Not Impressed

As some of you may know, I keep a little side site where static information about my writing is kept. Things like my progress when I was working through the Advanced Diploma, my bibliography, current work in progress - that type of thing.

Not many people went there, but it was a little place I kept things of interest to me and occasionally others. It was a free site plagued by ads. Well, it seems the hosts have migrated over to a new tool for people to create and edit their sites with. I knew it was coming was not keen to move. Now I know why.

Today I finally clicked on the migrate site option (I needed to update my bibliography anyway) and it totally screwed up everything!

I'm not going to fix it. It's time to find a solution to my issues which will allow me to host the information I want (writing tips, bibliography, WIP, etc) and possibly/probably my blog posts, without looking overly crowded or with it being too difficult to master.

Don't get me wrong, I work with computers everyday. Many may laughingly call me an IT professional, but I'm not interested in the field. It pays the bills - that's it. I am seriously not interested in learning new languages, manipulating HTML, or coding complex algorithms to present a website. It's one of the reasons I use blogger - it's point and click, dead easy, leaving the little amount of grey matter I have left to think on other things.

I may also bite the bullet and register a domain name to tie it all together.

So consider this session of the people's court open. I need to hear arguments for the platforms out there, both the good and bad side. Take nothing as granted. What you consider an easy interface may be as good as something written in Klingon for me. Explain to me why I should be looking at LJ, or Facebook, or WordPress, or some thing else. Tell me where help can be found. Tell me why you don't use the other platforms.

Help me to help me and you. A lot of what I put up on these pages is for the benefit of other writers just so they know they're not alone and others have made the same mis-steps before them, but I need somewhere I can blog and keep all the static information together.

Any and all suggestions, advice and help is appreciated. If someone wants to offer web help for advertising space or is willing to provide web services for a reasonable fee I'll also be willing to listen.

Please be seated. You may call your first witness...

Updates

I've done a little house work since the semester has officially come to a close.

You may notice (especially as I'm now pointing it out), I've updated the links to my Bibliography, my Diploma Progress, and my Work In Progress pages. I've also added a new flash fiction piece to my Work Examples page.

I'm currently trying to write one piece of flash fiction a week at Cafe Doom. I imagine the first few (maybe all of them) will be a little rough so rather than subject my stumbling efforts on editors around the globe, I though I'd throw them up on My Examples page for you, and prosperity, to view at your leisure. Comments welcome. The first offering is "Spring BBQ" and again touched on my love for writing dark fiction involving children. If you have a weak stomach or don't like to think about situations not so nice involving kids - then look away now. No sex or actual violence in this one. The one I posted to Cafe Doom today however, is completely different. No kids, a little bit of nudity, implied sexual scenario, and a zombie. Makes the mind boggle doesn't it? I'll post that one to the examples page next week.

You may also notice - although these things are way down on the sidebar - a new book has been added to my current reading for review list. It is "Envy the Night" by Michael Koryta (a very young and intense looking fellow). I'm reading this for Black magazine. The review will be out in January, with a full review to be posted on HorrorScope in February.

With Newland - I'm still working with the structure and will be for a little while yet. Storyboarding points out all sorts of downfalls and thin sections within your planned book. It makes a lot more work prior to the actual writing, but writing should then be so much easier when I get to it.

Lots of people are putting up reports of the previous month so I figured I'd join in on the fun.
So, what happened in November? (ala (also labelled as) Status Report)

I didn't participate in NaNoWriMo. :(
I wrote around 2000 words in Newland. :(
Began storyboarding Newland.
I revised Idolatry and submitted it to a new market.
Submitted Wamphyri to market for the first time.
I wrote "Spring BBQ" for Cafe Doom.
Wrote a new flash piece titled "Murky Depths" and submitted to market for first time.
I read "Promise Not To Tell" by Jennifer McMahon
I wrote three reviews of "Promise Not To Tell" by Jennifer McMahon
I completed and submitted 3 assignments, passing them all and completing my first year of study successfully.
Slushed 8 stories. (still haven't found a gem)
Critiqued 1 manuscript, 1 Query letter, and 1 synopsis. Excellent premise I expect to see grow.
Queried two submissions and received notice they were still under consideration.
Received 1 somewhat positive rejection.
Received 0 acceptances
9 pieces currently out to market.

I still feel like I didn't do enough though, and I think that's primarily due to not doing a lot on Newland.

That's enough for the updates.

Go read Spring BBQ and let me know what you think...

Speak soon

BT

Updates

I've just finished doing the updates on the website and other bits and pieces around here. The Diploma section where you can follow exactly what I'm doing has been totally caught up.

I've updated the biblio and my work in progress status. Feel free to wander over and have a browse around if you so choose. Musings Of An Aussie Writer - The Website.

My next batch of books for review didn't arrive today. If they don't arrive tomorrow then it'll be panic stations all round. Reviews are due by the 15th!

I still have one book to finish for HorrorScope which I'll start reading tomorrow.

Sitting around my study at the moment, I have 27 books I want to read! If placed in priority I guess about half of them I may never get to and I won't be overly upset, but that still leaves a significant number that I want to get to and somehow don't quite make it before something else pushes them back onto the shelf. I must make a more concerted effort to have a book with me at all times.

That's it for tonight. I have the next five days off so I should be able to squeeze in a little time to do some writing among other stuff - if my next batch of books doesn't arrive.

I'm getting toward the end of the second semester assignments so I might make a push to complete that work for the year which would free up heaps of time.

We'll see.

Speak to you later.

BT

Got A Bit Done

Currently it's 9:14Pm on Tuesday night (Mind you, I didn't finish writing this post till 9:45 - see I do get side tracked) - so nearly 12 hours since I posted this morning about what I was going to try and get done. Not surprisingly, I didn't get a long way through my short list.

Lets recap:

I wanted to review the anthology Triangulation: Taking Flight. This was the first thing off the bat, and as indicated earlier, has been completed. I've alerted at least one of the authors to its birth but haven't had any feedback yet - not that it matters one way or the other, all my reviews are honest.

Next cab off the rank was Wamphyri, my short story for the diploma. Due to be in a marketable state by November, I wrote the outline over a month ago, the major character outline a few weeks ago and the first scene three times in the last fortnight. Then inspiration struck and I wrote the whole story in an evening. The assignment requirement was for a 4000 word story but my night of falling through the hole in the page led to a 4300 word story. Today I was intending to do the first revision. After the fourth revision, I had it down to 4000 words. Ordinarily I prefer to leave time between changing work--which I did--ordinarily I tend to have bigger breaks than a walk to the fridge for refreshment--but today I didn't. Still I think it comes up pretty good now so I've sent it to a couple of people for comment.

Next was Idolatry. After it's rejection, I looked hard at the story and kept the editors comments in mind. It is a horror story but not hard core. In my way of placing stories into genres, Idolatry is dark fiction at worst. 1920s pulp fiction maybe a better description. So I needed a lighter speculative market this time round. I'm still not ready to send work to exposure only markets, although I'm not far away from that. For work over 1000 words, I'd rather get something for my efforts. In the end I chose Byzarium for a couple of reasons. They are SpecFic, prefer shorter works, don't pay huge amounts, have a quick response time, and have a currently open submission window. Actually they accept all year round, but not everyone does - read the guidelines page before submission anywhere!

Last two items were assignments and Newland. Not going to happen, even though Monday and Tuesday are assignment nights. Instead I got sidetracked - again.

I went through every page of Musings Of An Aussie Writer - The Website. I've updated most pages and checked all the links (I think). I've added some new content and removed some older stuff I no longer want to support or host. I've updated my goal progress (or lack thereof) and a whole heap of other stuff. Feel free to wander through and let me know if I need other stuff either added or removed (or fixed).

And yes, I know the ads are a pain, but I simply don't have the time or the money to spend on a new site right now. Soon, I'll look into a domain but just not yet.

Last announcement (that I can think of at the moment - head like a sieve), the details for next years PARSEC contest are already out. Go have a look from the link in my competitions list and keep it in mind. Good luck!

Okay, that's it from me for today. Obviously I didn't spend the full 12 hours at the computer but it was at least a full days work. I think I did okay on the amount I got done. What do you think?

Back to my real job tomorrow :( Wednesday, Thursday & Friday of working in the real world to go--oh, and then I've got all of next week off :)

Sorry - couldn't resist.

Hope things are working out exactly as you want them to in whatever it is you're doing.

BT

Quick Post

A number of worthy things today.

First has nothing to do with writing at all. Gabriella Cilmi - remember this name. If you have been living under a rock, check out the new video bar I added at the bottom of the blog. I haven't been able to get her song "Sweet about me" out my head since yesterday. She is a 16 year old kid from Melbourne who is going to be huge all over the world. She could be the female Elvis record producers have been looking for. Such a unique voice in such a pretty package. Do yourself a favour and go listen to her clips.

Second, I received an email from my lecturer today. He believe's if I continue in my current fashion, I will receive an credit for this semester. Having looked it up - he's right. As long as I get mostly B's and nothing lower than a C. I thought I needed nothing lower than a B! Excellent news. Seems I'm back on for two credits this semester which was my original goal - yay!!

A very quiet day at work has allowed me to catchup on a bit of TPN reading. I've read the reposting of four chapters that a member has put up and I'm very disappointed.

Maybe it's the new found confidence I'm finding with grammar and punctuation, maybe I'm just improving and learning more about writing, but it's annoying when things are pointed out to someone and they ignore it. It's worse when a few people point out something and they still ignore it. Writing a lot and gaining crits, only to rewrite it quickly to put back up, is not good writing.

But then I read the latest chapter and all the previous lessons seemed to have been more closely followed. I don't get it.

I also read a new piece from one of our professional partners. It's obvious he's experienced and knows his stuff. To be honest I was a little intimidated to think of doing a line edit. He asked a few questions on the end which I answered truthfully - hopefully he gets something out my answers (they weren't all about blowing sunshine up his proverbial).

I've updated the assignment page on the website, but I'm still working on my reading list and I have some research to do on my article. Tonight is ear-marked for Assignment 6 for Module 2 "Editing on screen".

Last note: Not feeling all that flash at the moment. I may have to consider a day home in bed tomorrow (I think the phone line for the laptop will stretch that far) >;-P

No doubt I'll post again tonight to let you all now how I get on.

Speak to you soon.

BT

Drinkers - aka Dark Rose

It's done. Dark Rose (as Drinkers is now called) is ready for market. A couple of subtle changes from the last revision and she is now ready to be unleashed onto the Australian market. Cool.

I've also written the first draft of a new short story. I know I said I wouldn't be writing anymore new ones for a while but this didn't start out specifically as a new short story. A couple of assignments ago, I had to write the first 600 words of a descriptive short story. A day or two ago, I received information for entering into a local short story competition. My next assignment requires me to use a 600-800 word, dialogue rich, fragment of a story.

For the last few days I've been pondering what to write for the short story. I'd already decided I would use an 800 word fragment of another story I wrote, sometime ago called "Confused Love". In this assignment I need to provide a draft and a good copy. I figured my old story would suit that bill as I'd only written two versions and it definitely needed further revision to be useful for the assignment.

Then I had an idea. I took the first 600 words of my assignment from a couple of weeks ago and expanded the story that my lecturer thought I may not be able to expand upon. True, I changed the focus and the direction a little - well, a lot actually. In the end, I came up with a dialogue rich story that also fits into the word limit of the local competition. So, in writing this story, I've achieved two things - 1) I have an entry for the competition, or will have once it's been polished and 2) I have a piece to work with for my assignment.

Sweet!

* * * * *
In response to a comment I received from Karen, whose first line of the comment goes like this: "It would be interesting to read some of your stuff on-line."

Firstly, thank you for the interest Karen. Now, I currently have a number of examples of my work available. To view pieces I've had published electronically please visit my bibliography. You will find links to everything I've currently got floating around the net in there. None of it is dark fiction however. I also have a couple of examples of my early work listed here. One is my very first effort at writing a short story. The second is my first effort at entering a contest. The contest piece is dark fiction.

They are early efforts though and I've improved somewhat since then. I have put them there as reminders to myself of where I came from.

So why don't I post some of the later work I keep writing about? Because I want to get paid for it. If I post it onto my website or this blog, I'm giving away my first publication rights. Why would an editor want to pay me for a story everyone can read for free? I won't do it. Everything I write will one day turn up on my website - promise! But if I can sell it a few times first and make some money for the effort I've put into it - I should be entitled to do so.

So, if anybody wants to see examples of my stuff, have a hunt around my website. There's plenty there; from a drabble published by AntipodeanSF - to my 600-word start to a story included in my application for enrolment into my diploma. I'm yet to expand on that one. One day...

Thank you everybody for reading. It's nice to get the occasional comment, too. It's also nice to see little red dots popping up all over my counter map. People from all over the world now visit this blog to partake of my ramblings and occasionally to visit the website. Although the website doesn't get updated as often as this blog, it does contain a lot of stuff writers of any form of fiction will want to know about. I encourage all of you to visit at least every now and then.

Well, that's it for Mother's Day, 2008. I hope every mum out there received wonderful presents and had a great day - like I said before, you all deserve it!

Good luck with your submissions.

BT

Website Overhaul

I have just finished updating all the pages on the website. I've also deleted the e-book page.

When I first began all this, it seemed like a good way to possibly make a side income. Now I'm thinking less and less of the income from the Musings Of an Aussie Writer sites. The book store is still there as there are good books to be found that can help all writers. I have many of them on my bookshelf and intend on getting many more.

New goals have been listed and all the major pages have been brought up to date. I've also made a commitment to track down additional writing tips.

Go have a look.

More Changes

On a suggestion, I've updated My Work page to be my Bibliography page. It now contains links to the pieces I've had published electronically, all my reviews (both here and on other web sites) and lists of any pieces in print. I'll update the printed list with links to where you can purchase the book(s) as that information becomes available.

The critiques of "Too Late the Rain" are rolling in. Today is the last day and so far I've had 17 responses - pretty good. The glaringly obvious comment is that very few of the readers seem to understand that one of the characters is actually a ghost. It seems I am too subtle in my inferences. The majority of responses have been positive though and nearly all of them have claimed to be disturbed by the story - bingo!

I'm home feeling very sick and sorry for myself today. The weather here has changed from a heat wave to very cool. Guess my body wasn't ready for the change. Today I sit at the keyboard with a jumper on and still feeling cold where as a few days ago I was sweating in a T-shirt.

I need to pick the kids up from school in a couple of hours so I'd better get stuck into some reading. I need to finish a whole bunch of reviews soon. I also received my last assignment back. Apparently, I again mis-read what I was supposed to do. This time however, my writing apparently convinced the lecturer to pass me anyway but with a lower mark. He called my submission "ingenious" which is nice but the grade would exclude me from a credit or distinction so I'll be resubmitting again. :( So yet again I need to finish two assignments and get them sent of ASAP.

So much to do, so little time.

Good luck with your writing and keep on submitting.

BT