Updates

I'm trying very hard to make Saturdays a no-schoolwork zone, instead concentrating on writing, submitting, updating, and digitally publishing. Easier said than done!  Still, progress:

Revere Karma is my collection of 4 previously published stories about my hometown in Massachusetts.  It's on Smashwords and Amazon.  It includes my story Mrs.Gillingham's Constitutional, which was one of my very early sales and has never been reprinted. (Trivia: I was so sure it was a rejection that I didn't open the SASE for two weeks. Thank you to Space & Time for a lovely sale.) The story is about an elderly woman trying to turn back time and really, how many stories start with naked old ladies drawing magic circles with carpet cleaner? 

My cowboy sexbot romp Seven Sexy Cowboy Robots is also on Smashwords and Amazon.  Just in time, too, because the companion story Sexy Robot Mom will appear soon in Asimov's.  The third in that series is Robot Monkey Rules the World, which I'm currently writing.  I don't think I can get away with Sexy Robot Monkey Rules the World. 

My last Asimov's story, The Monsters of Morgan Island, is my homage to the Blue Heaven workshop each year on Kelley's Island, although Charlie Finlay doesn't usually make us march down Main Street or jump into quarry pits or such, and that's on Smashwords only right now. It made the 2009 Tangent Online Recommended Reading List, which was nice. 

Some Reading

Some reading:

- "Blood" by Roddy Doyle in the book Stories, edited by Neil Gaiman.  Strongly written, evocative, ends on a strong turn - good job!

- "Fossil Figures" by Joyce Carol Oates in the same collection.  Extremely well written, great details, strong emotional beat, establishes a theme and sticks to it.  The first half is the strongest; the rest loses the narrative power but still remains strong.

- "Stone Mattress" by Margaret Atwood in The New Yorker.  Very well done.  Maybe one of my new favorites from her.  Here's an interview with her about it. 

- Passionate Minds - Women Rewriting the World by Claudia Roth Pierpont.  I picked this up in a Daytona Beach used bookstore. First chapter I read was about Gertrude Stein, because hello, Midnight in Paris has me thinking about her  and Alice and Paris, and their open house, and how their lives were.

Write more in 2012

Just in time for all those New Year's resolutions, my latest video!  I had a lot of fun thinking about what makes a writer productive and playing around with Flckr, iMovie and Macjams.

True story:  my first novel, which is in a box under my bed and will stay there forever, took 4 years to write. That's first draft only.  I only wrote when I felt "inspired" or when I had days off from work.  My second one (also under the bed) took about 18 months. After trial-and-error I got the process down to 6 months. Now, depending on the length, a first draft takes 3-4 months, and the rewrite about 2 months.

In 2011, I wrote 9 stories and sold 8 of them. I also wrote gay teen book #2, and rewrote that. I rewrote book 4 of the Outback Stars and wrote/revised another ya book.Let's say about 250,000 words total. I consider that okay prolific.I mean, it's not Jay Lake levels of prolific, but still pretty darned good along with teaching 6 classes a term at 3 different colleges.

I think I can do better in 2012. So I made this video to remind myself of how to stay on track, and hopefully there's something in there that can help other writers too (like my favorite software) (or the picture of the blanket toss)(or the pirate joke).

 It's 3 minutes long.  Please check it out and tell me what you think, or how I could improve it.