Still Writing

So I had some good news, a short story of mine, Higher Learning, was accepted for publication in the Absent Willow Review. It was one of my few forays into sci-fi and I am happy to find a home for it.

Then I had some bad news, my novel, Summer's Blood, was rejected by PYR. I sent it to them first for multiple reasons. In order of importance least to most.

1. They take email submissions which saves some ink and paper

2. They request the entire manuscript, so I didn't have to write a synopsis, I am horrible at those.

3. They have an average response time on Duotropes of 14 days, and that is excatly how long it took me to get a response.

4. I really love thier cover artists, some of the best in the business.

5. The have a repuation for putting out high quality novels.

But it was not to be. Now I need to give a few days and do another edit, while at the same time writing a synopsis of each chapter. Then I will send it off to another publisher. I am going to start with the big New York publishers and work my way down. Getting a rejection on a short story doesn't bother me, I've had plenty and plenty of acceptances. But when one of my novels is rejected it is depressing, I spend so much time and effort on them that it is hard to hear someone else doesn't like them. But I always think that maybe if I give them one more edit they will be good enough.

Working...

My break from writing is over, I just got done writing another 1000 words on Godswar. That puts me over 30,000 and I am starting to wonder if this story is going to end up being more than one book long, it is just beginning. I am also starting to wonder if it is possible to have the opposite of writer's block. I have so many ideas for this novel that I don't know where to go next. I guess that's what I get for never outlining.

During my break I read a couple of books and worked on covers for PHP. Below is art for a Whodunnit Halloween and then the cover I made. I tried to make the 6 x 9 artwork into a 12.5 x 9 wrap around cover. I'll let you decide how good a job I did. I also got the artwork for a novel Kinberra Down, Eric S Brown's next novel from PHP. Phil really out did himself on this one, I can't wait for Jessy to post it on our forum.

Original Art

Whodunnit Halloween Cover

Book Review:

This is one of the books I read during my break, I would definitely recommend it. Jimmy was one of my favorite characters in the riftwar saga and I loved to a novel focused on him. I give this one 5 out of 5 stars. But I would tell anyone who is interested to start with the first book of the riftwar saga, Magician and work your way through the series. My favorite book in the series is A Darkness at Sethanon.

I am going to have a busy week at work. Monday should be normal. The Friends of the Library book sale is this week, so I have two days of hauling books around, then on Thursday I have to visit one of the elementary schools and talk about the Summer Reading Program. I don't really know what to say to the classes other than "Hey, there is a Summer Reading Program, you should come!" but I am working on it. Public speaking is my kryptonite, but the oldest kids I talk to will be in 4th grade, so it shouldn't be so bad. We have 1 hour to walk between all six classrooms and give our presentation to each. If nothing else it should be good practice for the bigger schools, that I have to visit in May.

Then on Friday I get to go to the dentist. I have one more wisdom tooth and apparently I am not allowed to keep it. While I'm there he wants to do a in depth cleaning and fill in another cavity. He said for me to plan on being in the chair for at least an hour. Finally I have to work on Saturday this week, which would be fine, but I will be nursing a sore mouth and I will have to start taking down the book sale.

Sigh... Maybe I should write faster so that I can become a famous novelist and not have to worry about book sales and school visits.

Summer's Blood Finished

So I was home sick today, had a sore throat, fever, and stuffy head. Which was bad. But in between nyquil induced nap time, I finished up Summer's Blood and got it sent off to a publisher. Now the waiting game starts.

But having just finished a 95,000 word novel I think I am going to take a little break from writing, just a few days. I am going to read one of the books from my to read pile and then get back to writing. I have some ideas for a couple of short stories and my Godswar novel to work on. But that won't start till Saturday at the earliest. I have been spending all of my free time finishing Summer's Blood and I think I should do something else.

Bards & Sages April

The April issue of Bards & Sages Quarterly is out. My humorous fantasy story, Thornpicker & Nab appears in this issued. It was a really fun story, that I wrote on the fourth of July while I waited to go see the fireworks. Of course the story has nothing to do with fireworks or the fourth of July with the possible exception of Wizbang, a famous home brewed liquor in my fantasy land. The story is about a reluctant necromancer, the rules of conquering, and a little goblin.

Check it out!

Summer's Blood

As you might be able to tell from the progress bar, I have stopped writing completely and focused entirely on editing Summer's Blood. I have just made it over the 60,000 word mark(only 26,000 left.) Of course this isn't the final edit, but I am getting rid of all the inconsistencies and my characters actually have thoughts and feelings.

You see my first drafts are very bare bones type of things. They pretty much just tell what is happening without any embellishment. In my first few edits I have to add in what my character is feeling and thinking. My next edit I will start on grammar and add some descriptions. For example instead of having the characters in a forest. I might have them in a grove of aspens or something like that.

The next edit will paint a clearer picture. Also I think I need to add even more characterization. For example when my characters are given the choice of going to the Isle of the Dead on a mission for the fairy queen or being tortured and banished from all contact with other humans, my character thinks about it for just a couple of sentences and then goes along. At the very least I think I need to add some resentment to that scene, if not outright anger.

But it is coming along, hopefully I'll have it ready to send out sometime in May.