Recap
Posted on | March 10, 2010 | No Comments
A quick recap of today’s dramatic events for those who might have missed them:
1. Very little sleep last night
2. Banged my knee on my desk
3. Busy day at work. No lunch
4. Grilled cheese for dinner
5. Off to bed a few minutes after Zachary
End message.
Writers’ distractions
Posted on | March 9, 2010 | No Comments
I didn’t write this morning. That’s okay, because Kelly has a girls’ night tonight and I figured once I put Zachary down (assuming he cooperated) I’d have an hour or so to make more progress on the third draft of the February story. As it turns out, Zachary did cooperate and at 7:15, I found the house quiet, with Zachary sound asleep. Plenty of time for me to revise a scene or two before Kelly got home.
The thing is, I’ve been reading Connie Willis‘ new novel, Blackout, which has been very good. Last night, it started to get really good and today at lunch, it got phenomenally good. So good, in fact, that I simply have to pass on writing this evening and read more of the book. If I tried to write, I’d be constantly distracted, thinking about what was happening in her book (as opposed to my story) and I would simply be fooling myself. I’d make no progress. So why fool myself? I’ll delay my writing until tomorrow morning and settle down for the next 2 hours or so with her book.
I wonder if this book is merely part of Connie Willis’ ploy to take over science fiction completely by distracting all other writers in the business with her amazing ability to tell a good story, to say nothing of her skills as a Writer.
New website and blog location
Posted on | March 8, 2010 | No Comments
I finally hashed out the issues that I was having with my WordPress installation and we have agreed on a mutually beneficial configuration. My newly redesigned website (minus some forthcoming banner artwork) is once again up and running. This website will also be the authoritative source for my blog. Keep in mind that posts that I make here will still repost to LiveJournal and Facebook. But all comments will be redirected here.
To that end, I have tried to make commenting simple and painless. If you already have a LiveJournal, Facebook, Google, Blogger, WordPress or OpenID account, you can use those accounts to authenticate here and leave comments. Simply click on the comment link and follow the instructions to sign in using one of those accounts.
And let me know if something isn’t working.
A new update to the Adventures of the Little Zipper
Posted on | March 8, 2010 | No Comments
For those following along, a new update is available in the ongoing Adventures of the Little Zipper. If you’d like to read these, but don’t have access, send an email to zipper at jamierubin.net
Repulsive advertising: South Carolina
Posted on | March 8, 2010 | No Comments
South Carolina is doing an advertising blitz in the food court of the shopping mall upon which my office building sits. They’ve got a full-sized speed boat with a para-sailor up in the rafters, some kind of interactive beach ball video game, kiosks which presumably give you lots of information about vacationing in South Carolina and a bunch of posters strung about like lava lamps at a 60s-themed party. Crews have been setting up these things for the last week and it is both disruptive and annoying. I found it amusing that it temporarily forced Starbuck’s Coffee to close. Imaging holding at bay a gaggle of bleary-eyed caffeine-addicts so that you could hang up a sign telling people to come vacation in South Carolina. (Good thing this was taking place in Arlington, Virigina and not, say, New York City. Can imagine the unruly crowd taunting the workers with something like, “Screw South Carolina, give us our coffee.”
I’ve got nothing against South Carolina. My problem is with the way this advertising campaign has become a production that you simply can’t avoid. It’s everywhere in the food court, and in the early morning, before the mall opens, I have to listen to the workers shouting at each other while they try and get things set up just right. The cost in labor for this thing must be tremendous. Maybe it’s needed. Frankly, when I think of vacation spots, I don’t think of South Carolina.
Of course, when I think of South Carolina, I’ll forever have this annoying advertising campaign in my mind. That is enough to make me want to go somewhere else for my vacation.
A proliferation of bathrooms
Posted on | March 7, 2010 | No Comments
Nerd moment of the day: I spent part of the afternoon today cleaning bathrooms. In doing so, it occurred to me that bathrooms in the houses in which I have lived since summer 2002 have increased exponentially as a function to each move. The chart below illustrates this:
I started with 1 bathroom when I lived in Maryland. We moved up to 2 bathrooms when we moved to Arlington, Virginia. When we bought our house, we moved up to 4 bathrooms. The dotted, yellow bar is the projected number of bathrooms in our next house. Cleaning four bathrooms is a chore enough; I don’t even want to think about eight.
If you saw some duplicate posts…
Posted on | March 5, 2010 | 2 Comments
If you happened to seem some notices for older posts being reposted on LiveJournal, it was a screw-up on my part. I was attempting to import entries to my WordPress blog and forgot to turn off the LJ-reposter so that older posts were getting reposted as they were imported. I think I stopped it before it got too far along, but hopefully this explains any duplicate notifications you may have seen. Sorry about that!
Two rejections before noon
Posted on | March 2, 2010 | No Comments
I received two story rejections before noon today, and in some ways, they were oddly juxtaposed. The first one was from a professional market to which I have never submitted before. The rejection told me that the story made it past the first cut and went on to detail many of the good points of the story, but that in the end, they simply couldn’t put their finger on what was wrong with it. In any event, it wasn’t quite right. It was nice to get such detailed feedback from a pro market, and even though it wasn’t a sale, it was a confidence builder–especially since that story was written back in January. It shows I am still improving.
Of course, some of that confidence was wiped away with the second rejection I received today. It was from another professional market, one to which I have already sold a story, and in which my fiction has already appeared. It was a form letter rejection slip. In the past, I have received quite a bit of editorial feedback on stories I’ve submitted to this market, and so a form letter rejection felt like a step backward for me.
At the same time, it makes me want to try even harder to sell there again. Rejections are always disappointing, but over time, you learn that you can’t dwell on them too much; you learn what you can from them and move on. In that light, I’ve already submitted one of the rejected stories to another market. For the other, I am making a few minor changes, based on what the editors pointed out as possible problems, before I sent it off tomorrow.
Writing update
Posted on | March 1, 2010 | No Comments
With the first two months of 2010 in the record books, here is a brief update of my progress so far this year:
| Jan | Feb | YTD | |
| Days worked | 11 | 9 | 21 |
| Words written | 12,212 | 8,479 | 20,691 |
| Stories completed | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Stories submitted | 2 | 1 | 3 |
Despite writing only 10 days in February, they were 9 consecutive days, the last 9 days of the month. Then, too, when you look at overall hours spent on writing, or writing-related activities it breaks down to 16 hours in January (just shy of 1.5 hours for each day worked) and 17 hours in February (1.8 hours for each day worked). As of this morning I have written for each of the last ten mornings, spending a total of about 2 hours each morning either writing or revising.
I’ve gotten myself back into a good schedule. During the week, I get up at 5am and write until 7am, when Kelly and the baby are still asleep. On the weekends, I write from 7-9 am.
I have completed 2 stories this year, one very short, the other, a good sized novelette. This morning, I started my third story of the year, which I hope won’t exceed 6,000 words, and with luck, will be turned into a completed first draft by Saturday. I didn’t write as much this morning, as I have been, because I am taking this story a bit more slowly, writing a little more deliberately, and not planning things out as well as I normally do. I want to see where this one takes me.
At present, I’ve got two stories "out" at various markets, and a new one being reviewed by trusted critiquers and fellow-writers before sending it out. My goal was 20 new stories this year. I’m 10% of the way there with 16% of the year gone by. With some shorter stories in the spring, I should be able to pick up the pace a bit.
A new post in the Adventures of the Little Zipper
Posted on | March 1, 2010 | No Comments
People following our blog on the Adventures of the Little Zipper should head over there now to read about the latest developments. But be warned: this one’s a doozy. If you don’t have access to the blog and would like to read it, send me and email and I’ll add you to the access list.
keep looking »Recent Publications
Recent Gossip
Jen AshlockRecent Posts
- Recap
- Writers’ distractions
- New website and blog location
- A new update to the Adventures of the Little Zipper
- Repulsive advertising: South Carolina
- A proliferation of bathrooms
- If you saw some duplicate posts…
- Two rejections before noon
- Writing update
- A new post in the Adventures of the Little Zipper
- Non-book reading
- New books!
- 50, 100 & 150
- Recent writing
- All birds come home to roost
