The Gods Hate Kansas

That’s right, people. While I’ve been incredibly lax in my blogging duties, much has happened in the Land of Libbie.

-My work season started up again full-force, and I have been bogged down beneath many a joyous wedding photo. It’s not as fun as it sounds. Not when it’s your job. But it still beats the hell out of working in finance. Desk-jockeying is not for me…not unless the desk happens to be sitting in my own dining room and is constantly under attack by the Invading Cat Army.

-I turned 28 years old (this past Friday.)

-My sister’s baby was born. Back in February. Did I already blog about that? I can’t remember, and I’m too lazy to look right now. Anyway, my nephew is awesome. I adore him.

-I’ve collected a couple more rejection slips for “The Conductor,” and “Finnegan’s Pig” was passed by ASIM as well, after they held it for consideration for several months.  Darn!  “The Conductor” will be slightly re-written to make the conflict stronger and more obvious, and “Finnegan’s Pig” just needs a quick going-over for minor typos before I send it off again to The Town Drunk.  Onward!

-Cooked up another nice short story that needs significant work, but has fun potential as a little fantasy piece.  It has a stupid title right now, so I’m calling it “the soap witch story” until I come up with something better.  Also started another new short story, a sci-fi thingy that I am calling “‘fucking red planets!’,” again until I can come up with a suitable title.  It also needs a lot of work, but I cooked up this really scuzzy intergalactic trader who’s a greed machine in about thirty seconds, and I just love him to bits and pieces.  Why do I love detestable characters so much?  I can’t let him go, so I’ve got to work on his story some more and send him off somewhere to see if anybody else likes him as well as I do.  I doubt they will, but it’s worth a try.

-Sent in application for Orson Scott Card’s Literary Boot Camp workshop this summer. I suppose I won’t know whether I make it until May 30th. My husband’s birthday is May 31; I think the best birthday present I can give him is to finally shut up about how nervous and/or excited I am to hear whether I have been accepted to this workshop. I’m pretty sure not a single day has gone by that I haven’t brought it up. It’s been since February. My poor, poor husband! The first page I sent in was from “Finnegan’s Pig.” I’ve been agonizing over whether I made the correct choice. uuuurrrrrgh. Hurry up and get here, May 30!

-Am up to seven really solid chapters on my extremely well outlined historical fiction novel.  I’ve started and scrapped several more chapters.  I’ve found that my usual, very “voicey” style of writing is exhausting when writing novel-length material.  I’m guessing that means it’ll also turn out to be exhausting to read, and therefore, terrible.  I’m considering doing the whole novel in a more “invisible” voice instead.  That will probably be the wisest option.  Anyway, I’m happy with the novel’s progress and still hope to have the first draft finished by June 1.  It’s going to be many times longer than seven chapters, but I think I’ve figured out why I keep getting hung up and now it should be smooth sailing.

-And coolest of all: I had a story accepted for publication! Please do the happy dance with me now. I received the acceptance back around the beginning of April. “Fire Dance,” the little flash piece I wrote for Liberty Hall’s end-of-the-year contest, was accepted at Flash Me Magazine and will be published there on April 30th. I have been over the moon ever since, and can’t wait to get my next acceptance letter. So please, everybody buy a $3.00 subscription to Flash Me (http://wingedhalo.com) on April 30th and read “Fire Dance,” along with all the other excellent stories that will be in that issue. Or better yet, buy a whole year’s worth of quarterly issues for $8.00! That’s like seventy-five cents if you’re in the EU and about a buck if you’re Canadian! What a deal!

Isn’t it great that now all the crappy exchange-rate jokes can be turned around on the U.S.A.? Take that, economy!