Fiction-writing progress, 2012, week 4

Posted on | January 30, 2012 | No Comments

This week was better than last week, but I still haven’t found my stride. I wrote 4 out of 7 days, but each day was more than 500 words, giving me a total of just about 3,300 words for the week. It brings the total for January up to 13,213 words. This is somewhat below par, but not all that far.

Three of the four writing days were spent on the novella, but I found myself struggling a bit with how things were going there. I gave it a rest and a lot of through, and have a new approach that I never considered before. I’m hoping to move forward with that approach in the next couple of days. I’d still like to get the first draft of that novella finished in February.

In the meantime, I started another short piece, story #4, I suppose, of which I wrote about 1,000 words. I’m not sure how long this one will be yet, but I can’t imagine it being more than 3-4,000 words total. I also started on the third draft of story #1. To some extent, it is a complete rewrite of the story–the same story with a somewhat different perspective. I rewrote the first scene, about 700 words, but I did not count that as part of “new” fiction writing. I told myself at the beginning that I would only count first drafts and I’m sticking to that out of principle.

Moving forward, I’m going to complete the first draft of story #4, complete the 3rd draft of story #1, and then continue with story #3. I’m hopeful that I can get those first two items done this week, and if I am lucky, the new ideas for story #3 will have cemented themselves in my brain by the end of the week.

So, the score board after nearly 1 month looks as follows:

2 new stories that have at least complete first drafts
4 stories started all together
2 submissions
1 rejection
0 new sales
1 new story appearance
14 days of writing out of 30 (so far)
13,213 words of first draft fiction

The biggest problem I have at this point is inconsistency in setting a regular writing schedule. I am trying to write early in the morning but that isn’t always working out and I end up having to snag time where I can get it. That isn’t always optimal. Maybe in February I’ll get this worked out better.

Category: writing

My weekend, etc.

Posted on | January 30, 2012 | 1 Comment

We had a fairly low-key weekend for a change and I think we all needed it. I did no writing over the weekend. Instead, most of my free time was spent reading A Feast for Crows. And indeed, I am now more than 2/3rds through the book and expect to finish it this week.

I had planned to get all of our tax information sent out to the accountant, but I didn’t even do that. Fortunately, this is not a complicated task. I have everything in electronic format and it’s just a matter of compiling it all together. That, too, I expect to finish this week.

My friend Eric was in town and stayed over Saturday night. We don’t get to see him too often and it was nice to see him, even if it was only for a short visit.

Much of my reading was done during the marathon naps that the Little Man took over the weekend: 3-1/2 hours on Saturday and 3 hours on Sunday. I suspect he was still a little under the weather and maybe that’s why those naps lasted so long.

I registered for the Nebula Weekend which will once again take place in the Washington, D.C. area, this time in Crystal City. Indeed, the hotel in which the event will take place is a stone’s throw from my office, and only about 5 miles from my house. It makes it even more convenient than last year. I will be attending the entire weekend, including the Nebula Awards banquet dinner, and just like last year, Kelly will be joining me for the dinner. I’m looking forward to that, it will be a lot of fun.

I’d already made my Hugo nominations, so this weekend I finally got around to making my Nebula nominations. They were the same across the board. I was particularly impressed with the short fiction categories this time around.

In an effort to save a little more money this year (remember, we now pay for the Little Man’s school and the Little Miss’s daycare–the two of which combine to form the equivalent of a second mortgage payment!) I told Kelly that I was going to pack my lunch every day as opposed to purchasing it. It would save $10-12/day. Her response: “I’ll believe it when I see it.” Well, today is now the 20th consecutive workday that I’ve packed my lunch and when I mentioned that to Kelly, she said, “Wow! I’m impressed!”

I made french bread pizza for dinner last night, after which we all watched The Great Muppet Caper OnDemand. This was inspired by the fact that the Little Man has been singing the theme to The Muppet Show, even though he’s never seen a single episode. (He hears me singing it and he picks that stuff up really quickly.

Which reminds me, the Little Man said something really funny last night when we were all sitting around in the TV room. Kelly and I were talking about something and the Little Man was trying to tell something to Kelly. Finally, he held up his hand like a police officer stopping traffic and said, “Mommy, pay attention!” With both collapsed in laughter.

Category: personal

“Jump gestures” for e-books

Posted on | January 28, 2012 | 1 Comment

So in thinking about more use cases for traditional books and e-books, I came up with one that would be incredibly useful to have in e-book readers. I’ll use the Kindle App as an example, since that is where I do 97% of my e-book reading.

Let’s say you are reading, oh, I don’t know, George R. R. Martin’s A Feast for Crows. You have the physical book in your hand. Your reading a passage referring to some geographical point of interest so you flip quickly to the map and then back to the passage you were reading. Very easy to do in a physical book. Not so easy in an e-book.

In my Kindle App, there are a couple of ways I can do this:

I can go to the table of contents, click the map, take a look at it, and then click the Back button a few times to get back to where I was in the text.
I can bookmark the map, jump to the bookmark, look at the map, and then return to where I was in the text.

The problem is that each of these methods take at least 3 click to get to the map.

I think a very useful feature would be to be able to assign a single bookmark to a “jump gesture.” It would work like this:

I bookmark the map page and assign that bookmark to my jump gesture.
As I’m reading, when I want to refer to the map, I use the “gesture” (whatever that gesture might be, maybe a 3 fingered backward swipe, it really doesn’t matter) and I am instantly on the map. All I have to do is that swipe. To get back to where I was in the text: repeat the gesture.

This gesture acts as a toggle and would let me get to the reference point as quickly as I could in the traditional book. And of course, it would apply to other things than just maps. Maybe there is a passage you want to keep referring back to. Assign that bookmark to the jump gesture and you can swipe to it instantly.

I can’t imagine this would be a difficult gesture to implement. Maybe it’s just me but I would make heavy use of this feature if it was available.

Category: blogs, gadgets, iPad
Tags: e-books

Haircut

Posted on | January 28, 2012 | No Comments

It has been a while since my last haircut and the last one I got was not particularly good. This morning I finally got a decent cut.

This is me before (actually a couple of days ago, originally posted on Twitter):

And here I am just a few minutes ago. The satisfied look on my face means I’m happy with the haircut.

Incidentally, like anything else, once I find something to put in my hair, I stick with it forever. It seems to me, however, that the stuff I find always gets discontinued. Thus, for years I’ve been using Redken’s “Rough Clay.” I’ve been out for some time and discovered today that it had been discontinued. It’s suggested replacement is called “Rough Paste” and I picked some up so we’ll see how that goes.

Category: personal

Taking the day off

Posted on | January 28, 2012 | No Comments

I’m taking the day off from writing-related stuff. I’m even taking a day off of Vacation in the Golden Age reading (I’m far enough ahead so that it’s safe to do this.) I missed one writing day this week, but so far, all months, I haven’t given myself a day off from worry about getting the writing done, getting blogging done, getting Vacation reading done, all of it. Today, I’m giving myself permission to take the day off without stressing about it.

We’ve got a friend coming into town today. I’m (finally!) getting a hair cut this morning. I plan on trying to relax and read more of A Feast For Crows. (I’m 185 pages into it at the moment.) I’ll be online here and there, but mostly, I’m just going to wing it today.

Yesterday seemed to be a pretty good day for the new story. It peaked at about 4pm yesterday, hitting #29 in Technothrillers and 5,209 overall in paid Kindle Store. I think that’s pretty darn cool for a novelette.

Tomorrow, I’ll be compiling all of the paperwork to send to the accountant for taxes. Except that all that “paperwork” is now paperless. I’ve got it all in digital format (keeping those originals that I must submit) and I can get everything to the accountant electronically. Cuts down the overall effort from hours to minutes.

Category: personal

New Story: “In the Cloud” available on Amazon (40K Books)

Posted on | January 27, 2012 | 2 Comments

I’m pleased to announce that my novelette, “In the Cloud” is now available on Amazon, put out by 40K Books. This is the second story of mine that 40K has put out. The first story, “If By Reason of Strength…” recently received a positive review in Analog.

Here’s the cover for the new story, done by artist Roberto Grassilli:

The story is currently available on Amazon’s Kindle store for $0.99. I hope you enjoy this story should you decide to check it out.

Category: story sales, writing career
Tags: story appearances

RIP Robert Hegyes (Epstein)

Posted on | January 26, 2012 | No Comments

I remember watching the show as a kid living in New Jersey. And doing poor impersonations of some of the characters. RIP Robert Hegyes.

Category: personal
Tags: obituaries

Index of stories appearing in Analog for the 2011 AnLab awards

Posted on | January 26, 2012 | 1 Comment

Time is almost up to vote for the 2011 AnLab awards for Analog Science Fiction. Ordinarily, you can vote for these awards from their website, but it seems their site has been having some difficulty lately. You can’t vote there and the index of last year’s stories is not listed. So I have gone ahead and reproduced the list of stories and articles that appeared in Analog in 2011 below. For those of you who haven’t voted in the AnLab yet, review the list below and then go vote. You can email your ballot to analogsf at dellmagazines.com. You can also send your votes via regular mail: AnLab, Analog, 267 Broadway, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10007.

Vote for up-to-three items in each category: Novellas (na); Novelettes (nt); Short Stories (ss); Science Fact (fa) and Cover. Ballots are due by February 1, 2012.

The full index is listed below the cut. I apologize in advance for any typos below. Let me know about any corrections and I’ll try to get them in.

Category: science fiction

And to perk up your spirits on this dreary day… (NSFW)

Posted on | January 26, 2012 | No Comments

Here is a rather funny video Kelly sent me this morning. Having lived in L.A. for nearly 20 years I can attest first hand that this is 100 percent true. Although why someone would order “Grilled Cheese Animal Style” from In-n-Out is beyond me. Double-Double all the way!

Category: personal
Tags: humor

Sick

Posted on | January 26, 2012 | No Comments

We are all under the weather. On Tuesday, the Little Miss’s daycare called to tell us that she was throwing up all morning and probably has a virus. I left the office at 2:30 to pick her up. When I arrived there she was a happy little girl. She hasn’t thrown up since. To be safe, we called the doctor and they said to bring her in. They gave us a 3:45pm appointment. The doctor, fortunately, is just down the street from our house and I was there with the Little Miss at 3:35. A nurse took us into an exam room where we proceeded to wait a little over an hour for the doctor to come in. The Little Miss did a great job, considering the circumstance. She handled it far better than I did, I’m afraid. The doctor checked out the Little Miss and everything was normal. Go figure.

The Little Man had been sick the week before, runny nose, cough, and an occasional fever. He’d stayed home from school a couple of days last week. He’s been better since although the runny nose and cough have lingered. Kelly began to feel yucky a few days ago and I began feeling it yesterday. I woke up this morning (in the bleary darkness, to the Little Man’s voluble voice saying, “Daddy, need to go make a pee-pee in the potty.”) feeling mostly awful. But I’m so far behind in project work for the month that I had no choice but to come into the office and try to catch up.

I added 700 words to the novella yesterday and it was like pulling teeth. Each one of those 700 words is in the wrong place but I’m not going to worry about it now. I did manage to get out to the writers group last night. I wrote another 100 words or so while I was there but it was on a different story and it was so miserably bad I’m not even going to count it.

I made my second story submission for 2012 on Tuesday. That was story #2. Still need to work on the third draft of story #1. A pretty major rewrite, and I considered starting it yesterday but there was no time.

And I’m about 100 pages into A Feast For Crows.

Category: personal

Is it cheating to pay for a book review?

Posted on | January 25, 2012 | 12 Comments

A few days ago, I arrived home from work to find a package from Amazon. I didn’t recall ordering anything, and when I opened the package, I discovered it was book I’d never heard of by an author I’d never heard of. Included was a gift receipt and a note from the author. The note indicated the author was a member of SFWA and then asked for me to read the book and give it a Nebula nomination. It noted further that the book received high praise from a prestigious review outlet. As I’d never heard of the author, I checked the SFWA directory and found the listing.

I don’t know about you, but it doesn’t sit right with me, being sent a book and being explicitly asked to consider it for Nebula nomination. Everything I’ve ever been told about this business is that an award season post, letting people know what you are eligible for is acceptable. You do not ask people for a nomination. Certainly you don’t send them a book unsolicited. If I give the author in question the benefit of the doubt, the book was sent to me as a gift with no obligation whatsoever. But the note clearly had a purpose and whether or not it was intended, it made me feel really uncomfortable. And why send it to me? Simple research would show that I am not a book reviewer. Was it because I am a SFWA member? Does that mean a book was sent to every SFWA member? I imagine that if a Nebula nomination was being sought, SFWA members would be the people to go to.

I’d pretty much forgotten about it until today when I was reading a newsletter from a prestigious review outlet and discovered the book I’d been sent featured rather prominently in the newsletter. Curious, I read the review and clearly the reviewer liked the book. But I also discovered that the program under which the book was reviewed was geared toward independent authors. An author can pay nearly $600 to have their book reviewed and then use that review for whatever purposes they like.

I suppose there is money to be made in the business of reviewing books, but to me, it seems kind of like cheating to pay for your own book review. Maybe it’s just me. Maybe paying for reviews is the new way of doing things, but if I get recognized, I want it to be because of the buzz my stories generate, not because I paid someone to review them.

I have not read the book I was sent. It may well be as good as the review indicates. But if it was really that good, why did it need a paid review in the first place? Wouldn’t I be hearing other people talking about it? And yet, I haven’t seen any buzz anywhere, not on Twitter, Facebook, not in the usual SF news and review outlets.

I come away from this whole thing feeling dirty for reasons I can’t quite explain. Both practices–asking for Nebula nominations and paying for book reviews–seem like cheating to me. If you want to be a writer, be a writer, work at it, earn your nominations and reviews, don’t pay for them. I would think you’d be more satisfied in the end.

Am I totally off base here?

Category: books, opinion
Tags: reviews

Returning to the Iron Islands: restarting A Feast for Crows

Posted on | January 24, 2012 | 1 Comment

Back in September, I took a break from my reading of George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series. At the time, I was almost halfway through A Feast For Crows, but my mind was beginning to wander and needed other forms of entertainment. Also, my time for reading had been compressed down to almost nothing with a newborn in the house.

But one of my reading goals for 2012 was to catch up with the rest of the series. Two days ago, I picked up A Feast for Crows again and started reading. I read a few pages from where I’d left off and realized that I’d completely lost the threads so I started over from the beginning and I’m pleased to say that I’m very much enjoying the story, even through I’ve read these parts already

I’m not sure I’ll breeze through these last two books as quickly as I did the first three because I’ve got a fair amount of other reading to do–particularly keeping up with short fiction. But one of the reasons I was able to start reading the book again is because at the moment, I’m all caught up with the stories that I wanted to read in the magazines I subscribe to–and in some cases, like Analog, that takes me through April 2012.

So I’m back in the Iron Islands and you can probably count on a few posts related to these books as I get through them.

Category: books

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