New Star Trek Movie, "Dear Jane" Letter, writing, revising and peddling my wares

The good news: JJ Abrams, directing! The bad news: We have to wait till Christmas. In the meantime, here's the teaser trailer. Not much, but it does whet the appetite a little. http://www.paramount.com/startrek

I just got a "Dear Jane" letter this week. But it was a glowing one. ALL the editors liked the story, but they didn't have room for it. I'm trying to get more organized about sending stuff out. I'm developing a database so that I can know at a glance who accepts reprints, who pays what, what their word limits are, etc. Especially for the ones I've already scoped out, and know what they like. Market research is time consuming. I'm hoping this will help. It's time I stopped repeating my efforts every time I bat a story back into play. Of course, this exercise made something all too clear. Almost no one takes reprints! Ugh!

Meantime, I'm sick of my novel. It's been here too long, stinking up the place like last night's fish. I have to make myself finish the rewrites. I think I need to start the next one at the same time, so I can be writing again, instead of just revising. Much more satisfying. And the next one should be great to write. I can't wait any more. Maybe I'll do the Revision in a Month thing in March on the old one. >sigh<

I'm still waiting for the new issue at Nanobison, featuring my story, "Jolaneering". I'll let you know when it's up. I just sent another story out to make the rounds. I hope you'll see it this year. My fingers are crossed.

Where I Usually Write??

I have a reporter coming over to do a feature for the local paper. He said he'd like to get a photo of me where I do my writing. I do it everywhere! My husband accused me of having a compulsion to write (why thank you! :) ) when I was writing a scene for my newest story on the back of a Mapquest printout I found in the car. He was helping his Mom at the airport and I waited in the car offsite since it was going to be a while. Yeah. I'm a tightwad. I parked in a hotel parking lot, waiting for his call. This was after circling like a vulture three times.

I hate being stuck waiting somewhere without something I'm working on or something to read. And sometimes those are the BEST times to write because you can't possibly do anything else. Getting the oil changed, the tires rotated or sitting in the doctor's office waiting room. That is if they don't have a TV you can't turn off or escape from. I remember reading an article in Poets & Writers about writing in bed. I've done that, too. I write while walking the dog--at least mentally. I write in my sleep. I love it when I wake up with a great story. :)

Of course, the writing can begin on a napkin, the back of a receipt or a legal pad, but it eventually has to go into the computer. What did we ever do without copy, paste, find and replace?

Waiting with Baited Breath

I'm BAAAAAACCCK! I'm typing with all ten digits, nearly over a nasty cold and back to reading and writing. I'm looking forward to seeing "Jolaneering" at Nanobison this month. No date has been given. I'm also crossing my fingers regarding a short-listed reprint at another ezine. Meanwhile, I've accepted a "Revision in a Week" challenge at OWWW (Other Worlds Writing Workshop). I have two stories that have languished since September, when I wrote them in a "Short Story in a Week" challenge at the same online workshop. I also look forward to finishing that story I woke up with and catching up on my reading.

I just finished Madeleine L'Engle's A Circle of Quiet. What an incredible book. I highly recommend it. It's spiritual odyssey, philosophy, social commentary, autobiographical and does, occasionally, touch on the business of writing (at least as it fits into our lives or shapes it).

Awesome Lavratt Galleys

I received five galleys in the mail today. Now to send them out to my lovely friends who are willing to find my mistakes. There's a signed copy of the real thing in it for them. :) It's hard to find your own typos. We see what we expect to see or what we intended when we wrote it.

I just requested that my story, "Immunity Project," be pulled from Wayfarer (see previous posts). I'm putting that behind me. I found a new potential home for "Immunity Project". I'm giving it a spit and polish before I send it out. That is, between framing my husband's landscape prints for his Christmas presents, printing, addressing and signing Christmas cards, getting ready for my mother-in-law's visit and picking her up at the airport. Cross your fingers with me that it gets picked up by this market. :)

I just found a couple of magazines which I had saved to do an article later. "Later" never came. These major magazines have big shiny full-page ads on the backs which originated in a foreign country. They both made no sense. For all the money they spend on these ads, you'd think that email the copy to someone in the States to proofread. It definitely got lost in translation. Is proofreading a lost art? Are those of us who care whether something is riddled with typos or obvious errors a dying breed?

Writer's and Reader's Resources

Everyone needs a hand up to succeed in the arts. Well, unless you have some kind of magic you're not telling us about. I'm inviting speculative fiction writers to check out one of the places where I'm still getting a hand up. Other World's Writers' Workshop. I've been in lots of critique groups. They come and go. They help, they don't. This one is the one that I have consistently benefited from over the years. They have lots of helpful resources on the main page and the workshop is great. The rules are tough, but that's why it works and it's still around after at least five years.

Now, if you write ANYTHING (minus grocery lists, letters, emails and to-do lists) and live in California, here's the place to be: California Writers' Club. They have about 17 branches throughout the state. Tons of help and resources. I highly recommend checking them out. Go to their website to find a branch near you.

Not to forget you readers out there, if you haven't discover Fantastic Fiction, today's the day. Don't you hate it when you pick up a used paperback or a book in the library that's part of series, and it doesn't tell you the order of them on the flap? Problem solved.

Alan Alda on writing

I found this article while blog slogging.

Learning to Write with a Sledgehammer by Alan Alda

It's at The Internet Writing Journal, another great find. And I found that from Writers Write. I thought any writers out there would enjoy these goodies as much as I did. Make sure to look at Alan Alda's photo at the bottom of the article. Doesn't it make you smile back at him? Dan Simmons discusses author photos at length in Installment Seven of his Writing Well.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

The re-write reality

NaNoWriMo has begun without me. Instead, I'm working on rewrites for Under the Suns of Sarshan, which was a 2004 NaNo novel. It just goes to show how much longer rewrites take than the initial draft. Especially the slop that you can crank out in a month. I'm big on deadlines and think NaNo is great. I just have too many unfinished manuscripts to deal with before I start something new. I'm hoping to get through the rewrites this month. For a break, occasionally, I'll deal with rewrites on the two short stories I wrote in September. Then there's the... I don't know seventh pass?...on the novel after this last rewrite is critiqued by my group. If all goes well, I'll be sending the final manuscript around to agents and editors in February while I write the screenplay. It's what the story REALLY wants to be anyway.

I'd rather be writing!! (@@)