More stuff pertaining to the mail

Yes, another grand post about...mail! Settle down, settle down!

• Received my contributor copy and check (mmm money) for the beach-themed anthology Strange Stories of Sand and Sea, which contains my short story "Birds, Gods, and the Naming of Things"...and boy is it a big book. Over 300 pages. Lots of stories in here and I'm looking forward to sitting down with it and checking the others out. I don't re-read my work. But if I was to I'd probably describe the piece as an in-and-out hallucination trip under the boards of Atlantic City where an angry boy learns a mighty lesson from a talking seagull. Yup.
  
• Received my review copy of the latest issue of the urban horror magazine City Slab, #12, which I'll be handling for The Fix Online sometime in the near future.
• I mailed out my latest entry into the Writers of the Future contest this weekend. Go, little story, go! Shine on you crazy diamond! Er, I'll keep my fingers crossed that it makes it to California safely.

And that's that for now. I suspect I'll be getting a few more interesting items this week, but most of them will be bills. Ah, the bane of my existence! Bills! And CVS ads!

Second draft done, thunk again

Just finished typing up my line edits for the second draft of the WOTF story, and I'm going to say it is done. That is, of course, unless first readers tell me otherwise. If anyone is interested in offering a critique, please let me know. I'll gladly return the favor.

The only problem is that I'm hoping to mail the story out by this upcoming Saturday to meet the March 31 deadline. So you'd kind of have to be speedy about it. Story is 5,600 words, science fiction, and does not contain a single curse word (I'm impressed about that!).

Let me know.

Okay, I'm going to go finish reading The Golden Compass now. 'Bout time.

First draft done, thunk

First draft done for the WOTF story.

5,400 words. I crawled through the final thousand or so, scrapping my elbows up and getting a bit dirty, but it was worth it. Definitely needs a second read through, with a bunch of things cleared up and hopefully a few too many details dropped. But I'll worry about that later.

For now, I go sleep.

A small update

The WOTF story that's been kicking my ass lately is finally shaping up to be something whole. I figured out how it'll tie up in the end last night, and now just need to pump out about another 2,000 to 3,000 words to bring it to a close. Unfortunately, the March 31 deadline approaches, but I have high hopes that I'll finish it in time. The editing-as-I-go plan is, not surprisingly, very counterproductive. I think after this story I'll stop doing it and just wait until the end to clean everything up.

Yup, maybe more later...

An authorly post

Hmm, I don't get to make too many of these so I'll revel in them while I can.

Let's see...Strange Stories of Sand & Sea, which has my short story "Birds, Gods, and the Naming of Things" in it, is almost out. The ISBN is 978-0-9794770-5-8. The book will be distributed exclusively by Ingram to bookstores, both online and brick and board. It will be available online at www.amazon.com and Barnes & Noble's www.bn.com by the end of March. It will be searchable there by the title and the editor's name (Esther Schrader).

Here's the final cover, I believe:



Also, as it is March that means the latest issue of Aoife's Kiss is available. The March issue has my story "After Effects" in it, and I'm very eager to see the printed product. You can order an issue here, and the TOC looks like so:

Josh English: The Simple Life
Lee Clark Zumpe: Babel
David C. Kopaska-Merkel & Kendall Evans: Serial Salvage
Michael A. Pignatella: The Book of Sherman
Sheri Fresonke Harper: Knees
Matthew Keville: Killing Time
Howard Cincotta: Eat the Flow
P. E. Vogel: The Fox and the Wizard
JA Howe: A Tale that Tells Songs
Kajsa Wiberg: The Cali Roll
Paul Abbamondi: After Effects
Lawrence R. Dagstine: A Soul to the Stars
Ron Savage: That Tabloid Life
Gordon A. Graves: Witness
John Bowker: Apron Strings
poems
Dorine Ratulangie: 0559
Andrea Fakete: Fireworks
Marcie Lynn Tentchoff: The Changeling's Song
Andrea Fakete: Outside
L. A. Story Houry: Secret Love
Jennifer Jerome: Telling
Linda Herring: When Things Go Wrong
Phillip A. Ellis: The Immortal
Terrie Leigh Relf & Marcie Lynn Tentchoff: Sea Ball
Melissa Sihan Mütlu: Scarlet Walls
Kyle Heger: Message to a Guard Dog
L. N. Allen: Merwoman
Melissa Sihan Mütlu: Butterfly Forest
E. P. Fisher: Countdown Begins at Ten
Jennifer Crow: Forsaken
William R. Ford Jr.: Land of the Broken Cities, Land of the Nuclear Sun
Julie Shiel: Visions
Kathy Kubik: Android Blue
Aurelio Rico Lopez III: Wizard's Betrayal

Okay, that's all from me for now. Back to writing the next WOTF story...

Editing as I go

Up to about 1,600 words on the WOTF story. I'm aiming for maybe 5K or 6K, knowing that this contest actually prefers longer stories over shorter ones. Basically, I'm really writing this one specifically for them. Normally, it'd be darker or harsher, and a lot more concise. I prefer brevity over longwindedness. Not that my current writing is longwinded. Eh, you get what I mean.

Anyways, the writing is slow going, if only because I'm actually editing as I go. This is pretty new to me in that I'm studying prose a lot more than I normally do. I sit and think about modifiers, try out a few, read it out loud, try another, read it again, re-read the paragraph above to see if it flows well, edit it, edit the dialog, and so on. I hope this isn't making the piece worse. I like it so far, but then again...I'm my biggest fan.

Here's an oddity. For some reason, I used the verb scanned three times already. No, no, no. I think once will be enough, even for a futuristic SF piece.

New story in the works

I've been thinking about what I want to do about the upcoming quarter for WOTF. I guess I knew all along that I wanted to write a new story since nothing in my collection really called to me. So, a few minutes before Thursday's LOST came on, a first sentence came flying out of nowhere and smacked me across the face. You know how they can be, sometimes.

I didn't get to do much with it until this morning though. So, 678 words done for now and I'm digging the piece already. Modified humans, annoying tourists, and air shows. Woo. I've had to remind myself a few times not to get too vulgar or crude with the piece though, considering the market I'm aiming this piece at. I've also set my word count a little high (5K or 6K, probably) if only because they actually like longer stories than not.

But now I have to pay bills, renew my car insurance, clean, and do other not-fun things like that. Maybe more later though...

An honorable mention

I received a phone call last night from Joni Labaqui of the WOTF contest letting me know my submission was an Honorable Mention for the first quarter of the year. I didn't get to return her call till this evening, but man...it's weird to be talking on the phone about a story. A story that didn't win, let alone, but still...HMs aren't too shabby. I'll keep trying.

My name, along with other winners, should be up at the blog a little later on.

So, here's the stats: 4 submissions total (3 HMs, 1 Semi-Finalist)

I haven't sent in anything yet for the next quarter. Deadline is postmarked by March 31. I don't really feel like anything in my inventory is a good fit currently for WOTF. Too many curse words, too much sex, too much creepy creepiness. I might have to write something new. Me needs to think this one over a bit more...