Back-ish

Okay, that knocked us around a bit.  But I’m back, though feeling like lying around and not doing very much.  When I went to the pharmacy to pick up various medications, I was told “it’s going around”.  Hope it doesn’t come around again.

Thanks to everyone who sent well-wishes – much appreciated :)

The malaise messed up my December plans; I failed NPI, which I’m not happy about, and I won’t finish all the shorts I had planned.  Nevermind.  2010 is a new year, and it’s not far away.

Going to take it easy for the rest of the year, but I will be around.  I have about a hundred blog posts to read, got reviews to write and Christmas is just around the corner.

Also, it’s really hot right now.  30 degrees C at 6am.  Bloody summer.

Down for the count

Whole house down with something horrible.  Send cute male nurses and someone to do the housework.

Acceptance speech

I’ve received three awards in the past couple of months, and never got around to writing about it.  So today, a big thank you to Kait, Simon and Wendy for thinking of me.

Kait and Simon both passed on the Superior Scribbler Award. Or, as Simon would prefer, the Superior Typist Award.  But that just brings to mind images of Simon in the typing pool in a veeery short skirt.  So let me talk a little about Simon and Kait.

I met Simon when he left a comment on one of my posts, and I followed the link to his blog.  “Constant Revision” says the title, and below that, “It’s not enough to write”.  Oh yeah.  A man after my own heart.  How could I not follow him?  So I’ve been watching Simon as he blogs about his path as a writer, and it’s very interesting.  I liked what he said about Writer’s Groups.    I cheered when he got into the finals of Nathan Bransford’s competition.  I nodded sagely in agreement with his post on the respectability of online fiction journals.  Simon’s blog is new, and he doesn’t post to a hectic schedule like some, but I always find something of merit to read there.  So thank you Simon, glad to have you in my writing village.

I’m pretty sure I met Kait on Twitter, that social cesspool for writers.  And at first glance we don’t have a lot in common.  Kait writes Urban Fantasy Romance, a genre which I have openly admitted to finding unreadable.  But it’s Kait’s attitude that I love; in fact, it’s that attitude that is common to all the blogs I follow.  Professional.  Hard-working.  Loves writing to the core.  I got to know Kait a lot more when she joined in the Novel Push Initiative I ran in September, and then she went on to run her own.  Kait blogs a lot about all sorts of things, and included in that are some really fantastic articles on writing.  For example, her Getting to Know You series on characters – a must-read.  Being a Psychology teacher, she has some wonderful posts on writing from a psych point of view, like her article on the Positive Psychology of Romance.  And of course there was her incredibly detailed series on Going from Pantser to Plotter.  A fantastic read for any writer.  So thank you too, Kait, for being part of my writing village.

Wendy passed on the Kreativ Blogger award.  (Is it sad that I twitch everytime I read Kreativ?)  I also met Wendy on Twitter.  (Really, if you’re not on it, you should be, if only for the great writers you meet.)  Wendy is a local, hailing from New Zealand – practically next door!  Like all of us, Wendy is on the path to publication.  She writes young adult fantasy (and apparently dislikes spinach and dates).  I enjoy reading Wendy’s blog because she’s so honest and open about her struggles toward publication.  She talks about dealing with criticism, and posts some beautiful shots of New Zealand.  I like to read her tales, because I can relate; my path might be different, but the hurdles are the same.  So thank you, Wendy, you’re a lovely neighbour to have in my writing village.

And thank you to everyone who reads this blog, through my ranting, whining, railing, through the lucid times and the long-winded pontification, the ego-swelling moments and the on-the-floor-why-do-I-do-this times.  You are part of my writing village too, and I’m very glad to have you.

How to Interpret Criticism

This is, finally, the follow-up post to The Yin-Yang of Writing.  I previously asked for examples of criticism from readers, and received some really useful comments, which I shall use here.  I’ll also be presenting examples from my own experience.

I’m going to stick to criticism of fiction, because non-fiction is a little different, and doesn’t apply to most of my readers anyway.

You get the most out of criticism when you look behind the words.

Someone once sent me the following crit:

Beautiful writing.  So what?

I’m sure you can imagine my younger self; the indignity, the fuck-you-buddy.  So what?  SO WHAT?  It was beautiful!  You’re just too crass and ignorant to appreciate it!

Stories that grow, and tidying up for the end of the year

Remember I talked earlier about stillborn stories?  The ones that start out with a shout and end with a pathetic whimper?

Well I was in the middle of another one, and despairing of my skill as a writer.  Why, I keep asking, can I produce evocative music one moment and pallid carrion flesh the next?

Thankfully a post from one of my favourite authors, Neil Gaiman, reminded me that it happens to everyone, and it’s not necessarily the end.  And that, if I let it simmer, there’s a good chance that I will find song within.  So I’ll finish it, and think on it, and see what happens.

I must admit that I love the short story medium.  You can experiment in ways that would never work in a novel.  And it’s a good test of writing tight, sharp prose.  There are no words to spare; you must engage your audience and tell the story with as few words as possible.  Lots of fun.

This December, encouraged by Owl and Sparrow’s Project Diligent December, I’m working hard to finish all my incomplete short stories.  There are a number of them.  Okay, there are thirteen at last count.

Title	Genre	Current WC	Stage
Day Job	Fantasy	2000	first draft
Siren Song	Fantasy	1600	first draft
Under the datura tree	Fantasy	3000	first draft
Wolf Winter	Fantasy	7000	first draft
Cherry Trees	Fantasy	1700	unfinished
Duty Bound	Fantasy	1500	unfinished
Unnamed horror	Horror	1500	unfinished
Unnamed horror 2	Horror	8000	unfinished
Around and around	SF	1700	unfinished
Corporal 494	SF	700	unfinished
Dead Sands	SF	3000	unfinished
That Harmon Philmeister	SF	5300	unfinished
We make tea for humans	SF	2800	unfinished

And hey, that’s 40k words right there.  Go me!

Not all of them are worth finishing, but I’m going to try to finish them anyway, because it’s good for me.  And I may actually end up with something to submit next year.

How about you?  What are your plans for December?

The Atheist’s Guide to Christmas well worth your time

Who remembers the Atheist Bus Campaign?  When I first heard about it, I couldn’t decide whether to be delighted or appalled.  Atheism, in general, is not a movement or an organisation or in any way controlled.  It’s about individuals choosing logic over dogma, and rejecting the idea of an overarching consciousness controlling the universe.  To have a campaign about it seemed, to me, to go against the principles behind atheism.  I eventually decided it was amusing and forgot about it.

Fast forward to Oct 2009 when Harper Collins sent me a copy of The Atheist’s Guide to Christmas to review.  I had no idea they’d even made a book from the campaign.

It turns out that the campaign and the book were created by the British Humanist Society.  Driving force Ariane Sherine has gathered 42 short stories and articles celebrating atheism, talking about life without religion, about the universe, space, humans and what we are.

It’s brilliant.  Entertaining, moving, thought-provoking and elevating, there’s something in this collection for everyone.

It’s not a book about bashing the religious.  It’s a book about Christmas for those of us who just do it for family, for friends, for companionship, without the underlying Christian message.

And it’s funny.  The writers that editor Sherine has chosen have done a lovely job of bringing out the human in humanist, and reminding us about what it is that makes us who we are.

Like the meaning of Christmas, in The Real Christmas Story by Jenny Colgan:

Christmas, as a practicing Catholic child, was seen as a reward for lots and lots and lots of church.

Or sharing your birthday with Jesus, in A Child was Born on Christmas Day by Emery Emery:

Every birthday party I attended was clearly a day set aside specifically to celebrate one person’s most important life event…but as it turns out, Jesus was born of a virgin on December 25th and they deem it a miracle.  How can any kid compete with that?

And I dare you to read Nick Doody’s excellent article, How to Understand Christmas: A Scientific Overview and not laugh:

Robins, as is well known, have an unusually high level of natural Yule – far higher than a mouse.

But it’s not all humour.  For the scientifically inclined, there’s the wonderful Starry, Starry Night by Phil Platt, or one of my favourites, The Large Hadron Collider: A Scientific Creation Story by Brian Cox:

About 13.7 billion years ago, something interesting happened and our universe began.

There’s also a great How-To section; How to Have a Peaceful Pagan Christmas, I’m Dreaming of a Green Christmas and How to Decorate the Outside of Your House, and Not Have All Your Neighbours Hate You.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this collection, and would recommend it as a great gift for the hard-to-buy-for person in your life.  It’s a book for the thinker, the skeptic, the logical.  A really wonderful experience.

December looms

And I can’t wait.

I lost my temper this morning, but hopefully removed myself from the net before too much damage was done.  But the event made me question where I spend my time, where I focus my energies.

Not on MY writing, that’s where.

So December is my time.  I’ve joined the next Novel Push Initiative, and my fellow pushers are all wonderful, focussed writers who I love to interact with.  So it’s going to be a lot of fun.  And project hopping is allowed this time, so I can finish the three short stories I’m in the middle of, as well as getting a good start on Dark.

I can finish my Interpreting Criticism article, which has been sitting there in draft form for over a month now.

I can write the next Liquid Story Binder tutorial.

I can get back to rambling about writing, my favourite topic.

I can get off my overworked butt and submit all those shorts that ‘just need a little more tweaking’.  Uh-huh.  I think I need to start following Patty Jansen’s advice on Selling Your Fiction.

Bring on December!

Why do we neglect those we care about?

It’s true.  I am neglectful.  On the list of jobs, those that belong to my friends get shuffled to the bottom, in favour of jobs for people who don’t know me at all.  Because I know my friends will forgive me, while those strangers; clients, authors, publishers, will not.

At least, I hope they will forgive me.

Priorities are tricky.  There are so many levels, intricate balances between duty, love, care, money, enjoyment, responsibility.  There’s a complex algorithm at work whenever a new job comes along.  My partner, bless his software-engineer’s soul, would go on at length about neural networks and decision making.  I just juggle madly and try not to drop things.

“Ooh!  New story by someone I like!  Okay, well, first I need to respond to that submission request, but before that I need to update my timesheet, ugh, boring, and the vacumming, well that can go to the bottom of the list, no-one will notice (except me!) and I have to do my crits for this week, and I have 7 tabs open with blog posts I want to respond to, maybe I can slot them in between calling clients and uh-oh, finishing that crit that is now 2 weeks overdue…”

I defy a program to sort these things effectively.  Not that I’m doing such a stellar job.

Still, as someone said, better busy than bored.  I vaguely remember boredom.  Marvellous feeling.

And lets be honest, if I wasn’t chasing the small man around for most of the day, I could fit a lot more in.  But he is always #1 on the list.  And he’s fun.  And funny. And he smells nice (most of the time).  And he’s just figured out that if he drags a box of nappies into the kitchen, he can stand on it and see what’s on the kitchen bench and reach out with his sticky little hands.  Yesterday he managed to pour half a bottle of dettol over himself when the baby catch on the bathroom door failed.  It could have been a lot worse; he could have drunk it.  So I’m thankful, and paranoid at the same time.

So, not writing much at the moment.  Reading in the early morning while he and hubs are sleeping.

Love you guys.  I’ll be back soon.  And if I haven’t read your stuff, I will.  Its position on the jobs list has nothing to do with content, and everything to do with urgency.

And I realise that my blog has been as boring as bat shit lately.  Grab a cup of coffee and read some of my On Writing posts.

After you’ve done the vacuuming, of course.

A boost when I needed it most – thank you!

I’ve been miserable.  Stressed.  As I said on twitter; too many pies, not enough fingers.  On top of that, wrestling with a new site.  Getting hugely behind on replying to e-mails (sorry guys!) and not keeping up with my reading and critting.

Writing?  About 750 words in the last 7 days.  Which sucks.

Hubby (dear man) says to me this morning, “why don’t you just drop everything?”  Kind, but not helpful.  Oh, how I’d love to though; just throw my responsibilities out the window and sit in the garden with small man and write.  Finish the fun little fantasy story I started.  Plot out the novel for December.  Just, you know, get back into the writing place.

But that won’t happen; guilt is a powerful motivator.  So I’ll forge through, get things out of the way.  Then I’ll feel better.

But you, kind people that you are, voted for my story in the #Searchterm Challenge Round 2 – and I won.  Thank you!  It made me feel good to know you liked my story, especially with the tough competition this time around.  I was up against four great writers, and you should definitely read and comment on their stories if you haven’t already.

So now, with that boost behind me, I can forge ahead.  Wednesday is going to be a busy day; no client this week so I plan to get a number of jobs off my plate.

Thanks everyone.  And if you write, think about joining the next #Searchterm Challenge in December – they are fun and inspiring little challenges to participate in.

Bring it on!

So.  Challengers.

There are four, count them, four upstart writers who think they can take my crown.

Bring it on, I say.

Voting starts today.  Head on over to QuillsAndZebras and vote for your favourite story.

Entries are anonymous.  Pick the story you like the best!

Will I hold on to the crown, or will they pry it from my cold, dead hands?

Your votes will decide.

(Pic by Gemmyjade.)