Totals For 2007 and New Years Resolutions (Sorta)

First things first, an explanation of the totals. I haven’t been keeping track of the totals all year, so these are, more or less, only totals since October. I’ve written considerably more when you take into account that I finished WISB this year, among other projects. So the totals are: Words Written: 26,855Words Edited: 44,200Submissions: 6Rejections: 4 (2 pending) Next year is going to be much better though. I have several short stories waiting to be edited, a lot of stuff still being written, etc. Now for my New Years Resolutions. Well, these aren’t really resolutions, but more like “things I want to do for ’08”: Start The Spellweaver of Dern (book two of the Satin Bag series) and finish it by October (130,000 words). Start Wellmere (working title) with my girlfriend and get about halfway by this time ’08 (100,000 words). Finish Marx Ignatia (25,000 words). Submit Death By Poking, Asher, Marx Ignatia, and any others sitting in limbo. Get published (with anything really, but preferably with a short story). Finish The Lies of Venicia by summer (95,000 words). Step up my writing ten-fold. That means write more, submit more, and finish more novels. Read a lot of review books (this is sort of a given). Read more young adult fantasy/sf (yes, I actually would love to read more stuff in this genre, but I’ve not received much yet and I don’t really know where to go to request review copies for this stuff–maybe someone could throw my name out?). Get good grades (also sort of a given). Figure out where I want to go for graduate school (yes, I actually have to think about this even though I just got here because my adviser told me I could technically graduate in fall of ’08). Fly to England to visit my girlfriend. Sell a bunch of stuff I don’t need anymore (pay attention to my ebay because I’m going to put up a bunch of books, dvds, cds, etc. in the next few weeks). Start and podcast. I actually really want to do this and Lindsey, my girlfriend, thought it sounded fun. We might do it. I’m hoping so. We have to talk about it more though. I think that’s it…I might edit that list at some point later. 2008 is looking to be a ‘writerly’ year for me. I’m trying to step things up considerably. I’m getting close to graduating and I have a lot to think about… Happy New Year by the way!

One Day I’ll Write My Memoirs–Part One

And when people read it five hundred years from now they’ll say, “No wonder he wanted to be a writer.” Whether or not I’ll be published one day, or famous, or rich, or hell, even making a living as a writer will never remove my love for the craft. I love telling stories. Period. It doesn’t matter to me if I never get published. I’ll never give up either way. This is something that is so much a part of me that to remove it would likely kill me. Yes, it is that extreme. I love to write. It’s the only ‘hobby’ (for lack of a better word) that ever made sense to me.I imagine none of you know that I used to want to be an astronaut. Then again, I imagine many kids under the age of 10 want to be astronauts. Nobody who knew me then told me that they don’t hire asthmatics. So, like many kids, I gave that little dream up, although I would love to go to space one day. Then I wanted to study astronomy, because the stars have always intrigued me, even if I don’t understand them or the nature of the universe. Space is such a fascinating place, and I figured if I couldn’t see it for myself, I could at least study it from the ground. I’m not sure if this dream ever disappeared or if writing science fiction took away the need to peek through a telescope, but I suspect that writing about the stars and aliens and what not turned me away from that. But what got me onto writing as a passion? First, I have to say I’ve always liked writing stories, but it was always just something to do for no apparent reason. I wasn’t originally interested in developing my skills, whatever they may be, but only interested in telling silly stories. The actual turning point was senior year British Literature in high school. For those of you not from the U.S., high school comprises of the last four ‘grade levels’ or years before you go off to college/university. Senior year is the last year of those four, so it’s somewhat the most important. We were reading Beowulf (I don’t know what it has to do with British Lit., but we were reading it nonetheless) and Ms. Smith (that was our teacher’s name) assigned us to write our own poetic version of the story, in groups if we wanted to. Somehow everyone in the class thought a simple 5-10 pages would do, and so it was that everyone else turned in 5-10 pages. But my friend A.J. and I had other plans. We sat down and looked at maps of old time England, or what looked like old time England, and developed our own short English mythology that used the basic Beowulf theme of a warrior fighting off an evil monster as a backdrop. We created a couple cities that never existed, but maybe did, and we wrote a story where all the characters had special abilities. There was a mighty history between one of the villainous characters and the main character, and so much more. It turned out to be significantly more in-depth than I think either of us intended, and when it came down to it we had to come to a decision on how to write it. Everyone else was going to use typical language, but we wanted it to be more authentic. After all, with all the work we had done, why would we want to sully it with standard free-verse poetry? We decided to write it, as best we could, as one of those old time, cryptic-style epic poems. We turned simple things like swords into poetic images and invested great time into the characters, turning them into real creatures, as real as you can get in a poem, rather than cardboard figurines. And when we started writing it we realized that with one week left to go for the project, we were in for a wild ride. We’d plotted the whole story, to some extent, and when we looked at it we knew that this wasn’t going to be 5-10 pages. it turned out to be 32 pages. For a bunch of high school kids…well, you can imagine what it must be like to get a bunch of rebellious teenagers to put so much work into something. A.J. and I always worked well together I think. If he were a person with the mind to be a writer, I think we both would do well to work together, but he now serves our military, the brave and wonderful man that he is, and I think that despite my opinions of the war and our President, he belongs there. The military is his calling and I can’t imagine anyone more qualified to serve our armed forces than he. In any case, you can imagine the surprise on Ms. Smith’s face when we flopped that 32 page manuscript down on her desk. Her eyes literally went wide. I’m not joking here. Her jaw dropped, she looked at it and looked up at A.J. and I, and we were both grinning wide. We got an A, though I think we both thought we deserved a better grade considering the work we had put in. This project, however, sparked me to begin my first fantasy novel/series entitled “Revival of the Ancients”, which was a modified, deeper version of the 32 page poem we wrote, which then was called “Paladin”. “Revival of the Ancients” was a dead project from the start, but it was an amazing project nonetheless. I wrote a good 63 pages, single-spaced, in Times New Roman. That amounted to a whopping 36,500 words! But I didn’t know anything about writing then. I had read fantasy stories before and I really enjoyed building a world from scratch, but I didn’t understand POV, sentence structure, and general style. But it was my first attempt

Rejection — Artemis (short story, SF) — by Analog SF

Well, I received a rejection from Analog SF today. There’s some good news and some bad news. The bad news, obviously, is that it was rejected. The good news is that Mr. Schmidt actually left a comment on the rejection sheet (a form letter), which editors don’t generally do, and especially not for a magazine that gets hundreds of submissions every month. The comment said: P.S.: Accurate punctuation is important, too. You should especially review format. Punctuation is something I’m really going to have to look at. I didn’t realize I was using bad punctuation. Maybe I missed something, or maybe I made some error that didn’t seem like an error, but to a seasoned editor like Mr. Schmidt, is a big no-no.As for format. I’m not 100% sure what he meant by that. I did follow the guidelines on the Analog website, which says: Manuscripts must be computer-printed or typed (check), double-spaced (check), on white paper (check), one side of the sheet only (check). The author’s name and address should appear on the first page of the manuscript (check). Please do not send submissions on disk (check). Is there maybe something I’m doing that has fallen out of style perhaps? I use Courier, I underline sections that should be italicized, and I use #s to mark breaks. Is this just an antiquated formatting style now? If anyone has any advise here (especially someone who edits), I’d really appreciate it. I don’t want the format of my manuscript to ever need commenting, because format shouldn’t be an issue. I want to be rejected cause the story sucks, not by any influence of a slightly skewed manuscript format.In any case, it’s a rejection, and one of the additional hundred or so before I get lucky, if I get lucky. I’ll review the manuscript once more and iron up the punctuation, and submit again. Hopefully it’ll get picked up because I rather like Artemis and everyone seems to like that story (even people who don’t know me, plus my girlfriend, who I trust with these things because she’s not lacking in critiquing brutality). On a good note though, I got a hand written note on a form rejection, which is still exciting to me even though it’s happened several times before through other magazines. The last story I sent Analog never got a comment, so this means I’m doing something right.

Upcoming Things and Links

Well there are some important things coming up soon here, and I’ll have some fun links for everyone too.First, I have an interview from Dana Copithorne in the works. I sent her my questions not too long ago. Sorry for the delay, but I not only was stuck right in the middle of the fall quarter, but I also didn’t want to send a bunch of typical questions. I came up with some good ones I think.Second, I’ll have a review for The Longevity Thesis by Jennifer Rahn soon. I’m catching up on all my reading over the holiday.Third, I’m thinking of releasing the first chapter of The Lies of Venicia, in its relatively unedited form, for everyone to read. Is anyone interested? It won’t read like complete garbage, but there might be little tidbits in it that will get changed at some later date, depending where the story goes, but for the most part it will stay the same. Now to links: Grasping for the Wind has this awesome link to a Youtube video where a guy shoots books he, I assume, doesn’t like with various police guns (he’s a police officer). I’m not sure if he really hates these books, but it’s somewhat entertaining to see what happens to these various books when they are shot with police-grade weaponry. Futurismic brings you cats that glow in the dark (yes, seriously). I’ve seen this article elsewhere. They apparently genetically altered these cats so they glow under ultra-violet radiation. The full official article is here. Apparently sex has already taken place in space. Yes, that’s a serious statement. US and Russian astronauts basically got to go up to space and have sex for science. I’m sure the lines for that job were rather long. The results? The Missionary Position…doesn’t work. Yeah. Who knew? Dinosaurs have mummies too! Paleontologists discovered ‘mummified’ skin in Montana. This discovery adds a whole lot to the whole dinosaur discussion! Read the article and look at the two pictures! Magnaverse has a really cool info-article-post-thingy, whatever you want to call it, that talks about parallel worlds in science fiction and fantasy. Check it out! Elizabeth Bear has a list of 15 things you should know or be aware of when you’ve finally made it (whether that be published or whatever). You can read it at Subterranean Press here. Apparently we missed Voyage 1 when it crossed the little zone called the ‘termination shock’: There, the solar wind – made of charged particles from the Sun – suddenly falters as it feels pressure from gas in the interstellar medium lying outside the solar system. Well, scientists didn’t miss Voyager 2’s trip through this zone. Nope. We were paying attention this time (I’m going to rant on this later, trust me). And apparently since the barrier fluctuates–wobbling if you will–so we got a glimpse of Voyager 2 passing through this zone a bunch of times. To add, apparently what was expected to happen during this event was a little off, and scientists are a bit puzzled. Read the full article here. The Thinking Blog has a video of what could be the next, more efficient energy source produced by wind! Wind could be used to cause the vibration of a band that could then produce cheap, efficient energy, or at least somewhat efficient. The little model the man in the video made could run a radio, a clock, and even some small LED lights. Pretty cool huh? Solaris Books have announced that they are going to produce a steampunk anthology called Extraordinary Engines: Airships, automatons and aether! Extraordinary Engines is a brand new anthology of all-original stories from some of the genre’s foremost writers. Featuring an eclectic range of Steampunk-inspired stories by such luminaries as Daniel Abraham, Kage Baker, Stephen Baxter, Beth Bernobich, Eric Brown, Keith Brooke, Paul Di Filippo, Hal Duncan, Jeffrey Ford, Jay Lake, Margo Lanagan, James Lovegrove, Ian R. MacLeod, Michael Moorcock, James Morrow, Kim Newman, Robert Reed, Chris Roberson, Adam Roberts, Lucius Shepard. Brian Stableford, Jeff VanderMeer and Marly Youmans (Subject to change). All stories are original to this collection. Sounds cool doesn’t it? I’m excited about it! Artificial stem cells cure sickle cell in mice. That’s the title of the article at DailyTech. Scientists created healthy bone marrow cells by taking bad cells and snipping out all the sickle cell material and putting in healthy material. Then they take the bone marrow cells, throw it into the marrow of a mouse with sickle cell and let it go to work creating healthy red blood cells. That’s the short, rather uneducated version. Read the full article! How hard is it to find planets with plant-life? Well, in the near future it might not be so hard, assuming they exist. Futurismic has this article about new research in space research that postulates that spectral-analysis could help find planets with plant-life! So far the technology isn’t quite there yet, but some scientists have found out atmospheric contests of some gas giants around other stars. Here’s a clue: the atmospheric content is semi-related to something you put on foot to make it taste good. You can also read this article at UniverseToday and this related article. Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist has beautiful pictures of art prints for George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire. Check them out here. New Scientist has this article about a five story tall structure that focuses moonlight into a single beam over a small area. It might have medical applications, but really this is a fascinating waste of money and time. I mean that in a good way. It’s cool, but really sort of crazy. Prologues are evil and this article at The Toasted Scimitar explains why. Well, the article really just talks about prologues in fantasy and how fantasy redefined the meaning of prologue. Did you know that sitting down helps make you gain weight? The enzymes that control fat burning apparently just shut off when you sit

Having Withdrawals…

Maybe I’m just crazy, but I’m having withdrawals right now from reading. Finals have basically started here at UC Santa Cruz, which means I have a total of four essays to write. I mentioned earlier that I wasn’t going to be reading during this period because I just had so much work to do. Well, now that I’m officially not reading for my own enjoyment I’ve found myself craving it. Literally. I’m writing one of my shorter essays because it is due tomorrow and right in the middle I stopped and wanted to reach for my book. Then it occurred to me that I intentionally didn’t bring any reading with me because I needed to stay somewhat focused–this post being a diversion of course. The sooner these blasted finals are over the better. I think the good news, at least, is that three of my essays are going to be exceedingly simple. My Modern German Fiction class requires a final 6-8 page essay on a topic of my choice, approved by the professor of course. I think my topic will be easy to do in that space and I won’t have to worry too much about revision since I know what I’m going to talk about.One of my other essays is a rewrite of a previous essay, which is required even though I really don’t see a point. That shouldn’t be too hard. I have an A- and a B on my two essays thus far in that class, and doing a revision of the B essay shouldn’t be too hard. To be honest I’m not too concerned with my grade so long as it is a B or above. I know a lot of people work really hard to get As, but I see little point in putting that sort of pressure on myself. I like not having to work too hard to get my Bs and As, which for the most part is the case anyway as I’m fairly sufficient at writing essays and being productive.The third essay is for the same class as above. We’re reading The Manifestoes of Surrealism by Andre Breton and the essay has to be an argument paper that addresses one of the points that Breton makes during his manifestoes. It’s somewhat difficult, but I think I can manage.The last essay will be the hardest. It’s for my opera class and it has to be 5-7 pages addressing some aspect of the opera Moses und Aron by Shoenberg. The problem? I cannot stand this opera. I like what is being said, but the music is so utterly horrible to me that I actually had a headache at the end. It’s not even opera. So it’s going to be difficult to address this opera I think, but I imagine I will have plenty to say on some points. We’ll see how that goes. But in the end, I’m having withdrawals. Does anyone else have this problem sometimes?

Fantasy Creature Inspiration!

It’s hard to come up with valid articles that deals with fantasy. The reason being that there isn’t much in the realm of fantasy to really talk about that hasn’t already been discussed to death. I will certainly discuss things if they come up in a comment, but generally I think you can find the myriad of debates already out there with a simple Google search.    But I’ve found something interesting that I think will be of use to you fantasy writers out there. It could also be good for an SF or even horror writer, but since I took some influence from a similar thing I would like to point you all to this Top 15 list of unusual deep sea creatures. I know I said no links, but this is an actual post, not just a collection of links for you to check out.    The interesting thing about that list is that everything looks so alien, yet they’re really from this planet. You can imagine the bizarre, even freaky possibilities of a fantasy world if you take into account that things don’t have to be ordered, mammalian, or reptilian. Things can defy conventional logic. The Chimaera, for example, looks like something from a Men In Black movie, sort of like a baby alien with those big black eyes. The Fangtooth fish looks like some creepy Halloween mask.    My favorite, though, is the Viperfish , although I imagine there are a variety of similar critters out there that have similar features, but for whatever reason aren’t mentioned. Some of you might actually remember this fish. Can you guess from where?…Well if you guessed from The World in the Satin Bag, then you were right. There is actually a scene where a similar fish showed up and attempted to eat the characters. This was right after James, Pea, and James had escaped from Arlin City just before Luthien destroyed the entire city with his army. They took an underground path that passed under the river and when they reached the lowest point they found themselves in a bottomless pit filled with water, which happened to be home to a giant fish-creature that looked remarkably like the Viperfish. I did this intentionally. I wanted something so creepy, but real at the same time that it would be terrifying. I don’t know if anyone was scared while reading that section, but I’m sure some were thinking “oh, that can’t exist” (then again, maybe not because WISB is a fantasy novel). But, it is a real creature. You can tell from the link. I just made it a thousand times its normal size.    The great thing about nature is that it is a treasure tome of great ideas. You don’t have to invent every single thing in your fantasy world. Sometimes you can create something that is similar to something that exists on Earth, and it will work just fine. Even if you don’t want to do that, you can still look at nature and find all sorts of ideas. It’s all right here at your fingertips!