writery stuff

Celebrate UVic Authors!
which apparently includes me, with my little Lulu.com book and 4 stories in e-zines. Huh. I may have mentioned, around the time of the United Way booksale, that the university bookstore asked for a copy of said book for their UVic authors display, and after me saying dubiously 'You know it's self-published, right?' and them saying yes they did so what, I got hold of a copy (back from a friend) and dropped it off.
For which I was paid 2 months later, so hey.

Then March 8, as part of IdeaFest 2012, was Celebrate UVic Authors Reception & Reading. Wait, I'll borrow the text from the UVic website:

Celebrate UVic Authors - Reception and Reading

Dr. Reeta Tremblay, Vice-President Academic and Provost, the University of Victoria Libraries and the University of Victoria Bookstore invite UVic staff, students, faculty, alumni and members of the community to a Reception and Reading to celebrate and honour UVic Authors who published works in 2010.
This event is held during IdeaFest 2012, when UVic celebrates all that is creative and inventive in every corner of campus.
UVic authors who will read from their work:
John Borrows, Drawing Out Law: a Spirit’s GuideCarla Funk, ApologeticRobert Budd, Voices of British ColumbiaPeter Stephenson, Zombie Factory
Thursday March 8, 2012
7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
University Club  

I thought I'd go, it being free, and me kindly reminded of it by Paula Johanson, who had 3 nonfiction titles on the program bibliography. So I left our Thursday night open-house early, and drove up to the uni, where I had to pay 2.25 for parking (this may be a legit declareable expense).
In previous years the event has been held at the Bookstore, but since that building is being renovated,  it was in the more lounge-like venue of the University Club, formerly the Faculty Club. The room was cedar-panelled, with high ceilings and lots of glass at the far end where the readers were, a piece of First Nations art hovering reflected in the gable window above them. In front of them were ranks of wide armchairs, wood and leather and nubbly upholstery.
Trays of little cakes and sliced fruit, a punchbowl set out on two tables against one wall, and a bar at the near end, where the books were set up on counters and stands. Massive stone fireplace across from the refreshment tables.
Because of eating dinner, I missed the first two readings, so I didn't look around then, but found an empty seat and started paying attention. After a brief intro to the Voices project, the author didn't read himself, but played two recordings of archival material, which I liked for letting the subjects speak for themselves.
Zombie Factory was also a collection of testimonies, the two chosen being from a refugee camp, one from a survivor and one from an aid worker, both young men speaking of the same events how the inmates formed gangs or substitute family groups, and how one who hadn't found a group had died suddenly in his sleep. Not an easy or comfortable reading to hear.
After some questions, a chance to buy the books and get them signed. Me being broke, I snagged some nibblies and punch, and had a look at the books lined up around the corner of the room. There was mine, but I didn't take a photo of it, though I thought it did look fairly decent among the rest. Paula introduced me to some of the faculty and grad students present, and I knew most of the librarians & staff.
I was curious whether the Writing Dept had loosened up on its staunch litfic-only position, since I'd been processing orders for graphic novels on their book fund (them, French, and Spanish). The answer was 'maybe a little', and at least not as rigid as SFU. I've also ordered a self-published book on mountaineering for them, and another on travel (from lulu, actually) but they don't want to buy f/sf, even by Canadian authors, and they don't want to buy books on writing and selling commercially (without the aid of govt grants).
I had allowed myself a quiet little fantasy of dropping the phrase 'well, when I was talking to my agent' into a conversation with someone from Writing, but fortunately the opportunity did not come up, so I went the evening without being obnoxious and generally enjoyed it.

Speaking of my agent, I had the phone conversation with her to make sure we were 'on the same page' (argh) about where Cost of Silver should be going. The issues identified were:
1) Strengthening the transition from Tom/Griffin being out purely to save his own skin/soul to his being willing to fight with the villagers against the enclosures and draining. Clarify that this is a haven (even though he may not at first recognise the concept) and his identification with the group where he has found acceptance, to the extent that he will risk himself for it as well as for a specific person like Nan.
2) Lay the groundwork for the romantic arc, making it plausible that despite the adolescent lust Griffin feels for Alice Dewe and their having shared one fight against a revenaunt, the understanding and experience he has in common with Nan make her the one he loves. So, build the way Alice is creeped out by him, and strengthen the shift from Nan being almost motherly to her seeing him as a man when he comes back from the war.
3) Make each sequence as compelling as the first (Tom's flight to Holdfast's escape). Um, sure, I'll work on that.
We also talked about choosing pov characters enough to suggest sweep, but not so many as to lose reader attention. Present day storyline is Joy and Rob, and historic is Griffin, Nan, Alice and Redfearn. Charles and Cromwell don't count because they're so public it's more like omni than another character--there's a relief.
Since Redfearn has advanced himself from being a tertiary character to nearly challenging Matthew Hopkins for plot impact, we talked about making him rounded, and sympathetic as well as ruthless. I figure making him a pov character helps with that. She recommended Charlie Stross's take on a killer in Rule 34, "Charlie's so bad!"
Then we chatted about books a bit, with a recommendation of Leah Bobet's Above, just about to come out. I was surprised to hear that Tor's fairy tale series from a few years back, with the gorgeous Tom Canty covers, hadn't been that much of a success. They were popular among the people I hang out with, but I suppose that doesn't necessarily translate to popular commercial success.

I was hesitant (note to the Internet at large: hesitant, or even reluctant, not reticent; please look reticent up before using it next time!) to give an ETA for this draft, given that every deadline I've given myself on this story has had its butt kicked. But I went for 2 months to get the modern-day storyline filled in at 50k, and another 2 months to trim out and fill in the historic storyline, keeping it within 150k.
I so hope I'm not lying. It's twice as much time as Nanowrimo, I say cheerfully. My conscience mutters 'you have never won Nanowrimo', and I tell it to shut up.
A little bouncy-happy addendum: she figures that once Cost of Silver sells, Willow Knot will go as well.

mixed bag

Bluebeard Contented is up at Cabinet des Fees - yay! This one was workshopped at Worldcon and beta-read by a couple of writer-friends before I finally sent it in. CdF was the first and only market I thought of for the Perrault-with-a-twist version.

To balance that, the first rejections of the year, one from Weird Tales

Thanks so much for submitting your piece to the One-Minute Weird Tales. We have had an overwhelming positive response! Alas, we do not have the room for all the wonderful stories submitted so must pass on this one. Again, we thank you for thinking of Weird Tales.

And one from ASIM

Thank you for submitting to Andromeda Spaceways.

Sadly, we find that we can't use your submission at this stage.

Thank you again, and we hope to hear from you in the future.


See our Hints and Tips page: http://www.andromedaspaceways.com/slush.htm

both form. Which reminds me that I need to start a new Rejection Pledge!

into the wide world

Last Sunday I went outside very early to see if more pears had fallen. The sun hadn't risen, and the sky was mottled grey. I heard a honk, and looked up to see a flight of geese, not so much an arrowhead shape as an inverted checkmark, or a hockeystick (yes, they must have been Canada geese). They were flying low, so low I heard the beat of their wings, an insistent repeated fwish fwish fwish, like a small child doggedly learning to whistle.

I've picked all the pears and plums that I could reach, leaving about 3 on each tree. This afternoon I had a last bowl of blackberries with cream. It's down to apples now, and I'll have to race the deer for the windfalls.

After a last flurry of finding an almost entirely different list of books my book is like, and writing a few paragraphs on What Fairy Tales Mean to Me, I smash a bottle of virtual champagne over the bow of The Willow Knot and my agent steers it out to sea. Or to the stony hearts of a half-dozen NY publishers.
Hopefully it will not imitate the Mary Rose.

i r srs riter

The big news first. Word back from my agent that the last set of revisions makes The Willow Knot good to go, and she will be showing the ms. to editors in September (the publishing industry shuts down through August.
She asked me to provide the following:
1) a revised synopsis to be used in her pitch letter
2) a 1-2 paragraph biography, mentioning my short story credits
3) a list of books similar to Willow Knot, also for the pitch letter
4) list of my next projects, for possible multi-book deal

Rewriting my synopsis was the hardest part, unexpectedly. A lot had changed, not only the order of events in the story, but the addition of scenes and characters, fleshing out the love story (heh, heh) and giving Alard more space, Asafia's storyline being brought forward, and so on. After a week I decided to take what I had down and send it off with a note that I was willing to rework it further.
The bio was easy, after writing similar ones for submissions and author notes.
The list of books like mine. That had me clutching my head and groaning, in full flush of that great Canadian sentiment, who do you think you are? where the Central Committee for Due Modesty would knock at my door politely before coming in and smacking me around for getting above myself. I cast myself on the mercy of my beta readers, both the Furtive Scribblers and my VP-mates, and finally came up with a list. Which is, as was pointed out to me, not me saying I write as well as any of those on the list, but that I wrote like them. (relieved sigh, Central Committee drives past my house but doesn't stop)
The next books. It happened that I had been enlivening a moderately dull meeting by making notes to myself and arranging my next stories in the order I thought might make sense. This presupposed, perhaps, more writing time than I could really expect, but who knows?
The Willow Knot - sorta historic fantasy, retelling of 'Brother and Sister' (Grimm 11)
The Cost of Silver - dark historic fantasy, alt-ECW period with vampires and witchhunters
Skinned - sorta historic fantasy in WK's world, mashup of 'Bearskin' with 'Snow White & Rose Red'
The Fate of the Dead - historic fantasy, alt-Georgian, ghosts invading England
Interspersed with three YAs using the Aerial Mail Express world, each with a different protagonist and different peril: sky-pirates, the gold rush, the fur trade. Pretty sketchy yet, but would make a good break.


Next bit of good news is that "Bluebeard Contented" has been accepted - by the first market I sent it to, Cabinet des Fees, which seemed the perfect place for an odd little Perrault-ish retelling. Much woohoo! that they agreed.

We would like to accept "Bluebeard Contented*" for publication in our January 2011 issue. It is too good to pass up, but it doesn't really fit in with our forthcoming September issue. If this is acceptable, please let me know and I will issue your contract.

Acceptable? Oh yeah!

Two rejections, to keep things balanced.

Thank you for submitting "Climbing Boys" to ABYSS & APEX. It was well received here, but after some thought we have decided not to accept it for publication.

I hope you'll consider us again, and I wish you the best success in placing this story elsewhere.

and another for "Gods-Meat" from Beneath Ceaseless Skies, with Scott continuing to give excellent feedback, which is a great plus for submitting there.

Thanks very much for sending this to me.  I'm sorry that it's not quite  right for me.  I liked the stormy vibe in the opening, but I couldn't  get a feel on what general sort of world it was, Weird West or something  more traditional fantasy.  More importantly, I also couldn't get a feel  there for the narrator's character.  His early internal monologue gave a  great voice to the bleakness of this place and normal existence there,  but I didn't feel as much of himself coming through in that as I was  hoping, his own attitude or hopes or fears or drive, what was pushing  him as a person forward and what might be pushing the story forward too.  I appreciate your interest in the magazine.  I enjoyed reading your work  again, so I hope you will feel free to send more. 

roses, roses all the way

Or maybe not that poem, which is inauspicious now that I think about it. Oh well. Here's more garden news.

The rosa mundi is blooming properly now, so here's what it looks like when it's fully open. Rather gaudy, isn't it? Like a little circus tent.


And one of the mystery gallicas has bloomed. It's either Rosa Gallica itself, or the Apothecary's Rose. I don't know how to tell, since they look ... they look like this. Both of them, so it could be either.


In the front yard, Sir Walter Raleigh has bloomed, big waxy blossoms. This photo is a bit blurry because a breeze came up just then, and even when I held the stem it wasn't quite steady.










This is a bud of Sir Walter, and maybe gives you a better idea of the petal texture than the full-blown rose does.





Charles de Mills, looking ever so Gallic (ha ha). Honestly, it looks so much like one of the gallicas in the back. After a few days being this lovely pink, it turns purple-violet.





Jacques Cartier, properly named as an explorer, because it's sprawling out over Alain Blanchard and its other neighbour. Or perhaps Jacques is more of a coloniser than an explorer?

Lots of big pale fluffy blossoms.





And here is one of Sir Clough's blossoms, which are ridiculously large this year. My hand is there for scale, not for steadying. I should get a picture of the whole bush, too.








Bourbon Queen blossoms in a frenzy. Look at this!



In other blooming news, Chimps has undergone rewrites and a title change to "On the Transmontane Run with the Aerial Mail Express", and it has been bought by Beneath Ceaseless Skies.
Woohoo!
So everyone should visit BCS and drop some money in the donation jar, okay?

On becoming real

A statistical update
Queries submitted to agents: 33
Form rejections: 18
Rejection by no response: 7
Requests for partial: 3
Request for full mss: 1
Offer to represent: 1

Timeline
May 10 - e-query sent.
May 12 - partial requested.
May 13 - full requested on 2-week exclusive.
May 27 - phone call scheduled.
Jun 1 - phone call and offer.


So, yes, I have an agent. And I have a page-and-a-bit list of Large Structural Revisions that Willow Knot needs, and a deadline to complete them.
And yes, I did spend portions of Monday going 'bwuh-bwuh-bwuh' and OMG!!! and if you are my close friend and haven't already heard this news, it's because I've been dazed and struck silly by sheer good fortune.
As I came out of the daze, I was overtaken by the unnerving realisation that being something very much like a Real Writer means Real Deadlines, not self-set deadlines like 'must finish 2d draft or can't do Nanowrimo'.
But I will try not to gripe about fear of deadlines and doubts of my own competence, because I know there are a good many as-yet-unagented writers out there who would gladly smack me upside the head for any such griping.

I r srs riter, I r revising

Reading another book on writing: Revision, by Kit Reed. Opened with some little trepidation, because as a pre-teen I read a Kit Reed story that scarred me for years. (I've just spent 10 minutes with the wonderful Index to SF Anthologies, and I think the story may have been called 'Winston') Even when I bought Other Stories and Attack of the Giant Baby, I read with my eyes half-closed, ready to flinch away.
Fortunately, this is non-fiction. Originally I picked it up to recommend to the writer I was prepping a critique for last week, but I'm finding it interesting for myself. I skimmed the first two chapters, which are openly intended to convince a beginning writer that Revision Is Necessary, because I belong to that weird subgroup that believes Revision Is Fun.
Lately I've been trying to puzzle out what separates one draft from another draft. I mean, at what point do you say you're now working on a 3d draft rather than continuing to fix the 2d draft? I get that the first draft is when you actually have some form of the whole story down, even if bits are more notes-to-oneself than actual narrative. But after that? Where's the split between 3d and 4th? Should I be rewriting the entire story, start to finish, every time?

Reed's chapter 3 gave me a clue about my own revision, um, system. She differentiates between

1. Draft writing, draft revision. The draft writer gets out a first draft without stopping to look back and make changes. Revision comes in subsequent drafts.
2. Block construction, or; revising as you go. The writer using block construction revises sentence by sentence, progressing slowly through a story of novel to what is essentally a polished version.
Add to these first two major types of revision, a third. This one takes place after the story or novel exists in more or less complete form. It is:
3. Revision to strengthen structure and story. ... This third type of revision comes after you think you're finished.

I know I turn out a pretty clean first draft. I realise that the superficial smoothness can mask structural problems. And I've been fidgetty when general discussions of problems with first drafts tend to concentrate on fixing surface messiness.
Reed's discussion of the advantages of 'block construction' sound very close to what I enjoy, especially the 'running head start' of tidying yesterday's work to build up speed for the next bit of story.
I'm not quite a match, because I'll also jump ahead in the narrative to write a scene that's in my head, while I still have it fresh. But I'm getting so many little sparks of 'oh yes!' reading about block construction that it's a bit exciting. After all I've read about coshing your internal editor to get the first draft down, and dreadful warnings about writers who endlessly polish their first pages or first chapters and never complete a book, I've felt somewhat defensive about my friendly relationship with my inner editor. As long as I can keep her from dithering, she's quite helpful.

Revision is on my mind because I've received a request to rewrite a story, and have a file of editorial comments and suggestions. Just as if I were a professional writer & stuff! Speed up the opening, fill out the ending, change the commas to house style. And change the title.

I think I will look at my old copies of Boy's Own Annual etc., to get the correct feel, because this is the Chimps story.
Here's some sample story titles from a boy's annual of 1928:

• Dangerous Cargo
• The First Grenadier of France
• Coward of the Lost Legion
• Del Oro's Luck
• Two Miles a Minute
• When the War God Walked Again
• The Mystery of the Malakai Light
• The Riddle of the River
• To Rescue the King
• The Red God's Call

Or perhaps the titles of articles might be more fruitful?

• How I Flew from New York to Paris
• My Most Thrilling Air Experience
• Sentenced to the Hulks
• Twenty-five Thousand Miles in an Eight-ton Boat
• And Then I Jumped

With a little work, I could rearrange those into a flashfic. But revision comes first. And tidying the cat.
As Priscilla Fluffycat loses her winter coat, brushing her is no longer sufficient. She must be combed, combed with a fine tooth, which makes her puff out like a seeding dandelion and become surpassingly plushy.
She's afraid of the vacuum noise, though, so that's out.

Intellect action figure

I've been reading Characters & Viewpoint, by Orson Scott Card, and finding a fair bit relevant. I don't know that I'll need to hang on to it and reread it, but it usefully puts into words a number of things I'd had wordlessly floating about in the back of the brain.
One section, though, left me depressed. In the chapter on What Should We Feel About the Character?, the section on Characters We Hate:

Intellect
This isn't true in every culture, but certainly the American audience resents any character who is smarter or better educated than other people. Robert Parker can only get away with having his detective, Spenser, quote poetry because he works so hard to establish Spenser as a tough guy. ... We're afraid of and resentful of people who know more than we do, and when they act as if they think it makes them superior to us, we hate them.

This may be true. Card knows his audience, I have little doubt of that. He's a popular (if/because manipulative) writer, and more successful than I'm ever likely to be.
But the assertion depresses the heck out of me in a few ways.
1) Like Doyle, I have 'the dangerous scholar' as my personal archetype. James Asher, from Hambly's vampire books. Peter Wimsey. Erudition to me is sexy, not threatening.
2) The hero should be 'like us' but in the chapter on The Hero and the Common Man, Card says 'Despite their seeming ordinariness, these heroes always turn out to be extraordinary, once we truly understand them.'

So, under a veneer of the ordinary, the hero is extraordinary. I'm not happy with this phrasing, because what I'm taking from this is:
1) the hero is not like us. He is special. He's just pretending to be like us.
2) he is already special, born special.
3) he does not achieve specialness through effort or sacrifice, though it may require effort or sacrifice to strip off the veneer. He already is a hero.
4) being born special is NOT elitist, even though ordinary people can't become special.
5) becoming educated IS elitist, even though ordinary people can become educated.
6) keep your place. Improving yourself is the path to evil.

So, yeah, as the child of working-class parents who worked damn hard to educate themselves and improve themselves, and who was taught that the riches you store in your head are the only kind you can rely on through any upheaval and disaster... I don't find I want to write for the demographic that hates and fears education, but admires unearned status.
I'll be over here, hanging out with the AV Club and the Intellect Ninjas.

In other writing news, my 33 e-queries have netted 18 form rejections, 7 no-answer-means-no, and 3 request for partials, one of which led to a request for a full on a 2-week exclusive. One week to go.
I'm not laying any heavy burden of hope on it, but it was nice to have someone say "I'm enjoying this. Can I have the full?"
Oh, and I sold a story to Mindflights, my second story-sale evaaah, and the first story I wrote with some vague intention of selling it (Spellcheck). I'll put a link up once the story actually sees pixels.

not so much resolution as resolve

Time to make a new Rejection Pledge for a new year. Since I'm concentrating on novel(s) at present, I set my sights fairly low, making a pledge of 12 rejections last year, and achieving 19.

The most recent rejections:

Dear Barbara,

Thank you for submitting "Foretold" to ABYSS & APEX. As you know, we kept it for second round consideration but ultimately decided not to accept it for publication. The competition this month was strong and while we came up with an excellent table of contents for our next issue, we had to say no to many works (like this!) that we wish we could keep.

I hope you'll consider us again, and I wish you the best success in placing this story elsewhere.

******

Dear Barbara,

Thank you for submitting "Bride of the Vampire" to The Town Drunk. I'm afraid that after careful consideration, we have decided not to accept it for publication.

I remember reviewing this story on OWW some time ago. I was impressed with it then, and I still am. The premise is clever, and we appreciated the social commentary. There's some nice wry humor here as well.

That being said, some of our readers perceived a darker streak in the piece:

"Very clever, but a tad more disturbing than humorous with hints that Nikolai may truly be monster. It's a fine story -- just not light. I think the author should rework it and refocus it into a serious piece with shades of horror, which would make it unsuitable for us."

And: "I liked the idea that Nikolai's motives were not especially pure. I also think it could be reworked into a more horrifying piece, but I do think it could still be funny."

I'm not sure all readers would share these perceptions, but since our magazine is focused on lighthearted fare, these reactions are a concern.

Also, we all felt that the story needed to get off to a stronger start and have a tighter focus overall. The motives of the journalist and her cameraman need to be made clear a bit sooner, in our opinion. Our impression is that the plot takes just a little too much time to "coalesce," leaving the reader feeling ungrounded for a bit too long.

We wish you the best of luck in placing this story elsewhere, and we certainly hope to see more of your work in the future.

********

Fairly positive rejections, those.

Isn't this a strange profession? Being pleased about rejections, cheering oneself on to increase wordcount, and then cheering oneself on again to cut those words out in revision.

varieties of good news

First is that Monday saw the polished ms of The Willow Knot out of the house and into the postal system. 105,000 words, 510 pp in standard manuscript format. Sent via 'expedited mail', which is really just parcel post, but with a tracking number, which by previous experience will work until it hits the US border, or else until it reaches NY, where it will enter some sort of void. Probably a null void.
Anyway, gone baby gone. Now I need to up the wordcount in The Astrologer's Death to something respectable before I hit NaNoWriMo.

Second is that I've heard back about my x-rays and blood tests. No erosion in my joints. I am not a river delta (obligatory de Nile joke here). My blood is also normal, with no RA signs so far.
My ferratin level is crappy again, but I'm almost used to hearing that.
So it seems I'm pretty much a poster girl for methotrexate. The swelling in my left hand knuckles has gone down, though not disappeared, and there hasn't been anything I could definitely call side effects. I have had a mild nausea during the days, but that could just as easily be the cold I'm enduring, which has put my humours sadly out of balance--far more phlegm than blood or choler or black bile.

The pears and plums are all done, with very little waste, so I'm not too guiltstruck. Two apple trees to go, and I'm somewhere into the second dozen of pies I've ever made in my life.

A long drive into the interior last weekend, with gorgeous weather for most of it, that probably deserves a longer post.

And I'm reading manuscripts for a couple of my VPX classmates that are awful damned good.

standing in a draft

It all depends how one defines 'complete'. The ever-expanding first draft of The Willow Knot is 91k. The last quarter has many notes-to-self about bits to expand or insert. The story is all there, yes. The narrative isn't, necessarily.
My first drafts of short stories or of chapters (to be posted on workshops, for instance) are fairly clean. I usually tweak and polish while re-reading, so my standard for first draft may be more tight-arse than some. Notes to self have usually been replaced by the relevant text before anyone sees them. This leaving it as is and going off for a month(ish) to research and work on other things isn't what I'm used to. I'll have to see how it works.
Rather presumptuous to talk about 'what I'm used to', when I've completed, oh, one co-written novel thus far. Siege of the Revenants was composed mostly on email, writing and emailing back and forth to each other for about a year, writing scenes as the fancy took us, leaping about in space and time. Then fitting the jigsaw together and noting the missing scenes (sky, sky, sky, reflection of sky, grass, sky). I did the note-taking, but M-- did the first collation and first full draft, so it's doubtful whether I have completed a first draft previously.
Revisions, heck yeah. I like revisions. It's the instinct to tidy rather than clean.

Conventional wisdom is that the second draft is the first draft trimmed by 10%. I know for certain sure this will not be the case. I'll be able to trim, yes, but I'll be adding at least another 5k, and it wouldn't surprise me if the second draft verged on 100k. Unfortunately, there isn't the 10k of angst and explanation that I cut out of Siege, so the third draft reduction is going to take out meat as well as fat. Bones have their own beauty, scraped clean.
My study's ornament, thou shell of death.
Once the bright face of my betrothed lady,
When life and beauty naturally fill'd out
These ragged imperfections
Okay, so Tourneur didn't agree.

In the meantime, I've gotten back to "Climbing Boys", and after that, I hope, to "Elementary Magic" (which needs a new title). I'm reading the Secret Memoirs of Princess Lamballe, and Bohemia in the eighteenth century, by Robert Kerner, by way of research. Both of them have odd prose styles, demanding to be read out loud, which I would, if I weren't slowly recovering from a sore throat.
I've got some lovely books on palace architecture, which I'm not letting myself look at until I've finished "Climbing Boys".

It's very odd to plop into the window seat in the morning and open the short stories folder instead of the novels folder. I've been set on the one storyline since October (with a break for writing "Chimps on a Blimp") and I'm a creature of habit.
Priscilla doesn't mind. She nags me to get into the window seat and make her a lap, so she can wedge herself against the laptop and turn into a purring shedding muff. This the cat that wouldn't go near a lap when she first arrived. But perhaps since I pull a duvet over my legs, she can pretend she's not really on my lap?

Submissions and rejections: Bunged "Spellcheck" off to On Spec, which has to maintain a percentage of Canadian content (yay for restrictive culture laws!) to keep its grant. In a spirit of what the heck, entered Fold in the Glimmer Train Fiction Open, which accepts entries up to 20k wordage. I'll have to check if "Bride" is anywhere presently, because I don't think I've hit Realms of Fantasy with it yet. "Foretold" has come home to me, unwanted by Fantasy Magazine, and I may try it at Weird Tales (received a recent issue of WT from Ferret, so I have an idea what they print).

Just finished reading: You Don't Have to Be Evil to Work Here, But It Helps, by Tom Holt. This is a follow-on from The Portable Door, but could probably be read on its own. Hapless Brit becomes involved with magic, gods, random heroes and bureaucracy, finds frustration, danger and love. I really should post a couple of the contract provisions for selling your soul to the Devil, which are all too plausible. It's a book that requires being read out loud to whoever else is around--not least because they'll be wanting to know what you're giggling at.
All Together Dead, by Charlaine Harris. Both the friend who lent this to me and another friend who was present said that this instalment was disappointing. I'm undecided.
Bad aspects - perhaps I should have expected it from the title, but there are definitely too many characters. Some show up just for the sake of showing up, as if it were a reunion episode on tv. I agree that Harris should bounce her 'continuity girl' rather than mentioning her in the acknowledgements. The first chapters are full of characters introduced with tags and explanations, and several of them don't do anything to justify the introduction. Yes, it can be difficult to enter an established series and not know who everyone is, but there's always the option of providing an annotated character list before the story starts. (I love Bubba as much as the next reader, and it's nice to know that he made it through the New Orleans flood, but he Doesn't Appear In This Story, so don't waste space on him!)
Good aspects - my friends said that nothing happens or changes, and the changes in Sookie's relationships aren't fully established or explored; the focus is more on the big picture of vampiric politics and human retaliation. In that big picture, there are some serious changes, and I'm curious how the vampire hierarchy will shake out in the next book.

ghostly online presence

This morning I registered my domain name. I feel a bit queasy and what-have-I-done? about it. I'll have time to adjust, because Mark is off to Kalamazoo (and Tyler too, whoops, wrong rhyme) and I decided to go with Islandnet through him. Nothing can be done until he returns, by which time my stomach should have settled.
Islandnet's $10 Cdn a month, but they're local and easy to get hold of. Which reminds me that I need to start collecting receipts and things so that I can figure out what to do about my taxes next year. Argh. I've seen what Mark goes through doing the small business taxes thing for Gaukler Medieval Wares, and now I'm venturing into the self-employed course?
He keeps saying "You're allowed two work-related conferences a year!" in a cheerful voice. I hope that means he'll keep on doing my taxes.
I suppose designing a website could be fun, in between the screaming in frustration and banging my head parts. Should I have lots of blinking lights and contrasting backgrounds? Maybe some Flash animations to liven things up?
Let's see. Things a website should have: index, bibliography, news, excerpts, bio?

Writing: Finally, into the last quarter of Willow Knot. 83k - did I once say blithely that I was allowing myself 80k so I'd have 5k slop allowance? Ha. I'll be lucky to get out of first draft under 90k. On the good side, much of the last quarter is already written, including the ending. And I'm starting to see my way through the court/intrigue part, and understand what happened there.
I know who the bear is now, and an acute reader should pick it up pretty quickly as well.
Began the conversation that should lead to Alard proposing to Myl (Mylla now) but they've veered off into talking about the divine right of kings (not in those words). That's all right, since it works towards Myl's purpose at court and the dream-vision.
I'm feeling a little more confident about them falling in love in a meeting-of-minds Heyerish way, which is my ideal. Not that I can write as well as Georgette Heyer, but at least if I aim high I fail higher than if I aim low.
I've also realised that neither of them will be in love when they marry, and that Myl's going to enter it in quite a cold-blooded way, hoping to get security and free Tyl from enchantment. With luck the reader will be fond enough of her by then to forgive this unromantic attitude.
I will--I will finish the draft this month. I swear. Witness this.

The first 3 chapters of Cost of Silver (pt. 1 The Astrologer's Death) went up on my LJ. *flinches at admission of having a Livejournal account*. Ferret caught me up on a major historical glitch, which I am humbly grateful for her doing. She also pointed me towards a way around it. Words are insufficient to thank her. Bookherder (another Furtive Scribbler) demanded the next chapter, even if I've run out of festival names (octave, quinzaine - then what? I dunno) so I'll probably do it, because cliffhangers are cheating.
Re-reading the first chapters pleased me--I've gotten past the 'this is all dreadful' stage and reached the 'this isn't bad, did I write it?' stage. If I picked it up in a shop I'd read further.
Soon I'll be able to get back to Astrologer, while letting Willow Knot sit before revision. One of my OWW critique semi-circle was asking about it, too.
Maybe get the Boxer Rebellion magic story and the poltergeist chimney-sweeps story done as well?

Glimmer Train rejected "Foretold", no surprise, and "Bride" didn't win for short fiction, again no surprise. Tesseracts rejected "Spellcheck" which will leave me wondering if I should have sent "Bride" instead--my two stories with Canadian settings.
"Spellcheck" is off to SH, "Foretold" to Fantasy, and "Bride" to Clarkesworld because it has a sexy vampire and I only need 4 more rejections to meet my 2007 goal.

still writing, still submitting

Let's see.
Realms of Fantasy rejected "Foretold", and Strange Horizons rejected "Bride of the Vampire" (though they liked the writing). I was going to send Bride off to RoF, but after thinking it over for a while, I submitted both of them to Glimmer Train, one as a regular submission, the other as a contest entry. Mark fronted me the contest fee, on the rather sweet grounds that I'd subsidised his career in its early days.
Glimmer Train doesn't do genre. I write genre, mostly fantasy. So was this a bad idea? Well..."Foretold" deals with gods and men, a conflict which has had some long-term mainstream usage, and one plot aspect (men forgetting the gods) is kind of tired in an sff context, but may look fresher to someone without a genre background. It also has a deeply downer ending. (Rocks fall, everybody dies) which seems to be a commonplace of mainstream or litfic.
"Bride of the Vampire" doesn't have a lot of plot. It's more observational, what I think is called 'slice of life' by some. There are some pop-cult refs which will probably sail past someone who only reads litfic, but they also sailed past an sf-reading critiquer, so it's fortunate the minimal plot doesn't depend on them.
"Milk Run", retitled "Chimps on a Blimp", has floated off to its fate, whatever that might be, so I'm back to working on The Willow Knot.

I've had another happy plotty thing happen. Once Myl gets hold of a hatchet, she can make full use of the osier-bed she found at the marsh. I'd sketched in much of what she does, very lightly, and my old fascination with the prehistoric-to-medieval timber trackways through marshland popped up. Causing her to make narrow hurdles (the fence kind, not the jumping kind) and make a secret pathway out into the marsh, along the lines of the Sweet Track.
I don't know yet whether she'll need it herself, but with the addition of a threat to Alard to the plot-mix, and him being (as according to the original text) away hunting while she's giving birth, I'm pretty sure that he's going to need that trackway to escape from the people after his head. Tyl, of course, will be the one to lead him to it, and that will give Tyl more presence in the events, which he needs.
When Myl first finds the osier-bed, she sees it as a troll army, frozen while erupting from the earth, with the stools being their contorted faces, and the osier coppicing a crown of spears on each. So I'm playing about with the idea of having the osiers do something thorough to Alard's pursuers, during the night, so it's all by sound-effects and no one's quite sure what's happening but it sounds nasty. We'll see.

interval: what's out right now

I'm waiting for someone on Absolute Write to start the Rejection Pledge for this year. Last year I made my target of 12 rejections, plus a bonus acceptance, go me!
This is what I have out on submission, so I have a head start on my rejection total, but I still don't think I'll go higher than 12, because I Need To Finish The Novel and can't be putting too much time into knocking off short stories:
'Spellcheck' is out to Tesseracts Eleven.
'Foretold' is out to Holy Horrors anthology (very longshot).
'Fluke' is out to Asimov's.
Siege of the Revenants is out to Juno Books.
'Bride of the Vampire' has just gone out to Strange Horizons.
And yes, as soon as I get the rejection for any of those, I have a next market pencilled in for it to head off to. None of these stories are lollygagging around the house, eating their heads off and dropping towels on the bathroom floor.

I don't think I've hopped about in a Christopher Robinish way about selling 'The King of Elfland's Stepdaughter' to Coyote Wild, have I? I should. I have been paid! I asked for a photocopy of the check, though I haven't framed it yet. I am a real writer!!!!eleventy!!!
I'm not sure which issue it will show up in. Not the first, I know that--the long story spaces are going to Elizabeth Bear and Sherwood Smith. Talk about starting strong.