Feeling it

I've been in quite a funk lately. This happens every now and again, but right now, I am just not feeling it. I haven't written a word in a couple weeks. I just feel too exhausted to try. I have no writing motivation or desire. I barely ever come to my blog or check out the writerly blogs that I have linked here. It's like I don't want anything to do with writing, and I couldn't tell you why.

I'm not about to discover the answer now. I hope I can overcome the funk here pretty soon. If not, I'll need to find a new title for my blog.

Break Time

I'm taking a day off from the day job today to catch up on a little sleep, write, listen to music, and just relax. Oh, and mind the kids, of course. I've gotten a good bit of writing done on my story "Masked," and hope to finish today. A first draft, that is. I want to rearrange the pieces a bit, so it'll still be a little while before it's "finished."

No "other news" today. Have a good and productive day.

Moonlit Path

It's been a while, and it's been a crazy week. Valentine's Day means a heavy workload at my late night job at a world wide shipping company. I've had to go into the office a lot last week for my other job, and I've just been tired on top of all that. And then a tree fell on our house. It didn't do much damage, thankfully. The tree was only a few feet away from the house, so it just kind of tipped against it when the wind knocked it over, roots and all. The house held it up until I could get someone out to look at it. It really could have destroyed our house though. I'll see if I can find a picture I took of it.

Found some.

So I spent a good portion of my weekend chopping up the tree after the professionals took it down for me. It was a very romantic Valentine's Day.

In other news, my poem "Strange Seed" is up at Tales from the Moonlit Path. Give the site a read, there's some great stuff on there. And I really don't count my poem among those pieces. I like it less and less as I read it. That's my reaction to a lot of my work though.

The Responses Keep Rolling In

Yesterday I got two more responses to submissions. One was a rejection from the Triangulation Anthology. The best thing about the rejection was that it came with reasons! Yes, they gave me a few reasons of what they didn't like about the piece. They made some valid points, which will definitely help me in placing the story somewhere else. Once I make the changes, that is.

The other response I got, just a few minutes later, was an acceptance of my poem "Strange Seed" with Tales from the Moonlit Path. I'd really almost given up hope on this one, but it turns out I didn't get the original acceptance email a couple months ago. The poem'll be going up in the Valentine's Day issue. The email I got was the editor trying to get final approval before it went to be posted on the site. It should go up sometime in the next week or two, so I'll post a link when I have it.

What else am I working on? Not much. I've been a slacker. But I want to finish my story "Masked" this week or next--this one could also fit the Triangulation Anthology theme, so I may submit it there first. If nothing else, their critique will help me out.

I've also decided that while I will continue to work on my screenplay "Time Enough at Last," I'm also going to work on turning it into a novel. I read in a screenwriting book about someone else doing that--it's basically a 110 page outline with most of the dialogue already written. Plus I'd really be able to expand upon some themes that I just can't fit into a 2 hour movie. I'm not talking about just novelizing the screenplay, but just using that as the framework for a much more in-depth novel. Should be fun. If I can just find the time for it.

2 in one day

No, not 2 acceptances. The other kind. Two rejections came in those morning in the span of about 2 hours. I was a little disappointed, although I didn't really expect either one to be accepted. But one can hope...

Still working on Masked. Haven't had much time to write the last few days. I may get a little time this weekend. We'll see. For now, I'm just letting the story run its course, but if I feel like it's wanting to grow a little bit beyond what I have dreamed up for it, I'm going to let it. I'm in the mood to do a little bit longer work. I'm just not sure if it's this story or not. Either way, a big chunk of February is gone already and I haven't finished any stories. I need to get jumping.

Have a good weekend.

Masked

I've gotten a good start in a dark fantasy piece that I'm temporarily calling "Masked." It's a lot of fun to write, which is why I'm working on it and not my Devil's Food story. I wasn't having a good time writing that one, so I put it on hold. I mean, if I'm not enjoying writing it, what are the odds someone will enjoy reading it? I think I just need a little more time to stew on it and get a little perspective.

In the mean time, "Masked" is a blast to write. It's got a crazy homeless guy, a reporter who's too curious for his own good, and mosquito men. Who wouldn't want to write the words "mosquito men"?

In other news, my day job is actually finally coming around to dealing with writing. I do auditing for an insurance company, mostly looking to see that customer service transactions were done correctly. For a while, that has also included compliance letters, so I've gotten to do editing along with auditing. But now I'm going to also be auditing/editing training documentation. I'll finally be using some of the skills that I've learned and practiced as part of my regular job. It's kind of weird. But I'm happy. Now if I can just find a way to parlay this into a full-time writing job, I'll be all set.

My wife's giving the boys a bath, and I just heard her say, "Don't you drink that water!" So I think it's time for me to go help.

What I'm Reading: I finally started reading Night Watch, by Sergei Lukyanenko. I'm only about 40 pages in, but I'm really enjoying the writing style and the storytelling. I don't think I've ever read a vampire book before that I liked, but I'm really enjoying this. It's a very different take on vampires. In a tough decision, I started reading this one instead of House of Leaves. I've got both out from the library right now, and this one seemed more fun to read, which I need right now.

The Day the Music Died

I don't know if anyone noticed or not, but today is the 50th anniversary of the Day the Music Died, when Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper died in a plane crash on the way to a show. It's always been a sad day for me--I'm a big Buddy Holly fan, and I'm sure that if he hadn't died, he would have become as synonymous with early rock and roll as Elvis Presley has.

So before you go to bed, listen to Don MacLean's "American Pie," a beautiful tribute to three fallen rockers.

Last Call

Yesterday I finished reading Last Call by Tim Powers, and my first reaction is sadness that I have waited until now to discover this wonderful author. This book was so much more than I expected.

The book was the winner of the World Fantasy award in 1990, but in many ways it reminded me of Stephen King's work--not in terms of style, but in content. It was as much fantasy as horror, full of magic and impending doom--Powers tells us towards the beginning of the book that a couple of characters are doomed to death. Their mission then is to try to save someone else before their own doom is at hand.

It's an exciting story with a great cast of characters. The characters really make the story--each one is distinct and individual. The story has a satisfying resolution and plays out great, full of twists and turns.

Can't think of anything bad to say about it. Go check it out.

January Redux

February already. I got my first rejection of the month this morning. No big deal, I've been expecting it for a while.

Let's see what I got done in January:
6 rejections
1 acceptance
15 submissions still out

My one acceptance was the story "The Eye of the Monster" to Cemetery Moon magazine.

I wrote one short story, "Another Hole in the Head," which as been submitted to the Triangulation anthology, and one flash fiction story, "The Burned Card," which is also out somewhere. I also wrote a handful of haiku.

I got good starts on two stories--one for the Devil's food anthology and a dark fantasy piece that I'm very excited about. I should finish both this month.

My goals for 2009 include writing one short story and one flash fiction story per month, so I reached the goal for January. One of my other goals is to work on my screenplay, Time Enough at Last, and I did some of that this month, as well. I intend to finish up another draft of it this month then get it out to a few readers to see what they think.

That's all for January. I'm about to start working on that dark fantasy piece now and see what I can get done. It's a lot of fun to write.