Write-a-thon Update

July 11th, 2011

It’s halfway through the write-a-thon and I’m starting to feel the pressure that I’ve put on myself for those goals.

To recap: I’m submitting one short story to a new market every week and I’m supposed to be editing two chapters per week in my current science fiction novel.

I’m one chapter behind on the novel edits.  I probably shouldn’t have allowed myself all the slack time I took during my three-day Fourth of July weekend.

I really wanted to reach my weekly submission goal.  I don’t know why it’s been so hard for me, I have five recent short stories in my submissions-to-send folder, so why are they still sitting there?  I’ve had some rejects on a couple of them, and fear of rejection is definitely a contributing factor.  I just need to close my eyes and go!

One of the stories waiting to go out, A Strand of Pearls, is a little different from the stories I normall write.  It’s a fantasy mermaid-romance thing.  It’s been sitting in my ‘to-send’ folder since I finished editing it a month ago.  I don’t have the slightest clue what market is best for it.  Is anyone compiling a mermaid anthology?  Anyone out there buying mermaid stories right now?  If you hear anything, please let me know…

As far as the fund-raising aspect of the write-a-thon goes: Thanks to everyone who has donated so far!  Donations made on my author page are halfway to last year’s total.  An uber-big Thank You!!! to Bonnie Dunne for her generous contribution.

There’s still time to donate.  Just follow the link and click on the paypal button.  And now, I’m going to get back to writing.

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Write-a-thon Begins!

June 21st, 2011

This is the first of six weeks of the annual Clarion West Write-a-thon and I’m participating for the second time.  Several of you donated last year and your money was appreciated.  The Write-a-thon benefits the Clarion West Writers Workshop.  It’s an intense, annual workshop in Seattle for science fiction and fantasy writers.  I would love to be accepted to the program one day.  Professional writers lead the participants and mentor them during the six weeks.  The write-a-thon is a way for others to participate in the madness.

Your donation helps fund the Clarion West scholarship program.  Of course, donations are tax deductible.  (It’s a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.)

Just as the students are pushing themselves, participants in the Write-a-thon are also setting goals.  This year, my goal is to edit two chapters of my novel-in-progress every week and to submit one short story every week to a new market.

Already, my writing goals for this year have made it feel as though I’ve been participating in a write-a-thon since January.  I’ve been writing and submitting two new short stories every month and while I’ve gotten back some rejections, I’ve also had two acceptances.  I’ve been revising my current novel for about two months now and I just started work on chapter nine.  By the end of this write-a-thon I’ll be at chapter twenty, and that’s the end!

I didn’t get accepted to the program this year.  Maybe if enough people donate money in my name, they’ll accept me next year!  Check out the website and make a donation.  Just click on the paypal button on my donation page.  Any amount you give is appreciated by aspiring writers everywhere.  For more information no the program, check out the Clarion West website.

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Two New Publications!

June 1st, 2011

This has been an unprecedented week in writing.  I had a highly productive long weekend during which I finished a new short story.  I received an acceptance email for Polar Explorations from EveryDayFiction.com on Monday morning.  Then, this morning, as I was brushing my teeth and checking my email on my phone, I got another acceptance email.  Also from EveryDayFiction.com.

This confused me at first.  It was five o’clock in the morning and as I read the email, I was thinking: Hey, they’ve sent me a duplicate email.  It took me a couple of seconds to realize that it was for the other short story I submitted to them, Eve of Destruction.

So here’s the lowdown:  Polar Explorations will be posted on EveryDayFiction.com on June 2nd.  Read it and Rate it!  (Five stars, please!)  Eve of Destruction should be posted on the site sometime in July.  It’s flash fiction, nice and short, you can read it in a matter of minutes.  Give yourself a little break and check ‘em out!

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Knit Your Own Dog

May 25th, 2011

I got a new knitting book the other week and it has been a major contributor to my writing procrastination.

Knit Your Own Dog by Sally Muir and Joanna Osborne. And yes, as the subtitle says, the patterns are easy to follow. My one complaint is that there are so many seams at the end. I started with the Scottie and that has about ten seams. I am not a fan of sewing up. I’ve already started modifying the patterns to knit the legs in the round. Four less seams!

I love the look of the Old English Sheepdog. The loopy stitch they use is not one I’m familiar with and it did take me a while to get into the groove of it. (And the Old English has less seams than the Scottie, especially after knitting the legs in the round.) Practice, practice, practice on the loopy stitches listed at the back of the book.  Another little strange thing: the authors don’t list a stitches per inch gauge for the projects.  Other than that, I love the yarns that they wrote the patterns for, Rowan is one of my favorites.  Only problem is, none of the yarn stores in my town stocks them so I’ll have to order the rest online.

I’m always one for experiments, though, and I’m going to have a lot of fun changing up the colors.  I’m thinking of doing a purple and green dalmation and perhaps a lemon yellow poodle.  The natural colors in the book are very realistic, but I’m looking forward to some fun color experiments here.  This book is a must-buy for knitters.  I’ve also learned a new technique for turning the heel on socks!

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Critters Critique

May 11th, 2011

My critters submission, Dreamsinger, came up for critique last Wednesday and for seven days now, my inbox has been full of critiques on it.  Dreamsinger is a short fantasy story of just under 4,000 words about a woman name Asha who can sing into a dreamland and manipulate the dreams of others.  Her main challenge of the story is to defeat a chieftain who has stolen his people’s ability to dream.

I received a bunch of critiques (29, actually) and the vast majority of them were helpful.  There were a couple of definite themes to the critiques.  Readers wanted more information and more description about everything, from the characters to the magic involved, and the settings.  They also said (kindly) that all the backstory near the beginning of the story bogged down its pace and that the time jump transitions were a little abrupt.  So I’ve got plenty of stuff to think about for the rewrite.

I cannot more highly recommend critters.  I think the process of reading and critiquing others’ stories has strengthened my own writing.

I do have some issues with the diplomacy requirements.  I make an effort to follow them and word my critiques as politely as possible.  I do not think that a generic disclaimer at the beginning and end of a critique that says “This is all my opinion…” and then goes on to quote “rules” of writing as gospel (which goes against the diplomacy requirements) really follows the spirit of diplomacy.

That’s just my one little complaint.  I have a thick skin, I can take rude critiques.  I just think people should make an effort to be polite, or that there should be some kind of a feedback scale where critiques can be rated and people with higher diplomacy are rewarded.  Hey, I just want something for my efforts here.  Seriously, though, if you’re looking for a decent, free writers workshop for sf/f/h, you should definitely check out critters.

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Eye Opening Article @ PW

May 6th, 2011

I’m finally getting caught up with all my backlog of articles from my vacation and there was a really interesting article in Publisher’s Weekly about Kindles and other eReaders.  It’s their Soapbox column from the April 11th (Yes, I am so out of date!) edition called Books without Batteries: The Negative Impacts of Technology.

What I found most interesting about it was the amount of natural resources used to make one eReader.  33 pounds of minerals and 79 gallons of water!  That’s astounding.  Especially when a paper book costs us two gallons of water, a small amount of minerals, and recycled paper.  Trees are a renewable resource.  Who knows what might happen in the future when Africa stabilies itself!  (Many of those 33 pounds of minerals come from Africa, by the way.)

So in order for your ereader to be an effective water-saving device, you’re going to have to download forty books onto it…Hey, I’m as guilty as the next person, I have four different devices on which I read ebooks.  I don’t think I’ve got anywhere near enough books on them to alleviate their footprint in the natural resources and I’m still an avid buyer of paper books.  I’m not saying that eReaders should go away (cause until the digital armageddon hits, they’re here to stay), I’m just saying check out this quick article.  It was a real eye opener.

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Possible Publication

April 17th, 2011

I have discovered that editors have perfect timing. For my first published short story, Noah’s Ark, the publisher notified me that they wanted the short story with a few changes while I was visiting my parents in Chicago. Yesterday, just before my mom’s surprise party, I got an email from another group of editors regarding a short story I submitted to them back in January. They’d like to publish the it, but would like a few changes made before they decide for sure. I’m sensing a bit of a pattern. Perhaps it means I need to come visit my parents more often. So, now, in the midst of hanging with Mom & Dad & Karyn and running around making forts and spoiling my two year old nephew, I’ve got some story revisions to work on. I suppose this week just wasn’t busy enough. I’ll post an update later as to when & where you can read this story.

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Cochineal Dye

March 27th, 2011

I stood around a purple-spattered table with eight other women and we held our breaths as each skein of yarn emerged from the dyebath.  Pinks and purples, fuchsias and eggplants, deep carmine and strawberry reds.  Our day had started at nine in the morning and now, almost eight hours later, the fruits of our labor were evident.  And how gorgeous they were!

The dye we used came from Cochineal Beetles, a bug that lives on the prickly pear cactus.  It’s native to Mexico and South America and was a closely guarded secret for decades.  People died to find out the source of this dye!  I’m totally fascinated by its story and am determined to do more research about it.

We did 42 different dye baths with different concentrations of the bugs.  Moxie, our fearless teacher, started out the morning by having us count out the teeny tiny bugs into quantities of 12, 25, 50, 75, 100 all the way to 325.  These things are miniscule.  I’m glad I wore my glasses!  We put them into jars, added water, and put them in a hot water bath to extract the dye.After about half an hour, we decanted the liquid (strained it through a sieve into a different jar), returned the bugs into the original jar, added more water, and extracted more dye.  We did this three different times for 21 jars plus two large dye pots.

Since we had several different dyebaths going at a time, it was tricky to keep track of which one had been going for how long.  After a while, the bugs started to look like the individual berries of a blackberry cluster and Mareca, one of the ladies in the class, started calling them swollen bug berries.  I think it was a fitting description.

After the final decanting, we added the skeins of yarn (some with modifiers) and let them simmer in the hot water baths for a l-o-n-g time, at least an hour, probably longer.

The modifiers:  We added an iron modifier to some, which ‘saddened’ the colors, shifting them towards purple.  We added tartaric acid to others, to make the ph acidic and reddened the colors.  Baking Soda was added to the next group, made the ph more alkaline, and purpled the colors.

We were running late by the time the yarn came out of the dyebaths and it was a race to cut all our samples and put them into our dye notebooks.And then, with everyone’s notebooks full, it was time to pick out which skeins we wanted to take home.  Out of the full skeins, there were some great fibers: silks and merinos and alpacas.  I got a baby alpaca silk blend.  The smaller, partial skeins were all 100% wool and we divided them evenly among the participants.  No fistfights or name calling broke out and everyone went home happy.  It was a fascinating class and I would gladly take it again.  Plus, I’ve got some gorgeous yarn to play with!

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Calypso Spring Sheep & Wool Show

March 17th, 2011

I have finally started knitting my sweater vest for the Sheep Show. This has been an almost completely ‘from scratch’ project. Tom & Susan raised Sabrina, the sheep whose wool I’m using. Tom sheared it and it came to me as a bag of brown wool on December 4th, 2010.

It had been washed, but there was still chaff in it. I spent a little time spinning it ‘from the fold’ in early December, but as the holidays drew closer, I set it aside. This was the first time I had ever spun fibers this way. My fingers were accustomed to spinning nice top and sliver that just slips through effortlessly. I was a little frustrated with the amount of time it took to spin up a bobbin of the yarn and was happy to put the project away.

I picked it back up in January and, with the goal of having all the yarn spun and plied (I did a three-ply yarn) by the end of February. I had to put it on my to-do list, but at the end of February, Mission Accomplished.

I set the twist in my yarn, rolled some of it into balls, and set it aside while my out-of-town guest and I gallivanted around town during a much-needed vacation. She left last week and now, having returned to my regularly scheduled life, I’m getting my knitting done. I wrote my pattern and hope to have copies available at the sheep show. I’m knitting it in the round so I don’t have to sew up any side seams. I’m calling it the Sabrina Sweater Vest and after all the hours of labor that have been put into it, it’s priceless. Check back later and I’ll post a picture of the finished piece, as well as photos of the event.

Posted in Welcome to the Neighborhood (aka Life in Alaska), fiber arts | No Comments »

Submitted the Fourth New Story of 2011

March 2nd, 2011

I submitted my fourth new short story of the year today.  One of my writing goals for 2011 is to write and submit one short story every two weeks.  And that’s in addition to the novel I’ve been working on.  It’s been, for lack of a better word, intense.

What’s gone out:

January 15th-Polar Explorations to Everyday Fiction

February 1st- Amikuk’s Gift to Weird Tales

February 15th- Feast of Gold to Beneath Ceaseless Skies

March 2nd- Dreamsinger to Strange Horizons

I haven’t heard back from any of them, but I’ve been so focused on writing the next story each and every time I’ve submitted one, that I hadn’t noticed until now.  I have no idea what I’ll write next, for my personal March 15 deadline.  Probably some flash fiction.

I think I need a short project, especially since I have an out-of-town guest coming up for a week (Yay, Jenn!  We’re gonna have a blast playing with chainsaws & riding dogsleds!  Hopefully the aurora will be out.).

It’s been a busy year, but so far I’ve only sent out one story past my personal deadline.  Now if only the publishers would respond…

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