Arrant Nonsense

Is out the door to the UFO anthology. And it's a good thing I re-read the guidelines.

Oh, God, wish me luck. I love this story to itty-bitty pieces.

EDIT: And I sent CatFeet to Fearful Symmetries, because why wait.

That's everything but not!Iron Man on sub. Still need a blurb for that.

I've ginned up a sub packet for Eldritch Plumbing, and it will be out the door tomorrow to a snail mail market. This puts my submittable wordcount on the year so far at 62,300. I finished (for certain values of "finishing") Ghost Ship last night, and gave it to my Writing Buddy today. I don't hate it, and if all goes well it will add another 7500 or so to that total.

I still need an outline for the Unicorn Time Travel thing. And I'd like to sub something to Fearful Symmetries. A publication has had CatFeet since November last year, and I fired off a query to them today. I may be able to send that to Fearful Symmetries, but I should have one in the wings for that market, I guess. So I'm mulling horror ideas.

And I discovered that our SLC Steampunk Con is also running a fiction contest with the due date July 4. What I'll do for that is outline something in May, write it as the first thing in my June NaNo push, and then have it ready by the deadline.

I'm slowly but surely crossing things off my list. Of course, I keep adding things too, but. High-diddle-dee-dee, a writer's life for me. It never ends. . .

And I've just discovered that LJ is having a charming glitch where, when I try to preview an entry to make sure my links work? They don't, because they've added a "www.livejournal.com/preview" to the link. LJ. WHY YOU DO DIS.

EDIT: No, LJ is adding that to the actual link, not just in the preview page. I can't edit it out, because it's correct when I go to edit the entry. LJ. STAHP.

SON OF EDIT: Oh, so the link only works when I'm in html posting mode when I use your fancy script instead of putting in my own link. No, LJ. Bullshit.

And now I'm writing actual!Iron Man fanfic. Because I've got an image in my head of Harry and Harmony and it should be Tony and Pepper and gorramit I really didn't want to go there but here I am. I'm such an angst-puppy. Gah.

Also, IMDB is being singularly uncooperative with the quotes for Iron Man. It looks like many of them came from the shooting script rather than the actual movie. And watching interviews with RDJ and Jon, we know that Robert walked into Jon's trailer on a daily basis with the day's pages in his hand, crumpled them up, and threw them against the wall, and they pretty much made the dialogue up as they went. So, yeah. Anyone have the actual quote from Tony after Pepper has her hand in his chest? Was it "You're all I have?" Argh.

In other news, LJ is bringing back Basic Accounts at the end of summer. *applauds*

125.2 this morning. Hubby thinks I look "hot." *grins* And I'll think of it as "2.8" more pounds to go rather than "3" because that makes it feel as though I'm still making progress. Of course, that might also mean I relax about it a little, which I really can't afford to do, so it's a two-edged sword.

Another rejection in the inbox. Whee. No one loves me. Or the CatFeet story.

Anyone reading this going to WorldCon? Hello? Anyone?

I posted a few months ago about feet washing up on the shores of Canada, and joked about my CatFeet story coming true.

It's happened again. And the authorities have no idea who the feet belong to or who might be doing this.

Ew.

My CatFeet story is coming true.

And here I thought I was just writing fiction. Of course, there's no news of cat involvement.

YET.

Happy New Year! *blows party horn*

Last year, what with one thing and another, I decided that submissions were going on hiatus. Between traveling and holiday obligations and the fact that lots of markets seem to be closed in December anyway, it just seemed like a good thing to just not worry about. Of course, it turned out to just be one story that was sitting here, languishing...and it didn't exactly "languish;" I sent it to Paul Genesse, a super-nice fellow writer whom I've run into at a couple of cons. He was both appalled and gleeful when he read it (not because it's a bad story, he hastened to assure me, but because it goes places a lot of people don't--it was a "HOLY CRAP" reaction. Which I'll take).

However. It's January First. The first day, as they say, of the rest of your life. And thus, in keeping with the spirit of the New Year, I have shipped off the CatFeet story to another market. Yay! I have the feeling that I'm going to start hearing from other markets pretty soon as well, as editors face their backlogs and start plowing through them.

I also bought my WorldCon 2008 membership the other day, sliding in under the price-going-up deadline. Which means I'm kind of committed now (or should be). And LTUE is sneaking up pretty quickly...

And now, the blank fic doc, it doth mock me. I swear, the cursor sits there and blinks "Nyah. Nyah. Nyah."

to see the Hubby off. I think I'm going to be tired all day now. Glurg.

But I at least managed another editing pass on the CatFeet story. Fortunately, I only found a couple of really minor things on this run-through, so I guess it's ready to send on to the next market. Which was going to be Weird Tales, but I want to send it to F&SF first, because I send everything to them first. Should be hearing from them on the last thing I sent...soonish. Maybe today. No news is good news?

And if I don't hear from them today, then CatFeet will go off to Weird Tales. It's not doing me any good sitting on my hard drive.

The problem with the CatFeet story, marketwise, is that it's too long. Most markets want under 5000 words, and CatFeet is 6000. No, it can't be trimmed any more.

Blah.

Abducted!Werewolf? What abducted werewolf? It's still sitting there. Mocking me. *hates*

Apparently Writers of the Future judged everything really quick this quarter, because they've announced the winners (all women writers this time!) and sent out the letters to the contestants.

Mine said (in part):

Dear Contestant:

Your story placed in the quarter finals for the third quarter ending 30 June. This means you were in the top 15 percent. Well done.

This was the CatFeet fic...which I sent to them by mistake. I was going to send it to Weird Tales next, but I think I'm going to wait on a response from F&SF (should be very soon) for the latest thing I sent them before I do. I really need to have a closer look at my prospective markets before I decide where it's going to go. I might also want to give it another looking-over (since it's been awhile) before I ship it off again.

*happyflails*

Now I really need to write something for this quarter. Maybe the Abducted!Werewolf story will do...

In other news, RIP Ursula K. LeGuin. We will miss you. :(

Oops, my bad. RIP Madeleine L'Engle. We will miss you. :(

and hacked and slashed (not that way, you pervs) at the CatFeet Fic. Barring getting anything about it from Dan Willis in the next few days, I'm going to format it, print it out, and ship it off to F&SF. It might fit at the Intergalactic Medicine Show. I mean, there's gore, but I think it's more psychological than a spatter-fest. That might just be me, however. If any of you who read it disagree, let me know. *ponders* Maybe I'll send it to IGMS first. F&SF is probably getting tired of hearing from me. If they don't want it, then Weird Tales can have a crack at it.

I stuck an "END" at the bottom of the thing nearly three months ago. It's time to let it fly and be free, dammit.

Dude, I don't see any way of getting that dead body on page two or three without glossing over that whole first scene entirely--which would only get the body on page four. Page two? Is completely impossible.



Maybe I should print the thing out and take an actual red pen to it. Really, a blow-by-blow description of the fight isn't necessary. Is it?

I've already whacked out something like 750 words. ARGH. Thing is, I'd really like to get it down to under 5000, because that increases its marketability enormously. However, I also want to be true to the story I want to tell.

What a friggin' tightrope.

I'm going for a walk. *stomps off*