Writing News 3, July 2001

michaeljasper.net

"Another Wrecked Web Site"

July 26, 2001

Reach the Beach...

Today's Quote:

If he looked close enough, he could see small faces inside the static. Their reception seemed to be getting better – Sully could see more details as he watched the static critters dancing around in the alley. They looked like the little hellions that lived on the floor beneath him, nasty little children with mean faces full of trouble. Video nasties.

What I'm Listening To:

"Midnight Radio" - Big Head Todd & the Monsters

Soooo.... I finished the second draft of "Video Nasties" and sent it out to my partner-in-crime, Jeff, for his take on it. I want to get it out the door before next week. There's an anthology looking for horror stories, and I'm hoping this one fits the bill.

Got a friendly rejection from Fangoria in less than a week, for "Mother of the Bride," and the editor was very nice, and told me why the story didn't work for him (it was too obvious, which I tend to agree with, tho I stil enjoy the story). Now why can't all editors do that? We did everything through e-mail, which is so much quicker and uses less paper. Of course, I know why not all editors do that -- time. But it still made me feel good that he read my story and gave a coment or two. It doesn't take much to please me, I know...

And speaking of being pleased, I believe I've accomplished all I want to before we head east for the coast this afternoon! I finished the draft of "Video Nasties," revised "An Outrider's Tale," and even pulled together my notes for "The Disillusionist" (found the lyrics to the song of the same name by The Church, also -- cool words and images there). I still need to revamp the ending to "Coal Ash and Sparrows," but I'll get to that next week, maybe even this weekend after we come back on Saturday. And then, if I'm feeling really inspired before we go to Ocracoke on the 4th, I'll try and make some headway on "Gunning for the Buddha."

Whew -- can you say laundry list??? Sorry. I sometimes need to do this to get it all straight in my head. I have ToDo lists a mile long, it seems. Never an idle moment. That's why going to the beach is gonna be good -- neither Elizabeth nor I am taking any "work" with us -- no writing, no books, no study materials. Just hanging out and relaxing at the beach (let's hope it doesn't rain!).

I think I've forgotten to have fun and just do nothing. I'm always busy doing something, it seems. Every now and then you need to just stop. Smell some roses. Get some sand in the crack of your butt. Swim in the waves. Bake in the sun. That's my plan, at least! Talk to you later, probably Sunday.
mjj

July 25, 2001

I know where I'm going, and I'm ready to get there...

Today's Quote:

Somewhere in the kingdom a man was locked in a jacket with his arms tied tightly to his side, and Seeker owed that man, the last suspect he ever interrogated, and himself, this story. There had to be a middle ground between hard truth and a happy ending.

What I'm Listening To:

"Live at Luther College" - Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds

What I'm Reading:

Year's Best Fantasy, ed. by Hartwell

Today's Quote: "If you don't know where you are going, how can you expect to get there?" -- Basil S. Walsh (no, I don't know who the heck this dude is)

Good day to you. I'm running a bit behind today, as a result of staying up late last night and sleeping in (until 6:30 a.m. -- can you believe it??!!), so I didn't get much done this morning.

I'm working on and off on final edits to "An Outrider's Tale," cleaning up a place or two where I the wrong color for the rose (key details, of course!). And I'm doctoring up "Video Nasties" as well. Trying to shorten it and punch it up, mostly.

If I'm really feeling ambitious I'll do a little research into carnivals, traveling circuses, and fortune-telling machines for my other story, "The Disillusionist." What I need to do is find the words to the song of the same title. Yep, I got another story idea of sorts from a song, as I did for "Gunning for the Buddha," but this one isn't as direct a correlation as the Buddha story is.

Speaking of the Buddha story, I had some ideas for that, and hope to chat with my buddy Jeff about it next week -- we're collaborating on that as well as "Video Nasties." He's probably getting tired of my overambitious ways, but I'm just trying to be as productive as possible before jumping into the novel. You know the deal...

Not much else going on -- I need to finish up my 300-plus-page manual for the next review, which is going out tomorrow, before we head to Emerald Isle (stopping for BBQ at King's in Kinston, of course, a beach tradition!). Gotta run.

Oh yeah, one last thing -- here's my horoscope from astrocenter.com: "There's a powerful energy emanating from the planets because of the way they are aligned right now, and its impact on you will be to make you feel energetic and inspired. You might not want to do those small, annoying chores. Your mind could be filled with dreams of a big, bright future. You could be thinking about how you are going to expand your career. Or you could come up with some exciting plans to market your business. You'll be in a creative, innovative frame of mind. Don't let your grand ideas fade with this aspect - be sure to capture them on paper!"

Very fitting, eh? I'd much rather work on revising my stories than revising this frikkin'-frackin' software manual, but what can you do??? It's just hard fighting that planetary alignment! ;) See ya.
mjj

July 24, 2001

Writing at night?

What I'm Listening To:

"Elemental" - Tears for Fears

What I'm Reading:

Year's Best Fantasy, ed. by Hartwell

Hello. It's late, about 11 p.m. Just finished some edits to "An Outrider's Tale" (changed it from "An Outrider's Story" -- any preferences???). I think it's almost there. I want to send it out to some more writers, namely my fellow WotFers (Writers of the Future alumni -- we're all on a mailing list and keep in touch) and get their take on it. I've already gotten great feedback from Melissa as well as Derek, and could always use some other eyes on it.

Other than that, I need to finish up and go to bed! I'm not used to doing this writing stuff at night -- I only have 6 hours until I'm up and at it again. Maybe.

Oh yeah, I'm also revising the heck out of "Video Nasties," and I've already chopped 300 words from it. I hope to have that one done and sent to my buddy Jeff before we leave for the beach Thursday afternoon... Ceerrazy.

Also read a couple stories in Hartwell's Year's Best, including Nalo Hopkinson's fine, surprising tale about a "soucouyant" as well as a Lagahoo (of course! what's a soucouyant without a Lagahoo???), and also read Gene Wolf's story about walking sticks. Literally, walking sticks. Gene Gene, the writing machine...

And finally, I was hoping I wouldn't have to do this, but I've been pushed too far. Tim Pratt is a dirty, no-good, rotten scoundrel.

Sorry, inside joke -- Tim is in the process of moving, and I've been harassing him about reading a story of mine that he helped me with (the one about sparrows, if you remember that one). I warned him that I'd call him names in my journal for the whole world to see if he didn't get it back to me -- I was joking, o'course! No worries, Tim. G'night.
mjj

July 23, 2001

Getting closer to my goals...

What I'm Listening To:

"...Nothing Like Sun" - Sting

In hindsight, it's hard to believe how long it took me to revise and edit my story yesterday. I had high hopes for all I'd get done yesterday -- in the morning, I figured I'd get through the revisions to "An Outrider's Story," and probably start in on "Video Nasties" and most likely do a little work on "Coal Ash and Sparrows," and then kick back and read some novellas for fun. Didn't happen. I went over and over that story, from about noon until 7 p.m., with breaks mixed in here and there. Crazy.

But I think it'll be worth it. I'll know in a week or so when I hear back from the first editor I sent it out to.

I did start a little bit of work on the "Video" story last night and this morning, but mostly I just surfed a bit this morning and didn't get a lot done. I think my brain was a bit story-ed out.

Looks like we'll be going to the beach on Thursday, as soon as I can slip away from work and Lizzie can get away from her classes. Cool! We've been going with Elizabeth's family for the past 3-4 years, one week in July, and it's very nice to just get away and read in the sun and goof off and eat lots of seafood and drink beer in copious amounts...

So we were a bit bummed when her family took off on Saturday for their week, leaving us with their dog and cat. We couldn't get away because of Elizabeth's tests and my shortage of vacation time. But I just got Friday off, so we're shooting out of here Thursday and coming back sometime on Saturday. Should be fun! Later.
mjj

July 22, 2001

A good story is never done...

Today's Quote:

Seeker felt a chill fall over him despite the warmth of the summer night and the wine in his belly. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught movement at the far end of the tower, from inside the castle proper. When he turned to look closer, the movement was gone. He motioned for the bottle again. He could have sworn he'd seen someone dressed in white inside the castle.

What I'm Reading:

"72 Letters" by Ted Chiang

"Radiant Green Star" by Lucius Shepard

What I'm Listening To:

"Fight Songs" and "Satellite Rides" - Old 97's

"Reveal" - REM

"Play" - Moby

"Bob Mould" - Bob Mould

Doing some more catch-up work and updating today. I added some links to my Links page, and added a new excerpt to my Autumn's Fall excerpt page as well, incorporating my fixes and additions from Friday. Check it out and let me know what you think!

Speaking of links, I urge you to check out the websites for the following two writers: Jon Merz and Scott Nicholson. They both have their first novels coming out from Pinnacle Books next year, and they have newsletters covering the process that are great reading. For all you aspiring novelists (and anyone interested in fiction, really), check out these up-and-coming writers.

I finally got all my novel queries out in the mail. Whew. Took a lot more time (and paper) than I'd expected, but it's a good feeling, knowing my stuff is out there. Even if it is floating (hopefully not face-down) in a giant pool of slush. Now there's a happy image. I've sent queries to a nice mix of big publishing companies and small presses, and one in particular has got me crossing my fingers, hard.

But for now I need to just forget about the submissions and focus on my current project(s). Which for the next two weeks is getting some stories in shape to send out to various magazines and anthologies. I'm hoping to have "The Beasts" revised today, along with a strong second draft of "Video Nasties," and maybe even fixing the ending to "Coal Ash and Sparrows" with some help from the comments by my friends Chris and Trey.

Then, as a reward, I'm going to read the novellas on the left by Ted Chiang and Lucius Shepard and try to figure out how these dudes do it. Later.

It's a little later. Just added about 1200 words to the Beasts story, and it's close to being done. I need to go over it one more time, and send it out to some folks to get their take on it. I think it's really, really close to being done. I may try to whittle it down a bit (it's about 6,300 words, and I'd wanted it to weigh in right at 6k). We'll see. I feel quite good about it. I also feel good to be back in the AC -- I did all my revisions on the laptop while Elizabeth studied her Anatomy CD on the desktop. Yep, we're a two-computer family, and proud of it. Later!

Okay, one last update -- got the story down to 6,000 words. It has a new title that I like better, "An Outrider's Story," and it's pretty darn tight. I'm gonna submit it and see what happens! Later, for real...
mjj

July 20, 2001

Submitted, for your approval...

Today's Quote:

Somewhere in the direction of town, a dog began to howl. The lonely sound gave Clint chills. The howl went on for ten, then twenty seconds, until it seemed the howling would never end. By the time the howling stopped, Clint had almost convinced himself that the sound hadn’t come from a dog, but something else. Then he shook his head and glanced at the long faces of his friends around him. The pot was making his imagination run away from him.

Last night I read another great story in the Year's Best -- Ursula K. LeGuin's deft "Darkrose and Diamond." Great story, one that had a nice twist or two, with an ending that really hit me in the heart. I sorta felt like crying almost at the end, and that's saying a lot -- I don't do that (you know, I'm a guy). I guess it was just the themes in the story that got me - life's choices, happiness, and family.

In any case, I've been busy today (actually, yesterday, but let's pretend it's still Friday, as I didn't have time to get caught up before I left work). I spent the whole day at the Day Job putting together the two queries for the horror novel and my fantasy novel. It took about 5 times as long as I'd thought it would! But I'm really, really happy with the final product, especially with Autumn's Fall, which got a lot of reworking today/yesterday.

Another writer had mentioned adding more local color and emotional details to the excerpt she read, and I started adding more and more stuff about the farms closing in the area of Nebraska where the prologue is set, during the mid-eighties. That led into some cool thoughts about small towns and problems with farming, and also set up how the town begins its transformation, all leading up to the present day, which starts with chapter one.

I also added a couple creepy details here and there, including the quote on the left.

Then I put 'em all together, printed them out, and headed to the PO. Quite a productive day, even if I didn't get a lot of my Work work done. Oh well. That stuff can wait 'til Monday, y'know? The joys of not having a manager on site... ;)
mjj

July 19, 2001

What I'm Reading:

Year's Best Fantasy and Horror

What I'm Listening To:

"Satellite Rides" - Old 97's

Before I forget, I wanted to say that there's a great story in last year's Year's Best Fantasy and Horror (vol. 13) by Jeffrey Ford called "At Reparata." It's a tale about a sad king and his court of former thieves, forgers, assassins, and prostitutes who do everything within their power to make him get over his grief, with disastrous results. I love how each character, in his or her own way, redeems themselves and "repairs" themselves (hence the cool title, which is the name of the castle) so they can start life over again. You can read "At Reparata" online at the former Event Horizon.

Speaking of stories, you should also check out James Hartley's story "Responsibility," at Speculon, for a chilling, yet compassionate tale about caring for others when the chips (and I mean all the chips) are down. It's a powerful story, surreal at times, with a beautiful ending.

I was going to work some more on my recently-drafted story this morning, but decided to goof around on the Net instead. And I added some graphics to my main journal page. Some days you just have to do this. I've been pushing myself pretty hard the past few weeks, and I don't want to burn myself out.

Plus I have a lot to do this weekend, and want to recharge my batteries before then. I have two stories I'd love to revise, along with the two prologue-and-three-chapter submissions for my horror and fantasy novel that I want to get in the mail next week. And then there's that carnival story I've been researching off and on at work... Fun stuff. I'll keep ya posted.

In miscellaneous fun stuff, check out the website for fellow writer Melissa (I'm helping her with some of the HTML). She had a great story in the Writers of the Future antho called "Skin Song," all about cadavers and neat med school stuff like that. And check out her husband's kickin' band, Dirk Doom and the Overdrive Orchestra, who play awesome music (which the website describes as "the world's first and only surf / electronic / alternative / flamenco / jazz / you-name-it / instrumental rock'n'roll band"). Download their tunes and daydream about the beach. I love "Pterodactyl Dreams." Great stuff. Later.

News

mjj

	michaeljasper.net *"Another Wrecked Web Site"*
July 26, 2001 Reach the Beach... *Today's Quote:* If he looked close enough, he could see small faces inside the static. Their reception seemed to be getting better – Sully could see more details as he watched the static critters dancing around in the alley. They looked like the little hellions that lived on the floor beneath him, nasty little children with mean faces full of trouble. Video nasties. *What I'm Listening To:* "Midnight Radio" - Big Head Todd & the Monsters	Soooo.... I finished the second draft of "Video Nasties" and sent it out to my partner-in-crime, Jeff, for his take on it. I want to get it out the door before next week. There's an anthology looking for horror stories, and I'm hoping this one fits the bill. Got a friendly rejection from Fangoria in less than a week, for "Mother of the Bride," and the editor was very nice, and told me why the story didn't work for him (it was too obvious, which I tend to agree with, tho I stil enjoy the story). Now why can't all editors do that? We did everything through e-mail, which is so much quicker and uses less paper. Of course, I know why not all editors do that -- time. But it still made me feel good that he read my story and gave a coment or two. It doesn't take much to please me, I know... And speaking of being pleased, I believe I've accomplished all I want to before we head east for the coast this afternoon! I finished the draft of "Video Nasties," revised "An Outrider's Tale," and even pulled together my notes for "The Disillusionist" (found the lyrics to the song of the same name by The Church, also -- cool words and images there). I still need to revamp the ending to "Coal Ash and Sparrows," but I'll get to that next week, maybe even this weekend after we come back on Saturday. And then, if I'm feeling really inspired before we go to Ocracoke on the 4th, I'll try and make some headway on "Gunning for the Buddha." Whew -- can you say laundry list??? Sorry. I sometimes need to do this to get it all straight in my head. I have ToDo lists a mile long, it seems. Never an idle moment. That's why going to the beach is gonna be good -- neither Elizabeth nor I am taking any "work" with us -- no writing, no books, no study materials. Just hanging out and relaxing at the beach (let's hope it doesn't rain!). I think I've forgotten to have fun and just do nothing. I'm always busy doing something, it seems. Every now and then you need to just stop. Smell some roses. Get some sand in the crack of your butt. Swim in the waves. Bake in the sun. That's my plan, at least! Talk to you later, probably Sunday. mjj
July 25, 2001 I know where I'm going, and I'm ready to get there... *Today's Quote:* Somewhere in the kingdom a man was locked in a jacket with his arms tied tightly to his side, and Seeker owed that man, the last suspect he ever interrogated, and himself, this story. There had to be a middle ground between hard truth and a happy ending. *What I'm Listening To:* "Live at Luther College" - Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds *What I'm Reading:* Year's Best Fantasy, ed. by Hartwell	Today's Quote: "If you don't know where you are going, how can you expect to get there?" -- Basil S. Walsh (no, I don't know who the heck this dude is) Good day to you. I'm running a bit behind today, as a result of staying up late last night and sleeping in (until 6:30 a.m. -- can you believe it??!!), so I didn't get much done this morning. I'm working on and off on final edits to "An Outrider's Tale," cleaning up a place or two where I the wrong color for the rose (key details, of course!). And I'm doctoring up "Video Nasties" as well. Trying to shorten it and punch it up, mostly. If I'm really feeling ambitious I'll do a little research into carnivals, traveling circuses, and fortune-telling machines for my other story, "The Disillusionist." What I need to do is find the words to the song of the same title. Yep, I got another story idea of sorts from a song, as I did for "Gunning for the Buddha," but this one isn't as direct a correlation as the Buddha story is. Speaking of the Buddha story, I had some ideas for that, and hope to chat with my buddy Jeff about it next week -- we're collaborating on that as well as "Video Nasties." He's probably getting tired of my overambitious ways, but I'm just trying to be as productive as possible before jumping into the novel. You know the deal... Not much else going on -- I need to finish up my 300-plus-page manual for the next review, which is going out tomorrow, before we head to Emerald Isle (stopping for BBQ at King's in Kinston, of course, a beach tradition!). Gotta run. Oh yeah, one last thing -- here's my horoscope from astrocenter.com: "There's a powerful energy emanating from the planets because of the way they are aligned right now, and its impact on you will be to make you feel energetic and inspired. You might not want to do those small, annoying chores. Your mind could be filled with dreams of a big, bright future. You could be thinking about how you are going to expand your career. Or you could come up with some exciting plans to market your business. You'll be in a creative, innovative frame of mind. Don't let your grand ideas fade with this aspect - be sure to capture them on paper!" Very fitting, eh? I'd much rather work on revising my stories than revising this frikkin'-frackin' software manual, but what can you do??? It's just hard fighting that planetary alignment! ;) See ya. mjj
July 24, 2001 Writing at night? *What I'm Listening To:* "Elemental" - Tears for Fears *What I'm Reading:* Year's Best Fantasy, ed. by Hartwell	Hello. It's late, about 11 p.m. Just finished some edits to "An Outrider's Tale" (changed it from "An Outrider's Story" -- any preferences???). I think it's almost there. I want to send it out to some more writers, namely my fellow WotFers (Writers of the Future alumni -- we're all on a mailing list and keep in touch) and get their take on it. I've already gotten great feedback from Melissa as well as Derek, and could always use some other eyes on it. Other than that, I need to finish up and go to bed! I'm not used to doing this writing stuff at night -- I only have 6 hours until I'm up and at it again. Maybe. Oh yeah, I'm also revising the heck out of "Video Nasties," and I've already chopped 300 words from it. I hope to have that one done and sent to my buddy Jeff before we leave for the beach Thursday afternoon... Ceerrazy. Also read a couple stories in Hartwell's Year's Best, including Nalo Hopkinson's fine, surprising tale about a "soucouyant" as well as a Lagahoo (of course! what's a soucouyant without a Lagahoo???), and also read Gene Wolf's story about walking sticks. Literally, walking sticks. Gene Gene, the writing machine... And finally, I was hoping I wouldn't have to do this, but I've been pushed too far. Tim Pratt is a dirty, no-good, rotten scoundrel. Sorry, inside joke -- Tim is in the process of moving, and I've been harassing him about reading a story of mine that he helped me with (the one about sparrows, if you remember that one). I warned him that I'd call him names in my journal for the whole world to see if he didn't get it back to me -- I was joking, o'course! No worries, Tim. G'night. mjj
July 23, 2001 Getting closer to my goals... *What I'm Listening To:* "...Nothing Like Sun" - Sting	In hindsight, it's hard to believe how long it took me to revise and edit my story yesterday. I had high hopes for all I'd get done yesterday -- in the morning, I figured I'd get through the revisions to "An Outrider's Story," and probably start in on "Video Nasties" and most likely do a little work on "Coal Ash and Sparrows," and then kick back and read some novellas for fun. Didn't happen. I went over and over that story, from about noon until 7 p.m., with breaks mixed in here and there. Crazy. But I think it'll be worth it. I'll know in a week or so when I hear back from the first editor I sent it out to. I did start a little bit of work on the "Video" story last night and this morning, but mostly I just surfed a bit this morning and didn't get a lot done. I think my brain was a bit story-ed out. Looks like we'll be going to the beach on Thursday, as soon as I can slip away from work and Lizzie can get away from her classes. Cool! We've been going with Elizabeth's family for the past 3-4 years, one week in July, and it's very nice to just get away and read in the sun and goof off and eat lots of seafood and drink beer in copious amounts... So we were a bit bummed when her family took off on Saturday for their week, leaving us with their dog and cat. We couldn't get away because of Elizabeth's tests and my shortage of vacation time. But I just got Friday off, so we're shooting out of here Thursday and coming back sometime on Saturday. Should be fun! Later. mjj
July 22, 2001 A good story is never done... *Today's Quote:* Seeker felt a chill fall over him despite the warmth of the summer night and the wine in his belly. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught movement at the far end of the tower, from inside the castle proper. When he turned to look closer, the movement was gone. He motioned for the bottle again. He could have sworn he'd seen someone dressed in white inside the castle. *What I'm Reading:* "72 Letters" by Ted Chiang "Radiant Green Star" by Lucius Shepard *What I'm Listening To:* "Fight Songs" and "Satellite Rides" - Old 97's "Reveal" - REM "Play" - Moby "Bob Mould" - Bob Mould	Doing some more catch-up work and updating today. I added some links to my Links page, and added a new excerpt to my Autumn's Fall excerpt page as well, incorporating my fixes and additions from Friday. Check it out and let me know what you think! Speaking of links, I urge you to check out the websites for the following two writers: Jon Merz and Scott Nicholson. They both have their first novels coming out from Pinnacle Books next year, and they have newsletters covering the process that are great reading. For all you aspiring novelists (and anyone interested in fiction, really), check out these up-and-coming writers. I finally got all my novel queries out in the mail. Whew. Took a lot more time (and paper) than I'd expected, but it's a good feeling, knowing my stuff is out there. Even if it is floating (hopefully not face-down) in a giant pool of slush. Now there's a happy image. I've sent queries to a nice mix of big publishing companies and small presses, and one in particular has got me crossing my fingers, hard. But for now I need to just forget about the submissions and focus on my current project(s). Which for the next two weeks is getting some stories in shape to send out to various magazines and anthologies. I'm hoping to have "The Beasts" revised today, along with a strong second draft of "Video Nasties," and maybe even fixing the ending to "Coal Ash and Sparrows" with some help from the comments by my friends Chris and Trey. Then, as a reward, I'm going to read the novellas on the left by Ted Chiang and Lucius Shepard and try to figure out how these dudes do it. Later. It's a little later. Just added about 1200 words to the Beasts story, and it's close to being done. I need to go over it one more time, and send it out to some folks to get their take on it. I think it's really, really close to being done. I may try to whittle it down a bit (it's about 6,300 words, and I'd wanted it to weigh in right at 6k). We'll see. I feel quite good about it. I also feel good to be back in the AC -- I did all my revisions on the laptop while Elizabeth studied her Anatomy CD on the desktop. Yep, we're a two-computer family, and proud of it. Later! Okay, one last update -- got the story down to 6,000 words. It has a new title that I like better, "An Outrider's Story," and it's pretty darn tight. I'm gonna submit it and see what happens! Later, for real... mjj
July 20, 2001 Submitted, for your approval... *Today's Quote:* Somewhere in the direction of town, a dog began to howl. The lonely sound gave Clint chills. The howl went on for ten, then twenty seconds, until it seemed the howling would never end. By the time the howling stopped, Clint had almost convinced himself that the sound hadn’t come from a dog, but something else. Then he shook his head and glanced at the long faces of his friends around him. The pot was making his imagination run away from him.	Last night I read another great story in the Year's Best -- Ursula K. LeGuin's deft "Darkrose and Diamond." Great story, one that had a nice twist or two, with an ending that really hit me in the heart. I sorta felt like crying almost at the end, and that's saying a lot -- I don't do that (you know, I'm a guy). I guess it was just the themes in the story that got me - life's choices, happiness, and family. In any case, I've been busy today (actually, yesterday, but let's pretend it's still Friday, as I didn't have time to get caught up before I left work). I spent the whole day at the Day Job putting together the two queries for the horror novel and my fantasy novel. It took about 5 times as long as I'd thought it would! But I'm really, really happy with the final product, especially with Autumn's Fall, which got a lot of reworking today/yesterday. Another writer had mentioned adding more local color and emotional details to the excerpt she read, and I started adding more and more stuff about the farms closing in the area of Nebraska where the prologue is set, during the mid-eighties. That led into some cool thoughts about small towns and problems with farming, and also set up how the town begins its transformation, all leading up to the present day, which starts with chapter one. I also added a couple creepy details here and there, including the quote on the left. Then I put 'em all together, printed them out, and headed to the PO. Quite a productive day, even if I didn't get a lot of my Work work done. Oh well. That stuff can wait 'til Monday, y'know? The joys of not having a manager on site... ;) mjj
July 19, 2001 *What I'm Reading:* Year's Best Fantasy and Horror *What I'm Listening To:* "Satellite Rides" - Old 97's	Before I forget, I wanted to say that there's a great story in last year's Year's Best Fantasy and Horror (vol. 13) by Jeffrey Ford called "At Reparata." It's a tale about a sad king and his court of former thieves, forgers, assassins, and prostitutes who do everything within their power to make him get over his grief, with disastrous results. I love how each character, in his or her own way, redeems themselves and "repairs" themselves (hence the cool title, which is the name of the castle) so they can start life over again. You can read "At Reparata" online at the former Event Horizon. Speaking of stories, you should also check out James Hartley's story "Responsibility," at Speculon, for a chilling, yet compassionate tale about caring for others when the chips (and I mean all the chips) are down. It's a powerful story, surreal at times, with a beautiful ending. I was going to work some more on my recently-drafted story this morning, but decided to goof around on the Net instead. And I added some graphics to my main journal page. Some days you just have to do this. I've been pushing myself pretty hard the past few weeks, and I don't want to burn myself out. Plus I have a lot to do this weekend, and want to recharge my batteries before then. I have two stories I'd love to revise, along with the two prologue-and-three-chapter submissions for my horror and fantasy novel that I want to get in the mail next week. And then there's that carnival story I've been researching off and on at work... Fun stuff. I'll keep ya posted. In miscellaneous fun stuff, check out the website for fellow writer Melissa (I'm helping her with some of the HTML). She had a great story in the Writers of the Future antho called "Skin Song," all about cadavers and neat med school stuff like that. And check out her husband's kickin' band, Dirk Doom and the Overdrive Orchestra, who play awesome music (which the website describes as "the world's first and only surf / electronic / alternative / flamenco / jazz / you-name-it / instrumental rock'n'roll band"). Download their tunes and daydream about the beach. I love "Pterodactyl Dreams." Great stuff. Later.
News	mjj