… finally going climbing again, and dragging Jennifer along

… completely in love with Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog

… giggling about this Craigslist post

… pleased with yesterday’s writing and work on our collaborative project and hoping to do more

… glad my punalua survived his Mexican adventure

Originally published at approximately 8,000 words. You can comment here or there.

I’m headed for Minneapolis in a few hours to attend the revived Fourth Street Fantasy Convention with Reesa and Steve.  I’m actually scheduled to be on two panels — Food, Fashion and Fornication and Advice From New Writers. Fourth Street is a small con almost entirely for writers (and some diehard readers) and there are many, many writers I admire attending. It promises to be an incredible experience.

I will have my computer with me and there’s access in the hotel and our room, so I will be trying to blog a little. I also plan to take a lot of notes and write them up later, as I did for Arse Elektronika 2007.

As for now, it’s time for a disco nap followed by more packing.

Originally published at approximately 8,000 words. You can comment here or there.

Last year I attended the first Arse Elektronika, organized by Monochrom and held in San Francisco. I had a fantastic time and learned a lot (you can read my notes here). So it gives me great pleasure to announce that I will not only be returning to this year’s event …

but also presenting a paper, “What is the 21st Century Novel?” with my co-author Reesa Brown! This years AE theme is “Do Androids Sleep with Electric Sheep?” and covers technology, sexuality and science/social fiction. Our presentation will be part of the first track for the conference, Narration. We will be talking about the history of the novel and our ideas for its future, as well as of course how human sexuality ties into it all. We’re also working on a collaborative project which ties into the paper’s theme that we hope to announce around the time of Arse 2008.

I’m excited to be returning to San Francisco, and Arse Elektronika. See you in September.

Originally published at approximately 8,000 words. You can comment here or there.

Not a lot of writing the last couple days — been catwaxing as well as helping Reesa catch up with some paperwork for her business. I just wrote a little post over on Words Words Words about what I’ve been up too lately, including my latest gaming obsession.

Does anyone else who reads this play Mabinogi?

Originally published at approximately 8,000 words. You can comment here or there.

Another day, another draft. This is probably the ‘final’ draft, barring whatever tweaks my readers suggest. I think I fixed the last flaws, including a somewhat serious one which Steve pointed out.

Funeral, 3rd draft
Microsoft Word wordcount: 1,497 words
Manuscript wordcount: 1,500 words

I hope to begin sending this story out soon.

Originally published at approximately 8,000 words. You can comment here or there.

I finished the second draft of my short story, “Funeral” tonight. I think that I’ve fixed many of the issues Reesa pointed out to me in the previous draft and made the story stronger as a result. I’ve posted it to my writing group and printed out copies for Reesa & Steve to pour over with their Pens of Doom ™.

Funeral, second draft
Microsoft Word wordcount: 1,463 words
Manuscript wordcount: 1,500 words

It took a while to get to this stage; for whatever reason I had to sit on this story for a while before it could be revised. I’m glad I trusted the process and I’m glad to have made it to this stage. Hopefully the story can be sent out soon.

Originally published at approximately 8,000 words. You can comment here or there.

Life has left me struggling to find time and energy to write, lately.

I got my laptop back from Dell in great working order, but then I promptly managed to get it infected with some adware that neither my primitive virus checker (AVG) nor the various free antispyware programs could handle. After a couple days of struggling with it, I downloaded a trial version of Norton; this seems to have done the trick so I guess I’ll cough up the money for it when my trial period ends.

I’ve also been helping Reesa catch up with work paperwork, helped friends with their personal crisis or at least their need to relax, and been struggling with my Fibromyalgia. The weather has been fluctuating from cool to warm and back, which is always a prescripton for unpleasantness.

Today was especially draining — our fridge which has been failing for some time totally died. Dealing with building maintenance is always a drag, but today we had the added fun of arguing with them about how we’d expect them to reimburse us for lost groceries and wondering if they’d really take days to replace it as they threatened. They ended up bringing in the fridge from the empty neighboring unit, but then we had the exhausting task of unpacking and then repacking the whole fridge and freezer in a hurry. And, after sleeping, I helped Reesa at Poking You, updating the website and then manning the front during a rush of customers while she got some much needed chill time.

It pleases me though that writing work has continued, even though I’m not doing so regularly enough during busy or complicated times. While I still have to work on my discipline and routine, it is nice to know I don’t abandon my writing as easily as I did even a year ago.

In addition, I got my first unsolicited book in the mail today — a copy of Circlet Press’ new Best Fantastic Erotica. Previous books have been requested from their publisher or SF Site; this is the first time someone sought me out to send me a book, which pleases me. I am looking forward to reading it and reviewing it.

Norton just informed me my computer is still infected with a Trojan, but at least it is blocking it from acting. I still have work to do… Time to start another virus check and then wake up Reesa from her nap.

Originally published at approximately 8,000 words. You can comment here or there.

My short story, “Becoming,” was about two months out at a fledging but high-paying horror market which has just informed the authors of all its pending submissions that it is going out of business. This is the first time that something like this has happened to me, but I realize it is something writers have to expect from time to time.

While this isn’t an actual rejection, so it can’t affect my ego, it is disappointing to wait so long (though not long at all compared to some publishers wait times) only to have the time be “wasted;” two months was the expected response time of the now deceased publication, so I was anticipating a response any day now. I’m also disappointed because the format — an advertising supported magazine distributed by email — was an interesting one. I definitely want to support the idea of making money through non-traditional venues, but perhaps the time isn’t ripe for this one.

I feel that “Becoming” is one of my best stories, so I am confident it will find a home eventually. I’ve already sent it on to a more established publisher.

Originally published at approximately 8,000 words. You can comment here or there.

Ups and downs in my writing lately…

Slow progress is being made on Honeycutt Tales. My coauthor has been quite busy with her own life lately, but I’ve also had some good ideas about the story I’ve been working on and added a few new words. I wrote a great Heinlein-style rant in favor of sexual freedom that fits nicely into the story and can probably even be expanded in revisions.

I’m making progress on revising my short story “Funeral”. I feel inspired to keep working on it, and hope I can get it ready for another reader review and eventual submission later this month. I’ve also been working on revising some poetry, specifically a couple of my more sfinal pieces for submission to Aberrant Dreams (since they asked to see more).

Unfortunately, I’ve had to send my laptop, Mycroft, in for service at Dell and this promises to slow me down some, even though I can use Verra, the desktop machine. The setup is not as convenient and doesn’t allow flexibility of working location. I hope to keep writing even so, but I am going to be in a state of mild irritation until 5-8 business days pass and Dell sees fit to return Mycroft to me with the overheating/graphics issues repaired.

Still waiting to hear back on 11 pieces out with various publishers. Hope to make it 12 or 14 at least, this month.

Originally published at approximately 8,000 words. You can comment here or there.

I finished another review tonight, of Richard Dansky’s Firefly Rain. It still took me a while to write, but it came significantly easier than the last one. If I can stay in the habit of writing these regularly I’m sure they will come easier and easier with time.

We had Jennifer over tonight for a writing date, with some good discussion of writing, brainstorming, and a nice check-in about where we are writing-wise. Having Steve move in to the Slutbarn has created a lot of upheaval in the last few weeks; it’s been good change but change nonetheless, with a lot of energy expended on house and family. I’m pleased that my output did not drop off entirely, that I kept working even when very busy elsewhere; now I feel like I’m ready to get moving again. If I’m lucky I’ll do some more writing tonight, or at least a bit of catching up on Society of Voluptuaries critiques.

My review of Tanith Lee’s Indigara is slated for publication in an upcoming update to the the SF Site and I’ve requested several more books from their review copies. This is starting to become a bit of a habit, and I’m pleased with that.

Originally published at approximately 8,000 words. You can comment here or there.

I’ve decided to start writing book reviews again. I’ve been working for the last couple days on a review of Tanith Lee’s Indigara with minimal success; my review skills felt very rusty. When I complained to Reesa, she responded without a moment’s hesitation, “have you reread your old reviews?”

I had not. I did, and within a couple hours had finished the first draft of my review. My usual procedure when I finish a review is to revise it a little, then wait a day before revising it again. I find I catch a lot after ’sleeping on it.’ When I’m finished tomorrow, I’ll mail it in to Rodger at the SF Site. I really like writing for them for many reasons, and I’m looking forward to renewing our editorial relationship.

I’ll post again here when the review goes live.

Originally published at approximately 8,000 words. You can comment here or there.

I wrote a little ramble on unreality in world building over on Words Words Words yesterday. There’s already been some interesting discussion in the comments of that thread.

Originally published at approximately 8,000 words. You can comment here or there.

Here at the Slutbarn we spent pretty much all day today rearranging to make room for the addition of Steve, and to create a shared workspace for all three of us. We moved boxes and furniture into a storage room and then installed new furniture we’d purchased for the purpose.

Though it isn’t finished yet I’m really happy with it already. I’m looking forward to all of us spending many hours writing here. It also led me to wonder about what kind of workspace makes you creative — a question I posed in my newest post on Words Words Words.

Originally published at approximately 8,000 words. You can comment here or there.

The last few days have been busy ones. Steve is beginning his move into the ‘Slutbarn’ (the duplex Reesa and I share) in preparation for an eventual move to a larger, shared home (to be called ‘Dreamcafe,’ as all of Steve’s houses are); he arrived yesterday from Vegas with a carful of stuff and his parrot ‘Doc.’ I’ve also been working on several wordpress related projects — setup and tweaking on Reesa’s new homepage, Yes, It Is All My Fault, and fellow Voluptuary Jennifer Evans’ new blog, Buddha’s Footprints. I’ve also been finishing the design and setup for an exciting new Dreamcafe household project which I hope to announce very soon, possibly even later tonight — watch this space!

Today I flaked on some writing goals. I had planned to get up a little early (for me, meaning early afternoon) to have a phone chat with Kiki and do some brainstorming for Honeycutt Tales. My fibromyalgia left me hurting through most of the daylight hours and so I spent them sleeping or whining about how much pain I was in. Brainstorming has been postponed and no writing got done either.

Even so, I can’t help but feel a little anxious because it has been a couple days since I put actual new words on the page. I’m getting that niggling little itch in the back of my brain that says, ‘better write!’ If I don’t, the itch gets worse and turns into full-blown irritation, irritation I’m liable to take out on my friends and loved ones, or myself. And anyway, I have (self-imposed) deadlines to make.

One issue is I didn’t redo the tickybox wall-chart we use to track our progress each week. Got to take care of that tonight. And then, some actual writing …

Or else who knows whose head I might bite off.

Originally published at approximately 8,000 words. You can comment here or there.

I recently set more steady and ambitious writing goals for myself, with a nifty checklist on posterboard with tickyboxes and gold stars for me to award myself if I exceed my goals. Realistically I know that as I am just phasing into this new method of motivating it will take me time to get up to speed. I’ve been ramping up well, meeting my goals most nights and working on the novel some every day. Reality doesn’t always stop me from angsting, which is just what I was doing last night as I sat with Reesa at Denny’s (official late-night cat-waxers’ food headquarters).

I got some good reminders to trust my process, that I need to relax and let my writing output grow naturally. A little later, when I got home, I made the decision I wrote about here. As soon as I did the inspiration hit and I wrote 3 pages of “Encounter at Hedonia.” Caspar isn’t even in this story, but it felt like renewing my trust in the process combined with a willingness to let my characters take up more psychic space helped open things up inside my head.

In the hopes this trend will continue, I’m letting it be known that my characters can take up as much brainpower as they like. If they were closed before, I’m throwing the doors to my brain wide open — come on in, guys, girls, and creatures in between. Do whatever you like — dig through the medicine cabinet, babble incessently in my ears, leave your dirty laundry lying around and empty milk cartons in my fridge.

Come into my brain and inspire me.

Originally published at approximately 8,000 words. You can comment here or there.

I wrote a bio on my about page. What do you think?

Also I have deferred to the understandable laziness of my readers and will allow comments on LJ posts for now. But it would still make me oh-so-happy if you comment here.

Originally published at approximately 8,000 words. You can comment here or there.

For those of you who don't know, kiki39 and I are working on a humorous erotic science fiction novel togeter, entitled Honeycutt Tales. I finally finished one of the 'episodes' tonight. We are roughly 50,000 words into it currently -- wow that's half a book!!

Honeycutt Tales: "The Struggle with Stimmies
Microsoft Word wordcount: 25,104 words
Manuscript wordcount: 35,000 words (lots of dialogue :)

Finally, this is finished. It was a difficult process -- Kiki and I have actually started working on other parts of the novel before finishing this, but for some reason (neither a logical or a very productive one) having this unfinished was really blocking me in my process. I'm not sure why this episode was so hard to finish, perhaps because it was the middle of the book without us realizing it -- and we developed some major plot developments in here -- combined with the distraction of both co-authors by their respective lives.

My eager readers will probably have to wait to see this chapter -- I don't know that it is ready to be shared in its current state, and we're not planning to revise again until we have the entire book to stitch together. Our current (ambitious?) goal is to complete the remaining episodes by March or by my birthday in April, failing that.

Been doing a ton of work on writing lately -- organizing my writing, setting my goals, making the house a more conducive space for writing (for ourselves and also the Gentleman's imminent arrival). For whatever reason things clicked into place tonight while I was hanging out at Poking You. It took a few hours but the story is done and I get a gold star (no really, it's one of the ways we're motivating ourselves here at Slutbarn...)

I have a few short stories in the works, at various stages of writing. I hope to revise "Funeral" soon, and also have been doggedly trying to add sentences to another chapter in the Honeycutt Tales, "Encounter at Hedonia."

Currently I have 11 works circulating at publishers, including 3 short stories ("Borrowed Time", "Becoming" and "The Book").


Whee! Random gratuitous Velvet Goldmine icon. eposia and I will be watching this soon.

I'm an insohaimo "winner!"


Doing the this project has been a lot of fun, and hopefully good for getting back in a poetic headspace after so long of only writing ficton. We'll see if it leads to more poetry in the days to come.

Would you like to write more in November?

Oh yes, we know about that thing other people are doing -- trying to write a whole novel in one month. But a novel is a lot to write in 30 days, so we'd like to suggest a more manageable alternative. For the first time ever, November is...

International Sonnet and Haiku Month!
(sponsored by The Society of Voluptuaries)

The task is simple yet challenging. For every day in November, write a poem in a structured form, such as (but not limited to) a sonnet or haiku, and post it to our new insohaimo community. You'll find complete rules for participation in the community profile. At the end of the month, we'll even provide all our "winners" with a sweet virtual certificate which you can repost in your LJ or on your blog. Not only is InSoHaiMo an easy way to increase your writing output, it also makes a great warmup if you decide to write a novel or undertake other creative endeavors in November. Participating in InSoHaiMo is compatible with participating in any other similar monthly writing goal.

So join insohaimo today! The fun (and writing) begins November 1st.

"The Book", 2nd draft
Openoffice wordcount: 1,815 words
Manuscript wordcount: 2,000 words

After eposia read it, we realized I had actually cut a bit too close to the bone -- in other words, one scene I thought was unnecessary backstory desperately needed to be in the story after all. This is nice as actually it had a couple turns of phrase I really liked, and had been disappointed not to get to use. It seems to work out far more often in the other direction, that the bits I love have to get cut for the good of the story, so it is nice to have this change of pace.