Tuesday, February 1

I missed my deadline for bringing in a story to the workshop. I signed up on the calender to bring it in next week. So, let's try that again.

That Storyboard of mine really needs to be updated.

Or, that is, I need to get some of those stories off my desk so I can increase the stories circulating the markets. Then I can update the Storyboard.
This should be a busy month. Must apply nose to grindstone.



Saturday, February 5

I need to kick ass on a story this weekend if I'm going to get it done by Tuesday. Can't miss another deadline. Makes me wonder how I'll do with the Dare To Be Bad later this month.

I'll post some progress later, perhaps do some rambling about my psych. I need to do that.
On a neat note, during Thai dinner with the Oltions (that's payment for housesitting) on Tuesday, Jerry and Kathy told me ensign Vagle is in a Star Trek novel once again. They just finished the original series novel called Flaming Arrow. This is the third novel where Ensign Vagle appears. He works the transporter controls and this time he has a speaking part. Captain Kirk beams back to the Enterprise after a romantic encounter. Ensign Vagle lets the Captain know that his shirt is on backwards, thus saving the Captain from grand embarrassment.

It's neat to see my last name in a novel. Vagle has been immortalized in print.

By the way, when a author uses the name of someone he or she knows, it's called "Tuckerized." I'm not sure where the term came from, if it's Jerry's own word, or is it someone else's term.


Tuesday, February 15

I got a rejection in the mail today from Writers Of The Future. I got the usual letter that I didn't place, with a hand scrawled note at the bottom from the contest administrator reading "Please continue and send more soon!" Even more interesting is I got "Hints for L. Ron Hubbard's Writers of the Future entrants." This is a first for me in the all years I've been entering the contest. I don't know what it means to get one of these forms. Hints include the mechanics of the manuscript and mechanics of the story.

I have to figure out where to send this one next. Perhaps I can get it back out this Saturday. It's much more exciting to get rejections (if not sales, of course) more often. I haven't had a rejection since early to mid January. I have five more stories on my desk to get out into the markets.

And the field has lost one major market. Science Fiction Age is dead and I'm saddened by that. I had just resubscribed. I have been submitting there. I've been reading about everyone's reaction from the journals I read, and at Sff.net and the Rumormill. Damn. This was sudden. I don't write much--if any--hard science fiction, but I wanted to do more to crack that market.

Tomorrow Dare To Be Bad begins. Write three stories in six days. I'll be updating every day for the next six. I'm a bit nervous. I'm having trouble staring and finishing stories. Today I'm going to do some new writing on a rewrite and then I'm going to plan my attack for this Dare.

My three stories will be:

1. Convergence Of The Archetypes (this is just a working title.)

2. These Machines That Mold The Soul (this one I want to get to the sff.net anthology Age Of Wonders by the end of the month.)

3. The Gray Matter Of Fredrick Haylor

I have a rough idea as to where I want to go with each story. That should be all that I need. I also have to plan my time. I have to prepare my mind and I think that will have to be done everyday either through meditation or affirmations.

Excercise is important too, but I don't know if I can fit that in during the Dare. Can I affoard not to? Good question. We shall soon see.


Thursday, February 17

Sorry about no update yesterday. And, well, I'm off to a bad start. No writing yesterday on the first day of the Dare. I did get about five hundred words down today on a story that promises to be a real short one. Probably less than two thousand words. I'll try to get it done tomorrow.

I decided to start this Dare with a shorter story in order to reach my goal of three stories in six days. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday I'm working twelve hour days at my day job. Don't ask. Just golf course grounds maintenance crap. This was unexpected, but boy it sure makes this challenge more challenging.

This weekend, Saturday and Sunday are all mine after nine or ten o' clock a.m. I'll need that time to catch up.

It's just after midnight right now and I have to get up at five thirty, so that's all for now.

More to come.


Saturday, February 19

In the last four days, I have just worked a forty hour week. That's just Wednesday through Saturday. Luckily, this morning I was there for only four hours. I'm so sick of that place right now.
But enough whinning about that.

Today is the third day of the Dare and I only have approx. 500 words written. I'm going to finish the story I've started on and start and finish the second one today. The second one will be pretty short just like the first. Then I should be back on schedule for the Dare. Maybe tomorrow I can start on a longer story. I really wanted to do longer works for this Dare, but alas, I'll have to settle with what I do get done.

Right now I'm going to Ray Vukcevich's signing. He's a Wordo and my neighbor. To see more info about his newly published first novel go to Ray's page.

After that it's back to work.
I'll try to update later again. I know, I know, I've been bad at keeping update promises. Sorry. But seriously, I'll try to update later.

Monday, February 21

It's early morning. It's Monday. It's the last day of the Dare and it looks like I'll have only one story done. The story should be between 2000 and 3000 words when finished.

This Dare didn't go so good. Then again, as long as I got one story finished, perhaps I shouldn't feel too bad. Obviously, I still need to work on the discipline.

I'll post the final results later and ramble on about other things.


Tuesday, February 22

I sent "Messages" off to Realms Of Fantasy today. My first submission there. I look forward to reading more of that magazine. I'll probably switch over to Realms now that SF Age is dead. :(

Yes, the Dare is over. I have the rough (a very rough) draft of one story.

I'm continuing on to the next story. It was one I had hopes of sending to Age of Wonders, but I don't think I'll get it done in time by close of submissions. So off to Writers Of The Future this one will go. If it's a winner, WOTF pays more than Age of Wonders. For WOTF I have to get the story out by the end of March to make this quarter.

This weekend I'll be going to Rockaway Beach on the Oregon coast with a bunch of other writers to write in a house overlooking the ocean. I'll probably finish the revision of a Trek story while there and it will be critiqued there. It's too bad Dean Smith (editor of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds) and Kris Rush cancled out of the weekend. They are busy people. It would have been nice to get a critique by them before I send the story to the contest. Well, the Oltions will be there. They have written Trek before. So has Chris York and she'll be there too.

I'll also work on my WOTF story there. Perhaps even finish it. We'll see. I'd like to hand that into the workshop on March 7th.

I have some writing and reading to do today on this day off from work--thank god!


Thursday, February 24

I see time has gotten away from me. I don't have time to write much of a journal entry. I'll update again on Monday. Tomorrow after work I'm heading to the coast to write for the weekend. Should me fine and relaxing. I hope to have the revision of "Ghost in the Machine" done--that's the Star Trek story--and it will be critiqued while there. I also hope to start on a new (non-Trek) story.

Have a great weekend.


Monday, February 28

Nice to stare at the ocean all weekend. I'm sorry it had to end, and now it's back to the same old day job. I did some revising. I did some new writing, but I did not finish a story during the weekend. I'll continue to work on the Trek story--it's going to be handed into the workshop next week.

We didn't even end up critiquing any stories on Sunday night. Instead we read our stories aloud. That went well. Marina Fitch wanted to know what I write so I read a sample of what I was working on. Marina Fitch and her husband Mark Budz used to live in Eugene and they were part of the workshop in the early years. They moved away in '92, the year before I moved to Eugene. I've heard eveyone talk about them, so it was nice to finally meet them and talk to them.

While I didn't produce many words or many pages, I did feel immersed in what I was doing. Immersed in the weekend, you could say. That includes the writing, reading, talking with other writers, and staring at the ocean. I just enjoyed being there and that counts for something.

---------------------------

And I see on the final Nebula ballot that three Eugene writers are on it. Jerry Oltion (with Adam-Troy Castro) for "The Astronaut From Wyoming" in the novella category. Leslie What for "The Cost Of Doing Business" in the short story category. And also in the short story category, Bruce Holland Rogers for "The Dead Boy At Your Window"--That's one great story. It already has won the Stoker award.

I wish them all good luck.