Soul in the Words

After, my pagan afterlife novel, is almost ready. I've had other projects take over my spare time recently, so that book has been set back by a couple of weeks, but it's close.

Or maybe I'll finish producing it this weekend. It all depends on how quickly the other projects come together. 

A long while ago now I posted on facebook that this book could have far-reaching repercussions in my life. I didn't want to go into details, which worried some people. The kind support warmed my heart. Whatever happens with After, it was and is my choice to publish it, and I'll live with the consequences, whether they're negative, positive or a mix of both at the same time. Chances are that the people who might object in a way that could make my life miserable won't ever read it. That won't necessarily keep them from passing judgement, I suppose, but unless they hear about it in some way, they shouldn't feel a need to.

I don't make a secret of my beliefs, but I don't talk about them much either, especially lately. When I was young, I think I spoke more about them because I wanted to share my experiences. Subconsciously I may have also been testing society to see where I fit in and how it would react as a whole. That openness helped me connect with other like-minded people, and I even spent a short time with a coven. I miss them ....

As I get older, the more private I become. It's not fear. I know where I fit in. I don't feel a need for everyone around me to know me well enough to share in the knowledge of my connection with the wider, spiritual world. And if my friends want to know, they can ask. (That's permission right there if any of you are curious but are shy or worried that you might be crossing a line.) As for the confidence ... I'm not. I'm absolutely confident about what I experienced first hand. I even believe most of what I've heard and read, though I now listen with a keen awareness of how experiences and beliefs can be rewritten in the person's own mind and heart to fit with what they expect and want.

Ultimately, it's that expectation and desire for my experiences and understanding of the physical-spiritual world to fit into something easy and comforting that has silenced me. The older I get, the more I realize that it's more important for me to learn something true and experience something real than to have a religion that almost-but-not-quite fits with what I believe. That much as I want to be part of a larger community, my religious experiences keep pushing me out into solitary expression and study.

I wrote After as a work of fiction, not as a religious text. There's a lot in there that's meant to be story, not parable. The book is about KJ, not me, and it's about her growth beyond the life that both nourished and confined her. My childhood and marriage were and are radically different from KJ's, though on paper we appear to share minor elements. I didn't write After as therapy. I don't need any. 

But I did want to write a work of fiction that had a pagan aesthetic closer to my own, rather than the more mainstream pagan culture, if there really is such a thing. Measuring against that bar, I succeeded. Today I would probably write a different book. But at the time that I wrote After, I wanted, maybe needed to reveal little pieces of my heart and I hid them away in the words on the pages of that book. There's no need to go looking for them. Chances are that if people go looking for them, unless they know me very well, they'll only find themselves.

I'd count myself most fortunate if they did find themselves. I couldn't ask for anything better than that.

Update on Publishing News

Random House has responded in an open letter to critics, specifically some very well-followed folks in SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America) including John Scalzi.  You can find some great commentary and comments here at Writer Beware, a blog every writer ought to follow.

Here is the text of the open letter:

Dear John, Victoria, Jaym and SFWA Members,

We read with interest your posts today about the new Random House digital imprints and our business model. While we respect your position, you’ll not be surprised to learn that we strongly disagree with it, and wish you had contacted us before you published your posts. We would appreciate you giving us an opportunity to share why we believe Hydra is an excellent publishing opportunity for the science fiction community by posting ours below to them.

Hydra offers a different-- but potentially lucrative--publishing model for authors: a profit share. In the more traditional advance- plus-royalty model, the publisher takes all the financial risk up front, and recoups the advance before the author earns any cash royalties. With a profit-share model, there is no advance. Instead, the author and publisher share equally in the profits from each and every sale. In effect, we partner with the author for each book. 

As with every business partnership, there are specific costs associated with bringing a book successfully to market, and we state them very straightforwardly and transparently in our author agreements. These costs could be much higher--and certainly be more stressful and labor-intensive to undertake--for an author with a self-publishing model. Profits are generated once those costs are subtracted from the sales revenue. Hydra and the author split those profits equally from the very first sale. 

When we acquire a title in the Hydra program, it is an all-encompassing collaboration. Our authors provide the storytelling, and we at Hydra support their creativity with best-in-class services throughout the publishing process: from dedicated editorial, cover design, copy editing and production, to publicity, digital marketing and social media tools, trade sales, academic and library sales, piracy protection, negotiating and selling of subsidiary rights, as well as access to Random House coop and merchandising programs. Together, we deliver the best science fiction, fantasy and horror books to the widest possible readership, thus giving authors maximum earning potential.

As a last point to the SFWA leadership, my colleagues and I would welcome the opportunity to meet with you at your earliest convenience to discuss the advantages of the Hydra business model, describe the program overall, and respond to any of your expressed concerns. Please let me know a good time for us to set up this meeting. 

Many thanks and all the best,
Allison Dobson

Allison R. Dobson
V.P., Digital Publishing Director
Random House Publishing Group

I have to beg to differ with a few things in the letter, namely, that they would give the authors maximum earning potential. Really? 

Will they market for me? I assume that if they do, I'll get charged for it. If I'm getting charged for it, why not just buy it myself? And I'm not sure I'd want to buy advertising. Since we're partners, do I get a say in how much is spent and where?

What is Hydra offering that I can't get for myself and then receive 100% of the profits? They're fronting the money for production? Yes, they are. Are they spending more than I can afford, which I have to pay back with all of my side of the profits from the book (while they pocket their half--do they spend their half of the profits to help pay down some of those production costs or is it all on me?) or are they spending something I can afford, which couldn't I just spend that money myself and keep all the profits instead of paying them back and then only getting 50% of the profits until they cut me loose?

Am I reading this right?

Publishing News

To all the writers out there:

Contract terms seem to be getting worse and worse. I think publishers are test marketing bad contracts to see who will sign. The backlash in one particular case--Hydra, an imprint of Random House, offered a particularly bad contract the terms of which have gone viral--has the potential to send a big message not just to Random House but a great many other publishers who are toying with the idea of abusing writers.

John Scalzi makes far more educated and insightful comments than I can.

And then, it seems, Alibi gives John Scalzi more fodder for commentary. Really, guys? Some writers are in fact desperate to be read, even if they make no money but I think the bandwidth on this scandal--and it's a scandal--may make even them run away.

Kate Wilhelm bails on traditional publishing after withdrawing a book due to an insulting contract offer.

Distribution has been bottlenecked for a long time. Suddenly, the dam burst and literary rivers are running wild. I'm a little confused as to why publishers think that they can misbehave now of all times, when writers have such amazing alternatives.

Maybe from their perspective it makes sense. From their perspective there are so many free and cheap books out there that they may think that writers who have professional aspirations might feel like they can't compete or make money on their writing. (And many of us do.) Such writers, the publishers may theorize while steepling their hands together and giggling maniacally, may be desperate for validation, promotion, and the stamp of approval from a real publisher that will hopefully set them apart from those gizillions of other books. So desperate, that they may accept, despite any feelings of unease or warnings from the writing community, a really, really bad contract. Besides, there are plenty of ignorant writers out there, right? Even if writerly outrage goes viral, there will always be a chance that a talented newbie without an internet connection or the wisdom to go to the library and google up some research will sign. And the Random House name will be on the letterhead. Everyone has a Random House book in their home, if not dozens or hundreds. All it takes is for one James Patterson-like newbie to sign on based on their household name, and the money will endlessly roll in forever (thanks to the contract terms.)

Well, they'd better find that sucker while the Random House name still has a good reputation. Because reputations have a way of going down the tubes fast when your indiscretions become public. And the public loves a good scandal, especially when it involves a corporate giant.

Work work work

I've got one of those colds that tends to kick my butt.  No coughing (yet) but a sore throat, headache, low-grade fever, runny nose, and I can't sleep.  Hence the post 1am post.

I did get a lot of work done, though.  House of Goats by Tammy Owen is now available in print!  That was a big step, a first for Wyrd Goat Press.  Horrible Stories I Told My Children by Ron Ellis will be available soon, maybe even before the end of the month.  That one is pricey because it's illustrated and in full color.  It should be super-awesome, though.  Maybe Wyrd Goat will put out a b&w edition.  I'll have to think about that.

So next in the cue are Violence: A Writer's Guide, and I have to produce some illustrations for a Rory Miller manual of drills.  I must be wicked because apparently there's no rest for me.  That's probably a good thing, but one of these days I'd like to get back to writing, y'know?

But first, sleep.  I hope I'm finally tired enough to do that.  That would be super-awesome.  Because I'm pooped.  Exhausted.  Weary.  Drained.  Constitutionally challenged.  Drooping.  Sleepy.  Tuckered out.  Dragging ....

The Trials of Marketing Part One

OMG.

I just spent all day ordering my first ever promotional postcards.

Okay, maybe not allll day.  But it felt like all day because I had to redo the postcards so that they fit within the bleed margins.  I thought I already had, but apparently not.  Also, apparently my powers of math are weak, because they weren't quite proportioned right.  After playing with resizing the existing postcard sides, I gave up and rebuilt them from scratch.

Then and only then was I able to upload them, order them, and I then find out that with the not-cheapest but not most expensive shipping, they will arrive the day before Orycon.

!!!!!!!!!!

That's a little tighter margin than I like, but I'll live.  And they are done.  Done!  For this batch, anyway.  With the heart attack moment at the end of ordering time (finding out when they'll actually arrive) I think I would have preferred to go with a local big box instead and worry about getting the cheaper price later.  Especially since the shipping was scary expensive.  The moolah I saved I basically lost to shipping.  Assuming the quality would have been the same (I'm not sure it is) I think I would have rather spare myself the heart attack and buy the cards at a higher-per price and driven them home myself.

But, having said that, now that I'm a (scarred) postcard-creating veteran, I can save buckaroos by ordering larger batches with essentially the same shipping from the same company.

Or not.  These postcards may not result in any sales.  If not, I guess I'll be out about $60, which is not devastating in the grand scheme of things.  If so, it'll be money well spent even if it only initially sells me a couple of copies.  That'll be a couple of chances for reviews, a couple more chances for the word to get out, but most importantly, a couple of chances for the writing to prove itself (or not.) 

Writing in a Weird, Unsafe World

I'z in ur library, on ur internets ...

I'm gradually getting back to actual writing. Scheduling around work is tough, but it's gotta get done. Working retail is paying (some) bills but it's not going to cut it long term, at least not until the mortgage is paid off and that's far enough away that I only see the little bitty flag on the topmost mast of the Ship of Yay We're Paid Off.

So I have to keep writing. Have to. Not to make it big, but to survive doing the job I love. Which, btw, I have a minor rant here. For those of you waiting for Obamacare or something to save you ... don't. Don't wait. Even if a healthcare rescue train arrives sometime soon, you can't count on the government (and I mean any government) to save you. You gotta save yourself, and save each other. Worry about the details later. I have a good friend who almost died, went to the hospital even though the family couldn't afford it, and lived. They'll work out the details as best they can. Whatever they have to do, it's a darn sight better than funeral arrangements. Just saying.

Moving on now. Take care of yourselves and each other out there.

I've also been producing ebook covers. I'm getting better, I think. Hope. Maybe. I'm learning new tricks every day. I'm also learning to keep mucking about until the visual response is Yeah! instead of that'll do. At times it's hard to tell a Yeah! from a breakthrough. When I make a design breakthrough it's so much better than the previous that it can feel like a Yeah! So I'm still working, still striving, still learning. Like every other skill, it takes time, effort and education to getcha where you're going.

House of Goats is about as good as I can make it. Only a real editor can make a difference now. Going through it one more time made me feel more confident about it, but honestly, it was all a hindbrain ploy. As long as I was looking over the manuscript, I didn't have to deal with the cover letter.

The anti-marketing hindbrain is so insidious and clever, sometimes I can't help but admire it. Why can't it employ its powers for good?

In other news, I've been watching the mighty Borders as it begins its tilt into the sea ... it may yet recover, but I fear it's as doomed as the Titanic.

The doom of the actual ship the Titanic, not the movie which made gizillions of dollars.

Back to marketing now. Let's all us writer-types wish each other luck in the new weird world of publishing.

Yet Another Writer Beware Post

To be clear, I'm not posting this because of a specific recent incident. I was doing some research and the never-ending threads about rotten publishers started to get to me.

Sometimes I feel sad for people who get so excited about publishing that they don't do their research when they get an offer. Actually, they should do their research before they even submit, but even so ...

Always, always know what you're getting into when you publish. Maybe you want to self-publish--if so, look for the best deal: highest quality for lowest cost, and be prepared to work your buns off being your own distributor. It helps to have connections in the industry or a niche of some sort. It's my understanding that the Christian fiction market is more accepting of self-published books, for example. You may, as a private individual, possibly get books on the shelf with a phone call. You can also sometimes convince stores (not necessarily book stores) to sell your book on a commission basis. A book about flea market buying and selling, for example, may sell well alongside your other wares if you have a flea market booth.

But I digress.

Even if you do get pulled in by a bad book publisher, all is not lost. Writers write. If it turns out that the publisher wants you to buy your books and sell them yourself, ignore the publisher. If your contract requires you to buy a certain number of books (ack!! why would you even think about signing a contract like that?! ... well, people don't know what they don't know) then buy the minimum quantity at the maximum discount you can negotiate and be done. Write the next book and don't work with that sort of publisher again.

If you're reading this, you have internet access. Use it. It's true you can't believe everything, or even most things, you read on the internet, but here are a couple of tried and true resources for writers I use as my points of initial inquiry:

The Absolute Write Water Cooler (Beware, major time sink zone! This is a fabulous community and it's easy to make friends and spend lots of time here. Great search engine, free registration.)

Preditors & Editors (Wonderful free resource. Donate if you can--they have legal fees that arise when businesses that feed off of writers sue after having their unethical business practices are revealed for what they are. They also have lots of other handy info for writers like agent information and forums.)

I also like to Google the name of a business in quotes and add scam. Sometimes the complaints people make about a business have no foundation--there are lots of people who complain about unfair treatment who are actually making unfair and/or unreasonable demands of that business--but sometimes I discover some very interesting stuff.

Practice safe publishing out there, and happy writing.

Yays Galore

A gratuitously adorable kitty and girl pic.

Congratulations to INK member C.S. Cole for her first short story sale! More announcements about that at the appropriate times.

Also, our household had money fall out of the mail the other day. It's great to get royalty checks, especially right now.

More yay as far as the upcoming weekend weather--we should be warming up. Right now it's colder here than in Juneau, Alaska, where the temperature is around 27 degrees F. Compared to us in the teens and smaller twenties. I'm very grateful that the winds have calmed down substantially today, and I'm looking forward to Friday, when the temps will start to rise. Of course as they rise we're supposed to get some incoming dampness. Or the incoming dampness will warm us up. Either way we may get snow or freezing rain, but that'll be fun, too, since none of us really need to go anywhere or do anything important. I'll have to remember to stock up on fresh meat Friday morning, in case we can't get down the hill for the next little stretch.

At some point we'll take advantage of our relatively wind-free, sunny weather and cut a few trees. Which, even more yay, we can add to our firewood stockpile, a pile that is looking pretty scary-small. Yeah, I know, it's sad to cut trees, but these trees are bad. Actually, they're not bad, but ... We have a couple of very dense patches of volunteer douglas fir and the remaining trees will grow much taller, faster, and fuller/healthier with a few of their fellows gone. Mother Nature thins trees at a much slower pace, a combination of chemical warfare and suffocation/smothering that really doesn't seem any less cruel than converting the ones that will get choked out anyway into fuel to help keep us warm. Yay to being warm, especially if our power goes out and we're snowed/iced/snow-iced in. Then the dead trees will be our only source of warmth.

I guess that we're helping the tree bullies win, but it doesn't make horticultural sense to help the weak, possibly already dying trees survive and cut down the healthy ones. Alas, the laws of tooth, claw, branch and root. But, as a gardener, I'm used to the cruel realities of both the natural and the cultured plant world. I've slaughtered thousands of weeds, heartlessly, even gleefully, and pile the corpses to convert into soil for new garden beds.

Now I'm creeping myself out.

Last yay for this entry, I now have 15 manuscripts out in the mail looking for homes. A while back I had ten, the most I'd ever had out in the mail, ever. I'm aiming for at least one new manuscript out in the mail every week for the foreseeable future as part of my new commitment to put my typing where my mouth is. Or something like that.

That's all for now. Stay tuned for more blog posts as weather allows.

Russet Noon: Bad Eggs and Plagiarism

Have you heard of Russet Noon yet?  I'm torn, because I'm helping the author become famous, and yet I want the world to know that copyright thievery is alive and well.  Authors beware.

From the Absolute Write Water Cooler:

Meyer's fanfic writer thinks copyright laws don't apply to HER

I know my opinion doesn't matter, but here goes.  I used to write fanfic.  I don't have time these days.  I speak from experience when I say  it is much easier to write something using someone else's world and characters.  The hard part is if you care enough to get the details right, which requires rereading the source material often.  This is necessary and important work, especially if you are working from a piece of fiction in the public domain (or you have permission) and you don't want to make a fool of yourself to the primary audience--people who love that original piece of fiction.  The new author has to know his/her stuff inside and out.

Having said that it's easier to write fanfic, that doesn't mean it's easy or worthless.  All writing is hard and sometimes that hard work pays off to produce really good fiction.  But because it's easier, it's very tempting for people like the author of Russet Noon to come into the picture and, rather than try to write an original piece and try to stand out in the slush pile, they ride on the coattails of existing success.  Again, a perfectly legitimate thing to do, though it's not usually as respected as original effort, but you must have the original author's permission.  

If you've read the Absolute Write thread or Googled around the web, you've probably become familiar with the various arguments for and against.

What, you say?  There are arguments for publishing this?

One argument that ticked me off is that some believe that because the original author has declared she won't write in the series anymore, others should continue onward in her place.  The readers are entitled to more!  The original author and publisher shouldn't deny the readers that pleasure.  Grrr ... poopyheaded entitlement poopyheads!

When I was a kid, if I finished with a series of books and I wasn't done emotionally, I would create my own stories.  I wouldn't write most of them down.  I remember I wrote one about Jana of the Jungle (so embarrassing ...) but the rest I concocted in my mind, often while running around wild with sticks and plywood (staffs, 'bows,' swords and shields) in the woods behind my mom's house.  I didn't share these stories, but if I did it wouldn't be a crime.  But if I decided I was going to write my own Lord of the Rings novel, publish it and make money off of it without going to the Tolkien estate for permission (and sending them their cut) it would be a crime.  Just as it's wrong for comics to steal material from other standup comedians, using company logos to imply that your affiliated with a group that you're not affiliated with, or using artwork or photography without compensating the artist or photographer.  

But I digress.  You know all this stuff.  It's really pretty simple.  Don't pass off someone else's hard work, whether in part or in entirety, as your own and then try to make money off of it.  The vast majority of fanfic writers don't have any illusions that what they create is something they can profit from or claim as their own in any but the loosest sense.  They write disclaimers and all share in good, honest fun.  Making money off of it without respect to copyright and trademark, is plain and blatant thievery.

Stephanie Meyer can defend herself just fine.  Everything will end up golden and grand for her, no matter how it breaks.  I think the author of Russet Noon is beyond deluded to believe that Ms. Meyer will read the book and be fine with everything and come to some sort of mutually equitable solution, but I could be wrong.  I hope that for the rest of us, Ms. Meyer won't condone this.  If she does (and believe me, it will be against the advice of her lawyers,) it'll make things that much more difficult for those writers who don't have deep pockets who then have books pop up based on their work, with no apology and no accompanying acknowledgement or compensation.  I hope Ms. Meyer makes an example of this person to warn away imitators.  Believe me, there will be those who try to pull the same stunt again and again, and if Russet Noon is legitimized in anyway, the ranks of thieves will swell to unprecedented proportions.

I also hope that the reverse doesn't happen--the yank-down of all fanfic online.  I don't read it, not interested, but it's fun and a good place for novice writers to test the waters.  Prolific pro writers sometimes play there too, taking a break from the tough job of developing their original material.  I don't want that to go away because of this bad egg.  Alas, sometimes when a bad egg is broken, it stinks it up for the whole barnyard.  (That last is a nod to Charlotte's Web.)

One final note:  if you want a compelling reason why fanfic writers ought to lay low, investigate the case of Marion Zimmer Bradley and Darkover.  If the idea of two years of work being lost because someone played in your sandbox and claimed that you stole their fair share of the sand makes you shiver, you're not alone.  The reverse is not too fun either--putting a lot of work into a fanfic (are you sensing another good reason not to do this?) and then trying to sort out what your 'cut' of that ought to be, if anything.  Or how about pissing off the person whose work you admire so much that you're fanficing all over the place with it, or making that author quit writing in that world altogether?  I don't think I could show my face in public, honestly.  Panel at a convention?  I would not want to answer pointed questions about what right I thought I had to ask for half (or whatever percentage) of another author's royalties when that author wrote the whole thing.  Writers know what ideas are worth.  Seriously.  Stephen King gives away the ones that his monster under the bed produces if you're really struggling.

I'm not sure what the 'truth' of the situation is.  I just know that should I be so lucky as to have novels published, I'll have a hard time deciding whether or not I should turn a blind eye to fanfic (I won't be allowed to read them for various legal reasons) or spend time diligently informing various fanfic sites that unfortunately I can't allow any fanfic based on my work.  How sad is that?!  I don't want that.  I want everyone to have fun and enjoy the written word.  Unfortunately, others have decided to stink things up.  Poopyheads. 

No doubt that this is muddy water.  I say, if you want to write, go swimming in clear water.  Write original work.  And don't make a stink.  If nothing else scares you, consider that you might get wanked.  

Check

Reposted from the INK blog.

I got my first payment check yesterday for words I've written.  It's an amazing feeling.  So many years of practice, workshops, flattening my butt on at least a half dozen different computer chairs.  Novels, shorts, stories long since lost or abandoned, hundreds of thousands of words of fantasy that will never see the light of day because I needed that million words of crap before I could begin to make real progress.  Learning to connect with a reader.  Learning to find a balance between my internal editor and my dreams.  Learning to educate myself, because so much of the education of a writer happens either entirely from the inside or by deliberately, through an act of will and trust, separating the ego from the written word long enough to accept a professional opinion.  Learning who trust and when, especially myself (and when not to trust myself.)

The kewlest part of all this?  It's a beginning.  A long road to travel to begin, but that's the nature of this, and many other crafts.

Official Announcement

Beneath Ceaseless Skies (probably no surprise for those of you who are reading between the lines) will be publishing "Thistles and Barley" by Kamila Z. Miller sometime in the future.  I'll let all y'all know when the issue comes out.  In the meantime, they have a new issue online.  

In the forums you'll find news about upcoming stories and their authors in the Official BCS News and Announcements: Submissions Status section.  It's a fun way to get a sneak peek at who you might see in print in the next few months.  Keep a lookout for your favorite authors.

Crowing

Paperback: 180 pages

Publisher: YMAA Publication Center (June 25, 2008)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1594391181

ISBN-13: 978-1594391187

Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.6 inches

Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review:   (37 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #4,755 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

#1 in	Books > Sports > Individual Sports > Mixed Martial Arts
#4 in	Books > Sports > Individual Sports > Martial Arts
#8 in	Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Violence in Society

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.