Good News

But not for me :(

A good friend of mine looks like she's sold her first two pieces of fiction. I won't mention names or where's or how's but she is understandably stoked!

I didn't check my email first thing this morning like I normally do. Her email arrived around 8am. I didn't get around to checking mail until after 10pm. She'd emailed me for advice on a couple of offers she'd received. 14 hours later, I responded - I'm so sorry it took so long A.

So I emailed my advice and I'm extremely happy for her. As soon as it's public, I'll let you know the details and where you can buy her work.

I'm having major problems organising my Internet connection from home at the moment. My current - at least until midnight tonight - ISP charges like a wounded bull and the ISP I want to get on - the only one that offers ADSL2 in my area - cant get the exchange upgraded to meet what they've promised me. My connection date has been put back from the 24th of April to the 28th, to yesterday, to today and now not until tomorrow. I lost my cool with the trying to be helpful person on the other end of the phone. In the end, I have free Internet for the next month - as soon as they connect it that is. It better be on tomorrow or heads will roll.

My writing - I am halfway through a crit on TPN - then ran out of time. I'll finish it tomorrow - I promise Swampfaye. I have another crit to do for another member and I still have this weeks assignment to do. I've been a little slack this week - reading instead of writing, taking part in a chat session on AHWA hosted by Jonathon Maberry (transcript available here - if you're an Australian horror writer, you should look at membership while you're there) which was excellent - instead of writing and generally just taking a bit of time off.

Now of course, I'm a little behind again. The assignment this week is to write a 600 word speech! I've never written a speech before. And there are structures and guidelines and all sorts of stuff. This one is going to be hard - and probably late.

On the good news front - I received my last assignment back from Mr Stone. B+!!! My highest mark to date. Still had some interesting comments in the prose. Some good, some a little strange but another assignment in this module I don't have to resubmit. Unfortunately the speech assignment is also for Mr Stone so I'm preparing for a fall from grace.

Okay - that's it for now.

Like my American friend, who just sold her first pieces, you'll never know how good you're stuff is until you submit it - congratulations again A.

BT

Review: On Writing Horror - revised edition

I have posted a review on HorrorScope of this highly recommended publication. Do yourself a favour - if you write in the dark fiction/horror genre, have ever mentioned a ghost or other supernatural creatures in your tales, then this is a must buy.

Read my review here.

I've decided to only post links to reviews on the blog from now on. If I publish it first on HorrorScope then the link will go there. If I publish a review on my website then it will go there. All HorrorScope reviews I do, are published a day or two later on my website as well. So if you'd like to read any or all of my reviews, go here.

For a complete list of all my published work, go here.

New Schedule

I've been reading a bit lately about Stephen King. Apparently, he and his wife, Tabitha, had an agreement where, in the early days before Carrie sold, he would spend three hours every night at the typewriter. Without fail!

So I've looked at the time available to me and at what I need to get done each week.

I have assignments due each week.
I have critiques due every week/fortnight.
I have reading I want to do.
I have commitments to do for HorrorScope and SA50s+.
I obviously want to write.

Writing also includes, revisions, edits and research. Somewhere in there, I also want to write new stuff. Then there's blogging and website maintenance.

Did I mention I have a full time job, a wife, two kids still at home and a life outside my keyboard.

I have no idea how I can devote three hours a night and not have my wife and family feel neglected. Work I can do standing on my head. Writing I can squeeze into spare moments but it's not how I write best. Assignment work just needs to be done. HorrorScope and SA50s+ is an occasional thing. TPN critiques are slowing down, at least I don't seem as pushed to get three or four done a fortnight now. Reading is always piling up.

If I do assignment work every Sunday, they should be ready to go out by Tuesday morning. On Tuesday night, I should be able to get a couple of crits done for TPN, if necessary. Wednesday night, I'd like to read. Thursday and Friday night would be for writing.

Saturday I'd like to keep free. When I get the chance, and the resources, I'd like to be able to take my wife out on a Saturday night. Maybe catch a flick or have dinner, or both. Until then, maybe we can go for a walk, a drive or just down the shops. Maybe I can sit in the dinning room with her and help with her latest puzzle (she loves jigsaw puzzles).

So if I look to do my writing work between 8:30 and 11:30 weeknights with an extended 6:30 to 11:30 on Sunday's, maybe, just maybe, I can squeeze in everything I want to do without neglecting my family. Obviously before work time I'll need to pull my weight. School nights I'll make lunches before I sit down. Friday, the washing needs to be done. A couple nights a week, the lad needs to attend and be picked up from training. Saturday and Sunday, during the day will be dedicated to watching football (both the lad and my AFL team) and for handy-man stuff. I have a dog mansion to build.

Not sure how all this will work out but we'll see.

I need a time limit on this too. John Saul, Dean Koontz and Stephen King all had time frames in which they thought they should be published by. They discussed this with their wife's. My diploma is for four years, so it will (or should) conclude in 2011. I have long service leave coming in 2010. WorldCon is scheduled for Australia in 2010. At the end of my diploma I am supposed to have a manuscript good enough to be marketed to publishers to be able to pass. Obviously I would rather have more than one at that time but one is the minimum. I've read in many places that 12 months to two years is normal to get a book published and selling. One of the authors I've already mentioned had a five year deal with his wife and made it in three.

With all that taken into account, I would hope to have a manuscript accepted within a twelve month period of having finished my diploma. That makes it 2012.

If I haven't "made it" by December 2012, then I'll stop devoting so much time to this. I may never stop writing, but I'll stop trying to turn my hobby/dreams into my day job.

There it is in writing. Now if I can only get my better half to agree.

So - I've just let my wife read this before publishing it. She has hesitantly agreed to try my new timetable for the next two weeks. Then we'll revisit it and tweak as required.

Wish us luck.

BT

Time to Read

Yesterday, I played home-handyman. I managed to get a whole host of jobs done after I'd posted my review to HorrorScope. This morning I've managed to do my outstanding crit for AbD. I'm up to date!!!!!!!!

I can now work on my current batch of shorts, my next due assignment or do some reading.

And the winner is.....I intend to read what's required of my next assignment to formulate a plan of attack and then read my "on writing horror" book that I've been dying to read for the last 6 weeks. I guess the title of the blog probably gave that away.

On the puppy front....BJ didn't whine last night as he slept in our room. He snores -- a lot -- and loud, so in the end I still didn't get a lot of sleep.

In local news.......Today it's raining and cold in Adelaide. I hate both. We need the water but my extremities turn a nasty shade of purple in the cold and my fingers hurt when I type. Time to pull out all the winter clothing I guess.

A nice day, sitting by the fire and reading a good book. Sounds nice, doesn't it? But I'd rather be on the beach reading it ;)

Hope the weather is just what you want in your neck of the woods, and it's allowing you to write wonderful masterpieces. Good luck with those submissions.

BT

Review: Fantasy & Science Fiction April 2007

New review finally posted on HorrorScope.

Read it here.

Assignments Done

Assignments module 1 number 4, and module 2 number 4, have both been done and will go in the post Monday. Tomorrow is ANZAC day in Australia so it's a public holiday - no post offices open. Still they're done. ANZAC Day is also first issue release for SA50s+ - fingers crossed it -- and my column -- goes down well.

That should bring me up to date. I just need to do assignment module 1 number 5 this week and I should be back on track. I need to create a better calendar to keep track of what needs to be submitted by when. Great - there's another task on my to do list!

I've updated my current assignment and grade list which you can find here.

I have one crit to do on AbD and one review still to do for HorrorScope. Hopefully they'll be done tomorrow. I have a host of revisions to do on my current clutch of shorts before they go out the door. Getting closer to getting some reading done - yay!!!!

Puppy is starting to settle down. He carries on for about 10 minutes, every two hours through the night but at least my sleep is only broken for short periods of time now. Six or so hours a night is a lot better than 3.

Brought a new lawn mower today, so the lad and I halved the chore. I did the front, he did the back. Place looks much better now. Tomorrow I have a plant to repot and a dog house to design and start building.

Three more days and then it's back to work :( I can just imagine what's waiting for me there.

Death by Puppy

Last night wasn't a good night. BJ had an upset tummy and was up for most of the night. I didn't get to sleep until nearly 1:45am and that only lasted for 10 minutes before I was up again. Stayed in the lounge with pup (after taking him out the back for ablutions) till close to 2:30 and then was up again at 3:00. Back into bed by 3:30 but woken again at 4:00. I woke the wife and asked her to take care of it this time.

She ended up sleeping with the dog in the lounge. Jodi's feeling a little guilty at the moment because she wanted the dog and I'm the one loosing all the sleep. Doesn't really matter - I'm the one on holidays so I can afford to drag my arse around for a few days. In the end I was extremely grateful for the rest. I was up again at 6:30 as Jodi goes to work then. I managed to snatch a little extra in the lounge after I'd fed BJ his breakfast. So last night I ended up with around three and a half hours of extremely broken sleep.

I'll try and have a nap after lunch today and get stuck into some writing tonight.

Yesterday, I managed to get both assignments read and have formulated a plan of attack. I also managed to get two critiques done for members of TPN. I should get both first drafts of the assignments done tonight. The review won't get done till tomorrow at the earliest. Revisions may have to wait another day on top of that - golf doesn't look like happening these holidays :(

Time to go check the pup.

I hope you're sleeping well and managing to get lots of writing done. Good luck with your submissions.

BT

Puppy-somnia

If it isn't a recognised disease -- it should be.

For the last day and a half, I've been walking around with my brain switched off and my eyes half closed. Eight and a bit years ago, my youngest child was born. I remember getting up at two in the morning for feeding time. I felt like crap the day after and everyday for the first six months of her life but it was worth it. Now I have a puppy doing it to me all over again. But this time without the overwhelming feeling of pride and love.

At least twice a night, he wakes me up with his crying, whining and barking. I stagger out of bed and let him out the back. So far he's managed to do his business outside more often than not, which is good but occasionally he doesn't make it and I'm left to clean up a mess in the wee hours of the morning.

I haven't written or read anything for the last few days due to sleep dragging at my eye-lids should I so much as look at written words in prose.

Later today, I need to sit down and get stuck in. My wife and kids can look after the new arrival for the rest of the day, while I try and get some work done.

By the end of today I need to have read both my due assignments and hopefully I can get the final review done for HorrorScope.

Tomorrow I want my first drafts finished, and I can do the revisions for Drinkers and Grimoire. I need to copy the final comments on Winged Shepherd to file, in case it doesn't do any good in competition, in preparation for a rewrite for market. I need to do a final read through of the current version of Too Late the Rain so that can go up to AbD next week. And then there's all the reading I still have to do.

At some stage this week, I'd like to play a round of golf too, but that doesn't look likely.

*******News Flash********

Puppy photo page has been updated. BJ is now 8 weeks old. See how he's grown here.

Busy Weekend

It's Sunday night and I'm plumb tuckered out.

Saturday morning I hosted a chat on dark fiction for members of Authors by Design. I had eight people turn up and some good discussion took place. It was good fun.

Saturday evening we had a big surprise party for my mum's 70th birthday. Got home in the wee hours of this morning.

This morning we picked up our new puppy. I don't have my camera handy, so no new photos at the moment but as soon as I get it back from my eldest daughter, I'll update the link at the bottom of the page.

Been out in the garden for most of the day, puppy proofing the backyard.

His name is BJ. We deliberated with Quill, King and then we met his dad at a dog show this morning. He's huge. His name is Buddy so we decided on Buddy Junior for his son, shortened to BJ.

On the writing front:

Sent out the two assignments in the last post on Friday so I can start on the next two early this week. I have a couple of crits to do and 1 review. Grimoire is ready to be revised and Drinkers is up for final comment this week. Still have plenty of reading to do.

I hope life is treating you well and all your submissions are successful.

BT