Friday, February 2

After work today I'm picking up Dan and Alan and we're off to Rockaway Beach. The Oltions will be there earlier in the day. In fact, I think most everyone will be at the house before we get there.

I have my story idea AND two potential titles. I'll test the titles out on the group. We'll read aloud our stories on Sunday night. Whatever I have written, I'll bring it to the Tuesday night workshop.
I'm telling myself I'll finish a story. The story I want to write is strong in my mind, so that's a good sign.

Have a great weekend. I'll be watching out for semi-trucks. :)

Good luck to all Web Rats doing dares in Feb!


Wednesday, February 7

I had a great Rockaway weekend. I wrote 3,000 words. Saturday I didn't write until almost noon, but two one hour sessions and then a half hour right before dinner gave me 1700 words. Sunday I started writing at nine in the morning and by noon I had 1300 words. The rest of my time was spent reading, walking the beach, talking, going on runs to the store, and some revision on what I wrote.
It was the best Rockaway word count I've ever had. This is a very good sign.

I'm not done with the story but I will be. I want to bring it to Damon and Kate's workshop this Saturday.

In other good news, I checked my mail before I went to the coast on Friday and I found my contributor copies of Realms Of Fantasy. My story "Messages" is in the April 2001 issue! Great artwork and what a rush to see my name in the table of contents.

This reminds me I'm behind on Web Rat story reading. Trey and Karina have stories published out there that I still need to get.

More later.


Sunday, February 11

I've been baaad.

I've been a bad writer. After such an excellent weekend of writing out at Rockaway, no additional words were added to the story last week. Not only that, but no story handed in last Tuesday and that means the Mad Marvin has slipped further away for this quarter.

I can keep writing. And I will continue to write. I'll see if I can get some words down before I go to bed. Will I settle for the Explorer award? Or will I get the Mad Marvin this quarter?

This mental shut down on goals doesn't surpise me. I've been known to go for various dares and set deadlines, only to fade out of it. Last summer I was going to do a story a week for six weeks, but that got reduced to "All I promise myself is one page a day."

Baby steps are fine, but sometimes I want to be a giant baby.

I stopped writing on "After The Sky Fell" when I hit that point where I thought the story sucked and it wasn't as great as I thought it would be. I've heard that happens to writers when they write novels, but for me I've recognized this milepost in my creation of short stories. I should have written passed this point last Sunday before Rockaway was over.

This week was spent with some gloom--the weather has been very cold and gray--and worry about money and other life-type things. Through this, however, I did think of some great things add to "After The Sky Fell."

Now I just need to get to work on that story again.
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I have one more week with a rent-a-car. I'll be on foot after that and I'll be getting rides to work. I'm going to be without a car for the next few months.
My insurance will pay off the rest of my car loan, which is good. Without a car payment and the expense of using one, I hope to pay off some debt before I get another car. I'm turning this situation into an opportunity.
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The workshop is still cooking. We have seven stories to critique for this Tuesday. We've been hitting at least six stories consistently for awhile now.

Write on!


Tuesday, February 13

Tonight at the workshop we were suppose to critique six stories, but one of the writers couldn't make it. So we critiqued five. It's becoming exhausting to keep up with the stories. Each passing week I'm becoming more aware of how early I have to start reading. Thursday would be a could day to start so I don't have six stories to read and critique Sunday or Monday night.

Anyhoo, it was a surprise to have only two people hand out stories for next week. One of them has a large story that was handed out weeks ago, so next week we are going to critique two from one person (and I haven't started reading that novella of his). That makes three stories. Plus the story from the writer that missed tonight will be critiqued next week so that makes four stories.

At least I've already read and critiqued one of those. It's nice to have a week with less pages to read. Call it a little break.

I think there were six people on the calendar to bring in stories. I was one of them. No story from
me. Mad Marvin, oh Mad Marvin, you taunt me so.

I've missed enough weeks in this quarter to lose the Mad Marvin, but I still can't stop now. Did I mention I want to collect all three awards this year? The Explorer is 6-8 stories handed in a quarter. It's nothing like the Mad Marvin, but it's something to shoot for. It's practice. It's production. I'm writing instead of procrastinating (well, not everyday) I just need to make those deadlines.

2001 is the pursuit of the Mad Marvin. I will get you yet, Marvin The Martian.

We have a number of people coming from out of town to attend the workshop. Three from Portland, two from Salem, all coming down to Eugene. Three of them are new to the workshop and the stories I've seen from them so far are very impressive. Excellent writers. They too are going for the Mad Marvin.

Also, Dave Bishoff's Foggy Windows novel was passed around for show. I read a bit of the first chapter which was a sex scene. It's science fiction with a talking computer trying to coach sex between the couple going at it. If the rest of the book is like that first scene, it's going to be a hoot. Any writer reading this that would like to write some smut should check the Foggy Windows website out. I know there's some Web Rats out there who might like to. I may eventually write a short story for the anthologies.


Tuesday, February 20

Tomorrow I fly off to Minnesota for a week. I'm bringing my notebook to write a page or two or three, we'll see. I got Tim Powers' new novel to read.

I bet I'll have some workshop stories to critique too. I'm coming back next Tuesday before the workshop. I'll have plenty to do on the planes.
I sent one story out today. "Shattered" to Realms Of Fantasy. I would have gotten two more stories sent out, but I ran into a printer problem. I have an alternate printer, but that's back at my apartment. I'm housesitting and I have no car to go back and get it. At least not until tomorrow. And my flight leaves at five twenty in the morning. I'm going to get frustrated with this no-car situation real quick.
I'm happy I got one story out for now. I don't have a story to hand in tonight either. Must . . . push . . . harder.

I'll be back in a week.