New Rod Tale, My stories and a very mini update

For those who like Urban Fantasy and for those who have read the previous ones, I have finally posted a new Rod tale--well, half of it. The whole thing is over 1600 words and I split it around 840.

The MC is a young man who can manipulate Mana-a natural energy produced by the very smallest of the building block of matter--it's much like the Vibration energy used by NA in my E-novel. Rod has a lot to learn even though he is talented, caring, intelligent. He has various friends and enemies, some of which haven't been introduced yet. He has fought and sometime outthought, a dragon and gnomes and Dark mages and he will do so more as I post more tales. Some fights are very dangerous, like this one, while others are a almost comical nascence.

There are now 8 and a half stories of various lengths. This one is the longest so far. Some adventures in the future will be even longer.


While I was at it I also posted a flash story, twitter tales and a couple of mini stories on my story page. They are fantasy, science fiction and general fiction.



I have been busy with various not so bad but busy things in real life, writing and being frustrated with the WotF contest I have mentioned before, and I am getting a steampunk novel ready for Indie publishing which will be soon. It might be titled, "Shadow Defender" Or maybe something like "Night Shift".  Anyway, hopefully it will be up at the end of Feb. And along with another Science Fiction set. I was hoping to do one with stories on Star Freighters but I have only three, I want at least  five. Well, there are two more I could use, but I want to try sending them out some more.

For once I have the next quarter's story finished for WotF and just started to revise it for the end of March. I plan to take another of Dean Wesley Smith's online workshops next month. More novel sells would help that.

Writing Update June 24 '14 E-novel--WotF-story sets-western fantasy

        I have been busy writing and doing a bit of learning on writing. Yes, just a bit this time around.

   First of all: My E-novel. I just finished the revision of ch 9 which means two more chapters to go. I am a week late on them, but I think I can get them done this next week since I am on vacation. Then comes the last spell check--that could take hours but hopefully won’t since most of the misspellings have been corrected. No, not all since I may have created new ones. 

And then also comes making a cover. I am still debating if want to try it myself. I had one idea, I think I could do but after looking over quite a few samples I may do it in a different way. I’m not sure if I can do it that way. But I’m not sure if I want to take a chance and spend one hundred to two hundred dollars on it. I could but there’s no guaranty it would sell enough copies to make it worth it. I would like to think so, but there are too many variables. Fifty to seventy-five I would do. 

And if I did use one of the cover sites it could take a month longer to get it done.

I am already thinking of the blurb. I have three ways of doing it and sometime next week I probably will type each one out and see if I can get some people to look them over.

The title--well I still don’t know.  It’s called “Two Struggles” now since my MC has an inner fight as well as the outer fight with the bad guy. I thought about “An Inner And An Outie” but I somehow I don’t think so.  :)     “Duo  Conflicts”? (Shoulder shrug)  I can almost come up with something, but it won’t quite come. 

Second of all:   Been working on my Rod tales--I think I mentioned them last time. They started out as being very short, less than 300 words, stories about Rod the mage after I decided to try a couple twitter tales. They were a bit more than 140 characters. I decided to do some more and forget about making them twitter length. However I ended  up with three--maybe four--of the 12 stories being over 1200 words. This one is most probably over 2,000. I have one I hand wrote out that will be under 500 words again but so far each story is longer than the last by quite a bit. I wanted to either post them on my blog or E-mail them out to anyone interested. I would need to collect addresses for those interested though. The stories would go out 3 or one or one half or one third at a time depending on length. I may just put them all in an E-book. But that won’t be for a while since I am still writing them. Speaking of that I did revise one and sent it out. More on that one later. And another 500 or so word one I revised and placed on Google+ community called “Saturday Scenes” designed for flash stories.  

Third of all: I am still working on the Writers of the Future contest. Not even a Honorable Mention yet.  Not with the new guy Dave Farland even though I did have a couple with the late. The one I am working on now is due June 30th. I have a second revision to do on it when I get various crits back. So far one out of four has been sent. I said I wouldn’t need them until the 22nd so since I am typing this on the 22nd none are really late yet.  The one I am doing now is different for me and was inspired by a pic on G+. We shall see if I do better on this one. There is reason to believe it is a bit better than some of my previous tries. I will start working on the final revision Monday even if I don’t have any other crits. That would give me one week to finish it while I am working on the E-novel. Some crits will come in during that time.  I have been accused of writing for Dave and I might just be too much--however he has stated what he wants. Which makes it sound like he wants us to write for him. And some of the advice he gives would work more generally, so it would be writing to make yourself better. 

Fourth of all: It’s later--that is time to mention again the one Rod tale I sent out. I wanted to send it to Beneath Ceaseless Skies but they don’t want modern fantasies. Which is about the only type they don’t want. But I had the thought of transforming it to a western--which they don’t mind. It’s short enough and the setting is right so that it would only take a very small handful of word changes to do it. Next the idea hit me to make this a second adventure of a Cowboy mage I already wrote a nice long story about. That would take a bit more work but not all that much. If I did I could still keep the original story for the Rod tales. That is I think I could. If someone did buy the Western version I wonder if there would be enough changes to make it a different story. I could make a couple more changes and see if it would be okay.

 Fifth of all: I started the revision of what I am calling themed story sets or broken novels. In other words a series of short stories about the same person. I have mentioned these before: one is a steampunk sp ops series about the Lieutenant in charge of a ten man team, one is about a different mage, one is about an alchemist. The revision I am working on is the Sp Ops series. I finished the first story and am maybe a third of the way through number two-which is 25,000 words long. The Alchemist series isn’t quite finished. The story I am working on very close to being done, but I may do one more to get the total word count up. I want each set to be at least 55,000 words, which I will E-publish. 

Sixth of all:This segment is more a potpourri part. I read on one Q+ post that someone had sent out ten stories at once for the first time. That reminded me, I could use my vacation to send out stories. One per day even though I blew that already. Which means one day will have to be two. I also am doing critiques for critters.org. An online critiquing group. They now have five or more groups with different genres. I don’t send in stories anymore but I like doing the crits. This week and next I can catch up and get a little ahead. I’ve already done one. 

And it took me a couple of days to finish this, so I am done with that Rod tale--it came in at over 4,000 words.  And I am finished with Ch 10 of my E-novel so one more to go. 

I think there was something else to say but I forget right now---if I recall there could be a PS. I haven’t had one for a while, but last month I almost added one, didn’t get to it though.  

Feb 9th Writing update

Okay, another new writing update-this includes my Indie stuff too:

I finished my themed story set for the Urban Fantasy series of short stories even though one isn’t all that short. My MC is a painter who makes a living selling his paintings and writing books for Mid Grade readers. I have included that now and then in his various adventures but I think I may add one scene with him delivering a painting and/or doing a show at a gallery. I’m not sure where I will place that but I need to go back over my stories--half of them need revising and the other half need minor changes like names and how something works--anyway, so it wouldn’t be hard to add that scene. 

I need to finish the story at work on my Steampunk themed story set. I may this week but probably about halfway through next week. 

I need to restart one of the final stories in my Alchemy story set. It may not be as long as I thought it would be but I have more stories in that world so I may still have 50,000 words. If not I will have to do another story. 

The other day I was thinking about the covers for these sets because it hit me all of a sudden. I could go through CreateSpace to do a Print On Demand paper book. Wow, I had forgotten about that as I had forgotten that was one reason why I started putting seven stories in my story sets instead of five. I checked CreateSpace and found that only one placed only five stories in his CreateSpace anthologies. All others with few  stories do seven. Anyway, my 50,000+ story sets should be good no matter how many stories I have in them. So back to the covers.

The Steampunk cover would be the easiest. All I need is a small streamlined airship for the upper half of the cover. Maybe a border and from one to ten people dressed in all black including their faces on the bottom half. Maybe blowguns in the border or as the border. On the side would be a smaller pic of the blowguns or airship if I don’t have blowguns. On the top of the back would be the airship. Under it would be a blurb. Oh, on the cover would be the title and my name. I’m not sure what colors but I assume darker ones would be a good fit, not sure about the color of the title and/or my name though. 

For the UF set I wondered about making the cover various objects from the stories: a griffin, a man made of super hot plasma, a horse drown carriage, a giant horse shaped golem, Tinker Bell type fairies, Hell hounds. But all of those would be way too much and I’m not sure if I could settle for just a couple.---well, maybe the Hell hounds and golem. But I decide on something simple-easier to do too. A fancy stand alone coat rack with a full length brown leather jacket on it, an easel with a canvas on it and a staff.  One object will be on the side, the back will have a smaller pic of the whole cover with blurb under it. 

The Alchemy cover would be simple too. The top half would be a Transit--the Ford mini delivery truck--possibly with some decorations on the side. Bottom half would be various bowls and jars made from various materials and plastic containers. Not sure what would be on the side, maybe a few of the jars and such. The Transit would be on the back with blurb.

But first of all I need to revise the stories I have and finish one maybe two more. And finish the Alchemy tales. I think I will work on getting the other two ready even before I finish the Alchemy stories. And I need someone to go over all of them...maybe more than one person since I have so many stories. Speaking of that this leads to my second point in this update.

My Novel. A very nice person volunteered to go over the novel for me. She has had some experience with editing and she happened to be free at the moment. I sent her the first five chapters. If two through five aren’t enough to send her screaming down the street I will send the rest. But it will take a while to fix what she finds in. But with that done I only need a cover. Thinking of the story sets inspires me to come up with a easier cover for this novel. $520 is more affordable but it’s still a lot for something that might take five years to bring in that much. Maybe...hmm I don’t know something that shows she is a Mage. She doesn’t use a staff or anything else. Maybe I could find a pic of the back head of someone with short purple hair. And/or a Griffin maybe? (Shoulder shrug) I still have to think on that cover.  

I haven’t put down any goals for ’14 yet but getting at least two story sets and the Novel ready to sale would be included. As would stories for each quarter of the WotF contest. Speaking of that:

I have finished 2,200 + words on a story for this quarter at WotF. Finished the first section. The second section is the section I haven’t figured out yet. I know the basics but I need more than that. But it will come as I write, the problem is how long that section will be. I could make it fairly short or find something to make it around 2,200 words. I know the ending mostly, just need a couple of small details. This is a type of story I haven’t done for a while and really may have done only a couple of. But I like the story. I will say it has two points of tension all of which I will say is that one is personal and the other is life and death. 

I missed the online workshop I wanted to take from Dean Wesley Smith but found that Dave Farland has some too and Cat Rambo has been having one session online workshops. I wanted to take one-the time of day was right- but it looks like I got the date wrong and it was not will be. I say to any writer reading this check them out. $300 for Dean’s. I think Dave’s are less and the one session classes are under fifty. 

Another goal would be to take at least one more online workshop--maybe two.

Seems like there was something else I wanted to mention but can’t think of it right now, so unless I do think of it before I post this, expect a PS. I carried out that threat last update so I might again--one never knows about me.

First writing update '14 with a bit of advice

 Okay my first writing update in 2014.

First of all:

My Indie book is still stalled. I decided to go ahead and politely decline the offer to help from the one party who has the first few chapters of my novel and was supposed to help with the real city setting. They are so busy they didn’t have time during Christmas New Years to send a note saying they would be busy for a while or am almost done with the overtime. So I can try to work on the city stuff-I do have a web site to help with that. But As I sat and thought about the novel I didn’t know what to do next. I would assume check with the guy who said he would edit it and see if he still could for the same price. If so then try kickstarter without a video. The book can use the copy editing but should I go over it one more time? Redo the first ten pages that have been copy edited then try again with people who would look it over for free? Decisions..... 

For Dave's Kicks Right here

Second of all:

Just sent another story to Writers of the Future contest. 

I had this series of thoughts the other day

Hmmm, catching up on some of Dave's Daily Kicks In the Pants-where he advises writers-he’s the first judge on all WotF entries...some very interesting advice (said in the accent of the short guy in the WW11 German helmet peeking around a tree) 

Some questions I asked myself.

Did I do any misdirection? Hmm, a tad maybe??? I mean it might have been just a tad. 

Were the characters the way he likes them? Hmmm? Maybe, 

I was reminded about originality. Again Hmmm(I do seem say that a lot) Yes, no, maybe, sort of. (Yes, all of the above) 

There were more but those are the ones that caught my attention for my Q1 tale. 

I know shouldn't do too much over thinking but we can do some. 

With what I learned with those two crits I've mentioned a time or three, I don't feel much faith in my ability to tell how well I did on any of that. I think my writing was significantly better and I feel like it better be after all the work I put in working on improving it. But I have a poor record of thinking and feeling about the level of my writing. 

As I also say a lot, though, "We shall see."

I worked on two of the larger problems with my last two entries--at least according to two previous winners who were in agreement on certain points. A third problem I worked on too but not so much on purpose, it just kinda of happened as I was working on the story.

Speaking of that for the next quarter, I thought about redoing one of those rejected entries using the two crits but I finally want to write a story that has been in my mind for three quarters.  

Third of all:

 Almost finished with two themed story sets I want to India publish. In this case by theme I mean the stories are about the same person. I think I have mentioned these before but here they are again. One them is about a Lieutenant of a steampunk Special Ops team. I have three stories done and started a fourth that is more about his personal life. Hopefully that one will be short. I want to do a second personal tale too. All of those stories will come out to be 54,000 to 56,000 words. That world is set in an alt universe. Instead of a large US there are six or so countries that take up all of the US, some parts of Canada and maybe a touch of Mexico. I would have to have a special preface that explained it all and probably a map. 

  For the second theme I am almost finished with a sixth, or was it seventh, story about a Modern day Mage. Urban Fantasy in other words. I would like to do one more shorter one with just him and his girl friend and maybe a couple of gnomes or Tinkerbell type of fairies he has to deal without letting her know what he is doing. Could be humorous if I can pull that off. 

Both will be long enough where I thought about joining all the individual stories to make them one novel. That might be a bit short for a novel 50,000 to 60,000 words but it would be okay for Indie.  

And there’s a third theme set about an alchemist I need to finish. Six to eight stories in that set but they might be shorter than the two others.

Fourth of all:

I’ve already said this but I need to start sending out stories on a regular bases again. I was going to start doing one per day but didn’t continue after three. Got too carried away writing and forgot. I need to slap myself or some such to remember. One will go out later tonight for a magazine that had been closed to submissions is now reopen for that. The editor is a fellow who has read most of my stories I want to see if I can impress him now. 

Fifth of all:

I have at least three stories I need to finish--not counting the ones for the theme story sets. And another three that need revising. Not sure when I will get to them though since I’m working on the theme story sets, not to mention two contests. But I need to get to them.

Sixth of all:

For quite a while for some strange unknown reason I kept typing out streampunk for steampunk. After a while I decided why not go for it but I had no idea how. But a basic idea popped into my head so I will be writing a streampunk tale. Hmm, come to think of it streampunk could go in two completely different directions but the second way would be related to cyberpunk which would be fun to write. Maybe I will go both ways. But I will see how it goes with the first way because I may do a story for WotF. Dave likes original settings and plots. 

That’s it for me with this one but as usual there is a warning. I can’t think of anything I’ve forgotten but it’s possible I could do one or three PS-s.  

Happy New Year you all-----Do good writing stuff which includes practice and learning. 

Oct 18 update-WotF, ethnics, short stories.

 Okay, time for another writing update. This one has a very short Indie update:

I’m still stuck on my video for Kickstarter. I experimented and found I will have problems focusing with just me doing it. Plus finding a good level for the camera to be set at. I asked three different places for suggestions but so far no responses.

Now to writing. My last WotF story failed, completely. I really thought this one had better writing and could get a HM but nothing. It’s out at Fantasy and Science Fiction. They seem to be taking longer these days...that’s not saying much though. At one to three days longer they are still have about the fastest response around. Lightspeed is faster by far as in it takes JJA one to three days, there’s another one--I forget who at the moment--that is also quick but F&SF is faster than even most cyber magazines. Anyway, I even more think of this story as my best so far--especially in writing but the story is good too--I hope for a personal comment at least but...

I have problems trying to remember to send out stories, I usually send a bunch out on a Saturday and/or Sunday. Most of them being over the internet these days. I think I will try one a day and see if that works better. 

I am working on three stories at the moment: a steampunk Special Ops team form the POV of the Lieutenant in charge-it’s the second in a series, a UF story--the latest in a series abut a male mage--most of mine lately have been female mages, and the latest in my Urban Alchemist series. This last one has six or seven stories in it. Most are short and what I call simple stories. No world saving, not even any person saving. One story my hero Samuel has to find the clothes of a group of people. The clothes, including purses etc, just vanished. And the people are locked out of their homes. It does take Samuel three tries to get the clothes back but is in danger, he learns something in the precess. Another story deals with a Gnome plague someone has.  This last one is a combo. I seem to be doing a bunch of Gnome stories. That was the third one. I may do another one soon. 

I did a hard SF flash. It’s at least close to hard SF anyway. I sent that one to F&SF today. I originally wrote it as 460 or so word story but I expanded on it, delated some stuff, changed some details, added details etc, and now it’s around 720 words. I may try to add enough to send it to Futures, which wants hard SF stories from 750 to 850. 

The story I have now at WotF is still good writing--for me and a good story--I think. It may also have the novelty that David Farland wants. I use characters that aren’t so novel but I put a twist to the plot. I hope. 

Trying to decide on which story to do for the next quarter at WOTF. I have one story there now but it won’t be judged for at least another month. I think I will do one story I have hand written out. I didn’t do it on purpose but it came out the type of story they like. So with a little modifying here and there I think it will fit better. The writing is another problem though. But I still have another type of story I thought of two quarters ago. I know pretty much the whole plot. Never wrote it out though, very recently I came up with the opening. Maybe I do it the next quarter but start it sooner. The one I hand wrote might be different enough too plus it does have try and fail cycles like David wants, plus using the five human senses for setting and other things. We shall see how he likes this one. Finally got back the rejection before I could post this....He doesn’t-of course. So as I have said before only one pro editor likes  my writing and he’s not taking any stories at the moment.

I am tempted to work on NaNoWriMo this year, more on that here. But they want you to do a 50,000 word novel during the month of Nov. Fifty thousand is rather short for a novel but it’s a good range for a month. I have done it four times. This time I want to do the version where you can do short stories as long as they relate and are a total of 50,000. I have a couple of ideas on that but I have also thought about rewriting-as from scratch-a couple of novels I started but never finished. That was years ago and I’ve learned so much about writing since I would have to change so much it would be easier to just start over. One is Space Opera, one is UF actually set in the same world as the one I am trying to get Indie published, and a third is epic fantasy-I think. But I am also tempted not to do it. A whole lot of rushing around doing just that story plus a tiny bit on other stuff. I need to start my next WotF story and revise a couple of short stories plus work on getting that novel ready to go. 

And speaking of ethnic MCs--not that anyone was at the moment--but I have decided that one of my next MCs in UF will be half Arabic and half Mexican. I mean as in from Mexico. Or I may make the UF guy I am doing now that fusion. I have a story with a black MC and one with a half fairy and half Armenian. The number two book for Two Struggles will have a black mage and hispanic plus one in a wheelchair. Actually I have already introduced the hispanic one but he will be around more in the second. Even though I dislike Political Correctness very much--too demanding and dictatorial no matter how it started--using different ethnics, females, and even people with disabilities goes beyond PCness in my viewpoint. Nothing wrong with it--of course being forced, one way or another to do it is Totally and Way wrong. 

That’s it for this time unless I remember something I forgot, I haven’t had a PS for a while but it’s still possible.  

Indie and Writing update Sept 15

First an Indie update.  I now have two stories sets up with Premiere catalogue at Smashwords which means they are available at other sites too. Such as Amazon, and Barnes and Noble. Still no sales yet though. I figured there would not be a lot for these but still expecting a couple or a few maybe.

I am working on a Odd story set, Because most are short--less than 2,00 words--I’m doing eleven stories with that set. Next I will do a Urban fantasy set--that one will be significantly longer since most of my UF stories are over 5,000 words. So a seven story set could be 37,000 to 50,000 words long. 

Still need to find the time to experiment with a video for kickstarter, unless I can find someone to do one for me cheap--as in less than fifty dollars.

-----------------------

Sent in my Q4 story for WotF. It is........... :)    

Seriously:

It is my second story for Q4. The first one didn’t see to work right. Most readers didn’t get what it was about and there were other problems so I switched stories. It's one of my favorite stories but not sure about the writing. While someone made a comment during the critting I realized I had two info dumps one right after the other. Maybe even 2.5. I moved things around a bit, redid some sentences-it was also pointed out that in four places I had an extra word left over from previous sentences. Yikes, I don't think I've had that many for quite a while. 

Something else was pointed out but I left it in so we shall see if Dave gets very far with it. After all the work and the fact that I like the storyline I hope it gets at least a HM. A Semi-finalist with a critique would be great too. My next one is still up in the air. I wanted to rewrite a story form five years ago but I have done a couple since I decided to do the rewrite that I like. One isn’t quite done but could work.

Quarter 3 hasn’t been judged yet. David Farland still seems to be reading stories so it could be another three to five weeks or as has happened before he could surprise us and it be next week we hear. I still think my Q3 story is some of my best writing--which may not be saying much though. I hope it gets a HM at least.

Been busy writing. Wrote a rather long story at work...on note paper. Something like fifty plus pages. Wrote a much shorter one on the same type of notepaper too. Only about ten pages. I may have mentioned it here but for my fantasy story set I wrote a new story of less than 1,000 words for a bonus story. This one on the notepaper is a sequel to that story. I may save it for the next fantasy story set. I didn’t set out to do a sequel but I thought about using the same type of opening and it just ended up being the same city therefore it had the same minor character. 

I wrote a new story, the fifth-in a UF series. I keeping sending the stories out but by the time I write number seven I may go ahead and E-publish them in a set, unless one sells. I am doing number six in another series which will end up the same. 

I need to start rereading my grammar books again with an emphasis on commas. I’ve read-reread and reread-three books and two online sites about commas and I still don’t get them right. 

I’m on a couple of writing communities on Google+. One has a lady who places a picture every week for anyone to write a flash story from. Last week or the week starting with Sept 8 if you are reading this later, the pic was of a girl about five who was holding the hand of a woman. They were both walking away but the girl is looking over her shoulder. The girl has fairy wings on her back. It’s a photograph not a drawing. There are trees around so it could be a forest or park. I would link to it but I think you would have to be a member of G+ if not also that community to see it. 

Anyway, my muse most have liked the picture. I came up with at least three ideas. I wrote down two. A 257 word tale and a 203 word story. I may pst them on my blog some time. 

I have not worked on any novels in the last few weeks because I have been working on the WotF stories, some short stories that wanted done now plus some odd and ends.

I need to send out more stories. I have five maybe six out, that’s nothing compared to what I usually do. Or have done, I’ve gotten out of the habit of sending out stories the last two years or so--I think I have mentioned that on pervious posts--with the exception of WotF and Fantasy and Science Fiction. I sent out three last week but one came back already. I forgot they only take stories for the first six months. Oops, I usually remember that.

I will probably be doing some more for Penumbra.  They do themed editions, The ones for next year sound very interesting. You can find the list here. Penumbra

That’s it for now. I haven’t done any for a few posts but there could be a PS for this post. There has been for previous posts. 

Oh, one PS already. I kinda of hate to use it because the deaths and destruction but the rain in Colorado made my muse sit up and take notice. The MC in the novel I am trying to Indieize lives in Boulder. I can see her in the rain, hair messed up--she has short hair so it’s not in her face-her clothes are soaked, she has to fight a demon--or some such while trying to keep her feet and not get blown down. Her friends are working on saving people but their power doesn’t stop something natural that big. They can only work on helping a couple people at a time.  Of course by the time I do another book and get that far the flooding will be over a year in the past. But still...

WotFQ3 change of plans

Oops, maybe change of plans.

I've had problems with the Third Quarter--yes I know it's not the third quarter of the year, WotF likes to do things differently and there's a reason behind it-- story. I have three tales I have thought about using. I am writing one I thought might fit with what they seem to want, except for one little detail. But I believe I have discussed that already on an earlier post. Anyway,yesterday I finished revising a story I wrote over four months ago but never got around to. Finally decided I needed to get it ready to send out. I finished it and was ready to get my name address etc on it and to send it out... or so I thought. But a while later I lay down for a minute and rested my eyes while I waited for my wife to finish with her craft site. Suddenly the idea popped into my head to use it for Q3. But I thought there isn't really all that much struggle- as one hatracker thinks they like and thinking back on volume 27 I agree- in it but my muse said, oh but there could be very easily. Instantly I came up with ways to add more struggle not only physical but emotional also. So he has to fight--make that run from-- outward opponents and at the same time fight his own tiredness and "every thing goes wrong" attitude. That is all I will say about it.

They story is UF which doesn't seem to go over too big with WotF but will shall see. A certain hatracker who is good writer has had problems with that genre and WotF. Without knowing the specific stories he sent in maybe they didn't have the right type of struggle. Maybe, maybe it wouldn't make a difference. I decided to take that chance.

At the very least this story will be improved, there will be more action and tension- more than one type I hope- plus my MC will change. More description of setting, of the human senses and more getting into my MC's mind. All of which is suppose to make a story a better tale. So if it works only half as well as I hope, it will be- as I said- a better story no matter what WotF feels about UF. Of course they are my problem with commas and it will still be my writing.

Another update thing

Okay I finished "The Sweet Scent of Blood" by Suzanne McLeod.

It wasn't quite what I expected from the beginning. I said I didn't like the world she invented but I might be able to live with it. In other words there's a chance I would read the next one, have to wait until it actually comes out and I can look it over. Suzanne is a great writer and story teller.


I think I finished the series of stories I was doing based on the hatrack challenge I mentioned earlier. I said, "I think," because I counted ten stories all together and there should have been eleven. Either I forgot one I was going to do or I miscounted. I will get around to counting them again. Now to decide what to do with them. Sounds obvious but my original idea was to sell them online as a set. 15,000 to 16,000 words with 11 stories but I may decide to try sending some out individually.

Worked on my next WotF story. I went back and added some background for the MC, reading Volume 27 they seem to like that in stories. (shrug) still my writing so who knows.

Have yet to hear about last quarter's WotF story. They might be getting close to deciding who gets to go to the next level. I have gotten Honorable Mentions- lately only with the help of the good people on hatrack- before so it is possible but it is also possible that I will last 'till the last cut. Or even go on.

Started next quarter's WotF story but I don't know. It's a different type of story for me and even though I know some of what happens in the opening and some of which happens in the end I need to come up with some of what happens in the middle. Well, all that happens that is. I will keep working on it but as I said I don't know. I have another story I might be able to add a bit to and I have a UF story I've sent out a few times but with help from the bunch at hatrack it might serve. Not sure if they like UF but so far no one has stated they don't.

Finally making some headway on that second chapter of New Mage or Two Struggles. Not much but at least it's going in the right direction. Now if I can figure out a more sophisticated title than Two Struggles but that would say the same thing.

Inner And Outer, maybe.  :)

General update

Okay finish with NaNoWriMo as I referenced a couple of posts ago. So I am catching up with business I let go as I was working on the NaNo novel.

I crited two chapters for one guy is who is writing a novel. The Dread Naughts. An interesting and I think somewhat different tale. Whenever it comes out, if you like intrigue and action plus the MC always in danger, a race against the bad guy that could result in various deaths, you will like this story. So keep it mind. I'll be back with the writer's name.

I have to choose a story for a onthepremises.com contest. A smaller contest but still interesting. This time the premise is home.

I need to work on my final version of a story for WotF this quarter ending the thirty -first. I should do that first.

Finally worked some on my New Mage novel that should have been finished at least six months ago. I keep sidetracking it for some reason. Of the three novels I worked last year, that is my best... I think. I am eager to do more on and finally finish it, then I have to rewrite second and third chapters. Noticed I said rewrite not revise.

Need to send out stories, to IGMS, Fantasy and Science Fiction, if he is still taking stories to Lupine at Fantastic Stories. I know which one to send to him.

Him and F&SF and one other are the only paper stories I send out now. Everyone else takes it through the internet. Well, there might be one more I would snail mail out.

And the number five follower seems to have settled down. It has been on Five for the last three times I came here, even when I go back to the blog after adding a post. That's good.

WotF update

Nothing.

As in total rejection. They changed the E-mail and I think its colder sounding. Joni said that they are trying to speed things up so that we will feel like entering the next quarter sooner.  Not working and most probably won't.


This one hit me a bit harder, probably partly because I was just starting to feel like they were taking longer and I might get another HM but of course not. It's my writing even with the help I received.

I know better than to feel that way but I can't help it when a market takes a while and especially when it looks like they are taking longer.  Like Fantastic Stories Anthology by Warren Lapine. He is taking his time but it's probably because he is busy or waiting for enough manuscripts to come in to have a reading party.


I haven't said it for a while but I've forgotten how to write. One short surge a few years ago and nothing since. And obviously I'm not relearning whatever I forgot.

One more time... Update

Okay been working on my novel New Mage On The Block. An aside here but I need a new name for it. It's not what I envisioned for that title. Still a great story I believe... in fact out of the three novels I did last year I think it's the better storytelling and plot but that's my opinion.

So I barely worked on it in the last couple of months, partly because I was stuck. I finally wrote a scene I had in my mind for a year but part of it didn't come out quite right. My MC invaded the bad guys lair and he sees her but does something and leaves her. The something and the leaving wasn't coming out right. But I think I finally worked it out. Not quite one hundred percent of what I wanted for that scene but it's a whole lot closer than what I had written. I can live with it. So now I want to get going with it again. Let's see if I can keep it up.

But than again there's NaNo. All next month I need to work on another novel... a space opera this time.

Last year's NaNo novel is stuck. I need to go revise it and fix the chapters after number seven but haven't worked on it for months. And I need a beta reader for the rest. I may have one. Thought I had three but two haven't responded to chapt one. If I can get to sending him chapt two.

Storm Born is stuck too. I keep forgetting to revise and send out chapt two. My wife wants to take a week off to catch up on her crafts and I need a couple of days to catch up on my novels.

Started a different type of SF story-for me- for Quarter two-'12 of WotF. peaking of which they are sending out rejections for Q4-'11. It's been a week or so and nothing. Every time I see I have mail on the LDW web page my heart clenches but so far nothing. I need some good news in regard to my writing.

Been spending too much time on Google + Because hatrack has been down for three.. four? days, which is one reason I did as much as I did on New Mage.

Next WotF quarter

Yep, still trying.  Partly for the illustration:  one reason-besides it being neat, for the prestige, the accomplishment of a goal, and what it would mean about my writing, I would love to win because it would be very cool to have an illustration with my story. That alone would make it worth entering.


For the next quarter I'm thinking of doing a SF story again. I have a couple of ideas plus a couple of new stories that I could use some help.

Since my muse seems to be stuck on Urban Fantasy these days I would love to do one of those but I'm not sure how WotF feel about it. The one or two I sent in didn't get very far but that could be because of my writing. There's a dark UF(that's almost redundant but not for how I usually write UF) I've written that I think is one of my better tales. I suspect they don't mind dark stories.

I know I have a better than average, unique UF story inside of me. The one's I've written seem to mostly pretty much normal for that genre.

Hmm, come to think of it, the one I sent in for this quarter could be considered UF even though not quite the usual fare for UF.

But I have time to think.

Another WotF HM and ...

Oaky, got another Honorable Mention for the quarter of '11 Writers of the Future contest. 

With all the work and crits that went into it, I was hoping for a sliver HM but it's still my writing so only an HM.

But still working on those mini stories. I have two on paper and I started a Third. We will see how I publish them. I will try one to a flash market but I may try others.

And today I realized I have four stories about writing, if I can do one more I think I will do one of those five story sets with e-publishing. That seems to be a popular length for story sets.  

Oh as a side issue I'm looking over more apps to see if I can put in book "Shelves" I see on a couple of other blogs.  So far nothing. 

Procrastinating-needed work

Spent a bunch of time to day--in two sessions-- cleaning up my WIP file.  Work In Progress, deleted ten to twenty files I don't need anymore, placed a few in certain folders. Rearranged a bunch too. Found three stories I had finished but never mailed out. One I knew about but thought I had sent it out once or twice. The other two I forgot about. So along with moving a couple of stories I need to revise I have something like six or seven stories finished. Three are ready to go, except for addressing them and all that.  Three or four I have never revised and one or two has been critted and so needs another revision. One last one is four The Fourth quarter of WotF. I need to finish the first revision but then wait until our, on hatrack,  groups formed to crit each other stories. Quarter three's deadline passed a day or so ago so we have time. The groups should be forming about now.  One guy is doing all the work... he deserves a standing ovation for his work.

Anyway, cleaning out the WIP folder was needed work but at the same time it was procrastination.

Writing stuff

I need to revise my story for the next quarter of WotF.

As well as revise a novel- I finished a couple of weeks ago-, finish another novel-"Angel Kin" yeah it's what the name implies, work on a third-New Mage- maybe even start a new one- and crit a couple of stories for critters.org and one chapter for hatrack. Seemed like there was something else. Don't think it's another crit.

That last could be to look over a couple of web sites so I can get my story on smashwords. I need some art for the cover image. I may have found a couple pics that could work. There are suppose to be some free ones some place though. 

Not to mention; do another story based on that cover image for Dean Wesley Smith's story... there's a link on another post... and do a different story based on another cover.   And There is another story to do also but can't think of it right now.

Love these writing vacations.