Archives: March 2009

distracted by shorts

this morning got a little off track for NGD2 because of some short story work. i got a rejection for my flash piece, Death of a Muse, yesterday, so i sent it back out. i also finally submit the recently completed near-future short story, Congestive Heart Failure, to a few publications.

it certainly seems like this shouldn’t have taken the entire morning, but it did. i should probably work on writing those cover letters without obssessing about them, but i just can’t seem to.

ah, well. learning experiences, right?

some extra work, but staying on target

i’ve just taken on another course at the college, helping out for a faculty member who has taken suddenly ill (he should be fine, thankfully, but he’ll be out for the rest of the semester). this is my first mid-semester gig and there are the expected acclimation pains, though the students have been very receptive and understanding. they genuinely miss their instructor, though, as many of them picked this specific class because of him.

how wonderful is that? i hope someday to inspire that kind of response.

however, it does mean somewhat less time for writing for the next 5 weeks. i’m treating this as a challenge, though, to keep my writing time free from school work. this means pushing the extra school work into the evening for now, but my wife is entirely supportive and does not begrudge the temporary loss of shared time. with any luck, though, i can maximize the work i do on campus to keep the evening work to a minimum.

right now, though, i’ve got a class of reports to grade.

on outlines and listening to voices

the thing with outlines is, well, no matter how detailed i make them, they’re still subject to change at a moment’s notice when i find the characters actually speaking. when they start talking, even my best laid plans are shown for the gap-riddled structures they are.

it’s one thing to say ‘she goes to X because of Y’, but it can become quite another when i write her words at that moment, because she needs to believe it, not me. she needs it to make sense to her, that she would go to X, that she would even want to, that she even cares about Y in the first place. if anything doesn’t work for her, she’ll say so, and then, regardless of how brilliant i think/thought that step was, she’ll decide whether to fight it, bend around it, or ignore it entirely.

i can fight this, too, forcing words into her mouth or action from her limbs, but she and i both know what i’m doing, and we both know it’s totally wrong. sometimes, when i’m doing well, i see this right off; other times, well, not so much, and it drains us both. thankfully, though, she never holds a grudge.

i may give these characters life, but it is they who live.

saved by the weekend; next?

as predicted, not sending the query letters out on friday was a very good thing. surprise.

i had a genuine breakthrough on saturday morning, which really helped me seal the deal on being both concise and engaging. it meant leaving out a lot of cool stuff, but that’s what the book’s for. of course, i think i say this each time i send new ones out, but i think this one really nails all the necessary points of a good query letter.

so there’s less freaking out this time, thankfully, which is always a good sign. or an indication of utter ignorance, but we’re going to go with the former, thank you.

so now what?

No Good Deed 2. yep, it’s official. this story needs to be told, and neither Kelly, nor my wife, are up for waiting any more. nor, honestly, am i. i’ve been enjoying the short story work, but i’m most excited by this series, and this next one gets even better! i haven’t forgotten about All Prophets are Liars, by any means, and i have a couple short stories on their way out this week, but right now NGD2 takes preference.

why?

i suppose it’s a personal test to see if i can do this series thing, if i can do another book in 7 months (or less!), if i can do No Good Deed one better. i believe i can, but one needs proof, after all. there’s a world of difference between thinking something and doing it, and i’m done thinking it.

now wait just a second. do any of these reasons not apply to APaL?

no, not really.

so why NGD, instead? and be honest.

okay, because NGD is more accessible. i might even say it’s more fun, though that isn’t intended as a negative on APaL-

yeah yeah yeah, stop babbling. so you’re writing what you think will sell?

well, yes.

ha! sellout!

no, it’s not that simple.

oh, stop rationaliz-

just be quiet a second, will you? look, i didn’t write a cookie-cutter urban fantasy. Kelly’s not a classic heroine. the story doesn’t follow the standard formula. the conflicts are more interesting and varied than what i’ve seen in the genre, both more subtle and more sweeping. the action is both a blast and terrifying, and there are deeper reasons and compelling arguments that refuse to simplify into black and white.

but-

yes, i think it will sell. i think i’ve discussed this before, about how i struggled in the beginning with this idea; whether i was writing to fit a trend or reading demographic, or whether i was writing a story i felt passionately about. from the moment i handwrote the first scene, though, that question disappeared. i needed to follow Kelly wherever she led me. i didn’t have a choice. i still don’t.

…

exactly. and that’s why NGD2 is up next. APaL has a special place in my heart and will be a fantastic series, but Rick and Sarah can wait a little longer for me. right now, it’s Kelly’s turn and i’m just thrilled to be a part of it.

feeble mind yields unexpected revelation

i’ve been published before. it was more than 10 years ago, so long ago, in fact, that i’d forgotten the name of the magazine. very embarrassing, but true.

nonetheless, it happened. twice, in fact. they were a pair of contemporary fiction short stories, published in the University College London literary magazine, Undertow, while my wife and i were students there.

you’d think i would remember something like this, particularly given my current work and aspirations, but no, it only just recently reappeared in my memory. i suppose that’s what years of being ‘practical’ and leaving writing on the distant back burner can do.

apparently the magazine is no longer active, or they’ve made a concerted and remarkably successful effort to hide almost all evidence of its existence from the Internet. in all my online searching this weekend, i discovered only a single reference to it: a book entitled Beowulf & Other Stories, by Richard North and Joe Allard, published by Pearson Higher Education.

this doesn’t seem like a logical step, but i found myself struck nearly dumb* by the name of Richard North, my faculty advisor at UCL. he was, for the largely ignorant and under-prepared american student that i was, the quintessential young british professor, and i was in awe. in classic british fashion he was neither exaggerated in manner nor excessive in praise, but always clever, erudite, clear, and forthright. he challenged me, whether he knew it or not, and i pushed myself to make this ‘half-educated’ american worthy of his careful praise.**

what made this re-discovery all the more impactful, though, was his brief biography in the book’s description, where he mentions his own short stories and poems to Undertow. i had no idea at the time, and must now dig through our chaos of boxes to see if i can find my own copies of Undertow in search of his material.

that these first publications of mine are stuffed away in some until-now-forgotten box is only further testament to the weakness of my resolve, back then, and the fitness of my mind, now.

but no more distraction. to the garage!

* though how would an observer have told the difference at this point, eh?

** in point of fact, my current students can probably blame Mr. North for at least some of what they must endure, today, if i may make so bold a comparison.

Congestive Heart Failure finished

just finished revising Congestive Heart Failure, an ‘immediate future’ short story. it’s not really science fiction, though it does extrapolate. i wrote the first draft of this story back in the mid-90′s, and it surprised me with its timeliness, both then and now. of course, that’s just be my biased opinion.

it’s not a terribly happy piece, though i like to think that the light at the end of the tunnel is more not just a train. the revision process for this one basically covered two areas: overall fat-trimming and how hard to push that light at the end of the tunnel. i ultimately ended with a lighter touch, which is my general preference, but sometimes, because i know what’s going on, my light touch is actually a bare whisp of a mention to the reader, but i think it’s the right tack for this one. so now it’s time to find a market and get it out there!

also, there was progress made on a revised query letter for NGD, but, like last time, i’ll be taking the weekend before sending it out. it’s hard to believe a whole week has gone by since i was last flipping out over the final (first) query letter. this version is much leaner (notice a trend?) and i’m worried it is too lean, but i need to get away from trying to squash the entire contents into a single letter. it’s impossible.

anyway, i’m late to work.

short story re-joy

this morning i’ve been working on the final tweaks for Congestive Heart Failure and it amazes me, yet again, how much fun i get to have. even in revision. to watch a piece i’ve written grow from initial idea to draft to revision is a fascinating and incredibly rewarding experience.

no, it’s not always genuine fun, that’s true, but any difficulties or obstacles i encounter only serve to make the greater experience that much more rewarding. it’s kind of like being sick. the sickness itself isn’t fun, but without being sick, how would i ever know what feeling good was? more importantly, how would i appreciate it?

first thing this morning i corrected some student essays, and in fifteen minutes i start the day’s work for my web job, but in the time between i’ve been living in a (slightly) different world and discovering nuances of character as i follow this short story. even better, i am employing steadily more and more craft knowledge, to better reveal and express these people and their situation.*

i get to learn something every day, from broad-stroke stuff like new character arcs or plot devices, to needle-in-haystack stuff like word choice and even paragraph structure.

in fact, the only downside is realizing that i haven’t been doing more of this lately, because i’ve been obsessed with query letters for NGD.

it’s good to be writing again.

*at least, i’m trying to, but you folks get to be the ultimate judges, in good time.

my brother is in the Wall Street Journal!

okay, this should have gone up yesterday*, but better late than never:

my brother Jason was interviewed for an article on JobAngels in the Wall Street Journal!

how cool is that? my (little) brother in the WSJ!

* i must confess that, while i had fully intended to post this previously, i didn’t get my butt in gear until after i received a great comment on my About Me page from someone my brother was talking to in an elevator earlier today. sorry i can be a slacker, Jason, but thanks for being my cheerleader.

the joys of instant communication

three rejections by lunchtime. at least they’re reading them, right? one was even a personalized response, which is always nice, even when it still says no.

depressing? duh.

surprising? no.

so i have to finish the class work for tomorrow, but i’ll try to put together a couple more queries before bed.

we continue!