Tuesday, January 2

I'm off to a slow start with the January Dare. I'm trying to start a story to hand in next Tuesday, but there are too many possibilities to the idea I have, so I haven't found the story I want to tell yet. YET. Yesterday I wrote over a page of what you would call brainstorming.

I decided to hand in my Christmas story to the workshop tonight after some rewriting and tweaking. Time will be tight between the end of work and the writer workshop.

More later. And good luck to everyone else!


Wednesday, January 3

A.M. Hour: 0
P.M. Hour: 200 words

So you see I'm still glacial. Ideally, each entry of mine this month should begin with the A.M. and P.M. stats. I need more motivation for that morning hour--I'm talking four thirty A.M. here.
I'm getting more into the story I started on the first of the month. Descisions were made. An embryo start on a story has begun. Perhaps that will help me get up in the morning. When you know where you want to go in a story, it makes writing so much easier.

And I did hand in a story to the workshop last night. Four more to go. That first one was an easy one since it was a rewrite, and not much tweaking was needed. All the rest of the stories this month will be new.

The Colonist, The Explorer, and the Mad Marvin awards for last quarter were handed out at the workshop last night. I didn't keep count but there had to be a half dozen or more Colonist awards (3-5 stories) and less than a dozen Explorers (6-8).

Three Mad Marvin awards (9+ stories) were handed out to Alan Roberts, Devon Monk, and Eric Witchey. Kudos to them!

I looked at Alan's Mad Marvin and found it funny that Marvin The Martian is looking downward. So, for example, if you put this award on top of your monitor or on a high shelf, Marvin The Martian would be staring down at you. He'd be brow-beating you: "Write more stories, damn you! You wrote 9+ stories but I want more. More! More! Or I'll get you with my death ray!" Who could write under that pressure? I still want a Mad Marvin. And I think I could have written better Marvin The Martian dialog just now, but it's been a long time since I've actually seen a Marvin cartoon.

Good luck and good writing to all.


Thursday, January 4

A.M. Hour: 0

P.M. Hour: 321 words

Better. I, of course, hope to improve the hourly word rates. I'd be happy with 500 in an hour. 1000 would be super. Or somewhere in between 500 and 1000!

If I'm not sure of myself, which really means if I'm not sure of the story, there's a lot of pause time during the hour. Sometimes pacing too, but I try to keep that to a minimum. I'll even pause the timer if I have to use the bathroom or get more coffee.
I need a big jolt in the morning if I'm ever going to get a writing hour in. Perhaps I should resort to two one-hour sessions in the afternoon.

The story I'm writing on now is workshop related. Eric brought a collection of science cards for story generation. The one I picked was the "Blinking Eye Nebula." The story I created from this card will probably be more fantasy (maybe science-fantasy) than hard science-fiction.
I focused on the "fliers" that are in the Blinking Eye Nebula. Story title: "The Fliers From Her Eyes." No outer space in this story. There's aliens and medical technology that allows a couple to live for too long. I got a story from the card. It's just off the beaten path.

More later.


Sunday, January 7

P.M. Words: 200

I missed a couple days of writing. Friday and Saturday were zero word days. Yuck. No good reason why, but after missing one day it was easy to miss two. Almost missed three. Didn't get a full page, but I was close. I shouldn't have missed two days when the story was going good on Thursday.
Anyway, I think the story I'm writing now will be a short one for the workshop on Tuesday. Between a thousand and two thousand words. Alas, I wanted to write some stories with some, well, wordage--between 3000 and 5000--and it looks like this story won't be one of those. I'll try again on the next one.

Will I finally get that morning hour session of writing started this week? I don't know. If all else fails, I could do two one hour sessions in the afternoon hours.


Tuesday, January 9

P.M. Hour: 333 words.

Tonight I'm going to workshop without a story and with one dollar for the workshop piggy bank (that's for signing up on the calendar and not bringing in a story).

So this sucks. But I still have eleven Tuesdays this quarter to hand in at least 9 stories for a Mad Marvin. And I started working on a different story today, one story that I knew the direction I wanted to take it in. One story that is a little more clear to me. Lesson learned. That's what I tell myself. If this January goal gets me to be more productive during my writing hours (and regular), I'll be happy.

I need to finish this new story by Saturday for a Damon and Kate workshop. EEK! It's a goal within a goal month! Am I crazy?


Sunday, January 14

Things got quiet around here, aye?

First, I didn't get a story done for Kate and Damon's workshop yesterday. I should have a short-short for the Tuesday night workshop, so I'm still staying afloat.

At Kate and Damon's, we had four stories to read and critique. One of the busier nights we've had in recent memory. On the way to dinner, I talked to Devon about her Mad Marvin pursuit last quarter. I noticed the story length of the manuscripts handed in during the three months got shorter with each passing week. This seemed to happen to just about everyone. Devon started the quarter writing her weekly story on the weekend. By the end of the quarter, she started the story Monday night. I think she also said one story was written on Tuesday before workshop.

My point here is I'd like to aim for 3,000-5,000 word stories each week. I want to write stories with some meat on them. I've handed in a 1400 word story so far and it looks like I'll have at least a 1000 word story for Tuesday. I want to build up to those three thousand words.
******************************
I've done very little writing since Tuesday. So little, it may not be worth reporting. I think I might have some later nights and forget that early morning writing hour. I'll have two one hour writing sessions per night.

I'll report word cout for today later tonight.
*******************************
Here I had thought the first time my name would be mentioned in Locus would be when Realms Of Fantasy publishes my story "Messages." Locus reviews each issue of that magazine.
The January 2001 issue of Locus has a review of One Evening A Year, the Wordo small-press collection of Christmas short-shorts. I apologize for not putting info about this book on my web page. Some of the readers here might like to buy a copy, even if Christmas has gone by. The One Evening A Year page has ordering information. I even posted the table of contents. The Foreword (which isn't listed in the TOC) by Daniel Conan Young paints a nice image of our workshop and our community.

Read the review in Locus. They didn't have Ed Bryant's review posted on their web site the last time I checked. Mr. Bryant mentions several stories in the anthology. Some names you'll recognize. He writes about my story: "The book wraps affectively with much the same theme, as Rob Vagle's 'Recall' takes a highly unusual approach to dissecting the nature of giving." Yep, I'm anchoring this puppy.

So I'm mentioned in Locus, does this mean I've arrived?

If anyone would prefer to order directly from me, just send e-mail. Sorry I didn't post the anthology information sooner.


Wednesday, January 17

Words today: 381 words.

I'll see if I can do the same, if not more, tomorrow. Sorry about the short entry. I'll write a longer one tomorrow


Thursday, January 18

287 words today

The story I'm writing is becoming clearer. I feel as though the story may take of at any point and I'll get a bigger word count. I probably shouldn't stop writing for the day when I reach 250 or 300 words. I'm only getting started.

I changed the word count for yesterday. On Wednesday I only guessed how many words I wrote. I thought I had a good estimate by just looking at the computer screen. I did a actual word count for the writing that day and I wrote more than I had estimated.

I'll see how much more writing I can squeeze in on Friday.

More later.


Tuesday, January 23

Today's Words: 460 words

And I handed in a story to the workshop tonight. A little thousand worder called "Loves Presence Lost." I'm not so sure about the title of that one.
The word count is great compared to some of my other writing days this month.

I was rather tight-lipped (in an online journal sort of way) about not handing in a story last week. I had no excuse and I didn't feel like talking about the same old same old in here--the procrastination, the avoidance, being ambitious when being realistic might help me more. However, updating here still helps. And I now have handed in two stories out of four weeks so far. One more workshop for the month. Perhaps I can make three out of five.

I must keep going. After January and the Web Rat January dare, the pursuit of the Mad Marvin goes on!

Six stories handed in to the workshop tonight. These awards are good for motivation. People are responding. We're busy like some Clarion classes. Although a Clarion class may have to read up to six stories (maybe more if you're in a highly productive class) each night. We have a week. The critiquing is educational in itself.

I have some things to look forward to this weekend. More on that later. After more word counts, of course.


Sunday, January 28

D' oh!

I've just had three days with no writing. Seems like when I miss one day, the other days fall like dominos. Gotta get back to it on Monday, and I'm sure glad I have Tuesday off from work.

Updating this journal reminds me of the dare and the Mad-Marvin. That's a good thing.

More later.







Wednesday, January 31
Wednesday, January 31

I had written a journal entry yesterday. A long one. It was almost time for me to leave for the workshop. Then, by accident, I erased by journal entry by hitting the BACK button. D'oh!

I hate it when that happens. I don't have the same energy now that I had yesterday to write the same thing. Tonight, some of subjects will be abbreviated.
*****************************
The weekend was a busy one. I went up to Powell's in Portland for the Tim Powers signing. Always a blast to hear him talk. Entertaining speaker, yet modest. His new novel "Declare" just came out. I bought it and had him sign it. Tim was my first week instructor at Clarion in '93. In '96, when World Horror Con was in Eugene, Tim and Serena (his wife) loved the town so much, we almost convinced them to move here.

On Saturday, Dean and Kris had a workshop at their house over on the coast. It was much like a Kate and Damon workshop--we read the stories, ate dinner, and then critiqued. There were over fifteen of us. We had a spaghetti dinner. Six stories critiqued. Ever since Kris and Dean moved to the coast, I've always wanted to see them host a workshop like this. They have only two or three more planned this year, but I hope they'll
eventually do more per year.

*************************************

Then there was Tuesday. I wasn't scheduled to work on the golf course that morning, but I was short on hours, and last week I was two hours short, so I thought I'd work, what the hell.

I only needed to work under three hours. I had three of the five workshop stories to read and critique before workshop. I also thought I could write a short-short to hand in as well--the Mad Marvin, you know. I'd be done with work by ten and have the rest of the day to do this stuff.

I left work around 9:30 even though I could have worked another half hour. Driving up I-5, I thought about my day.

Apporximately 9:45, I passed the exit I usually get off on because I needed to go to the post office.
I needed to get off at the next exit.

I was aware of a semi-truck beginning to pass me in the left lane. We passed a hitch hiker on the side of the road.

In the next moment, the semi-truck struck my back tire with its front wheel. I knew it was the truck--what else could it be?--but I didn't steal a glance outside my side window. The only thing I knew was the car fishtailed like I had hit a patch of ice and I was heading for the ditch sideways. I compensated, turning into the direction the car moved. Sideways in the ditch would be a very bad idea.

I regained some control and the car plowed into the ditch front end first. The car bounced over ruts and dips, sod and mud. I was jolted (along with everything else inside) around in the car as well. In hindsight, I was probably safe at this point, but I still feared a rollover and I was bracing myself for one. I remembered thinking one thing: I will survive this, rollover or no rollover, I would survive.

But the car slowed to a stop. I was able to steer the car away from the steep hillside looming before me. I looked to the road and the truck continued going north, never stopping, no brake lights, no nothing. It was a plain white trailer truck with no markings that I could see. The truck was gone.

The hitch hiker, a transient who had no permenant address, came back to see if I was all right. He was the closest to a witness I had. He didn't have a good description of the truck either.

The truck had crushed the rear left tire underneath my car. On the other side, the right tire protruded from the wheel well. Which means the whole rear axel was bent out of alignment with the rest of the car. Black tire marks from the truck were on the car door.

Was the truck driver falling asleep? Was he an idiot? Was it road rage? Is so, for what? Was he blind? He didn't know he hit a car, is that it? Isn't that scarey?

The state trooper told me chances of finding the truck were slim. After all, I didn't have a good enough description. No one else did either.

**********************
My lower back became sore a half hour after the accident. It's better today. Otherwise I'm not injured and I'm fine.

I really don't feel bad about the car. I had just bought in August and still making payments. I'll find out if the insurance company will cover the cost of repaying the loan in a couple of days.

Yes, I'm alive. I went out with everyone else to High Street after workshop to have a microbrew. I don't often do that because I work so early in the
morning.
*******************************
I didn't get a story written for the workshop. I've handed in two stories instead of five in the month of January. I'm still in the running for the Mad-Marvin. I can miss one more Tuesday, and that Tuesday is the week after my trip back to Minnesota for a wedding in Feb.

I'm driving a rental car right now. I'll need it for the weekend, but I don't know how much longer I'll keep it beyond that.

I have a Rockaway weekend to look forward to. Writing and the beach. Can't beat that.
************************************
You know, what I wrote yesterday was so much better. The accident was described with energy since it was fresh in my mind. Since then I had a night's sleep to decompress. Either that or what I wrote yesterday expelled the energy I needed to release.

Well, whatever. Yesterday just seemed like an important day. How was yours?