Top Ten Ways to Fail at Writing

1. Go to bed at a reasonable hour.

2. Get up when everyone in your home does.

3. During your lunch time at work, eat.

4. Watch more than 1/10th of the average amount of television.

5. Touch the GAME icon on your phone.

6. Select the word BROWSE anywhere.

7. Allow actual research to drift.

8. Organize your notes for future projects.

9. Organize anything else.

10. Worry about your next blog post.

Resolution Update

On January 9th, in the spirit of the new year, I posted a few resolutions. A writing friend of mine had done so and I figured if she can do it, so can I.

I've since had the day marked on my calendar. Four months have gone by now and I'm calling it a couple of days early. Let's take a look at where I stand, shall we?

Drum roll please!

1. One story per month. New work. End of month as checkpoint.

Four months equals four stories. Easy enough. January saw a complete story written and accepted for publication. Nothing new for February, March or April. Hmm.

In my defense, I've been busy-as-Hell. Of course, I've been busy-as-Hell for the last couple of years. Yet somehow, during those years, I managed to find the time to write plenty. And all under busy-as-Hell conditions. I guess I've been busier-than-Hell.

Regardless, one of four completed.

2. Edit one story from my stack of To-Edits per month. Same checkpoint.

Edited two stories, both last month and both for publication. That's 50%. This isn't looking as good as it's supposed to.

3. Resume critiquing and posting at OWW - say once a month to start.

Ahem.

4. Shake a freaking novel out of my tomes of notes.

Well, crap.

So the resolution thing has not gone as planned. Maybe I should have just resolved to lose weight or something. As a family we've seen a lot of changes this year and a fair number of out-of-the-ordinary stressors. Everything from surgeries to changes at work to military deployments and all of those things take their toll on time.

Out of eleven actionable items, three were completed. That's a whopping 27%. Sigh.

Everyday life is never going to make it easy. Oh, there will be easy days, weeks, months and maybe even years but there will be those busier-than-Hell days, weeks, months and years too. Life has a way of happening while you're busy making other plans (a barely paraphrased quote from John Lennon). You've got to pick up and keep moving. Setbacks are never a reason a quit.

The year is still young. My progress on those four resolutions doesn't fill me with pride. No.

Just determination.

Reflections

The SWAG Writers bookfair: Downtown is for Book Lovers Day went well, I think.

Writer and organizer Cliff Garstang gives an excellent summary on his blog with which I agree fully. Check it out.

I got to spend the day with my youngest son, who accompanied me, sell a few books, and devote a fair part of my Saturday talking with other writers, a local publisher and the patrons who filed through all during the day.

Talking with Linda Layne from Cedar Creek Publishing, Paul Klein, Stan Galloway, and Matthew Warner were highlights for me. Hopefully we'll all be doing this again in the near future.

In the meantime, there's a heap-a'writing to be done. 

Book Fair in Staunton

Less than one week away now! Check out the event on Facebook and if you're in the area and you don't drop by, I will be most displeased. Most displeased, indeed.

I'll be bringing copies of:

The Last Man Anthology     Battlespace     Eye Witness: Zombie     Flush Fiction

And, if you want, I'll even sign a copy for you!

Hope to see you fine folks there!

Moment of Zen

Sometimes life feels like a koan. Moments that must be lessons of some sort but not always clear. Writing, family, work. In no particular order. Times like these remind me of one of my favorites.

The student Tokusan used to come to the master Ryutan in the evenings to talk and to listen. One night it was very late before he was finished asking questions.

"Why don't you go to bed?" asked Ryutan.

Tokusan bowed, and lifted the screen to go out. "The hall is very dark," he said.

"Here, take this candle," said Ryutan, lighting one for the student.

Tokusan reached out his hand, and took the candle.

Ryutan leaned forward, and blew it out.

And when the elements aren't quite meshing the way they should, the way they usually do, sometimes it's time for a moment of zen.

Plot Device

As I gear up for some serious writing, I'm digging through various and sundry rejections and trunk stories. Not to rewrite anything necessarily, but to give thought to what I could have done better. What I would do differently now were I to pay these older tales from my younger days a visit. 

I came across one polite rejection letter from a gentleman who is every bit the title.

"Thanks for your submission. I'm afraid I'm going to have to pass on this one. The storyline is a tired one, in my opinion. This isn't badly told, but I have a lot of other stories that I like better. Perhaps another editor will feel differently about it."

As it turns out the story was picked up a few months later and went on to do very well. And that was before my Odyssey class! Oh, what I would do with it now.

Still, this rejection got me to thinking about tropes, memes and tired, old plot devices.

For every writer and filmmaker ever accused of using a tired, old plot device, I've just gotta ask: "What's so bad about that?"

This is one of my favorite Youtube video, ever.

Event Horizon

It's always nice to have a couple of pans in the fire. A few deadlines to keep the fingers tapping and the brain churning. Goals to work for. And, now, best of all, events to attend.

This Saturday (3/30/13) at 8PM Eastern I'll be at the Temporal Element online launch party. Drop by the chatzy  and speak with the publisher and the other authors! Oh, and me too. Learn more about it here.

Secondly, I just confirmed my participation in SWAG's forthcoming book fair in Staunton, VA on April 27. If you're in the area drop by and say hello. If you're not in the area consider this fair notice and book your flights and accommodations now!

Tomorrow Draws Near

Sounds ominous.

And, in the context of this brief blog entry, it is.

Coming later this year, Tomorrow: Apocalyptic Short Stories will be released by Kayelle Press. Edited by Karen Henderson, this volume explores tomorrow and the horror it might bring.

"None of us know what will happen Tomorrow. The world, as we know it, could change overnight and these stories will be free to explore the possibilities of that change."

"Stories full of action and excitement, uncertainty and fear, struggles, destruction and mayhem."

Stories with a difference. Stories with action. No dreary weather reports here, my friends. 

Tomorrow will feature my tale, "The Dew of Heaven, Like Ashes." I've never envisioned a future quite like this one.

I hope you'll check out Tomorrow.

Damn the Torpedoes

"Damn the torpedoes, Full speed ahead!"

Admiral David Glasgow Farragut

And that's just what Miles Boothe has decided to do with Tales of the Monster Hunter. With the sad but understandable closing of the doors at Pill Hill Press, the fate of the final volume in the Tales of the Monster Hunter anthology trilogy was uncertain. 

Welcome to the world one Emby Press, and at the helm, Miles Boothe. Miles plunges ahead with the third volume, Use Enough Gun, under the new imprint. And resurrecting the original two volumes, Leather, Denim and Silver & The Trigger Reflex, within a single cover titled appropriately Both Barrels.

For more information on what Miles has in store for us you can also check out the Emby Press forum.

And you'll find plenty of planned titles in the Open Calls section of the forum too. There's a whole lot of tales to be told and a whole lot of monsters waiting for their ticket to the hereafter.

Now that I think about it, hold on to those torpedoes. Never know when they might come in handy.

Idea Mill

The most common question I get about writing is: "Where do you get your ideas?"

Nothing new there and no surprise I'm sure. My response is usually something like: "How do you not get ideas?" If the questioner is a fellow writer, we share a laugh. If not, I get to laugh (on the inside) while they stare at me wondering if I'm joking or not. Truth is, ideas have never been hard to come by. They're everywhere and come from the damnedest places sometimes. Open your eyes. Perk up your ears. Play with words and puns. Some of my best work has come from this sort of thing. Whether it's trapping a guy in a whale suit during the zombie apocalypse, a woman's ghost possessing a small clockwork bird, children chasing the bogeyman on a generation ship, or destroying the world with a teddy bear, it's all there.

I must admit most of my work to date has received its initial nudge from calls for submissions from various anthologies. I catch up with the calls through Duotrope, Ralan, or by chance. I immediately switch into humor gear. Every bad joke imaginable rattles through my head and who am I kidding, I don't switch into that gear. I live in that mode! All the ridiculous phrases and puns start me thinking about how I can fulfill the requirements but be as far out on the fringe of the theme as possible. The funny thing is, most of the resulting ideas aren't very funny by the time they solidify and I start writing. Amazing how close humor is to the very, very dark, isn't it?

Nothing inspires like a deadline too. Of course, my To Write list is now populated with half stories, bits of dialogue and pieces of description from a hundred anthologies that I was unable to submit to for various reasons. Still the pen scribbles on.

If you truly can't find an idea, google plot generator and you'll find an endless supply of prompts. All you need is the self-agreement that you'll run with whatever pops out.

And...go!

UPDATE:

My story "The Long View" from Martinus Publishing's anthology, The Temporal Element, is available free here as March 2013's Hit of the Month.