I must have more spare time than I thought

I discovered LibraryThing today.

I'm not entirely sure what it's good for, but it appeals to me in every possible way. I get to make lists! About books!

Someone's put one of my short stories in too, which is cool, and which is how I found out about LibraryThing in the first place (although I've heard of it before). Apparently there's some other writer out there called K.C. Shaw, so I had to join so I could split my entry to show that the K.C. Shaw who wrote "Sandskin Man" is not the K.C. Shaw who wrote whatever it is that other story is that isn't by me. Apparently I have a new evil twin.

cage match! cage match!

Unless you have been under a rock the last few days, or don't have an internet connection (in which case, how are you reading this?), you have likely heard the kerfuffle about Stephen "scary clown" King dissing Stephanie "sparkly vampire" Meyer in an interview. Specifically, he says: "Stephenie Meyer can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good."

(In an aside, wouldn't you love to see a cage match arranged? My money's on King. Even if you gave Meyer a chainsaw and a rabid lion.)

Now, if you read the original interview, which is apparently an excerpt from a larger interview that's going to be posted at some point, you can see that King is actually making some important points about Meyer's storytelling and why her books appeal to teenaged girls. Here's the relevant paragraph, and I think King comes across as reasonable:

"...[I]n the case of Stephenie Meyer, it’s very clear that she’s writing to a whole generation of girls and opening up kind of a safe joining of love and sex in those books. It’s exciting and it’s thrilling and it's not particularly threatening because they’re not overtly sexual. A lot of the physical side of it is conveyed in things like the vampire will touch her forearm or run a hand over skin, and she just flushes all hot and cold. And for girls, that’s a shorthand for all the feelings that they’re not ready to deal with yet."

You can read some interesting comments on the topic over at Nathan Bransford's blog, everything from the (sigh) unpublished writers saying they wished Stephen King would diss them in public, to people accusing King of being jealous of Meyer's success (!), to people saying King is awesome for being so forthright or un-awesome for being so bitchy, to some well-reasoned and therefore rather boring responses.

My take? We are all readers first. We all respond as readers before we respond as writers, as critics, as scholars, as whatevers. So the opinions of everyone who's read the book are equally valid, although you get more points if you can write your opinion coherently and with proper grammar and punctuation. And if you haven't read the book*, you are not allowed to express your opinion about whether the book is any good or not.**

*which I haven't

**You can, however, diss Meyer's freaky-ass Mormon "religion" all you want. Because that shit is crazy, and colors the themes in Meyers's books in ways that have nothing to do with her writing ability.

(Rambling, incoherent) update

I got an email from Mundania today, saying that they're still doing final readings of manuscripts still under consideration and that they should be making their decisions shortly. It was very nice of them to let me know, although I must say I about had a heart attack when I saw the email.

The shadowy Other Books also under consideration are now my enemies. We battle! I am imagining something out of Kung Fu Panda, but with paper. Of course The Weredeer is the awesomest, but obviously no one has recognized that yet or I would have already received an acceptance. If they only knew that I have the amazing power of attracting furries, and the magical ability of dragging their little paws away from their fantastic grip on Sofawolf's catalog!

On the other hand, this might not be considered a talent. So because I really don't want to have a heart attack the next email I get from Mundania, I'll now write their rejection to me myself and spare my nerves.

Dear K.C. Shaw (if that is your real name):
Thank you for your submission of The Weredeer. We liked it, but we have decided it's not right for our catalog at this time. Because it's about a weredeer, which is just silly. While we did take into consideration
your self-admitted superpower of attracting furries to your writing, even when the main character's name is not Kitty, we know full well that there are only actually about 400 furries in the world and half of them are incapable of reading a story that isn't accompanied by pictures. Thank you for thinking of Mundania, and we regret to have informed you of our decision six weeks after Double Dragon closed for submissions.
Sincerely, etc.

Now the real thing won't sting, eh?

I suspect this post is going to read like I just drank a bottle of cough syrup. It's been a long day.

P.S. I actually think furries are cute, with their little whiskery noses and cute little paws. Oh wait, I'm thinking of mice.

Frozen mail

I dreamed last night that I went to get the mail at my old house, and the mailbox was full but the mail was all frozen with snow and ice so I could hardly drag the envelopes out. My subconscious is drubbing me over the head worrying about non-responses from editors, apparently.

The Battle Royale is over without any blood shed, incidentally. Thanks to the mediation of Jordan Lapp, co-editor of Every Day Fiction, the K.C. Shaw of Utah is revealed to be Kirk L. Shaw of Utah, and all the confusion was simply a mistake. Kind of disappointing, really.

Between work, my extra long commute, and the revisions to the sequel to The Weredeer, which has a working title but I don't like it, I haven't really done anything else in the last week. Except play Exile II, which I beat tonight. That'll free up some time. My goal is to finish the revisions by this weekend--and since I'm nearing the end of the rewrite portion and it'll go very fast after that, finishing in the next two days shouldn't be a problem--and then spend the weekend plotting that urban fantasy romantic comedy novella so I can get it written, polished, and sent out to Samhain by the end of May.

Hopefully, by the end of May my mail will also have unfrozen, because I don't think I can take much more suspense. I don't mean I haven't been getting any rejections at all, because I did get one this week and a few last week. I'm thinking about half a dozen or so subs that have been out far longer than I expected. Two are novels (one a requested full) and the others are stories, two of which I know have been held for further review by the editors because they sent me emails. The stories aren't a big deal--although it would be nice to actually sell something again for a change--but the novels are a huge huge huge deal. Huge. Because the requested full is from Wizards of the Coast Discoveries, and the other is my Beloved Masterpiece, The Weredeer, at a good small press. I don't actually want to hear back because I know it'll be bad news, but I hate having to wait for bad news because it gives me hope that it will be good news after all. And then my hopes will be dashed and I'll be low and out of sorts for weeks, and--aw, hell, I'm going to bed. Hope I don't dream about mail.

My evil twin

I just went and looked at the Writers of the Future contest blog, and they've got a list of the first batch of honorable mentions up. I did reach honorable mention with my entry this quarter, but I didn't bother to call to say it was okay to put me on the blog list--because who cares, it's just honorable mention--but right there near the bottom is a K.C. Shaw from Utah.

Whoa, wait a minute! I live in Tennessee, but apparently there's this Other Person impersonating me in Utah. And they probably think I'm impersonating them.

There's only one way to settle this. BATTLE ROYALE! I now have to publish more stuff under the name K.C. Shaw than M/Mme Utah and thus lay claim to the title. Or maybe we can settle it more amicably, like Wrathchild America and Wrathchild UK did, so I could be K.C . Shaw TN and they could be K.C. Shaw UT.

No, actually, I'd rather have a battle. For one thing, I've already won the first round: if you Google K.C. Shaw, this blog and my website are among the top three, and sometimes first and second with that "Shaw Resources v. Pruitt" page knocked down to third where it belongs.