Writerly Wackiness

Now I know why the slug was dormant yesterday. It was resting up so that it could launch a stronger assault today.  And yeah, I may have done some more internet goofing off today than the rest of the week, but I still did all the productive stuff I was supposed to do.  Take that, slug! And stop trying to recruit rogue_psion  to your cause. :p

Reading: About a quarter of the way through Musicophilia now.  After reading about people who developed musical hallucinations that would plague them 24-7 a day, my newest paranoid fear is that this will happen to me, and that my brain's hallucinatory playlist will include the Macarena and the Chicken Dance.

On a related note, anyone ever read a story called "Fabrikant's Way" by Daniel Stern? It was mentioned in the book as being a novella about musical hallucinations, but a quick internet search didn't turn up much other than the fact that it was published in a story collection called A Little Street Music.

Exercising: 20 minutes on the elliptical strider

Music Stuff: A little bit of singing, a little bit of piano, a whole lot of sucking

Writing Business: A story came home without a job, so I sent it off to Weird Tales to see if it can find work there

Writing: More on the chapter 2 rewrite.  I've only managed a few hundred words per day on it this past week--a shoddy showing, but more writing than I did in December, so I'll call it a success.  Hopefully I'm just winding up for some serious word crankage next week. What's been cool, particularly today, is that I'm finding some fun new nuances in a character thanks to some of the plot-level changes that have been made.  Whether I've successfully communicated those nuances on the page, however, is another matter.

On that note, I'm off to relax and watch some TV and see what the weekend brings.  Then Monday, it's back to the Great Slug Battle.

Blog time seems so much longer than real world time.  I was just thinking, "Wow, I haven't posted an entry in ages."  But then I looked, and it's only been two weeks.

Anyway, there's not a heck of a lot to post about at present--unless you want to hear me wallow in self-pity, which I doubt you do.  So I figure I'll take a stab at doing one of those monthly progress reports some of my fellow writerly types do.

NOVEMBER
Books Read: The Secret History of Moscow
Stories Revised: 2 ("The Perfect Instrument" at 7,400 words & "A Song Never Tasted" at 4,700 words)
New Stories Written: 1 ("Black Cat Redux" at 2,200 words)
Submissions Sent: 9
Total Stories Out: 16
Acceptances: Big fat zip, putting the current dry spell at a few days shy of 4 months
Rejections: 9, including a very nice one from Cemetery Dance: "Beautifully written and nice take on the haunted house story. This one came close for me--hope to see another one sometime soon!"  Of course, other things came along soon after to crush my ego after that minor boost. *shakes fist* Khaaaaaaan!
Novel Revision Progress: Halfway through tinkering with chapter 1 to give one of the characters a much-needed personality transplant

On the writing front, September started out very productive but quickly shifted into excruciatingly slow mode.  I spent almost the entire month revising one dang story that insisted on kicking my ass at every turn.  But eventually I beat it into submission and submitted it to Interzone's upcoming MundaneSF issue.  And once I got that story out of my system, I polished up and submitted another (and much shorter) one, as well as two more flash stories.  One of these days I'll actually run out of old stories to revise and write something new.

And I found me some interesting part-time paying work that I should be starting this week.  I'd tell you what it is, but then I'd have to kill you.  OK, so maybe not, but I did have to sign a confidentiality agreement.  I feel special, in a secretive sort of way.

On an unrelated note, I wish I could be as badass in real life as I am in my dreams.  The other night I had a dream about a zombie invasion and I was being all Sigourney Weaver in Aliens with the flame thrower action.  It was awesome.

Unfortunately, "Unlucky Clover" decided to live up to its name. Monday I got the standard JJA "this tale didn't grab my interest, I'm afraid" rejection from F&SF. My last F&SF rejection at least got a "there's nice writing here" comment. Oh well. Let's see if the poor little leprechauns do any better at Heliotrope.

Meanwhile, I'm just about done with revisions on another story. I sent this particular story as my pre-class assignment for Odyssey, so while none of my fellow '07ers have critiqued it, it is the proud recipient of a wonderfully thorough Jeanne thrashing. Just need to tweak one little spot, and then it's out the door.

Now I just need to figure out what the heck I'm going to work on next.

But before I go, to add to the ongoing Odyssey '07 Motherclucker Report:



Any of you folks watch Eureka?  This week's episode involved the geniuses of the town of Eureka becoming dumber after eating . . . chicken.

I took a break from beating my leprechauns into a bloody, clover-like pulp to tidy up three flash pieces I wrote pre-Odyssey.  They have now been shipped off to The Pedestal Magazine (they allow authors to submit up to 3 flash pieces at once).