abracanabra | Entries tagged with miracle material

05/03/10, Monday
* Posted writing log, freewriting.
* Prepped Critters mss for critting.
* Submitted "Demons of Disease" to Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine (still one of the best SF magazine titles ever).
* Submitted "The Miracle Material" to Zoetrope: All-Story.
* Wrote one page longhand on Platinadar.

(And yes, I totally just wrote a list of all the things I needed to catch up on and then started rolling a D6 to decide what to do next. I should really keep that D6, too, as it tended to roll high. Disproportionate number of sixes [which meant non-writing paperwork, worse luck].)

Most of this week I've just been getting the freewritings done and not much else. Some combination of too much work at the day job, too much sleeping in, and too much http://www.casttv.com. Bad Abra, no biscuit.

3/27/10, Saturday
* Posted freewriting
* Caught up on the writing blogs I read--in case you're wondering, they're Agent in the Middle, Guide to Literary Agents, Lit Soup, Nathan Bransford, Query Shark, Scalzi's Whatever, and Storyfix (still deciding on that last--some useful stuff, but a fair amount I disagree with), and updated agent list from them.
* How to correctly format an email query letter: http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2010/03/how-to-format-query-letter.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NathanBransford+%28Nathan+Bransford+-+Literary+Agent%29
* Processed TweettheMeat's acceptance of "She loved her new husband's mansion" and submitted "The Reaper came" and processed receipt acknowledgment.
* Belatedly processed TweettheMeat's acceptance of "Gene therapy worked" and payment received.
* Processed "The Miracle Material" personal rejection with editorial feedback from Apex Magazine.
* Processed new publication date (September) and edits info for Dead Bells (with my story "Missing You In Pieces")
* Read Critters, WritersWeekly, Duotrope, WritersDigest, FFWSmallMarkets, and Publisher's Lunch newsletters and updated market list from them.
* Start your stories with action is bad advice: http://blog.writersdigest.com/norules/2010/03/11/TheBiggestBadAdviceAboutStoryOpenings.aspx

03/06/10, Sunday
* Read Ralan, WritersWeekly, Writing-World, Lunch Weekly, FFWSmallMarkets, FundsforWriters, Duotrope, and 2 WritersDigest newsletters and updated market list from them.
* An exercise for writing a query letter with voice: http://elanajohnson.blogspot.com/2010/02/writing-query-letter-with-voice.html
* The Starter Guide to Twitter: http://tribalwriter.com/2010/02/22/a-writers-starter-guide-to-twitter-or-everything-i-wish-someone-had-told-me-when-i-first-started-using-twitter/
* Approaches to making a living as a writer: http://chrisguillebeau.com/3x5/files/2010/02/Guillebeau_WD.pdf
* Processed the OG's form rejection of "They'll Fix Any Leak, Guaranteed!"
* Processed Apex's receipt acknowledgment for "The Miracle Material."
* Updated market list from updates sent in.
* Submitted "The Haunts of Hill Crossing" to Strange Horizons and processed receipt acknowledgment.
* Submitted "Demons of Disease" to Basement Stories.
* Submitted "They'll Fix Any Leak, Guaranteed!" to Strangetastic.
* Submitted "Gone Huntin'" to Flash Fiction Online and processed receipt acknowledgment.
* Much belatedly processed a crit of Vicesteed chs. 33-34.

03/03/10, Wednesday, full day at day job
* Processed Clarkesworld's form letter rejection of "The Haunts of Hill Crossing."
* Re-resubmitted "The Miracle Material" to Apex, using a different doc format in case that was what was getting it caught in their spam filters. I think--no joy. But my email with no attachment went through okay. So then I re-re-resubmitted it from another email, with attachment, and it went through okay. Am mighty confused.
* Know that "every scene should do at least two things" adage? Here are some of those things: http://writersdigest.com/article/showing-and-telling-excerpt
* On Writing Rules: http://ann-leckie.livejournal.com/144298.html

03/02/10, Tuesday
* Finished redmarking Vicesteed ch. 27.
* Posted writing log, freewriting
* Prepped Vicesteed ch. 28 for editing.
* Re-submitted "The Miracle Material" to Apex, after their very prompt "didn't get it" response to my query. AS of noon, have not received acknowledgment, and am a bit antsy.

02/28/10, Sunday
* Posted writing log, freewriting
* Read 2 Publishers Lunch, Writing-World, 2 WritersMarket, 2 FundsforWriters, 2 FFWSmallMarkets, and 2 WritersWeekly newsletters and updated agent list and market list from them.
* Read for the editorial inspired by Terry Pratchett: http://www.writing-world.com/newsletter/2010/WW10-04.shtml
* Submitted "The Haunts of Hill Crossing" to Clarkesworld. And can I say I really like the submission systems where you can see your manuscript's place in the queue, even if it does lead to time wastage similar to what occurs when you have a UPS/Fedex package en route?
* Submitted "Periwinkle Eyes" to Triangulation: The End of the Rainbow. I less-than-three them for preferring OpenOffice docs, and for welcoming reprints.
* Queried Apex Magazine about "The Miracle Material," since it's a month or so past their standard response time. And--got an acknowledgement of submission back for the query, which I *didn't* get for the initial submission. Uh-oh. Well, I'll still wait to see what they say.
* Prepped submission for MinnSpec Anthology, but am waiting to hear back about what rights they want. Plus, submissions don't open until tomorrow.

11/01/2009 - Sunday
* Posted writing log.
* Penthius freewriting inspired by noodling about other story--naturally, not too great.
* Did monthly backups.
* Read Critters and Duotrope newsletters and updated market list from them.
* Submitted "Warmth in the Cold Time" to Pedestal.
* Submitted "Road of Dreams" to Screams and Dreams Anthology via Liquid Imagination.
* Processed v. speedy "enjoyed it but not making decision until December" "added to short stack" response from Liquid Imagination re Screams and Dreams Anthology.
* Submitted "These Things Take Time" to Alternative Coordinates. Realized it had already been rejected from there, freaked out, then decided to let it go. Too late to do anything but draw attention to it anyway. Submitted to "New Myths" as well, since both mags accept simultaneous submissions (something I've never done before).
* Submitted "The Miracle Material" to Apex.
* Built my notes file for the Nano WriMo project, "Walking Out of the Machine." (Thought about calling it "Girl in the Gears," which is a better title, but inaccurate.) Checked tweet tags, pulled out the character info from Vicesteed (for two of my favorite minor characters! Watts the hackney cab driver, and Mrs. Crinoline, the madam of The Juicy Plum) and the scene that I'm basing it on. Re-read "The Red Shoes." Pondered plot details and fairytale resonances. Wrote the first two sentences and tweeted them.

05/18/2009 - Monday, no downtime
*

penthius freewriting about apprentice vintages.
* Saved the last week's freewritings to the ideas file.
* Broadcast my "Yay! Acceptance!" about "The Radiator Burped" to various places for no reason other than glee. The useful time to make story announcements is at the "It's published--go forth and read and here's why you should want to" point, but I couldn't help myself. This is not my first story to get published, but I'm still giddy at getting the acceptance. I wonder if that ever changes?

05/15/2009 - Friday, a little downtime
* Processed Shock Totem's form letter rejection of "Miracle Material."
* Cleared out old anthologies/contests from Aswiebe's Market List.
* Wrote Aswiebe's Market List newsletter, posted link/content to LJ, website, Twitter, and Facebook.
* Finished crit for MinnSpec and read other "for crit" story.

05/14/2009 - Thursday, mostly downtime but I wasted it all.
* Read WritersDigest newsletter.
* Posted writing log.
* Penthius freewriting about Elvis.

04/30/2009 - full work, but there were a couple of beautiful hours of downtime.
* Posted writing log.
*

penthius freewriting about this: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/us/30zodiac.html?ref=us
* Updated market list from my Gmail to-do labels.
* Updated submission order for "Charity From a Thief," "The Radiator Burped," "Road of Dreams," "A Phoenix By Any Other Name," and "The Miracle Material" and picked where they're going to next--not necessarily the market that pays the most, but the new market that pays well and is what I think is a really good fit. Given the choice between an older magazine and a newer one, I sub to the newer one on the theory that their slush pile is smaller.
* Processed Dead Bait Anthology's very nice form letter rejection of "Miracle Material." Le sigh.
* Read Critters newsletter and various mid-week ad mailings from my writing newsletter people.
* Submitted "The Miracle Material" to Shock Totem after much wailing and gnashing of teeth over OpenOffice's difficulties with, it seems, the very notion of the .RTF format. (More on that later--the quick answer is "AbiWord.")

What on earth did writers with day jobs do before there were decent-sized thumb drives?

As part of the compromise Phil and I have, which means I'm occasionally allowed to see other coffee shops, I got to choose where we went yesterday. Based on some recommendations, I chose Urban Bean. I liked it. The tea and chocolate croissant I had were tasty. The back room was very light and airy, with a huge picture window and a beautiful urban cityscape cutout mural. They had a lot of electrical outlets. Even when it was seated to almost-full capacity, it didn't feel crowded. I liked the ambient electronic music. It had a quiet, almost library-like atmosphere.

Drawbacks: There was no padding on the chairs/bench, the tables were a little small for 2, and the quiet made one a little self-conscious about talking to friends. Phil's drawback list was silly: it was "too clean" (!) and lacking in hummus.

Conclusion: It was nice and I'd definitely go back there, but it isn't necessarily the best place to go to hang out with friends on Saturdays. It would be a great place to study. On the other hand, it's on a direct bus line from our house, so it's definitely someplace I might go on my own to work if I'm feeling cabin fever.

Between sickness and lack of work (except for a transcription project I did at home), I hadn't been out of the house except for martial arts classes for a couple of weeks, so it was so nice to go out and see someplace new and hang out with

discoflamingo,

cvalenti, and

bitwise.

( More photos and writing logs. )

12:11 Heading over to Urban Bean coffee shop at 3255 Bryant Ave S. Already have @discoflamingo & @cvalenti - the more the merrier.
13:19 Right now, happiness is a chocolate croissant and a mug of currant tea.
13:21 Phil requests the loan of a pair of headphones if anybody else comes out to play.
13:51 Writing a first-person story without specifying the gender of the main character is way easier than writing a synopsis similarly.
14:24 Spam wants my help moving: "We need to remove cupboard, come on!" "Come tonight, we have beef steaks!"

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02/17/2009 - Tuesday, half work
* Processed Brad's crit of Vicesteed chs. 9-10 and sent him the next couple
* Penthius freewriting, "Aging Immortal: Science Fiction"
* Posted writing logs
* Edited Vicesteed
* Processed Writers of the Future non-win for "The Miracle Material"
* Processed Medicine Show's form rejection of "The Haunts of Hill Crossing"
* Processed Triangulations' personal "started too slow" rejection of "These Things Take Time"
* Read Writer's Digest newsletter
- 10 Disciplines for Fiction Writers (http://writersdigest.com/article/10_Disciplines_for_Fiction_Writers) - I think that particularly the making lists of rewards and goals would be a good thing for me.

It's so good to be back to a 1/2 day schedule. I feel like I can actually get stuff done. I work in the morning to make enough money for bills. Then I come home and clean a bit and work on writing stuff. In the evening, I cook dinner or go to martial arts class. People ask how I'm doing and I answer, "Good!" Hell, I'm downright chipper.

I know it's not a permanent schedule--soon enough I'll be fretting over not enough hours at work or too little time to write--but it feels really good.

"They'll Seal Any Leak, Guaranteed!" Writing Log

100 / 100
(100.0%)

New words: 100.
Total words: 100. Exactly.
Overused word: leach
Gratuitous word: pipes
Type of scene: Super-short story that's sort of sci-fi horror, though I think it's funny, too.
Challenge(s): Getting it to be precisely 100 words long, with hyphenated words counting as one (which is not how my wordcounter counts them, as I discovered).
Which fragment is it anyways?sang in high-pitched whistles at night
Notes: This was pretty easy, since I basically reworked one of my

penthius ideas for it.
Other writingy stuff:
* Submitted "They'll Seal Any Leak, Guaranteed!" to Sam's Dot Special Drabble Contest.
* Posted writing log
*

penthius freewriting, a little jot about a cop bitch.
* Processed agent form rejection of Serenade of Blood & Silver, Shock Totem's form rejection of "Warmth in the Cold Time," and Writers of the Future's receipt acknowledgment of "The Miracle Material."
* Wrote two shorts to submit, "Unloved Dolls" and "They'll Seal Any Leak, Guaranteed!". 'Twas funny, swinging from something quite sexy to something any man would find horrifying.

11/30/2008 - Sunday, no work
* Loaded up the next few chapters of Vicesteed for the MinnSpec workshop.
* Submitted "The Miracle Material" to Writers of the Future contest.
* Finally buckled down and submitted a couple of agent queries for Serenade of Blood & Silver. Writing, editing--no problem. Submitting and querying? Something I have trouble making time for. Fingers crossed!
* Read more on the seCret projeCt forums, set up some structure for linking creations together.
* Made editing changes to Vicesteed.
* Loaded a couple of chapters from Serenade of Blood & Silver up to Authonomy.

11/29/2008 - Saturday, full work
* Read FFWSmallMarkets, FundsforWriters newsletters
* Processed "a pleasure to read" rejection of Miracle Material by OceanView Short Story Contest.
*

penthius freewriting, something a little Christmassy.
* Caught up some more on the SeCret ProjeCt forums.
* Posted writing log.

"Tree of Life" Writing Log

13,855 / 100,000
(13.9%)

New words: 547
Total words: 13,855
Overused word: sapling
Gratuitous simile: The slender line of the beanstalk cut through space like a monofil knife stabbing the reddish brown world below.
Type of scene: I got to beat up the main character! A lot! Um. The plot made me do it.
Challenge(s): Finding a variety action verbs for things falling. Slammed! Plummeted! Smacked! Crashed!
Which line is it anyways?Gravity slammed into them.
Notes: It felt really good to be writing again. I didn't hit flow, which isn't surprising given how long it's been. I'm sad, though. I want to see how well my new system of allowances and exceptions works. (Yeah, I'm a big one for systems.)
Other writingy stuff:
* Posted writing log
* Did critique for MinnSpec (the new name's so much easier to spell!) writer's workshop.
* Penthius freewriting, "Interview: Genre Undetermined"
* Processed "well received by our submissions staff, but unfortunately it doesn't quite meet the needs of our publication" rejection of "These Things Take Time" by Hub Magazine.
* Processed Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show's form letter rejection of "The Miracle Material"
* Processed Vicesteed ch. 15 crits from Critters.
* Added some dowser info to the story seeds for rural fantasy file. Not sure if it will ever come to anything, but I'm trying the "accretion" method so beloved of the 4th Street Fantasy panelists.
* Added some ideas for the CC shared world project. Someday I'll actually have time to read the files.
* Saved info about possible "making reading enjoyable" market.

"Police Bot" Writing Log

12,248 / 10,000
(122.5%)

Words: 603
Total words: 12,248
Overused word: gangbangers
Gratuitous word: behemoth
Type of scene: A posse of ghetto folk going into a gated community. Good times.
Challenge(s): walkie-talkies
Which paragraph is it anyways?

The guard grabbed his walkie-talkie. "Central, we may have a situation," he said. "Over."

The radio crackled. "What sort of situation? Over."

"I--I don't know," the guard said, watching the caravan halt and the passengers get out. Individually, he would have called them "suspicious persons." Taken all together, he didn't know what to call them. "Switch over to my cameras."

Notes: I'm so close to ending this thing I can smell it. Two--maybe three scenes and I'm done. I'm quite tempted to push it to finish today, instead of switching over to submissions and editing after I write 500 words. We will see. If I'm in flow, I'll continue. Maybe not a bad idea to do it that way for writing in general? Maybe it is? You might think I've been doing this long enough to have the balance figured out, but you'd be wrong.
Other writingy stuff:
*

penthius freewriting, "The Cats of Mars: Science Fiction"
* Processed Nelson Agency query rejection.
* Thanked the first couple of critters for "Vicesteed" and printed off critiques for use.
* Sent out reminders to non-critters group about "Vicesteed ch. 1 & 2", and emailed to get Adam's in a more easily-printable format.
* Scanned and processed tax-deductible purchase receipts.
* Processed Analog rejection of "The Miracle Material" - the mostly form letter addressed to "Mr. Wiebe" says it is "not quite suitable to our present needs," which is a very nice way of saying absolutely nothing. :)
* Read FundsforWriters newsletter
* Read FFWSmallMarket newsletter - added Shiny (http://shinymag.blogspot.com/2007/01/submission-guidelines.html) to market list.
* Read Writers' Digest newsletter

Oog. My aching head. Drank a whole lot last night at the CC with The Mad Scientist,

chadvalentine and

opheliac_9. Am somewhat recovered after a BLT and coffee, and am now inhabiting the back room at Cahoots, doing wifi emailey stuff and eventually working on writing. I've got a strong desire to get "A Haunted Kiss" ready to ship out ASAP, because it's a ghost story, and this is the season for selling those. Ideally, I would have had it done and out the door last month, but I got just a leetle bit busy. So I need another editing run-through, and then it's off to play with the big boys (hopefully).

In other news, "Writ in Snowflakes and Sunshine" AKA "Ice Mother" is now up for editing on Critters. I haven't had much feedback on it yet, though, so I'm starting to get worried. Meep.

Writing Stuff

* Damn! Spent a lot of time just figuring out where I am!
*

penthius freewriting
* Responded to letters from folks about "Blood for Oil" publication.
* Processed 30-day Pseudopod rejection of "Waiting" reprint
* Processed 1-year+1-month form letter rejection (with note saying, "Sorry for the long delay!") of "Miracle Material" from The Bear Deluxe.
* Processed form letter agent rejection of Serenade of Blood & Silver by The Peter Rubie Agency.
* Printed out "Miracle Material" comments from Baen's Universe Slush for redmarking and editing purposes.
* Created "Income" spreadsheet. Squee! (Yeah, it's been a while. Bug off.)
* Processed payment received from Allegory for "Blood for Oil"
* figured out where I was in the whole editing-of-short-stories process, updated manuscript tracking spreadsheet, and for redmarking/editing I printed out "Blood for Oil" (I know, I know--reprint editing--I got a couple of comments from readers that I want to use) and "The Miracle Material" (to edit using comments from Baen's Bar).
* updated markets list from

specficmarkets,

yuki_onna
* updated markets list:
- (http://carnifexpress.net/welcome.php) Clash of Steel Magazine
+ "Fantastical Visions V Short Story CONTEST - deadline 10/15/2006 (http://fantasistent.com/CONTESTS/StoryConRules.html)
+ Clarkesworld Magazine (http://www.clarkesworldmagazine.com/submissions.html)
+ Electric Velocipede (http://mysite.verizon.net/evzine/htm/sg.htm)
* writing periods completed: 3

( Non-writing accomplishments: )

...since I did one of these.

"Police 'Bot" Writing Log

1,327 / 5,000
(26.5%)

Writing work periods completed: 3 1/2
Words yesterday: 323 new
Total words: 1,327
Reasons for length: It's been a while since I've sat down and written, let alone written on this specific story, so that slows things down a fair bit. I also spent a lot of the writing time working on writing-related tasks that weren't actual writing. And figuring out/brainstorming the plot in a bit more detail than the rough outline I've been working from. Yes, I work from outlines. Yes, they're rough outlines. Yes, they're subject to change without notice. Yes, usually I'm the one who isn't getting notified.
Overused word: ain't
Gratuitous word: tenement
Type of scene: Is it still exposition if I've got a whore explaining matters in an entertaining fashion?
Challenge(s): Planting seeds for later.
Which line is it anyways?Run-down tenement houses ringed the park.
Other writingy stuff: Ha. Whew.
*

penthius freewriting.
* Posted to other-genre lj.
* Updated market listings spreadsheet from Ralan newsletter and from Critters newsletter.
* Submitted "Ice Mother" AKA "Writ in Snowflakes and Sunshine" to Critters queue--it should percolate to the top in about a month, assuming I'm too busy to do the metric shit-ton of critiques necessary to get a free pass to the top of the list (I swear, I will be so happy once I'm SFWA-approved....).
* Replied to the last Baen's Universe comment on "The Miracle Material.
* Processed form letter rejection of "These Things Take Time" from Aberrant Dreams (that poor baby ain't never going to find a home--everybody dislikes the main character, and who wants to spend time with someone they dislike, even and especially if they reflect something you dislike in yourself?).
Notes: I really, really like the story I'm working on right now. I mean, robots! Endearing, long-suffering, honest, dog-shaped robots! And bonus points for a framework of social commentary! The Muse: "I like robots. Does it do funny tricks?" Me: "Not intentionally, but it's kind of broken." Him: "So it does do funny tricks! Is it a good robot?" Me: *long discourse about the nature of good and bad in reference to created creatures* Him: "Is it a good robot?" Me: "Yes."

Reviews, Recipes, and Random Slices of Life

Being the journal of an all-too-human writer, reader, and eater of deliciousness

Writing Log: Submissions

Writing Log: Processing.... Processing....

Writing Log: Submissions Sunday

Writing Logs: Re-re-resubmissions

Writing Log: Submissions Sunday

"Walking Out of the Machine" and others.

Writing Logs: Acceptancy Goodness

Writing Log: Submit (also a synonym for "give up")

Writing Log & Urban Bean Coffee Shop

Details of the Day - Coffee Shop Saturdays

Writing Log - Life is Good

Writing Log: Two Short Stories Written In One Day! Bwahahaha!

Writing Log: Too Much to Do!

Writing Log: Slammed! Plummeted! Smacked! Crashed!

Writing Log

Yesterday's Writing Log: Operation Catch-Up

Writing Log...Damn, It's Been a While

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