Monday, December 4
Well, I was going to get two stories back out in the mail this morning, but I'm having printing problems. I hope to have this solved later. My Storyboard table really needs updating.

I'm going for the Mad-Marvin award starting in January. You may recall the Mad-Marvin is 9-12 stories submitted to the workshop in one quarter (three months). Right now I'm having a slow start with two scheduled writing hours a day, but if I keep working at it I should almost have a habit started by January.

More later.

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It's later and I have those two stories out in the mail. Turns out my printer cable was faulty and thus the cause of my printing problems. Easy and painless solution, thanks to a spare cable lying around.

"Pieces Of Us From The Earth" went to Gordon Van Gelder at F&SF. "Eternity Serves Fate" went to Realms Of Fantasy.

The printing problem wasn't the only problem today. When I went to the post office, I locked my car keys inside the car. Let me tell you, it's been a long time since I've had such a fucked up day!

So I realized I had locked my keys in the car. They weren't in the ignition, they were on the driver's seat. The parking meter needed more coin. Thirty minutes maximum. Great. I had to take a bus home to get my other set of keys and get back before the meter expired. Impossible! I'd need one hour at least. I predicted I'd find a parking ticket underneath a wiper upon my return.

The bus brought me home and in ten minutes I was on another bus back to the post office. Things worked smoothly there. I had enough time to get in my apartment (I've always kept my house keys and my post office box key seperate from my car keys--lucky deal, huh?) grab my other set of keys AND grab a Sturgeon anthology off my shelf so I could have something to read on the bus ride back to the car.

I started to read Thunder And Roses. Didn't finish it before I got back to the car. Forty minutes had elapsed since the meter expired by my calculation.

And to my surprise, I found NO parking ticket on my winshield.

Okay, maybe it wasn't such a fucked up day. I did get two stories out in the mail after a temporary (and easily solved) printing problem. Somehow I avoided getting a parking ticket, which it wouldn't have been the end of world if I did get one. It would just be irritating. Just like locking the car keys inside the car. So I guess everything is relative. It the middle of all those problems, things seemed sucky. But in the end, I came out of it clean.

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The changes in the Storyboard under NEW and ON DESK refer to four stories I actually finished first drafts on this year. They need to be rewritten, some more extensively than others. Do you think I can get any of those out in the mail before the end of the year?




Sunday, December 10
Our annual workshop Christmas story read aloud will be on Tuesday. 1,000 words or less.

I talked to Kathy Oltion earlier in the day. Both of us didn't even have a start on a story, while Jerry Oltion had a start on a story he didn't like. Kathy and I came up with a challenge. 500 words to be written before we could go to bed. We would phone each other when the quota was reached.

I did a good job of my usual work avoidance until ten pm. Between ten and midnight I wrote 500+ words. And I like what I have so far. Kathy got done with her 525 words at the same time I did. We called each other--at the same time--and got busy signals. What are the odds! I waited a couple minutes and called the Oltions again and got through. After the both of us were amazed at the synchronicity, we gave the word count reports. Besides my 500+ and Kathy's 525, Jerry had written 500 words on a second story.

Looks like I'm going to have a story to read aloud for Tuesday. And I'll be able to get that out in the mail too.

A good night then. We all can go to bed. It's actually after midnight, so it's early Monday at this point. I'll most likely be updating here again on Monday, after sleep and errands of the day. I don't know if my promises are much good around here after my lack of updating. Must rebuild the reader's trust.

Keep on revising, Trey, and good luck! And congrats on getting that Clarion application in, Karina, and good luck!



Tuesday, December 12
We had our annual Christmas story read aloud at the workshop tonight. I finished my story in the afternoon, so I had something to read. It went over a 1000 words by hundred or so. With a little more rewriting, I send this little tale out by the end of the year.

By the way, I didn't write at all yesterday. Sunday I did great starting the story. Monday was a lost day with Christmas shopping and lack of motivation for anything else. But I made a comeback today.

Enough about me. I think there were around 28 people at tonight's workshop and everyone except for a few had stories. Lots of goodies passed around too. If I get my hands on any pictures, I'll post them. Oh, and Kathy Oltion finished her story as well, but she said out of the five hundred words she wrote on Sunday, only a few and's and the's survived.

We meet again next week, back to critiquing stories. That will be the last workshop before the new year.

I want the Mad Marvin Award in 2001.




Friday, December 15

I'm a little bit disappointed. The newstand got the new Realms Of Fantasy before I received my subscription copy, and I found out my story is not in it. So much for trusting the contract. The contract said my story should be in Dec. 2000 or the Feb. 2001 issue. The latter is the one on the stands now.

It's not like they won't publish my story. I've received the check, cashed it, and it cleared. The issues cited in the contract weren't set in stone--the possible issues were written there so if I sell reprint rights I could site which issue of Realms my story was in. And the ever constant: plans change.

I was just looking forward to ending the year with a published story. Oh well, I still ended the year with my first sale.

I noticed in the new issue of Realms that James Van Pelt has his story in there. He sold his in the same week I did. I think his story approached the maximum word length for the magazine. I look forward to reading it.

I can still send Shawna McCarthy more stories. I just got a rejection in the mail from Gordon Van Gelder at F&SF--no "alas," but he had a couple of things to say. The story, "Pieces Of Us From The Earth," isn't hard science-fiction. It's bordering on fantasy and sf. More metaphorical or allegorical. I might let Realms Of Fantasy take a look at it. Let the editor edit. After all, I was surprised "Messages" sold there since the fantasy element was subtle. First I'll read a few more stories from Realms, just to be sure.




Friday, December 22
I'm moving things around here on my web page. Excuse the work in progress. More changes to come.

How do you like the Marvin The Martian gif? It came from draac.com. It also introduces my challenge for the coming year.

Between the Wordos and the Web Rats, there's a ton of writers getting ambitious and challenging themselves. And my how the Web Rats have grown. We've really increased in number the past few months.

I'll write more about challenges and dares later. Until then, I got my Starlight 3 rejection after a little more than a year. Cheers!



Tuesday, December 26
If my goal in 2001 is a Mad Marvin, what specifically is my Web Rat January '01 dare?

I have signed up to bring a story to the workshop every week in January. This was done in a moment of weakness--or perhaps a moment of blind, deaf, and dumb ambition. Or it could have to do with the fact that each week on the calender four or five names were written down and I didn't want to be left behind. We like to keep it under six stories critiqued each week. And if I don't bring in a story during one of these weeks, one dollar of mine goes in the workshop piggy bank.

There's five Tuesdays in January, which means five workshop stories.

Daily progress reports will consist of my writing hours--one hour in the morning and one hour after work and how many words done in each session. The goal here is to hone that discipline so I can go the distance for that Mad Marvin.

The January Dare may have less to do with the Mad Marvin (although that is the long term goal) and more to do with (once again) fighting and beating inertia.

I will spell all this out and make it clear before January. Promise.

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I do have two stories waiting to go back out. I have a Christmas story that needs some rewriting and then I can get that in the mail. A Writers Of The Future story is in the works. All of this should be in the mail by the end of the month.

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Hope everyone had a good Christmas holiday, in whatever shape or form!





Thursday, December 28
I'm still working on my journal page here. Actually, it's probably done--despite being "table heavy"--and I may play with the wording about the dares.

I know others have modeled their journal after Trey's, and I must say I like the layout too. A sidebar on this page would be great. Perhaps in the future. For now I think I've played around enough with webpage construction.

Hilary Moon Murphy is the newest Web Rat, but I am familiar with her name and journal. I followed her Clarion journal in '99 and she has a great Clarion Resource page.

I don't know if it's Webtv's problem (my browser) or a problem with Geocities, but suddenly I can't access some pages at Geocites. Hilary's is one of them. So is Tim Pratt's, one of her Clarion classmates.

It's a damn irritating problem. I've e-mailed both Webtv and Geocities. Webtv got back to me and said they've known there's a problem with Geocities and they're working to solve the problem. I haven't heard from Geocities yet.

I went to the University library the other day to use a computer. I checked my website out using different browsers. And I went to Hilary's journal. It's nice to finally get to read her journal. I'm not sure how often I'll be able to read it. Hopefully by the time the January Dare starts, I'll be able to access her journal from home.

Welcomes from me are long overdue. Welcome to the Web Rats, Hilary, Ben, Samantha, Anne, Lena, and anybody else I may have missed.

Good luck to the other Web Rats in January!