Dribs & Drabs ...

Wow! Another post and it hasn't even been a week since the last one!

But the good folks over at Jericho Writers Group have made the call to all of their subscribers to Commit! Commit! To answer the question: What do you want to achieve, as a writer, in the next six months? And then to proclaim it over on Townhouse, their online Writer's Group. They plan on visiting each and every committment posted there after six months to see what everyones progress is.

For all that I've been a member of Townhouse for over a year, I have yet to post anything there. Not sure why. I can't claim that I'm leery about public displays - and not just because of this Blog and my Website. (To be Honest I really don't think anyone reads this, so it's REALLY safe for me to share my thoughts, in whatever rambling fashion suits me at the moment!) I am an eager, if only slightly anxious, session presenter at the annual When Words Collide - so being out there and public speaking isn't a problem. Don't know what the issue actually is, so am not going to worry about it. And whether I share my six month goal(s) or not, I am going to share them here, with the potentially non-existent You. So absoultely no pressure whatsoever!!! And technically, it's my eight month goals!

By the end of January, 2021 I will complete the first round of editing and re-writes of Best Laid Plots, Book the First.

Once this is done, I will submit the book for outside editing, possibly through Jericho.

By end of February, 2021 I willl complete the new writing for Two Sides of the Coin - the anthology of stories I mentioned a few Posts ago. This includes the other half for Who, Indeed? And both sides of Into the Woods. Whether Amanda Witow will have anything to contribute or not I don't know. I hope so! Both that we are able to work on a pair of stories together, as well as a submission of her own work. If she is able to do so, I will add another committment for that later.

By end of March, 2021 I will have completed any subsequent edits/re-writes that arise from that outside editing, and have found an outside copy editor to give it one final look see.

By end of April it shall have been sent to the printing company and have received the proofing copy.

By end of May we should have the final copy (the ARCs) and have sent out for reviews.

By end of June we will have the marketing in place and the initial marketing push started.

July will be drumming up the pre-sales :)

Offical release date should be mid-August - which coincides nicely with the 2021 When Words Collide.

So those are my short term goals for 2021! Have you made yours yet?

Hello Grups and Cool Kids!

Did you see? I finally put up one of my short stories :) This one, The Bounty Hunter, began life as part of my application to the 1984 Clarion Workshop for Writers of Science Fiction and Fantasy, held in East Lansing, MI. My application was a bit late in being sent, and arrived on the doorstep of R. Glenn Wright, the Workshop Director for that year, at - as he put it - "the 11th hour". It was still within the deadline (barely), but there wasn't time to send it around to the Writers who'd be working with the newbies that year, so they could weigh in on it (which was the usual process). So Glenn made the call himself, which was his perogative. Would I have made the cut if the Writers had a say in accepting my application? Who knows? But Glenn decided there was enough merit in my little story to approve my application. Now, when it was time for that story to be workshopped by the other participants and the current Writer for that week, it was eviscerated by pretty much everybody - and rightly so. Biggest complaint was that it was a thinly disguised Western (and not even a Space Opera), with only a few elements of science fiction tacked on. Which was true. Most people liked the bit of a twist at the ending though, so there was that.

Many years later, in 2010, I did a full revision of the story for a Writer's Forum I had been a member of. I changed the POV character from male to female, and made that character the "bounty hunter", instead of the person the hunter was hunting. I also put it firmly into my own sf universe, and tried to give it a meaningful "theme".

Was I successful at making it more SF? I think so. Are you intrigued enough by the premise of this sf universe to want more stories that take place in it? I hope so! As for that Forum I'd posted it to - common concensus was that the ending was bit too shmaltzy. What do you think?

Interested in learning more about my Clarion experience? Let me know :) I'll be happy to oblige!

And now it's back to editing BLP-bk the First ... chat with you later!