"Alpenglow" Finished!

Well, I guess it was nagging me so I sat down and finished "Alpenglow" and it came in right around 5300 words. I'm pretty happy with the way this story turned out. I had been fighting it a little so this afternoon I erased the final third and rewrote it cold. Of course an entirely new ending presented itself to me.

A better ending.

Isn't that the way it always works? *sigh*

One problem was I had a character doing something dramatic but the more I thought of it the more convinced I became the drama was entirely all on my side. (Me, Drama Whore!) The conflict was there and necessary to the story, but I let my own emotions come into play and force him to do something he would never do under any circumstance. At least...not this time.

(I remember some weeks ago when I was at the coffee shop and I wrote this scene and told my writing buddy about it. She looked at me as if I were crazy. Even she knew it was wrong. God bless writing buddies!)

I wasn't being true to him. My fault. He knew it, I didn't. I finally came around to his way of thinking. He's happier now. Me, too.

Funny. I had every intention of taking the rest of today off. I went into the garden and drank a little raw whiskey while sitting in the sun like a lizard. It was nice while it lasted then I got up and went inside and made a beeline to my laptop.

Guess I wasn't finished after all. It works out well, though. It does free up time next week I can apportion to something else, writing-wise. That's good. Less stress is always welcome.

Huh. I feel I accomplished something significant today. Happy? Hm, perhaps.

More like relief.

Tie A Bow On It!

Long day today. I got a lot accomplished, not least of which was the second "High Moon" rewrite.

I'm very pleased with how it turned out. It's done. It's solid. I'll give one more pass tomorrow and send it back out.

Me tired now. Me sleep.

I get a shout out from Richard Parks! Woot! (Darn nice of him, I'd say)

Richard Parks blogged about the highs and lows of writing series fiction. He mentions my story "Haxan" which will appear in Beneath Ceaseless Skies later this month.

He has some thoughtful advice for writing a series which you should take to heart if you ever want to tackle a project like this. Then he ended up saying some awfully nice things about me and my writing. I want to thank him for that.

You should give it a look.

It's Not Rocket Science. Seriously, It's Not.

If a person of color has a problem with your story then you should listen. If a white person has a problem with your story then you should listen. If anyone has a problem with your story then you should listen.

That doesn't mean you have to write what only makes them happy. It means you should listen because they really do have better things to do than revisit their pain. That's all.

But if you do listen, don't pretend to agree to the person's face and then turn around and snark to everyone else you never agreed with her critique in the first place.

Come on. It's not rocket science. Seriously. It's not.

Monkey Writer Dog Can Solve Your Sex Woes!

I'm listed on the Internet Book Database of Fiction.

Mentioning this at a party is guaranteed to get you laid.
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(Okay, probably not. But it was worth a try.)

Racefail 2009 in the SF/F Community

I've never been one to shy away from calling people what they are. And I can't shy away now even though I'm only a tiny guppy in the SF/F pond.

What I'm about to link you to, in case you don't know, has been going on for quite a while. These are professional people, some of whom I've met.

Some of them I used to respect.

What am I talking about? Well, they're calling it Racefail '09. Actually, they're calling it a whole lot of things, but I like that term. It's got people angry. And for good reason.

Me trying to condense this SF/F fan/writer/editor/publisher shit storm into a coherent synopsis is beyond my puny mortal ability. Fortunately, you can read an excellent summary about it here.

The summary was written by popelizbet and I found it through kynn 's own LJ.

As for myself, if you've read my blog for even thirty seconds you know which side of this I come down on.

Monkey Writer Dog On The Razor's Edge

Flug. I'm right on the edge with this cold. It could fade away into a bothersome little head knocker kept at bay with Sudafed and black coffee...

...or degenerate into a horrific snot-fest accompanied with an overwhelming sense of gakking myself to avoid the misery.

It's like God is going to flip the coin in the air tonight and I'll see on which side it lands. But if this is the same God who gave me chickenpox on the night of my first communion, well, then I guess I know how it's gonna end. We'll see, though. He knows me pretty well. I don't react well when people (or deities) personally piss me off. I'm like an elephant. I have a long memory of past slights.

Anyway if it does get bad I've got an unopened bottle of rye whiskey in the freezer just begging to help me fight this cold. Then again, who needs the excuse of a cold to crack that soldier open?

I feel pretty good right now, but a little too lethargic to get up and do any work in my office. Bummer. I really wanted to start concentrating on my writing this month because February was such a mess. I guess can work from bed tomorrow, though. All I really have slated is to complete my synopsis for the novel and get that off the Five Star. If I'm able I'll also meet my writing buddy Tuesday for coffee.

I've gotten several nice emails about my story "Death Storm" which has just been published in Drops of Crimson. Really touching; I'm glad people seem to like it because this was one of my personal favorites, too.