I quit

This month is not going well. This morning my sixth rejection came. It was for my Dead Bait story, Undertow. I realize that my longest dry spell in rejections came last year when I received no good news between January and July. In July things started picking up and I made six sales the rest of the year. Now as anyone in my family would say, 'stop feeling sorry for yourself and do something about it.'

Okay, now that the moment has passed, I need to find a market for that story. Too bad their aren't any other creature antho's out right now. I didn't use fish as my bad 'guy' in that story but instead a giant pond slug with a tendency to travel in packs and eat anything that bleeds. I like the image. I just don't find fish all that scary. Not even sharks. Mostly because I live in Iowa and sharks aren't an issue. Leeches and stuff are nasty though. It only takes seconds for them to attach to you and then they won't let go. They are good to fish with and fish seem to like them however.

I had better get to work. I have a book to finish drafting and a market to research. Happy Wednesday.

update: I just sent it off to Big Ol' Face Full of Monsters. We'll see what happens- in a couple of months. I am a glutton for waiting I guess. Speaking of waiting, has anyone heard back from Devil's Food yet?

Worth looking into

I sent off my story to Dead Bait and got a nice little acknowledgment letter back promptly. I thought about it a minute, checked my records and realized I didn't received any such thing for the 2012 AD story I had sent out last week. I wrote the editor and asked if he had received it. He had not. I was glad I asked. I promptly resent it and got a nice little acknowledgment letter. This is the second time this week where I have had to ask an editor the where abouts of a story and the second time I have gotten news that it was a) with an editor that was no longer with them or b) it hadn't made it there at all. What are the chances.

As I was saying. I did go over my Dead Bait piece yesterday. It read better than I thought it might. I changed a few lines, changed some words and some verb tense re-read it, changed some more things, re-read that and sent it off. I hope it doesn't suck. I really like the ending. I don't know what I will work on today. I think I have most of my short stories out of me for the moment but I am not 100 percent sure.

It made it down to -24 below last night (that is Fahrenheit) but by the time I had to take my daughter out to meet the bus it was 0. It almost felt warm. Almost. Speaking of my daughter, she lost her first tooth last night. The tooth fairy is much nicer than she was when I was a kid. I didn't realize inflation had gone up that much, either that or I got the cheap tooth fairy.

A balmy -23 F or -30.5 C

Damn it is cold outside. I am not even going to attempt to start a car that hasn't been garaged overnight. At least my snow thrower worked yesterday afternoon and it didn't drift back overnight for once this week.

Received bad news in my inbox this morning. Apex declined my story. I am currently seeking a new market for this piece after I go over it one more time. Just for peace of mind on my end. It is a longer story (4300 words) and the only 'true' science fiction story I have ever written so markets are hard to come by. (It doesn't help that I have only sent it out to professional markets so far and received positive feedback. the only reason I am doing that is it came in as an honorable mention in the Return to Luna antho, which is a darn good book by the way.) Once I run out of pro markets I will work my way down the scale. I think it will find a home. I just don't know where.

I also received an email from Stefanie Freele at the Dogs: wet and dry antho and my flash piece is still in the running. That made me happy.

so let me see, I still haven't gotten an acceptance this year, but I now have one hold. Better than a sharp stick in the eye. I still think I am on track to send out my Dead Bait story tomorrow, or maybe Saturday depending on how tomorrow goes. I am not going to rush it just to meet a self imposed deadline.

Hope everyone has a warm and productive day, so stop reading blogs on the office computer and get to work.

Another snow day, again

the local schools have called off again today, on account of drifting snow. The last thing they want is a student losing control after plowing into a drift, or a bus. I can guess my day will be spent picking up toys and stopping arguments at regular intervals throughout the day.

I did finish the first draft of my Bait story. It is tentatively titled Undertow but that is subject to change between now and the final edit. I think today will be spent on a novel instead of a short story. It should be a nice change of pace.

I was thinking (man this post is jumping around like a bullfrog on a campfire) about my backup system for my stories. I don't store any of them on my computers hard drive. I had a lightening strike that took out a computer a year and a half ago and I lost most of a book (Okay so the book sucked but I learned a lot writing it) I was working on. I had to re-write most of it and I am pretty sure I liked the first version better. Now I save everything to a flashdrive. Intermittently, I back up that flashdrive to CD. When a story gets finished I make a paper copy and put that in a filing cabinet and when the story gets accepted I make a copy on CD and put that in the file folder as well, then I can delete it from the flash drive. It is a conveluted system but it works. I also haven't had lightening take out my computer since then.

bust

yesterday was a bust. Creatively anyway. I couldn't get any writing done with two kids at home and a driveway that needed to be scooped out, by hand no less because the breakaway bolts on my snow-thrower broke away. Go figure. Had to go out before the sun got up this morning at -11 degrees F. and scoop more snow that the winds kicked up last night. At least that wasn't the whole driveway but it still took me over an hour.

I am hoping today will be better. I think I can get a first draft of my Dead Bait story done and if I don't it will be close enough to finish tomorrow. I should be able to send it off by Friday. I think.

Music and Mayhem

Here we are on Monday again. Yippee!! I got another rejection over the weekend. I half expected it. The 'ghost' in my story isn't scary at all but a physical manifestation of a life lived. It has been a hard one to place. The literary magazines seem to like it more than the ghost magazines so I sent it off to another literary one. This is the same one that Crazyhorse held for nine months.

If you want some good time piano music I found out my cousin Bryan Eyberg is not only a kick ass piano player and instructor but also a composer. He has a couple of online albums (you can download the songs to your computer or I-pod or whatever you want. Ain't technology wonderful.)


he is actually very good. I know he hated it, but it was always a treat at Christmas to have him sit down at grandma and grandpa's piano and belt out a few songs for everyone else to enjoy.

In other news. I am still working on my Dead Bait story and it seems to be going together fairly well, so far. I will know more once I finish it, print it off, and sit down to read it for edits.

I know I am looking forward to the blizzard they are predicting for this afternoon. My daughter's school has already called it off for the day so I am guessing today will involve a lot of Mario Kart.

Later and have a great day.

Happy weekend

Well, here we are on a Saturday and I am posting. Heck, just about everyone seems to be posting today so I don't feel so bad.

I have officially sent off my 2012 AD story, Fate's Hand in Mortal Affairs. I am pretty happy the way it ended although I hope it doesn't read like I wanted to finish it quickly and tacked an ending on it. I then got a good start on my Dead Bait story. I have re-used Mr. Calloway and a familiar pond from another story. I call it re-using but he is really just the set-up. We are introduced to him and he is already dead, or presumed so. I will be curious to see how this one plays out on paper.

I know what you are thinking, 'he told us he was only going to work on one short story a month and here it is the 10th and he is on his second short.' You are right, but inspiration struck and I hope future editors can enjoy the moment like I am.

Other than that I am planning a very quiet weekend. My wife ended up working and on call so the only things we will be doing this weekend include getting groceries and going to her companies post Christmas party, at which she will be on call. That should be fun for me if she gets called out in the middle of dinner.

By the way, I really hate the weather people around here. They were calling for snow in NorthEast Iowa, nothing for where I live in West Central Iowa and we got nailed last night with several inches of the white stuff which I will now have to get the snowthrower out for. Darn Weathermaps and their 'predictions.'

Is it morning already

I swear I need to get to bed early tonight. I have already been up for an hour and a half and that was after I was up way too long with my son last night. God only knows why he woke in the first place. I am getting way too old for this stuff.

The house is quiet now, my boy is sleeping (for how much longer I don't know) and the resident college student is still asleep as well. Everyone else in the house has either gone to work or school.

I am considering taking this time to edit my 2012 story, although I really want to start on my Dead Bait piece as well. I am thinking of using the character I used in the piece I sent to Devil's Food. He was an interesting character and he liked to fish so I think I can make something work. Plus I have the added bonus of already knowing the character (even though that could work to my disadvantage and I might not include enough about him to make him real in this story.) I think I can do it, especially if I know where the potential weakness may lie.

I know I am procrastinating my book Invasion but I can't help it. I feel I can jump back into a book easier than I can write short stories right now (damn my fingers. They aren't working at all today. I have to keep one finger on the delete key) I had better get a pot of coffee going and start the day. Good luck to everyone and happy Wednesday.

Done, with that one

I am done with my Devil's Food story, Mr. Calloway's Dirt Farm and it is off. I am pretty happy with it and I am glad I had some help with it, especially the beginning (Thank you Aaron and my wife, Ann!) It would probably have worked equally as well with the Dead Bait antho but I started it for Devil's Food so that is where it is going, at least first. I am thinking of re-using the title character and farm pond for the Bait story. I liked the setting and it reminded me of home, only without man-eating bait.

That was all I got done yesterday because I had to run to the doctor. I found out I have had a kidney infection for a week or so. they gave me muscle relaxers but, gosh-darnnit, I have a pretty high tolerance for that type of stuff so they don't throw me for a loop (Actually, that is one of the reasons I have never tried drugs.) My children (one is on break from school) don't let me get a lot done during the day and at night I am too busy to write (my creative juices don't flow well at night anyway, kind of my lag time. I think my mind actually shuts off right after supper.)



I am still debating working on a short story or continuing my novel today. Just as long as I get something on paper, I really don't care I guess. (I am still down to one short story a month. I know- quality not quantity)