Whispers

1.  My stocking is up at fandom_stocking ! 
2. My Christmas cards still aren't sent. Whoops.
3. I'm doing poetry collections for gifts this year. They're going to be late. Like January. Double whoops.
4. My two stories for Marvel is Marvel (pinch hitting) must be done by end of Wednesday or I'm a hypocrite.
5. I have a doctor appointment and a chiropractor appointment tomorrow at wildly different times and I'm already behind on work without a lot of sick leave to make up for it.
6. I'm super behind at work. I should be working.
7. My Yuletide fic is a glimmer in its author's eye, and that's all I can really say for it.

And in light of all that, my plan is to go to bed tonight because that's what I'm up to. Blessings, y'all! And may tomorrow bring a miracle. :D

On looking into my email inbox...

Oh, hello, poem! I forgot I'd submitted you.

I submitted a 346 line SFF poem to Strange Horizons (apparently I can be very long-winded; who's surprised?), and they thought about it, bumped it back, and suggested I submit it to a different market because reasons they outlined.

Now, the last time I got a rejection, I commented here that I'd come to expect them and it wasn't really a big deal. But today, I realized something else: I'm getting personalized rejections where my work affected the editor even if they decided ultimately not to publish it.

:cue surprise:

I always thought I was a bit of a take it or leave it kind of girl when it came to writing and I have almost no luck finding an actual good fit for any poetry, so it's been my own thing, mostly for myself with the occasional piece or book finding its way to family or friend.

And part of my secret to writing so frequently and so easily when it comes to works under 5000 words is that I just do it all the time. Words aren't sacred, they're words, and I accept that the only way to produce a lot of great fiction and poetry is to produce a lot of bad fiction and poetry. The stuff that wavers between good and bad is 50/50 whether I'll throw it out there. So there's a lot of bad poetry and mediocre poetry I have under my belt, and it never really occurred to me that there was a lot of good poetry that wasn't just amateur anymore.

I had decided to quit submitting poetry because finding the right market for the stuff I write hasn't always been easy. My narrative stuff is... challenging, epic, or just plain odd. My greeting card verse and personal stuff sometimes feels trite. I don't read the literary, personal, reflective stuff in periodicals, so I don't actually know where to send the loads of that I write. I like form poetry and that's even harder to place.

Now I don't really know. Is it worth the bother? Poetry takes months to come back. By then, I'm often staring at the inbox going, "Oh, I forgot about you!" And it's almost always rejected. (I've had one poem published and it got a bad review there for flowery language and old-fashioned style, which I didn't even know it had.)

Maybe poetry will stay this personal thing. Maybe I'll start treating it a little more seriously. Just some thoughts.

So I finally opt to go with the Carrington atomic method and implement the Carrington blog theme on my tester site so I can do what I need to do. One of the most popular themes in town and it doesn't pass theme check.

:headdesk:

I think I'm going to ignore all the dozens of errors (except missing required elements) and go with it anyway.

:grumble, grumble, grumble:

On a sidenote, I need to start posting the personal stuff here more often. It's been too long since I went chatty on y'all and I've kind of missed that.

Safe is under the pen again, getting some love on the next chapter. I wish I hadn't started another chaptered fic, solely because I really need to be working on updating the Vardin ebook files and launching the collection print edition—not a fanfic. But I miss my fanfic peoples! And I have too many ideas, for fanfics, for stories, for income streams, for articles. Too much, too much.

:shakes head at self: Then again, what else is new?

Hopefully, the stuff I've been working on will bring it all back into order soon. Hopefully.

From arliddian:
Comment to this post, and I will list seven things I want you to talk about. They might make sense or they might be totally random.

Then post that list, with your commentary, to your journal. Other people can get lists from you, and the meme merrily perpetuates itself.


1) What is a book that you will always carry in your heart?

Anne of Green Gables and the rest of the series. The first was my first book given to me as a Christmas present and I still love it and read it often. I quote Anne and Philippa and Rachel Lynde more often than I expect myself to, and these books represent most of the good, innocent stuff of my childhood.


2) If you could only wear one colour for the rest of your life, what colour would you choose?

I do a lot of the one-color thing, and it always keeps changing on me. Now, I'm a little burned out on that and on a serious mixed-color kick. But if I could only pick one, I think I'd go with purple. Right now, anyway.


3) Think back to what you were like five years ago. How do you think you've grown and changed since then?

I'm a lot easier going when my life implodes—which it is currently doing. I try to avoid conflict more, but at the same time, I try to be less of a doormat. I'm more grateful.


4) What is your favourite movie from your childhood?

Tie: Hoosiers and The Secret Garden, hands down.


5) Who do you think has been the most positive influence on your life so far and why?

My grandmother, hands down. She was there when I was born, always made time to teach and love me; even when I was still suicidally depressed, I knew beyond doubt she loved me and was there for me. She's the one that taught me the things that kept me through that time and made me too thoughty to do something stupid like run away or actually commit suicide. She's the one that taught me socialization, "girl stuff" (I'm shocked at how little my mom taught me and the things I'm still learning), and how to get a good job and keep it. She's the one who taught me about God.


6) If you could go anywhere in the world for a holiday, where would you go?

Hawaii. I've been wanting to go as long as I could remember. Mom was actually pregnant with me when she went, and I missed it! :growls: I'd so go there.


7) Writing is obviously your big passion. What keeps you inspired and motivated to work at it?

I can't stop the stories. My characters are almost always with me. I play with ideas of science, religion, culture, and they become worlds that eventually I want to share. Some worlds I'll never share. They are character and premise-building grounds. Some I think I will, but I won't. Some surprise me and take over my pen, and those are the ones we all get to actually meet.

If there is one thing I've always wanted to be and I still want just about more than anything else, it's to be a good writer and to make my living at it.

This is something I also struggle to balance against the "have no other gods before me" bit. Writing requires little motivation (just the appropriate inspiration on something that's had sufficient percolation to be written!), but that other one does.


From in_the_blue

1. Tell me about your family.
I have one of those large, wonderful families where aunts, sister, and grandparents all live under the same roof and we love each other dearly—even when we squabble. I love to come home and come into "our vibes" whenever I've been out. We love God, spend time together, and work in a ministry together.

2. If money was no object, where on this planet of ours would you most like to live?
Colorado. Probably one of those nice rich houses in the forest communities.

3. Did you have a favorite pet growing up?
Our only pet: a guinea pig.

4. How do you define "spare time?" How do you spend it?
Spare time is time I don't have anything else I need to do in, or at least, it's not scheduled time and there are no burning fire emergencies I can actually do something about. I tend to spend it reading.

5. Who's your main literary inspiration?
Zenna Henderson who wrote the People stories and Ursula K. LeGuin. And now you know why I tend toward "literary" style at the most inopportune moments. :grins:

6. Do you have a most-visited non-writing website? If so, what is it?
Hmm... Probably my Yahoo Mail, sadly. I'm always drowning in emails. Thus, I miss a lot of what's going on with my f-list and rarely, if ever, catch up.

7. Where's the last place you went because you wanted to, not because you had to?
It's been too long. I don't even remember. :mournful sigh:

Yep. I am. Daily Science Fiction is a professional market that pays a whopping 8 cents per word and tagged a PS on their form e-reject that said, "This one was an almost." I danced. I whooped. This was a barely edited draft that I can now see how to improve and on a whim, I sent it to the best-paying market for the story that seemed a good fit and they almost published it. Happy me.

On a fandom note, I got two gorgeous stocking stuffer fics:

By in_the_blue, Erntedankfest
(The Uncanny X-Men, featuring Kurt Wagner & Kitty Pryde)

By vialethe, Life Is Changing [one] and [two]
Pairings: Colin/Sara, Mary/Dickon, Mary/Colin (one-sided)
a/n: This prompt ran away with me in a big way! It's meant to be set a good ten years after both books, I'd think.

Also, accidentally defaulted on a beta chapter due to sickness, temp job woes, and aunt in the hospital, but hopefully this next week will be a wee less hectic, yeah? :sends prayerful thought heavenward:

On the other penname note, sold a copy of a Christmas short story I put online Friday. More dancing and jubilation. I'm just happy today. :grins:

From in_the_blue:

Comment to this post, and I will list five things I associate with you, They might make sense or they might be totally random. Then post that list, with your commentary, to your LJ (or just add a reply back to me). Other people (including me) can get lists from you, and the meme merrily perpetuates itself.

---

Vardin
This, of course, has nothing to do with the fact that in_the_blue is my beta for all stories written in the Vardin world, of which hopefully there will be many. Vardin is sort of the culmination of years of mentally rewriting the evolutionary theory behind superhero mutations into something with concrete scientific rules that make sense and categorize it all neatly. Somewhere in there, a medical terminology course didn't help either. It's fun and logical and illogical all at once, but since I absolutely adore biochemistry and genetics, it was inevitable that I'd eventually turn these stories into original fiction with all the original characters and multifandom bases I'd been playing around with since forever.

busy as a bee
Um... Yeah. Busy I am. I don't seem to know how to stop, even when it's not just good for me, but necessary. I'm always headed in a thousand directions. Real healthy, yeah? :rolls eyes at self:

Rogue/Gambit
Favorite X-Girl was always Rogue, so when I decided to dip my toes back into fandom a few years back, I looked her up, read a bunch of stuff, got inspired, wrote a bit, then discovered Gambit. I was like, "My favorite character has a love interest?!" Then, of course, I fell in love with Gambit. Sometimes I wonder if I actually love him more now.

Christianity
Wasn't expecting this one, though I cannot tell you how awesome it felt that it made it on the list. I often feel I'm too shy about being Christian. It's easy to let the world make me feel ashamed of being Christian or at least of talking about it, like it's okay to bash Christians, just not anybody else, and please, keep your ideas to yourself. And then throw in fanfic, which is about characters that only rarely share even a fraction of my beliefs, and I occasionally wonder how good of a Christian I really am. But there you have it. It made the list. And I love God and it's a part of who I am.

writing
This really wasn't a surprise. Writing is the one thing I swear is written on my blood and bones. There is nothing I would rather be than a writer. Nothing.

---

Naturally, comment and I'll list you in 5.

1. Feeling sick.

2. Still owe y'all next parts of By Any Other Name, To Be Wild, and Let Us Reason Together.

3. Discovered my new site has no statistics. :headdesk: Must install plugin. Tomorrow.

4. Must juggle pennies.

5. Cannot read my own handwriting. (This is a new and undelightful development.)

6. Got my hair cut. Yay!

Requesting cheeriness please: links, poetry, lovely thoughts, anything that has neither angst nor video.

Meme from likeadeuce:

I will post the names of all the files in my WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Choose one (ish), and I will post a random line or two.

I have multiple WIP folders, but here goes on ONE. My older one that I still drop stuff into all the time.



[I cheated.]

1. Amazon

I've never liked them. I wasn't really sure why until MacMillan. And now, I'm doing independent publishing, seeking to start up my own serial (and have some real ideas for it), and learn this. [Click the link and scroll down to "From the Office: Amazon is Nobody's Friend, Part One."]

( Read more... )

2. Summerlight

So I finally have a direction for this serial o' mine, and it wasn't what I expected at all. Any thoughts? Love it? Hate it? Would you keep reading?

( Read more... )

3. Wordpress

Do I look like a website developer? 'Cause if I do, you must be looking at the gal standing behind me. This is not what I had imagined it would take to build a loyalty rewards site.

( Read more... )


4. Tribes

I love Tribal Writer. But her post today still left me flailing in the one way I haven't figured out how to fix, except for in fandom. [Until fandom pays, however, I do need to figure this out!]

Figure out who your people are.

Talk to them. Create for them. And only them.

( Read more... )

So me and lithiumlaughter were talking about our desire to ship Hank/Raven, and so shipfest post is up!

Raven/Hank Shipfest @ ravenfirstclass