Words of the Barely-Published

Not done yet. Stupid edits...

2010-03-07T03:38:26Z

The problem with Easter Lilies and Imaginary Angels is that the durn story wrote itself in one glorious blat, so all edits to this thing are sheer drudgery by comparison.

Also, BRAWL pointed out a number of flaws that I really needed to address, and it was only by dint of walking away from the computer and brainstorming furiously and messily all over over a piece of paper tonight that I finally got anywhere with this blasted thing.

In this case, the 'anywhere' I got to is a much better understanding of the protagonist, a much clearer idea of how she got to where she is from the start of the story...

...and the last third of the blasted thing still to edit.

I give up. I've used up all the creativity juice for the night.

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New wordcount took a while.

2010-03-05T02:56:19Z

I went on vacation, and then I came back and edits and $payingJob ate my brain. (And other things too.) Edits are hard work. Edits where I'm still not entirely sure what I want to do about things are even worse. The fixing of Easter Lilies is proving to be just about as difficult as I expected, though I know it will be a better story in the end.

However, the second story set in the House of the Mad Russian gained about 1000 words this evening, and more importantly, gained a solid end. Finally knowing what I was doing at the end really helped, and after a lovely celebratory dinner with the Fabulous Margaret I came home and proceeded to blat out on the order of 1100 words.

There is one scene left to write, and then BRAWL can have it and tell me it sucks. But compared to all the pain and suffering I went through trying to figure out what to do about fixing The Popinjay's Daughter to make it suck less, I think this one will suck in new and hopefully interesting ways.

And for once, I hope to have my BRAWL piece done early so I can go back to my blasted editing.

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Writers groups are a good idea.

2010-01-25T00:57:32Z

Last week, I handed BRAWL "The Half-Daughter's Curse," and I really didn't know what they'd think of it.

Today, I got back seven very helpful critiques. I have apparently done a good job of setting the voice of the story. People are kind of split on certain details - but not everyone likes every story. And as usual, I've managed to be subtle in all the wrong places. For once, I have been told to make a story longer, not to cut anything, but to add detail and explanation.

I never look forward to editing, but for stories that I know have problems, it's always a big help to hand them over and say, "Make of this what you will, but tell me what it is."

If I get published, it's going to be directly related to their help.

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The Half-daughter's Curse

2010-01-14T01:53:43Z

I just wrote a short story. A whole short story.

I've been sick for a week and a half, and writing at all has been a somewhat monumental chore, mostly because I couldn't think, but at least partly because the short story I *was* working on just doesn't want to cooperate. I need to figure out what's making the protagonist tick and nail down his motivation before it's going to go anywhere.

This thing just came blasting out of my head in a huge fit of frustration and gore. It's pretty gory. I'm not sure what I think of that.

But it's done. I'm going to do some editing on it before I post it to BRAWL, but I have to say, having a deadline can sometimes make all the difference. (Well, that and having a dream with a couple of images that firmly lodged in my head - and that I know are mine because I was off the cold meds last night...ugh.)

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The continuing sagas of too many stories at once...

2009-12-26T20:00:21Z

Iron Debt seems to be stalled out for the moment. I think I will have to let it settle for a bit and come back to it again once I figure out what it is in the background that's driving me berserk. There's a question I haven't asked because I don't know what it is, and once I have the question, the exploration of the answer should help me figure it out. I suspect that one will require a several-hour quiet period of brainstorming in outline to get 'round the block.

A Paradox of Archons on the other hand, is going gangbusters. Just what I need - another novel. ;)

Fortunately, What Would Have Happened (working title - I'm not pleased with it, but perhaps it will find a new title when it's done) came out of the bottom of the stack without a hitch, and the protagonist is now safely ensconced in the kitchen with a rather alarming sorceress who is about to get him into far, far more trouble than he knows. Heh. Heh. Heh. If I'm lucky, he'll have navigated the peril by the time it's BRAWL season again, and I'll have short work to hand off.

But before I go torturing him further, I must feed some starving cats.

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Tackling the next rewrite...

2009-11-24T01:48:48Z

I started poking at Easter Lilies and Imaginary Angels this evening. I can see some places that need some serious work in here now, and I need to reread all of BRAWL's crits, but it's salvageable, and more importantly, aside from one day in early November, this is the first time I've felt like I might manage any writing at all for the past month.

Granted, the holidays are going to eat my life, but it's something.

It also has the nice side benefit of shutting up Ms. Grumpy-Protagonist-in-Hole over there, as she's also the protag for Easter Lilies. ;)

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Aaaaaagh!! Yaybooargh.

2009-11-20T01:45:46Z

I got a rejection letter today from an agent for River's Wrath.

It was a *very* nice rejection letter, that boiled down to, "There are chunks of your manuscript that I really enjoyed, and chunks I didn't like so much, and I was torn...I'm very sorry I took so long dithering, good luck with your work, but I'm going to have to turn you down...this time. Please send me more of your stuff."

Ahem.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGH!!!!! Dammit! Thank you, Ms. Agent. You are now on my list of marvelous people, and you will see future work but, but...agh!

*sigh*

I'm really, really starting to think I should pull the manuscript back from Baen and ask BRAWL to crit it.

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Yay, my writer's group!

2009-09-27T21:50:55Z

I gave them Easter Lilies because I was so frustrated with the durn thing I was ready to chuck it out the window. And, like the fabulous, marvelous, creative people they are, they said, "Nonono, it's not ready to chuck out the window yet, yes, we see that there are problems, here are some *useful questions* to ask yourself."

I haven't tackled the rewrite yet because I am fighting off the mighty "it's raining outside why don't you just have a nice nap" beast and I'm losing - but.

Maybe I can rescue that story yet. And shave it. And paint it purple and put a little bow on its tail. Or something.

Durn story.

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Turnaround time: 14 hours

2009-09-19T12:32:28Z

F&SF rejected "Trickster's Wish" yesterday - I don't think I'm ever going to get anywhere with them, but I keep trying...

...anyway, it went back out to a hopefully-more-receptive publisher this morning.

I've been trying to get somewhere with the first draft of "Easter Lilies" but it's just not wanting to play at all. I'm very grumpy about it. Almost grumpy enough to refuse to show it to BRAWL. :/

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Fly, my little story! Fly!

2009-09-12T15:46:33Z

The fabulous Margaret gave me *second* crits on Trickster's Wish (she is a kind, kind person - you should read her books and short stories while we wait for mine to come out) and this morning I finally got enough crap cleared off my to-do list that I was able to finish applying said crits to the story.

It is now in an envelope, with stamps and a SASE in it, ready to go off to F&SF for rejection. And I even have a pretty good idea of where I'll send it when it comes back.

So. Good 'nuff. Time to go edit Imaginary Angels so I have something for BRAWL this month!

(Goodness, it's very wet outside today. The walk to the postbox may require tea.)

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Bowling for Rejections...

2009-08-23T20:25:11Z

I sent Sufficiently Advanced Printing off to Asimov's today. I expect I will get rejected and then I really will have no idea where to send it. It has too much magic for me to expect much luck with Analog, and there doesn't seem to be much else out there that's a good fit. Sadly, I remember looking at Ralan's when I was in college and just out of it and being completely overwhelmed by the breadth of places to submit short stories...

...that's not there anymore. Especially for a fairly generic Techno-magic story.

Fortunately, BRAWL has reminded me that they all had this sort of sucky period where they sent crap out regularly, and I can't say that I've been terribly regular about it. So it isn't entirely my fault, except that I've been lousy about doing my research and sending the stories OUT. If they're not out and in circulation, they won't get published.

So, if they come back, I'm only allowed to let them languish if I've tried absolutely everywhere I can think of to send them.

Right.

We'll see how long *this* resolution lasts... :/

(It would probably help if I were better at writing short fiction.)

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Rewrite: Trickster's Wish

2009-07-10T02:06:53Z

Short story, rewrite after BRAWL got done with it. I basically tore it apart and am redoing it.

It's at 2400 now, and it was at about 1900 when I started tonight. Good enough.

I'm hoping that it's gonna stay under 3000, assuming I don't decide to do more exposition on what happens After. We'll see. I need those two middle bits done.

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