Sorry, been busy

I have actually been busy lately. I have been putting up trim in the house, helping the wife scrape paint :P, bottling beer, doing a very few edits, playing with the children, going to the zoo, going to an art museum to see original Little Golden Book art (very cool), cleaning house, and living my life. See, I have had very little time to blog about it. I have been able to keep up on everyone else while I do all of this.

Today, I have more things to do around the house. Some trim I stained last night needs to be lacquered and after that I have a ceiling to sand so I can texture and paint that room. After that I might try to get to a little bit of editing. Either that or I might try to edit first and then try to get some work done around the house. I think that might work. Needless to say, I will not be starting any new stories until this housework is done. I hope it doesn't take very long. I am starting to miss the writing to be honest about it. As you read this and I put it down the action of the typing is almost hypnotic and lulling me into a short story.

Have a good Monday. I will try to be better about posts this week. I don't have anything else to do.

Update: Because Carrie asked and I had almost forgotten about it, My back is much better. After repeated trips to the chiropractor we managed to keep my hips from popping out of place and allowing me to walk again. I still don't know what I did to get that way.

WIP Wednesday

It is Wednesday, already. My back is completely out and my daughter is going on a sleepover tonight. I don't know if I will get any writing done today. If I do it won't be writing. It will be editing. I am starting another major edit today of my WIP, Big Chief's Gold (tentative title). I managed 20 pages yesterday and I hope to get that many today, if I get to sit down to it at all.

I am also still thinking of that book idea and I really need to start a new notebook to jot notes into. I think I am going to need a lot of notes. In my head it is a cast of thousands, although most will remain unnamed. I think it would be best that way ;). Also I am thinking the locals will be varied, which is far different than what I normally do and centralize everything. I think it is going to be an interesting project. One that will require a lot of lead time before I start putting fingers to keyboard.

If you want a really interesting read today, head over to EDF and read Aaron's story. I enjoyed it and i think he would to know what you think of it as well.

Have a good Wednesday.

Sometimes the time flies

I sat down yesterday afternoon to finish my Vermin story. I thought I had about 300-400 words left in it. by the time I pulled up for air I had added another 2000 words. Oops. Still, I read it through- pulled some lines, added others, checked my punctuation and verb tenses- and shipped it off. Somehow, a story I wondered if I would be able to hit the 3K minimum became an almost 7K story. I still don't know how it happened. I never write them that long, ever. Not unless I am writing a book or a novella. It is my longest 'short' story to date. I believe it is the longest story I have ever submitted.

In other news- I have other shorts I would like to write. Today will not be the day they get started though. With two of the three things on my to-do list for the month of July out of the way, I am going to start in on the third thing, which is edit my MG book and get it ready to submit to agents. I have high hopes for this one. It isn't supernatural, but instead bound by reality and written from the point of view of a boy. This is not the way most MG books are written these days so I don't know if I stand a shot with it at all. We will find out. I always liked the action adventure stories when I was growing up. I hope that stories like this still have a place in today's world.

I hope everyone is having a good week. Talk at you all later.

Dateline: Monday, July 6

It was a good weekend. I still have all of my fingers and toes. My eyes are not bandaged up and I still have beer in the fridge. I got no writing down but I did come up with some good scenes while I was mowing. Whether I can turn them into a cohesive manuscript is another story.

It is one of those tales that if people like it they would love it and if they don't it would probably be on most banned book lists (I think they refer to those as cult titles). I think I might try to write it. It would probably be a pretty lengthy manuscript. Just what I need, another project. Today I am going to focus on getting my Vermin story done and get it out the door tomorrow. Nothing like getting two of your writing goals for the month (of three) done by the 7th.

Now I have to get the children dressed and brew a pot of coffee. I need to pick up some paint for the porch floor and work that into my schedule sometime this afternoon.

And they call this a holiday

Tomorrow may be the Independence Day but it is not a holiday, not around this house. I ave finished putting my edits into the computer and after reading the ending, for the 5th time on full read through, I am not happy with it. It seems to be missing something that I can't put my finger on. I think I may have to let this one simmer for a while longer and maybe change the POV that I tell the story from. Not what I want to do, but I think it will do the story more justice. Besides, it is only 23,000 words long so it won't take long to change it. I just have two POV's I would tell the story from. The third one I can't consider because they die in the end.

So, now that one project is filed until a later date I can focus on cleaning the house and building monkey bars for the kids. Tomorrow I bake some cookies and then we blow stuff up, or watch other people blow stuff up, legally. It is completely legal.

Also, before I go I want to give a shout out to Barry Napier who just had his collection, Debris, picked up by Library of Horror Press. If you haven't already, go on over and give him a virtual pat on the back. Even if you don't know him. He would like to meet you. He is a nice guy, really.

To all of you out there, have a good and safe weekend. Don't put sparklers near your eye or in your friends eye, although rude strangers- NO, Don't do that either.

Thirsty Thursday

the old stand by at the bars in Ames (and probably everywhere else) was Thirsty Thursday. The weekend is so close from here you can almost taste it. Regrettably, weekends don't mean as much to me as they used to. Granted I don't have to go to class anymore, but I also don't go to work anymore (The luxury of being a stay at home dad). This means Thursday is just another day and I hope to accomplish 2 things. 1. get another 25 pages of edits into the computer. 2. finish reading the non-fiction book I started 3 days ago. Everything else I want to do today is gravy.

I know I said earlier that my edits would take 2 or 3 days to input. They are going much slower than that. So far I have worked for 2 days on it (not a lot of time each day but as much as my life allows) and I am only half through the process. I almost dread the process I have in front of me with my MG book. It is only slightly longer and I am unsure how much work I have to do with it. It is a 3rd re-write of it so I am hoping it goes smoother.

In the meantime, I am enjoying the unseasonably cool weather we seem to be having right now. It isn't even cloudy, just cool. Mos of the day I can open the windows up and let the fresh air flow through the house. I also took the boy out yesterday to check the raspberries (and look for fuzzy woodland creatures) and can report that most of them are not yet ripe. But soon. . .

Hope everyone has a good day and if, for some reason, I don't post tomorrow and you live in the states, Happy Independence Day (that is the 4th of July)!

June in retrospect

I really can't believe June is gone already. It seems like just yesterday it was March. This year is breaking the speed limit or something. I don't know what.

So, let me think of what June was. Okay, after checking my records I wrote one flash piece for Shroud and edited and edited and then I edited some more, but I finished with my edits on Beneath These Walls. I also managed no rejections and two acceptances, although one was a reprint. I have, as of this morning, 11 stories out in sub land. I read two books this month and started a third (it is non-fiction and probably wouldn't interest most of you).

Now I have goals for July. My first writing goal is to finish putting all of my edits into the computer and print a copy for my wife to read. I then plan on putting her suggestions to good use and then submit it. My second goal is to finish my Vermin story and submit it. My Third and final goal is to edit my MG book, let my wife read that, use her suggestions and start shopping for agents this month. I think I just crammed way too much into my month.

Let the fun of July begin!