What's New? Jan. 28, 2002

Forward to February, 2002...

1-28-02

NEWSFLASH!

I finished my first story of the year last night, a hard SF piece that came up to be 2,400 words, and submitted it directly to the SFF Net Anthology. Not sure if it will make it, but at least I tried, before the February 1 deadline.

Which reminds me, I like the way Toby described his regular writing session, so maybe I'll do the same thing.

First thing I usually do is go get tea. Then I load up Word Perfect 5.1 for DOS in full-screen mode (cannot abide it in in a small window), and that way it looks completely like I am in old DOS. My Word Perfect has its background set to black, and the color of the foreground text is dark gray, so as not to create a sharp contrasting glare. This way it is soft and does not cause a headache. It also creates the gentle illusion of staring into a complete void. (My underscore is set to yellow text, and bold is blue.).

I have two hard disks, and I back up by saving the file on both C and D, as I work. It's sort of obsessive compulsive, but that's how it is.

If there's any music playing in the room, at this point I turn it off, and sometimes even close the door of my room, so as not to get any noise or distractions from parents or animals in the rest of the house and their TVs. I can only write in utter dead silence (maybe this explains in part why I like to work in the wee hours of night, when it is lovely and peaceful and quiet).

I open the file from C which has the story or the chapter. I start reading it from the beginning, or at least from the beginning of the section. When I come to the end of what I had written, I sort of "open my mind" to what's next. If nothing comes, I go back, and re-read the previous section again, sometimes starting even earlier, and catching minor typos, or changing a sentence or two. A note -- I cannot work on later parts of any draft unless I feel comfortable with the beginning and earlier sections. They don't have to be perfect, but they need to be pretty darn close to it.

If after having read over I still have nothing in my mind, I usually task-switch over to Windows, where I have Free Agent, Eudora Lite, Explorer (at least 3 open windows, one with Yahoo!Groups, one with Amazon.com, one with Google.com). Here I might check my newsgroup, the SFWA lounge, the Wildside newsgroup, some other group, my e-mail, take a gazillionth look at my book rank on Amazon, go to some interesting URL that someone mentions in the ngs, etc. I kill about 5 minutes, then try again. If things still don't flow, I get up, go get a snack, get more tea, etc.

However, if I start writing, it's either a sentence or two, or suddenly like I am a gusher. If I am in gusher mode, I feel like my brain is half in this "mode," and half in the real world only. In this state I can barely hear what's around me. For example, if someone comes in and starts talking to me, I see and hear them as if they are coming from beyond a plastic curtain, and my attention just plain cannot focus on them. My attention is stuck in gusher mode and on cruise control. I start writing, a sentence or a paragraph or even a whole page, if it flows. Then I sit up or squirm in my chair and grab my head and massage my temples and pull at my hair. I pull at clumps of my hair for hours when I write. I also constantly back up to correct my own numerous typos in each sentence (I type with 4 fingers fast, and it shows).

Then I save the file on C & D, and task switch for a quickie online bout. Sometimes I need to look up a word, in which case I visit the URL that has the online dictionary and thesaurus (I have it linked from my webpage). Occasionally I research using Google or Amazon (yes, those book summaries are surprisingly helpful in a general sense!). However, I also find that I may need to refer to a real book.

For example, I was doing a hard SF story last night, and I read half of Hawking's A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME, and some other quantum physics and cosmology books I've bought recently to teach myself that stuff (I really like it). So I end up reading a science book for a spell, then coming back and writing some more.

But here is an example of my day yesterday, Sunday. I woke up late since my usual weekend is sleep-time. Woke up around 3:00 PM to the sweet lovely sounds of rain outside. Got up leisurely and feeling happy and relaxed after a decent night's sleep, still in my nightgown checked my e-mail and the ngs, while drinking tea and stumbling over dogs. Made some late breakfast, then showered, then came back to the computer, and started to re-work the draft of the unfinished story. At that point the story really sucked as far as I was concerned, it was not clicking with me, and I was agonizing over it for about 3 hours before it finally clicked more or less (I am still not too happy but at least I am no longer shuddering). When I was done (re-writing is SUCH agony for me!), and sent it off to the editor via e-mail, I realized that it was now around 11:30 PM and I had not finished prepping my promo mailings from the night before.

Yesterday's task was an urgent special flyer mailing for the magazine ROMANTIC TIMES, with a deadline to make a particular issue's mailing, and I had to print and organize 750 flyers for distributors. The problem is, it was already 12:00 AM, I had to get up early to go to work the next day, and I had a lot to do.

So I took a big breath, knew I wasn't going to get any sleep, and stayed up till 5:00 AM on a WORKNIGHT (!!!) printing and packing the special parcel of the promo flyers -- clearing paper jams and stuffing the laser printer paper tray. Meanwhile as I was counting the pages and waiting for more to print, I was prepping three cover letters to potential book reviewers, (with whom I had discussed this beforehand, so they knew the books galleys were coming). Anyway, I packed the nice bound galleys (which I make myself with a special velobinder/punch machine) in the envelopes, addressed them, taped everything neatly. I was multitasking bigtime. I was done around 5:00 AM, and knowing that I won't be able to really sleep anyway, I just lay in bed dozing until 7:30 AM when I got into the shower and got ready for work, etc. Today during lunch I mailed off the nicely prepped packages.

Tonight I get to do more of the same, to meet a similar deadline (batch two for ROMANTIC TIMES, this time to 700 booksellers, also express-mailed to get there before Friday), but first I will be running to Staples and Office Depot to buy more laser paper. At least I am stocked on toner (really cheap from FRY'S that I got last Friday).

Such is my life.

1-24-02

NEWSFLASH!

I have started implementing my "suite" of various book promotion methods as of this month, so January 2002 is turning into an extremely busy time for me. Sorry about not updating the journal more frequently. That, and the fact that my home refinancing is still going on, and it is tax time, and I am majorly broke (even more so than usual, we are talking negative balances here), and so I am stressing out on a number of fronts here. Enough of this instability in my life, already! God am I sick of it! I want stability, so that I can stop freaking out and just settle down and write fiction again. I have no problem with producing non-fiction under stress, but for fiction I do need to have a modicum of balance and sanity. Writers block stopped existing for me many years ago. Now looking back I understand that it was simply my lack of focus, making me too scattered to write. And now? Now I am perfectly focused, and given a moment of respite from my stresses, I could write buckets.... If only. *sigh*

Last night I finished and handed in an interview for an e-zine (will give more detail on this at a later date), and am in the process of arranging various similar author events. In the meantime, I will soon be doing the final edit of my second book LORDS OF RAINBOW, which is due later this year.

More later! (Boring entry, I know... next time, I need to congratulate all these NAW and WebRats people for the good stuff that is happening to them.)

Oh, and before I go, after 6 fun years of doing this, I am no longer doing the #Maniacs IRC Chat on Tuesdays on SFF Net. I just don't have time for it. I might drop in now and then, but not on a regular basis. I just cannot afford to casually chat away a whole work-evening's worth of time every week when I could be doing so many other things I absolutely have to get done. So, in a sense, I've given myself the gift of an evening's worth of extra weekly worktime.

And I finally reset the submission stats counter to zero on my story subs and rejects and sales. Since I only have 2 stories out right now anyway (that I can remember) and one of them is waiting for a final round decision, I don't think it's worth bothering to log this. I am going to be concentrating on novels anyway, so any stories that might happen now would be random and irregular occurrences.

1-7-02

NEWSFLASH!

I am immensely honored to see my novel DREAMS OF THE COMPASS ROSE reviewed and given high praise by Charles de Lint -- arguably the master of modern literary urban fantasy -- in his column "Books to Look For" in the February 2002 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.

The review is online at the F&SF website if you would like to see it right now.

And if you have a copy of the February F&SF issue, it's on page 36. :-)

1-2-02

NEWSFLASH!

Misha - January 2, 2002

Misha was a supremely loving cat.

A black short hair with soft tight fur, with a white collar and nose and white paws, with great big loving eyes and ready purr, he was also somewhat nuts. We used to call him Misha-Crazy, because he'd be running around in a gallop, then be coming up to you and trying to crawl up your leg to be petted. At one point during the summer about 6 years ago, I remember him galloping around the house, jumping out the window onto a tree branch, then getting down, running into the front door and going up the window again. Over and over and over! Loony cat! He was running laps in the warm summer night! :-)

Misha, together with two other kittens had been abandoned at our doorstep about 13 years ago. The other two cats are no longer with us, but Misha was our good sweet boy all these years. He was the kind of cat who would come to your lap all the time, and start singing and rubbing himself hard against you and purring away, and work his paws like you were his mommy cat and he was feeding. He would also drool.

*grin*

Misha was also a very brave agressive boy, and would chase the dogs in our house! He knew he was master! :-)

Recently Misha was getting more sickly. He was no longer heavy and fit and no longer ate as he used to. We knew something was seriously wrong about 2 months ago, but together with the arrival of the new dog Robin, an my refinancing, and everything else, things got too hectic. We were only able to take him in about 2 weeks ago, and just as we thought, it was severe kidney failure.

Misha would not eat, would have trouble drinking, would cry all night, and come up to us seeking for help, it seems. He'd open doors and peek around the corner whith his sad round eyes, like he was really scared of what was happening to him. He got really thin and weak, a far cry from his mighty former self, and would barely go outside in the grass, sit awhile, try to drink, then come back in.

We force-fed him, then gave him subcutaneous liquid shots, and tried all kinds of things. I was resolved to let him live through New Year, and he was a little better for a day, then today he got so bad that we knew it was time. My poor mom especially had been up all night practically because of him, since I had to go to work last week.

Today we took him in around 4:30 PM, and the vet put him to sleep while I held him. Finally Misha was freed of his pain, his thirst and hunger, and illness. Mom and I said goodbye to him and he looked very peaceful indeed.

I choose to think that Misha sailed away with the elves over the Great Ocean, and he is now in Summerland, forever light and running free.

Rest in peace, Misha my little old loving friend, until we meet again.