On the road again (almost)

Hey, remember when I said we’d start heading home Thursday night. Hahaha! It’s now 5:50 pm on Friday and Ken’s got the bikes on the trailer and is packing up the rest of our stuff. I’m guessing we won’t make it to Redding tonight. But that’s okay. We’ll get a ways down the road, and tomorrow will be a long-ish day, but I love road-tripping with him and we’ll be home late tomorrow and have kittays to cuddle. I miss my kittays. A neighborhood cat was in Ernie and Pauline’s backyard earlier today and entirely resisted my attempts to molest it.

It’s been a productive few days here. Ken’s been hard at work on the bike with his friend Ernie, and I’ve been hard at work on writing and business stuff. Finished one story and sent it to a first reader, and beta-read a story for her. Conferred with an editor about edits to an accepted story. I’m 2300 words into yet another story. I’ve handled a lot of work email, including prepping for next week’s design binge (two freelance jobs).

And we’ve had a lovely time with Ernie and Pauline, even if I’ve been a bit antisocial what with my hiding in the bedroom and writing. I’ve emerged for supper and a little TV watching (and when we discovered they’d never seen Love Actually, we had to watch that!), and I did manage one lunch out with them. But work is work, you know? These damn deadlines, they never go away! (Oh, yeah, most of them are self-imposed. Man, I really have a boss with a lot of expectations….)

Also, someone has offered to do something very, very wonderful for me, in the spirit of pay-it-forward and karma for the tribe. I can’t say more, but I wanted to mention it here, because I’m stunned to the point of waving my hands around trying not to cry. Thank you. You know who you are. Thank you so much.

Blinking owlishly

This happens after every workshop I take on the Oregon Coast, especially the writing-intensive ones. I emerge, blinking as if coming out of the dark into sunlight, dazed. At first, I have trouble talking to people who aren’t writers – what do non-writers talk about? (Although writers tend to be the type of people who can talk about anything, which I love.) How do non-writers get through the day without the voices in their heads, the characters clamoring for attention, the plot ideas that twist and turn like shiny colored ribbons.

Also, what’s happening in the world, with my friends and family? When I’m  heads-down writing, I lose touch with everything outside of the WMG clubhouse, the Historic Anchor Inn, and a few restaurants in Lincoln City. And the ocean, which fills my senses and refills the creative well I’ve depleted.

I was able to pop on FB a few times, but not for long, so anything that didn’t show up on three or four screens is gone forever. Ditto blogs, although I can get to them (where they patiently wait via GoogleReader).

So my point is, if I owe you an email or a call, I’ll get to it. Soon. Perhaps not today, but soon. If you have exciting news that I may have missed, let me know (and I’ll get back to you…soon).

If you need to get hold of me, email is best. FB messaging worst by a long way. If you’ve pinged me that way recently, it’s probably lost in the crush (and I don’t have reliable Internet access right now, so my FB time will be limited ‘til I get home next week).

With that out of the way…the workshops. I’ve already talked about The Craft and Business of Short Fiction. My story for the Fiction River anthology Unnatural Worlds was bounced when an invited author got their overdue story in, but Kris and Dean think it will work for a 2014 issue (with a fantasy detectives theme) if I don’t sell it before then. So that’s the first announcement of spiffiness.

The second workshop was the annual Anthology Workshop. If you’ve read my SFF short-story collection Written on the Coast, you’ve seen the product of the first six Anthology Workshops. The basic setup is that we write a story ahead of time (this year, for possible inclusion in Unnatural Worlds, edited by John Helfers) and then write a story at the workshop (this year, for possible inclusion in Hex in the City, edited by Kerrie Hughes). We also read everyone else’s, not for a critique (we’re all pro writers), but as if we were editing the anthologies ourselves. Then, Kris, Dean, John, and Kerrie all give their opinion, with the actual editor letting us know if s/he will buy the story or not.

I’m chuffed to say that my story for Unnatural Worlds made the first cut, and my story for Hex in the City will appear in that anthology!   *\o/*

Plus I got to read so many amazing, creative, fantastic stories by some brilliant writers I’m fortunate to call my friends and peers.

And there walks on the beach, in the rain and in the sunshine….

Our original plan was to head home after the final workshop, but Ken has more work to do in Portland on his motorcycle (his friend has a shop), so now we’re looking at leaving Thursday evening. I caught a ride here last night, so I’ve got a few days to get some work done before we go. I’ve got stories to write, business correspondence to catch up on, anthology themes to pitch, a novel to edit, a novella to finish….

The only downside is that I have two commissioned design jobs I need to get done before the California Dreamin’ RWA conference March 15–17, and I’m going to have only a week to do them. Eep! It’s doable, but I’ll be putting in some overtime.  :-)

Speaking of work, I'm off to do it now! But let me know how ya’ll have been doing!