Tag Archives: it’s all fun and games

Announcements! Progress! Cake!

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Okay, I’ll admit up front that the cake is a lie. You had to have seen that coming.

First off, my long time friend Joanne Uppendahl has put out a collection of her poetry called She Sho Gathers Stones. I’ve ordered my copy and you may be inclined to order it as well.

In more local to me news, I got a mention in my neighborhood blog. Because, you know, neighborhood newsletters are so last century. The article is about the launch of the Cobalt City Timeslip anthology, which I have a story in. There is also a reading and signing event at Wayward Coffeehouse on Ocotber 9th from 7-10. The girlfriend and I won’t be able to make it due to a conflicting engagement, but all the rest of the authors should be. You can also Pre-order the book here.

I’ve submitted a story to a pro market finally and received a rejection. This was one of the most discouraging rejections to date. Not only did they get my name wrong, but when offering feedback on the story they confused it with another piece they had read. I’ve turned around and re-submitted elsewhere. So here’s to hoping.

And now, the honeydew.

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Running with Chainsaws

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Before I dig in with this, I’d like to give a hearty hurrah for Ann Charles, who has just won the Daphne du Maurier award in the unpublished division. Not only did Nearly Departed in Deadwood take first place in the “Mainstream Mystery/Suspense” category, but she was also the overall Daphne winner for that division. Rock on!

My big hurrah coming up is my first honest-to-gosh reading. This is the official blurb:

An Evening of Authors, Wayward Coffeehouse, August 21, 7-10pm.
Hosted by Jennifer Brozek and Nate Crowder. Come to an evening of authors and good coffee at Wayward Coffeehouse. We will be reading from recent and forthcoming releases, answering questions and generally having a good time. Come one, come all and enjoy an evening with your local authors. Find out what’s next. Authors include: Cat Rambo, Rosemary Jones, Keffy R. M. Kehrli, Alma Alexander, Nate Crowder, Jeremy Zimmerman, R. Schuyler Devin, Leah Cutter, Sunder Cameron Addams and Angela Korra’ti.

I don’t recognize all of those names, but the ones I do are people I sat on the other side of the table from during panels at Norwescon. I’m a little stunned to be amongst such luminaries. Holy mackerel.

Less auspicious is that I’ve received five rejections in a row. Two of them encouraged me to submit to them again. Two were people I’ve submitted to in the past and will probably submit to again in the future. One told me the anthology will not be coming out after all. D’oh. Two of my rejections came in today. After a night of fitful sleep because my bedroom is an oven right now, the rejections hit me a bit harder than they might normally. One of these five also qualifies as my fastest rejection ever. I’ve never been turned down the same day before.

And now, the honeydew.

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I feel like I just swam through eel infested waters.

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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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Win, Lose or Write

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Not the most productive of weeks. The girlfriend and I both came down with the plague, leaving both of us less interested in writing. We spent the weekend sucking on cough drops and catching up on Lost. (We’re now only a season behind.) Monday and Tuesday were both shot between tripping on my cold medicine and discovering the horrible, horrible crack that is Plants vs. Zombies.

Also sapping enthusiasm is just… I don’t know, not feeling the writing love. Something just isn’t clicking. What I really need to do is just hit the keyboard
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Hip deep in evil.

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I’ve gotten two pieces off my check list submitted. I already heard back from K.C. Ball regarding my submission to 10 Flash. She hasn’t accepted it, but she asked for me to resubmit with some changes. So that’s promising. I’ve got until mid-May to do that. I’ve got my submission in to Crossed Genres. It closes doors tonight at midnight (Eastern time). Probably sometime within the next week I’ll get word. I feel really good about this piece, but that’s never been a promising sign in the past. =P

It would be nice to have something new on the airwaves. It’s been six months since I’ve gotten something picked up and a couple months since anything new has appeared, in part because I haven’t been as productive with class and all.

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Interesting. As in, “Oh god, oh god, we’re all going to die.”

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It’s been almost two weeks since I last updated. Yowzers. My usual venues for screwing around have dwindled up, so I haven’t had much time to update this. If I’ve had time for writing, I’ve tried to use it for writing. So I got that going for me.

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Mapping out the road ahead.

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I got my short story, which I decided to title “Thus Have I Heard,” sent off to Crossed Genres a couple days ago. My class is basically over. I just need to cull the critiques I got for my story from the boards so that I can refer to them later. I have Norwescon this weekend.

So now, I look to… the future!
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