The Place That Is No More

I'm putting some serious work into a story about cyborgs. With any luck (like I have any), it might get into an anthology. Deadline's Halloween.

Considering some other options, but I can't seem to kick my brain into cooperation.

I just realized I haven't posted since May. I really don't have anything to talk about, do I?

Aside from how, once again, my works have received rejection slips. So be it; I'll keep farming them around.

I just wish I was doing well enough to get personalized slips instead of form mail.

- Run my "Inner Workings" story through beta.
- Try to pull together something for "Sword and Laser".
- Find a place that takes haiku submissions.
- Figure out a place to send "Leonine" if the next place I sent it to rejects.

I got challenged by Julie to a writing sprint today. Did 1175 words in thirty minutes on an entry to one magazine or another.

Not sure how I'll finish the plot in the remaining 3825, but we'll see when we get there.

I'm finally weaning myself back onto solid food, but that's not the point.

I've actually begun submitting a story for publication. I've got one rejection so far, and I expect many more. The novel hasn't progressed at all, but I have other goals to aim for now.

At least the sinus headache's gone away.

Have you ever tried to walk to work in winter while suffering a cold?  It's not fun.  Not in the slightest.

At least I got some work done on the book.  Only a few sentences, but every little bit helps.

Hit my head badly a few days ago.  No permanent damage as far as I can tell, but for a while I couldn't safely bend over.

Bought Soul Calibur IV and Borderlands: GOTY Edition (I love GOTY editions, they save so much time and money).  SCIV is proving to be yet another game I suck at.

Haven't worked much on the book lately.  No drive or inspiration at all.

Slowly sleeping away my life.

...that it is when I cannot bring myself to write any actual words that all the ideas come flooding into my skull.

(Though I did write a three-page Avengers fanfic the other night in no time at all that's proving quite popular.  Why does stuff like that always go over well and my actual work never get off the ground?)

I've just passed the thirteenth chapter of the book (where I've ended up revealing something I had previously intended to keep hidden until near the end, after realizing that showing it earlier would make the villain more dangerous). I'm trying to figure out what to do when I finish the first draft.

I plan to set the first draft aside for a while, maybe a month or so, following some advice Stephen King gave in his book On Writing. He advised doing so and then rereading it, so that you could more easily see any mistakes, plot holes, or other sticking points, since you'd no longer be as engulfed by your work.

The question rises, though: I want to keep writing during that month, but what?

I have a few short story ideas, but perhaps it would be a better idea to focus on my poetry. I know it'd probably be a fool's errand to start another novel... Ping-ponging books probably isn't the wisest idea.

I lost track of where my notebook was the other day. When I found it again, I had no ideas. I managed to pull some together tonight, but this scene is moving very damn slowly.

I don't want to break out of working in chronological order, but all my writing ideas are for either much later in this book or in different stories entirely.

How the fuck does Amanda do it?!?