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Thanks to our good friends at Random.org, Alan W. Davidson has won the grand prize in the Very Loathsome Contest ($25 bucks to spend at an online bookstore of his choice, Heart of Darkness, and Robert Frost's poems) and Gef Fox has landed second prize (Heart of Darkness and a copy of 52 Stitches 2010). I'll be in touch soon, gentlemen. And as a big thank your to anyone who played along, I'll send those singed bookmarks soon (I just placed the order yesterday). If you entered the contest and I don't have your mailing address, please drop me a line at aaron.polson(at)gmail.com.
Wait...did the Canadians just sweep the prizes? I think they did. I'll post rules for another opportunity to line your pockets with cash next week. Until then, thanks for playing along and getting the word out about Loathsome, Dark and Deep.
Speaking of winners, Erin Cole is a big winner with her Holiday Book Blog Catalog. Check it out and support some small press folks. I'm thinking about putting one together...suggestions from the cryptkeeper and all that. Extra signal boost never hurts a small press author (or any author). The time frame is short as I'll post my holiday buying suggestions on Monday, December 6th. (I don't have a snappy name yet) Interested? Drop an email to aaron.polson(at)gmail.com with a cover art jpg, blurb, and buying info. Deadline is Friday, December 3rd.
Yes, and I have a real WIP, too. I hope to wrap up How We Die in a Hungry Town by the end of December. Astute visitors will note the title is a wee bit longer now.
Just a little way to the river. A short drop.
[Mike] climbed on the edge of the railing. His sister smiled in the darkness and held out her hand.
“It’s easy,” she said. “Just a little jump and we’re both free.”
“Free?”
“Out of here at least.” She smiled.
Did I mention Mike's sister is dead?
10 Comments on WIP Wednesday: Winning and Winners, last added: 12/2/2010
Dang foreigners coming here to take our jobs . . . and our prizes. Congratulations to them, and congratulations to you on publication, Aaron. Most sincere best of luck!
Thank you sir! With my winning this and that copy of 'The Devil's Food' back in the summer, folks are going to think that you have a soft spot for Canadians.
But its not because of my WIP. I'm sure I'll have something to say tomorrow. I'm trying to temper my words.
Thanks to everyone who has tweeted, retweeted, blogged, etc. about the Loathsome, Dark and Deep contest. Remember, you have until November 30th to enter.
My WIP, now titled In a Hungry Town, is now at a whopping 12K. Limping along happily, though:
Even the children die in a hungry town.
Some, like Johnny Foster who died because of complications related to a brain tumor at age seven, were tragedies.Unfair, the people say.Unfair.Poor Johnny faded before us, thin and skeletal by the end with only a thin coat of flesh-tone plastic covering his bones.His picture haunted the local paper, a black and white specter of a boy, for more than a year.Funds were collected at local businesses, tin cans with Johnny’s photocopied face pasted on the side. Help with Johnny’s medical bills scribbled in black marker below the picture.The elementary principal let school out on the day of Johnny’s funeral.Tragic.
The town labeled other deaths as divine judgment, like when Casey Hoffman and Julie Tanner died on the way to prom.Alcohol, the rumors circulated.They’d both been drinking that night.Too much alcohol and reckless driving.Thank God they didn’t hurt anyone else.Seventeen years old, Casey and Julie were guilty and received their sentence.Whispers circulated in the church basement at Casey’s funeral.Julie’s parents held a private affair with only family and close friends, erecting a wall to keep the cold sneers away.
There were others, like Gwen Stebbins, whom the town ignored.Even a hungry town doesn’t know what to do with poisons which rot a beautiful girl’s mind, convincing her to starve herself until her walking skeleton collapses on the hard tile of the lunchroom floor.Doctors at Spring County Memorial jabbed clear tubes into poor Gwen’s veins, trying to pump nutrients into a body already starved to living death.
There were plenty of deaths, small deaths and large deaths.A car hopped a curb and crushed a little girl while she walked home from school.One boy shot a friend while hunting, tearing open his friend’s chest with a handful of shot, crying with clenched fists while his buddy bled out on the cold November ground.The football team’s only all-league linebacker hanged himself from the rafters of an abandoned farmhouse only two-hundred yards from the pond which supposedly claimed another life fifty years earlier.<
10 Comments on WIP Wednesday: Brow Furrowed in Confusion, last added: 11/18/2010
I too want to read this one NOW. "If you listened carefully, especially on cold nights, you could almost hear the crack of the ice and squeak of knotted rope pulled against the rotten beam." Wow.
Megan eyed me in study hall. She kept eying me, sneaking glances when I was hunkered over my sketchbook. My doodles grew eyes and arms, reaching out of the paper, grasping for dry land. Sanctuary. Megan’s eyes were black ash.
“Did you know this guy they found in the river?” she asked.
I looked at Stienz. His head was bent toward a book.
“No,” I lied.
“It’s awful sad. Does stuff like this happen often around here?” she asked.
My tongue was a stone, heavy and stubborn. “No,” I lied again.
8 Comments on WIP Wednesday: Sharp Edges, last added: 11/10/2010
That cover keeps popping up everywhere today and I am getting more and more jealous with ever instance. Absolutely gorgeous. Congrats, Aaron. Oh and I love the teaser.
Congrats, man. I sent them my doppelganger tale this past weekend. If they accept it, I may have to decline. It'll be contingent on the coolness factor of their next cover!
Sometimes, I make up silly stories and they just don't "work". For some reason, the oddments and bits don't gel; they don't come together and construct a cohesive whole. When it does work, it borders on magic. Writers--especially those who write speculative fiction--know the feeling.
Sometimes, I wait until I arrive at school to check my email inbox.
Today, I received an acceptance from Shimmer for my short story, "The House was Never a Castle".
Today, I nearly had a heart attack in my classroom. Thank goodness school had yet to start.
I've lost track of my submissions to Shimmer. I'm sure the total is embarrassingly high. I'm not the sort who cranks a home run on his first at bat. Maybe better that I'm not. But today I feel like words can work magic.
*So, yeah, I have this work in progress on a short piece involving a barge on the Congo River, an almost man who eats beetles, and a monster in the water...just sayin' since it's technically WIP Wednesday.
20 Comments on WIP Wednesday: On Magic, last added: 9/8/2010
Congrats!! I've also had work rejected by Shimmer, and the warmest response I received said my story was "long-winded", but they liked the "amiable voice", "subject matter", and "fun idea". So close, yet so far.
Anyhow, yours is the kind of email a teacher doesn't mind waiting for him in the morning!
That's fantastic! Congratulations!! Wow! The closest I came to a Shimmer acceptance was note from the slush reader that she liked the story and would pass it along to the acquiring editor, but that he/she would probably not like it. Which was the case.
I'm glad you didn't actually have a heart attack in the classroom. :)
The pseudo-horror, magically real (I hope), The Things They Carried inspired WIP has a working title. I'm not sure mentioned it before, but for the record I'm calling it We're All Liars Here. Until I can work "Saints" into the title, that is...
As I finish stories, I'm going to try and sell a few individually. Some won't work out of context of the book, but others should fare just fine.
So far, I've written part (or all) of the following (about 20K):
"We're All Liars Here" "The Second Death of Elroy Jantz" "BJ is Seventeen" "Mutiny" "The First Girl I Loved" "The Ground Plan of Hell"
And I'm having a helluva good time along the way. I hope to share the journey in its entirety someday, but for now...
Tony Manning was a liar. He usually lied about little things, like when he stole beer from his father on the night Bobby killed Elroy Jantz. Tony lied so well his old man never imagined a single can went missing. The big lies he reserved for special occasions, but all of them--big or small--came from his lips with a silver of magic.
How's your WIP coming along?
10 Comments on WIP Wednesday: Like a Dog, last added: 8/26/2010
I have to admit, "Mutiny" and "The Ground Plan of Hell" were lifted from a Birthday Party song (Nick Cave's band before the Bad Seeds). The song title, "Mutiny in Heaven", is just too good.
Great idea to sell the stories as stand-alones. Stephen V. Ramey is doing the same thing, and so far he's had good luck with it: one's at Everyday Weirdness and another is at Short-Story.Me! I'm attempting something similar with four stories revolving around the same character/storyline. A couple short-lists from two editors, but no takers yet...
Oooh, nice! Rather enjoyed that snippet, I must say. The list of titles makes me think this is something I need, as well, in particular the overarching "We're All Liars Here".
I mean, we are, aren't we?
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Yes, the first day of school. I have plenty of WIP action on a little something I'm calling We're All Liars Here, but today it's all business. At least until 1 PM (early release). Pray my voice holds out that long.
I'll post some snippets later. Right now, I need to brace for the third wave.
Yes, you read that correctly. Today I take back the Man Cave.
Maybe I'll do some writing later. In the Man Cave. Ah, that's the stuff.
One of my favorite books--top five (seriously)--is Tim O'Brien'sThe Things They Carried. If you're familiar, skip ahead. If not, well, it's a collection of stories (sort of) and a novel (sort of). O'Brien served in the military during that awful tragedy in Vietnam, and The Things They Carried follows a platoon through combat, coming home, and even fictional Tim's experience before the war. Or is it fictional Tim? Are the members of the platoon fictional? Just how much of this book is true, how much is made up?
Damn, it's a good book when it has you asking those kind of questions.
My last visit home really inspired me. You've seen the pictures. I've had this seed of an idea to write a novel/collection (kindasorta experimental) with my hometown as the base. Yes, it would be horror-esque. More dark fantasy and magical realism, I think. Yes, I would break a few narrative conventions, alaThe Things They Carried. Visiting home again, I just knew this was the right thing to do. Maybe a little too ambitious for a writer of my skill, but hell. I'd rather try to climb a mountain than roll down a hill.
It's been brewing for a while. I better just write it, huh? In fact I've already started:
Elroy Jantz’s first death was an accident.
13 Comments on WIP Wednesday: Taking Back the Man Cave, last added: 8/14/2010
Yes, get back to the writing. :-D Write whatever you want--no matter how ambitious you think it is. I have a friend who was just recently a high school English teacher and signed with a great agent and received a major deal for her YA trilogy. ;-)
<3 for that first line. Also, how on earth would we ever get MORE skill if we kept doing the same crap over and over. I think you'll surprise yourself :D
I've almost hit my stride with Fred. Having left the book at 90 words last Wednesday, I'm now at a whopping 4,578... Erm.
Maybe we should fast forward to next Wednesday.
Lily's favourite line of the week: "But even if I wasn't, you'd still be as hairy as an afghan hound wearing a wig."
Resemblance to original script: 40%
Now we'll interrupt our normal schedule to encourage you to go wish Mercedes M Yardley and Marshall Payne hearty congratulations. They've both snagged agents because they're both rather wonderful.
Enjoy the picture :D
5 Comments on WIP Wednesday: The Return of Fred, last added: 7/29/2010
If you haven't noticed, I've been a piss-poor citizen of the online community this summer. Not only has my posting frequency fallen into the proverbial toilet, I haven't made "commenting rounds" enough. I feel disconnected. Disillusioned with writing, too, but that's another story.
I'll try to be a better citizen. Promise. Just like I promise to write more.
Right after we get back from Chicago. We're taking Owen and Max to Chi-town on Thursday, their first "big city" trip (I don't count St. Louis because, well, family lives there). It will also mark Owen's first trip on a plane. Max flew with Aimee when he was like...five months old.
So fun. Exciting. Maybe a little nerve-wracking.
Maybe I can dredge some story ideas from the chilly depths of Lake Michigan. Maybe something prehistoric-looking in the tank at Shedd Aquarium will swim to the edge of the glass and make eye contact with me, sparking ancient memories in my brain. Maybe we'll lose our luggage.
Only time will tell.
"See" you next week.
15 Comments on WIP Wednesday: Trying to be a Better Citizen, last added: 7/16/2010
Have a blast and get online and order a CityPass. It will save you a bunch of money if you are planning on seeing a lot of the sights around the city. My kids really like the Field Museum this summer, although they are still talking about the Aquarium as well.
I’m with you on feeling disconnected – I think I’m managing my distractions a little too well at the minute… and still not getting enough writing done.
Never fear - there’s always a good story in lost luggage.
I think a lot of us feel the same way at the moment. We're smack dab in the middle of summer and I don't know about you, but my schedule has been thrown off. Enjoy your vacation and remember that we'll all be here when you get back.
I think a lot of us feel the same way at the moment. We're smack dab in the middle of summer and I don't know about you, but my schedule has been thrown off. Enjoy your vacation and remember that we'll all be here when you get back.
Enjoy the trip. Hope it recharges the batteries. When you're running low you don't feel creative or want to read blogs and comment - that's perfectly understandable. I get the same way myself.
Just read your piece "Dancing Lessons" in Basement Stories. Very nice. Terse prose and a wired tension in it. I don't had out praise easily, but I was quite impressed with it.
Looking at your blogger profile I remembered a storySouth piece from last year you wrote. Great magazine.
Good luck with the ideas Aaron and don't beat yourself up too much about the non blogging/commenting thing. I think we're all having RL summer vacation bloggy breaks. It happens something and we just have to ride it out and know that everything will be good on the other side :D
Okay, so "The End" felt pretty good when I finished my books. "The End" felt pretty good when I knocked out a few stories I liked. But I've been on a three-week hiatus from finishing anything, and when I put the last period down on "Manning Up", it felt like a major victory. Yes, it's only a piece of flash fiction (850 words). But I wrote it, damnit. From start to finish. Whew.
Evan was Evan. Big E. The kid who took every dare and peeked around every corner without thought to what might be snarling around the other side. He started small: a fingernail. Eyes closed. A grunt.
I'll just let you use your imagination as to what the dare involved. I started the summer so well...then WHAM! the slacker in me found a way to bubble to the surface. How goes your writing this summer, InterwebTM friends? (or winter for those of you in the southern hemisphere)
14 Comments on WIP Wednesday: "The End" Never Felt So Good, last added: 7/8/2010
It hasn't been as productive as I would like but I have managed to knock out a couple of thousand words a week since school got out. Now, I had better get on that before I make a liar of myself. :)
Sometimes finishing up a story is just the motivation you need to keep on going.
My summer writing has been okay. Up till May I had been writing one short per month. My newest I didn't finish till the end of June, so that was a two month story. And now I'm attempting to start a new novel. About 1,500 words in.
I seem to keep churning out great short stories, yet they are only fueling my procrastination to complete the first draft of my second novel. I trust that once I really congeal the plot together on my ms, I'll get that churned out too. *crosses fingers*
I enjoy reading your stuff, Aaron. Manning Up sounds like a good, old 'childhood horror' tale. Good luck on the rest of summer - a season of distractions for sure.
Congrats on the 'the end.' I haven't seen one of those in a long, long time. I'd raise my hand to indicate I'm a slacker, but raising my hand would require effort.
I've been decidedly absent from the web the last week or so. I've been absent from writing, too.
I started June like a madman, and now I've hit the wall. The summer vacation wall. The "why-the-hell-am-I-more-busy-when-I'm-not-working" wall.
The only thing I've touched (writing-wise) in the last five days is a revision/rewrite of a piece I'm hoping makes it. Maybe I've just jinxed myself. Maybe not.
As I often do after writing a longer piece (this time, Borrowed Saints), I've attacked short story mode with a kind of rabid fervor. I now have five (well, almost five) competed first (or second) drafts in need of revisions...some major, some minor. I also need to put the finishing polish on that 15K novella.
I usually like revising, but the ideas just keep coming of late, and I don't want to slow down. I'm also trying to let my stories sit longer. I want them to be masterpieces. I want their wings to be firm and sure when I push them out of the nest.
I promise I'll revise once I finish my current story. Promise.*
From "The First Girl I Ever Loved":
The town is dying, but I’m compelled to drive every street, revisit every corner on which I shared history with Megan. Share history with Megan. The same old men sit in overstuffed chairs in the first floor reading room of the local library. The building is the same, I’m sure, but smaller. Perhaps, like the old men, the building has withered with age. They turn their bulbous, shiny eyes toward me, and their mouths open, stretching the slick, rubbery skin of their lips. Each holds up a braid of Megan’s hair as I pass through. They all have one, and use the strands as placeholders in their books. She kissed me for the first time—the only time—while we studied for a physics exam on the second floor, and I can still smell her under the spoil of old skin and moldy books. I enter through the back of the library and leave through the front, hesitating only to raise a hand in greeting to the old men.
Notice the odd tense shift in the passage? I'm playing with reality here, and this is only a tiny taste. I hope it works because I have big dreams for this one. Honesty is coming easier these days...just not revising.
*note the author crosses his fingers as he types this, which makes it damn hard to type
10 Comments on WIP Wednesday: Oh, Revisions, Where Art Thou?, last added: 6/10/2010
I like your reference to writes gaining strength in their wings before you push them from the nest - lovely; they'll either soar, coast, or, hopefully not flop!
Interesting. I think I see where you're going with this. Braids of hair as bookmarks. I guess it's better than a piece of flesh.
If you manage to find the revision bug, could you please send it my way. I'm willing to deal with the itchy rash as long as I can get through a few rounds of edits.
Revising requires nearly as much inspiration as writing sometimes. I don't know, in my experience, the longer I'm able to keep away from revisions, the better I feel about them in the end. Of course there's a point after which it actually becomes a BAD idea to wait any longer...
But it's far away.
Loved the little taste of it. The style is complex, but in an unpretentious way that's awesome for readability. Looking forward to hearing more about that one.
I hadn't noticed the tense shift until you mentioned it. Upon re-reading the passage I discovered it. That works well for memories and it's not intrusive or distracting.
I'm really curious about the braid of hair being used as bookmarks by the old men...
I didn't notice the tense change either until I went back and reread. It does help give the passage a dreamy, shifting feel without being in-your-face about it. Nice. :)
I put the lid on a short story yesterday which, among other things, involved a girl watching her father crush an old man's throat with his booted foot. Needless to say, the father didn't know his daughter was watching. Yes, it was rather a dark little tale.
Currently, I'm revising my not-so-top-secret novella, and I've decided I need more fistfights. At least one more, to get the action rolling.
Maybe the hint of one is enough:
“Amanda.” The woman’s blue eyes burned into Isherwood’s gaze. She had a fire inside, blue like ice but sharp as a barber’s razor—he could see the cutting blade in that glare. “Amanda Reaver.”
Lawton pulled on his chin. “Jesus. You’re Reaver’s—”
“Daughter. Yes.”
“And he’s in the stockade for—”
“Decking me in public?” She pointed to her bruised eye. “That’d be the one.”
Nobody ever said Abraham Reaver was a nice man.
11 Comments on WIP Wednesday: More Fistfights, Please, last added: 5/27/2010
For the record, I have given 'em both barrels once. One of my long-time buddies has a double-barrel, Granny Clampett style 20 gauge shotgun with dual triggers. Even though it was a 20 gauge (a smaller shell), the damn thing nearly tore my arm off at the shoulder.
This:
Is not a shotgun. It's a Sharps Model 1874 "buffalo" rifle. The caliber on this bad boy starts at .40 (which means the barrel opening is 4/10ths of an inch in diameter and, by extension, the size of the cartridge used in the gun) with many models in the .45-.50 range. Cartridges (the bullet, gunpowder, and primer all packed inside a metal case) were around four inches in length. That's a sizable weapon, folks.
And you needed one to take down this (if you were a buffalo hunter in the late 1800s):
Yes, the American Bison (the state animal of Kansas). Too bad the undead versions don't go down with a single head shot.
And that's all you need to know about my WIP. Have a good one.
20 Comments on WIP Wednesday: Guns and Ammo Edition, last added: 5/21/2010
Hmm... I need to learn more about guns. Thanks for the reminder Aaron. Though I'm pretty sure you're not allowed to shoot the buffalo anymore. Zombie ones would get different precedence in my book... :D
Hinny - Unfortunately, there are some private farms which allow you to shoot their stock of buffalo. I'm not sure what the draw is...killing a herd animal who spends most of its time grazing in an open field... Other than National Parks, I'm not sure there are too many buffalo left which aren't raised on private land. A real tragedy.
We have a few farms here that have Bison locally. Some just for the oh that's cool factor. Others for the meat. It is much more lean and better for you than beef and has a wonderful flavor. They do treat their animal well, large fields, fresh water and special grain (not much).
As to guns, when I need to know about them I ask B (bf) he and his dad do a lot with them include making ammunition, reloads, some restoration and other things. They know this stuff off the tops of their heads. :D
It's so sad how the numbers are dwindling. I think buffalo are beautiful. I know that sounds stupid, but I think of them as "royal cattle". Rub off from my late father.
But... if they're undead, I say shoot 'em all. In the WiP, of course.
The only thing that would be better than a zombie bison would be a zombie shark. A zombie shark that can walk on land and breathe air. A zombie shark that can also fly and can see through walls. Okay, I guess what I'm saying is that if Superman were to turn into a shark and then a zombie, that would be better than zombie bison. How's that for particular?
I'm chugging away on a "secret project" involving a man who wears his dead wife's teeth as a necklace. Don't worry--he didn't kill her. More later. Promise.
The second is a short story (on which I should slap "The End" today) called "Crushing on Mr. Nose":
Before first hour on the second day of school, Mr. Lutz picked his nose in the darkened office at the back of the classroom. Mandi Ferris and Libby Jenkins watched the whole, ugly affair. A new teacher at South, Lutz wore an ill-fitting button-down shirt—which did not flatter his bulging midsection—and brown plastic rimmed glasses which Mandi was sure, absolutely positive, her grandfather had donated in the cardboard box marked “charity” at the optometrist’s office. Lutz’s skin rivaled a potato worm in paleness—white and soft looking like the underbelly of a catfish Libby’s uncle made her touch during a camping trip when she was five. Her uncle was a freak that way.
Mr. Lutz was a freak in a different way.
“The worst part, absolute worst,” Libby said, scowling as though she’d eaten a fistful of raw lemon grass, “Is that the weird bastard lives across the alley from me.”
Mandi’s pug nose wrinkled. “Oh. My God. He’s probably some kind of perv. Probably watches you in the shower. Lutz butts. Let’s call him Mr. Nose.”
Try to get that image out of your head, eh? Libby certainly can't. (She even starts to scribble "Libby Lutz" in the margins of her notebook...WTF, right?)
10 Comments on WIP Wednesday: Secrets and Scares, last added: 5/13/2010
Argh! Just heading out of my edit cave and your words make me want to crawl back and fix, fix, fix. So much beautiful (erm...) imagery in such a small space.
I typed the pretty words The End on Grim Glass Vein at the weekend and came to the conclusion, I'm a liar. It's not the end at all. It's never the end. In fact, I'm back at the beginning and boy this red pen is brutal. I swear, my manuscript is going to pay me back with several hundred paper cuts. Though I have to say...
I'm loving editing it. I'm averaging about a page an hour (seriously agonising over every word, in fact every character in every word), but that should speed up in about 15 pages. When I'm done, I'm going to give it another pass and see how I feel about it.
Gnaws fingernails.
On Sunday/Monday, I worked on the synopsis. I scribbled a few sentences about each paragraph and then whittled them down. I'm letting it stew. At the moment, I'm convinced it's good to go. At the moment, I'm wrong.*
*I don't admit that very often.
16 Comments on WIP Wednesday - Red Pen Massacre, last added: 5/6/2010
Sounds like you've embraced editing far more lovingly than me. Oh, I'm not above murdering my darlings and all that, but the tedium can set in sometimes after a long day.
The redesign is lovely. The first few pages (10% or so) of every one of my manuscripts is full of changes, and then I pick up "steam", so I hear you there.
This week's WIP Wednesday post is sponsored by Natalie L Sin and Katey Taylor and their posts about inspirational images.
The below image, and a collection of others available on the same web page, about a Fairytale Ukraine village inspired a new scene in my novel, Theatre of Curious Acts. Can't you just see the dragon flying above it and surely you know that three of the four horsewomen and the soldiers they have trapped are standing just behind the lens.
Theatre currently stands at 38,056 words and at 50,000 words total (yep, it's a short one), I hope to have the redraft done by next Wednesday.
18 Comments on WIP Wednesday - Here There Be Dragons, last added: 10/23/2009
If A is a storyline and not reality, then I vote A. Otherwise I will have to say youtube might be safer. I will handle the rejections for you as I have gotten more than usual this week.
As you've written them all down, I'm guessing E is the winner, but B will take the lion's share - but where do you go when you run out of ABBA videos...Bucks Fizz...The Nolan Sisters...I'll leave now.
The ego may have deflated a little since last Wednesday - it had to happen - and the writing may have been slow going (lazy writer syndrome with added excuses) but I still have positive vibes about Grim Glass Vein. So positive, I'm concerned that when I eventually sub it and the no's start coming in, I'm going to hit that beast named despair. Or rather, that beast named despair is going to hit me.
Draft Two currently lingers at 12,161 words and I hope to get another couple hundred words in before I switch off today. At the moment, the note I scrawled onto a post-it keeps distracting me. It reads: Who is the guy with the freckles?
He didn't exist until today and yet I can see him standing up and following Sydney into the school and goodness knows what happens next...
One of the boys, freckles stretching across his nose in a wide band, looked up. "Hey," he started. A girl nudged him in the ribs, and her leg outstretched in an attempt to trip Sydney up. She weaved her way between them and entered the school.
Unfortunately, everytime I read the freckle line I get an image of Adam Ant.
14 Comments on WIP Wednesday - Guy with Freckles, last added: 9/25/2009
I wish I could say, "Tame that beast named Despair" but we both know it wouldn't do any good. We put our souls into our work, and we reap the repercussions of it. The highs are tremendously high and the lows are crushing. But you have a great group who will bully you back into happiness, if needs be. :)
I love the second draft of Grim Glass Vein - love, adore, 'tis a beautiful thing. Honest, this is the best thing I've ever written, I'm riding a tide of euphoria. See, wee Sydney agrees with me...
We're having so much fun and our ego's are growing so large and wonderful, in fact I have to be careful not to stand up too quickly or all the blood in my very large head sloshes about. Word count is 7,403 out of a projected 60,000. What am I saying? Projected? I am doing such a wonderful job, I can have any word count I like. I feel that good. Nothing can go wrong. Right?
I think I'll make a cup of tea, eat some cake, and plan my Nebula speech.
"Cate’s manuscript is so wonderful, I know I’m in safe hands... Ooh, I don’t think she’s noticed the swimming pool in the plot. I think I’ll take a dip while she isn’t looking."
19 Comments on WIP Wednesday - The Ego Has Landed, last added: 9/19/2009
Definitely going to top the bestseller lists for months... I won't change my mind a week from now, I promise... Erm, cripes, my nose just hit the screen.
Carrie, I've considered that (of course) but have instead decided to do a feature-length animated movie instead. I think my talents are that wonderful/amazing/bull..Brilliant.
Stepped off the cliff, fell for a few days, started flapping my wings, began to soar, and now I'm nose down in the dirt. Welcome to WIP Wednesday.
Feeling like TypewriterWoman (a grey skinned superhero with a keyboard attached to her lap and fingers in constant motion), I set myself daily goals and decided that the first draft of Horrifiques would be done by August 31st. Then the holiday packed its bag and I found myself back at work and have done about 400 word since. I hope my sigh didn't blow the dust off your shoulders.
Horrifiques currently lurks at 9,125 words and at this line, "There was no sign that they had run that way, no swing to the double doors or trail of fake coupons." Yes, I did vomit that up.
And don't forget, if you want a signed 'The Sour Aftertaste of Olive Lemon' bookmark email me at - firemaiden @blueyonder.co.uk - removing the space. And thank you to everyone who bought a copy - someday someone will immortalise your name in stone.
14 Comments on WIP Wednesday - Down to Earth, last added: 8/13/2009
It'll happen. No doubt. When you least expect it, productivity will crawl over your shoulder and ask 'Hey, whatcha doin'?'. After you stop screaming and swatting at it with a hammer, you'll realize its probably a good thing and you should just go along with whatever demands it makes.
That's the way it usually happens for me, anyway. Anyone else? Anyone? Why are you backing away?
Well, surprise surprise, I haven't done any work on 'The Horrifiques' in a fortnight. Work on two books at once - did you really fall for that old line?
Draft no. 789 of 'The Drawing of Dolls' is progressing. Storming towards the end (and feeling very happy with myself), I decided to have a quick look through the early pages, figured I'd change the odd word, delete the odd adverb. Ahem! Check out exhibit A. I am officially announcing that WIP Wednesday will involve editing Dolls for the next twenty-seven years.
Exhibit A
The Drawing of Dolls 23,649 / 30,000 (78.83%)
14 Comments on WIP Wednesday - Drawing Dolls, last added: 7/9/2009
I catch my self, once in a while, making changes to things only to realise that I put it back to the way it was in a previous version. Some guys just can't make up their minds!
Katey, it's the stabbing my pen into the back of my hand that hurts the most.
Alan, I'm still convinced my original beginning was much better than my present, but I didn't feel it drew the reader into the story so it had to go. :(
My second WIP Wednesday post, I guess it's lucky I finally have a WIP to write about. Or rather, why have one WIP when you can have two.
I've spent the past week (and most of the month) avoiding working on anything. Yesterday I sat down and decided to finally start work on my YA 'The Horrifiques'. I re-read the outline (impressed and left wondering why I'd delayed working on it), and then within the space of a day, I decided to pick-up my MG, 'Lucy Baxter & The Evil Emporium', again!!! I did this about a month ago - edited the manuscript, decided I hated it. I've given the manuscript a name change - The Drawing of Dolls - and I've started work on it hoping to turn it into a novella or maybe a short YA novel. Oh, and I've promised myself I will work on both (because I'm sure it's a delaying tactic to save the hard slog of writing a proper first draft).
So, here's where my WIP's stand - the estimated end figure is of course estimated:
The Horrifiques (YA) 1st Draft 1045 / 45,000 (2%)
The Drawing of Dolls 878 / 30,000 (3%)
Anyone else up for the WIP Wednesday challenge?
16 Comments on WIP Wednesday, last added: 6/26/2009
You know... I think I might be. It'd remind me that in spite of this being the official Summer of Laziness, I am actually working on a novel, and ought to keep writing...something every week, at least.
I like it. I'll do it!
Love the new Lucy Baxter title, too. As usual. I'd totally buy a bottle of your Titling Serum, you know.
I'm with Katey - Miss Cate's Titling Serum would fly off the shelves. I'd definitely order a crate's worth to daub on my pulse points.
I also was thinking about my WIP in the other day. hahaha - that's about as far as I got. But I suppose a subtle yearning is better than none at all, right?
My WIP is a short story called "Swallowing Stars" that I'm about 1000 words into. After, its time to get started on something for Way of the Wizard. Yep. That's right. Gonna take a crack at old John Joseph.
All of my current WIP are in the editing stage, I am getting nowhere with wordcounts. :( Maybe after I get done with the mg book I have up next I can start something new.
I've noticed a theme running on several blogs known as WIP Wednesday, and of course I thought it a marvellous idea. A good W day to catch up on where my current projects stand or slumber (ahem!). First off, let me point out that I claim to have about 6 books I want to write, and then there are several places I need to write shorts for (ie it's almost July and I have nothing to send to Necrotic Tissue), so where do my WIP's stand at this moment. Please take a moment to enjoy the visual representation of my brain workings...
Ah! Sweet June, it's too warm and sunny to worry about writing. Eyes glance towards the window. Oh! It's dull and raining. Writer goes away to think up another, better excuse.
15 Comments on WIP Wednesday, last added: 6/19/2009
Not sure how I should follow up on dildo shorts...I am of the same mind as you Cate. I'd love to use the weather as an excuse but ours is too similar to the rainy, foggy weather in the GB. If you need a new excuse, I'll loan you a couple!
I actually finished the first draft of a WIP tonight. I've only been working on the damn thing for six months. And no, its not a novel, its just a short.
Time for another Wednesday update. I realized I never posted the finished (stretched and mounted) Twitter #1. Here he is. . .
I'm trying to see about getting prints made but so far I've been unhappy with the quality. I'll keep you posted.
Last night I finished the stitching on Twitter #2. It's called Be Mine and it's really got me wishing for Spring.
It's still wrinkled with the hoop marks in it, but I'll get it pressed, blocked, and stretched on a frame tomorrow. You can click on either picture to see them bigger.
I started a new work last night - a sampler, of sorts. But since all I did was get the pattern marked, the thread selected, and part of one letter stitched, there's not really anything to show yet. I've been tweeting daily updates, linking to pictures on Flickr. If you want to follow along, just click follow on my Twitter page. I also post links to recipes for what I'm cooking for dinner. . .
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Ha, very cool. I just posted the winner of the "Duel" Novella Series over on my blog this morning too.
Dang foreigners coming here to take our jobs . . . and our prizes. Congratulations to them, and congratulations to you on publication, Aaron. Most sincere best of luck!
Gef - Prizes for everyone!
Brendan - Ha! Thanks,too. I really appreciate the support.
Congratulations to the lucky winners!
Oh man, love the snippet. Dead relatives can be so mean...
Congrats to the winners!
Katey - Mike needed to learn not to listen...alas, poor Mike.
:)
Congrats guys.
Thank you sir! With my winning this and that copy of 'The Devil's Food' back in the summer, folks are going to think that you have a soft spot for Canadians.
And that's a cool excerpt. It screams 'READ ME'.
Congrats to the worthy winners. Darn those Canadians.
The holiday catalogue sounds like a fine idea.
Congrats to the Canadians!
I loved that snippet. It was great even before your little aside about the sister. :)