Morpheus is a bastard

Woke up early this morning from a very vivid dream that I had overslept and was late. I hate those. I seem to be having some major issues with my sleep patterns of late. Doesn’t make me a happy camper.

When I got to work, my network drive connections went totally wonky, so all the files I needed to view I couldn’t get to for half the morning. And then I acquired a killer sinus headache. Mondays suck.

Watched Hopscotch yesterday–a spy movie where no one gets hurt, and the hero is the hyper-intelligent, aging, saggy-pants guy. Very refreshing, although the décor was definitely dated. Faux wood paneled offices, yuck.

Writing Stuff:
Saw on the Here & Now website that issue #4 has finally gone to the printers. I’ve got stories stated for issue #5, #7, and #8. At this rate, I wonder when, if ever, I’ll see those in print . . .

Received an email from the editor of Abyss & Apex. Apparently my story hadn’t been assigned to a reader, so it was a very good thing I queried. It’s now being read, and I’m assured a reply ASAP.

It’s getting to be time that I queried the editor or publisher of the Asylum antho. series to see why I have seen zero in royalties, yet cannot sell the damn story to reprint markets because of how “widely distributed” the anthology has been. I saw on the editor’s website that Prime books has cancelled the Asylum anthology series and won’t be publishing book #4. I didn’t have anything under consideration there, but it’s a surprising development. I wonder what that says about sales of #3?

Sent the new version of “Caught Between a Twofold Way” up the Critters queue. Why is it my underscores always get mangled in the conversion? Also received an email from a long-time regular critter and friend of mine that he’s dropping out of Critters (our mutual friend, britzkrieg) but that he’d still be happy to do crits of my stuff. I’m quite sad to see him leaving. A bit worried about him too.

I was bouncing story concepts off Matthew yesterday, and it comes around that he thinks I should write more science fiction, as he thinks I do it really well. His favorite piece of mine is “All in My Mind,” the cyberpunk story that won the Phobos Award in ’02. (I think my best work is “Running on Two Legs,” the story that recently sold to The Third Alternative, but “All in My Mind” is up there on my top five list.)

Science fiction is harder for me to write as it takes more work to get my brain chugging along those conduits. Hell, even when I write it, it’s pretty soft. My “science” tends to be in the behavioral sciences–not that surprising considering my background–rather than the hard sciences. Plus with the editorial feedback I’m getting, it’s not exactly spurring me on to follow any SF leanings I might have. I.e. sold works broken down by genre (excluding flash pieces, reprints, or excerpts):
Science Fiction – 4
Horror – 11
Fantasy – 14

The fantasy numbers are even higher if I include flash, reprints, and excerpts. And there’s some wobbliness in the lines between my fantasy and my horror. I could easily call some of the horror I’ve sold “dark fantasy.” Hell, most of the SF pieces I’ve sold (and written) could be classified as science fantasy.

I do still come up with SF ideas and concepts, but I tend to back burner them in favor of fantasy pieces. A part of me wonders if I’m taking the easy way out by not stretching myself to write more SF. SF is more demanding. The world laws have to follow some basics of science and can’t be fobbed off on magic. But there’s still a scientist in me that has an awe of the universe that I’d like to express and share. On the other hand, my first literary love is fantasy, in all its myriad incarnations.

I dunno. Guess I shouldn’t dwell on what I should or shouldn’t write, but rather on what I am writing. Or, as the case may be, what I’m not writing, dammit.