They thought they could come and conquer our world easily. - Kept in Coral
With great reverence, Leander committed the greatest blasphemy of his life. - Tree of Life
In Progress, Editing
When Albin's nursemaid woke him in the dead of night, he knew something even worse than the death of his father had happened. - The Unkindness of Ravens
Clara ought to be home by now, an' my daughter. - And the Dog Died
"Just go, Will," Isabel said, turning her head to look out the window as if he were already gone. - Writ in Snowflakes and Sunshine
Having the king of Achromia's confidence was a heady sensation, but Bertrand had only to think of some of the tasks he'd been assigned to feel his feet become firmly grounded once more. - Pneumatic Knights
The old woman found the naked boy curled up in a semi-truck tire on the beach. - The Old Woman By The Sea
"What a huge, marvelous fish!" John's wife exclaimed. - Out of Focus
Night mist swirled around Valinda's boots as she walked through the empty street. - Vicesteed
* Posted writing log.
* Read FundsforWriters, FFWSmallMarkets, 3 Publisher's Lunch, Writer's Digest, Duotrope, Critters, OWW, WritersWeekly newsletters.
* Article on the 1,000 True Fans marketing model, with useful resources: http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archi
* Low-potential penthius freewriting inspired by this rather awesome photo: http://sciencenews.org/view/downloa
* Finished remarking Vicesteed ch. 18. Began making editing changes to ch. 18.
* Posted Pt 3 of my (still not completed!) panel notes from the 4th Street Fantasy conference.
* Updated the market list from LJ.
07/06/2009 - Monday
* Read Duotrope, WritersWeekly newsletters.
* Updated markets from the above.
* Processed Shroud's form letter “please do not consider this a 'rejection' of your work” rejection of "Good Help is Hard to Find." Am amused.
* Processed Critters crit of Vicesteed, ch. 28.
* Prepped Vicesteed chs. 31-32 for uploading to Minnspec, only to realize while writing summaries that a whole hell of a lot happens in the complete chapter 30, and I should really send that in instead. Prepped chapter 30 for crit, uploaded it, and processed.
* Posted writing log.
* Day of the dead
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
penthius freewriting.* Penthius freewriting about a different kind of Walk of Stars.
07/02/2009-07/05/2009 - Thursday-Sunday
At CONvergence, which I think counts as more than enough for those days!
07/02/2009 - Thursday, before CONvergence
* Read Publisher's Lunch.
07/01/2009 - Wednesday, spent most of the morning prepping photos for mailing.
* Read Writing-World, WritersDigest newsletters.
* Recommended writing books - I can vouch for The Writers Guide to Life in the Wild West and On Writing: http://bookstove.com/non-fiction/five-g
06/30/2009 - Tuesday, no downtime, spent the morning mostly dealing with the repair guy and needing to get into work.
* Posted writing log.
* Created a "To Do Once Pro Writer" file. It felt strange to do that--kind of presumptuous. On the other hand, it really only makes sense to keep a place to record ideas and tactics and useful resources for that level of writing. Things like joining this writing group and that writers organization and using the other service if x happens.
* Loaded Vicesteed ch. 29 up into Critters for critique.
* Processed MNLit's non-win notification. (One is never rejected from contests; one simply didn't win.)
* Processed donation received for Aswiebe's Market List (2 months later. Oy. Seemed late enough I thought a thank-you would be more awkward than otherwise.)
* Processed Alternative Coordinates' personal, "we hope you will submit again" rejection of "These Things Take Time." "While the subject matter is of interest to our readers and the story is well written, the story itself does not fit in well with our current releases." Hrm. I am flattered that I got a mostly positive personal rejection, yet somewhat baffled. My intangibles did not fit in.
* Sent Vicesteed chapters 19-22 to MinnSpecer who volunteered to crit more. Yay!
* Updated "Salvaging Scottwell"'s status to reflect it being passed up the line after edits were completed. Am still more than a little gobsmacked that Eric Flint is going to be reading *my* story.
I have a set critiquing procedure, which helps it to be a more objective process for me.
0. (This step is optional, but I do it if I have time and feel like being nice to critiquers.) Skim read it. Remove the most glaring chunks of bad writing and fix inconsistencies.
1. After setting the story aside for at least a month (barring deadlines) and collecting critiques, do a detailed and vicious line-by-line edit. I usually cut 30% of what I've written at this stage.
2. Let it rest a little while and then read it aloud, fixing flow and phrasing and transition problems as you go. Reading aloud tends to shift my mental gears enough to notice things I might have skipped over when reading it quietly. (I have also heard a suggestion to change the font to help this step, and I might try that next time.)
3. Submit. If you are blessed enough to get feedback, reread story and decide if suggested changes are right for the story.
4. Pick a number. After the story's been rejected that many times, repeat steps 2-4.
That's my general submission procedure. Step 1 has become slightly more complicated this time around, as I revise my steampunk novel, Vicesteed. People keep reading chapters and then volunteering to critique the whole thing because they want to read it, but I'm already 3/4 of the way through the heavy revisions, which are where I like to use outside feedback.
I guess it's a good problem to have. Promising.
06/04/2009 - Thursday
* Installed Microsoft Office. Have had too many problems formatting submissions to stick with OpenOffice, alas.
* Read FundsforWriters, WritersDigest newsletters.
06/03/2009 - Wednesday, my birthday! No downtime.
* Processed J's crit of Vicesteed chs. 26-28
* Processed B's crit of Vicesteed chs. 21-22 and sent him 23-26.
* Finally filed Wiscon workshop crits & crits from the last bout of Minnspec.
* Read WritersWeekly newsletter.
06/02/2009 - Tuesday. No downtime.
* Posted writing logs.
* Penthius freewriting for today, and also posted over all the ideas and story fragments sparked by Wiscon.
* Posted Part 3 of 3 of my Wiscon notes. Now I just have to remember to use what I've learned.
* Checked on the Minnspec pending members, only to find it had already been taken care of.
* Read WritersWeekly, FundsforWriters, Duotrope newsletters.
* Good insights into what editors at the top-notch publications think makes a great story: http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/editors
* What this writer sees her job as: http://matociquala.livejournal.com/1627
* Caught up on chapter and plot summaries through Vicesteed ch. 28.
* Submitted Vicesteed chs. 29-30(partial) to Minnspec. Those are the chapters with, respectively, The Big Love Scene, and The Whorehouse Revelation. I'm not sure how I feel about listening to people discuss sex scenes that I wrote. We'll see.
* Processed Withersin's speedy "please submit again" personal rejection of "Road of Dreams." I have heard that editors never-ever include "please submit again" in their form rejection letter, only if they actually mean it, but I am unconvinced.
* Proposed syndicating my Aswiebe's Market List newsletter to a website looking for unpaid SF/F/H columns.
*
penthius freewriting about no news.* Copied Penthius freewritings over to backup file.
* Created a new document for "Kept in Coral," a flash fiction piece I accidentally wrote while doing freewriting.
* Posted Part 2 of my Wiscon panel notes.
05/29/2009 - Friday, no downtime, cleaning for imminent arrival of m-i-l in the morning instead of writing.
* Read 2 FFWSmallMarkets, FundsforWriters, 2 WritersDigest, Critters, WritersWeekly, Writing-World, 2 Duotrope newsletters.
* Posted writing log.
*
penthius freewriting about kidnapping an assistant (was feeling overwhelmed at work).* Updated market list from Duotrope and old Duotrope newsletter.
* A handy trick for figuring out when to use who or whom: http://blog.writersdigest.com/qq/Wh
* Processed Andre's crit of Vicesteed d2 ch. 11-12.
* Processed Escape Clause's "Thanks but sorry, not yours," personal rejection of "Haunts of Hill Crossing."
* Finally entered the MinnSpec Secret Volcano Lair for organizers (though I'm still missing that decoder ring I was promised), sniffed around the place, and figured out my new duties (Approving members! I have all the power! Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!).
* RSVPd for June MinnSpec Meet-Up.
* Accidentally wrote a flash-fiction piece when I was trying to do
penthius. Rewrite/polish and off it will go!* Posted writing log.
* Did 2 crits for MinnSpec meet-up this Sunday. My future is made of crits. Crits for MinnSpec this Sunday, crits for WisCon's writers group, crits for OWW if I want to get any more sections out, crits for Critters (eventually) to keep my ratio up...the list does not stop.
* Processed Critters acknowledgment that they've loaded Vicesteed ch. 28 up into the queue.
* Read and printed crits of Vicesteed d2 ch. 8-12.
* Posted writing log.
* Low potential freewriting, but based on an interesting quote: "Creativity is the ability to introduce order into the randomness of nature."
—Eric Hoffer
* Finished and emailed off belated MinnSpec crit.
* Began redmarking Vicesteed ch. 18.
* Read Critters newsletter.
* Updated Vicesteed character list with changed names after I had the same name for 2 different characters. Ah, the perils of glancing at one's bookshelf to name random characters.
* Updated market list from prev. notes.
* Processed Withersin's receipt acknowledgement for "Road of Dreams."
* Loaded Vicesteed ch. 28 up to Critters for critique. Finally. Gah, when will I learn to keep on top of getting things out, for critique or for consideration?
05/11/2009 - Monday, full work, not much downtime
* Posted writing log
*
penthius freewriting, "Heatscape."* Finished editing changes to Vicesteed ch. 17!
* Started catch-up MinnSpec critique.
Deleted from Vicesteed ch. 17
Old chapter wordcount: 12,044
New chapter wordcount: 7,959
Vicesteed Draft 1 wordcount: 207,877
Vicesteed Draft 2 current wordcount: 171,640
Notes: This is still a rather long chapter. I did fix some notable "how shopping districts would work" stupidities, though.
Reason for deleting scene: This is a pretty decent interrogation scene--but it does nothing to move the plot forward. The things Mr. Johnson says and does are all covered elsewhere, and this isn't the first time we've seen Quincy do his thing so it isn't needed for character development.
Which deleted scene is it anyway?
"Now," he said, turning to Mr. Johnson, "you have one chance, and that only because of her kindness. I suggest that if you are still in business after I leave, you give her only the best clients, and you make damn sure that she gets a very generous fee."
Mr. Johnson drew his large handkerchief from his pocket and mopped his sweating face. He moved slowly, as if he was afraid that Quincy would interpret any movement as a threat.
"A-anything, sir," he said.
( Read More )
* Posted writing log.
*
penthius freewriting about marketing temporary death.* Saved freewritings from this week to the master document. I used to save after every one, but of late, I've been doing these during downtime at work, so I need to save them en masse.
* Updated market list from Duotrope.
* Submitted "The Radiator Burped" to Strange, Weird, and Wonderful--I'm a little confused about their submission periods as they say they have a submission period that starts in July, but the note at the top says they're taking submissions for Fall and Winter issues (I'm aiming for Fall.). Confusion abounds, but I submitted anyway.
* Submitted "Charity From a Thief" to Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, a pretty badass new market.
* Worked on editing Vicesteed ch. 17.
* Submitted "Road of Dreams" to Withersin.
* Queried Escape Clause Anthology about the status of "The Haunts of Hill Crossing." I read that they were expecting to send out all responses by 04/10/2009, but I haven't heard anything yet.
* Read WritersDigest newsletter.
* Submitted "Diplomatic Relations" to M-Brane SF Queer Anthology.
* Fought a lot with OpenOffice 3.x's crashiness and problems saving in RTF format. By "fought a lot," I mean that Phil was on another floor of the house and I traumatized him.
05/08/2009 - Friday, full work, some downtime
* Dealt with the hazards of multiple versions of a working draft: merged the updated first three chapters from my home version with the more-recently-edited-elsewhere thumb drive version, and changed the paragraph I'd saved in my email. Then synced that version on home computer and thumb drive.
* Decided to be patient a little longer and not query about the status of "Salvaging Scottwell" (they've been holding the RTF version for 3 months, but molasses moves a lot faster than the publishing industry).
* Joined http://www.mnartists.org and submitted "Dining on a Dead Girl's Dime" to the MNArtists' miniStories Flash Fiction Contest (thanks for the idea,
inktea!).* Began formatting "Diplomatic Relations" for a reprint submission. Stumbled up against AbiWord problems with headers.
* Read Writing-World, FundsforWriters, and FFWMarkets newsletters.
* Writing-World feature article, "Music to Write By" (http://www.writing-world.com/newslette
* Posted writing log.
*
penthius freewriting about Death's need for a gardener.* Worked on making editing changes to Vicesteed ch. 17
* Processed OWW crits of Vicesteed, Chapter 27, though I was a bit frustrated by my inability to email/message other members to thank them. Seems to be a personal choice whether they make that info viewable, and there's no way set up to message them without it.
* Processed MinnSpecCritter emailed critiques.
* Realized that some of the edits I remembered making to Vicesteed ch. 2 just weren't there anymore. Freaked out. Hunted through all my files. Discovered that I'd made further revisions to chapters 1-3 and saved them (separately) in a file called "Vicesteed draft 3 ch 1-3." Note to Self: Never do that again. Ever. The draft currently being worked on should have all the most recent changes, and archiving everything chronologically is way less important than making sure not to lose any changes. Never ever ever do that again.
* Processed crits for Vicesteed chs. 1-7 and sent out 8-12 from/to A.
* Updated OpenOffice version on home and work computers
* Finished marking up Vicesteed ch. 17. There may have been hosannas involved.
* Posted writing log.
*
penthius freewriting, a retelling of the Midas myth.Yes, I feel accomplished. Also very tired. Would have been nice to go to bed an hour or two ago.
'Night, all.
* Read FFWSmallMarkets, FundsforWriters, WritersDigest, and WritersWeekly newsletters.
* Processed MinnSpecCritters' emailed crits of Vicesteed chs. 23, 24, & 27.
* Processed crit of Vicesteed chs. 19-20.
* Read Writer's Digest magazine on bus ride to work.
* Posted writing log.
*
penthius freewriting, a supernatural chick lit notion.* Updated market list from Duotrope, OWW, and Ralan newsletters.
* Posted writing log.
*
penthius freewriting about elves.* Redmarked (purple-marked, if you want to get technical) some more of Vicesteed Chapter 17. Cut the interrogation scene that produces no useful info not also produced elsewhere.
* Realized that yesterday I uploaded Vicesteed Chapter 27 to MinnSpec...and that it was the same chapter I'd loaded up for the last meeting. Fixed that, replacing it with chapters 26 & 28 (partial--dratted partial chapters).
05/04/2009 - Monday, full work
* Posted writing log
* Penthius freewriting, "Ma Draconis" (private-locked)
* Added yet another (private-locked) story idea to penthius after a friend's random pondering exploded in my brain into a beautiful magic realism love story.
* Worked (very briefly, in the intermission while dinner was cooking) on Vicesteed Chapter 17 AKA the unnecessarily long and nonsensical chapter.
* Tried to figure out where all my critiquers are at, with limited success. Spreadsheets can only do so much.
* Giggled a bit with glee over Vicesteed ch. 27 being a featured selection at Online Writing Workshop, which is an excellent way of having a new member without an established network of critiquers get (hopefully) more critiques, and coincidentally to make them extend their stay past the free trial period.
* Uploaded Vicesteed ch. 26-27(partial) to MinnSpec for the next workshop.
* Posted writing log.
* Worked on redmarking Vicesteed Chapter 17, including rearranging a conversation interrupted by a page and a half of description. ::face-palm:: Word to the wise: you don't really want to intersperse more than a sentence or two at a time in a section of dialog.
* Posted writing log.
* Penthius freewriting, "Girl Needs An Anti-Gravity Belt"
* Redmarked Vicesteed--decided (with much trepidation and double-checking and reading through later chapters of Vicesteed) that Chapter 16 was entirely unnecessary, and began redmarking Chapter 17. The excising of Chapter 16 will remove maybe 10,000 words and a plot point. I'm saving the rough draft and critique notes in case I decide I *do* need that murder attempt to keep the tension up after all. But it's not essential to the plot, and I do need to drastically cut the word length.
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