Another One Bites The Dust...

"If You Listen Softly..." was rejected.

Again, I sigh deeply...

Oh Lin...How You Vex Me...

So...when is a murder mystery set in the far future not a murder mystery set in the far future?  When you neglect to employ the advanced technology that the characters have at their disposal to help in their search for the killer.

There are a lot of plot holes in "The Fault Lies Not", some of them big enough to fly Moya* through.  For a couple of highly skilled government agents, Lin and her partner make a lot of basic mistakes.  It's all bothering me so much that I can't even get the story finished then fix it.  (The were plot holes in "A Voice in the Darkness" but they were minor and I was able to fix them while still in the first draft stage.  The plot holes in "The Fault Lies Not" are confounding me.)  Which only means one thing...

It's time to step back, get the printed copy, the red pen and do a quick editing pass through it, identify what needs help, where things should be added (the federal agents didn't hold one briefing with the local cops to make sure they were all on the same page?) and generally try and fill the plot holes so I can get the story finished.

Hey, it worked with the novel.  I feel better about the plot line now that I've rewritten the last five and a half chapters.  It's back on the rails after flying off in Chapter 17.  Now it's time to do the same thing with "The Fault Lies Not".  It's a shorter work, currently around 12,000 words, so it shouldn't take me long.

What I really have to do is stop thinking of it as a short story.  It's passed 10,000 words...it passed short a long time ago.  Get this editing done and get the story told.

*That's a Farscape reference for those who don't know.  Go to Wikipedia and look it up.

01/16/12: Continued Evolution As A Writer...Yeah, I'm Working On A Website

After much deliberation and wondering, I've decided it was time to start working on a website.  There's not much at the moment, just a title, which it shares with this blog (My Cluttered Mind), a picture of the Andromeda Galaxy and a quick introductory paragraph.  I'll be working on it as time allows.

For now, I'll probably just use it to highlight this blog and track my submissions in a bit more detail.  Once the novel is finished and ready to submit, I'll probably track my search for an agent (since most traditional book publishers won't look at a manuscript if it doesn't come from an agent).  I'll also be featuring my poetry, too.

(Yes, I used to write a lot of poetry.  There was a time, when I was on Weight Watchers and attending the weekly meetings, I would write a haiku before every meeting.  And I wrote a very long homage to T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"...which one person thought was hysterical even though it was written in the midst of soul-crushing depression.)

I wonder...does publishing an excerpt from the stories constitute being published?  Hmmm...must look into that...

01/12/12: One Down...

"Last Light" was rejected.  I sigh deeply.

I'll find someplace else to send it over the weekend.

Again, I sigh deeply.

...And They're Away!

I've now sent out the six unpublished stories to six magazines, all of them paying markets.  (I'm through giving it away.)  Now comes the second hardest part:  waiting for the replies.

The first hardest, of course, is writing the cover letter.  It's never easy condensing a multi-thousand word story into a couple of sentences that'll grab an editor's attention enough to read the story.

And now...back to the novel...

Not A Resolution...Really, It's Not

I don't make resolutions (I resolve to never make resolutions), but I did promise myself that I would put more effort into getting published.

To that end...

I'm going to be putting most of my effort into getting the novel completed.  I've started going back through the last five completed chapters, trying to get the novel back on track.  (It's about a vampire, not a mage and her girlfriend.  They get their own story.)  For the epublishing project, I edited ten of the eleven completed stories.  (One is so bad it actually has to be rewritten, not just edited.)  Before I continue with the epublishing project, I'm going to send the stories out again, see if there's any interest.  If there isn't, I'll continue with the epublishing contract.


And, of course, I'll only be sending them out to mags & emags that pay.  I'm through giving it away.