No real surprise there, to be honest. I think my story is strong (and, to be 100% frank, better than the story that did win), but it's pew-pew-lasers rather than slow, thoughtful fiction.
Nothing against those that did win! They're great stories, but not my taste. YMMV and all that!
Anyway, that means I have a story I can send out for publication, and I *think* it's gonna go to Asimov. So that's exciting! Means it'll be 6-7 months before I hear back, but no time like the present and all that.
Hope everyone is having a great Thursday!
"Moana" makes me cry like a baby...
... a tired, hungry baby.
But seriously. I've watched the whole movie 3 times thus far, plus at least a dozen times replaying my favourite parts, and I cry every time. It's ridiculous.
I really hope something I write at some point can have this kind of impact on people. That would be... amazing.
Ad Astra 2017
Well, among a very busy weekend I managed to spend a few hours at Ad Astra 2017.
It was an interesting experience. I met some nice people, and overall it was a positive experience, but I very much felt like an outsider looking in.
I happened to run into another author-friend of mine (two, actually, but one of them is a professional, paid author who won the "Writers of the Future" award a few years back), and that pretty much cemented how little I'm a part of the "in" crowd at these sorts of things. Still, I attended some great talks and I'm definitely glad I went.
Oh! I attended a panel that had 5 female authors! That was pretty damn amazing.
There was a seminar on defining "Space Opera", and that alone was probably worth the price of admission. I do hope that next year they spread out the sci-fi panels, though.
Anyway! Enough of that. Looking forward to getting fingers back on keys tomorrow!
Holy Snakes it's been awhile!
So... tomorrow I may be attending the biggest sci-fi writing conference in Canada. It's called "Ad Astra", and it takes place around this time every year in northern Toronto. Bit of a drive (it'll probably take me about 2 hours to get there, if traffic cooperates), but I'm looking forward to it!
What I'm NOT looking forward to is the 3 sci-fi centred talks I'd really like to attend all taking place at the same time! That officially sucks.
I also have to decide if I want to go to Sanderson's talk immediately after whichever one of the 3 talks I attend. I think I'd like to see him live? He seems interesting. It'll depend if I can think of any good questions, I suppose?
Anyway, that's what I'm up to tomorrow! Anyone out there doin' anything interesting?
Precious, Precious Feedback!
A lot of the time, we writers sort of work in a vacuum.
I mean, I spend a LOT of time working in a vacuum, if you consider that the majority of my longer works are space operas that take place in the cold, dark, unforgiving void. But that, of course, isn't what i mean.
What I mean is that a lot of time I write something, or update something, or post something, and it goes out into the universe... and nothing.
Thankfully, the reviews for "Tintian and the King's Claw" have been very positive, and the few responses I got when I published "Flying Sparks" were all very nice. And that's not to say I don't appreciate those! I do.
But it's also nice when somebody sits down and critiques my work. In this case, a gentleman came across this very website, and made comments regarding the layout, the format, and asked some very thoughtful questions about what I do and why.
It was great! I don't have all the answers yet, but it is a damn fine thing to know that my work is getting some notice from the wider world. Huzzah!
I'm going to spend some time this week considering some of the feedback he gave me, and really thinking about the direction I'd like to take this whole "writing website" in. Maybe there will be some changes, maybe I'll keep things the way they are now but streamline or improve them in other ways... but either way, I'm really glad that person got in touch with his suggestions.
If you have any feedback, do let me know! You can find my contact information up in the "About" page, or you can leave a comment here on this very post! Thanks folks!
Back to Life, Back to Reality...
Ah, Mondays. For many of us, the busiest day of the week as we scramble to catch up to the work "missed" over two days of relaxation.
For others of us (like, say, writers!), just another day to sit down at the keyboard and crank out more work.
I'm still polishing that story I finished last week. I'm unhappy with it, which usually means it needs a bit more time. At least I figured out the math problems... at least I hope so. Gotta double check that I've changed the numbers throughout the entire piece. Went from a 300 year voyage to a 12,000 year one (to a star significantly further away).
Also dreaming about the next story (as I frequently do). I want to write something more... explode-y. This story is a slow-burn thinker, and I miss writing sorta-silly, action-packed stories. Means I'll have to go for a longer format, but to be honest I've always felt a bit more comfortable with longer stories anyway.
Probably just because it takes much longer before the story is ready to edit. And I do hate editing...
Anyway! Back to the grindstone! Hope everyone is having a great month!
Happy long weekend, if you have one!
One of the upsides to being a writer is the joy of setting your own hours.
One of the downsides is that you don't get the same joy from long weekends that most people get... I don't run usual 9-5 hours, and I certainly don't work only Monday-Friday, so the only difference a long weekend means for me is that any chores I was planning to do today ain't gettin' done.
But that's okay! Everyone deserves some "me" time, whenever they can!
Stories are coming along, still waiting for the copy of my novel back from my editor (who I imagine, or at least hope!, is enjoying her long weekend!), but things are still moving in a vaguely forward direction.
Anyway! Hope long weekend, everyone! Try and get some sunshine, if you can!
Second Draft of a New Novel Finished!
So I've gotten my second draft of my most recent novel edited. Now I just have to go through the editorial feedback, tighten up and correct the mistakes, and then submit!
Exciting!
In other news, I'm also polishing up a short story for submission. Basically, next week is going to be very, very busy! Phew! And now I have to decide whether to work on some more short stories, or write some long ones.
I also have a few books I want to read (or, as I believe most writers refer to it: "research"), including one about a shark that eats memories (I've been told it's good), and Scalzi's most recent book ("Collapsing Empire"). Might wait for that series to be finished before I start it... but probably not. ^_^
Anyway! Hurray for progress!
Almost Done another Short Story! And why I Hate Special Relativity...
This one is a bit longer than my last handful, currently weighing in around 7,000 words. I'm pretty happy with it, although it's required me to do way more math than my usual stories.
On the plus side, I think it's a better story by the inclusion of me crunching the numbers to determine some relativistic issues. The core of the story involves a sleeper ship (cryogenics is such a neat idea!) that travels thousands and thousands of years to a world to colonize it. I needed to determine how old the ship would be if it manages a respectable 0.6c velocity.
There are still some hiccups (acceleration is the big one... my calculations currently assume that the ship just gets up to 0.6c instantly, and decelerates instantly when it arrives), but I'm going to go ahead and say it's good enough for hard sci-fi and leave it at that. If Andy Weir can have an interplanetary ship powered by magic, I can have one that speeds up and slows down really quickly!
Anyway! Going to submit it tomorrow, after I finish polishing it up today.
New short story up!
Just posted a new short story for everyone.
Of course, if you were a Patron over on Patreon, you'd have already read this story a few weeks ago... but hey, free is free, right?
Hope you folks like it! Lemme know what ya think.
I hit my Word Count Today!
First time in... months? Probably months.
But today, I hit it.
Now, let's see if I can make it 2 days in a row tomorrow...
Work Day
Today I write.
I've already finished about half of my target world-count (1,000 of my daily goal of 2,000). It's been a struggle recently, but today has been a bit better than most.
I'm going to finish off the last 1,000 words for today, and I then I think I'm going to play some guitar. I haven't touched the instrument in a few months, but I realized that I have the house to myself and I can actually kinda... crank it. So I'm going to, I think.
Wish me luck!
Mid-Way Into March!
Okay, a bit past the middle, but it's been a busy month!
The story I'm working on currently doesn't have a hard word-count limit. I'm just writing, see where it takes me, and then padding or trimming as appropriate when it's done. It's a bit more thoughtful than most of my work, and as a result I've had to consult with a few friends of mine in biology and dendrology.
Yes, I have friends in biology and dendrology at local universities. I have weird circles of friends, but they're awesome!
Today is devoted to studying and translating a few Latin terms for alien plants and fungi... hopefully the story will be done in a few days!
Thanks for reading, and I'm going to have to try harder (again!) to keep this page updating more frequently!
March into March
Well, we are now heading into Month 3 of 2017, and I've still only had a handful of rejections to my name.
This will not stand!
Lots of stuff to submit this month, though. Hopefully some of it sticks! Oh, and a new short story for free for my readers... although, of course, my Patrons have already seen it.
The perks of your support!
Anyways, hope everyone else likes it (and considers supporting me via Patreon... link right there at the top of the page).
1,000 Words
Ah, short stories. And short story formats!
Always been a weakness of mine. Still, it's good to stretch your wings, and I'm hoping it will make my long-form stories better.
The trouble is I don't *think* in 1,000 word stories. To me, 1,000 words is a snapshot. A single scene. Masters of the craft can use that one scene to tell an incredible story, one that stretches forwards and backwards from that moment of time.
Anyway. It's a struggle. But one that I'm devoting to improving! Thankfully there are a few good publishers of short-form sci-fi. Unfortunately I've had no traction with them so far... but hey, maybe some day!
Until then, back to the writing desk!
Mailed!
Just a quick note today to say that my short story "Articles of War" has been sent off to the Toronto Star's Short Story contest!
Phew. Should arrive tomorrow (registered mail), and then I hear back... sometime in mid-to-late April.
I Love Deadlines
I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.
- Douglas Adams
Once again, my story, though done, has not been mailed. I will actually, physically, put it in the mail tomorrow, because that's starting to cut pretty close to the drop-dead date on the contest.
In my defence, only one of my beta readers has given me feedback. But I still gotta get this bad boy done. I'm proud of the story... I doubt it's winning material, but who knows? Might be, might be.
Anyway! Big spike in traffic from my post on Saturday, which was unexpected, but whatever gets eyeballs on my work is good. So hello new readers, hope you find something you like! Plenty of stuff coming down the pipes in the next week or so!
So Long MacGuffins!
Today, my writing group dissolved.
About 2 years ago I joined a group of writers that met alternating weeks at a local game cafe. The group, called "The MacGuffins", was energetic, full of interesting and motivated people, and very encouraging to new and existing members.
I did notice, however, that for a writing group, only about half of them actually wrote. But they all gave feedback, and to me, that was the important part.
Sadly, last night they decided to stop getting together. Membership had been in decline, and only one member was consistently putting up content for review. There were a laundry list of reasons, but in the end, they decided to end it.
So be it, and so it goes. There isn't really an upside to this, and I'm going to miss the heck out of their feedback. And at least one of the members (other than me!) is destined for widespread fame and fortune as a writer, so I'm sure I'll seem them around from time to time.
Anyway. Still waiting for my book to finish editing, and at least I got one more round of feedback for the short story I'm sending out Monday! So there's that, at least.
So long, MacGuffins. You'll be missed.
Done!... Sorta!
Just wanted to announce that the 2nd (better!) draft of my short story competition submission is done! It's off to a few beta readers, and on Monday I will actually mail it out after getting feedback.
I hope it's good. I think it's good!
Tomorrow... I write something for Daily Science Fiction! Wish me luck!
Rewriting Is Hell
My short story for the Toronto Star competition is going through its 3rd iteration right now. I'm happier with this version, although it's still a touch on the long side. Will have it whittled down soon, though. Must submit it next week.
In other news, not a lot! Been watching a lot of "Haikyuu", an anime about volleyball, which is interesting. It's making me think about a possibility of doing this sort of shonen-style story for something nearer and dearer (WarMachine, a miniatures game I enjoy)... but the curse of an author is always thinking about 3 other works while not finishing the one in front of you!
Anyway, that's it for me this weekend. Hope everyone is doing well!