I submitted a short story to Asimov's on September 1st.
It has now been over 4 months, and no response. Just saying.
Goodbye 2016! Hello 2017!
Goodbye and good riddance to the dumpster fire that was 2016. Here's hoping the new year has better things in store for all of us (yes, I know it's unlikely, but we have to hope!).
I finished reading Redshirts (by John Scalzi) over the holiday break, and it was a refreshing bit of sci-fi. It also helped me gird my loins for the upcoming year... I have a whole lot of rejection to wade through, which is going to be expensive and draining but is an important step on my way to becoming an actually paid writer. Lots of short stories going out this year, lots more being published on this here website for you good folks, lots more interaction with my Patrons over on Patreon... lots of work, basically! And that's a good thing.
So here's to a fantastic (or at least BETTER) 2017 for all of us!
Final Tintian Episode is Up!
Well, it's been a long few months, but I've finally posted all the Episodes for Tintian and the King's Claw.
So far it hasn't been nearly as popular as the Omnibus including all the episodes at once, but who knows? A bunch of people picked up Episode 1 when it was free, and I'll be doing that periodically, so maybe it'll catch on.
Either way, this is the end of publishing my first ebook. Time now to focus on the 2nd novel I'll be posting online... I think I should be finished that one around late February, so you can all look forward to it starting to go online then!
Of course, I'll also have hordes of short stories published here (and for my Patreon supporters!) in the meantime, but for now? I'm going to curl up with the second season of "Star Wars: Rebels" and a good bottle of whiskey and just take it easy for a day.
Back to writing tomorrow!
I Hate Shopping!
I always have the same problem when "gift-giving" situations arise.
First, I'm pretty broke. I know, I know, stunning... an artist without money to spend. News at 11. But this has been true for years. Decades now, I suppose. Money goes to rent, to family, to random chance (vet bills, car breakdowns, replacement heaters, and so on), and the few scrabbled pennies I put aside for "savings" are vapourized instantly as I try to buy stuff for people I love.
Second, I'm really bad at getting gifts. I think this comes down to an inability to pick up on clues. I'm pretty oblivious, even at the best of times. I tend to try to just ask people what they want and then get that: This makes me a mediocre giver of gifts at best, since the good ones (like my buddy Alex) are almost psychic in their ability to manifest strange hints into concrete gifts.
Oh well. I've purchased a few things my family have stated they want: I've dodged getting gifts for most of my closest friends by stating monetary concerns (and instead focused on spending time together, where and when possible!), and I'm going to be leaving it at that.
Anyway, thankfully this only happens a few times a year (Winter Festivals, and a few scattered birthdays for my nearest and dearest), so it will be over soon.
Closing in on Christmas
Not being a religious fellow myself, the whole "holiday season" really only means "more time to write". Which I definitely appreciate!
It usually, however, also means "more time spent with family", which is often somewhat (or very) unpleasant. I love my family, but we agree on almost nothing overall and our gatherings tend to quickly devolve into long arguments of one stripe or another.
But, if that's the price I have to pay to have the time to finish up another book (and maybe read a few in the down time between arguments), then I suppose it's all okay in the end.
Submitted!
So I sent out my first short story for publication since... oh heavens, September? Probably September. It's gone out to "Daily Science Fiction", who only publish 100-1500 word stories, a length I really struggle with.
Why say something in 10 words when you can say it in 100?
Either way, I want to get better, and the wonderful editors at Daily Sci-Fi are nice enough to maintain a steady pace on their feedback (between 3-4 weeks on average, which is fast-as-lightning compared to most of the editors I deal with!).
Anyway, that's it for now. Short story being published here tomorrow!
Ain't No Place for No Hero
I think one of the hardest things for me to mentally cope with as I've aged is the growing realization that I'll never be a hero.
I mean in the "Aragorn" or "Kelsier" or "Jade" (from Beyond Good and Evil) sense. A hero who goes out and does heroic things. Just never going to be me.
I love writing about those sorts of people, though, and if I can't live a life worth writing about, at least I can write stuff worth reading.
Either way, it's been a slowly dawning thing. I now know I'm never going to be a martial arts master, I'll never be a gold medalist at anything, and I'm certainly never going to be in spaceship hurtling through space-time. Or at least it's remarkably improbable.
Anyway. I should get back to writing. Just having somewhat somber thoughts today, thought I'd share 'em! Hope everyone is doing well!
Wow! A Full Week!
Hey folks! Took a few days off, and suddenly a week has disappeared! Crazy!
Good news for those of you episodically following Tintian: Episode IV goes live tomorrow! I'll update the links and the book page tomorrow afternoon.
Other than that, "Starconvoy" is now officially in the hands of my (amazing) editor, and she's dutifully making it better. Ah, love that feeling.
Anyway! I'm back, I'll be posting all the time again, and thanks for checking out my stuff!
A Bit Run Down
Sadly, I've gotten a bit sick recently. Nothing serious: a chest cough, a bit of a headache, exhaustion... that sort of deal. Still, unfortunate timing, and hopefully I can shake it off quickly!
In writing news, nothing really exciting. Still working on the last few thousand words for "How to Train Your A.I.", and preparing to receive editorial feedback on "Starconvoy".
Haven't submitted anything in a few weeks, either. Gotta get on that! Anyway, thanks as always!
There Are No Weekends for Writers
Strictly, this isn't true. Writers, just like everyone else, have days we write more, and days we write less. High energy days, and low energy days. Days we stay under the covers until noon, and days that we don't manage to close our eyes until well into the following morning.
That stated, the overriding narrative around writing is always about production: you have to write. You have to make stuff, and you have to send that stuff out, and a tonne of it will be rejected and so you have to send out EVEN MORE and then you repeat that dozens of times.
So every time I have "time off", I'm either prepping for writing (watching good sci-fi, reading good sci-fi, playing good sci-fi), or I'm actually writing. Not a complaint, of course! I love writing. But it does take a lot out of you, for sure.
Anyway, just a thought as I head into Sunday, with a couple novels creeping closer to being finished their first draft.
Oh! Good news! I have a few short stories that I'm planning on putting up here (and for my Patrons... you support me on Patreon, right?) very soon! Hurray!
Rightio! Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!
Staggered, But Recovering
Well. That was a thing.
With Trump officially poised as President-Elect, I've had the full gamut of emotions run through me. Starting with hope, rapidly sliding towards disbelief, then in rapid succession fear, anger, disappointment, and crushing depression. This is not how things were supposed to go.
But it is what it is.
The problem is that it's very hard to sit down and write silly stories right now. It's hard to remember that the good guys win. It's difficult to summon up the energy to create fictional evil when there's so much actual evil to deal with.
This feeling will pass. The reason I write stories like I do is specifically because the world is a dark, depressing place. Occasionally we all need to believe that the good guys win precisely because it so rarely happens.
But for today? Today I'm just going to soak in my feelings a bit, try to get my feet back underneath me.
Tomorrow... tomorrow I write.
Episode 3 is now live!
Quick update today: Episode 3 of Tintian went live on Amazon today! Woo!
Only 2 more episodes to go... and then I get to publish something else! Excited!
Anyway, you can find it here, or just follow the big picture on the "Books" page! Thanks for reading!
My First Writer's Convention!
So today is "Wild Writers" in Kitchener/Waterloo. I'm cautiously excited about attending... I think it'll be pretty overwhelming, and probably a lot of scathing commentary on both my writing and on my odds of being a professional writer.
Not maliciously, of course. The industry seems to just be full of people who are trying to helpfully direct everyone into any other occupation other than writing. But maybe that's just me? Who knows.
Either way, I do think it'll be interesting to hang out with other people who identify as writers. I'm also really curious what kind of draw will be at the event... I know one of the people from my writing group will be moderating one of the talks, but that's literally the extent I know about the event.
So I guess we'll see! I'll try to come up with a report afterwards about the event.
Hope everyone else is having exciting Saturdays!
Useful Feedback
A friend of mine who is a member of the "Stopwatch Gang" gave me some great feedback on a story I'm working on. Took forever to get said feedback (he's got 2 newborns to take care of!), but it was definitely worth waiting for.
A lot of the feedback revolves around making the characters more personalized, and less characters. Fleshing them out. I also, apparently, don't give sufficient detail for the setting ("The room had a table and four chairs", instead of talking about what the room looks like, what type of table it is, what kind of chairs, etc... etc...).
Anyway! He also kindly gave me a laundry list of resources that I'm going to spend my writing-days next week reading. I am 100% behind homework (most of my "homework" involves reading good sci-fi, so this is a nice change!).
I'll let you all know how it goes!
NaNoReaMo!
So November is "NaNoWriMo" for many aspiring writers. Nothing wrong with that... for those of you not familiar, the basic shtick of "National Novel Writing Month" is 50,000 words written in the month of November. A steep, but achievable goal.
But not for me this year. First off, I've been writing more than 50,000 words a month every month so far in 2016 (I think October may have only been around 40,000). But secondly, I already have about a dozen longer works on the go... I'm in dire need of buckling down and editing my work, not producing more.
I, personally, hope that a NaNoReaMo catches on... as a writer, the best thing is when people buy more books, whether they're mine or anyone else's. And far too few people read these days...
How about any of you? Planning on any new novel purchases? How is your reading list looking?
Video Review of Tintian! Yay!
A guy who happens to hang out on some of the same forums as I do put up a review of Tintian on Youtube, and I'm extremely grateful for it.
Quick word of warning: there are some light spoilers in the review, but otherwise, do give it a watch!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L27kErBFMOI&feature=youtu.be
Almost 50!
It's strange the little milestones we set ourselves. For example, there's no real reason that "10" or "100" are significant numbers, other than they're base-10 numerals that we seem to think are important. I imagine if humanity had evolved with 7 fingers on each hand we'd find 14 and 196 to be terribly interesting.
But, all the same, "Tintian and the King's Claw" is halfway to being downloaded 100 times. And that feels good. It feels nice. I like that a bunch of people have now seen my work, and hopefully are curious about what I produce next.
In another week, or so, I'll release Episode 3, and in a few days I'll have to pick whether to push "How to Train Your AI" or "Starconvoy" to publishers and agents, while the other is polished for self-publishing. In the meantime, I've resurrected a bunch of my backlog of work so that I can finish it up, and then I have a dozen short stories I'd like to try and get published.
It's a lot of work to keep on top of, but hey, it's the life I've chosen, and I do enjoy the majority of it!
Anyway, happy reading! Tuesday I get feedback on an old fantasy story I submitted to a contest years ago and now what to maybe sent out to some fantasy magazines... might throw it down here instead! We'll see!
Tintian Episode 2 Available Now!
Mentioned it yesterday, but Episode 2 is now available on the Amazon ebook store:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MQ07Q5S
Also, as a head's up for my readers: Episode 1 will be going FREE tomorrow for the 5 day window that Kindle lets you offer a book free. Want to read the first 10 chapters of an awesome, epic space adventure for the low-low cost of nothing?
I'll post the link tomorrow!
Thanks for reading!
Monday's Efforts
Hello, gentle readers. Today I'm working on polishing up my short story "Black Box". The feedback from my writing group was extremely useful, and a lot of it focused on the ending and suggestions on how to tighten it up.
Today I'm also posting Episode 2 of "Tintian and the King's Claw" on Amazon, and reducing the price of Episode 1 to "Free". We'll see if that helps get a bit more traction for the story... I'm really proud of it, and the reviews I've gotten so far have been good, but all for naught if I can't get more people to read it! Ah, the trials and tribulations of the small self-publisher!
ANYway, I should get to it! I hope all of you are having great Mondays!
Double Digits!
I know this seems like a silly thing, but I've now sold more than 10 copies of Tintian and the King's Claw (11 copies as of this morning!), and I'm actually really happy about that!
Milestone complete!
So next let's see if we can get it to 100 copies! Thank you everyone for your support!