Goals, Just Stuff

World Horror Convention 2010

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I have a ticket for the World Horror Convention in Brighton this year…but I don’t think I’m going to be able to use it. I’m not known for making these sorts of decisions easily, and my mind isn’t completely set on this one, but really, I would say with 99% certainty, I won’t be going. You see, the thing is as much as I really want to go (and I do, I really do) I applied to Clarion West this year.

The odds are very much against my being accepted to Clarion West but if I get in, that would take priority for me over WHC.

While it’s actually possible for me to manage to go to both, I don’t want to. That’s a lot of money and a lot of time spent away from my family. Danica will have a tough enough time dealing with my being gone for six weeks if I get into Clarion West, adding another week for a trip to Brighton not long before that would be wrong.

The tricky thing is, Clarion West generally notifies people about whether or not they got in sometime in March, usually (I’m told) toward the end of it. Word Horror is in March, which means I’d need to have a plane ticket sometime before then. And so, and so…

I don’t think I’m going to Brighton. I suppose the deal is actually pretty much sealed, even if I try to deny it or pretend there is still a question about it. I want to go to Brighton but let’s face it, if I went it would be more pleasure than business (I haven’t got a horror novel to promote yet and Niteblade doesn’t make money so I can’t justify the trip on the grounds of promoting it) and Clarion West could do amazing things for my writing and thus, my writing future. So I’m not going to Brighton. It makes me sad, I will miss being able to see friends, and hang out and all the good stuff that comes with conventions (oh, and the bag ‘o books, I’ll -so- miss the books!) but in the end it’s the right thing to do. And if I don’t get into Clarion West? I guess I’ll just take that money and take my family on a beach vacation somewhere. That will help soothe my disappointment.

Also, if you could keep your fingers crossed for me that I get accepted into Clarion West that would be fabulous.

(The picture is of my cat, Indy, and is completely irrelevant to this post. I put it there because I couldn’t think of something relevant to put as a picture and I’m trying to include more of my photographs in entries…so…yeah.)

Pictures, Poetry, Sale

Zombie Rawr!

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This Halloween Danica was an ‘infected’ which is sort of like a proto-vampire. It was an idea that came from a book she loved, Skulduggery Pleasant . This is a picture of her. I’m using it because it’s the closest think I’ve got to a zombie picture, and I wanted a zombie picture because I placed two more of my zombie poems from the poem-a-day challenge from November. Yay!

“Attachment” and “Last Thoughts” will appear in a future issue of Star*Line. Yay!

The biggest problem I’m finding with some of these individual poems is that while they stand alone alright for the most part, some of them lose a great deal of their horror if they are read outside of the ‘zombie apocalypse’ context. That is easy to maintain when you’ve got a whole collection, but less so when it’s just one piece. That wasn’t a problem for “Attachment” or “Last Thoughts” though, so yay!

Flash, Published, Writing

A Couple Pubs to Start the Year

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I’ve a couple new stories out today, which is a lovely way to start the year. Firstly is my six-word story that is in It All Changed in an Instant: More Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure which has an ironically long title 🙂 I get paid with a contributor’s copy for that, which has a value of $8.10 US. That means I got paid an equivalent to $1.35 a word. I’m pretty sure that’s my highest per word payout so far. Pretty snazzy.

I also have a short story at Flashes in the Dark today. You can read Dive just by following that link, and Flashes in the Dark is one of those cool webzines that will let you leave a comment if you feel like it. A little bit about this story, but cut because here there be spoilers:

Continue reading A Couple Pubs to Start the Year →

Just Stuff, Poetry, Shades of Green

Welcome 2010

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So, it’s a whole new year. That’s what the calendar says anyway.

I don’t do New Year’s Resolutions. There’s no clever reason for it, I just don’t. Perhaps it’s just to be contrary. In fact, when we quit smoking several years back my husband and I made a point of doing it on December 30th rather than waiting a day or two because we didn’t want people to mistakenly think it was a New Year’s thing. Yeup. We really are that ornery 🙂

Still, this year is looking like it might be better than its predecessor. I feel like I’m beginning to crawl out of the grip of the depression I’d been fighting with over recent months. That’s a good thing for so many reasons, the least of which is not that it means writing is easier for me, it’s less of a struggle to focus and things might actually get done. Might.

Also, I have some upcoming publications I’m excited about. Shades of Green is obviously near the top of that list, but there’s also the six word memoir book from Harper’s Perrenial and a lot of poetry. I love the work I did for the November poem-a-month challenge and while I’m still working on placing most of it, I’m ridiculously excited to share it with you all. Soon, I hope. Soon.

What about you? What are you excited about for this coming year?

Newsletter, Niteblade, Shades of Green

Wheee!

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Things are a weird (and quite surreal) mixture of incredibly laid-back and stressy-busy around here these days. It’s odd, and not great for productivity. Still, I sent out my newsletter today. It included the cover for Shades of Green (in case anyone missed it) and also the first chapter. I hope everyone enjoys it 🙂

In other news, over at Niteblade we are giving away a free .pdf of last year’s December issue, Oh, Christmas Tree. If you don’t already have a copy you can get it at http://www.niteblade.com/news 🙂

I won’t be online reliably now until after the New Year, so I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of December and I’ll see you in 2010 🙂

Shades of Green

Book Pages

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What do you look for in a book page?

I had a moment of ‘Zomg! Look at the date!’ yesterday, which was just enough to get my butt in gear working on spreading the word about SHADES OF GREEN since it’s coming out in less than a month! I’m a 60/40 mixture of nervous and excited… Anyway, I started talking to bloggers about doing interviews and guest posts, and to reviewers about reviewing the story. I also created a little page on this blog for SHADES OF GREEN (linked to from the title). The thing is, I’m not quite sure what else to put on it. It needs something…it’s pretty empty.

I am going to check with my publisher and see about including an excerpt, and once I have some reviews to share I’ll put them there too…but is that all that’s missing? What do you like to see on pages dedicated to a single book? Or, possibly a better question, do you ever go to or read promo pages like that?

Inquiring minds want to know… (or is that enquiring? hmmm…)

NaNoWriMo, Niteblade

We Have a Winner :)

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Well, NaNo is over, and I’m so happy it is. I was not loving it this year. Okay, that is a huge understatement. I hated it. I resented every minute spent working on ‘NaNo’ stuff. What I really wanted to be doing was sitting and thinking, taking time to let my brain work through some of the details I need to know about the setting and society See The Sky Again is set in, and working on it. That doesn’t work as a NaNoWriMo project. So I started working on rewriting Shadows. Fantastic…until I hit a bump that again, required some time and quiet contemplation. Anyway, I won’t bore you with all the details, but I wrote 50,000 words, crossed the finish line and am seriously thinking about skipping NaNo next year. There was a time in my life I needed it, but I believe that time has passed.

There was, however, a contest 🙂

I promised a prize to the person who guessed the day I finished NaNo (or came closest). I wrote my 50,000th word on the 30th. There were a handful of entries, and everyone had more faith in me than they should have, it seems LOL Mindy came the closest, however, when she guessed the 27th. Thank you to everyone who entered, and Mindy, keep an eye on your email.

Lastly, for today. The new Niteblade Anthology, Nothing to Dread is finished and available as a paperback or a download. Yay!

Niteblade_Anthology2_Cover

Just Stuff

Crawling Out of the Story

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I did a lot of writing on Saturday, and a whack of revision on Sunday. As often happens when I’ve spent a lot of time and emotional energy working on a story, I found that long after I’d stepped away from the computer physically, I was still very much there mentally. Jo noticed that I wasn’t quite myself and I tried to explain, but my mind and attention being divided I’m not sure I did a good job.

I was still crawling out of the story.

When I first step away from the computer I’m still very deliberately and consciously thinking about the story I’d been working on. Should I do this, or that? How would that character really react to the other thing? Making mental notes of things I need to remember to add, change or take out. Making physical notes in case my mental ones fail. However, even after I’m done that and I’m not deliberately thinking about the work, I am disconnected from reality.

Not completely. You don’t need to call me a shrink, but that part of me which is always sort of outside myself (really, don’t call a shrink) observing things and taking notes is bigger than usual. I feel like I’m wading through a thick mental fog, and it takes some time to clear.

It doesn’t always happen, and seems to be mostly after the more intense writing/revising sessions I have. It’s an interesting phenomena, one I need to consider more in order to describe better perhaps. Anyway, I thought I’d share 🙂

Writers, tell me sometimes this happens to you too. What about people with different occupations and hobbies, do you expirience something similar, or do writers have the market cornered on this one?

I write, I edit and I take a lot of naps.

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