Tag: written word

Week 4 Write-a-thon update

1113 words!

Less than last week, but there is a lot of family stuff going on (and work. don’t talk to me about work) so I’m actually really glad to have been able to to get the words done. Again, thank you all.

In addition to writing, I hit Cat Rambo’s online class on Steampunk and the Weird West, and came away with better context for the genres and a list of several more books to read. Her class list for the summer is up here. I’m taking the one on Writing and Gender after WorldCon.

(A brief pause, here, to contemplate the fact that (1) we are in the summer, and (2) Helsinki is less than a month away, oh god.)

I also got two rejections (both in the last twelve hours, so I haven’t had a chance to send the stories back out) and drafted a new story this week. Story resubmission might get left until tomorrow; today is going to be pretty hectic.

As before, my Clarion West Write-a-thon profile is here.

Week 3 Write-a-thon update

1823 words!

I was honestly a little worried about meeting my goal this week, and am really, really glad that it went so well. Thank you all, again. Getting those plot points straightened out in my head seems to have made the writing much easier.

(Perpetually, in the name of the workshop and possible free magazines: my Clarion West Write-a-thon profile is here.)

On other writing notes, I didn’t manage to work on the outline that I want drafted, and between an unusually high amount of work and a family event coming up next weekend I’m not sure I’ll get a chance this coming week, but… well, I live in hope. (Speaking of which, I also submitted two stories this week!)

Week 2 Write-a-thon update

1075 words!

Again, sponsors, thank you. It really helps to have promised you that I’d do this. (By the way, all the rest of my July updates are going to be on Fridays, rather than Saturdays; the Write-a-thon is one day shy of six weeks, and I figured I’d give you a heads-up on the transition point.)

(Again, if you’d like to sponsor: my profile is here.)

I managed to get a few plot points straightened out–they’re not fully sorted, exactly, but they’re figured out enough that I’m no longer staring at my draft like a dog looking into the future and can actually get some typing done.

The week’s been fairly slow in terms of writing; I got one rejection and haven’t resubmitted any stories. I have made a little progress on another piece, though, and I’m hoping to get an outline drafted this week, and I’ve signed up for a couple of Cat Rambo’s classes. Beyond that, there’s been a lot of work-related time commitments, we’ve had some spectacular weather (rain and hail like I don’t think I’ve seen in a decade), and I managed to halve the number of emails in my inbox.

Week 1 Write-a-thon update

1045 words!

Thank you so much, sponsors; it’s been a really busy week, and I think that if I hadn’t promised to get this done for you, I might not have gotten it done at all. (I might have a little more time to write this evening, but I’ve decided to aim for at-least weekly updates, and I didn’t want to let this one go too late. If I write more tonight, I’ll count it towards next week’s goal.)

(Again, if you’d like to sponsor: my profile is here, and the webpage is pretty easy to navigate if you’d like to sponsor someone else.)

I’ve found that my outline needs tightening up in a few places, too, so I’m going to work on that as well. I won’t count that towards my pledged wordcount, though.

Other writing things I have done this week; gotten three rejections, submitted three stories, and managed to make a little progress on another piece. And read two pieces for crit, which is slightly exhausting.

In other news, have had discussions about the definition of what exactly a series is, and the essential elements of the Joker, and may write those up here later. I’m afraid I haven’t had the chance to do a lot of non-fiction writing outside of work lately.

Cheerful optimism (and a chance at free magazines)

Clarion West is a non-profit literary organization in Seattle; it runs both a six-week workshop for writers in the summer, and one-day workshops for writers throughout the year.

They also do a yearly fundraiser to help keep the workshop going, which is the six-week Clarion West Write-a-thon. This year I’ve signed up for it; I’m aiming to write a thousand words a week on my novel for six weeks, and hoping to help raise even a little to help keep the workshop going.

With regards to those free magazines:

I have print copies of the issues in which two of my stories appeared; ‘Palimpsest’ from the second issue of The Sockdolager, and ‘The Gannet Girl’ from issue 102 of On Spec. I’ll draw two names from the people who sponsor me; the first name gets their pick of magazine, and the second name gets the other one. I’ll need a mailing address, but I can send them to anywhere that Canada Post delivers, and I will cover postage.

If you’d like to sponsor me, here’s my page for the Write-a-thon; if you’d like to look at the other authors who are working on it, there’s a full list (137 as of this writing!) available here.

Any sponsorship helps, honestly, and so does passing word along to other people who might be interested. And hey– a chance at free magazines, with stories by me and many other brilliant authors!

Dusting off

It’s been a long couple of months. The physiotherapy has helped a lot–in addition to being able to type normally, I’m no longer on 4.5 times the recommended OTC daily dose of naproxen–but things have been piling up a bit and I’m still playing catch-up a little.

I’ve begun knitting again. That’s lovely.

I’ve been reading a fair bit; I’m actually at 23 books for the year so far (although two of those are standalone short stories and five are graphic novels, which are usually pretty quick reads), plus a few magazines.

I’ve gotten a new laptop and a new phone, since the old ones respectively were in the process of slowly failing and died on me completely, and while the new ones are pretty nice I’m still adjusting to the new layouts a bit.

I’ve realized that I have only two stories out, and this means that I actually have eleven works which need to get a quick check to see if it’s been a mistake to be sending them out and then get back out there. Hopefully most of them are in good shape.

There’s more, but I’m trying to focus on the positive, and keep moving.

Sudden brief update, and hand pain

The recent quiet has been due to a lot of things, most recently a lot of things that ended up developing into a tendonitis flare-up like I haven’t had since late 2014.

This one wasn’t quite as bad as that one–I was unable to use my right hand for typing for a few days, but I recognized what was happening and got an appointment with a physiotherapist. I am sure I have bored everyone I have been dealing with with how hard my life has been while I’ve been unable or unpermitted to type.

(On the flip side, my phone’s touchscreen can be navigated with nose-bumps, and I have learned that the text-to-speech recognition on my phone can recognize and render both “:-)” and “kryptonian”. However, it didn’t appear to know “biphobic”. Such are the discoveries we make when discussing modern fiction in this brave new world of 2017.)

I was able to start writing again in short bursts this weekend–I am actually composing this in one of my seven-minute allowed keyboard periods–and it is such a relief to get back. Knowing that a timer is counting down focuses the mind wonderfully, although it does make editing fairly difficult.

Counting ink, 2016.

2016 was a year where I didn’t get as much done as I’d hoped. Still, I did not do nothing, and I did get two short stories published:

“The Gannet Girl”, in the May issue 102 of On Spec magazine; my fairy tale of sea witches and social expectations, and gannets which do not love but may be loyal.

“Playing Prometheus“, in the November 18 issue of Persistent Visions; my time travel story. I’m not sure I have it in me to write another, but I am so very pleased I wrote this one.

I have another story which was accepted this year and will be published in 2017; that’s my magical alphabet noir story, which is apparently a pretty nifty concept.

I submitted stories 36 times in 2016, and got 36 rejections (33 were from 2016 submissions, and 3 were from submissions made in 2015). I also got two acceptances.

I’ve got four stories out at the moment. I’m hoping to manage a lot closer to seventy submissions next year; I was aiming for it this year and fell woefully short.

 

Happy New Year! See you on the other side.

Changing times

My short story “Playing Prometheus” has been published at Persistent Visions! It can be read online here. And the art for it is absolutely gorgeous; I am deeply grateful to Dana Martin.

(Please note: there is a content warning at the top of the story.)

I’ve noticed that a lot of time travel stories suggest that good results only come of preserving the past, or of making changes by accident. “Playing Prometheus” is my attempt to engage with that.

I hope you enjoy it; I’ve done my best.

Taking stock

(This is a very carefully circumscribed post, because that is what I need at the moment.)

Slowed down on getting rid of books. On the other hand, making progress on reading them, which is always nice.

Since it generally leads to a lot of people I know talking about writing and encouraging each other on wordcounts, trying to do NaNoWriMo. The Story Hospital has an excellent post on that.

Worried for people right now, and hoping everyone is doing as well as possible.