August 4th, 1999

I've spent the past while unable to use my upstairs (ie. the newer, more powerful) computer, and thus unable to update my website. I'm not going to go into details, but I will say that three year olds and technology mesh even worse than me and technology. More destructively, anyway. But the computer is working (mostly), I can access my website, and this journal is officially back. I've missed it ;)

OK. That said, what is going on in my life as a writer? Well, I've blown a few holes in my dead, storyless streak. "Go Lovely Rose", my latest short, crossgenre story is awaiting it's last tweaking to be sent off to the On Spec future crimes issue. I hope the folk there like it. It's been getting odd crits...either folk love it, and understand it, or love it, and don't quite get it. I'm still working on that :) I'm also halfway through a little traditional ghost story type thingy that I just had to write. And I have a story inspired by a sea chanty bursting to get out as soon as the ghost story is done. And I've written three poems in the last week alone. So all's getting to be right with the world on that front.

I attended Westercon in Spokane, and had a great time. I met wonderful people (the editors of Talebones are as nice as folk say) and did some really cool panels, and generally enjoyed myself. I ended up running a poetry workshop with John Dalmas, and finding out that he is one of the sweetest men to ever live, with the most amazing stories to tell (as well as sell). I owe him a letter :)

I've not had a lot out lately, but the mail has brought a few rejections (On Spec, Bonedance, Pirate Writings, Flesh and Blood, and Altair) and a few great acceptances. The Nasty Snips antholgy wants my short short "Choice", and Weird Tales has accepted my long poem "The Deed of Snigli". Also, The Dragon's Scroll ezine just bought a gaming article I'd originally cowritten for Troll, with a favorite game master of mine. The title on that one is "Do Characters Need Coffee Breaks? - The Art of Pacing Your Adventures."

Enough for today. More soon. I promise :)

June 6th, 1999

For everyone who thought this journal was dead...well, nearly. I've been letting life get to me too much and burying my head in the sand. Not good. Something is not quite right in my life. Maybe it's simply that I slowed down too much for a while and couldn't regain momentum, but one way or another, I'm more than a bit mucked up. I've written next to nothing in a month and a half, missing deadlines and letting writing partners down. On the other hand, I did finish reading for XX, selecting not one, but two issues worth of material. I think it will work out well. I ended up with far more submissions, and of far higher quality than I expected. I also had a few intense marketing days and sent out 12 manuscripts. So now I just have to focus on writing again. Back to my colaborations! Onto a totally non-saleable, but fun long rhyming poem! I've en had an idea for a new story, which will probably have my lack of external conflict problem, but what the heck, it may get me writing again.

I've also been receiving rejections again. Two quick ones from Altair (ok, one was over a month, but it looks like the sub never reached them the first time) one from On Spec and one from Dreams of Decadence. All were of the "good story, but not for us" variety. One also from Jackhammer, on a story the editor liked but thought wasn't quite right for the theme.

On the interesting firsts side of things, I attended VCon last month as a "pro" for the first time. It was an experience ;) Actually, overall it was fun, a nice way of preparing for Westercon next month. The people were great, and the organization was not half bad from what I've seen of other cons. I bit off more than i could chew (I did 7 hours of panels and such on Saturday alone) but it went prety well. I ended up spending quite a bit of time with some top Canadian poets, swapping poems and marketing stratagies. They're awfully nice people. If only I hadn't had to do a panel on staking the romantic vampire in front of a crowd of black clad, sunglass wearing Masqueraders, the trip would have been close to perfect ;) One way or another, it was inspiring.

April 22nd, 1999

No responses in this week's mail. This bothers me because it reminds me that I have very little out right now, only four stories and around a dozen poems. Not good. A lot sitting around on the hard drive awaiting revision. I know I have to get to work on the and get them out again, but there are so many other things to do, so many new stories to write. I've made myself a "to do" list. I'm generally such a disorganized person that this little bit of forethought is both a sourse of pride for me, and of fear ;)

Carolyn and I have started a new story using the characters and style of "A Matter of PRINTciple". So far it's going well, but I think we'll have problems keeping it short enough for our intended market. We always have so much fun when Prue and Chari start chatting ;) I also wrote a new poem this week, "Thorns", which I love to death (grin) but which I can't think of a good home for. Does anyone know of a good market for very dark poetry without an obvious fantasy or sf elemement?

I'm experiencing a sudden rush of subs for XX, some of which are very good. I'd still love to see more poetry, though, and short shorts.

In NAW news this week, wow! A lot of great news! Good sales, and lucky (and talented) people accepted to Clarion. I wish my life allowed applying. Ah well. Tippi, I'm so glad your dog is getting better. I've had a few close scrapes with the cats in the past years, the worst of which was the time Erin Flyn fell off the balcony railing (she rolls in her sleep) and landed on candlestick on the dining room table. Over 1000 dollars in vet fees, but she's ok now. Animals can be expensive members of the family.

April 15th, 1999

I know that it's been ages since I've updated this journal, and believe me, I do feel guilty. All I can say for myself is that the bad cold I spoke of in my last post got much worse and stuck around for a long time, my entire family seems to have been having health problems, all my friends seem to have decided that now would be a great time to come for a visit, and real life has generally been interfering with my writing plans.

On the other hand, I have written 5 new poems and one new story in the past few weeks. I've also been keeping on top of the editing for XX. I'm still getting a constant flow of new story subs, though not much in the way of poetry.

A mass of responses have been showing up. A bounce from WotF, a 145 day rejection (close but not quite) from On Spec, and a 245 day rejection from Tesseracts. The good news was an acceptance on my poem "Epiphany", which should be in Neverworlds 5. The most (in some ways) depressing news was response to a query on three poems that went out to Weird Tales near the end of November. I'm told that they were never received :(

There's been a lot of discussion lately on the Speculations Rumor Mill, about what the factors of good poetry are. Recently, I've been doing some unofficial tutoring on just that subject, helping a new poetry editor get his sea legs. I'm one of the few poets I know who is equally happy to write rhyming and unrhyming work, free verse, or more structured. I've been trying to figure out why, and why so few others are equally comfortable on both sides of the traditional/modern fence. I'm still trying to gain some insight here, though I have a few ideas. If anyone else out there cares to offer their feelings on the matter, I'd love to hear them.

March 29th, 1999

I've been fighting a bad cold for the past week. My writing productivity has gone way down, but I'm still producing a bit. One new poem to take the place of the one that sold to Altair, and some plotting for a story. Also some sections added to an almost complete project. I hope to finish it off tomorrow. I do so love unhappy endings ;)

One 40ish day rejection from Neverworlds came in two days ago on one of my favourite, yet hardest to sell stories. Howver, two of my poems made the first cut there, and I'm hoping to see at least one in the next issue.

The good mail for this week included a check from Jackhammer for my writer's duet, the contract from Robert at Altair, and my invitation to Westercon. I'm excited about the last. It will be my first year attending cons as a guest, and seeing some of the names of those who will also be attending has me both eager and downright nervous. Actually, I'll probably be able to deal with the excitement better if I concentrate on saving the money to attend instead of on how I'll feel once I'm there.

March 23rd, 1999

An interesting few days. Two days ago I received an acceptance (16 days) from Altair. My poem "Where Beauty Reigns" will appear in Altair #4, the Worldcon issue. The TOC looks to be a great one, and Altair is always a classy magazine, so I'm inclined to dance on air.

Of course, just to keep me earthbound, in today's mail there was a 162 day rejection from Newfangled Fairy Tales. A nice one, I guess, saying that the story came close and to send them more, but still a bit of a downer.

The duet Carolyn and I had up on Jackhammer this past week got good reviews, and we are planning to write more stories with those characters. They were pure fun to write, actually. Also, I'm still getting emails from people stating that they are nominating "Raven Song" for the Aurora. It would be very cool to make the ballot, but I'm not going to count chickens.

The reading for XX Issue 2 is off to a good start, with subs trickling in steadily. I'm surprised that I've received very little traditional dark fantasy, most of the subs being very modern in feel. Fun reading, though.

March 17th, 1999

One rejection today, a 40 dayer from Pirate Writings on a humorous short short piece. Humor isn't easy to sell. Also, yesterday I received my little postcard from Writers of the Future. A while still to wait for results on that one.

Carolyn DuCusatis and I have a writer's duet going on Jackhammer ezine right now. It's an epistolary story, something i've always wanted to write, and we're both having a lot of fun with it. I think we'll be doing a lot more with these characters and their letters in the future.

Since other members of NAW are discussing childhood crushes, I have to admit to a very early crush on Casper the Friendly Ghost. Later I wised up and fell for Luke Skywalker. Still later I decided that I agreed with my mother: Chewie was the real heartthrob in that movie.

March 13th, 1999

Yay! I'm now one of the Not a Web Ring writers! I can't think of a more friendly group to belong to. I've already had multiple welcoming emails and it really is a wonderful feeling.

Unfortunately, aside from that, the week has not been very pleasant. There have been problems on the editing front, and serious health problems in my family. As if that wasn't enough, yesterday I got the bad news that Altered Perceptions, a magazine that had bought a poem of mine is dying before publishing it.
Of course, I have been getting a bit of writing done. One of the two projects I mentioned earlier is now pretty well complete, and the other is well underway. Now if I can only keep up the pace ;)

March 8, 1999

Today is the first day of the rest of my journal. For some months now,I've been reading the journals of other writers, people whom I respect, and have learned a lot from. I'm hoping that my own journal will be as valuable, both to myself, and to others.

Right now I am actually working on two precontracted writing projects, one a duet for Jackhammer, and one that is a (shhh...don't tell) secret for now. Today I also posted guidelines for a new project I'm editing, Issue 2 of XX magazine for Steve Algieri of Eternity. See my editing page for details.

I have a lot of work out right now, but the mailbox continues to be empty.

Send feedback to:
marcie_tentchoff@sunshine.net
Copyright Marcie Lynn Tentchoff 1999 all rights reserved
Void where prohibited