Writing Journal, Late August 2001

michaeljasper.net

"Another Wrecked Web Site"

August 31, 2001

A story fattened up and ready to go out...

Today's Quote:

Lina looked at the somehow-familiar man, surprised she hadn't been able to see him before. He was dressed in white, though his robes were covered with what looked like pieces of mud and clumps of horsehair. She gave a tiny nod.

Yes, she thought, her ears filling with the soft voice of a woman, singing about Ireland like a mother crooning a lullaby to her child. I've earned this.

What I'm reading:

The Last of the Hand," Michael J. Jasper ;)

What I'm Listening to:

"Fight Club," soundtrack

Yeah, babee! I managed to do it -- I finished "Coal Ash and Sparrows" this morning, giving it the ending it always deserved (I hope!) and setting me up nicely for my transition into my fantasy novel.

This story is a sort of an outtake from my novel, Last of the Hand, which I plan on jumping back into today -- reading over the notes and the first 100 pages or so -- and then writing tomorrow as part of the big Dare. We're up to 15 people in it so far. It should be fun!

Talk to you more later, if I have the time!

Okay, I'm at work now, trying to get everything in order before I zip out of here. What a hassle!

I'm feeling a little apprehensive about the flight and all that. Mostly I'm a bit perturbed at all the last-minute stuff going on here at work, and I'm concerned that I'm going to miss my flight or forget to do something (or get busted for leaving early...).

Anyway. I got a lot done last night in preparation for the trip -- laundry, some phone calls (Jeff, my roommate, needed to know what hotel we're staying at! He's got it made, living in NYC, only an hour's ride away), packing, and even a little baking. I made a surprise for the Strange Horizons Tea Party on Sunday at 3 p.m. My co-workers got to be the guinea pigs for this treat -- chocolate chip scones -- and they're still breathing, so that means they weren't too potent. ;) I'm looking forward to that get-together, along with all the readings and discussions. I may even try to go to the midnight showing of "Nosferatu," but after only about 5 hours of sleep last night I may not be up for it.

I've got to be fresh for the hour of writing I plan on doing Saturday morning before the programming starts! Two more writers havejoined us -- William Brown from WotF XVI, and Rob Vagle. Check out the Dare page for their links.

Have a great weekend -- I probably won't get a chance to update until late Monday, unless I get wired up in Philly, which I doubt I'll mess with. It's nice to be offline for a while! Later.
mjj

August 30, 2001

Getting closer to one ending and a new beginning...

Today's Quote:

Right before leaving, Joseph had thrown the square cardboard box that once held his entire life so far into the orphanage fireplace. I'm ready for the Camolin Cavalry, he thought, walking out of the orphanage to meet his train.

What I'm reading:

"Radiant Green Star," Lucius Shepard

What I'm Listening to:

"Just Say Yo," compilation

Sorry if you came here earlier today looking for my latest and greatest entry and only got three astericks (asterix?) instead. I've been finishing up my writing right at 6:30, just in time to take the dog for a walk and get ready for work, but I like adding quotes from what I've written each day before I leave my desk. So I update that, and FTP the latest entry, minus the content in the big window.

A little insight into my mind. All for free.

Today was another good writing day. I'm writing this at lunch, though, and work is crazy today, so it seems like yesterday or last week when I wrote (fiction) last. Weird. But I added another couple hundred words to the mix that is "Coal Ash and Sparrows," and I'm pretty close to being done. Just have the big battle to map out, and tie everything together.

It's been a lot of fun. I like picking up those strands from earlier drafts and knotting them together with the rest of the story. Luckily I had some great feedback from my fellow writers to help me with this one. I was too close to it before.

So finishing that story will be a nice kickoff to my little dare starting on Saturday. Also, I decided to bring the printout of the novel thus far, all 30,000 words of it, and read it on the plane trip up to Philly (not sure if I can read it all in an hour or so, but I'm gonna try).

And then I should be ready for the 1/24/30 Dare!! A couple more brave souls entered the Dare, including my former Clarion classmate Sarah Totton, award-winner Nalo Hopkinson, perpetual Darer Camille, and my friend and excellent fantasist Tim Pratt, among others. Welcome! You can jump to their pages from my updated 1/24/30 Dare page. It should be a lot of fun, and a good amount of work.

Last night I read the Ted Chiang story, and I must say, I wasn't really all that grabbed by it. It was very much a scientific-style story, not the action/adventure style story I like better, and I found my eyes crossing a couple times (bad flashbacks to my undergrad Linguistics class!), but I can see why a lot of hard-sf readers really dug it. The stuff with the automatons/golems was cool, but for me my favorite part was when the assassin tried to kill Stratton and Stratton sics his automaton on him... I guess that says something about me as a reader, eh? But it's up for a Hugo, it's well-written and well-researched, and I hope he wins. I'll find out on Sunday! Later.
mjj

August 29, 2001

Another hour of writing done!

Today's Quote:

Mo had taken Joseph and his mother to the ocean to watch the dolphins race, and Mo had let a piece of Joseph go out toward the salt water and enter one of the dolphins for a few seconds. Moammar went out with him into another dolphin, and the waves touched his and Joseph's new bodies like caresses. They kicked their tails and dove out of the water as if they were both filled with lightning. When Mo brought Joseph back to himself, he watched the boy with an intense smile, one not unlike the smile made by a curious sparrow years later.

This could be all yours, my boy, Moammar had thought, but not said, at the time. Joys like this, and so much more.

What I'm reading:

"Seventy-Two Letters," Ted Chiang

What I'm Listening to:

"Fight Songs," Old 97's

Okay, so the servers here at work are down, so I can't access the files I need from California, so I figure I may as well brag a bit about writing for another hour -- two days in a row! Yeah, yeah, big whoop, but hey, you gotta take baby steps. Just getting my carcass out of bed at 5 a.m. is a major accomplishment these days, much less actually being productive once I'm up!

I did some more tweaking to "Sparrows" this morning, getting it closer and closer to the final version. I think all I have to really write is the final scene -- the battle between Lina and the mysterious girl who visits her (and after reading a cool story about magicians fighting one another called "The Wizard Retires" last night, by Michael Meddor, I have some great "tips" for how to (and how not to) do that battle! His went on a bit long, I thought... but his story made it into F&SF, so there!).

I did some dull editing stuff today, taking out vague words and checking for sentences that end in prepositional phrases (like "on the road" or "in her head" and the like). I sorta enjoy that sort of stuff sometimes. It can be tedious, but it's nice tightening up the prose like that. Sort of like sanding off a board or whittling a stick into just the right shape. It's slow, steady work.

Then I changed the point of view of one of the later scenes (this story switches between the perspectives of three people in three different timelines: Lina, Joseph, and Moammar), thanks to the smart advice of Trey (thank you sir!). I like that scene much better now. It allows me to give some more back history of his character and the whole "ecology of magic" that the story is missing. And soon I should be done. I'll probably drop it off at the PO on my way to catch my flight to Philly!

I'm trying to get caught up on my reading for the Hugos (yeah, I didn't read every single one of the nominess -- surprised?). Still need to read the novellas by Chiang and Shepard. I was going to pick up Hartwells Year's Best SF and the latest Writers of the Future antho to read on the plane on Friday, but the WotF wasn't in, and I figured I'd save my money and shelf space and read the latest issues of F&SF and Asimov's. I don't know about y'all, but I can't keep up with the stories in the monthly mags. I feel guilty as hell not reading them each month, but I don't ever have time! It's crazy. But whenever I do read an issue, I always enjoy them. I think I've been liking F&SF a bit better lately. And then there's that slick new issue of Black Gate sitting on my table, waiting for me as well. Oh the horror, the horror...

Speaking of this coming weekend, not only am I extremely pumped up (and a bit apprehensive, I must admit) about WorldCon, I'm also excited about the upcoming Dare I have scheduled, starting Saturday. I've gotten 9 other writers to join me so far, and I've put together a convenient links page for you to follow their progress in September. Yes, I am a geek. But it was fun. Check out the brave volunteers I've collected for the inaguaral 1/24/30 Dare!!! There's still time to join...
mjj

August 28, 2001

Good morning, again, at last!

Today's Quote:

Lina squinted at her. The girl couldn't have been more than thirteen years old. Her skin was dark, like Daddy's coffee blended with a touch of cream, and her short black hair was thick and curly. In all of her life Lina hadn't seen anyone who looked like this, and she stared, mouth open. Then she remembered the book, hidden behind the trunk.

What I'm reading:

F&SF, October 2001

What I'm Listening to:

"Superunknown," Soundgarden (earlier)

"Shaming of the Sun," Indigo Girls (later)

Okay, let's try this again. I had 4-5 paragraphs written this morning on this entry before I made the mistake of opening too many windows (I had a handful of Word docs open, from my current story to a novel synopsis and my fantasy novel drafts and another story or two, along with Outlook and IE) and then trying to reply to an e-mail about World Con. Bada-bing. Computer lockup. So I'm finishing this up at work, before I ship off my manual (now down to about 260 pages) for Final Edit.

I'm in a great, great mood, despite being at work ;). I tried out the one-hour-a-day experiment this morning, and it went well. I crave discipline, so I rolled out of bed at 5, got the old computer fired up, and surfed/read e-mail for a few minutes. I told myself at 5:15 I had to get to writing, and damned if I didn't surf right up until the clock hit that magical time. Then all the windows but Word (and the CD Player, of course, jamming some Soundgarden) were closed.

After looking over all my excellent comments from my bud Chris and fellow writers Trey and Derek, I sat down and reread most of the story. Jotting notes as I went, I found lots of places to add new stuff, and reveled in finding those fun nuggets I'd added in the first draft of the story -- there's a lesson there: when drafting, just throw all the goofy shit you can into the story, even if you know you're gonna take it out later. You may find yourself riffing on that goofy part, and your story suddenly got better. There's a reason that goofy shit popped into your head, so trust yourself!

Most of the goofy shit I had in that draft I already incorporated (talking sparrows, magical books, barns, and broken ladders leaning against old churches), but I also found something I could use about the main character, Lina, who wants badly to travel, and something about her father, whose mother sang him songs about heroes. So that'll go into my revision, along with my expansion of the ending (so it all makes sense; I'm bad at endings!).

In my hour I added another 500 words or so, and I'm pretty excited about it all. I think I'll be able to get "Sparrows" finished up and out to an editor before I leave for Philly on Friday. It'll be a nice lead up to my work on The Last of the Hand for my 1/24/30 Dare, which will begin on Saturday at WorldCon.

Speaking of WorldCon, it looks like I may be doing something related to the Writers of the Future for the con. They tried to tie me down for the whole weekend, hawking their books ("You're pretty free all weekend, right?" the guy asked. "Um, no, I'm pretty booked up," I answered. Sheesh!). I'll help them out for an hour, but not the whole damn con. Of course, it didn't help that the dude was calling at 10:15 p.m., then called back 2 minutes after I hung up. I'm biting my tongue here -- I don't want to say any more. I'll just end up saying something sarcastic, and they'll sic Travolta on me (I think I can take him, tho -- we're about the same size, and he's old!).

In other news, best of luck to Trey and W.G. on their stories they shared with me. I hope my comments helped! Reading their stuff was fun, and their stories are quite good, and it really got my editing juices flowing again, after way too much time off. I'm a bit embarassed by the old trunk story I sent them, just for the hell of it. But Trey's comments assured me that the story was better off right where it was, at the bottom of the old proverbial trunk. Thanks for taking a look at it, man!

I'd better get some work done now. Later.
mjj

August 27, 2001

One wild and crazy month!

What I'm reading:

Year's Best SF, ed. by Hartwell (if I make it to the bookstore to pick up a copy)

What I'm Listening to:

"Beautiful World," Big Head Todd & the Monsters

"Down on the Upside," Soundgarden (later)

From later today:

Is anyone interested in a Writing Dare?

Every now and then I try something like this to get me going on my writing, and it usually works -- I jammed out a couple stories last year this way, and totally revised the horror novel I wrote w/ a friend in the same way.

This one I'm calling (for lack of a better term) a 1/24/30 Dare.

Basically, I just want to get in the habit of writing a minimum of one hour a day for the next month (and the month after that, and the years after that, etc.). So I'm starting this 1/24/30 Dare on Saturday, Sept. 1. It'll end on Sept. 30, but hopefully it'll simply continue until infinity, an hour a day at a time...

I'll be keeping up with the Dare here on my website and posting my wordage at my newsgroup.

It'd be fun to have some co-conspirators in this, so if you have some project you've been wanting to finish but couldn't find the time, this is your chance to do it -- FIND the time to write.

And you may notice I'm starting this Dare on my first morning at Phil Con, just to prove to myself that if I can write for an hour there (probably early in the morning -- I'll try not to wake ya, Jeff, ol' roomie, ol' pal!), I can write easily at home at my comfy desk.

An hour a day -- what do you say???

Oh, and one final note -- got a nice rejection from Sci Fiction from Ms. Datlow, saying she didn't want "Sparrows," but would like to see more, and is looking forward to seeing "Natural Order" in Asimov's. Very nice! Now I have the greenlight to edit that sucker! I'm gonna try and fix it up before WorldCon. I'm starting to really, really get pumped up about this weekend in Philly! See ya.

From earlier today:

Whew. I can't believe August is almost over! Probably a good thing. It's been a wild ride. Started off nice enough with some time off at the beach, but got hectic really quick at work. 'Nuff said about that!

My writing has been on hold most of the month, which should bother me more than it does, I guess. I needed a little break. So right now I'm trying to focus myself on what I want to work on next.

I ought to get started on a novel. Short stories are fun, but they make me feel scattered sometimes. Jumping from one thing to another. At least that's how I felt this summer, writing about 4-5 stories from May until now. Not bad, but the stories aren't my best work, I'm afraid. It's hard to maintain quality at such a pace.

But right now all my stories are out to publishers, so I have no motivation to rewrite any of them until I get them back. I was thinking of reworking the ending to the Sparrows story, but it's out at a big publisher right now and I'm hoping beyond hope the editor will like it (and I won't have to revise it!).

I'm not really crazy about any of my current writing projects right now, whether they're novels or stories. Part of it is that I've gotten out of practice (when I get up early in the morning, on the rare days I've been ABLE to, I usually just surf around and goof off instead of write). I think I need to do something new. Maybe finish that durn fantasy novel, just to finish it.

And finally, the last bit of craziness for the month of August is gonna be the World SF Convention in Philly. The con actually starts this Thursday, but I can't sneak away until Friday afternoon. I'm there until Monday afternoon. I'm looking forward to it, especially once I saw the cool panels and readings and my personal favorite, the Literary Beers! It'll be great to see Jeff and Toby again, along with Frank and the Barlows, not to mention the Strange Horizons gang (I may have some scones to share at the Tea Party!), and the various and sundry writers and editors I've met along the way.

It should be fun, though I'm always a bit apprehensive about jumping into new situations. I don't want to look like a geek or make a fool of myself, y'know? I guess I shouldn't worry about that, and just be myself, I know. I should probably be focusing my energy on meeting people, having fun, and not spending all my cash on hard-to-find books and first editions.

I'm debating whether to take my laptop so I can do updates on the con, as well as some early-morning writing on the 3 mornings I'll be there. Depends on how much space I have and how motivated I am about my latest project. Whatever that's gonna be -- hopefully going to the WorldCon will totally motivate me and get me back on the writing wagon. Later.

Journal

mjj

	michaeljasper.net *"Another Wrecked Web Site"*
August 31, 2001 A story fattened up and ready to go out... Today's Quote: Lina looked at the somehow-familiar man, surprised she hadn't been able to see him before. He was dressed in white, though his robes were covered with what looked like pieces of mud and clumps of horsehair. She gave a tiny nod. Yes, she thought, her ears filling with the soft voice of a woman, singing about Ireland like a mother crooning a lullaby to her child. I've earned this. What I'm reading: The Last of the Hand," Michael J. Jasper ;) What I'm Listening to: "Fight Club," soundtrack	Yeah, babee! I managed to do it -- I finished "Coal Ash and Sparrows" this morning, giving it the ending it always deserved (I hope!) and setting me up nicely for my transition into my fantasy novel. This story is a sort of an outtake from my novel, Last of the Hand, which I plan on jumping back into today -- reading over the notes and the first 100 pages or so -- and then writing tomorrow as part of the big Dare. We're up to 15 people in it so far. It should be fun! Talk to you more later, if I have the time! Okay, I'm at work now, trying to get everything in order before I zip out of here. What a hassle! I'm feeling a little apprehensive about the flight and all that. Mostly I'm a bit perturbed at all the last-minute stuff going on here at work, and I'm concerned that I'm going to miss my flight or forget to do something (or get busted for leaving early...). Anyway. I got a lot done last night in preparation for the trip -- laundry, some phone calls (Jeff, my roommate, needed to know what hotel we're staying at! He's got it made, living in NYC, only an hour's ride away), packing, and even a little baking. I made a surprise for the Strange Horizons Tea Party on Sunday at 3 p.m. My co-workers got to be the guinea pigs for this treat -- chocolate chip scones -- and they're still breathing, so that means they weren't too potent. ;) I'm looking forward to that get-together, along with all the readings and discussions. I may even try to go to the midnight showing of "Nosferatu," but after only about 5 hours of sleep last night I may not be up for it. I've got to be fresh for the hour of writing I plan on doing Saturday morning before the programming starts! Two more writers havejoined us -- William Brown from WotF XVI, and Rob Vagle. Check out the Dare page for their links. Have a great weekend -- I probably won't get a chance to update until late Monday, unless I get wired up in Philly, which I doubt I'll mess with. It's nice to be offline for a while! Later. mjj
August 30, 2001 Getting closer to one ending and a new beginning... Today's Quote: Right before leaving, Joseph had thrown the square cardboard box that once held his entire life so far into the orphanage fireplace. I'm ready for the Camolin Cavalry, he thought, walking out of the orphanage to meet his train. What I'm reading: "Radiant Green Star," Lucius Shepard What I'm Listening to: "Just Say Yo," compilation	Sorry if you came here earlier today looking for my latest and greatest entry and only got three astericks (asterix?) instead. I've been finishing up my writing right at 6:30, just in time to take the dog for a walk and get ready for work, but I like adding quotes from what I've written each day before I leave my desk. So I update that, and FTP the latest entry, minus the content in the big window. A little insight into my mind. All for free. Today was another good writing day. I'm writing this at lunch, though, and work is crazy today, so it seems like yesterday or last week when I wrote (fiction) last. Weird. But I added another couple hundred words to the mix that is "Coal Ash and Sparrows," and I'm pretty close to being done. Just have the big battle to map out, and tie everything together. It's been a lot of fun. I like picking up those strands from earlier drafts and knotting them together with the rest of the story. Luckily I had some great feedback from my fellow writers to help me with this one. I was too close to it before. So finishing that story will be a nice kickoff to my little dare starting on Saturday. Also, I decided to bring the printout of the novel thus far, all 30,000 words of it, and read it on the plane trip up to Philly (not sure if I can read it all in an hour or so, but I'm gonna try). And then I should be ready for the 1/24/30 Dare!! A couple more brave souls entered the Dare, including my former Clarion classmate Sarah Totton, award-winner Nalo Hopkinson, perpetual Darer Camille, and my friend and excellent fantasist Tim Pratt, among others. Welcome! You can jump to their pages from my updated 1/24/30 Dare page. It should be a lot of fun, and a good amount of work. Last night I read the Ted Chiang story, and I must say, I wasn't really all that grabbed by it. It was very much a scientific-style story, not the action/adventure style story I like better, and I found my eyes crossing a couple times (bad flashbacks to my undergrad Linguistics class!), but I can see why a lot of hard-sf readers really dug it. The stuff with the automatons/golems was cool, but for me my favorite part was when the assassin tried to kill Stratton and Stratton sics his automaton on him... I guess that says something about me as a reader, eh? But it's up for a Hugo, it's well-written and well-researched, and I hope he wins. I'll find out on Sunday! Later. mjj
August 29, 2001 Another hour of writing done! Today's Quote: Mo had taken Joseph and his mother to the ocean to watch the dolphins race, and Mo had let a piece of Joseph go out toward the salt water and enter one of the dolphins for a few seconds. Moammar went out with him into another dolphin, and the waves touched his and Joseph's new bodies like caresses. They kicked their tails and dove out of the water as if they were both filled with lightning. When Mo brought Joseph back to himself, he watched the boy with an intense smile, one not unlike the smile made by a curious sparrow years later. This could be all yours, my boy, Moammar had thought, but not said, at the time. Joys like this, and so much more. What I'm reading: "Seventy-Two Letters," Ted Chiang What I'm Listening to: "Fight Songs," Old 97's	Okay, so the servers here at work are down, so I can't access the files I need from California, so I figure I may as well brag a bit about writing for another hour -- two days in a row! Yeah, yeah, big whoop, but hey, you gotta take baby steps. Just getting my carcass out of bed at 5 a.m. is a major accomplishment these days, much less actually being productive once I'm up! I did some more tweaking to "Sparrows" this morning, getting it closer and closer to the final version. I think all I have to really write is the final scene -- the battle between Lina and the mysterious girl who visits her (and after reading a cool story about magicians fighting one another called "The Wizard Retires" last night, by Michael Meddor, I have some great "tips" for how to (and how not to) do that battle! His went on a bit long, I thought... but his story made it into F&SF, so there!). I did some dull editing stuff today, taking out vague words and checking for sentences that end in prepositional phrases (like "on the road" or "in her head" and the like). I sorta enjoy that sort of stuff sometimes. It can be tedious, but it's nice tightening up the prose like that. Sort of like sanding off a board or whittling a stick into just the right shape. It's slow, steady work. Then I changed the point of view of one of the later scenes (this story switches between the perspectives of three people in three different timelines: Lina, Joseph, and Moammar), thanks to the smart advice of Trey (thank you sir!). I like that scene much better now. It allows me to give some more back history of his character and the whole "ecology of magic" that the story is missing. And soon I should be done. I'll probably drop it off at the PO on my way to catch my flight to Philly! I'm trying to get caught up on my reading for the Hugos (yeah, I didn't read every single one of the nominess -- surprised?). Still need to read the novellas by Chiang and Shepard. I was going to pick up Hartwells Year's Best SF and the latest Writers of the Future antho to read on the plane on Friday, but the WotF wasn't in, and I figured I'd save my money and shelf space and read the latest issues of F&SF and Asimov's. I don't know about y'all, but I can't keep up with the stories in the monthly mags. I feel guilty as hell not reading them each month, but I don't ever have time! It's crazy. But whenever I do read an issue, I always enjoy them. I think I've been liking F&SF a bit better lately. And then there's that slick new issue of Black Gate sitting on my table, waiting for me as well. Oh the horror, the horror... Speaking of this coming weekend, not only am I extremely pumped up (and a bit apprehensive, I must admit) about WorldCon, I'm also excited about the upcoming Dare I have scheduled, starting Saturday. I've gotten 9 other writers to join me so far, and I've put together a convenient links page for you to follow their progress in September. Yes, I am a geek. But it was fun. Check out the brave volunteers I've collected for the inaguaral 1/24/30 Dare!!! There's still time to join... mjj
August 28, 2001 Good morning, again, at last! Today's Quote: Lina squinted at her. The girl couldn't have been more than thirteen years old. Her skin was dark, like Daddy's coffee blended with a touch of cream, and her short black hair was thick and curly. In all of her life Lina hadn't seen anyone who looked like this, and she stared, mouth open. Then she remembered the book, hidden behind the trunk. What I'm reading: F&SF, October 2001 What I'm Listening to: "Superunknown," Soundgarden (earlier) "Shaming of the Sun," Indigo Girls (later)	Okay, let's try this again. I had 4-5 paragraphs written this morning on this entry before I made the mistake of opening too many windows (I had a handful of Word docs open, from my current story to a novel synopsis and my fantasy novel drafts and another story or two, along with Outlook and IE) and then trying to reply to an e-mail about World Con. Bada-bing. Computer lockup. So I'm finishing this up at work, before I ship off my manual (now down to about 260 pages) for Final Edit. I'm in a great, great mood, despite being at work ;). I tried out the one-hour-a-day experiment this morning, and it went well. I crave discipline, so I rolled out of bed at 5, got the old computer fired up, and surfed/read e-mail for a few minutes. I told myself at 5:15 I had to get to writing, and damned if I didn't surf right up until the clock hit that magical time. Then all the windows but Word (and the CD Player, of course, jamming some Soundgarden) were closed. After looking over all my excellent comments from my bud Chris and fellow writers Trey and Derek, I sat down and reread most of the story. Jotting notes as I went, I found lots of places to add new stuff, and reveled in finding those fun nuggets I'd added in the first draft of the story -- there's a lesson there: when drafting, just throw all the goofy shit you can into the story, even if you know you're gonna take it out later. You may find yourself riffing on that goofy part, and your story suddenly got better. There's a reason that goofy shit popped into your head, so trust yourself! Most of the goofy shit I had in that draft I already incorporated (talking sparrows, magical books, barns, and broken ladders leaning against old churches), but I also found something I could use about the main character, Lina, who wants badly to travel, and something about her father, whose mother sang him songs about heroes. So that'll go into my revision, along with my expansion of the ending (so it all makes sense; I'm bad at endings!). In my hour I added another 500 words or so, and I'm pretty excited about it all. I think I'll be able to get "Sparrows" finished up and out to an editor before I leave for Philly on Friday. It'll be a nice lead up to my work on The Last of the Hand for my 1/24/30 Dare, which will begin on Saturday at WorldCon. Speaking of WorldCon, it looks like I may be doing something related to the Writers of the Future for the con. They tried to tie me down for the whole weekend, hawking their books ("You're pretty free all weekend, right?" the guy asked. "Um, no, I'm pretty booked up," I answered. Sheesh!). I'll help them out for an hour, but not the whole damn con. Of course, it didn't help that the dude was calling at 10:15 p.m., then called back 2 minutes after I hung up. I'm biting my tongue here -- I don't want to say any more. I'll just end up saying something sarcastic, and they'll sic Travolta on me (I think I can take him, tho -- we're about the same size, and he's old!). In other news, best of luck to Trey and W.G. on their stories they shared with me. I hope my comments helped! Reading their stuff was fun, and their stories are quite good, and it really got my editing juices flowing again, after way too much time off. I'm a bit embarassed by the old trunk story I sent them, just for the hell of it. But Trey's comments assured me that the story was better off right where it was, at the bottom of the old proverbial trunk. Thanks for taking a look at it, man! I'd better get some work done now. Later. mjj
August 27, 2001 One wild and crazy month! What I'm reading: Year's Best SF, ed. by Hartwell (if I make it to the bookstore to pick up a copy) What I'm Listening to: "Beautiful World," Big Head Todd & the Monsters "Down on the Upside," Soundgarden (later)	From later today: Is anyone interested in a Writing Dare? Every now and then I try something like this to get me going on my writing, and it usually works -- I jammed out a couple stories last year this way, and totally revised the horror novel I wrote w/ a friend in the same way. This one I'm calling (for lack of a better term) a 1/24/30 Dare. Basically, I just want to get in the habit of writing a minimum of one hour a day for the next month (and the month after that, and the years after that, etc.). So I'm starting this 1/24/30 Dare on Saturday, Sept. 1. It'll end on Sept. 30, but hopefully it'll simply continue until infinity, an hour a day at a time... I'll be keeping up with the Dare here on my website and posting my wordage at my newsgroup. It'd be fun to have some co-conspirators in this, so if you have some project you've been wanting to finish but couldn't find the time, this is your chance to do it -- FIND the time to write. And you may notice I'm starting this Dare on my first morning at Phil Con, just to prove to myself that if I can write for an hour there (probably early in the morning -- I'll try not to wake ya, Jeff, ol' roomie, ol' pal!), I can write easily at home at my comfy desk. An hour a day -- what do you say??? Oh, and one final note -- got a nice rejection from Sci Fiction from Ms. Datlow, saying she didn't want "Sparrows," but would like to see more, and is looking forward to seeing "Natural Order" in Asimov's. Very nice! Now I have the greenlight to edit that sucker! I'm gonna try and fix it up before WorldCon. I'm starting to really, really get pumped up about this weekend in Philly! See ya. From earlier today: Whew. I can't believe August is almost over! Probably a good thing. It's been a wild ride. Started off nice enough with some time off at the beach, but got hectic really quick at work. 'Nuff said about that! My writing has been on hold most of the month, which should bother me more than it does, I guess. I needed a little break. So right now I'm trying to focus myself on what I want to work on next. I ought to get started on a novel. Short stories are fun, but they make me feel scattered sometimes. Jumping from one thing to another. At least that's how I felt this summer, writing about 4-5 stories from May until now. Not bad, but the stories aren't my best work, I'm afraid. It's hard to maintain quality at such a pace. But right now all my stories are out to publishers, so I have no motivation to rewrite any of them until I get them back. I was thinking of reworking the ending to the Sparrows story, but it's out at a big publisher right now and I'm hoping beyond hope the editor will like it (and I won't have to revise it!). I'm not really crazy about any of my current writing projects right now, whether they're novels or stories. Part of it is that I've gotten out of practice (when I get up early in the morning, on the rare days I've been ABLE to, I usually just surf around and goof off instead of write). I think I need to do something new. Maybe finish that durn fantasy novel, just to finish it. And finally, the last bit of craziness for the month of August is gonna be the World SF Convention in Philly. The con actually starts this Thursday, but I can't sneak away until Friday afternoon. I'm there until Monday afternoon. I'm looking forward to it, especially once I saw the cool panels and readings and my personal favorite, the Literary Beers! It'll be great to see Jeff and Toby again, along with Frank and the Barlows, not to mention the Strange Horizons gang (I may have some scones to share at the Tea Party!), and the various and sundry writers and editors I've met along the way. It should be fun, though I'm always a bit apprehensive about jumping into new situations. I don't want to look like a geek or make a fool of myself, y'know? I guess I shouldn't worry about that, and just be myself, I know. I should probably be focusing my energy on meeting people, having fun, and not spending all my cash on hard-to-find books and first editions. I'm debating whether to take my laptop so I can do updates on the con, as well as some early-morning writing on the 3 mornings I'll be there. Depends on how much space I have and how motivated I am about my latest project. Whatever that's gonna be -- hopefully going to the WorldCon will totally motivate me and get me back on the writing wagon. Later.
Journal	mjj