michaeljasper.net
"Another Wrecked Web Site"
Feb. 18, 2002
At work and not likin' it...
Now Playing:
"Blue Sky Mining," Midnight Oil
Now Reading:
Blood Magic, Lucy Snyder
Shadow and Claw, Gene Wolfe
Today's Quote:
Memories of jumping through time flitted back into my head before I pushed them away by focusing on deep breaths and the sound of my bare feet slapping asphalt.
Hello, and grumpy Monday to you. Oh, I know, it's not that bad, right? It's just that the rest of the office at my Day Job is off, and here I am on my "extended" lunch break, trying to get some stuff done on my various manuals going out the door this week. Yawn.
On top of that, the PO is closed today! Ah well. Maybe I'll get some last-minute crits of my story before I send it out tomorrow...
Not much newsworthy to report. Doing the taxes tonight (taking them to H&R Block, in other words, so they can deal with that crap), trying to get everything under control in our lives -- it seems like Elizabeth and I have both been running like crazy lately. This past weekend was wonderful, just spending time at home and relaxing (well I relaxed; Elizabeth was slugging it out with her 20-page paper!). We've had stuff going on almost every weekend so far this year. Maybe one of these weekends we'll actually get around to cleaning the house. Oh hell, who am I kidding???
I think I'm gonna duck out of here early and see if I can't convince my buddy Cinque to run to Best Buy to help me find a router and wiring to network Lizzie's laptop to my desktop. If that fails, I'm just gonna go home and start reading that Gene Wolf novel that's been sitting on my shelf for way to long. Have a good one!
Oh yeah, I got some last-minute input from my buddy Chris about the ending to my Buddha story, and I think I know what I have to do to fix it. In the meantime, I'm starting to keep track of the different stories I read every day. My goal is at least one short story a day. Even if I just leave a brief comment on each, I wanted to keep track of them here in my journal.
Today's stories:
"Flesh and Blood," Lucy Snyder - At first I was like, "Oh great, another goth/vampire tale," but Lucy is able to pull more out of this with an interesting protagonist caught in a bad situation; the story ends nicely, with resolution to all the plot points while still being a surprise.
"Soul Searching," Lucy Snyder - This one was a bit harsher, a tad bit preachy, but with a great urban fantasy twist to it; again she has a protagonist forced to make a terrible choice, and he makes the painful choice that may or may not have been the right one. Nice.
"Dogs of Summer" - A nicely layered story with a stronge female protagonist, this one again does a nice job of incorporating all the plot elements into a chesive whole, though occasionally the writing tends toward speeches in a couple instances; another fine ending, though, and another strong story.
"...And Her Shadows" - Probably my least favorite of the stories, though the most horrific, this one follows the harsh life of a young girl haunted by a spirit that can travel through water, which leads to all sorts of interesting situations; nicely done, strong ending once again, but not as compelling as the other three.
(All stories can be found in Blood Magic, a collection by Lucy Snyder).
Feb. 17, 2002
The Closure has come...
Now Playing:
"No Code," Pearl Jam
Now Reading:
Genius of Deceit, Tim Pratt
Shadow and Claw, Gene Wolfe
Today's Quote:
Screw it, I thought. I didn't have time to shoot the Buddha every minute of every day.
Okay, I'm throwing in the towel. I completed edits to the Buddha story, did some tweaking to the Wannoshay novel, and even slapped on a new ending to "Visions of Suburban Bliss" before I send that out tomorrow. I'm sending a total of three stories out there, including one for the first time ever ("Gunning for the Buddha"). I feel good about all three.
And now I'm ready to get jamming on The Wannoshay Cycle. I've been stuck at 21,200 words for WAY too long (especially considering that 15,000 of those words were already written as short stories!). Too many distractions, at work and with short stories. But I'm ready to get back into my near-future world and start mucking around there with the people. It's always fun doing that.
This has truly been a working weekend, though it's been the kind of work I love doing -- reading stories and novels, and working on my own writing. I read a bunch of stories by a fellow writer who's interested in going to Clarion this morning, and I think he'll get in. I did my best to give him helpful advice, including the warning that if you DO get in, you'll be stuck with those same fifteen people for 6 weeks!
And as always, reading and critiquing the fiction of other writers always gets me motivated about my own writing. So I was able to really blast through the revisions to "Buddha" today and make that story really shine. Though I know it needs one more run-through... tomorrow. I need a break from the computer for the rest of the day. Later!
Feb. 16, 2002
Saturdays are always Saturdays...
Now Playing:
"Back Porch Music," WUNC
Now Reading:
Messenger, Chris Babson
F&SF, March 2002
Genius of Deceit, Tim Pratt
Shadow and Claw, Gene Wolfe
Today's Quote:
Toggle laughed and, slipping out of Grex's clawing grasp, accepted a mug of ale from Andros. The taste of Andros' finest brew, along with the sight of all his friends gathered around filled him with a warmth he hadn't felt since he'd left his home world.
Just finished reading some stories this afternoon, in the latest F&SF and from a collection by a friend. Some good stuff, all around, and reading them inspired me to pull out my ghetto story and chop it up and revise it. I got it down to 5,500 words, killing 700 words and making it much, much better. I don't know why that feels so good to do, but it does!
Today's been a day of catching up. I haven't had time to just sit and read anything for weeks, and I finally got to do that, starting with my workout this morning. I read my buddy Chris's novel (the first 70 pages or so) while riding the bike and doing some stair-stepping at the Y. Not a bad way to spend an hour sweating. His novel's got some great stuff going on in it, and I can see it getting published quickly when it's done. It's one of those dual-worlds books, like The Talisman in a way, but much different. I'm really excited for him. Now I just need to kick him in the butt on a weekly basis to get him to finish it!
I also read about half of the latest F&SF, as I mentioned, then we had to run to get a backup monitor, as ours has died. Actually, it hasn't died so much as craps out on us every 10 minutes or so. It always seems to do that right when I'm in the middle of something important, then I'm stuck. Can't do much when the monitor's dead. So we borrowed one that I'm hoping we can use until our flatscreen from Gateway arrives. It had better be here by Monday or Tuesday at the latest, or I'll be irate -- their customer service is TERRIBLE. Don't buy Gateway, folks. They don't care, at least in their accessory store, about keeping customers satisfied.
In happier news, I got some awesome feedback on "Gunning for the Buddha" from fellow writers Jim, Greg, and Jason, all of which is gonna make my revisions to the story tomorrow so much better. Thanks, dudes! Y'all rule. They were able to pinpoint the areas where I was stuck, and now I know exactly what has to be fixed up. I plan on shipping three stories out on Monday, which always makes me happy. And the US Post Office, too, I'm sure. Later!
Feb. 14, 2002
Hours are like days, and Thursday is like Friday...
Now Playing:
"America: A Tribute to Heroes," various
Now Reading:
Messenger, Chris Babson
Hey there. Happy Valentine's Day! I hope everyone has a fun day. Elizabeth and I couldn't wait and exchanged our gifts last night (on Valentine's Eve, of course!). She got me two fine bluegrass CDs and an awesome Carolina sweatshirt that was a leetle beet small. She got some J Jill clothes and a cool turquoise pendant from me.
And now, I'm trying like crazy to get my work done so I can leave at a decent time for our date tonight and enjoy my day tomorrow (I'm calling in sick, cough cough cough). I've got about 30-40 pages to get through on my latest manual before then. I've been here since 8 and hope I can squeak outta here by 6. I'll have exactly 40 hours by that time. Sheesh.
Needless to say I haven't done much writing at all, though I did send out "Buddha" to Tim for yet another invaluable crit/response to that crazy story. I'm also reading Chris' novel, and it's cool. He just needs to keep at it and finish it! It has bike messengers, griffins, bad guys in long gray coats, shadow creatures, and elves (but these elves have attitude, so I can handle 'em). I've been bugging him like crazy to get back into writing, just as I bug my buddy Sam all the time, so it's nice to see the results of all my hard labor. :) I just need to get a story or chapter from Sam... (hint, hint).
If anyone else is interested in reading and responding to "Gunning for the Buddha," shoot me an email.
Oh, and before I forget, check out this article from Asimov's in which Jim Kelly mentions me along with a handful of other writers who've had their stuff published in Strange Horizons.
Nifty, huh? I'm one of the "exciting new voices in the genre"! Too bad I have to spend my days writing and revising software manuals!!! Later.
Feb. 13, 2002
Aaaaahhhhh...!!!
Today's secret word is: "labor." The next time I write about my Day Job, scream real loud!!
I've been working too hard at the Day Job (aaaahhhh!!!). 10 hours Monday, 11 hours yesterday, who knows how long today. Yuck. So not a lot to report on the writing fiction front, once again. I did tweak "Gunning for the Buddha" and sent it to my fellow writers Chris and Jason for their takes on it. I'm still unsure about that story, and I need to sit down at some point and flesh it out more, I think. But we'll see what those guys say about it.
Got a couple rejections in the past week or so that I haven't turned around and sent back out. Not good. One needs some more work ("A Ghetto Celebration") and the other needs to find the right market ("Visions of Suburban Bliss"). Keeping up with about a dozen stories can be tiring! Oh well, it could be worse. I could have just a few stories out and about.
I had couple beers with my bud Chris at the Flying Saucer in downtown Raleigh on Monday, and we swapped novel excerpts and talked writing and the state of genre fiction today and he again demanded I watch the show "Alias" on TV. I've got his novel to dive into tonight, and he's got chapter one of the Wannoshay novel to look at along with the Buddha story. We'll see how that goes... Chris can sometimes be brutally honest, which I always appreciate, but of course may not always be what I wanna hear! Gotta run. Talk more later, maybe at the Day Job (aaaaaahhhhhh!).
Feb. 11, 2002
Feasting on words...
Now Playing:
"Workbook," Bob Mould
February's Words:
5,100
Before I forget, I just wanted to let folks know that my story about "big" people, Nutriology (not to be confused with Scientology, heh heh heh), and chalk-flavored shakes is currently the Story of the Week at NeverWorlds. The name of the story is "A Feast at the Manor." It's a fun little story, a bit longer than I think it should be now, but the main character was fun to write. If you feel moved by it, please make a comment on the NeverWorlds newsgroup. These folks run a quality magazine, and they deserve more attention!
I'm just getting caught up here, and I may write more later. I've got some revising to do on a the Ghetto story, then by tomorrow I want to be back into the Wannoshay novel again. Talk to you later!