What to do?

let me see. To recap the weekend.
1. Got form rejection from Asimov's Science Fiction. Didn't feel to bad about it. Figured it was their loss.
2. Went to zoo in Omaha. Saw cool animals doing cool animal things (the giraffes were mating, tee hee).
3. Went to birthday party for daughter (age 6) and niece (age 1) at my mothers place. Met my brand new niece. Ate good food. Talked to family. Had a good time.
4. Drove home.
5. Tried to sleep. Thunderstorms, dogs and children kept me awake.

Now that we have that out of the way.
I hope hope everyone else had a good weekend. I am once again hoping that my boy and Mark are with me today in the re-write thing. I have big plans this week and if I don't get them accomplished they will be sent back to next week and if that doesn't happen then I am getting really behind. (did you know that if you survived the event horizon in a black hole and looked forward you would see the back of your own head. just a little something I took away from an astronomy class at Iowa state. I pretty much learned that and Drake's equation but that can be for another day)

Must have been the wrong sacrifice

Mark didn't stay with me for very long yesterday. For those of you who didn't read my post yesterday, Mark is the god I have determined to be in charge of re-writes. I think he likes chicken. he only hung around for about 300 words and then it was gone. Actually, the phone rang and I lost my train of thought. When that happened I went to watch the latest episode of The Shield.

Won't be able to find if Mark is around this weekend. Today am taking my kids to the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha and tomorrow will be traveling to southwest Iowa to visit my folks.

I want to thank Catherine Gardner for letting me know that I have something to look forward to in theaters in 2010 with Tim Burton and Johnny Depp getting together again (my daughter will be so excited) for Alice in Wonderland.

Hope everyone has a good weekend and may only acceptances light in your mailbox.

somethings going on

got an email from Macabre Cadaver that my flash piece, Lullaby, made it into issue three. Pretty stoked to see who else is in it. If I got three more acceptances this week I would feel like Felicity or Aaron.

Just kidding. Still I feel pretty good to get two good things and no bad things in the old e-mail this week, even though the week isn't over.

The re-writing god was on my side yesterday. I think I will call that god Mark. Mark is a good name for a re-write god. Managed to get quite a bit of Chapter 3 re-written in my YA book. I know it will need another 5 or 6 (7, 8, 9) re-writes after this but so far it is going well. I told my wife that at the rate this is going my original 90 page manuscript is going to turn into 400 pages. Thankfully I have a laser printer (to those of you still using inkjet printers I am truly sorry).

Well hopefully Mark will stick around today and we can get more done.

Let the day begin

I started this morning looking at markets. I often do this, trying to figure out which ones I will hear back from next and I have narrowed it down to three markets that I should hear back from in the near future (two weeks or so) I figure at this point I should be hearing back from Susurrus: the literature of madness (Glass Jar, 1000 words, 123 days). Hobart (Open Graves, 5200 words, 65 days). Ninth Letter (Wine for Two, 2200 words, 10 days) These markets I have found are pretty predictable on their response times.

Some other stories I have given up waiting on and figure they will get back to me sometime (I hope) In particular I am having little hope for From the Asylum. They said they were going to get back to normal in August and it is, well it isn't August anymore. I could be wrong. The story I have out to Ploughshares that I sent out last month I don't plan on hearing back from them until May. That is just the way they are. I hope they prove me wrong.

I am feeling a good writing vibe today. I hope it translates into a good re-writing vibe but I will see.

In other news. I am reading a book by Lisa Gardner, Alone. Pretty well done and a fairly fast read. I am not the fastest reader in the world by any stretch of the imagination but in the little time I have to plow through a book I am making pretty good progress. It probably doesn't help that I like to pick up anthology books when I read novels and read several short stories in between chapters.

so you want to hire a publicist?

click to enlarge.

Like I had nothing else to do today.

Had to run to Omaha today. yes the one in Nebraska to pick up a window I had ordered for my mother-in-law's place. It is the second time, since they screwed up the window order the first time. Had a good time. Took my boy out to eat (he made a mess at The Spaghetti Works but at least he didn't have sauce on him. I have a nice olive oil stain on my shirt however.) then I took him to the Bass Pro Shop because he can get up close and personal to the dead animals they have all over the place. He liked it.

Now I am back home. I should be working on re-writes but the inspiration for the day has passed. Maybe I will get twice as much done tomorrow. LOL;)

Oh and in response to a couple of posts that were out today.
1. Aaron- I think you have a pretty good support crew in most of us out here in blogger world. go ahead and use us for NaNoWriMo.
2. Cathrine- I would e-mail Cathy over at Potters Field and ask about your story. It is unusual that it has been out for a month in that market. She will understand, it is in her guidelines to email her after two weeks.

can't think of anything else.

Sun does shine on a dog's rear

there is good news occasionally in the old mailbox. Just received word that I would be included in the Demon Minds print edition. Looks like I am some pretty good company with Felicity Dowker at least. I don't know of the others included yet. Just wanted to share the joy. Now back to the election story, think I have a runnable idea. Will know once I am done if it actually has legs.