Shock Totem
And issue #1 is available for purchase, for only the measly amount of $5.99, you can own your very own copy!
And yes, I *do* happen to have a story appearing within those very pages. "Below the Surface" is a dark fantasy story with a tinge of horrorful happenings. And my fellow flister
has the lead story, "The Music Box."
I think this is going to be an awesome magazine. Ken has been more than pleasant to work with as an editor. He's kept us informed with regular updates all through the process of launch. I'm really pleased and can't wait for my contributor's copy. For those of you going to NECON, free issues will be handed out.
Seriously, I hope you support Shock Totem. I know Ken is dedicated to its success. I think they're still closed to submissions, but trust me, you definitely want to be part of this.
Plague Chalice - Christine Lucas
A Celebration in Blue Silk - C.L. Holland
Go, LH'ers!
Oh! And apparently you can vote for your favorite story, if you're so inclined.
Willful Steel
Teaser: Soul trapped in a sword, Ameena meets up with the wizard who trapped her there, but does the
warrior carrying her have the skill to defeat him?
Stats for June 2009
Words: 18200
Ave. Words per day: 606.67
Total Words since July 28, 2008: 83,949
# Pennies in Jar: 8
# Days writing 100 words (at least) per day: 338
Stories Submitted: 9
Acceptances: 0
Rejections: 4
Publications: 0
At Market: 8
What the hell are we doing?
We are attempting to write a novel in one month. Thirty-one days, beginning at midnight CST July 1 and ending at 11:59 p.m. CST July 31.
I want to work on something I've already written. Is that okay?
Ummmmmmmm.... yes. Provided you're retyping and rewriting, not just revising a few words and calling it done. Rewriting is just as much of a creative act as writing. Just remember, we're aiming for the 50,000 words. No fair cutting and pasting from the old document when the rest of us are typing our fingers off.
Should I do my outline and character studies first?
Hell, yes! If that's the way you work, go for it. But I'd suggest you do it NOW, rather than wait for July 1. Because if you aren't typing on July 1, that 1613 quota's gonna get bigger.
So what do we post about?
Trials and tribblations. Quick research questions, stuck on a word, help I've fallen into my computer and can't get up. Try to post at least once a day with your word count since your last post and your total word count to date. We're all on the honor system here, so don't cheat or you'll come back as a gnat in your next life. Karma is a bitch.
Although my friend and I call our morning walk our Husband-Bashing Session, let me just state officially that my husband is my rock, the one whom I can always depend on, the one who supports me and holds me up and makes me strong. The one who still can make me laugh after all these years, who respects me and values me and never puts me down.
I guess I'll keep him.
So we're off to the coast for 4 relaxing days. No baby-sitting for me for the rest of the week, and lots of time to do only what I want. YAY! I'll be around still--just not very much.
Play nice! I've got a story to finish revising. What I'm hoping for is inspiration to start a new one. Seems like forever!
"The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making."
He talks about the constant rejection that writers face and how difficult it sometimes is to have confidence in yourself. He goes on to say John D. MacDonald used to say that the first million words one writes as a writer are crap. (Hey, I just wrote 500 of those the other day!!)
So in the goal of writing those million words of crap and how to track one's progress, Mr. Hendrickson keeps a jar on his desk. For every 10,000 words he writes, he puts a penny in the jar. A hundred pennies means a million words.
I thought it was appropriate to use a penny for every 10k, as that's probably about what most of us average as "pay" for our work, by the time you figure in muse time, rewriting and revision and plotting and character study. Personally, I doubt I make even that much.
I thought it a pretty neat idea though. I've been tracking my daily progress of writing at least 100 words a day for almost a year now. On July 28, I will have made a year. And in that almost year, I've tracked 76k of words. I'm not counting what I've written prior to last July, although I may go back at some point and try to guesstimate how many words I have prior.
But for now, there are 7 pennies in my jar.
I just wrote the most 500 useless piece of crap words I have ever put on paper in my entire lifetime. I did it, because I'm trying to write 500 words a day -- most days, anyway -- this month, so I *had* to do it. But it probably took me an hour.
But I was too disgusted and tired, so I went to bed instead. I just read those 500 words, and you know what? They aren't all that bad after all. There was a clunky phrase or two in there, but for the most part, they got the job done.
How is it that our mood at the time can affect how we perceive our words? I guess the lesson to be learned here is that the important thing is to get the words on the page, every day that you can. And if you have perfectionist tendencies like I do, not to expect that every word and every writing session is going to result in words of gold. Just let it happen and worry about cleaning it up after. And realize that perhaps it's only your perception that makes the writing seem crappy. (Not always, of course!)
So go, WRITE!
‘Til Death Do Us Part, by Jennifer Pelland
No Superheroes Here: An interview with Alan Robert, by K. Allen Wood
Complexity, by Don D’Ammassa
Mulligan Stew, by Brian Rosenberger
Strange Goods and Other Oddities (Reviews)
Below The Surface, by Pam L. Wallace
Slider, by David Niall Wilson
On a Hellish Road: An interview with William Ollie, by Michell Howarth
The Dead March, by Brian Rappatta
Thirty-Two Scenes From a Dead Hooker’s Mouth, by Kurt Newton
Howling Through the Keyhole (Author Notes)
Three Things Every Aspiring Writer Should Know
I especially liked the section titled "Your Stories are not Babies; They're Guinea Pigs"This one was from Abyss & Apex -- personal again, with invite to sub more. Another almost. It was well-received, but in the end, they decided not to take it.
Try, try again.
But what to do with the ones I've abandoned? Every so often the guilt attacks and I pull them out of the drawers I've hidden them away in, dust them off and tend them for a half a minute or so before I decide I was right in the first place. I throw them back in the drawer and shut it with disgust, ignoring their cries and pleas that they'll be good and not misbehave ever again. They're lying, you know, evil children that they are. They have no intention of opening up and telling me how to mold them into the best they can be. They keep their secrets, these children of mine.
Please don't send the story cops after me.
Your result for Which fantasy writer are you?...
Robert Jordan (1948-2007)
-11 High-Brow, -7 Violent, -27 Experimental and 21 Cynical!

Congratulations! You are Low-Brow, Peaceful, Traditional and Cynical! These concepts are defined below.
Robert Jordan, the pen name for James Oliver Rigney, Jr, was the author of the best-selling Wheel of Time series. This gargantuan piece of fiction, set in a world where half the source of magic has been tainted by the Evil One, so that only women can do magic without turning insane, was published between 1990 and 2005. It is scheduled to be finished by 2011 by author Brandon Sanderson, who will be working from Jordan's extensive notes, since the latter's tragic and premature death in cardiac amyloidosis made it impossible for him to finish the series by himself.
Fantasy readers across the world will remember Jordan as the creator of one of the most detailed secondary worlds ever imagined by a single person, with carefully crafted cultures, legends and conflicts. This he used as the setting for a grand epic tale of the traditional fantasy theme of Good against Evil and seemingly insignificant people discovering that they are destined to play an important role in this struggle. Although the plot centres around conflict and several important characters are warriors, be it by choice or necessity, Jordan does not bask in gory details of violence and war is described as something evil that essentially does more harm than good. However, he is able to discern the forces that might push countries into conflict, leaving little room for over-romantic notions of ever-lasting peace.
All this makes Jordan's epic tale the choice for those who are not daunted by the scope and length of what is, perhaps, the longest story ever written. There are plenty who would say that it is also one of the best.
You are also a lot like J K Rowling.
If you want some action, try David Eddings.
If you'd like a challenge, try your exact opposite, Gene Wolfe.
Your score
This is how to interpret your score: Your attitudes have been measured on four different scales, called 1) High-Brow vs. Low-Brow, 2) Violent vs. Peaceful, 3) Experimental vs. Traditional and 4) Cynical vs. Romantic. Imagine that when you were born, you were in a state of innocence, a tabula rasa who would have scored zero on each scale. Since then, a number of circumstances (including genetical, cultural and environmental factors) have pushed you towards either end of these scales. If you're at 45 or -45 you would be almost entirely cynical, low-brow or whatever. The closer to zero you are, the less extreme your attitude. However, you should always be more of either (eg more romantic than cynical). Please note that even though High-Brow, Violent, Experimental and Cynical have positive numbers (1 through 45) and their opposites negative numbers (-1 through -45), this doesn't mean that either quality is better. All attitudes have their positive and negative sides, as explained below.
High-Brow vs. Low-Brow
You received -11 points, making you more Low-Brow than High-Brow. Being high-browed in this context refers to being more fascinated with the sort of art that critics and scholars tend to favour, while a typical low-brow would favour the best-selling kind. At their best, low-brows are honest enough to read what they like, regardless of what "experts" and academics say is good for them. At their worst, they are more likely to read what their neighbours like than what they would choose themselves.
Violent vs. Peaceful
You received -7 points, making you more Peaceful than Violent. This scale is a measurement of a) if you are tolerant to violence in fiction and b) whether you see violence as a means that can be used to achieve a good end. If you aren't, and you don't, then you are peaceful as defined here. At their best, peaceful people are the ones who encourage dialogue and understanding as a means of solving conflicts. At their worst, they are standing passively by as they or third parties are hurt by less scrupulous individuals.
Experimental vs. Traditional
You received -27 points, making you more Traditional than Experimental. Your position on this scale indicates if you're more likely to seek out the new and unexpected or if you are more comfortable with the familiar, especially in regards to culture. Note that traditional as defined here does not equal conservative, in the political sense. At their best, traditional people don't change winning concepts, favouring storytelling over empty poses. At their worst, they are somewhat narrow-minded.
Cynical vs. Romantic
You received 21 points, making you more Cynical than Romantic. Your position on this scale indicates if you are more likely to be wary, suspicious and skeptical to people around you and the world at large, or if you are more likely to believe in grand schemes, happy endings and the basic goodness of humankind. It is by far the most vaguely defined scale, which is why you'll find the sentence "you are also a lot like x" above. If you feel that your position on this scale is wrong, then you are probably more like author x. At their best, cynical people are able to see through lies and spot crucial flaws in plans and schemes. At their worst, they are overly negative, bringing everybody else down.
Author picture from Wikipedia. Licensed under the following conditions: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Here's a link to his post: http://douglascohen.livejournal.com/181
Hurry!
There's the two vertical lines down the screen, which an upgrade on the graphics driver did not address (but thanks for the suggestion Mike!), and copying and pasting has been wanky for some time now -- I highlight a section to copy it and it un-highlights itself, or tries to move the text instead of copy it, or the highlight only catches half of what I want to highlight, or it won't copy it the first or second time. Now today it froze up a couple of time on the internets, and my taskbar somehow got the box unchecked to automatically hide it, so it wouldn't move out of the way.
Yep, I hear the death march playing in the background. I really don't think I'm going to want to get a new laptop with Vista, so I'll probably be looking at one of the little emachines or whatever they call them that still run Vista. I don't think it'll be worth spending any money to see if this one's fixable when it's already 4 years old.
Or is there? Recommendations on an emachine brand or specs would be welcome. And then maybe this baby will just keep on limping along for a while yet.
May words: 12,300
Ave. words per day: 396.77
Days of Daily Writing: 308
Submissions: 7
Rejections: 8
Acceptances: 0
Publications: 0
Stories Awaiting Publication: 3 (2 in July 09; 1 possibly never)
WIP in varying stages: 16
Still writing along but not with much speed -- or acceptances, dangnabbit. The WIP in progress -- I have a lot of orphaned stories that I started and never finished, or finished and never revised. Some need a lot of work. Ok, most need a lot of work. But once I've listed them, that kind of forces me to remember them instead of leaving them abandoned in the Story file. Most of them are full of warts and pimples and need a magic wand to change them into a gem. *looks for her magic wand and finds she has, once again, lost the blasted thing--or maybe it crawled into another dimension.** Sigh.
Hence, I downloaded Dropbox the other day to back up my writing stuff. It's a file sync service that gives you 2 gig of online storage for free. It runs pretty seamless in the background. I found it through courtesy of Jeremy Tolbert, aka
The only small drawback, is that it puts its folder in your documents folder and any files or folders you want it to sync has to be placed inside that dropbox folder. So if you have any shortcuts to files, the path is changed after. Plus I keep forgetting that my files are no longer in the folder where they've been for that last 4 years. It'll just take getting used to. Haven't yet decided how much I want to keep track of. Mainly writing stuff, as those are the files that change the most often. The others will still be backed up to the external hard drive.
If you want an invite, let me know, cause apparently I get more free storage for referrals. But you can just sign up on your own, too.
So I devoured Issue 10 this weekend. I enjoyed almost all the stories, a couple didn't thrill me all that much. But on the whole, I was very pleased. My favorites:
"Jaguar Woman" by Silvia Moreno-Garcia - easily my favorite favorite. She has lost her name and even worse, her jaguar shape. The Spaniard who keeps her brings her trinkets, one a silver mirror in which she sees two dark eyes, but they are not jaguar eyes. She sobs, but he doesn't understand, but just wants.
"Carnivale of Abandoned Tales" by Catilyn Paxson: Beautiful language and evocative images in this story of fairy tale characters working in a carnival.
"One for Sorrow" by Shweta Narayan: A tale within a tale, of witches and magpies and sisters--even if they are only sisters of the heart.
"River Water" by Becca De La Rosa: A tale of Allison's journey to bring her sister back from the land of Death. Her will is strong enough to pass all the challenges, but some things are just meant to be.
"A Painter, a Sheep, and a Boa Constrictor" by Nir Yaniv: A boy with a Maker machine asks a stranger to draw him a sheep. He doesn't mean on paper, either. A very short tale, but very nicely done.
ARGH! My stories often receive comments like this. I haven't been able to figure out what I'm doing wrong, besides, of course, the simple fact that my stories are often snapshots from novels rather than full story arcs. I have a lot of trouble trying to see just a scene without seeing all the story behind and in front of it. But a comment from the James Gunn in his online workshop has given me a glimmer of insight. He said, in essence, that 2 issues I'd left unresolved in the story (the backgrounds and motives of 2 lesser characters) made the story seem unfinished. And that while some had commented that my story seemed like part of a novel, in actuality, it was that it seemed unfinished because of those two issues. That I could argue that the background and motives were irrelevant, but until I addressed them, the story would seem unresolved.
In this particular rejected story, it's not the background of the characters, or their motives, I don't think, but mainly that I mean the story to be escapist fun, a comedy. But I didn't really give the heroine a problem to solve or overcome. She meets another character and sparkling, witty dialog ensues, but what is the real issue? Nothing. Just a vehicle to bring them together.
So I think I'm seeing that when I want to skip over an issue because I think it's irrelevant or not needed for this particular story, that I'd better stop and think again. Of course one can't include everything. But in the workshopped story, the two characters have pretty important roles and the reason why I didn't give the motives to the one character was because I wasn't sure myself of what his motive was. But since the outcome is affected by his involvement, his role and motive is important. In the rejected story, well, even a frothy slightly comic piece needs something meaty to hang it on.
I hope this is a lesson learned.
