April 27 update PS

    A short bit here, I had planned on saying a couple of things but forgot one, so there could be another PS soon.  Probably should have made this a new update since it's May already but (Shoulder shrug) it still feels like a PS.  

Anyway:

 Working on my story for Q3 of WotF--for the new people that is Writers of the Future contest. Four contests each year. I added a plot line because they at WotF seem to like stories where the MC has overcome something from their past as well as the problem at hand. I sent it out to four people to critique--part of the hatrack writing forum--but even before I received the first crit back I decided to take out that plot line. It didn’t seem to fit as well as first did. And I was reminded that Dean Wesley Smith says Do Not Second Guess yourself or the editor. And I was reminded that he also says trust your instinct when it comes to story, especially later when you feel like revising it to pieces. So I ripped out the threads of the plot point. The stitches on that addition didn't really fit in with the tapestry I am making after all. And I believe there are a couple of minor changes too. 

How good the story really is will have to wait. Well, the story is good--the writing is another matter. 

Got three stories I'm actively working on now. I've been told I'm a natural born storyteller even even if that doesn’t help with writing. The other night I decided I needed to work on a story instead of critting, thought about starting a new one with lots of action- as in space battles, things blowing up and lasers and blasters firing a lot, but ended up working on one I hadn't worked on for a week and a half at least. I did the opening during that online workshop--Dean Wesley Smith said it was a powerful opening and I should do the rest of the story but try to what he calls crash different genre together. I thought about it for a few weeks finally decided to go with my original idea for it. But I'm not quite sure about one plot point. Would it really fit or not. It would make the story more complicated and longer but is it really needed? Can I explain another plot point without it? This story is basically like another story I just did. This one is realtionship-UF-paranormal with a touch of horror. The other one had more than a touch of horror though. I feel like I should go with the more complicated tale even though I'm not quiet sure of one other point. The MC has to go all out to save people and his wife, way beyond what he has thought he could go. Not at all unusual in stories but readers still like that plot. I realized though to put in this mysterious plot point--take too long to explain here--I had to go back to the near the beginning to put in something that hints at what is about to happen. And a couple of hints that my MC has had battles kinda like this before but on a whole lower level and with help. 

Decided I needed to rant at my writing.

I just can't get past that plateau I've been on for the last four years, as I have said before but I'm still there. Stuck half way up that mountain--again I thought I was making headway and again haven't moved. I forget if I said it here but someone on the WotF writers forum said that Mediocre was originally a mountain you had to climb. So okay this plateau I’m on is half way up that mountain. Need to find my voice again or stop doing the same mistakes I keep making. 

Thought I would send another story to F&SF this past weekend but it is longer and needs more work than I remembered. Of course it needs work--lots of it but I mean work I can do on it. Give Scott P. there a longer break which he might appreciate even though he probably doesn't read my stories all the way through anyway. 

Thought about sending that story Scott rejected cleanly but can't figure out where to send a just under 10,000 word story. I just sent one to IGMS, so I can’t send it there. 

And OH Boy got that one back in record time.  IGMS or (Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show) usually takes four to eight weeks to get back to me. This time it was two. Funny thing is that I know of two writers who received a personal rejection in less time than it usually takes for me to get back a regular rejection. Sara Ellis over at IGMS probably knows my writing by now and what to expect. That was one of my better, as in writing, newer stories too. But it's still my writing so that isn't saying much.

IGMS is one of the few markets that take a very long time. Tor.com is one even though they have evidently cut their response time in half which still makes it one of the longer ones. Analog is taking a very long time these days. The old editor-Stanley Schmidt retired and evidently took a few staff people with him. So supposedly it is taking so long now because everyone new person has to figure out their jobs. Hopefully that is the reason so it will speed back up soon. And funny thing is Asimov's is taking as long too. Same company owns both, they have the same building, so maybe what happens to one slows the other down.  

Which of course means that I can send that one story to IGMS now.

Okay, amazing this note isn’t short, longer than some of my regular updates, but hopefully it’s not too boring.

That’s it for now.