A piquant mix of physical misery and mental/emotional woohoo.

1) finished the second agent-directed revision. Fixing format and emailing it off only a day after deadline.

2) my first review! on IROSF! Short enough that I can post the whole thing:
"Rookie Willow, with her chimpanzee crew, has to prove herself as a blimp pilot on her first solo run. ( Read more... )

where an important character's gender was never specified. My friend Paul said 'but you knew which it was, right?'
No, actually I didn't. Still don't.
Which may (not) excuse or explain why it's only now I'm vaguely thinking of building the Chimps story-world into a novel that I've thought enough about Willow's background (she's from a circus - carny ( Read more... )

Made the shortlist for the 3-Day Novel Contest, go me!  I re-read Culture Heroes last night, and was reasonably satisfied with it, for a first draft written at speed, with no real outline. Once I'm not in the midst of overlapping deadlines, I'd like to bring the 3 alt-Europe magic-realism stories together and print up some copies on Lulu for ( Read more... )

You'll maybe remember Matt's inspirational speech that I posted the link to a while back?

Well, here's some news about his most recent books, if you'd like to check out his narrative prose:

To promote the release of my new Henghis Hapthorn novel, Hespira, the
Fantasy Book Critic blog is hosting a contest giving away two complete
sets of the Hapthorn ( Read more... )

My first pro sale, at Beneath Ceaseless Skies, right next to one by Aliette de Bodard.

Aha, next issue will have a story by Margaret Ronald that also features airships, while the airship cover art is up. Yay for airships!

And! I would never have made this sale had I not attended Viable Paradise, a one-week writing workshop in Martha's Vineyard that ( Read more... )

Today the card came from Operation Eyesight. I'm a bit disappointed that they didn't provide the name & info for a specific person, but still, here you are, same as last year, because I am just that predictable:

The spirit of the season is giving,
especially to those in need.

VPX Room 50 ( Read more... )

Letter from agent: good news is ending made her cry, bad news is REVIZE MOAR ( Read more... )

Read Maureen Johnson's chapter-by-chapter takedown instead!
The unexpected joys of doing Nanowrimo: each week an encouraging letter from a published writer. Hers was so funny I clicked on the link to her blog, and now I guess I'll be looking for her books.

So far, Scrivener is really, really cool. I wish I'd had it 3 months ago. The only thing that would make it better would be if it magically filled in the missing scenes for me.
I guess I'll have to swap to a Mac for my desktop. Sigh.

Matt Hughes put this on the SF Canada list today, and I thought it might be encouraging. Or as he says, possibly terrifying. It's his keynote speech to the Surrey Writers Conference a few years back.
http://www.archonate.com/no-surrender