Posts (page 2)

And then I somehow rolled into semi-copyediting.

Reginald didn't make it. He's now winging his way to PodCastle.

Ten ways to tell that you're reading a story by me:

1. The protagonist is female--any age.
2. The protagonist has a close male friend. This friend can be human, animal, vegetable, dead, whatever.
3. Cute animals are involved.
4. There are references, varying in vagueness, to other stories written by me.
5. There are references, varying in vagueness, to Lovecraft.
6. Tea or biscuits are mentioned.
7. There is a happy ending.
8. Enemies were once friends, have familial connections to the protagonists, or end up being friends.
9. It's set in the south of England (most likely Devon).
10. Although horror tropes are used, the story is not scary.

So, I should be hearing in a matter of days whether I've made it into Robots Beyond or not. Matthew has already secured himself a spot, while Bobbie has just heard that Southern Ballads didn't make it. Still, a quite a lot of our writing group have made it into the antho--Gren's sub was the first to be accepted, and John W. Oliver's fantastic Coyote tale was accepted almost immediately.

Right now I'm proofreading what will be the first release by the recently founded Swarm Press. I have no idea where it's going, but it's already creepy and engaging. Should be a good start. I can't say more than that, because it's apparently super seekrit.

I'm also plotting yet another novel with Matthew--this one is the Dickens/Lovecraft/Timetravel thing that's been simmering in the back of my head for a while. Jacob said he wanted time travel novels, so yeah. The Gods novel has been put on the backburner for a while.

I'm also finally working on Downstairs, which is now called Emily's Door. That was the title of the first chapter, but it sounds good and it seems appropriate, so it's now the title of the whole project. Who knows how many times that will change before I'm done.

No idea what the word count on that one is,  because I'm using an actual notebook. So far it looks like the chapters are very short, which is fine. I was aiming for something between kids and young adult. Besides, it's only the first draft, so it's allowed to be crap.

And uni is slowly killing me. I need to write two big essays and one small essay in the next few weeks, and I'm stumped. I also need to read a load of books, and my motivation has gone down the drain. Still, stress usually helps me. Usually.

Argh.

Okay, I've got time and motivation. Here's a real blog entry.

I've been absolutely swamped with stuff recently. This, needless to say, is good, but it is also tiring and less-than-ideal when it comes to blogging. This is why I've been neglecting my Vox.

I've had to read a lot of books for uni. Time-consuming. It also leaves me almost fed-up with reading--which is why it took me such a ridiculously long time to review Dead Men and Women Walking for Flames Rising.

I haven't heard anything back from Pseudopod, but I wasn't expecting to. It's only been a few weeks.

I'm currently plotting a novel with Matthew, as well. It'll be a cyberpunk novel heavy on mythology. The research has been extremely fun and very interesting. Once we're done working on the GC sub, we'll get back to that. So far, it's looking quite promising.

This week I'm also proofreading an upcoming novel for Permuted. I'm actually really looking foward to that--I've been wondering for months when this particular work was going to be released, and now I'm basically getting a sneak-peek. Awesome.

I'm also reviewing another upcoming Permuted title for Flames Rising, which is, again, awesome.

Also, I got a 'special thanks' on the legalese page of the other novel I proofread for Permuted--Empire. Weird idea, but fun nonetheless.

When the stores open again, I'll be buying a microphone for yet another project. Me and a friend from the Permuted Boards are recording an audio version of Eric Shapiro's excellent novella, It's Only Temporary. It'll debut on Library of the Living Dead, and we're hoping to get it on Podiobooks afterwards.

So yeah, that's why my updates have been few and far between recently, and why I've taken this past weekend off. My brain is slowly recuperating. Aah, brain.

Have completed and sent off Panzersloth, OCR is in the 'probable' folder for RB, am going to proofread Bestial next week, am plotting a cyberpunk/mythology novel with Matthew, am terrible at keeping up with my blog.

I realised that I hadn't sent anything off in forever, so I subbed Indigenous Species to Pseudopod. It's the best story I have that isn't intended for a specific pub, so off it went. It says they're more interested in tragedy than comedy, and that they'd prefer something without standard horror tropes such as zombies.

And I've sent them a funny zombie story. Still, I'm hoping that the tone will be enough. Also, I'm hoping that they'll just accept it because it's a funny zombie story. How can you not like funny zombie stories?

Also, after seen Mad Tante's post, I'm considering trying Script Frenzy this year. I have no idea why. I have no interest at all in scriptwriting, because, frankly, I suck. And I like description.

But I'm considering doing a Susan & Mitchell script, because I love writing their dialogue. Also, I'd just be writing it for me, so I could throw in as many giant sloths and Lovecraftian horrors as I wanted.

Hmm.

I wrote two short stories today: Prada & The Giant Sloth, and Dentophilia.

That's about 9000 words of fiction. Woah.

It might take me forever to come up with a workable short story plot, but once I have one, I use it.

Today I wrote Panzersloth, based on an outline developed by Matthew. It's so nice knowing that once I have a story, I will sit down and write the little bugger.

I churned out this in an afernoon, just like I did OCR. Of course, OCR was 7500 words, so it's slightly more impressive.

All I need is a workable plot for a novel and I can get one done in a month.

If only.