January recap, only a day or so late

Words written: 21,000

I keep wanting to say that’s low, but the fact that I wrote during a two-week trip to take care of family (and had several 2k+ days during that trip) makes it a win, I think.

Stories completed: 4.5

• “Umberto Scolari and the Arno Diversion,” complete, 4400 words
• “The Scent of Amber and Vanilla,” complete, 5000 words
• “Ignite the Night,” complete, 6000 words
• “Photographic Evidence,” complete, 4600 words
• “Music, When Soft Voices Die,” in progress, 2724 words so far

Other

• 3 short stories submitted (not including the 4 listed above)
• 1 copyediting job completed
• 3 Lucky Bat clients corresponded with
• half of online Ebook Design workshop completed
• 4 covers designed (as part of the above-mentioned workshop)
• 2 Styx concerts (had to sell my tix to 2 others to pay for a cavity and cat füd)

I’m a little disappointed about not getting “Music, When Soft Voices Die” done in time for the anthology deadline, but I’m okay about it. Although I did put it off until the last minute, it ended up wanting to be more complex and longer than I expected, and I simply ran out of time. Last night I realized I could’ve hammered out a couple thousand more words and submitted it, but it wouldn’t have been the story I wanted to write, the story it had the potential to be. So I’ll finish it in February and submit it elsewhere.

I also realized that it’s more tiring writing short stories than the same number of words on a novel. With a novel, you’re working with many of the same characters each day, some of the same settings, etc. You already have some idea of the overall feel of the novel—conflicts, etc.

With short stories, you’re starting fresh each time (except in the case of my ongoing Renaissance mystery series with the same character, Umberto Scolari—but the settings change, as do the secondary characters and conflict). New characters, new setting (even if it’s a setting you’ve used before, you’re showing it through a new character’s POV and opinion), new plot, new conflict. New question of “What is this story about?”

There’s a level of fun about that, don’t get me wrong. A sense of adventure as you dive into the new. But there’s a small part of me that’s starting to get tired, that’s thinking “Oh no, another one?”

So I think once I finish the story that’s due Sunday (I have notes, but haven’t started it—it’s another Umberto mystery), the one that’s due next Sunday (which starts with the main character watching the otters at the SB Zoo, and she’s either lost her job or her partner or both, and after that I have no idea what’s going to happen*), and “Music, When Soft Voices Die,” I’m going to dive into one of the novellas I want to write. Two are started: The Master of Wildwood (a prequel to my popular gothic erotic short story “Return to Wildwood”) and On Her Lips (the second of three linked erotic romance novellas, following In Her Hands.).

So, with that in mind, February goals:

• 3 novellas (2 already in progress)
• 8 short stories (some already in progress)
• 1 copyediting job
• 1 weeklong workshop in Oregon, which includes 2 days driving each way
• 1 short visit to my sister and family in Pebble Beach to see my niece starring in a play (yay!)

There will also be Lucky Bat work and publishing stuff (once I finish the workshop, I’m-a gonna be busy!), but I don’t know how to quantify it right now.

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*Or, crap, maybe it’s in Scotland with shapeshifting otter faeries. Dammit!

Why I haven't been blogging

I woke up today (well, yesterday as I finally get around to writing this) to an email from my mother: “Why haven’t you written a blog since July 12? I miss them.”

While it’s always nice to be loved and missed…here’s what I’ve been doing since then.

Ken was in a motorcycle accident late Thursday, July 11 (Pacific time). I blogged about that here, in a semi-conscious state because lovely people were calling me at all hours to find out how he was and how I was. I love those people. I also love sleep. I had to choose between the two, and I chose the people.

Saturday remains something of a blur. According to my notes, along with all the calls, I edited some stories to publish and tidied my dresser. I believe I also unpacked the bag I was to take to Oregon (I’d shipped the bulk of my stuff because the plan had been for Ken to ride there after the IBR and attend a goodly portion of the workshop, and then we’d ride home together).

Early Sunday morning, well before I’d intended to wake up, Ken called to tell me that no, I absolutely no-arguing-book-the-flight had to go to the workshop that I’d cancelled upon hearing of his accident. I repacked and we were both on a plane that afternoon.

We’re officially not allowed to blog about workshops, so that took up the rest of that week (through the following Saturday). Ken napped a lot and my brain exploded from an overload of business information. Sunday we headed to Portland, and Monday I worked like a fiend while Ken met with one of his customers. We had dinner with friends that night, and Tuesday we were on a plane home. Our luggage, however, was not. We stopped at our favorite Thai place near the airport and arrived home at about 9 pm. Our luggage was delivered at 3:20 am.

Since then I’ve been working full time, taking care of Ken and the cats and the house, running errands, and generally trying to keep my head above water. We’re sadly not up to cooking healthy meals each night, but Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods prepared meals are getting us through. Except for the night we ordered from Pizza Hut because I found a $9 any size any topping coupon online and at 9 pm, I was wilting from exhaustion and the concept of actual food preparation.

So that’s why I haven't been blogging. 

(I love you, Mom.)

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!

My soul is full of energy

Workshop #1 is over, which was The Business and Craft of Short Fiction. Amazing stuff; for me, this one built on the Short Story Workshop (which I took right before Ken’s accident, after which I didn’t write for months), so it was almost as if it shook free some of the information from the previous workshop. Also, my submitted short story made the first cut for an upcoming Fiction River anthology, so I’m typing this with my fingers crossed! And if it doesn’t fit in (I think there are a couple other similarly themed stories from invited writers), I have a fun story in an already-created world of a novel that’s almost finished, so indie pubbing the story would be a great ad for the novel.

Plus, I had an utterly wonderful time rooming with the beautiful Val, and carpooling back and forth with Terry, Sean, Val, and Rob proved to be hysterical and off-color (and I think that’s largely my fault). And I met some fantastic writers and hung out with old friends, and my soul is full of energy from the intelligent, exciting, and funny conversations we’ve all been having.

The next workshop doesn’t start until Thursday night, so I’ve got a few days to recover and get some stuff done. On my plate is finishing one commissioned short story and writing another story; reading all the manuscripts for the workshop (I think I have 20 to go); a girls’ night with Leslie, Lisa, Chris, and Stephie; rooming with Leslie and all the fun that entails; more walks on the beach (provided the weather holds); and a few other work-related things. Whee!

Road trip! Writing retreat! and more!

I’m in Oregon again, this time for two nearly back-to-back workshops. But we came up early because Ken has work to do in Portland, so I get a couple of writing retreat days.

It’s raining, and I’m sitting in my little cabin listening to the cars swish by on the highway and plotting this afternoon and evening and the next few days. Sometimes I like the planning rather than the actual doing; the excitement and potential and possibilities. I’m working on keeping that excitement high during projects.

We drove up the coast in the car, towing the motorcycle, because Ken’s going to work on it at his friend’s shop to get it ready for the Iron Butt Rally in July. The first night, we stayed in Pebble Beach with my sister and her husband; they’re not that far away and yet we see them far too infrequently. We had time for a walk with my sister the next morning before we hit the road again. We had fantastic pizza (chicken, pesto, garlic, onion, green peppers, olives) in Eureka and spent the night in Gold Beach at a former Best Western that’s now under private ownership by people who are into the Arts & Crafts Movement and William Morris, etc., so the décor is Craftsman. Very nice.  :-)

On the last day, we stopped in Newport at one of the places considered to have the best chowder on the coast (largely because last year we stopped somewhere else for the same thing, and the chowder was fantastic, but we couldn’t remember where that was!). The chowder was good, but not out of this word, and their idea of chips (as in fish-and-chips) were round, crispy slices of potato, not great thick fries, and they served us Lipton tea even though afterwards I saw they had a Tazo tea display around the corner! Oh well. We then wandered through a pagan/New Age shop, where I rummaged through a bowl of polished rocks with words on them and to my delight found JOY! (My words for this year are Focus and Joy, and I’m pretty sure I have a FOCUS rock in the set that my friend Christine gave me a few years ago.)

And then we went to the Sea Lion Caves, because I’d never been and always wanted to go. Now, I’ve seen sea lions and elephant seals on beaches and piers before, but this was different. You go down in an elevator to almost sea level, go into the cave, and then look down into the part of the cave that’s open to the ocean, where masses of female and baby sea lions are humping around on rocks. It’s…otherworldly. Their cries (which sounded more like cows than lions to me) echo over the crashing water, and they’re far enough away that (for me and my bad eyesight, at least) it can be hard to tell what they are, especially in the shadowed areas. I can’t imagine what it would be like to come across a place like that at night…it would be pretty damn creepy.

After that, we made it to Lincoln City and my beloved Anchor Inn, settled in to my usual cabin (I’m rooming with one friend for the first workshop and a different friend for the second workshop, and this cabin has two bedrooms), and I worked on a short story until we went out for Chinese with Kris & Dean and Chris & Steve. Shrimp and veggies, yum. Then it was back to the cabin to finish the story, because it was due at midnight, and I got it done before that, which meant Ken and I had time to watch the penultimate episode of series 3 of Downton Abbey and spend some time together before bed.

We slept in, made it to breakfast (Kip’s breakfasts are to die for) where we hung out with fellow writer Annie Bellet, who also came early for a writing retreat of her own. (The first workshop doesn’t start ‘til Saturday evening.) Then we watched the final episode of series 3 of Downton Abbey (yay! I can finally talk about it with other people!) before he hit the road for Portland. Sigh. I miss him always, but it’s especially hard after a road trip where we’ve been in close quarters and having so much fun together.

But, now I have to hunker down and work, and also spend time with friends! Lev and Gayle are coming to visit tomorrow, and spending the night. I’m hoping to have lunch with some folks tomorrow as well (although I have a noon business call, so we’ll see). Still, I have a story I’d like to finish today, and editing (my own and others’), and fun stuff like that. And then hopefully I’ll have time to curl up and watch something, or just read.

And probably update my blog more often than normal, you lucky devils, you.

A blog about why I haven't blogged

There are generally three reasons I stop blogging regularly:

• I’m not feeling well
• I’m too busy writing/working
• I’m too busy with other things

All three of these things have hit me this month alone, in a different order:

• I went to five Styx concerts in six days, including hosting a friend from Minnesota for three of them, and she won the VIP Experience with Tommy Shaw so I got to show my inner 17-year-old what the back of the stage looks like.
• I then came down with a cold, which knocked me on my butt for about five days.
• I’m about to head off to two workshops in Oregon, both of which had/have stories due ahead of time (story #1 was due at midnight tonight, and has been finished and mailed [and it’s probably the suckiest story I’ve ever written, but it’s finished and mailed, so, onwards]; story #2 is due Wednesday at midnight and has been started, but we leave tomorrow morning, spend tomorrow night with my sister, and then are taking two more days to get up the coast, arriving Wednesday afternoon and then going out to dinner with friends, so OMFG this story needs to get written somewhere in all of that), and I’m working on two copyediting jobs, one of which is on a tight-ish deadline (I’m actually serving as editor and publisher of the book, even though it won’t be published by Soul’s Road Press), and I need to prep materials for the book sale at the California Dreamin’ conference (order comp copies, order some SRP promo cards) that’s less than two weeks after we return from OR, and I have to catch up on business correspondence.

All of which is to say, I’ll actually have a couple of "free" days in OR before the first workshop starts, so maybe I’ll write a blog post then. Except that I have another story to finish, and several languishing novels, and don’t get me started about the design for What Beck’ning Ghost, and….