Saturday, October 18, 2008

This is not my beautiful house!

I've got Talking Heads on the brain.  

The downstairs has taken over my daily life, which is fine.  It's coming together nicely.  The boy has put the most work in, so his room is closest to being complete.  We ran into a hitch with one of the girl's shelving units--the holes weren't drilled correctly.  Right place, wrong size.  We'd just put together an identical unit the day before (but in a different color) so we knew we weren't just being creative with the destructions--er--instructions.  So I'm charging up the drill battery while I'm typing and will soon expand those holes so they're a snug fit to the dowels.  And yes, the dowels are the right size.  They fit correctly into the opposing holes.  It's all very aggravating, but of all the things that could have gone wrong, this is not a big deal.  And frankly, changing the size of the holes is far less intrusive than driving back to IKEA and getting a replacement, which may only lead to us bringing home another one with the same flaw.  It all relies on how long the person operating the drill for that batch was asleep at the wheel.

I'm staying busy enough that it makes it challenging to get anything unrelated to the downstairs done.  That includes things like dishes, laundry, vacuuming, basic hygiene (sorry INKers if I was extra stinky at the meeting!) and writing.  But I did get a little flash done, and it got a wow response when I read it, so I'm eager to smooth it out and send it on its way.  I'll send it to my favorite flash fiction site first, Flash Fiction Online.  I like the editor's style, and I like what he publishes, so I'm hoping eventually something I write will mesh with what he publishes and then huzzah! I'll have arrived in flash fictiondom.  Or something like that.

Speaking of great online magazines, check out Beneath Ceaseless Skies.  It's a visually beautiful online magazine, and this first issue features a story by my friend, writer extraordinaire and fellow Lucky Lab, David Levine.  Like Flash Fiction Online, there's a forum where you can discuss the stories, something I personally get a kick out of (when I have time!) because I can read about how other people perceived the story and compare notes as far as symbology and impact.

In the good news arena, I had a short story accepted for publication.  I may have mentioned this earlier, but I never get tired of writing it so tough.  I'll announce which story and where as soon as I'm cleared to do that, probably about the time I learn what issue I'll be in.  It's in a SFWA qualifying market, so I'm hoping if I'm dedicated about sending out stories and keep plugging away at the craft, I'll eventually become a SFWA member and maybe get a little more attention for my novels.  I very much enjoy writing short stories when I get a story idea that fits into a tight corner, but I love writing novels.  I want to write lots and lots of books and get paid for them so that I can keep writing lots and lots of books without having to worry about whether we'll have to do something else for retirement if our retirement fund goes poof.  I'm willing to work at other jobs, but I'd rather focus on the written word full time.

If there is such a thing as writing full time.  I'm starting to wonder.  The trouble with working at home is that you're working at home, and there are other things to do.  Fortunately there's not as much to do at home under normal circumstances.  Things will get back to normal soon.  Or else.

Just in time for Nanowrimo, I suspect.  I have so much going on at the tail end of November I have to get done before OryCon30, which means I need to write about 3000 words a day.  Shouldn't be an issue,  but if I get behind it'll be much, much harder to recover.  Big changes, big goals, big accomplishments.  It's been a wild year.

9 comments:

Kai Jones said...

Congratulations on the sale!

Kami said...

Thanks!

Steve Perry said...

"In the good news arena, I had a short story accepted for publication."

Kinda just threw that out there all low-key, hey? Butter wouldn't melt in your mouth.

Congratulations. Welcome to the club.

The Moody Minstrel said...

And you may say to yourself,

"MY GOD...WHAT HAVE I DONE!?!!?"

But I doubt it. Congratulations!

Anonymous said...

Ah-ha! You didn't tell anyone so I don't feel left out of the loop...Congrats!

Melissa

Mark Jones said...

Congratulations! Go you!

Kami said...

Thanks everyone! The lack of exclamation points is in part thanks to having some cooling off time before announcing, and that I can't mention the location yet. Now, as is typical for my ilk (first time published authors) I have to prove to myself that this isn't a fluke. It's fascinating, having seen others go through this, to see how the mental and emotional stuff goes in predictable directions. I could try to perform science experiments on myself, but I'd better keep writing instead.

Yay!

There's some exclamation points. Heh.

Unknown said...

Good news! Yay! I'll add my congratulations AND exclamations!

Kami said...

Thanks! Heh. It's on the forum for Beneath Ceaseless Skies, so I guess I can now say that's where I'll be published, though at the moment I still don't know what issue I'll be in.