Arrant Nonsense

My gargoyle story will be appearing in "First and Starlight" in a couple of days:

"Future Finalists presents 1st & Starlight, their very first compilation of science fiction and fantasy. Future Finalists is a group of authors that have previously placed in the top 8 for at least one quarter of the Writers of the Future Contest, some of whom have already gone on to become winners.

Fourteen of these authors now contribute their strongest voices, offering glimpses of every corner of speculative fiction--from contemporary to high fantasy, from hard science fiction to the wildly experimental, the whole breadth of possibilities of the genre are showcased here.

Experience modern twists on fairy tale classics, extraordinary aliens and magical creatures. Heroes and heroines no matter how big or small (or inanimate!). Adventures across time and space and deep within the human mind. From great triumph to the little victories that make us up, the one thing these stories have in common is their greatness, and their enormous heart."

Here's the fantastic cover, by Koru Xypress:


Don't have a link yet, but watch this space. :)

The Writers of the Future blog to see if there was any news.

There is.

I'm not a finalist. Or a semi-finalist. Le sigh. However, two other people from Utah made the lists, and the lovely and effulgent nancyfulda is a finalist, so congrats to them. :)

Now I have to figure out the next thing to send them. I'm thinking either A&tS or the BearFic.

This is, of course, assuming I'm capable of editing either of them into something that doesn't suck.

And of course, I have to figure out the next market for the GargoyleFic as well. *sigh* I had high hopes for that one; I've had some nice feedback from editors on it.

And I'd really really like to write something new now. If the Muses would get their asses out of the corner, where they're sniggering, slurping down absinthe and chocolate-covered ants, and generally being lazy, that'd be great.

First, let it be said that I love Moab with the fire of a thousand suns.

But, dude, it's GREAT to be home.

I will, no doubt, scribble more about our trip tomorrow. I will also be posting pix via the lovely Photobucket. But right now I'm just going to bask in the idea that I get to sleep in an actual bed tonight.

Also, I came home to this in my inbox, regarding the GargoyleFic:

Dear J**** F****,

Thank you for submitting "Guardians of Public Safety" to Strange
Horizons, but we've decided not to accept it for publication.

We appreciate your interest in our magazine.

--Jed

*sigh* Now I gotta figure out where to send it next...

...my (published) Mom.

And she said it's a really clean MS (with a few very minor quibbles) and doesn't think I'll have any problems getting it published. *blinks, then dances with glee*

I ran it past the Hubby, who has watched me piss and moan about the thing for over a month, last night, and he also had a few minor, easily fixable quibbles.

Now I just have to wait for snarking_boojum to get back to me with it. *wibbles* I caught a glance at it at LTUE, and the first page is bleeding fairly heavily, and I'm wondering if I should SHOW the meeting between Russ and Morrigan rather than have him TELL Mandy about it, but it's a series with a format... ugh, I don't know.

NOTE TO SELF: More details about why Morrigan left Ainmire, plz. Also, better description of the Snot Puppet.

I also worked on my edit of the GargoyleFic last night, adding the scenes I wanted to add and tightening up some stuff. And I just now remembered where I'd put my other notes of what I wanted to add to it. Looking them over...I'm not sure how much they add. *ponders*

And, just for fun, inspired by Eric Swedin's comment on the "Portrayal of Hacking in Film and Television" panel at LTUE:

His verdict: MUCH better.

However.

(There's always a however, isn't there?)

He thinks I can get a novel out of this.



The thing is...I think I kind of agree with him.

Dude.

The GargoyleFic, Mark II, is done.

Word count: 4453

Tomorrow, I'll run it by the Hubby, who crashed for the night right after "Heroes," because he had to get up at silly o'clock this morning.

YAY!

( *cries* (Spoilers, obviously) )

In writing news, the gargoyle story is up to 4,332 words. I'm on the last two pages of this edit. After this, I'll run it by the Hubby again, and also my Writing Buddy and my (published) Mom.

Also, I just got an email from my Writing Buddy. He said, about the BeagleFic, and I quote:

That went from "Umm, this really needs some work" to "Wow, this is cool shit!" in a hurry.

He's still got suggestions for it, which is good, because I added a whole LOT of stuff to it, but it makes me feel much better.

*cracks knuckles and settles down to write*

The Steelers are SUCKING today. Again.

*switches over to curling*

This is what happens when NASCAR goes off the air for the season...


Word count on the gargoyle fic so far:

4096

And I didn't think it'd go over 3000. Heh.

Yes, I'd like some cheese with it. Fried mozzerella, please, with ranch dressing on the side.

So, I copied and pasted the gargoyle fic into a new doc and saved it as "GargoylesMarkII" so I don't lose what I've got and can always go back to the original and say "suck it, dudes, if you don't like my timeline."

I've cut a couple of scenes and pasted them elsewhere. I've added graffiti to the gargoyle I wanted to add it to. Added more of the aforementioned emotion to the death scene and to the scene where my character "unleashes the power of gargoyles" upon her neighborhood. (I see you snerking over there, bigsciencybrain. Hush.)

And I'm thinking I need to add other scenes as well. However, it gets to a point where describing death and dismemberment gets boring, and I'm going to have to gloss over it with something cop-out-y like:

"As the weeks passed, more drug dealers were killed, who were replaced in their turn by other drug dealers, who were killed in their turn, and after awhile the word got out and the neighborhood's dope supply dried up and blew away like a dried-up blow-y away...thing."

Um. Only, better and more eloquent than that.

Yeah. *cracks knuckles*

I have title-age! I'm calling it "Guardians of Public Safety." *snerk*

I ran it by the Hubby, who likes the overall concept. However, he says that the emotions for the first part need to be ramped up quite a bit, because the death that's the whole catalyst for the story just feels "meh."

Seeing as how I'm emotionally stunted myself, I may have a hard time with this. I mean, yes, I cry at commercials, but that's because I'm shallow, not because I have any depth of emotion. Therefore, I need to watch myself so that angst doesn't turn into wangst.

Check.

He also said my timeline doesn't work out. Which, yeah, I already kind of knew that. One week, not enough to clear out a neighborhood, even with people getting torn apart overnight and chased by creatures that shouldn't exist. So I need to expand my timeline without boring my audience.

Check.

He said it was a "good first draft." After I've sweat blood over it. Oh my goodness, am I ever glad that I don't take this sort of thing personally. If I was fanbrattish...well, I wouldn't ever ask for concrit, and certainly not from him, would I?

As it is? Still stings a bit. But at least I know a couple of things I need to work on.

He also had an excellent suggestion re: The stones crying out for justice. And, reading it, I realized I wanted to do something with graffiti that I didn't.

Check, and check. *cracks knuckles*