So as I wait for the roads to melt and be passable enough for me to slip-n-slide to work today, I've been finishing up all my various upkeep to my website and completing my readings about genre and the Next Wave and all that cool stuff.

I'm doing this because I need to focus now that I'm working a full-time job again. I can't work 40 hours a week and juggle the writing of 2-3 stories and a novel or two all at once, like I was trying to do the past two weeks. That way lies madness, or at least a good bit of grumpy burnout and bags-under-eyes syndrome.

So I'm putting all but one of my "In progress" stories on hold, and I took down the links to those excerpt pages on my website, clearing up the clutter. I also added links to excerpts from "The Last Sorcerer" and my goofy holiday tale "No Crying over Spilled Ink." I'm still going to do the historical baseball fantasy story, "The All-Nations Team," and the goal is to finish that one up before Spring Training ends this year. But the rest are on the back burner, stuffed into the file cabinet. So all I need to do is finish up my collaborations with Derek and Tim and I'll be up to speed.

To work on the Blackbeard novel, of course, is the latest goal. I really really want to get the first draft committed to paper in the next month or so, by the end of March at the latest. This is becoming the great procrastination book, I think. But no longer. I'm even gonna skim a Nora Roberts book to get me "in the mood." So look out ladies, I'll be feelin' romantic for the day to two... Um, that was a joke. :)

Another thing I'm wrapping up is all my various readings about genre and the current wave of writers of my generation who are giving us all some great stuff to read these days. All this reading is making me look at what I'm writing and how I can improve it and experiment more, and how to sharpen my reading skills and read some of the best books out there.

Here are some links -- happy reading!

• "Where Does Genre Come From?" by Jed Hartman -- a great place to start, covering many of the terms being thrown around, by one of the Strange Horizons fiction editors/style monkeys/tag-team champions (read Jed's magazine)
• "The Dream of the Unified Field" by Alan DeNiro -- an excellent overview of what's happening in speculative fiction today, and why SF needs to be invigorated, lest it croaketh... (read one of Alan's stories)
• "Notes Towards a Sort of Supreme Fiction" by Christopher Barzak -- a strong argument against plan-jane narratives and fiction that's "easy to read" (read one of Chris' stories)
• "What a Bunch of Ratbastards" by Barth Anderson -- another fine essay about the need to experiment and diversify the form of SF and fantasy instead of sticking to the tried-and-true (read one of Barth's stories)
• "Avoiding the Potholes: Adventures in Genre-Crossing" by Mary Anne Mohanraj -- an editorial about the blurring of genre lines, and why that's a GOOD thing, even in erotica! (read Mary Anne's magazine)
• "Why I Write Science Fiction: An Apology" by Alan DeNiro -- another fine essay that hits home for me, as a one-time lit-fic-only writer, explaining why SF as a genre may just go away without us realizing it and it may not be a BAD thing... (read another of Alan's stories)

I guess I should write an essay or something, but these folks, well, they said it much better than me. Some of the things I don't 100% agree with, and that's fine. I just like thinking about these things and pushing myself as a writer to keep on improving.

And re-inventing myself, as needed. Like writing a paranormal romance taking place on the Outer Banks after finishing co-writing a near-future SF story set in Kazakhstan and revising an urban fantasy novella taking place in modern-day Chicago as well as a collaborative horror story set on a hijacked train bound for hell and filled with demons. Welcome to my genre-free world! Later.

Now Playing:
"So Much for the Afterglow," Everclear

Now Reading:
Jewels of the Sun, Nora (cough) Roberts (cough, cough) -- hey, it's research!

Stories out to Publishers:
19