The Writer's Chatroom

It's time again!

I actually debated starting this thread for another year, but I saw it got nearly 3000 views. (I'll bet 500 of those are mine, but it's still a lot.)

1. 95 percent done with ISIG II. I'm waitingon some edits of a story to come back, then I'll clean it up, put it in its spot and make sure the formatting is correct. Yippee!
2. Made chores charts for the kids. Maybe we can get our acts together in 2009.
3. Posted the DragonEye, PI newsletter, "A Dragon's Eye View" (register at http://www.dragoneyepi.net to get your copy) and the Jan 09 issue of "Faith-Filled Fiction" (http://faithfilledfiction.karinafabian.com.)
4. Played with Google Calendar to see if that will help me stay on top of all my stuff.

I achieved one of my first quarter goals already. We hit 900 subscribers to the mailing list!

I'm also moving ahead quite quickly on getting my clients ready for taxes. Last year, I was rushed to get all the W2s done by the end of January. This year, the one with the biggest list is nearly finished already. Hiring help was one of the best things I did for my business last year.

Working on the rest...

Audrey

Wish I could hire help...

This was a good week, though:

1. Send ISIG II to Twilight Times. Lida said she'd get back with me by month's end
2. Lined up an interview with a priest and a deacon for my only paying job. Easiest time I've had yet--usually I'm desperately seeking interviews by month's end.
3. Still seekinga cover artist for MM&M, but got an endorsement from Jody Lynn Nye. W00t!
4. Updated all my book websites.
5. Sent a mass-mailout to all the folks who had signed up for my MuseCon workshops, just telling them about stuff on my website. I won't do that again--too much like spam--but invited them to register on my websites.
6. Usual blogging and Tweets (doing them off Ping keeps several of my social networks updated, too.)
7. Cleared out some e-mails. Found some stuff I'd missed or forgotten about, including an endorsement for Leaps. Oops.
8. Wrote about 3000 words on Discovery and made edits to the proposal. The publisher I am pitching to told me they are full up right now for mss, so I'm not in the rush I was.
9. Most of my time was spent getting the Catholic Writers Conference Online ready, mostly posting bios and class summaries on the website.
10. Finished the press package for DragonEye, PI--as much as I can without a book cover, anyway.
11. Did some CWG President duties, which means nagging and answering questions.
12. Posted B&I; edited CWG Insider.
13. Shoveled snow. Wrote a haiku about it and Tweeted it.

Today, I plan to do a couple more things on the websites--stuff I found while cleaning e-mails, write Discovery and declare open season on PETA for trying to rename fish "seakittens."

SEAKITTENS!?!?!

When fish are furry, cute and cuddly, I'll consider it. lol

Audrey

Hi.

The New Year was supposed to start smoothly. Instead, business is down 80% and we're scrambling. But I took some time this week to get things rolling ...

1. 17 poetry & story submmisions

2. 7 queries to new markets, including an astronomy podcast I had some ideas for

3. There's another writer's group meetup on Tuesday, which I intend to write a new flash fiction for. Seems like the attention span for live readings is about 1,000 words. A few people read up to 10 pages last time, and eyes just glazed over.

4. Sold a literary crit piece about an old William Blake poem to Illumen.

Sent out at least 25 resumes to various web/programming jobs, no response. And to think, in this week's chat we commented that waiting for stories is frustrating. There are more stressful things to wait for.

= scott

Scott, you amaze me that you can get so much done in your writing. You put a real effort into getting your stuff out there and published.

I'm still wrestling with Discovery. I decided part of the problem was one of the characters is the wrong one for the story, so I'm tearing his POV out and putting the right character's in. It's easy in some parts, but other parts are really kind of fun. However, I'm going so slow, I may not send out the proposal until I'm more sure of when I can get this beast conquered.

Of course, most of my time has been taken up with the CWCO, which is next week. Then I'm free for awhile. I'm taking an advisory role in the live conference.

I've been offered a job mentoring authors in marketing. I'm both excited and intimidated. There are so many other people out there who are better at it than me. However, we could use the moolah, and the publisher really wants me, so I'm going to do my best. Plus, I'm confident enough to get beginners going, and that's what she needs. We're going to do a 6-month trial. I figure if nothing else, it will give me incentive to develop some seminars I can then hold for a fee later. So next month, in addition to writing, I'll be working on a training program.

Anybody checking out my blogs will know I've been working with the cover artist for MM&M, Roe Mesquita. It's been a lot of fun. I also have a book trailer video ready except for the cover art and one drawing my daughter is supposed to do. It's hilarious, too!

I've been working on some mailing lists and sending out post cards and other stuff.

Eesh--seems so little!

Thanks. Things do accumulate after 20+ years of writing. Though it seems like many weeks go by with nothing new happening, one can end up with hundreds of accepted works in the end.

"There are so many other people out there who are better at it than me." I know what you mean. When people ask if I know a good book they should read, I instinctively think of the authors that I admire ... so half the time I recommend the new Dune novels without it even crossing my mind that I've written books of my own I should be peddling.

And when it comes to nonfiction, I can't shake the feeling that the audience should know more about the subject than I do. Or, that PART of the readership will know more than I do, and then write letters complaining about it.

Even with this week's chat spat about Amazon books (see the forum topic) -- I wasn't talking to people who know more, but to those who might simply be wondering what it's like, because some misconceptions came up. Opposition came from another direction: someone who acted like they knew more but had nothing solid to contribute.

I think that careers are a process of having people throw stuff our way and taking those challenges. If someone asks me if I can fix such-and-such web site issue with some tool I've never heard of, or can I put together a book cover of whatever by next tuesday, I say "Sure." And then learn how to do it in a hurry. But if it's a challenge from a direction I don't want to go, I can pass.

I can't stand giving people advice, because it so often gets thrown back. But training is different, and I think some boldness is essential. I can't see turning down offers or sitting in a corner saying nothing.

Okay, some new news ...

I just updated my blogs, reorganized a bit, and decided to be bold and launch that "word lore" project I have been talking about. The new creatures is here:
WordFixx

Since all things are supposed to have a marketing angle, this project is my poet side "giving back to the community." With a zillion word-related stories in my head, I can't NOT share them. And I can't sell articles on the topic without first establishing some expertise/following on the topic.

While I am sometimes accused of having a "mess" of websites, they each do have a specific purpose. I try not to blur a lot of unrelated things together, but I can't really split off into 20 different guys either.

Naturally, I included a hidden counter so I know what traffic each blog gets.

Anyway, I think you'll get a kick out of it.

= scott

Just sent out another batch of submissions, to the Saturday Evening Post (general humor), Apex, Chizine, Strange Horizons and Fantasy Magazine. The usual odd variety ... updated my sig, too.

For the curious, I typically go over to ralan.com, hit the "Semi and Pro markets" and try to send something to all the ones that are currently open that I can think of an appropriate (& available) piece of work for. Though sometimes when I finish a new piece, a target market (or two) immediately pops into my head, and I have a list in my spreadsheet of what will go where, in which order. And a list of upcoming open reading periods.

Eek - now it's dinnertime already!

= scott

Quick catch up:

The Catholic Writers Conference Online was a great success! 283 attendees, 42 chat room presentations, 12 week-long workshops. 37 pitches delivered to 6 publishers. I spent so much time in my chair and at the computer my wrists and behind are still sore!

We are still working with Roe Mesquita on the cover art for MM&M. It's shaping up nicely. I'm very excited. You can see it at http://www.fabianspace.blogspot.com. We're coming down the the wire--it's release date is March 1 and we're already getting preorders! So, along those lines, here's the shameless plug:


Still hammering out Discovery--or maybe it's chiseling. I tore out a chapter, replaced it with a couple of paragraphs, and started on a new scene

Submitted Miscria to DragonMoon. I decided I was jsut dragging my feet on it, so time to shove it out there again.

In the conference, I started on GapMan, came up with an idea for a DragonEye short, which I'll just blog Monday, and have a new idea for a short story. I need to write it down. I also wrote letters to all the folks who sent me Christmas cards and to my godkids.

Next week--I clean house.