One Hot Mess

First of all, a massive thank you to everyone who Tweeted, blogged about, or bought a book for mine and others' efforts to raise money for Japan. I made enough money to make a small but significant donation to World Vision for the relief effort, so yay! I'll be donating my money on Friday when I get paid, because right now I'm pretty much a charity case in my own right.

Anyway! How was everyone's weekend? I rewarded myself for getting Wild off my plate by writing 6k on a short story. I've got the ending to write still, then I'm going to submit it to Static Movement's OBE anthology. My God. I was totally obsessed with out-of-body experiences when I was younger. It saddens me still that I never managed to have one, despite reading many, many books on the subject. I suppose there's still time.

I was also guest blogging at Splash of our Worlds about why it took me two years to write NIGHT AND CHAOS (which seems pretty speedy compared to some books we won't even mention). And I noticed a review for UNGRATEFUL DEAD at Tez Says which is cool since, given this is just a freebie for promotional purposes, I haven't been soliciting or expecting reviews for it.

In other news, dwg  directed my attention to this, which is relevant to my interests:



If you hang out at JA Konrath's blog for any amount of time, you'll see all of these arguments appear with almost clockwork regularity. Incidentally, it is worth hanging out at Konrath's blog for his insight and information on self-publishing, but you have to wade through a ton of attitude in the comment threads, which dulls the experience somewhat. I've said before that I don't think of myself as an "indie author," just as an author. I'm exploring all the options open to me a writer hoping to make this my full-time career, and that covers epublishing, self-publishing, small presses, and traditional publishing. So I get a bit peeved when I see the Us and Them division between indies and traditionally published writers, because, come on! We should all be on the same side, right? I get equally peeved whenever I see talk about agents and publishers as "gatekeepers" and how there's some big mafia-esque conspiracy holding the talented down and elevating the unworthy.

Look, it's really easy to get bitter and cynical in this business. It's really easy to look at the people around you, be they indie or traditional, and wonder what they're doing that you're not to be so successful. But the assumption I see over and over - that good writers are being shut out for arcane reasons - is ridiculous. I believe there's a lot of validity in self-publishing right now that didn't exist a few years ago, or I wouldn't be doing it. But I also believe that if my dream literary agent came a-knocking saying she adored my work and wanted to sign me up immediately, I'd go for it.

Because really, what I want as a writer is readers who will love my work. Whatever method works best to get my books into readers hands is the method I'm going to go with.

Anyway, that was a bit of a tangent. Here's a picture of some leopard geckos!*


*I am working very hard to bring leopard geckos into my life right now.

I decided this year I'd make a serious attempt at organizing myself. I'm a pantser, both in writing and life, and tend to wander aimlessly along hoping for the best. No more! Those days are over, that Nome is gone. 2010 Nome is a sleeker machine.* I've got a lot of work on writing-wise this year, and if I'm lucky there'll be lots more. So some kind of order is required. In that spirit, I'm taking a leaf from blackaire 's book and keeping track of writing life/real life projects. I like lists, and I like crossing things off lists, so in theory it should work. So, we begin!

Writing Life (in no particular order)

1.Finish Earthbound for Queer Light anthology (I'm well past the deadline, but I'm going to finish it and query anyway).
2. Rewrite Wild for my Fearless Agent. First three chapters must be done by 23rd March. Shouldn't be a problem.
3. Finish Demonised, an Ethan Banning novella, for submission to Damnation Books.
4. Start on BAD DOGS, the sequel to SILVER KISS.
5. Continue with Afterburn, the sequel to AFTERLIFE.

Real Life

1. Keep job-hunting! Must be in new job before the summer if possible.
2. Start house-hunting. Must be in new house before the summer. I will not spend another winter in this glorified cowshed.

And because it's been a while since I posted one, and I like seeing those word counts rise, here's a word meter for Earthbound:

 

8511 / 15000 words. 57% done!


*Not literally. I haven't become bionic or anything.

Moving along from the serious issue of editing, it turns out I have an upside down catfish. I know! I mean, I knew I had at least one, because I bought a pair last summer. But they'd vanished from sight about nine months ago and I assumed the gouramis killed them and ate them, because my gouramis would kill and eat me if I gave them half a chance.

So chaostheory  and I finally got round to going through my mass lot of BPAL imps last night. A few I gave to her because they ... sort of smelt like her? Like, the scents reminded me of her? It's not weird. The majority I've kept to try out, and a handful I know won't work for me, so I've set them aside. I might give them away as part of a prize package one fine day when I have a novel to promote ^_^ A novel called SILVER KISS, for example, or indeed one of the sequels to SILVER KISS (yeah, I'm still excited).

Then rjpayne came over and we indulged in some wine and a Matt Berry fest involving AD/BC and Snuff Box. Because you can never see enough TV with Matt Berry in. Or I can't anyway, and therefore people who come to my house can't either. There was much merriment to be had by all, and it was agreed we would make tasteful placards expressing our great affection for Mr Berry when we go to his gig in December. Mine may not be tasteful. I love that man with a deep, unholy love.

Anyway. Bank holiday weekend is upon us, so I plan to dive into the second draft of SILVER KISS. I've got so many ideas for shining it up, I can't wait! Hope everyone else has an awesome weekend, whether it's a long one or not!