The Gods Hate Kansas

Finnegan’s Pig, a folk-taley kind of thing, is off to Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine.  So far, my goal of submitting one short story per week is holding out (over the course of two weeks, ha ha!).  If I am able to maintain this momentum during the fall and winter, I’m sure I won’t be able to once my work picks back up again in the spring so I’ll try to get as much written and sent out as is humanly possible over the next several weeks.

Well, it’s NaNo time again.  I think I’ll give it a whirl this year.  I tried last year but ended up getting pretty nastily sick, which put me behind by a week and with a wedding in November I couldn’t catch up.  Oh, well!  The idea I hatched for last year’s NaNo needed another year to mature anyway.  But now I’ve got a rockin’ outline for that story and I’m ready to give it another shot at coming to life.  Or perhaps I’ll work on Walk Like an Egyptian for NaNo.  I’ve got a few chapters written already but I sort of hate them passionately and would like to completely re-do them.  This would be non-cheating, I suppose.

Today is our three-year anniversary.  We’re not going to do much today, but last night we went out to dinner at Palisade.  It was great, as always.  I love Palisade.  <3

First. Submission. Ever. I’m SO EXCITED!

Okay, I do have one thing published already, but it’s a nonfiction article in a hobby manual. It was fun to write, but it’s not fiction. I loves me some fiction.

I submitted “The Conductor” (about 1550 words) to Heliotrope. We’ll see how it goes! Their response time is 30 days, so by November 22 I’ll have news, good or bad. It’s so thrilling!

WOOT!!!

We didn’t lose power for too terribly long with the wind storm that came through Thursday night.  Last winter we had an absolutely terrible one and our block was without power for three days.  It was miserable.  Kind of scary how much we take technology for granted, isn’t it?  I have a feeling that global climate change will turn Seattle into the next “Windy City.”  The wind has been outrageous the last few years.

Will and I went to Julia Sweeney’s one-woman show, “Letting Go of God,” last night as part of our anniversary celebration.  It was a really fantastic show - touching and funny at the same time.  Julia is an amazing actress - one of the best at timing and emotion that I’ve ever seen, I must say.  You wouldn’t think of her that way if your only taste of her talents comes from her many comedy gigs.  She is very funny, but wow - many times throughout the show her words and delivery gave me chills and moved me to tears.  The show was beautifully written and beautifully performed.  It was also a strange and exhilarating experience to be in a theater packed with people who mostly must have been atheists.  Sure, there were undoubtedly some who were not, but judging by the way the audience laughed at the same jokes it was clear that atheists were at least in the majority.  I’ve never been to any kind of meeting of atheists or a similar event, so knowing that I was not the despised minority in a large, full room for once filled me with warmth.  And the rest of the crowd seemed to feel the same way - everybody was smiling at each other and strangers were chatting as if they were old friends.  A very nice sense of community.

Anyhow, if you get a chance to see “Letting Go of God,” please do.  It’s beautifully affirming for atheists but also treats religion with respect and sympathy - I think that any reasonably secure religious person would thoroughly enjoy it just for the excellent writing and acting.  And Julia Sweeney is so cute.  She is in her mid-forties and is already greying, and has opted not to dye her hair to cover it up.  I thought she was just gorgeous with her cute steel-grey pixie cut.  I wanted to hug her.

So it’s about time for me to try submitting a story for publication.  We’ll see how it goes.  I made another edit to The Conductor and I think I might have cleared up all the major issues readers had with understanding the story.  I posted it on LH for critiquing and am looking forward to hearing whether I was successful in making my story clearer.  If I pulled it off, I’ll be handing it over to Will for a final read-through and then I’ll be poring over Duotrope to figure out my best bet for submissions.  This is a super exciting time!!

Next weekend I’ll be in Oregon with my friends for a model horse show.  It will be nice to go play for a while.  I’ve been pushing myself very hard to get through my commission backlog this winter, while I’ve got some down time from photography obligations, but in the process I’ve absolutely destroyed my right hand.  I flared up my radial neuritis so badly I’ve been strapped into my splints and chowing down Naproxen 24/7.   :(  Need a break!!

We got a new car last night!  We got just an unbelievable deal on it…really way too good to pass up.  It only added $60/month to our expenditures and it’s SO much safer than our last car.  It’s even slightly more fuel efficient.  We’re considering this our anniversary gift to each other.

I’ve got to get back on my writing! I’ve been so busy the last couple of days cleaning the apartment and fiddling around learning about small SUVs to buy.  :P  Now I’m shutting off the ‘puter since we’ve got a two-day windstorm coming in.  I’m going to go clean and organize my studio, then paint some model horses while I watch Star Trek.  Hopefully the power won’t go out. 

Must…take…pictures! So apparently a down side of the off season is that I don’t get to pick up my camera much. Well - I don’t HAVE to pick up my camera much. I realized this morning that I can if I want to, and I definitely want to. It’s been about 10 days since I photographed anything, and I’m getting all itchy, especially since the leaves are so stunning right now. I haven’t seen fall color this nice in the Seattle area in many, many years. I wonder what the magic equation is for awesome leaves.

I’m heading to the zoo today to spend a few hours shooting. It has a real purpose, too, beyond just being fun. I really NEED to get my butt in gear and get my notecard sets together and up on Etsy so I can make some scratch this winter. If I’m lucky I might sell a single story for less than $200.00, but otherwise I have virtually no income this winter (although I might get to shoot promotional pics for a cherry juice company! That ought to be fun! We haven’t even gotten to pay negotiations, though, so who knows if it will pan out). So notecards it is!
Then after the zoo I’ll be back to polish up The Conductor. I had my husband read it last night and I have to admit that the sincere enthusiasm in his voice when he gave me his feedback made me feel all girly and special. My heart beat a little faster to think that I can make a real impression on him. There’s nothing like impressing the guy you’ve got a crush on, is there? <3<3<3<3<3 I’m the luckiest girl in the world. My husband is the best.

Back soon with pics of animals and leaves.

Okay, so voting has happened over at LH and my story didn’t make it to Best of the Best, which is not surprising since I was up against tchernabyelo! However, during the Guessing Frenzy (the best part of flash challenges, IMO) somebody did attribute our stories to each other so that is quite a compliment!

Anyway. The story I wrote that I love so much is a little exploration of a surfer myth I learned about on NPR last Friday night. It’s about a spirit called the Conductor who controls weather and waves and just might drown you for no apparent reason. I had a lot of fun writing it and cranked it out in 50 minutes - so it will be interesting to see what it becomes with several more hours’ work. Yes, my plan is to bite the bullet and submit it to WotF. I’ve seen some urban fantasy/magical realism stuff in the most recent WotF anthologies so I think it has a chance, albeit a small one because most of the stuff I’ve read in WotF is severely awesome. I’m not sure mine is quite THAT awesome, but it hasn’t been polished yet, and anyway I tend to judge myself more harshly than anybody else does so I should stop being a wuss and just jump in with both feet. The worst thing that will happen is that Orson Scott Card will be the one who reads my story and he will send it back with a note that says THIS IS THE STUPIDEST THING I HAVE EVER READ, I AM PUKING RIGHT NOW AS I WRITE THIS NOTE. That’s the absolute worst that can happen, and that won’t happen, so I should just rock it and do it.

Today I’m heading over to my sister’s place to do some menial yarn-related labor in her yarn sweatshop. Thank god I finally bought an iPod (on my credit card - ouch. I’d better sell some stories soon so I can pay that crap off). The sounds of the 80s and also the Asian Underground will keep me company as I stuff circular-knitting needles into packages and rinse yarn all morning.

Oh, also:  planning to solidify my idea for the story I’m writing to sub to the Paper Blossoms, Sharpened Steel anthology.

After cruising through Duotrope I’ve decided that I’m going to polish up the Mystery Flash, make it a tad longer and a tad clearer, and then bite the bullet and submit it first to Writers of the Future.

Because why the hell not?  I think it kicks some ass.  Maybe they will, too.

This is a big step for me, making this decision, because even though getting even an honorable mention in WotF is a great honor, I really, really hate L. Ron Hubbard and am loathe to associate anything about myself with him.  Dude was a total wiener.  But on the other hand…Writers of the Future contest.

I wrote a flash challenge story for LH this morning.  I really dig it.  It needs a ton of work, as all flash does before it’s ready to send anywhere, but I am pretty pleased with the premise.  I used an idea I’ve had brewing ever since I listened to an interview with a writer on NPR.  This was just a few days ago, so I’m surprised that I had an opportunity to use it so quickly!

That’s all I’ll say for now, since some LH people might be reading this blog.  I don’t want to give away which story is mine before all the critiquing and voting. 

October has always been my favorite time of year.  I love the cold weather, the leaves turned but still on the trees, and most of all, Halloween.  Halloween is officially the greatest holiday ever.  I made it official because I say so.  There is nothing to not love about it.  Plus, added bonus:  It’s our wedding anniversary, because Will feels the same way about it as I do.

Now, though, with my first profitable year of my photography career coming to a close, I’ve found another reason to love October.  It’s essentially the end of the wedding season for my area.  Sure, there are always a few weddings in the fall and winter, but for the most part they’re all over the summer - especially the ones with larger budgets, since it always costs a fair chunk of change to reserve the few outdoor facilities that exist in the Puget Sound area and then to rent plenty of tents since you never know when it’s going to dump rain here.  Since I am a high-midrange photographer in terms of price, most of my work is, therefore, during the summer when the couples with cashola are getting hitched.

This week I’ve discovered how nice the end of the season can be.  I’ve done nothing but write like a madwoman for two straight days.  It feels SO GOOD.  I haven’t been able to write this prolifically since I was in high school (when I should have been doing my homework instead).  I’ve tackled a few more chapters of my novel’s rough draft and I’ll be doing a few more later this evening.  For now, I might go to the zoo with my camera for a while.  Most of the animals aren’t very interested in actually doing anything when it’s cold like this, but that might be a good thing for me and my camera.

Walk Like an Egyptian is progressing well.  I need to polish up a couple of short stories.  Last night on NPR I heard a little snippet of a conversation that inspired me to write another short story - I’ve got to research it a bit tonight, too.  A busy day ahead, but it’s all fun-busy, so I’m a happy camper.

Good news: This morning I finished another chapter in my historical fic novel. Still no title for it - I am super slow at coming up with titles. A suitable one usually doesn’t occur to me until I’m about halfway through the work, and then I end up hating that one and trying on a few dozen more before just settling on the least offensive of them all.

Right now, I’m affectionately calling my novel “Walk Like an Egyptian.” Don’t worry - that won’t be the actual title, unless I end up with an agent who is absolutely insane.

My shades arrived but alas, they are just not working. The lenses are too narrow and they let in too much light. I’m going to have to exchange them for a different set of frames. Bummer - I love the way they look on me but they just aren’t practical, especially for driving glasses! My regular, non-shade specs should be in later today, hopefully! Love those ones.

I have absolutely no “real” work to get done today, so I’m going to spend a few hours writing this morning and then move on to something completely useless and fun. Rumor has it Will and I might go to the zoo this afternoon and visit the baby tapir. We loves us some tapir babies.

Edit to add: Okay, I took the intriguing novel quiz in Aye, Aye, Skipper’s blog (linked in my blogroll, of course). My results:

You’re A Prayer for Owen Meany!
by John Irving
Despite humble and perhaps literally small beginnings, you inspire
faith in almost everyone you know. You are an agent of higher powers, and you manifest
this fact in mysterious and loud ways. A sense of destiny pervades your every waking
moment, and you prepare with great detail for destiny fulfilled. When you speak, IT
SOUNDS LIKE THIS!

Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

WHAAAAT? An agent of higher powers? Inspiring faith? I’ve seldom met a person who is more atheistic than I am. heehee! I guess the novel quiz didn’t work out for me, although it is true that when I talk IT SOUNDS LIKE THIS.