Pot pourri

Oh my goodness! I haven't posted for ten days! Shame, shame, shame.

Wednesday night I attended a NaNoWriMo write in and got 1200 words written on my sequel to Awesome Lavratt. The rest of the week, it seems, I've been dragging. I'm trying to adjust to getting up earlier. Since I walk to work, the nearing of winter and daylight savings time has thrown me. I don't want to walk home in the dark, so I have to start earlier. Of course, going to bed earlier would be the smart thing to do, but I haven't quite managed to do that yet...

I'm getting ready for OryCon. I'll be reading with 6 other Broad Universe authors Saturday morning. Friday night, I'll be interviewing Irene Radford for BU. Saturday and Sunday I'll be busy going from panel to panel. Sunday night before I return, I plan to have dinner with my Aunt, who lives in Portland.

I also attended a funeral this week. I told that family of my good friend what a great sense of humor she had. They didn't know that about her! Amazing. Perhaps they weren't close, or didn't bring out the best in her.

I've started my story about the Lake Chelan tragedy in which a school bus went off an embankment into the lake, resulting in the deaths of 16 people. It should come as no surprise to anyone who know me that I'm turning it into a fantasy story. I wanted to interview any surviving parents, and do a retrospective but when I discovered that it happened in 1945 rather than in the fifties, I realized the youngest would be 96, if any were still alive at all.

So, true to form, I'm starting with a reasonably close description of the event followed by pure fiction complete with merpeople of a sort. I'm hoping to finish in time for the anniversary of the event, which is November 26th. (63 years ago)

A friend of mine, who invited me to the NaNo write-in said she had a dream about me. Something about that I had to keep the stories coming. It was somehow imperative. Stories, not novels. Hmmmm....

So here I am wedging a story in during my big push to get the novel done. I also got a "dear Jane" on my apocalyptic tale of 7K words. It's a reprint, so harder to find a home for. >sigh< I'll have to find a new market for it tomorrow and send it out again.

I'm almost done reading the second Shadowbridge novel, Lord Tophet by Gregory Frost. Check out my complete (well, almost) list of books I've read this year at Good Reads. You can also find my TBR (to be read) list there. Most of the finished ones are reviewed at Mostly Fiction.

And if you haven't yet, come follow me. Click on the Follow This Blog link and your avatar or pic will be proudly displayed. More cyber real estate. :)

Speaking Engagement & Missed Opportunity

Well, the article in my home town paper already happened and, alas, is not online. How did I know? Not because the paper gave me a heads up. Must have slipped their mind. No, I got an email inviting me to a writing cooperative in my home town. The reader just skimmed and thought I was local. Anyhow, my plan, which I came up with too late, was to run my story that is set there (Chelan, WA) to coincide with the article. If someone from Chelan places a comment here, and asks nice, I still will. ;)

Just got four books delivered from SFBC. I suppose I better catch up on the ones I haven't read yet. >sigh< So, added to my every growing TBR shelf are: Orson Scott Card's Empire, Jasper Fforde's The Fourth Bear (Which means I have to get The Big Over Easy), Terry Pratchett's Going Postal (I read Making Money first- darn!) and Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys. Last week, I picked up these used: Humans and Hominids, both by Robert J. Sawyer and Starswarm by Jerry Pournelle, since I haven't read any of his solo novels. My husband has already devoured Humans and moved on to Hominids. Meantime, I'm reading Blackjack by Lee Singer. I'm also wedging in my Christmas present from one of my sons, the complete Kent Chronicles series by John Jakes. That's not SF, but well written and enjoyable. It starts with the American Revolution. And if that's not enough, I just ordered Rolling Thunder by John Varley, The Taken Trilogy by Alan Dean Foster and The Space Opera Renaissance, an anthology edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer.

My next speaking engagement is on April 13th. I'll be the guest speaker for a SF group in Santa Rosa. Here's the specifics. If you're local, come join us.

Press Release

SANTA ROSA SCI-FI AND FANTASY MEETUP April 13, 2008 2-4 PM
Ann Wilkes talks about her new book, Awesome Lavratt, and about writing SF

Mysterious Future Bookstore
531 Fifth Street
(between Mendocino and B St.) Santa Rosa, CA 707/545-5828

Cost: None

Ann Wilkes, author of Awesome Lavratt has been published in several online magazines and two anthologies. Her latest book, Awesome Lavratt, is a tongue-in-cheek space opera filled with mind control, passion and adventure. Called “a fun romp” by Jack Skillingstead, whose stories have frequented the pages of Asimov’s Science Fiction.

Ann will also have books available for purchase and signing.

If you’d like to read her book before you come, you can find it online here: http://www.unlimitedpublishing.com/wilkes or pick it up at Mysterious Future Bookstore. Or email her from her website, and you can purchase a signed copy directly from her.

New Features Coming

I plan to have my "Where to Find SF Reviews" page up this week. Keep those suggestions coming for sites I can add. Thanks for those that have helped already.

I just set up a Live Journal account. It's ann_wilkes, if you're in that blogosphere. This one will continue to be my main blog, but now I can comment on LJ blogs, too.

If anyone remembers the whole sad story of my pirated story, "Immunity Project," (see the post of that name, Dec 07) or even if you don't, I have more news regarding that story. I'm waiting to hear back from a magazine that accepts reprints. If they accept it, you'll get to read it there. If they don't, I'm going to post it here as a serial. Just a little something for my lovely readers. Everyone likes a freebee, right? Failing that, I'll throw "Marfina" up for your reading pleasure. Especially my friends in Chelan, WA. A feature story about yours truly will be in the Chelan Mirror soon. Perhaps they can coincide. "Marfina" is set in Chelan.

I spent half my day researching markets. I did manage to rewrite my story "The Heist"--that story that wanted to be suspenseful AND funny. After receiving a "Dear Jane" on Saturday, all doubt was removed that I took it in the wrong direction. I rewrote it as a funny flash. I'm sure it will fare better now. Fingers crossed. I sent it off today.