Standards

In getting ready to submit a short story, I reviewed the submission guidelines for the publication in question. They said they wanted it in Standard Manuscript Format, and at first I thought I knew what they meant when they said that. Especially since the link pointed to the SFWA Web site. In the short story writing class I took through UCLA Extension, we were asked to submit our story for the class in Standard Manuscript Format, and were directed to an article on the SFWA Web site by Vonda McIntyre on the subject. I’ve seen it linked to from other places and it’s one of the first things that comes up when you google “Standard Manuscript Format.”

Surely there would not be two articles on the SFWA site, or if there were they’d say the same thing right?
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Ranting. Gaming.

Been a while since I did a state of the gaming or anything, so I thought I’d do a quick update with a few gamer related comments. I have other stuff I want to write about here, but just haven’t had time in light of my aggressive fiction writing schedule. But here’s a few random thoughts on gaming. First, a rant about White Wolf. Then a general update about the state of my gaming.

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Notes from the front lines.

In a move that surprises no one, I am not one of the finalists for the PNWA Literary Contest. Though I did discover that Nathan Everett, known as Wayzgoose among the NaNoWriMo set, is a finalist! So rock on for him.

The news of the finalists is mainly of note to me because the notes from the judges are supposed to be back this week. I can then turn around and roll that feedback into the manuscript I’m working on. I may have to have a few beers before facing the criticisms, though.

In other news, Jennifer Brozek is going to be on her “Murder and Mayhem” tour with Seanan McGuire. Jennifer has a collection of short stories coming out, In a Gilded Light: 105 Tales of the Macabre while Ms. McGuire will be featuring her series, Sparrow Hill Road. I have a couple locations from an email she sent out if you want to check those out. There is probably also info to be found by examining Jennifer’s Web site

SEATTLE
July 10, 2010, 6:30pm
Third Place Books
17171 Bothell Way NE
Lake Forest Park, WA 98155

SAN FRANCISCO
July 17, 2010, 3:00pm
Borderlands Books
866 Valencia St.
San Francisco CA 94110

There’s also new flash fiction up at Wily Writers. I encourage you to go check out “The Time-Share by Fred Warren.

Went. Played.

This last weekend I attended the fourth annual “Go Play Northwest.” Despite regular reminders, this still managed to be off my radar. I think I just had so much else going on that this was shoved to the back of my mind for “later.” As such, I didn’t get involved in any of the pre-convention organizing or even get ready to run a game. I’d had some ideas for games to run, but didn’t get my act together to actually prepare for it. The best I managed was a half-assed attempt to re-read Polaris in hopes of finally getting to play it. (I barely got through the setting info, so it didn’t happen.)

But, I did attend and play. Overall had fun. Here are my general comments about the convention and the games I played.
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The wind up, the pitch.

Not going to bother with a honeydew update. It’s basically the same as before, except I’ve pecked out a little bit more on my steampunk story. I really want to at least get a submission for Wily Writers together, but my idea for that (even with brainstorming) seems much more tenuous as I poke at it more. I have vast, big concept. No actual plot.

But I do have some other thoughts regarding writing.
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I feel like I just swam through eel infested waters.

First, some pimping!

This month, Wily Writers has been providing flash fiction weekly instead of short fiction every other week. The great thing about Wily Writers is that (a) it’s free and (b) they provide MP3 readings of all their stories. This week’s story is, “Grand-Monster” by Sasha Janel McBrayer.

(And, you know, I have a story there too if you want to look for that. *ahem*)

In other news, I spent Saturday night at a reading at Third Place Books for Apex Publishing’s Close Encounters of the Urban Kind. Jennifer Brozek, the editor of the anthology, coordinated the five authors that read and did signings. I meant to post information about the reading earlier, but have been too busy with deadlines to poke at this blog. Especially since most of my update is, “Still working on it.” And I also haven’t read the anthology.

BUT! That said, the readings I heard were marvelous. I felt definitely out of my league among some of these people, and I play D&D with a couple of them. Really top notch stuff. The authors present were:

  • Eric Scott de Bie, who I had the honor of hearing read at Norwescon earlier this year. I learned this weekend that he also comes from central California, and actually had to endure it through his teenage years. He’s also one of the people writing the novels for the Forgotten Realms these days.
  • Nathan Crowder. Yeah, that guy.
  • Rosemary Jones, who also has been writing for the Forgotten Realms these days.
  • Alma Alexander. She was on a couple panels I attended at Norwescon, and her reading was magnificent. Ms. Brozek introduced the story by saying that she picked it for the anthology because it made her cry. She did not exaggerate. I got choked up from hearing just a portion of it.
  • Shannon Page. I hadn’t heard of her before this night. But then, prior to this last winter I’d never heard of Jay Lake, who co-authors several stories with her. I guess I’m not hip to the cool new faces of SF/F. Or even some of the old ones. But I digress. Her reading was also good and holds a lot of promise.

(I feel I should add: Nate, Rosemary and Eric all had good readings as well. But I already knew they were going to be good. Alma Alexander and Shannon Page were unknown variables.)

Anyway, a quick update on the honeydew. New stuff is italicized, unless I screw up the HTML again.

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Things. Stuff.

Currently reading The Fall of Hyperion, the award-winning sequel to the award-winning Hyperion. I’ve come across at least a couple “As You Know Bob” moments in the text.

Continuing to chug away at deadlines. Got a couple items off my plate, so I’m feeling pretty good about that. This week will be mostly dedicated to clubbing my stuff before I send it to Mr. Gunn for the workshop.

Now, have some honeydew.

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State of the Honeydew

At the Wayward trying to write this morning, but having trouble focusing. Figure I’ll review my to-do list and see what needs my attention.

Part of what I’ve been doing is just hitting some low hanging fruit just to get things off my plate. So, taking stories that are damn near done and getting them done done.

I’ll italicize the items I’ve updated.

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Boxes, a quote, and a melon.

I’m waiting for the Malware scanner to finish on the girlfriend’s PC before I run off to work on my writing. So I have some random thoughts to offer, and a comment on writing progress.

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