Scarlet Letters

Well, things are moving again. This time I have my son to thank. Monday night he asked how much I got done while he was at vacation bible school. I confessed I'd spent the time reading the draft scripts for 1989's BATMAN. One of the pluses of writing the CultureGeek column is that pretty much any nonsense I read on the web can be construed as "work," because eventually I will end up writing a column about it. Kiddo asked me to tell him the Dreadmire story, and maybe he could help. I started telling him the story, and he suggested the spot I was in might be improved if someone was chasing Our Heroes before they get to the swamp. Thank you, Kiddo. That made it a lot more fun. 11,848 / 50,000 (23.7%) I still don't know who Alesia is. She's sounding a lot like Azure, and that needs to stop. I may need to do a character study on her, and on Tam. Because nothing makes any sense unless Tam is worthy of their love and devotion. And so far, he just isn...

Dark Fantasy is doing what I have long hoped podcasting might eventually do: return the radio drama to our airwaves. Please click here for their submission guidelines. I'm up to my eyeballs in projects, but don't think I'm not seriously thinking about this. Adapting one of my short stories to a script format? Hmmm. Squee. Sometimes, when stuck on a scene, I will switch to script format and write it that way. I've busted through many a block using this technique, and it never fails to jar loose some characterization. In fact, my short story "Memory Lane" began life as a one-act-play script, just to see if I could. I sometimes wonder if it lost something in the translation to prose, as some readers have told me they lose track of which character is which. There's maybe one too many men in the room. On the other hand, it's regularly cited as my most disturbing story by male readers. So, win for me. I am bookmarking Dark Fantasy's sub guidelines, but m...

One pill makes you larger And one pill makes you small And the ones that mother gives you Don't do anything at all -- "White Rabbit" I wonder what would make this book come alive? Short of driving down to Looosiana and spending a weekend paddling through a swamp, that is. And don't think I haven't considered it. They're not talking to me yet. I was reading in TheFerrett's blog about his chance to ask Neil Gaiman (!!) questions, and don't think I'm not jealous that said Ferrett got to see THE DARK KNIGHT with NEIL GAIMAN. (!!!!!) "I read a book once," he said after a pause. "Can't remember the name of it, but that's because I put it down after eighty pages. It was written well enough, I suppose, but the lead character was someone so unlikable that I realized that if I met him at a party, I'd make my excuses after five minutes and find another room to be in. "So I thought, 'All my characters should be people I...

This is happening too often these days. I've got it all. Caffeine. Music playing. I'm not too tired and the chair is comfy. The boy is in bed and if I just keep my back to the apartment, I won't see all the chores I haven't done. My travelers are at the edge of the swamp. It's time to go in. Stuck. I keep failing to follow my own rules: just keep swimming. It doesn't have to be perfect the first time. It doesn't have to have emotional resonance and depth. Not yet. That comes after you get the words on the page. And yet. Stuck. Tomorrow I think I shall have to resort to the coffeeshop with no internet. I've got the morning off before my night shift, after all. I did intend to do a little housework, but by 10 a.m. I shall be at work for ze book. Four hours. I will bust through this. Or go paddling through a swamp this weekend. Anything to get through this. It's happening too often.

With ABADDON's release looming, I'm building my plan for world bookstore domination. Recognizing the need for a mass independent appeal for the book, as one can no longer count on Borders and Amazon to save us, I have been compiling a database of all the appropriate brick-and-mortar independent booksellers in the country. This is what keeps me busy while I'm watching DOCTOR WHO. I'm up to Michigan in the American Booksellers Association and I've already got 314 bookstores. If life were fair, I'd send them each a pitch kit: my bio sheet, a rack card and bookmark, ordering information on ABADDON and my backlist, Nocturnal Urges matchbooks and a cover letter.... all nicely packaged in a shiny black folder with flames marking the front. On the other hand, I'd like to actually turn a profit. So I figured I'd get it down to a cover letter and an ABADDON pitch sheet, maybe with a bookmark. Then I calculated the cost of sending 600 9x12 envelopes under the new ...

Yes, I still get them. LOTS of them. Sniffle. Tempest has suggested making today Post a Rejection Letter Day. I'm not getting into the kerfuffle that started this whole thing, but I think it's an interesting concept. Unfortunately, I have no interesting rejection letters. I have some with suggestions and many with invitations to submit again - these are always encouraging. It's funny. I have a short story that's been rejected several times. Rejected by one magazine for not having enough horror, by another for having too much horror, and by a third for being too "science fiction." I have a novel that was published, decried by some critics as not having enough sex, and lost an award for having too much. I give up. I write what I write, and hope to find somebody with a press who likes it. Rejections are a part of writing. I have to keep a spreadsheet to remember where I've subbed and been rejected, so I don't send the same piece to the same magazine twi...

Three subs today. Two more could get the verdict any day. Of course, those are the biggies. *gnaw nails* Now if only Swamp Thing was going as well. It's funny how real life can destroy your focus. Okay, the last few days have been crazy busy, with the holiday and kid-time and did I mention taking my son and niece to Six Flags for eleven hours? For some reason, I didn't have the brain power for the swamp after we got home at 11:30 p.m. I suppose I can chalk today up for productivity. Tomorrow, unfortunately, I must empty all my kitchen cabinets in preparation for the exterminator. But it would be nice to think I could scrape an hour or three for fiction.

So the squee you might have heard echoing a couple of days ago came from a surprise I didn't expect this year or maybe ever. Cerridwen is putting ABADDON into print. Perhaps as soon as next month. I fell out of my chair. The third-quarter print list went out on Tuesday and ABADDON is on it. Now, that means they could put it in print anytime between now and the end of September. Suddenly I am far busier than I expected to be this summer. Promo campaign begins NOW. That's why I'm currently running the Bookstore Contest again - each local bookstore you post on my YahooGroup gets you an entry in a contest for cool prizes. Go forth and post! I lost my entire database of independent bookstores to a succession of stupidity last year, and I need to rebuild it. I'm also considering having a real-life book release party, a gathering in some public place as an official kickoff event that I can publicize and possibly gain some attention. I have the disadvantages of trying to sell...

We did this once before, my friends, but unfortunately an address book crash cost me my entire database. So once again, it's time for the Bookstore Contest! It's easy to enter. Just post the name and street address of a bookstore in your area. It would be helpful if you could include the name of the owner or manager, and some hint of what kind of books they carry. Ineligible: Borders, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million and Waldenbooks; Christian bookstores, used bookstores (unless they also carry new books) or university bookstores; comic book stores. These may be fine establishments, but they do not serve my evil plan for world domination. For each bookstore you deliver, you get one entry in the contest. I have some nifty prizes just dying to go out. Oh, and an announcement. But you have to wait for that.