Reviews, Recipes, and Random Slices of Life

11/30/2009 - Monday, full day at job
* How to respond to a manuscript critique/editorial letter: http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2009/11/how-to-respond-to-manuscript.html

11/29/2009 - Sunday
* Read Duotrope and Critters newsletters and updated market list from them.
* Filled out questionnaire for Spec the Halls listing at Ralan.
* Updated bibliography document to add recent sales "Salvaging Scottwell" and "Missing You In Pieces," processed submission and document tracking spreadsheets, and updated Critters bio, LJ profiles, penthius freewriting entries, Facebook profile, website bio and bibliography sections. Every writer should keep a list of where to update when stories get accepted/published.
* Processed "Haunts of Hill Crossing" form letter rejection from Way of the Wizard Anthology (and by extension F&SF Magazine).
* Updated submission order for "Haunts of Hill Crossing" and submitted to Fantasy Magazine. Marveled at their submission process and stated turnaround time.
* Updated submission order for "A Phoenix By Any Other Name" and submitted to Short-Story.me!
* Emailed market that hadn't yet responded to a March submission, withdrawing "Demons of Disease" from consideration. Updated submission order and sent to the Timelines Anthology. Hope that cryogenic freezing counts as time-travel. Processed receipt acknowledgment.
* Updated status of "They'll Seal Any Leak, Guaranteed!" I'm so bad at processing ones that are "we'll tell you by X if we want it--otherwise you won't hear from us" but I was worried I'd have to start submitting out my literary stories. Shudder.
* Posted writing log.
* Did NanoWriMo--and I'm not too happy with how that experiment is working out. Will have to do massive rewrite and am not even done with the story yet.

11/05/2009 - Thursday
* Write characters, not Mary Sues: http://bethanyharvey.com/blog/posts/2007/07/write-characters-not-mary-sues/
* Post writing log.
* Some ghetto penthius freewriting
* Nano WriMo writing.
* Processed Baen's Universe acceptance of "Salvaging Scottwell." (Squee!)
* Updated agent hunt list.
* Added Beauty and the Beast story idea for Enchanted Conversations to the Ideas at Bat file.
* Processed Things We Are Not payment for "Diplomatic Relations" and updated cover letter, bio, and blog profile for pseudonym.
* Added correct name for spaceship in Vicesteed to characters file.
* Added writing expense.
* Got "Lover's Key" ready to edit.
* Processed MinnSpecer crits of Vicesteed chs. 18 and 22.
* Redmarked Vicesteed ch. 21.

10/22/2009 - Thursday
* Read Critters newsletter.

10/21/2009 - Wednesday
* Queried Baen's Universe again about the official status of "Salvaging Scottwell" - (The answer was, basically, why didn't you ask sooner? I'll go check.)
* Queried Micro Award administrator about certain administrative submission details.

10/20/2009 - Tuesday
* Updated website contact info page with privacy policy. Updated and added tracking cookie to various other web pages.
* Posted writing log.
* Started reading "Tree of Life" to refresh my memory
* Read WritersMarket, FundsforWriters, Duotrope and FFWSmallMarkets newsletters and updated market list from them.

07/05/2009 - Sunday, after getting home from CONvergence.
* Penthius freewriting about a different kind of Walk of Stars.

07/02/2009-07/05/2009 - Thursday-Sunday
At CONvergence, which I think counts as more than enough for those days!

07/02/2009 - Thursday, before CONvergence
* Read Publisher's Lunch.

07/01/2009 - Wednesday, spent most of the morning prepping photos for mailing.
* Read Writing-World, WritersDigest newsletters.
* Recommended writing books - I can vouch for The Writers Guide to Life in the Wild West and On Writing: http://bookstove.com/non-fiction/five-good-books-about-genre-writing-by-actual-authors/

06/30/2009 - Tuesday, no downtime, spent the morning mostly dealing with the repair guy and needing to get into work.
* Posted writing log.
* Created a "To Do Once Pro Writer" file. It felt strange to do that--kind of presumptuous. On the other hand, it really only makes sense to keep a place to record ideas and tactics and useful resources for that level of writing. Things like joining this writing group and that writers organization and using the other service if x happens.
* Loaded Vicesteed ch. 29 up into Critters for critique.
* Processed MNLit's non-win notification. (One is never rejected from contests; one simply didn't win.)
* Processed donation received for Aswiebe's Market List (2 months later. Oy. Seemed late enough I thought a thank-you would be more awkward than otherwise.)
* Processed Alternative Coordinates' personal, "we hope you will submit again" rejection of "These Things Take Time." "While the subject matter is of interest to our readers and the story is well written, the story itself does not fit in well with our current releases." Hrm. I am flattered that I got a mostly positive personal rejection, yet somewhat baffled. My intangibles did not fit in.
* Sent Vicesteed chapters 19-22 to MinnSpecer who volunteered to crit more. Yay!
* Updated "Salvaging Scottwell"'s status to reflect it being passed up the line after edits were completed. Am still more than a little gobsmacked that Eric Flint is going to be reading *my* story.

05/09/2009 - Saturday, no work
* Read WritersDigest newsletter.
* Submitted "Diplomatic Relations" to M-Brane SF Queer Anthology.
* Fought a lot with OpenOffice 3.x's crashiness and problems saving in RTF format. By "fought a lot," I mean that Phil was on another floor of the house and I traumatized him.

05/08/2009 - Friday, full work, some downtime
* Dealt with the hazards of multiple versions of a working draft: merged the updated first three chapters from my home version with the more-recently-edited-elsewhere thumb drive version, and changed the paragraph I'd saved in my email. Then synced that version on home computer and thumb drive.
* Decided to be patient a little longer and not query about the status of "Salvaging Scottwell" (they've been holding the RTF version for 3 months, but molasses moves a lot faster than the publishing industry).
* Joined http://www.mnartists.org and submitted "Dining on a Dead Girl's Dime" to the MNArtists' miniStories Flash Fiction Contest (thanks for the idea, inktea!).
* Began formatting "Diplomatic Relations" for a reprint submission. Stumbled up against AbiWord problems with headers.
* Read Writing-World, FundsforWriters, and FFWMarkets newsletters.
* Writing-World feature article, "Music to Write By" (http://www.writing-world.com/newsletter/2009/WW09-09.shtml). I use music to set the writing mood, but the idea of "anchoring" is a new and interesting one. Now I just need to figure out what my starting song should be.
* Posted writing log.
* penthius freewriting about Death's need for a gardener.
* Worked on making editing changes to Vicesteed ch. 17

It's been a good week for my stories. (This is funny, because I've been too sick and at-work to do anything with them.)

1. Baen's Universe, a pro-level publication, has pulled "Salvaging Scottwell" out of the slush pile and will be bumping it up for the Editor-in-Chief to look at. Now commences the biting of nails and crossing of fingers.

2. The Edge of Propinquity has moved "The Radiator Burped" past the first round of cuts. Now, all this probably means is that they've decided it fits the theme and isn't actively badly written, but I do so want my difficult child to find a home.

Squeesqueesqueesqueesqueesqueesqueesqueesqueesqueesquee!!!!!!!!

Ahem.

Setting that aside, because there's nothing I can do to influence the outcome (other than actually sending the rtf version in, which I plan on doing tomorrow, when I'm less tired and less likely to miss something).

Vicesteed. Now is really when I should be submitting Vicesteed, because steampunk's popularity is rocketing up and people are looking for good steampunk books, which I think I will have after I finish the editing. So I need to get that done, and right quickly, too. Having it done by Wiscon, or at least by 4th Street Fantasy, seems like a good plan. Then I will be able to gush at people about it, while batting my eyes in my best talented-and-professional-writer manner.

( The numbers on that goal )

11/08/2008 - Saturday, no work
* Processed new Spec the Halls submissions, put links up on website, sent acknowledgment emails.
* penthius freewriting, a little story idea about the spirit of Christmas. And cannibalism.
* Wrote up a fantastic zombie idea I woke up with. Really think it'll be an amazingly good story. V. exciting, now if only I had time to write it. :P
* Fixed the typos and nit-picks in "Salvaging Scottwell" and resubbed to Baen's Universe. Think I actually got everything this time. I'm done now, right? Can't believe I thought this story was finished months ago. I've gotta admit, as far as combining the "polishing" and "submitting" process, Baen's Universe has it going on.
* Caught up some more on the SeCret ProjeCt, uploaded files to online so I should be able to work on them when I'm not at home (in case of unexpected work downtime).
* Made editing changes to Vicesteed.
* Updated various Vicesteed critiquing statuses.
* Fought some more with the new version of OpenOffice, which crashes all the fucking time.
* Processed Gaea's crit of Vicesteed ch. 19-20.

Then I had to go to a James Bond party instead of continuing to work on stuff. Oh, woe was me.