Rewrite – Phase I Complete
May 31, 2010 Daily Writing, Novels
I completed the first phase of my rewrite of “Gene Splice” just a few minutes ago, which is great. I focused completely on structural stuff this time–and there were a few things I fixed. As with my last rewrite effort, anything I thought was “just” an issue of the moment I jotted down to remember to come back to.
So I’ve got a list of ten things I want to go back and work on. Two of them will probably take a bit of time, but hey, time I appear to have … er … plenty of. Hopefully a week or two from now I’ll have a third novel ready for market. I think that would be a first for me.
A Three-Day Thaw
May 28, 2010 Daily Writing, Science Fiction
Three long days at the “real job” put a serious damper on my productivity since Monday. Hey, such is life.
I did get a bit of work done on the third novel rewrite, and I finished reading a novel I picked up because I was interested in the “free books” movement that’s obviously going around. Perhaps I’ll talk about that a bit here in a while. Not that my opinion counts for much, there. After my little step away, I sometimes feel like an ice man who’s just been dethawed.
Working on that, though. And it’s coming around, slowly but surely.
Lisa and I also watched the end of FlashForward. Interesting show, but in my opinion it was horribly morphed from the book. Apparently, the idea of using a scientist as the main character is anathema to the major channels. Shame, really. So instead of having a spiffy, smart story that really explored SFnal concepts, they created a predictable story about an FBI guy (and an FBI) who couldn’t detect their way out of a paper bag.
So count me among those who loved the book and thought the show was merely interesting for its anthropological place in the SF chain of things.
Writing Prompt?
May 24, 2010 Daily Writing, Novels
I’m thinking that if you can’t write a story based on this, you’re not trying hard enough.
Progress Report:
I didn’t mean to go in this direction at all, but I’ve found myself about 60% through a rewrite of another of my earlier novels. This one’s origin was my very first Novel Dare (think NaNoWriMo before there was such a thing).
It started because I opened the file up as a writing avoidance technique, and suddenly found myself 100 pages into it and thinking, “hmmm…this is pretty good.” I ran into the Not So Good part at about page 150, and I think–as of today–I’ve got it pretty well fixed. Still about a hundred pages to read through, but I’m optimistic.
Picasso’s Cat & Others Heads to the Publisher
May 22, 2010 Business, Short Stories
The tentative title to the collection is Picasso’s Cat and Other Stories. It’s soon to be winging it’s way the the Merry Blacksmit Press for them to do their magic. I’m pleased to confirm that Mike Resnick graciously agreed to write an introduction.
The TOC lines up like this right now:
The Disappearance of Josie Andrew – Writers of the Future (1998)
Just Business – Analog (2003)
The Test of Time – Return of the Dinosaurs (1995)
Stealing the Sun – Analog (1999)
The Taranth Stone – Analog (2000)
Parchment in Glass – Analog (2002)
Barnstorming – The Leading Edge (2001)
G-bomb – Men Writing SF as Women (2003)
Echoes in a Shattering Silence – Artemis (2001)
A Matter of Pride – Analog (2000)
Learning the Language – Land/Space: An Anthology of Prairie Fiction (2003)
The Vacation – Future Wars (2003)
Out of the Blue – Writers of the Future (1999)
1 is True – Asimov’s SF (2006)
Picasso’s Cat – Nature (2006)
It’s been a heck of a lot of fun to work on putting this together. Hope a few folks enjoy reading it.
Working on Friday Night
May 21, 2010 Daily Writing, Life
Lisa: Did you realize you misspelled Memento?
Ron: Hey, they don’t call it the Typo-sphere for nothing.
Progress Report:
Lisa needed to work late tonight, and I took advantage of the time to go get ice cream and to spend a few extra hours on a manuscript. Not a terrible way to spend an evening. I may actually have a third book ready for market soonish. Pretty cool, I think.
