Tag Archives: writing sale

Home again, home again . . .

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Full Sundance write-up tomorrow. Mundane catch-up herein:

Back from Utah. Retrieved skunk from godmother. The lil guy was pretty ecstatic to be home, and so am I. All is well, but I’m exhausted. I was napping with Hobkin–crashing really–until he got it into his wee head to run amok and wake me up. Now he’s done being amok and napping under his hutch, and I’m bleary-eyed and insomniac.

Hobkin somehow knew when we were coming to pick him up. He was busily digging at the door when we rolled into her driveway–a behavior she informed us he hadn’t engaged in at all before, and which he’d begun about two minutes prior to our arrival. There’s a lot of sense and intuition going on in that small, fuzzy head. Hobkin gave me many nose-sniff kisses as soon as I picked him up, and snuggled me all the way home. ‘Course then he went amok at 5AM . . .

My laptop powered itself down several times while we were in Utah, the same malfunction as before. Not surprised in the least. Going to have to call HP and see about sending it back again. Bastards.

   


Writing Stuff

Got an email from the Aberrant Dreams folks inviting me to dinner after the signing on Saturday. Haven’t replied yet ’cause dude_the is coming down this weekend for Superbowl Sunday, and I don’t know what our plans are. Delighted by the invite regardless. I love it when editors offer to feed me.

I have much, much Tangent work to catch up on. And I have about two dozen stories that I want to read, as well as a slew of ones I’ve already read from last year, that I need to pare down to the five best to nominate for the Sturgeon Award before the 24th of February. Urk.

Received:
Squee:
– 217-day sale of a French reprint of “Returning My Sister’s Face” to Faeries.
– Check from Ennea for the Greek reprint of “When the Lights Go Out.” And it’s in U.S. dollars and not euros, hurray!
– A status update from mroctober on a YA anthology he’s trying to sell to Mirrorstone that I wrote a story for. The Mirrorstone editor made lots of promising-sounding words, “very interested” being the main ones, but it’s still in the “maybe” category. A very positive maybe, though. Got my fingers and toes crossed. I’d love to be published by Mirrorstone.
– 24-day email from Doug Cohen, slush editor of Realms of Fantasy, informing me that he’d received my latest submission and that he’ll pass it along to Shawna in February.

Sigh:
– 106-day personal nope from Chris East of Futurismic after holding onto this story for extended consideration. Bummer. But he did invite me to try again.
– 54-day “no thanks” with invite to submit again from Lorraine and James. Eh, it was a long shot.

Rolling my eyes:
– 547-day “Despite your publication credits, we feel you need some help getting your prose skills up to a truly professional level. You may want to consider attending a Borderlands Press Writer’s Boot Camp” rejection from Borderlands 6 on a story I’d already withdrawn and sold elsewhere.

I am terribly tempted to respond with: “Despite your pay rate, I feel you need some help getting your publishing house up to a truly professional level. You may want to consider improving your response times and organization skills, as well as not including a self-serving plug in your rejections.” But I won’t. After all, two unprofessionals does not equal a professional.

New Words: 3K on a Japanese Demon Hunter short written during some down time in the condo at Utah. This one I’m intending for dsnight‘s Heroes in Training anthology.

Club 100 For Writers
      1
*sigh*

500/day
      1
It’s a new year, and the first time I’ve managed to hit 500. At least it’s not February yet.

Oh Where, Oh Where, Has My Laptop Gone?

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I checked the HP website and the status of my laptop is listed as: “Hewlett-Packard is currently repairing or replacing your product. . . . not yet shipped.”

They were supposed to ship my laptop back yesterday. And I even bought the stupid extended care package that promises expedited priority service! Struggling not to work myself into a foaming frenzy of go-medieval-on-their-asses-argh, but what little forbearance I had left is strained to the big kablooey point. If anyone sees a small mushroom cloud Atlanta-ward, that’s probably me losing it.

Calmblueocean. *twitch*

The thing is, I’d calculated on taking my laptop with me to Utah next week.* More than calculated, counted on. The condo we’re staying at won’t have WiFi, unless things have changed since last year, but there are Internet cafes aplenty in Park City, and I’d assumed I’d be able to at least maintain perfunctory email contact, not to mention not fall too behind on my various editorial duties. Most importantly, I’d counted on having it so I could type up any observation and inspiration notes for future stories.

While it is still possible that my laptop will get to me in time–like if they shipped it today–it’s cutting it very close.

@!&*$#! Calmblueocean.

*fosteronfilm is reprising his Sundance/SlamDance/Troma Dance film festival working holiday again this year, and I decided to go with him this time. Traveling is the best muse food for me, and I figure there’s going to be a lot of inspiration and creative energies crashing about at Sundance et al. So while I doubt I can deduct the cost as a working expense (although fosteronfilm might be able to), I think it’ll be worth doing.

   


Writing Stuff

I think the only reason I haven’t detonated into a big wrathful smear of exploded-Eugie is that I’ve received so much excellent writing news.

Augie Wiedemann, the artist who illustrated “Oranges, Lemons, and Thou Beside Me” for Apex, sent me a print of the extra illustration he did because he liked the story so much. I’m bowled over and touched by both the gift and the compliment. I shall need to find a frame for it and then I’m going to hang it in the library.

Received:
– 41-day sale of “A Patch of Jewels in the Sky” to Dragonfly Spirit, slated for publication in their June issue.
– 20-day rejection from Fantasy Magazine offset by a reprint sale of “Returning My Sister’s Face” to Sean Wallace’s Best New Fantasy anthology. Huzzah! I’m going to be in an anthology with the word “Best” in the title!

And check out the gorgeous cover art by Eikasia:

Update on State of the Dad-in-Law

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fosteronfilm‘s mom called with a status update. It seems that my DIL is recovering fine from the infection, but he’s having even more problems with his breathing. Unfortunately, we couldn’t interpret what the details of the situation are from my mom-in-law’s explanation. It seems that they need to periodically put him on “the machine” (oxygen? respirator? guh?) because there are times when he can’t breathe at all–something to do with a build up of carbon dioxide in his lungs. And he fluctuates between being alert and perfectly lucid, and woozy and disjointed. No big surprise there, as I’m sure it’s related to how much air he’s getting, and therefore how much oxygen is getting to his brain.

My MIL is dealing with it as well as she can, but she’s so very helpless without my DIL to take care of her. It worries me. She got panicky driving back from the hospital by herself because she’s not used to driving on the freeway, and she got unhappy because a set of sweat-clothes had been left on the floor in a bag (from the hospital, I assume), and so sent them through the dryer so they wouldn’t wrinkle (let me tell you how often I stress about wrinkles, oh yeah, that would be never). Unfortunately, she forgot to take DIL’s inhaler out of the pocket and sent it through the dryer as well. fosteronfilm told her to consult the pharmacist before letting his dad use it after that . . .

They’re both so hidebound in their roles. There’s a decidedly charming aspect to it: he takes care of her, and she takes care of him, but without each other, they sort of fall apart. She’s never done her own taxes; he’s never cooked a meal–that sort of thing. While I’m a huge proponent of healthy co-dependence, I’m very worried about my MIL.

On the laptop front, in a bit of timely vent-ableness, I got a “Customer Service Evaluation” request from HP on my recent experience with their service. I’m looking forward to filling it out . . . mwahahahaaa. Not that I think it’ll accomplish much, but it’ll be nice to engage in a bit of satisfaction-inducing ranting.

   


Writing Stuff

It has been brought to my attention (thanks basletum!) that Escape Pod is having a poll for “favorite story of 2005” and that “The Life and Times of Penguin” is listed among the nominees. I’m honored by the nomination and compelled to engage in shameless vote pimping. So: Vote for “Penguin,” yo!

And if you haven’t listened to it yet, you can download it HERE. And while you’re there, check out all the other wonderful podcastic offerings at Escape Pod.

Received:
– 25-day SALE of “Nobodies and Somebodies” to Aberrant Dreams. First sale of the year. Rah!

A Sunday of Writing

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Writing Stuff

Did much writing work stuff yesterday with very little actual words happening. Caught up on some Tangent work, sundry bookkeeping, completed and sent off the answers for my Aberrant Dreams interview, and wrote several crits and thank you notes for Critters.

Received:
– Confirmation of payment (in euros) from my bank from Faeries for “The Storyteller’s Wife.” And I got my contrib. copies! It’s a lovely digest-sized, glossy publication. Very nice production values. But my French skills are balking at my efforts to read it.

– A copy of the Writers for Relief anthology. Another glossy, gorgeous product with beoootiful cover art.

– An email (214-day rt) informing me of a Greek reprint SALE and publication of “When the Lights Go Out” to Ennea (9). It was published in issue #279 (week of 11/23/2005). This story first appeared in issue #5/6 of the UK ‘zine Here & Now. It’s my second sale to Ennea, and their operating procedure is to notify authors after they publish your story, and then they email you a contract/invoice to collect your pay. It’s different, but hey, whatever. The first sale involved some oddity with their check when I tried to cash it due to a Greek bank strike. This time, I think I’ll go with the direct bank-to-bank deposit route.

I’m having a very good week. Three sales in six days! That might be a record for me.

New Words: 100ish on “Rue and Ruin” in a couple editing passes. Beginning my rewrite from Critters feedback. Overall, folks seem to like it, but want me to make my antagonist more three-dimensional–an exceedingly valid suggestion. But also something that requires serious pondering. Plus, I’m somewhat mortified at the number of typos critters have discovered in my manuscript. Doh!

Club 100 For Writers
      67

Christmas Gremlins bad

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Had a wonderful evening Friday with yukinooruoni. There was much gabbing and geeking, food munching, and computer wizardry. We also watched Love Actually, a delightful holiday flick and a new favorite of ours since it came out. Alas, both fosteronfilm and my tech skills are woefully obsolete. There’s so much out there we’re just not up-to-date on. Amazingly, progress does not stand still while one is unemployed, imagine that.

Internet connection continues to be unreliable. (Feh Comcast, feh!) And now our FTP client is getting a “receiving call blocked” error when I try to upload changes to my homepage so I’m having to do my updates via Comcast’s website. This would be fine if A. it weren’t slower and B. would accept more than one file at a time. I appear to have offended the Lord High Emperor of Gremlins who has sent a plague of technical difficulties upon me. Debating whether I need to make a blood sacrifice or a technological one in order to appease him. It’s doubtful he’ll be content with cookies . . .

Written up the first wave of Christmas cards to send out tomorrow and entering into frantic mode on the shopping front.

Could barely manage to wake up yesterday whilst on my Adderall weekly “holiday” so I decided not to extend my break for the whole weekend. Popped my lovely 20mg this morning and feel much more chipper and productive. And a bit wired, as may be evidenced in the somewhat disjointed tone of this post.

   


Writing Stuff

Received:
197-day SALE of “Spring Arrives on a Hob’s Tail” to Story Station. Huzzah! This is a cute little tale inspired by Hobkin and his tail. Not sure when it’s due out, but I’m looking forward to it.

New Words: 1000 on “Vain and Vie.”
There’s so much writing I want to do, and so little time. *twitch*

Club 100 For Writers
      66

500/day
      111

Laptop anxieties

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My laptop has spontaneously turned itself off a couple times in the last few days. The first time, I thought I’d accidentally hit the little hibernation switch which activates when the lid is closed, but the second time I wasn’t anywhere near it. And even if I had toggled the switch, it ought to have put itself into hibernation, not turned itself off. Fortunately, I didn’t lose any data–I hit SAVE like someone with an obsessive-compulsive disorder, and Word’s automatic recovery snagged the files I had open both times–but my anxiety levels are spiking.

   


Writing Stuff

Got the interview questions from Aberrant Dreams. For the most part, they’re the normal fun/fluff/quirky silliness I’d expect, but there’s a couple notable exceptions. There’s one question asking my opinions on Kafka and de Maupassant with regard to their modern marketability, and one asking me to deconstruct several works with regard to the psychological impact of their literary technique. Erm. When I read those, I suddenly felt like I was back in grad. school during test time, or maybe filling out grad. applications–you know the kind where they want you to answer a couple essay questions to evaluate your knowledge and writing ability. I’m not sure if I should try to compose a treatise of “Eugie’s Literary Theories”–which I can’t imagine anyone would want to read–or blither about what I think of Kafka, the works in question, et al, or if I should just try to come up with something funny. *blink* It’s certainly an interesting set of questions.

If folks want to see what I come up with, the interview should come out in their January issue.

Received:
– Final approval from the editor on “Princess Bufo marinus, I Call Her Amy.” Woohoo!
– My contrib. copies of Fantasy Magazine #1. (Still awaiting payment, though.)
– An email from Story Station two months after I queried them, letting me know they’re still considering my submission. Going on a total of six months that they’ve held that story. Their GLs say they aim for a one month turnaround and to query after two. Grumf.

New Words:
– 200 or so on the requested editorial changes on “Princess Bufo marinus, I Call Her Amy.”
– 700 on “Rue and Ruin.” I’m beginning to get anxious about the sprawling word count on this one. I’ve still got at least two scenes to go before the end, and less than 1.5K to do them in. Miss Muse is apparently feeling verbose, the contrary floozy!

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
10,659 / 12,000
(88.8%)

Club 100 For Writers
      50

500/day
      101

Post-Halloween recovery

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Had a delightful, if low-key, Halloween. fosteronfilm, dude_the, and I stayed in, watched appropriately ghoulish movies, and handed out candy to the kiddies. The line-up included Trancers, Hellboy, and Beetlejuice. The boys watched more than that, but I conked out pretty early and slept through the other selections. I was so very tired yesterday. I think the Adderall is losing its effectiveness with me again. Got a follow-up with my p-doc next week to discuss options. ‘Course, now I’m wide awake and everyone else, including Hobkin who is cuddled up at my side, is asleep.

In other news, I did not make the cut as one of the 12 Babes of Christmas, alas. But it was fun, an honor being nominated, blah blah blah. Thank you very much to everyone who voted for me. Y’all are the greatest.

   


Writing Stuff

Oops. I forgot to mention that over the weekend my tentative sale to Aberrant Dreams did indeed become a definite one. I sold them “The Son that Pain Made” on Saturday. It’s slated to be published in their January issue. Huzzah!

Frantic Friday

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It’s the weekend. How did it get to be the weekend already? dean13 is flying in today and dude_the‘s plane comes in tomorrow, and the house looks like the aftermath of a rhinoceros tea party. And I’m still waffling on my Halloween costume. Gah!


Warning: There is some nudity on the voting pages.
Not safe for work or kiddies!

   


Writing Stuff

Tentative sale to Aberrant Dreams, tentative in that the editors want me to do some tweaks to my story–I assume to tone down one or two of the more visceral scenes–to better match the PG13+ rating they’re aiming for with their publication. Younger target audience and all. But the editor was very enthusiastic, so I’m feeling quite optimistic that this “tentative” will turn into “definite.” Waiting on their editorial suggestions . . .

And also, the editor confirmed that the convention that they thought was canceled was indeed Esotericon and not Frolicon. I’d already had it confirmed that Frolicon was still solidly on track from the convention organizers, but glad to have that cleared up on all fronts. Still haven’t set a date, time, and place for the interview they want to do, but there’s no rush.

“The Better To . . . ” is up at Critters and the first crits are rolling in. Obviously, I need to put back in some of the worldbuilding material that I pulled out. So far, folks are having problems comprehending the major world change that is essential to the setting. Must rectify that in rewrite.

New Words: 560
Chugging along nicely on “Rue and Ruin” although I almost got sidetracked by a funny little story idea that fosteronfilm and I came up with.

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
4,520 / 7,500
(60.3%)

Club 100 For Writers
      29

500/day
      85

Don’t eat . . . Ginger Snaps

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This has been making the rounds on my friends list, and I am naught but a lemming: Steve, Don’t Eat It!, the adventures of someone who has a cavalier disregard for botulism, E. coli, and the wellbeing of his gastro-intestinal tract. Funny and somewhat disturbing. As a friendly caveat, don’t read this if you’re about to sit down to a meal. There’s a pretty high gross-out factor.

Watched Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed last night, which was appropriately fitting for the season, and surprisingly good. I liked the original Ginger Snaps when I first saw it. It was refreshing to find a different sort of werewolf movie, albeit one that was a little too happy with its symbolism concerning womanhood and growing up. The sequel, though still symbolism-happy, was darker, with an intense focus on the characters rather than the werewolf mythology, but without ever letting you forget the wolf. For a more in-depth review, read fosteronfilm‘s discussion of it.


Warning: There is some nudity on the voting pages.
Not safe for work or kiddies!

   


Writing Stuff

Received an information-packed letter from my Cricket editor (*waves*). First up, two stories rejected (boo) and one–“The Red String”–sold (yay!). Also, an Indian folktale I sold them last year, “The King of Rabbits and Moon Lake,” is slated for publication in April (yay!). And lastly, they’re getting pretty full up on Asian folktales (snartleblast!).

Suddenly, my four submissions with them is down to one, and I’ve just added “research and write non-Asian folktale” to my list of things to do. I wish I could find a really good Egyptian mythology resource, something that would perk up the ole muse. Maybe I should break down and write something Greek. I really love Greek Mythology, but they’ve been so done. Ponder ponder ponder.

I also fired off a query to Andy Cox who has been sitting on a story I sent him to see if he’s come up with a decision on it. If he passes, I’m thinking it might be a good fit with a YA audience and want to send it for consideration in Cicada. I keep wondering if I should withdraw it. I hate pulling something from any editor that’s bought something from me before, but my logs say that he’s had it for . . . fourteen and a half months.

In other news, I stumbled across a very nice review by oneminutemonkey of Ascendancy of Blood at SF Site:

“Combining elements of Sleeping Beauty and vampire tales, Ascendancy of Blood is a quick, sharply-told, gorgeously-described chapbook by up-and-coming author, Eugie Foster. Her strength here lies in the lush prose and seductive imagery that permeates the pages.”
–Michael M. Jones

New Words: 500
Went riffling through my various in-progress and brainstorming idea files and came across a fantasy tale that I started last year, put down, and promptly forgot about. Opened it up, gave it a nice shake and rattle, and I’m hoping–if I can manage to finish it–that it’ll be a good fit for that heroic fantasy anthology. Unfortunately, I’m not quite sure where I was going with it before, and while I usually scribble something down on my WIPs before I set them aside just to avoid this sort of lapse, I didn’t for this one. So now I’ve got a nice set-up, and I can’t for the life of me remember what my intentions were. I’m pretty sure I had something in mind, but I’m drawing a big ole blank. I hate it when my brain goes bye-bye. Stupid brain.

Club 100 For Writers
      26

500/day
      83

Wingstubs and Joss Whedon, no relation

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Wingstubs giving me grief. Not sure why as I haven’t been keyboarding that vigorously lately, but my arms ache. Ow.

If you’re a Browncoat, clickie to see more proof that Joss Whedon is a directing god (link ganked from tomaqmar). By the sheer miracle of knowing what he’s doing, Joss saved money and time while shooting Serenity in Hollywood.

And, the official geek question of the hour: If Buffy and River were to duke it out, who would win?

   


Writing Stuff

Received:
– A form rejection from Guideposts for Kids. This was a long shot anyway. G4K is a Christian ‘zine and the story I subbed really . . . wasn’t.
– Also got a personal rejection from Escape Pod. Stephen requested to see more, actually asked to see a couple stories by name based on their title (from the bibliography on my website). Well, cool. I believe in giving editors what they want, so sent off one of them.
– Sale of “Kawaa, Naagan, and the Queen’s Diamond Necklace” to Dragonfly Spirit, a lovely new startup children’s ‘zine. My story is due out in their March 2006 issue. The editor is a fellow Critter and we’ve exchanged some friendly correspondence in the past so I’m quite pleased to be working with her.
– Two more Critters crits of my Korean folktale. It continues to be a crowd pleaser. Well, good.