Share The Warmth

It's been a little remiss of me lately to not post links to online stories of others so here's a couple I think you'll really like:

The Solution by David Such published at Static Movement - Dave manages to capture how many of us older males believe things work within the head of a teenage girl. He also produces a very cold and sadistic killer who finds out he isn't so smart after all.

Spinnerbait by Amy Treadwell published at Flash Fiction Online - I was lucky enough to gain a sneak preview of this one as one of Amy's beta readers/critique partners. I loved it from the get-go - I'm sure you will too.

I know there's more links that have been sent to me or I've come across, but I'm at work and these are all I can remember or find while I wait for Microsoft Update to catch up.

Sorry to anyone I've missed - I'll try to be a little quicker in posting links in future.

BT

Still Here

I'm still getting going after the enforced break. I finally polished and printed the assignment I finished, and today sent it off in the mail. I'm still trying to give birth to the other assignment. I have a few ideas floating around in my head but nothing is bubbling to the surface. I think I'll just need to sit down and bang out a few ideas.

Congratulations to Amy on another sale. I'll provide a link to it when it becomes available.

What else have I been doing - nothing - well, I've played a lot of Tiger Woods '09 golf game on the Wii...it was a Father's Day present and I'm enjoying the hell out of it. At least it's some exercise...

Okay, I know I've been procrastinating a bit lately for all sorts of reasons. I've pretty much written this week off and will start again in earnest soon.

Black magazine issue 2 should be hitting your newsagent shelves any day now so keep an eye out. I received my contributors copy and it's excellent, well worth the small sum at your local outlet.

No comments on yesterday's question is disappointing. Honestly, new writers want to know how much everyone else writes. How much do you produce, on average, per month or over a yearly period? Seriously.

Too Late the Rain took me 12 months to get it to it's current state and that's just a short story. It took me six months to write the first draft of Tiger's Eye. It would take me another six months to get it to a reasonable level of readability - it really was the horrible first effort most writers won't admit to.

I wrote 14 stories in 3 months last year (2007). I'm still working on getting them to a marketable level while writing new stuff. Idolatry, Dark Rose, Grimoire, Winged Shepherd, Mobile, and Wamphyri have all been written (or completed) this year. 6 stories in 9 months. Plus I've written the first draft of the first 5 chapters of Newland (all equivalent to the length of short stories). On top of that, I've done 13 assignments, 4 articles, and 20+ reviews.

So 48 items in less than 40 weeks (I think), and in my opinion, that's pushing it way too hard. I've enjoyed not worrying about things this week if I'm really honest. So I'm not going to push it so hard from now on. If sales come, then they come. Wamphyri is just about done so I can concentrate more on Newland and on my assignments. I think I'll be looking at doing only three or four nights a week at the computer. I'll read as much as I have been because that's simply good, I get paid for some of my reviews, and it helps improve my own writing.

But I'll still be blogging and I'll still be trying to help out at AHWA where I can. I'll also be there for my writer friends whenever they need me to read something of theirs.

It's been a long and physically/mentally tiring, but it's also allowed me to realise that killing myself isn't going to get my writing to the top any quicker. Hard work and perseverance is the requirement to gain any measure of success in this industry and I'll still be doing that, but I'll be trying to do it without neglecting anything else. Writers need to live--where else do we get the inspiration for our art...

So, how much do you write?

And good luck with your submissions.

BT

Back In The Saddle...Slowly

Today is the first day in nearly a week, I've felt well enough to get some work done o my writing.

I sat down this morning and listed off the things I need to catch up on.

A review of the anthology sent to me by Amy Treadwell - Triangulation: Taking Flight. Done.
First revision of Wamphyri. Done (and subsequent 2nd, 3rd & 4th revisions)
Find a new market and possible revision of Idolatry (doing now - 7:30pm local time)
Assignments 2-3 & 1-4 for my diploma
Newlands
Reading

Reading is just an ongoing thing for me now. I've always got half a dozen books (minimum) floating around waiting to be read and reviewed.

The review on the antho has been done and the link inserted above.

Wamphyri needs to be revised and then reduced--hopefully both at the same time.

Idolatry needs to go out again today.

This is the bare minimum I need to accomplish. I'll let you know how I get on later.

Go read my review and then go buy a copy of Amy's anthology. Her stories alone are worth the $4 for the PDF version. (Thank you for the autographed copy - hopefully one day I will be able to return the favour :))

Time to get back to work.

BT

Crashed, Burned and a Big Rant

Four days since my last post! Sorry about that. I have no real excuses either.

I've been reading a lot. My review for Alex Bell's The Ninth Circle is here. I'm about halfway through reading Dark Animus 10/11. I hope to have that review up in the next day or so. I must say that to this point, I'm very impressed.

I worked late Friday night and again yesterday which is part of the reason I haven't blogged or done a lot in my writing, but things are in a state of flux anyway so there's not a huge amount to report on.

I received a response back from PARSEC. I didn't make the cut to the final 21 let alone manage what my friend Amy Treadwell did. I am happy to announce that Amy scooped the pool in this years contest winning the first and second prize. I'm also happy to announce that Amy is my mystery critiquer known as The Teacher. Until these results were made public, I didn't want to go rocking the boat, but as Amy has put news of her win on her website and I've officially received news, then there can't be any harm. Congratulations Amy!

So The Winged Shepherd of Innocence crashed and burned. It was a piece of dark fiction that received comments like "the story had a downward arc". They were looking for positives and yet it is a story of a downward spiral. It is dark fiction. Yes, the punctuation wasn't good and there were some typos I missed in the rush to get it out, but in the end, the organisers of the contest are looking for feel good stories with a happy ending. Not an easy thing to achieve in dark fiction. An important thing to remember for future attempts at the contest. Yes, I will be entering again next year.

Winged Shepherd was an expected casualty due to the rush in trying to get it ready. So It's already been revised (although it still doesn't have an uplifting tilt on the story). I'm doing a final polish and it shall go back out to market - a dark fiction market this time.

I downloaded yWriter4 last night. This is created by Simon Haynes, an Australian who is also behind the Hal Spacejock books. I began by looking for a word frequency counter. I couldn't find a free one and then discovered yWriter has one inbuilt. It has plenty of other benefits as well. So I've transferred Tigers Eye into it as well as Voodoo.

Now this has all the hallmarks of great procrastination. I get to play with some new software, spend copious amounts of time doing character profiles, scene descriptions, plot explanations, etc, etc.

But it is also something I need to do. I need to get back in touch with the world and characters I created in Tigers Eye. It is very foreign to me at the moment. Setting Voodoo up will be much easier as I've only written two chapters in that one.

I'm going to continue working through my back log of shorts while doing this. No great rush though. I'm going to take down the progress meter for Tigers Eye because I don't know when I'll get truly stuck into it, and seeing the continual lack of progress is simply depressing. I will work on Tigers Eye and Voodoo in the background. The diploma is the number one focus. I enjoy writing short stories so I'll continue with them. Besides EULA needs to find a home. :)

This sounds like I'm going back on decisions I've made and breaking promises I've made to myself and announced here on the blog. I sound very much like the weak willed, wishy-washy, useless, insignificant little turds, I cant stand to be around. Guilty as charged :(

This is the frame of mind I'm currently in. I've worked hard over the last six months to firstly, get back into writing at all (there was a time there where I almost gave it away), and secondly to get seven short stories (three of them new) to the point where they are ready for market or contest submission.

On top of that I've completed my first semester in academia for over 20 years and performed quite well, receiving credits in both first modules. I've also continued to provide reviews for HorrorScope and worked on articles for SA50s+.

If can gain some short fiction sales during the remainder of this year, then my writing has taken a step forward from last year. I know my writing has improved, i.e. the technical aspects of my writing has improved, but I only made three professional sales last year--and I didn't get paid for one of them (Antipodean SF), and the other two weren't short stories.

I had two erotic shorts accepted into an anthology, but that's not due out till next year. That may yet fall through so I'm not counting those.

I do ramble when I get started, don't I?

Bottom line is: I'm still writing and I'm still growing in my ability to use the craft. The business side of writing is still a long way from providing me with an income. The enjoyment is still there. The feeling of writing something good is still a rush (even if I think it's crap six months later).

I'm not going away, I'm not downgrading my dreams and goals. I am extending my deadlines though. I work for a living and will have to keep doing so for sometime to come. Writing will probably never support my family on its own.

However, I do say probably, not definitely.

I will continue to write, regardless. I will continue to submit, regardless. I will continue to work on the "great Australian novel", regardless. I will complete, and pass well, my diploma, regardless. I will continue to expand my freelance writing and find new avenues to get paid for it, regardless.

Regardless of what? Regardless of what life may throw at me, regardless of the ups and downs in self esteem, regardless of publications credits that may or may not come, regardless of perceived success or lack thereof.

I'm a writer...and writers' write.