Two-month roundup

So we're now two months into 2008, and how am I doing with my new year's resolutions? These were my resolutions this year:

1. Sell a novel or novella
2. Make my first pro sale
3. Make at least four other sales
4. Write two novellas and a novel
5. Write at least four short stories
6. Finish revisions for Stag in Balance and Jack of All Trades
7. Finish writing Stag in Velvet

I've made two sales to paying markets already, so #3 is half done. I'm working on the novel in #4--I'm hoping to finish it by the end of March (although I bet it stretches out into April). The other day I started thinking about Jack of All Trades, and suddenly saw what the book is lacking and how to fix it; I've started those revisions, but got blindsided by a story idea yesterday. I should be able to finish that story this weekend. Not counting flash fiction, and not counting "Bearskin" which I wrote half of in 2007, I've written three stories already this year, so I'm nearly done with #5.

Not bad, really, after only two months. And to think that this time last year I hadn't yet sold a single piece of fiction.

Desolate Places received!

I got home today to find that my contributor's copy of Desolate Places has arrived! I can't get over how gorgeous the cover is. It's worth the purchase price just for the cover.

It's got a ton of stories in it, including "Honeymoon" by me--and a big shout out to Camille Alexa, whose story "Flying Solo" starts the anthology off!

Incidentally, "Honeymoon" is one of my older stories, back from when I never sent a story off after it had gotten two or three rejections. I rewrote it just before sending it to Hadley Rille Books' call for subs last year, and it was accepted literally within hours. Camille may have the first story in the anthology, but I happen to know mine was the first accepted. Meow.

Except for the Black Dragon, White Dragon anthology (which should be out soon), I believe this is my last story that still uses Katherine Shaw as a byline instead of K.C. Shaw. Just, you know, FYI.

Now the pizza's out of the oven (only slightly burnt) and I've got my pajamas on. It's time to pretend like it's Friday night instead of Thursday, and lounge around reading my new anthology!

The Business of Writing

I'm still at the stage where I think the business end of writing is fun. Not subbing stories, I don't mean--that's agony and uncertainty rolled into a big boring ball. I like proofing stories that have sold, and returning contracts, and updating my website. I just did all three and I'm feeling pleased with myself.

The story is "Newton the Baker's Boy," which will appear in the Strange Worlds of Lunacy anthology (aka the silly fantasy antho) in April (sponsored by Residential Aliens and CrystalWizard Productions). I'll post a link as soon as it's available, of course. When I got the email with the story proof attached, I didn't realize it was this story. My first thought was, "Oh, God, I have to proof 'Silent Skies,'" which of course is my story forthcoming in Byzarium. It's not that I don't like "Silent Skies," it's just that it's an older story so I've read it a million times, and it's also very long.

I updated my website slightly, to change the silly anthology title and also include the Amazon link to the Desolate Places anthology, which is now available! The cover image isn't up yet, and the editor has indicated that Amazon usually gives a price discount to his volumes but that they haven't done so yet to this one, so you might want to bookmark that page and then buy it when it's updated. My comp copy should arrive next week or so!

I need to revamp my website. That's one thing I don't look forward to doing.

First story appearance of 2008!

I forgot to say more about Renard's Menagerie issue 5 that's out now with my story "The King's Messenger" in it! I read the entire issue Saturday and really enjoyed it. I don't say that lightly, either. I probably shouldn't admit it, but I very often don't read all the stories in the magazines/anthologies my stuff appears in--I just read mine over and make sure there are no horrible mistakes, and then flip through the rest of the issue and see if anything strikes my fancy.

In this case, I read my story, then thought I'd look at the next one. I read it, thought "that was good, but I'll read the rest later" and next thing I knew, I'd read the whole issue cover to cover. That's amazing for me. Needless to say, it's a good issue with interesting stories and some nice internal art, and a book review section. I think I may have to spring for a subscription with my next paycheck.

Now that that issue's out, I'm sure everyone is relieved that I will freaking stop talking about it. I plugged this one a lot, sorry--but I was just excited that my favorite character Kristof has made it into print! Now I just need to sell his book.

So how did I do?

I made all those weekend resolutions Friday night, back when the whole weekend stretched out in front of me, full of promise. Did I keep them?

No.

I did write "Rumpelstiltskin" and revised it--it clocked in at just under 6,000 words--and sent it off. I think it turned out well. I wrote about 1,000 words on White Rose instead of the 11,000 I had over-optimistically planned. I did not write anything else at all.

Also, I played a lot of Bubble Shooter.

Quick note on comments

I've been getting a lot of comment spam lately, so I've changed the settings so that commenters have to type in the goofy word thingy before they can post. Hopefully that'll take care of the problem without causing undue annoyance to all my zillions of readers.

Hey, I just got back from seeing "Be Kind Rewind." You should definitely catch it if you can--it's a great movie, funny and sweet and not at all what I expected.

Can't sleep. Clown's gonna eat me.

Sometimes, when I've been writing intensively during the evening, I can't stop writing at night. I'll lie in bed and start working out plot problems, and before I know it it's 2am and I'm tossing and turning and wishing I had just gotten up and written the damn thing instead of thinking about it.

So today, I got up and wrote. I just finished "Rumpelstiltskin." I suspect the parts I wrote tonight/this morning suck, but they're done, and I can revise and rewrite tomorrow/later on today. At least now I can stop thinking about it, dammit.

Now I just have to keep from thinking about White Rose.