Loot!

The good stuff from Todd Wheeler's summer reading contest arrived yesterday. What a haul. An LED booklight (oooo), Library of Congress swag including a pencil, novelty pen, bookmark, and notepad. Thanks, Todd. Woohoo!

New Anthology Open

Eric T. Reynolds posts that a new themed anthology is now open for submissions. It's a part of the "Ruins" series that both Camille Alexa and Tobias Buckell (and a few other good names) have stories placed in previous editions. It's kind of a short deadline and pretty specific on theme, but having an open anthology is a good thing to pass on.

More Writing Links from the Week, the Audio Portion

This week on the Diane Rehm show (have I ever gushed about her show here? If not, I'll have to sometime soon) we have the Steve Roberts (who is filling in for Diane) interview with John Heath & Lisa Adams on their new book "Why We Read What We Read." Excellent interview about the book where the authors read everything in the NYT's bestseller list and talk about what they found. That link is to the archive page where you can grab a replay of the show. The talk isn't specific genre, but good general stuff of "what readers are looking for."

Also, this weeks nano cast of edit Adventures in SF Publishing, end editWriter of the Future: Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta ad their panel on "Things I wish some professional had told me when I was starting out." I'm listening to it right now (and have backed up to relisten to a segment several times). Good things.

More Neopro Advice

This summer there seems to be a bumper crop of it. Can this mean there is a new wave of new authors? We should know in about five years when we start seeing articles about the "fresh authors" (you know, the ones that have been slogging away at it for a combined total of a millenia).

Cool guy and great Dad, Dave Kletcha points out a Cherie Priest aricle on Things I've Learned Since My First Book Got Published.

Fun guy and also cool dude, Joshua Palmatier continues his advice givng lollapalloza with an article on what I call pacing and he calls Peaks and Lulls. This is a follow on to another article he's posted about writing (click the tag for "Writing Tips" to see most of his advice).

I'm sure there's probably six other articles I've read this past week that I'm forgetting to post here.

Also Tor and Forge has posted some podcasts from WorldCon.

Totally Geek Game

What to know how I got to be the way am I am with the humor I have? Because I play games like this.

Bellissimo, Maestro, bellissimo.

Luchiano Pavarotti October 12, 1935 – September 6, 2007.

Whose only crime in music was to be popular outside the rarefied confines of the operatic circles.

Dear Santa...

Okay, I've only been talking with my friend (and sometimes commentor) Dan. Apple just rolled out a new iPod that's like an iPhone but without the phone but with wifi. If there's a widget that can edit RTF files (or work like Pages), I wanna I wanna I wanna. I haven't even seen the damn thing yet (as I type the Apple Store is still down).

When I saw the iPhone, this is exactly what I said. Give me wifi, take the phone, and give me a text editor and reader (say Acrobat) and I am sold. Put in a hard drive to get 80 gigs of capacity and I would kiss Steve Jobs on the lips. I'll even use tongue if he needs it (fortunately for both of us it doesn't appear they're going to add hard drive models any time soon, it's a limited time offer, Mr. Jobs, chop chop).

But yeah, add that phantom keyboard tech of whoopa that would be a killer app. Damn, and I was hoping Apple Stock was going back below 40 sometime soon (so I could buy back in). Sigh.

Edit I just mentioned how if this could also do good text work, how at Confusion I can see a lot of people whipping these out instead of laptops. I mean, if this can do text editing, I really want to test it. I mean, take off work and go to the Apple Store, knock little old ladies off the sidewalk into traffic so I can get in line to check it out want to see it. If it does text editing well, I wouldn't need to take a laptop anywhere anymore (this is something I'm always worried about).

Rewrite #3 in the Hopper. On to Rewrite #4 (okay, well, maybe just edits)

Finished the full story. We're at 2836 words now. I didn't address all the concerns that came up in the critique, but I got the major ones, the ones that were repeated by several people. So an extra four-hundred plus words. I did delete some things, including a whole paragraph just gone. Gone I tell ya. Gone. Out of here. Fini. Gone.

Now I think I need to do some editing and see where we are at. I think we're in a good spot. I explain a little more about the narrator's psychology and his life. I hope with the extra words I made the story more comprehensible. I think some of the horror part isn't as strong, but maybe not. That's the editor's job to determine.

Rewrite Report

Daddy's Little Girl is now thirteen and we're up to 2293 words. We're about to jump to 16 and our narrator's break down which I've been asked to give specifics and describe. I think this is the point where he starts to resent his keeping the facade going. That the "normal" part of him rebels and tries to get him to get help. The other side wins in the end, and he keeps up with believing his daughter is talking to him. So, that's pretty heavy, and I've done a lot already. Tomorrow we'll tackle this. And then we'll plow to the end, which I need to either make the breakdown the climatic seen, or his letting his daughter go the climax (just penned it out on the hard copy, it's a sickness I tell ya).

Time for bed and maybe a little Neil Gaiman before sleep.

Daddy's Little Girl in Rewrites

Yes, it's Labor Day. Yes, I'm working. It's a sickness.

I've started the rewrite of Daddy's Little Girl. Thanks to the comments from the writers group I belong to I'm adding a lot in. At one time I posted a comment on Camille's blog about how horror needs to find that psychological crack in our personas and bore right in there without flinching, and then keep at it. I forgot that with DLG. I'm back to it. Damn that's hard.

One of the comments from the group that's driving most of what I'm putting in was that I had turned what was probably one of the most terrible things to happen to a parent into a sick extended joke. My response was, yeah, I probably went to the light side to keep the reader from throwing the magazine against a wall. Well, I'm driving at least closer to that later sentiment now. And it hurts to write some of this. The death of a child, a marriage, a persona. But in there is a good horror story. I hope to pull it off.

The story is going to be longer at the end of this. It has to be, I have to show more, make the narrator less "emotionally flat." That was the major criticism that almost everybody echoed. Word count when I started 1587. I'm at the only scene break (about one third of the way through) and I'm up to 1905. Three hundred plus words of pain and dispair.

Fair Today, Grill Tomorrow

Today we went to the Great Geauga County Fair. We usually don't go on Saturdays, waiting for Monday and the plant auction (mums for $2, as many as you can carry, and beautiful hanging baskets of foxtails for $4). But Bette likes to watch the ponies run in the races. So we hitched up and went today.

We know a few backways into the fair, and normally are parked behind the carnies and animal people. This year we parked all the way around the other side of the fair and went in a gate we normally don't. Now, this was good news and bad news. We were pretty close to the gate, and right inside this gate is the Friends of the Library booksale. So, good books, bad because we are spending a few thousand dollars this year to turn a couple of walls into library units. It's not like we don't already have lots of books. But good news, because if we buy books that means we have to haul them all day (incentive to NOT buy them).

Then, while we're looking at the books, who do I run into? My boss. First day of Labor Day Weekend, and the first face I see that I know (other than the people here in town as we left, and my wife) is my Boss. Fortunately I have a pretty cool boss (no, I don't think he reads this). So I joke around with him a little.

Then Bette and I go sit and watch the races. The announcer was a little off his game today. We were a little off (I could pick to show, but to place or win I was right out). Fortuantely I only bet my life, never my money, as they say. So we watch the races up to the first two Amish races (no betting on the Amish) and have some lunch of corn dogs and soft pretzles. Afterward we go get milkshakes (made with whole milk right from the cow) wander through the craft barns and horse barns. We listen to the pie auction (one went for $350, for an apple pie). We get dinner at the Grange Counter and get treated to a Nick and Nora show by the older people doing the serving (one of the reasons I like the fair). Wander a little more and then leave sunburnt and tired.

Tomorrow we'll grill out before it's too late. Just like wearing white pants and rootbear floats, after Labor Day it's against the law to cook out. So I'll get the last one in while I can.

College Daze - Kids these days.

I'm lucky to keep in contact with many friends from college. Many of them, for some reason, still live close to the college (or at least work near there). A former professor of mine described it as the "black-hole effect of Akron U." Sure, you might think you have escape velocity, but you don't go far. So, anyway, last night my long-time friend and sometimes commentor, Dan B. sent me a photo he took on campus. The background looks like it's one of the new parking garages on campus.



The students these days. When I was in school I was looking for these very two things. Although we had to work hard to find them. I mean, it's not like they were just on every corner. But the kids these days are used to having everything handed to them. So now there are signs to help the kiddies out. And the school has obviously gathered them together in one room. How easy can it be.

My nephew now goes there. I wonder if he saw this?