see his car in the garage. The guys looking in what was left of the bedroom side of the house didn't react. Nobody turned, cleared mask, and tossed cookies. I knew he was in the middle.

I hate being right sometimes. They didn't find much of him. The real pisser is that his daughter lives next door, opposite from us. Fortunately some neighbors who knew her better were helping. It wasn't until after eight when the chief ordered people in the house. That's how long it was too hot to go in. At two in the morning the middle of the house was gone. Very hot, very silent fire.

Go check the batteries in your fire detectors. This guy was our former fire chief.

Reboot

Attempting to reboot. I haven't written much fiction since I finished Robert's Thunder. So I'm listening to some music I've put together to try and help. Most important is Susan Werner's "Courting the Muse." I just love her music. Her and Annie Lennox. "Stop the world, just shut it down." What a voice. What nice ladies.

So here's some other writerly things.

Podcasts
The Odyssey Workshop Podcasts. Another 6 week intensive workshop that if I were young, I'd go to. (props out to Jeff VenderMeer's blog, also Locus Online).

From Confusion, by Time Traveler, podcasts of some panels. You'll have to scroll down some. (props out to Tobias Buckell).

"I've felt the coldness of my winter, I never thought it would ever go, I cursed the gloom that set upon us, But I know that I love you so... Upon us all a little rain must fall. Just a little rain? Ooooh, yeah yeah yeah!" Rock on, gettin' the Led out.

And I forgot I put Enya's Ebudae in here. I love that song. Whenever I have to imagine kilted warriors hiking over the misty hills, this song comes into my mind.

The Butt of All Jokes

I haven't posted since Saturday. Wanna know why? Remember the joke about the Colorectal Surgery? Yeah, I just answered the fourth question about that job. To explain more could jeapordize the job, so I don't want to explain it too much. But I got asked about it, that specific letterhead, which was a part of a larger order, on Saturday. Then I was asked about it on Monday Morning and then again if the afternoon. And I was just asked about it for shipping purposes and where we got this file. I replied that I pulled it out of my butt. I said this with as much of a straight face as I could muster.

Weird Synchronicity

Well, I just plated letterhead for a Colorectal Surgery group. Yep, that pretty much explains how my Saturday is going. Business cards are next! I hate having to "work" on weekends (even with time and a half). I hope yours is going better.

Well, we'll call it a day and see if it goes to its head

Thanks, everybody, for all the well wishes on the story. It certainly made the rest of my day. I feel excellent about it still.

The rest of the day, though, sucked wind. It was so ten times the flavor of suckiness, I get to go into work tomorrow to finish with the suckatude. Even with that, there will probably still be suck left over for Monday.

So believe me, you guys made my day. Give yourselves an "atta boy/girl."

Besides all the work related crap, including several kernel panics (my firsts in four years of using OS X), the incredible disappearing fonts that are installed but the software doesn't want to see them until I restart twice, the multiple "this must be done now" new-to-my-desk jobs, and one client just going crazy bat crap on submitting job work, there was the home stuff with a hot water heater going south (call from Bette), some issues with friends, and some other things I don't want to get into.

But on the plus side, you guys, the request for the full story, I left work while it was still daylight (had to go to Home Depot), and that the water heater was just the pressure value (and good dust cleaning worked), and my wife found copies of Tobias Buckell's book and John Scalzi's Old Man's War at the second hand shop, so I have two books I really like in my collection (both were library reads). Now only if one of my Mega Millions numbers hit (personal and office pools), I'll be set. And it means I get to play fan boy again with two authors I really like (oh yes, you two, I'm comin' at ya with a pen, get ready).

Tomorrow I get to go back to work. On the plus side it'll all be time and a half, and I already have nine hours of overtime this week (I couldn't work more because of council meetings). I'm really looking forward to Sunday.

Oh, and another plus, this month's Ansible is out. Reading it now.

Shimmer of a Glimmer

The Submission Wrangler at Shimmer requested all of Robert's Thunder. I'm so happy. Yippie!

So they're reading the story (not right at this moment, but it's in the stack). Hope springs something or other.