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Where I've Been

  • May. 29th, 2009 at 2:15 AM

Just thought I'd drop a post to let everyone know I'm still alive. Vanny (my wife) decided to open a tea shop, so I've been giving her a hand. I had no idea what I was getting myself into! We've barely had time to breathe and every spare moment is devoted to sleep. Needless to say I haven't had time to blog much. I have been trying to drop in on the RA Log, but I'm afraid I have completely lost track of my F-List posts. Let me know of I missed some big news. Hopefully the dust will settle and I'll be back to my writing/blogging routine soon. I miss you guys! Promise I'll have tea shop pics and virtual tea on the house in the near future.

Apex on hiatus for now

  • Apr. 30th, 2009 at 11:11 AM


http://www.apexbookcompany.com/news/2009/04/apex-magazine-goes-on-hiatus/

Because the economy needs a break, I'm going to blame it on H1N1... Seriously though, very sad. They're one of the three markets I set a goal to crack this year and I rather enjoyed reading the stories online (actually my first time to read Apex was their last print double issue, which had a bunch of amazing stories in it). Hopefully, they'll be back soon. *sigh*

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Writers write and numerology?

  • Apr. 16th, 2009 at 12:17 PM

Just a little reminder to myself. Time to get back to work. I have 3 or 4 stories that have been in the percolator for way too long and really need to be written. So I'm going to get those done. One of them will be my next WOTF entry and there's no doubt that it'll have to be all kinds of awesome to stand a chance. Also have three ghost stories nearing completion. Over the last couple days I've managed to get 2 more stories back out into the wilderness, bringing my total back up to 11 (if you count the 3 Heinlein entries and a poem. The poem's been out for a while and to tell you the truth I'm a little worried I may have killed the slush reader... ya'll know my Vogon skills). 3 more are ready for the post office, and one is almost ready to send out to Apex. Should be back up to 15 soon, not too shabby me thinks. Also noticed today that both my sales for this year were sent on January 31st (weird right?). Too bad I only sent two on that day....... Next year I'll have to send like 10.  I'm starting to believe in all this numerology stuff. Maybe I should go consult a Chinese fortune teller before I send out submissions.

I don't know if I shared this before, but I did actually go to see a fortune teller to choose an auspicious wedding date. Of course they go completely by Lunar calendar so he had no idea the implication when he chose 9/11 as the perfect luckiest day for us to get married. Of course there was no way I was going to go with that. Luckily, he gave us a second choice (10/5).

 


Because I think it's cruel to keep people in suspense and because according to the cat meme I'm capable of inflicting terrible harm on people, I'm gonna keep the pro-sale news for last. Muhaha!

Read more... )

What Big Cat Are You?

  • Apr. 10th, 2009 at 9:44 PM



You Are a Cougar
You have more strength than most people, and with it, the ability to inflict a lot of harm.
Your power gives you confidence, and you find leading others to be easy.

You believe that you need to the best, and you are very driven to excel.
Most people immediately admire you, but some people feel very envious of your abilities.

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Novel #4?

  • Apr. 3rd, 2009 at 2:54 AM

Well, they say writers should read. And that's what I've been doing. I'll admit to not being as avid a reader as many of the people I see around this LJ world. I think a book a month is about my current rate. Anyway as I mentioned earlier I've been reading Angela Carter's Nights at the Circus and really enjoying it. Well guess what? What they say is true. Today an idea hit me. A novel idea. I can always tell these when I get them, and this is definitely one based on the scope of the story (could never ever ever be a short). Best part about it is that it wasn't just a concept idea, but a zillion ideas coming at me all at once for different sections of the book. I took about 6 pages of notes and have even mapped out chapters 1-7 (Part One). Of course there's still a lot to do, but it certainly is a start. Only problem is technically I'm still working on Novel #3 (well, it's been on hiatus for a while but still). I think I'll put that one aside for now and move right onto this novel instead or at least try to get my outline built. I'm not really sure if I'm an outliner or a pantser yet. My first novel was definitely write what comes to mind, but the second novel was a bit more outlined with a lot of write what comes to mind in between. I'm gonna try more outline on this one. I guess by my seventh or eigth novel I'll start to find my groove. 

Besides that I've been playing Command and Conquer Generals. Fun game. Nothing like the senseless blowing up of things to take ones mind off writing. Not online though. Whenever I play these kinda games online I manage to get annihilated within 30 seconds which is a good indication I should probably stick to writing.

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Random Thought for the Day

  • Mar. 29th, 2009 at 7:12 PM

Cutting a 6,000-word piece to 4,000 is mental torture...
Didn't the Viet Cong do this kind of stuff to the American POWs?

On Novel Suckage

  • Mar. 23rd, 2009 at 11:51 PM

I finished my second novel in February last year. And I'm finally getting around to editing it now. Do I regret the long wait? Not really. I'm amazed at the amount of suckage I'm finding in here. Stuff I probably wouldn't have found if I had gone and edited it right off the bat. To be honest it's not really suckage so much as missed humor or stuff that maybe is funny, but is really not necessary and totally not working towards advancing the plot (running off on dialog tangents). This also means I'll probably be able to cut the total word count substantially which is good because at 100,000 it's a littlIe over big for YA. So anyway glad that I'm able to catch all this stuff even if it is a year later.

In other writing news I re-edited that asian ghost story I did the other day (transferred it from longhand to Word). I really like the rhythm I have going in this story. I think with some more tinkering it will be good to go. Clocking in at 2,500 words. Always good to be under 4,000 because then you can send it pretty much anywhere. And I do like to give Clarkesworld and Chizine a try.


I'm now reading Angela Carter's Nights at the Circus. I had tried this novel a couple times, but before now had always put it down. The first chapter is really hard to get into, but once you get into Chapter Two it's a lot of fun. I suspect this is true to Murakami's Kafka on the Shore (a book I know I'm gonna love, but have been unable to get into thus far, guess I just need the right mood).

In the case of Nights at the Circus if I hadn't read Carter's other novel The Infernal Desire Machines of Dr.Hoffman and totally loved it, I probably wouldn't have had the patience to get into this one. But I have a feeling it's going to be really good as well. Also read The Haunting of Hill House last week. Really great classic ghost story and very easy read. There's a lot to be learned from that novel in terms of pacing, balancing between light and creepy, character development, and atmosphere. Suggested for people who are into horror/ghost stories (or into writing them) and please don't watch the movie, *shudders*.

What I've been up to

  • Mar. 20th, 2009 at 10:25 PM

Haven't posted in a while so thought I'd make my grand return to the LJ world. Been posting on other blogs moderately, but even cut down on that quite a bit the last couple weeks. Don't worry it's not 'cuz I hate any of ya'll, just been trying to spend less time online and more time producing writing and also getting some editing done. Still working on the revisions to my second novel. I've set a goal of 30 pages per day and put it on a post it on my laptop. Which of course means I spend most of the day trying to ignore it... Seriously, though hope to be done soon.

Today I wrote a complete short story, I'm guessing about 2000-3000 words (I did it long hand so not 100% sure). I decided to use my living in Taiwan advantage and go with an asian ghost theme. The setting is right here in my city, Tainan. A lot easier to describe a place when you drive around it every day. I think it came out pretty well, but needs much tinkering before it will be ready to be send out into the world. Edmund Elf went out for the first time yesterday, thanks to all those who gave it a look. I'll give ya'll a more personalized thank you if it sells. In other submission news I've been having nicer more personalized rejections, but no new sales lately. Here's hoping another comes soon.

Oh yeah and one more thing. Internet has been going at a snail's pace lately. Well turns out, I've been getting robbed. Last time I set up the wireless router I forgot to put the security lock on it. Well, couldn't take the slowness anymore and when I logged in to the router today I found there were two other computers hogging all my bandwidth!!! No wonder it was taking like 5 minutes to load my friends pages... Duh! Gotta love your neighbors! :-)

Marshall Payne's Birthday

  • Mar. 17th, 2009 at 1:21 PM



Because I promised Marshall a Marilyn Monroe baseball card a while back and what better time to give it to him than on his birthday. Happy Birthday Marshall!

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Back at Novel #2

  • Mar. 3rd, 2009 at 8:10 PM

I consider three LJ friends signing with agents as a kick in the butt for me. So as of today I'm going to spend more time whipping that second novel into shape (It's a YA Humorous Fantasy). Doesn't mean I'll be giving up on short stories, but I want to divide my time a little more between the two. I need to make sure it's really ready before dedicating myself to the query process again. It took me about a year to get back to it which is kinda sad, but says a lot about my will to edit stuff. On the other hand I think the timeout will make it easier to see the problems (plus I wish to think my writing has improved in that time...).

Anyway, wish me luck! I hope to be finished many of the revisions by the end of the month. Currently it's at around 100,000 but I'm looking to bring it down to the 80,000-90,000 range. And good luck to all of you currently working on novels. That's just about all of you, isn't it?

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The Little Things

  • Feb. 26th, 2009 at 9:58 PM




After putting up the anxiety post a couple days ago I got a flurry of rejections. See that's what happens! I'm going to share my super expert advice here and tell you all, never complain about lack of responses... Anyway, so I came home that day and I found that my wife Vanny had printed and pasted a miniture of the Northern Haunts cover onto my laptop next to the keyboard. So now every time I open a rejection I can look at it. Isn't that sweet! Okay now that you guys feel all warm and mushy and are probably rolling your eyes, I'll try to come back with a hard-core horror post next time to make up for this.

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Good news for Shroud!

  • Feb. 25th, 2009 at 1:48 PM

Looks like Shroud's arrangement with Ingram just went through, so they'll be seeing a big boost in distribution. Great news for the mag and editor Tim Deal. I received my first acceptance for their anthology Northern Haunts (which should be here any second *bites fingernails*), so really happy to hear this good news! Here's the announcement:

http://shroudpublishing.blogspot.com/2009/02/shroud-conquers-north-america-join-us.html

They have a promotion going for taking out advertisements (looking to raise funding), so if any of you are interested in promoting your work, magazine, etc. etc. it could be worth your while. I believe it is 30$ for a quarter page. If I had a book out I'd go for it, but as it is I could only publish a pretty picture of myself. :-)

On Writerly Anxiety

  • Feb. 24th, 2009 at 10:09 PM


I don't know about you guys but I've been feeling some serious waiting-for-response anxiety these days. Been clicking the inbox a little too often, not to mention browsing the Duotrope Recent page (which if you haven't discovered please please please don't look for it, for your own sanity's sake). How utterly useless is this behavior? Not only that, but I'm pretty sure it is borderline neurotic. I'm no psychologist... but you know I have a pretty good eye for craziness. Anyway, since I put so much effort into checking my inbox today I thought I should at least share it with someone. So here you go dear LJ list. My amazing anxiety inducing day of email.

email #1: Chinese (probably junk mail) --> Trashed!
email #2: Penis Enlargement --> Hmmm, Trashed!
email #3: Bitpipe --> God, when did I sign up for that newsletter, Trashed!
email #4: Penis Enlargement --> Not so hmmm, Trashed!
email #5: matociquala received a virtual gift--> Jeez, I wish someone would send me one of those (wink! wink!), Trashed!

PS: Just joking on the virtual gift. I didn't realize these actually cost money! That's madness!

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Lanterns, Lady Luck and a Sale!

  • Feb. 10th, 2009 at 1:18 AM


When discussing Psychotic Persistence over on [info]marshall_payne's blog the other day, Marshall mentioned something about Lady Luck (ie submitting to the right place at the right time). I certainly agree with this playing a certain part as well, so I figured, it being Lantern Festival over here in Taiwan, I'd give Lady Luck a little nudge. So on Sunday I joined my wife, bro-in-law, and his friends to send off a sky lantern. Basically what you do is write your wishes on the side of the lantern, light a fire up under it, and watch it take to the sky.

Today an acceptance from Necrotic Tissue!

Just sayin'... Ya'll might want to run out and get yourself a sky lantern or two. (God I hope my advice doesn't start any forest fires!) The sale is for my dark humor piece (my first humor sale) "How to Make a Brain Souffle" and will be appearing in the July 2009 issue. Really happy to find a home for it. I was losing hope in funny genre fiction... I believe I'll be sharing a TOC once again with [info]catephoenix. Yay!

Special thanks to [info]jerrygordonfor taking a look at it last year. It since got extended by about a thousand words or so, but he helped me out in telling me what was working humor-wise and in pulling out the eye-rolling jokes. Muchos Gracias, Jerry!

More pics after the cut... )

A Letter to Myself

  • Feb. 5th, 2009 at 4:11 PM

Dear Justin,

You know you got 5 stories pretty much ready to send out and you even have the markets picked out. What the hell are you waiting for? You sure as heck ain't getting any younger... Remember when you said you'd be a rich novelist by 25? Uh-huh, didn't happen did it? You really oughtta finish off those final edits and send them out, because if you don't... if you don't... well... I'll be forced to be unreasonable, and when I'm unreasonable I do crazy things like put up posts with all kinds of nasty stuff about how you'll never make it as a writer. So stop procrastinating and get on it buddy!

Sincerely Yours,

Your Conscience

---------------------------------------- 

Psychotic persistence, I got it! :-)

Teaching a Pink Elephant to Ski

  • Feb. 2nd, 2009 at 11:55 PM


Hey all. Friend Rochita ([info]rcloenen_ruiz</lj> ) has a story up at Fantasy called "Teaching a Pink Elephant to Ski". It's a fun piece and it's free. Rochita's a heck of a writer (and she writes some excellent dark fiction too) so check it out if you got the time and I think you can drop comments at Fantasy as well.

http://www.darkfantasy.org/fantasy/?p=1491

oh PS the pic is of water skiing and it's not pink, sorry it's all google image could do for me. :-0

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Writing Deterrents

  • Jan. 30th, 2009 at 1:50 AM

If you think LJ is a horrible drain of your writing time, I just started a 2000 piece puzzle. Not recommended! As you can see by my posting here, I've almost given up already after a few hours. With the complete lack of color variation and easy areas, I figure it'll probably be easier to make the New York Times Best Seller List. God, I wonder how people do the 8,000 or 10,000 ones.... I feel completely overwhelmed! And all because I want to frame the sucker...

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Realms of Fantasy

  • Jan. 29th, 2009 at 1:28 AM


I'm a little late (as usual), but man how hard does the ROF news suck. It was by far the nicest looking mag around, not to mention there was a bunch of lj friends with stories coming up. It's a market I never tried (I guess I was slowly working my way up to it) and was about to send one off after the Chinese New Year for the halloween issue. Sad, sad, day.

Big condolences to [info]aliettedb  ,[info]tlmorganfield , [info]ckastensI can't even begin to imagine how saddening this news must have been for you.

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