What's New?     October 16, 2000

Forward to November 2000...

10-16-00

NEWSFLASH!

This is gonna be a quick one, just to let you all know I am alive, but barely, after cranking out a record number of words over the weekend for DREAMS OF THE COMPASS ROSE, and bringing my story collection word total to over 60,000 words! I also got a postponement on my deadline, since I still have to complete 4 stories. (I did finish "Tale of Nadir" on Saturday, which turned out to be 13,000 words! Holy Mother of God!)

In case you are interested, I am posting a daily tally of written words in my newsgroup which you can check out directly through the Webnews link.

Otherwise, please keep your fingers crossed, since I am aiming to add another 10-15K words to the collection, for a total of 70-75K... maybe even more! By the end of the week!

10-11-00

NEWSFLASH!

Ok, this is Hell Week. I am trying to complete the 5 stories before the end of this coming Sunday the 15th. I am well along on 3 of them, and haven't even started the last two since they depend on the content of the other three. Did that make sense? I no longer know. *grin*

The good thing is, I am past 50K now in word length for the total of the collection. I anticipate at least another 10K words, hopefully more.

I am also going to be doing my own cover art, since I begged and pleaded, and the editor is a good friend. You might notice I am naming neither the Editor nor the Publishing Company yet -- this is not so much a big deal as I am simply too scared, and not wanting to jinx the whole thing, but don't worry, I will divulge it soon.

In other news, the World Fantasy Con 2000 Program Participant Schedule and Participant Index are posted, and I have only one light program item with a somewhat cryptic subject of discussion:

Sa1700B Modern Fantasy Art and Teutonic/Celtic Master Race Wish Fulfillment
Sat 5:00 PM-6:00 PM Ballroom B
Clark, Danforth*, Nazarian, Vess
Ask the moderator. It was her idea.

That's it! I am going to relax with my friends, for this convention.

10-4-00

NEWSFLASH!

This has been one of the craziest weeks -- my car is in the shop, and needs to be paid for in cash, and I am running low on money since I had to take out all my meager "savings" to cover it. Meanwhile, my mortgage direct auto-payment is due tomorrow, but my direct deposit paycheck goes in only on Friday, missing it by 24 hours, and in the meantime I have no car to take my parents in to cash their Social Security checks so that they can pay me their share of the rent that goes toward the mortgage payment -- and then, just out of the blue, when I REALLY need it, I get MZB's Fall 2000 Royalties! This is gonna pay for my car repair this week, and it totally saved my ass! *grin*

In case you did not notice, I have a new story up at Bookface.com, a previously unpublished original high fantasy fable called "I Want To Paint The Sky." Go read it now, y'all! :-) I also have an Author Page up there. :-)

My heartfelt thanks go to The Goddess Diana, who happened to surf by my website last week, and has bestowed my site with this very qool award. :-) What a gorgeous graphic!

In the meantime, I am writing like a maniac, trying to finish my short story collection by the deadline of October 15. I am sorta working on multiple stories at once, and did an odd but very productive writing detour. This past Friday I dug out an ancient trunk story written a decade ago, only existing in a typewritten hard copy. I scanned it in, OCRed it into a text file, and then re-worked the crappy story into a Compass Rose novellette that I can be proud of, and which will now be included in the collection. WOOHOO! :-)

The novelette, "Goddessday" came out to be 7,860 words, and I now detour back to finish up "Tale of Nadir." Next in line after that would be "The Compass Rose," "Gods And Fleas," "The Cup," and "The Story of Time."

Think I can finish all that in 11 days?

WATCH ME!

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