Blogetary (Weblog + Commentary = Blogetary)

Just a heads up for anyone floating by that this Saturday, June 2, is our next California Writer’s Club Meeting. Our Mid-Wilshire Branch (as yet unchartered, but we’re working on it) meets at the Los Angeles Public Library on Gardner between 3rd and Beverly. Yes, there is a parking, though I think it’s easier to take a bus. It’s right near Pan Pacific Park and The Grove, and not far from El Coyote. We meet 3-5 pm and try to have useful topics like how to write a query letter or commercial writing vs. literary writing. It’s writers helping out writers. It is NOT a critique group. We’re pretty casual. We’d love to see you!

You know, by the time I get home, feed the cat and play with the cat, settle in and make some dinner, do some dishes and check the email, etc, it’s almost time to go to bed.  Doesn’t leave much time for writing, though I do set my notebook out there gamely hoping it will happen.

So then, I try to get up early so I can feed the cat and myself and wake up and maybe write a little before going to work. But when I try to do that, I end up being late for work. Not good.

So Then, I take notebooks with me on the bus so I can try to maybe do some writing on the bus.  And then the bus is so full I barely get a seat and when I do there’s no room to dig around for a pen and my notebook and barely enough room to shove a book or magazine up nose and read.

So THEN – I try to email my writing to myself at work so I can possibly, if there’s time, work on it there when (if) it’s slow.  But what I need at work is something interruptible because just when I get into something the phone rings and I have drop everything for some panicked person on the phone and writing a story isn’t interruptible.  You need to get into it.  So I end up maybe tweeking things or editing things, but whole writing of new pages? Doesn’t happen.

Only thing left for it is to become a zombie or a vampire so I don’t need any sleep or food or relaxation or recreation.

Grrrr — Argh!

Vicki Pettersson reminded me that today is the day that Rachel Vincent’s first book, Stray, hit’s the shelves. You only get one first book! Have a great day, Rachel! Check out the link to Stray or check out the review I wrote earlier this month.

That’s how much I wrote today between laundry, dishes, puttering about and changing the sheets on the bed.  Amazing what you can do when you don’t really try.  I had hoped it would be more.  I’d like to stay up and write more. But I need to get to bed at a decent time so I can get up in the morning and get to work on time and so remain gainfully employed.

This story keeps changing on me.  I had started it in one of my Mead Notebooks, not sure where it was going, just of the picture in my head. It didn’t really go anywhere, just ended.  I knew there was a story to tell, but I just hadn’t found it yet.

Then the second draft was done again in a Mead Notebook.  While things shifted and changed a little, and I even went back and rewrote and scratched things out in the beginning, it was still basically the same. But now, I had uncovered a little bit more of the story.  And when it ended, it ended in a different place and again, was not a real story, just ending.  So I decided to let it sit for a while.  I put the notebook next to my computer intending to transcribe it into MS Word for a couple weeks now, but always too busy or distracted.

This weekend was it. I wanted to get it all down so I could rework it for the writer’s meeting next Saturday.  But I didn’t get to it until this afternoon and evening.  It changed again, the draft in my notebook barely an outline for what ended up on the page. And I may have discovered even more of the story.  I discovered my protagonist’s name, anyway.   But even at 3600 words (about 600 words I got down a few days ago) it’s not completed (or even close to it), and most places don’t like short stories over 5000 words.  I  have a feeling this will be one of those stories I need to overwrite before I find my way to the real story.  But at least I have a good start.

One of my writerly friends, Will, just got his first book, Shadows in the Dust, published!  I saw his announcement today on his MySpace page and so I’m pimping his name out everwhere, of course. 

I read the book while he was still working on it, and haven’t read the finished copy yet, but what I remember was pure testosterone filled action/adventure and dark fantasy, filled with vampires and zombies.  Will writes really good fight scenes that totally pull you into the fight with the character. I remember it being a lot of fun.

But, this isn’t meant to be a review (that will come later after I get my copy of his book). This is meant to be a CONGRATULATIONS!  Writing a book and getting it published is HARD WORK.  Yay, Will! Good for you for going the extra mile and getting it done!

In honor of Douglas Adams, May 25th is Towel Day!  So, grab a towel and carry it with you cuz you never know when it might come in handy.  You might need to flee the planet at short notice, visit with interplanetary dignitaries, make small talk with bureaucratic clerks from the Zed Galaxy or who knows what else.

Grab your towel and go!

(Not sure where this towel came from, but it was just laying around in the cyber ether….)

I received Stray late last week after winning it in one of Rachel Vincent’s blog contests. I was really looking forward to cracking it open this weekend and once I got around to it Sunday afternoon it was difficult to put down.  Oh, there were times when I wanted to throw it across the room and swear at it, but that had nothing to do with the writing and everything to do with how engaged I was with Faythe Sanders, the main character. This morning, around 3AM, I finally finished it and immediately began to wonder what would happen next cuz Faythe, for me at least, is just one of those characters.

Some books, when you read them, are like candy.  They’re a fun read and you go through them lightening fast and when you’re done you think “wow, where did it go?”  For me Stephanie Rowe and Lilith Saintcrow are like that.  I zip through their stuff and have fun, put the books down and go on with my life until another one of their books catches my eye.  But there are OTHER books that are stickier.  You get more involved in them.  Their worlds are more real, more sensual, more emotional.  They get under your skin, make you uncomfortable and you might put them down because of that, but find yourself picking them back up again soon after.  For me, Vicki Pettersson is one of those writers and I think after reading Stray, that I need to add Rachel Vincent to that list of writers as well.

I guess I should explain a little.  Faythe is part of a Pride of werecats and much like her counterparts in other parts of the cat world, Faythe and her family and cohorts are individualistic and independent – ie stubborn and idiosyncratic – and they have to live together.

Have you ever watched cats who live together?  Sometimes it can get a little hairy.

Faythe, in a bid to escape the claustrophobic living style of the Pride, has tried to go out into the world and make something of herself, and once again finds herself sucked back into the family life she tried to escape. She’s furious about it and I don’t blame her a bit.  As I was reading I could feel how uncomfortable I was and tried to figure out why. Why was I irritated?  I finally figured out that I was identifying with Faythe so strongly that I was empathizing with her.

Seriously.  When my male cats misbehave as badly as these toms do they do not get away with it.  I had thoughts of taking Faythe’s father and brothers and guy friends by the scruff of their necks and shoving them in the bathroom and leaving them there until they settled down and realized what dicks they were being (that’s what I do with my male cats when they act up).  Meanwhile, I figured, Faythe and I could go out and have a good time without them buggin’ us.  Really.  I just wanted to drive out to her ranch, honk the horn and tell her to grab her duffel and get the hell out of there! “Girlfriend, you’re comin’ with me and we’re not comin’ back until your family agrees to counseling.”  Not that they don’t love her – but they love her so much they strangle her and you can feel it. Even the man she is drawn to despite her better judgement does not get her. Oh he may *know* her, but he doesn’t *get* her.  You can feel her frustration at how these people just won’t listen.

Faythe is not perfect.  She is a faulty person who makes mistakes and won’t see that her family has her best interests at heart. However, she’s also brave, intelligent, sensuous, independent and has a streak of ingenuity that keeps her just enough out of trouble to keep her alive during the grittiest parts of the story.  While there’s mystery and suspense and romance aplenty (pretty spicy romance) and a good story to follow, it’s Faythe that keeps me reading.  Rachel Vincent has done an excellent job of creating a very compelling character in Faythe Sanders.

By the end of the story there is a resolution and an equilibrium is reached, but it’s not complete.  There’s more coming and I’m excited to find out what happens next.

I received my first copy of Fantasy Magazine a while ago, but as I’m rather behind on my book and magazine reading, it sat in the magazine bin awaiting my attention for at least a month. After reading it, I feel really bad for letting it sit there for so long. This new little magazine (it’s only been out for a year) is full of otherworld gems ranging from bright and shiny to dark and deep.

While the cover is color and thick stock (and has beautiful artwork), the inside is black and white with paper closer to newspaper stock (and also some nice artwork and photography). I like this approach because it looks nice enough for me to appreciate it, but I’m not afraid to let it get munched in my bag, which it will. It didn’t get any coffee stains on it this time around, but many of the pages will never be smooth ever again.

Fantasy Magazine has an interesting way of doing things. While they have stories, reviews and interviews in their magazine, they also share one story from their issue on their website – just to give you some flavor of what the magazine is about when you come by to check it out. The sample story they had up from this issue was The Dead Girl’s Wedding March by Cat Rambo (which doesn’t seem to have a direct link, but if you go to the original site, you can click on the story from there). That’s the story that got me to subscribe to the magazine in the first place.

I enjoyed the other stories as well once I got the magazine and read it. Mind you, NONE of them was HAPPY (joyful, joyous, etc) in their content or by their end (in fact most of them were rather tragic in the High Dramatic sense of the word), but they were all well resolved. This is literary fantasy – stories meant to be both an escape and a thoughtful piece of work about dilemmas in life. I like that balance. However, I didn’t read this issue all at once because it was rather relentless in its grimness. I mean, I know November – February can be rather gray and depressing, but that doesn’t mean everything ELSE has to be gray and depressing. But don’t let that keep you from getting the magazine because it IS a really good magazine.
The Stories:

I enjoyed the The Truth According to Margo Williams by Leslie Claire Walker the best I think because 1) I had a gramma with alzheimers so I appreciate the main character and 2) I really like crows. That’s all I’m going to tell you about that story. Bear Lake by Margaret Ronald I liked because I’m a sucker for Native American based tales. I really liked both of those. Disquiet by Amber van Dyk, a tale about a couple who are punished because of their child, I recognize as being well done but I had a hard time connecting with it. On the other hand, A Garden in Hell by Richard Parks, while I also had a hard time getting, I enjoyed a little more. I liked the Asian flavor of it. Such a Lovely Shade of Green by Samantha Henderson shows how one battered wife deals with the return of her abusive husband. Interesting, but not my favorite. The Words the Rain Wrote by January Mortimer, showing how a father deals with a son’s addiction, is whimsical at times, but whimsical in a very sad sort of way. I liked the interesting spin on the world created by the author. Furnace Room Lullaby by Leah Bobet, a haunted tale, actually had me tearing up (and I was on the bus), as did Among Their Bright Eyes by Alay Johnson. Among Their Bright Eyes tells the tale of what happens to Frankenstein’s bride after Frankenstein decides to turn off. At the Core, by Erzebet Yellowboy, has an interesting twist on the fairytale which I really appreciate.

While I got a lot out of the two interviews that were included in this issue (one of an editor and one of a writer), I got a little more out of the Book Reviews. In reading this section, I was made aware of another writerly term that I want to read and research known as slipstream writing. So, if anyone out there knows what slipstream is, email me. I would appreciate it. It sounded interesting.
Well, I’m falling asleep in front of the computer and have had to rewrite several sentences repeatedly just to make sure the words were finished, even if the sentences might not have a purpose or mean anything. Best I leave and get this uploaded so you can read it finally.
Good night

And

Good luck.

I know sometime back I blogged about how being a writer isn’t just about being a creator. It is a LOT about being a creator, however, it is also about being a marketer, publicity agent and entrepreneur. No one is going to come up to you and say – “I love your stuff! Come write for me!” Or, it’s really rare, anyway. You have to be able to sell your work, which means you also need to be able to organize and track your work. Take note of what works and doesn’t work. Are there personal comments on rejections? If so, what are they? Should you pay attention to them or take them with a grain of salt? Where do you go next? Have you already tried that market? Should you try it again or should you find another one instead?

All of this requires a lot of homework, none of it on your stories or poetry, that is either going to be done online or in a library or in a bookstore. And one of the first things that needs to be done, typically, is that a writer should probably invest, beg, borrow or steal some books such as the most recent editions of Writer’s Market and The Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market or possibly the Guide to Literary Agents. In addition, you might consider subscribing to trade publications such as Poets & Writers, Writer’s Digest, and Locus, just to name a few. These all offer information on markets to submit to, agents that are available, news of upcoming markets or magazines and publishing houses that may have closed, interviews with writers, stories about the writing life, successes, failures, editors to help you with your work, contests you can submit to, and possible publishing businesses, markets, and agents to be wary of. Though all these purchases can be tax deductible if you can pay for them up front, some people choose to find them at the library or borrow them from friends. Whatever works.

But if you can’t get hold of these then try seeing what you can find online for free. Some of the info offered in these publications is also easily seen on their websites. In addition, there are several online sources for people looking for agents or markets or news. Writer’s Weekly is one newsletter that offers free information online to writers. One place to find agents is AgentQuery. In addition, there may be organizations and eZines in your genre that offer free stuff online. In the world of speculative fiction these could include the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America or Strange Horizons or Planet Magazine. The point is that there are tons of resources and markets out there, but you don’t know where they are until you start looking. And you need to start looking because your stories and poetry will not send themselves out. You have to send them out. All by your ownself.

Now, how to submit a manuscript or poem, as well as how to write cover letters, etc, is a complete and separate topic unto itself that I won’t address because I know I haven’t gotten it down. There are books on the subjects, websites, heck, whole classes are taught on it. So, we’ll just leave that for another time.

Once you start sending out your work, however, don’t think you’ll be able to keep track of what you sent out where, and when. You think you will remember. You might remember the first few, but after awhile, it all starts blurring together. Mag A accepts online only multiple submissions, but not simultaneous submission so you send Story D and Story G there while Mag D only accepts mailed submissions double spaced and paper clipped. Then Mag A rejects Story G, but hasn’t gotten back to you on Story D, so you tweak Story G a bit and try sending it to Anthology C, and so on. After a while you lose track.

That’s when you need to come up with a system. It doesn’t matter what the system is, it just needs to be something that works for you. One writerly friend of mine just jots everything down in a notebook. On the blog of another fellow writer, it looks like they use a method of keeping stats on the stories sent out. Some writers (like Rachel Vincent I believe) use a whiteboard or maybe a chart to keep track of where they are in the process, while writers like Tolstoy (I believe) and Tim Powers will do things like pin chapters to a wall or lay pieces of paper on the floor (though a lot of that has to do with the actual process of writing their novels).

I’ve decided that for me a little Excel chart is just the ticket for tracking where I am in my writing/submitting process with my stories and poems. Now, if you do something like this, you don’t need an Excel chart. I probably could have used a regular grid in MS Word since I don’t have any formulas or sums, but whatever works for you, that’s what’s important. Just in case anyone is interested, here is a sample of what I use:

Sample Excel Tracking Chart

The point is to set up something so you don’t waste time later on tracking information when you should be writing. And if you track the information then chances are you will be more successful in finding the correct markets to use and be able to see how to better edit your pieces.

What organizational wonder have you set up that works for you? Let us know.

I’ve been holding my breath on some of the short stories I submitted at the beginning of April. Most of them haven’t come back yet so I’m crossing my fingers that the editors are seeing something they like. But this one came back. Not too surprised. I wasn’t as sure about the “done-ness” of this one. So, I’ll look it over again and send it somewhere else.

I’m really glad I made that table that keeps track of things!