A quick catch-up

Just a quick update.

Still working on the final few chapters of the novel, still hoping to finish Act Two by the end of this year / very early in the new one. Think I'm still in for a chance to manage it even though lots of Christmas commitments have slowed me down this past week.

There've been no new rejections but I need to put another couple of irons in the fire and make sure to send a couple of stories off to magazines as soon as I can.

Chris Wooding has recently been putting up writer's tips on his blog, which have been very good, I've been enjoying them a lot. Catch them here.

Now it's off to see Avatar. I'm not expecting another Aliens or anything but hopefully it should be fun.

Hope you're all enjoying No Longer Living on RevolutionSF. It's no longer on the main page but has been shunted down into the archives but you can still find it here.

Thanks for reading.

Author's First 'Review'

It's been a couple of weeks since No Longer Living went live on Revolution SF. Unfortunately, it is no longer on the front page, having made way for even more recent stories, but you can still find it here.

It also got its first 'review'. It was written by Michael Bey (no, not that one), one of RevSFs Fiction Editors, so it might not technically count, but I've been writing so long and waited so long for a review that I'm counting it.

He says:

"This is an exceptional zombie story. I like how it focuses on the personal anguish of the main character who is left to suffer with the death of a loved one day after day after day. Freeman doesn't pull his emotional punches with this one."

Which is nice.

In other news, I'm fairly confident that Act Two of the novel will be redrafted by Christmas, which is nice. Might even have the novel finished this time next year.

Abyss and Apex Magazine turned down Earworm Turns saying: "It was well received here, but after some thought we have decided not to accept it for publication."

Which is a shame. I'm taking this to mean "Good story, but wouldn't fit in with the rest of the mag."

So, that's it from me, for now.

Thanks for reading.

Schrodinger's Publication Date

Planning is great. Other than the Saturday, on which I was working on a very hard scene, writing has been smooth sailing. It's been one of those weeks where, after all the weeks of worrying and stressing, writing has just come easy and you know exactly why this is the kind of thing you want to do (hopefully) for the rest of your life.

I've been writing and changing scenes in accordance with the new plan, some things have changes (for the better I hope) as they have occurred to me but the rest is ticking along nicely. I might even have finished by the end of the month!

Short story front is quiet. Murky Depths turned down The Old Factory Award.

"It's a very clever piece of wordplay. However, we're going to pass on this as it doesn't seem like a Murky Depths piece to us. "

So there that is.

Revolution SF have still to publish No Longer Living but I'm being patient and don't really mind not knowing when it will be. It's a philosophy that borders on quantum physics, Schrodinger's Publication Date, it is not defined or measured simply by the act me looking. It just is, whether I know the date or not.

Promises and Earworm Turns are going to get a bit of an update so I can start sending them again. Just re-read them recently and think they could do with it just to make sure that they're the best stories they can be. That's the worry about sending stories, you always wonder if they're turning it away because of a gaping plot hole they didn't bother telling you about, poor writing, the fact that you're a nobody when they could be publishing somebodies or a mixture of all of the above and more. This is just my little precaution so I can tell myself "It's all them, Tiger, it's not you. It's all them."

Thanks for reading

All in the Planning

A long while since I blogged.

Househunting and subsequent moving kicked my ass but it feels worth it now. I have a wonderful view of Canary Wharf, the Gherkin and the London Eye from my bedroom window, which is nice. The room is smaller than my last but that doesn't really bother my, as long as I have room for my desk and laptop I'm happy.

I've spent the last while reading through the whole book and writing out notes for improving Part One. It's quite old and not up to my current standard but still pretty solid. I'm worried the whole thing might be like painting a bridge; once you've reached one end the other end needs doing again. I'll have to make sure that doesn't happen.

But I also made a few notes for the first half of Part Two and then I actually planned what needs to happen in the second half. I've never actually planned before and what I've done seems pretty good. Perhaps I should plan more often. During the actual writing I also came up with a keystone plotting idea that should hold the entire second half of the second act together, give it some authenticity. Good stuff.

On the short story front, Rev SF are still to publish No Longer Living, should be coming soon and Murky Depths are currently 'enjoying' (my word, not there's) The Old Factory Award. Here's hoping.

They have a great writing competition coming up with Mike Carey (legend). I was going to save Promises for it, a story I was sure would win it, but it turns out that Mike has written a story starter and we have to finish it. A bit disappointing but I might still enter and see what happens.

Thanks for reading.

Work, VIctory,then Work Again

So No Longer Living is now with Revolution SF. I have been told that there's a few other stories ahead of mine in the queue but that it should appear soon. Hurray!

The second publishing makes me quite happy, though I am of the personality that when I work hard for something day after day, week after week, year after year when I eventually get it I smile, nod to myself, say 'Good. Finally.' And then get back to work and yearning, though maybe now I'm aiming for a slightly higher profile magazine or whatever.

So I'm still working on the novel, the usual doubts and 'no one will ever think this is good' worries assailing me. I also took a stab at a new short story Back to the City, which might start seeing magazines in the near future, but perhaps not. I want this one to be a bit special with a certain feel to it and make it resemble the one I have in my head, which isn’t quite coming out onto the page yet. That might mean taking my time with it.

Thanks for reading.

The Pre-Pub Jitters

You see? I'm back! Just as promised!

It's been a fine week this week.

I sent the final, final draft to Revolution SF. I read it over and over again until the words lost all meaning, gave it to friends and relatives and then started the process all over again. I checked for plot holes, ironed out any creases or ambiguities in the phrasing. I plucked our errant commas and put them back where they were needed (wriggly little things) and still I stressed that as soon as it got published there'd be a glaring error staring me in the face. And then, years from now all by lovely Hugo, Bram Stoker and Nebula awards would be snatched from me as a result.

I've also become worried about Rights and worry that I'm a poor innocent author who's about to shafted. Not by Rev SF of course, I'm sure their lovely, but it has occurred to me that I'm easy prey. So I'm going to the bookshop soon to find a couple of books on the subject. No flies on this guy, they'll soon say!

Basically, I swallowed my fear and sent the final draft off. I was very much in danger of over-editing and employing a 'I'm not sure where the commas go anymore so I burning the whole paragraph down' mentality. That's probably the best time to let a story go, if not a mite sooner.

Other than that I've finished with chapters 27-29 which brings me to the half way point. Hurray! I'm very optimistic about the future of the novel.

I'm in the throes of house hunting at the mo. Not fun but there you go, that's like.

I've also finished Fever Crumb. Brilliant! A worthy addition to the series. I'd say it was aimed at 9 - 12 but it has swearing in it. Swearing! On page 167 to be precise. It has 'shit' Excellent. I love swearing in books. Kids books should have it sometimes. It makes things more real.

Anyway, that's enough from me.

Thanks for reading.

Viva la Revolution

A long time since I blogged.

Much has happened.

Revolution SF (a fine, fine publication) has taken on No Longer Living. The suggested edits arrived last Thursday and I have agreed with most of the points. The story has been trimmed and I have ironed out the creases removing those pieces have left. Though there's no deadline I'm terrified of sending the final cut to them. It's the one everyone will be reading and I'm hoping there isn't some problem so glaringly obvious that it'll make me a laughing stock.

It's currently going around a few friends and relatives for proof reading just in case.

I'm reaching the halfway point of Act Two, and thus the halfway point of the novel, which is nice. Hoping I'll have the whole Act finished by September.

I'm house hunting at the moment, which is a pain in the arse.

I met China Mieville at a signing for his new book The City & The City. He was interesting and said something like 'maintaining fidelity to the paradigm’, which was odd. It must be hard to not seem pretentious when he's clearly so much better than the rest of us. I read the new book and found it enjoyable. Now reading Fever Crumb. Awesome.

I'm really going to try to blog regularly again. For reasons I'll explain another time it's just dropped out of my regular routine and along with the numerous rejections from numerous publications I've been getting I guess I was losing a little faith in this whole writing malarky. But Revolution SF have seen to that. Hurray!

Just need to be published one more this year and I'll have achieved my year's goal.

Best get back to work.

Thanks for reading. Hopefully, you'll hear from me again soon.

Being Jealous of Wooding

It's been almost a month! Argh!

Though luckily few things have happened. Chapters 24-26 are ready to be polished. Much was changed but what is now there feels streamlined and tight. Roll on 27-30!

Steve from RevolutionSF responded to a prod I gave him (they've had No Longer Living for five months now). He said that he remembered my story (hurray!) but thought that he had already replied (oh) but may have passed it onto Matt (hurray?). That was last week and I haven't heard back since. So, hopefully, that means their taking it seriously.

The same goes for Joe at Something Wicked, who have had Of The Father for seven months now. He assures me it is top of the pile, so I should hear from them soon too. Exciting!

At the moment, I am being relatively jealous of author Chris Wooding. First novel written at 16, agent by 18, published at 19. The jealousy that courses through me right now, you could bottle it. And I'm looking forward to his new book Retribution Falls. Grrrrr. I hate writers that I can't help but like.

Well, actually I don't. Good for him. I'm just jealous of his success. I'd like me some of that.

Here's hoping!

Thanks for reading.

Life on the Fast Lane

I can only apologise for missing last week's post.

Luckily, there is little to report these past two weeks. Things have been progressing very nicely with the novel with chapters 21 - 25 now complete (until draft three, that is). I still have niggling feeling about them. There's still a lot of stuff I want to put in on the theme but I think any more might be too much, these things need a delicate touch, I fancy.

All stories are still with magazines, especially hopeful about RevolutionSF and F&SF, either one of those on my credits will be a godsend.

Should check my logs and see when I sent Of The Father to Something Wicked. They did say they have a long response time but maybe I should just double check. Hmmmm.

Anyway, back to work.

Thanks for reading.

Rejection with Comments

A slightly late blog this week.

Well, the twenty-fifth birthday celebrations are over and what fun they were.

Amanda Palmer was utterly amazing and who was on stage with her for a bit? Neil freaking Gaiman!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! How's that for a birthday treat?

As predicted, twenty-five is feeling pretty good and has been off to a good start.

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, after two years of blogging I can't remember and can't be arsed to look, but for each story I write I put it in a file of its own along with a small excel document to track where I've sent it. Each has a status. There's 'pending', 'rejected', 'accepted' (this, of course, appears only once) and the much loved 'rejected with comments'. In the past few days I've received two of these bad boys.

RevolutionSF (who have published the likes of Gene Wolfe and Ray Bradbury) rejected Earworm Turns saying:
"I like your writing style, and the story kept me engaged to the end."

Which was nice.

And I received my first non-standard rejection from F&SF (Stephen King, Daniel Keyes, Ray Bradbury again) who rejected No Longer Living while saying:
"There's nice writing here."

So there we go. I seem to be impressing the right people, now if only they'll bloody accept something I've written.

Oh, well, Promises, Promises is off the production line. Let's see what they make of that.