It was a bit of a slow day today. I spent the morning doing job stuff, then finished reading the August Fantasy & Science Fiction mag, followed by a couple of hours of Rollercoaster Tycoon :)

The August F&SF wasn't as strong as some of the recent issues in my opinion, but there were still a couple of decent stories in there. My favourite stories this issue were all novelets - Dragon's Gate by Pat Murphy, Tutorial by John Langan, Spawning by Harvey Jacobs, and The Chambered Fruit by M. Rickert. Scott Bradfield's Doggy Love was good for some laughs (riffing off the old dog/Internet joke), but I was quite mystified by Red Leather Tassels by Benjamin Rosenbaum. I know F&SF often embraces the surreal, but the latter had me asking Why??? the whole time! Am I missing something here?

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In summary, progress on the short story challenge today was ZERO! However, a new reference source I'll be using for a story arrived today from Abebooks. I'm still yet to decide whether that'll be a November story or whether it'll take a little longer, but at least I'll have plenty of material to refer to :)

It's unproductive days like today that make me wonder if I shouldn't just pick something from the ideas file (or whatever springs to mind) and just start typing. I do that for the occasional snippet of dialogue or prose that occurs to me, but generally I like to do a little more planning for short stories.

If I've got a half-decent idea, a character and an ending in mind, I can generally come up with something pretty quickly. I tend to struggle if I've only got a half-formed idea (or no idea at all) and sit down to write (with one exception I think I mentioned in a previous journal entry). With Thanksgiving looming and November half over, maybe I should just worry about story outlines later and see what I can come up with? Time to be daring, perhaps?

What I'm Reading:
Wolves of the Calla (Dark Tower V), by Stephen King