Winner!

Well, with only 1 day remaining for NaNoWriMo, I've crossed the 50K mark.



It feels good to have reached the goal. The story is definitely not done, but at least I now know that I can write a good chunk of words in a short amount of time. It'll be nice to take a break though and return to short fiction.

I think I'll print out my certificate later. That's one for the fridge, right kiddos?

Also, feel free to check out my review of Ursula K. Le Guin's Gifts here.

The end of NaNoWriMo soon...

It's closing in. November 30th is pretty close, and I'm pretty close to finishing up the goal of 50K. I'm not, however, pretty close to finishing up The Periwinkle Prince. This story I'm going to wager will end around 125K at the most. Once it's edited down, I'd be aiming for 80K-100K.

Glimmer Train rejected my story "When It Burns, It Burns Like a Star" with a form letter. Not too upset, but I was maybe hoping for a bit more feedback. The form letter does say it was a "good read", but you never know with those. The worst of stories could have gotten the same letter. Oh well...time to re-read it and find a new market for it.

Going to Barnes & Noble tomorrow. I'll update all my readers on my purchases. Most of them will be fantasy novels I've been longing to get in my collection, but have always put off for other items.

ED SF Project

With the closing of SCI FICTION, many authors/readers/writers/whoevers are hoping to show how much the online zine was worth. My appreciation for A.M. Dellamonica's The Spear Carrier is now available here.

In NaNo news, chugging along toward the 37K mark. I know I'll have a couple of full days off before the 30th hits so hopefully I can get a lot of writing done during then. I know that once I'm finished with this novel that I won't look at it again until after the new year hits.

On a side note, I'm coming to dislike Stephen King's usage of the parenthesis in his writings.

Two for Thursday!

Received two rejections today. One for "Pixie Wine" and the other for "The Drinking of Ales"...hmmm, just noticed both titles have something to do with alcoholic beverages. Must be a subconscious thing. Now I must find new markets for them.

In NaNoWriMo news, been falling a bit behind, but I'm still doing pretty good. I'd really, really, really like to get to 40K by the end of this weekend. That would make things a lot easier for me before Thanksgiving hits.

And pretty soon I need to write up a book review for Ursula K. Le Guin's Gifts and an appreciation for a story from SCI FICTION.

Busy, busy, busy!

30K mark!

Just hit the 30K mark on The Periwinkle Prince which, to me, is a good place to stop for the night. I'm still ahead of what everyone should be at, but I'm a bit worried about these next two weeks and if I'm going to be able to pump out double the amount of words I've already done. We'll see...I really want to complete this task though. It's been a very interesting journey so far.

I also was doing a check on my submissions sheet and noticed that a query for The Drinking of Ales I had sent to the site SFFH has now been in their email inbox for close to 55 days. Their website says to allow 2 weeks for a response so I'm taking that as a rejection. I doubt they'll get back to me now, so I've given it a read through and sent the story off to Shimmer where I at least know it will get looked at. Sheesh...I probably won't ever submit to SFFH ever again.

I have a weird story growing in my head that I'll probably work on once NaNoWriMo is done. As a teaser, here are 3 things it's about: sandwiches, coffins, and zombies. Yeah, I can't explain any more than that.

Death of SCI Fiction

Well, another e-zine bites the dust.

I go away for the weekend and come back to find that SCI Fiction is being discontinued. This really saddens me as I enjoyed the stories they posted, both new and classic. Ellen Datlow has a great eye for finding wonderful tales to share with her readers. You can read her farewell message. I never submitted anything to them, but it was always an option in the back of my mind.

NaNoWriMo took a big hit this weekend. I was completely busy with real life thingers and have thus slacked a bit on my word count. I'm currently pushing toward 29,000 words on The Periwinkle Prince which still means I'm ahead of the game, but still...I want more words!!!



I've recently posted my review of Brian Jacques's High Rhulain over on www.fantasybookspot.com so you should go and check it out for me.

Flashy book-style profiles

NaNoWriMo has redone the way the profiles on their site look and I'm quite pleased with it. It even turned the excerpt preview into a mini-book viewer. Kind of neat for anyone who wonders what their words might appear as typesetted.

Anyway, crossed the 25K mark yesterday. I just need to work on my outline some more so that I know where the next 50K are off to. I will not be able to get much writing done tomorrow and most of Saturday, but I hope to get some serious outlining completed.

In other perks of interest, I'm very curious to read Anne Rice's new novel:



I'm a big fan of her vampire and witch series, but this is such a drastic change from her background and standard that I feel like I have to read it. We'll see come Christmas...

Almost halfway home!

NaNo news:
Closing in on nine days into NaNoWriMo and I'm nearly at the halfway mark. I think I'm just struggling for scenes at this point, but I know soon I'm going to have a crazy attack of the muse and just pump out the rest of the words. I hope to get to 40,000 by Sunday night.

My main goal is to get past the mark well before Thanksgiving hits.

Writing news:
Today I've sent off "Helen Goes Shopping" to Abyss & Apex, and tomorrow I'll be mailing out "Pixie Wine" to Fantasy & Science Fiction. I'm quite happy with the changes I've made to "Pixie Wine" and I hope the editors like it too. Here's to hoping!

Checking my spreadsheet, I now have a total of 12 submissions swimming in slush piles all across the USA. That will probably be it until November ends, but that's still an impressive number (in my mind, at least) to have out at one time.

Other news:
I've started to play RuneScape to help free my mind from my writing when it is needed.



So far I've cut trees and attempted to shear already sheared sheep. Yeah, I'm not that good so if you see me on there (Character's name: Ghestorali) be nice and help me out. Just don't call me a noob or I'll cast Wind Attack on your pixel ass.

Weekend update on NaNoWriMo

This weekend has been good for NaNoWriMo.

My goal was to get to 15,000 words. As of the time right now, I'm sitting comfortable at 15,873. I hope to get to 17,000 by the end of the night. It'd be really nice to get to the halfway mark by the middle of this week.

My outline is coming along slowly, but for the chapters that I'm writing right now, I'm speeding through them. And I'm learning who my characters are, what they are about, who they like, so forth. It's a shame I never got to do this in the past 4 years, but with college and all that, I doubt I'd ever had completed it.

I will complete this one though. Yes, I will.

Anyone else doing NaNoWriMo? Let me know how it's coming for you!

Barbara Hambly books!

Awhile back, right around the time I was preparing to graduate college, there was a small book sale at my campus's library. While there I picked up a bunch of old Piers Anthony books and a couple Orson Scott Card yarns, but of all that I was able to grab, I was most pleased to gather some works by Barbara Hambly. I got the three books in the Sun Wolf and Starhawk series; The Ladies of Mandrigyn, The Witches of Wenshar, and The Dark Hand of Magic. I also got a solo novel called Stranger at the Wedding, and you can read my review over here.

Tangent review and NaNo update

Just had my review of "Flesh Curse" by Robert Barlow posted over at Tangent Online. I enjoyed the story for the most part, but thought it would have had better potential told from a different character's perspective. Anyway, check out my review here.

Three days into NaNoWriMo and I'm about 7,000 words into The Periwinkle Prince. The opening scenes are coming a lot easier than I expected simply because I planned them out a lot more. I need to really flesh out what happens later in the story so that I don't hit a wall. Maybe tomorrow while I'm at the library I shall do that.

Also, I'm sending out my resume to Tor Books for their freelance proofreader position. They'll be sending me a test, and from there, who knows where this could go. Cross your fingers for me.

Good review of a craptastic book!

Check out my review of Alan Rodgers and Richard Hatch's Battlestar Galactica: Rebellion.

Good news is that I'm now done with it and can move on to better items!