Living the Fictional Dream

Hello to anyone who’s still out there! Sorry for the long delay between posts. Times have been crazy of late, but more on that later.

I have a few tidbits of news to share. First of all, Every Day Fiction has released the table of contents for July 2010, and guess who’s on it? Yours truly! I’ve had reprints published this year, but this will be my first official new story published in 2010. I’m excited! And the TOC mentioned me specifically as a “returning favorite.” That was nice to read.

Tune into EDF on the 4th of July and read my story, “The Vote.” I’m not going to say too much about the story until the 4th, but I will warn you ahead of time that it’s not a 4th of July story. In fact, its more apocalyptic than patriotic. But I had an interesting voyage writing and revising it, so I’m thrilled that it’s going to be joining my other stories published by EDF.

In other news, I received a contributor’s copy the other day. It was print issue #2 of Residential Aliens, which includes a reprint of my story, “The Sorcerer’s Wife.” The story originally appeared in the ResAliens webzine, and has now graced their print ‘zine, as well. If you’d like a copy for your very own, click here. It’s a great little ‘zine. I’m really happy with it. And if you want to read TSW online, it’s still available in the ResAliens archives.

My writing group had its annual Story Every Day (SED) contest in June. Sadly, I was the winner. The goal of the story is to write a new story of at least 500 words every day for two weeks. The winner is the person with the most stories, and if there is a tie, the winner is the person with the most stories and the highest word count. I say sadly I was the winner because I was able to write a whopping… wait for it… three stories. **sigh** Not a banner year for the SED contest. But, on the bright side, every story written is a good thing, so three (or two, or one, as others in the group wrote) is something to be proud of. I was hoping for more, but my muse just was not cooperating.

Why wasn’t my muse cooperating, do you ask? Well, I guess it is time to tell y’all. On the personal front, there has been stuff going on, contributing to the “crazy” in my life that I mentioned earlier.

For those readers who haven’t heard, I am pregnant. Again! Less than a year after my darling little girl was born, Hubby and I find ourselves expecting number 2. It was definitely sooner than we had planned (if this little one carries to term, as sister did not, they will be 14 months apart), but we are very excited. The new baby is due in September.

For some reason, though, when I’m pregnant, my muse clams up on me. Hence not much activity around the old blog, or on my writing in general.

Add that to working full-time, chasing around after a little girl who is crawling like the wind and working on that walking thing, and planning a first birthday party for next week, and life has been hectic to the max. I’m loving every minute, though (OK… maybe not the actual work, but even that is not so bad, LOL).

I hope all of you out there in blog land are doing well. I miss reading everyone’s blogs and commenting. If I ever have a bit of spare time, I really want to get back to that. I hope you’re all doing well, and that everyone is having a truly fantastic summer (as well as super-high word counts!).

It has been a busy couple of weeks. Normally, I limit this blog to writing topics, but this news is too important!

My darling sister and her significant other tied the knot last Saturday. We just finished a week of wedding festivities (bachelorette party — which I got sick and had to miss, bummer! – rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, bridesmaid mani/pedis, and of course the big day and all its hoop-la). I was the matron of honor and Hubby was the officiant, so we were very involved in all aspects of the ceremony.

The ceremony was beatuiful, the reception was fun (and she finally got her dancing!), and I even got through my toast without fainting (me and public speaking, not such a good combo).

Now that all the festivities are over, I need a holiday! How long until the next 3-day weekend? President’s Day in February. Whew!

Happy 2010, readers! I hope the new year is treating you well so far, and that the writers out there have already begun to garner plentiful word counts and loads of acceptance letters!

The Preditors and Editors Reader’s Poll is live. It honors print and electronic publications that published in 2009. Click here to vote for your favorite ‘Zine.

There are a lot of good ones nominated this year. I had a hard time choosing! If you’re a fan of 10Flash, Residential Aliens, Everyday Fiction, or a score of other magazines, go over there and place a vote for your favorite.

To elminate ballot stuffing, you have to give your email address and click a confirmation link to make your vote valid, but that’s understandable. I hate polls where the same person can vote as many times as they want to.

Well, I have to run. The day job beckons, as do plans for my sister’s wedding. It is going to be a busy January at my house!

I’ve mentioned before how my writing output has severly diminished since my little girl was born last July. I don’t get down on myself about it because it’s really only to be expected. Juggling a newborn and a full-time job is CRAZY! I’m finding it difficult enough to carve two nights of the month out to attend writing group functions, much less write on my own. (Not that I’m complaining… Summerlyn is the light of my life and what she needs comes first.)

What I’m finding interesting is that, as if to compensate for this lack of writing time, my subconscious keeps hammering away at little plot bunnies. I had one pop into my head a month or two ago for a horror story (horror like scary; not horror like blood and guts gruesome). The idea started as just a single line and an image in my head. Previously, that would have been enough for me to start writing, but now I just don’t have the time to do it.

So, as if in response to this lack, my subconscious keeps turning the idea over and over, and every time it comes to my mind again, it’s a little more formed. Now I actually have two characters, a partial plot, and the ending of the story in mind (it will probably be flash or a very short story). I can actually see this story fairly vividly in my mind. Whenever I do have time to sit down and write (hopefully, during one of the November NaNo write-ins my writing group will host), the first draft of this story should come out pretty quickly!

What this has taught me is that I will always be a writer. I knew that before, but I’d never really tested it. There’s never been a time like this in my life before when I wanted to write but actually couldn’t do it for weeks and months at a time. Previously, if I wanted to write, I either sat down and did it right then or maybe only had to wait a day or two to find some time. If I wasn’t writing before, it was because I had no ideas, not because I had them but didn’t have the time.

This proves that I will always create stories, whether I get the chance to write them down or not. It’s part of my make-up… pretty much part of my very DNA. The stories are there — all I have to do is hear them out. And if the muse is strong enough and if I devote them enough thought time (even if I don’t have enough keyboard time), they will still be formed — a little more slowly, but they will eventually be there just the same.

The fact that creating stories is so natural to me that I do it even when I am not able to pursue it, is why I will always pursue this writing thing. I may never have a novel published or be able to give up my day job in favor of staying home to write (I hope that’s not the case, but one has to face up to the possibility), but I will always be a writer at heart.

I think that’s the mark of a true writer — the ones who do it because they love it; the ones who do it because they have to, because the stories will be there either way. If you go into this business to try to find fame or fortune… well, the odds are significantly stacked against you. I can’t imagine sticking with it for those reasons, because there is no guarantee. But sticking with it because the stories have to be told — that’s a writer’s heart!

Poor little girl! She had to come with Mommy to the write-in last night. Poor Hubby was supposd to keep her, but he was not feeling well at all. I tried to find sitters, but to no avail. So, with me she came.

Bundled up in a car seat — not her favorite thing. Normally, she falls asleep in the car, but this time, not so much. She dozed on and off long enough for me to have dinner with Steph and Dauna and have some writing-type discussions (my favorite was a writing topic related to meatloaf… but I think you had to be there).

Then, just as I got out my laptop to, I’d hoped, finally finish revising the flash piece that my writing group critted for me back in August, I heard fussing. The baby wanted her own dinner (or is that second dinner, since she’d eaten less than 3 hours before?). For the first time since she was born, Mommy realized she’d forgotten to pack the bottle in the diaper bag. Luckily, home is only a 5 minute drive from the restaurant where we’d set up shop. Sadly, that meant I had to leave, writing undone.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I love my baby girl very much, and I will give up whatever I need to so that I can give her what she needs. But, selfishly, doing so last night was really hard.

When the baby first came along, it was full immersion and totally overwhelming. There was so much to do with the baby and she was so new that I didn’t want to do anything else but be with her. And it took a while to get used to having her, especially since she didn’t come home from the NICU for 3.5 weeks (she was a preemie).

These days, while the addition of the full-time job makes things more complicated, the baby care is getting more routine. Taking two or three hours off a couple of evenings a month seems a lot more doable than it did when she was so new and fragile.

Now, I’m really starting to miss writing. My fingers ache for the keyboard, and plot bunnies and characters are nibbling at my brain. Too bad there is never any time to give them attention!

Last night, I was so desperate, I tried to do some writing during my 4 a.m. pumping session (thanks to her time in the NICU, our little one spurns the breast, which means there are both pumping and feeding steps to do multiple times a day). Sadly, writing when I’m sleep deprived and dealing with baby care is not my best work.

Here’s hoping that next time (which will be the writing group’s NaNo planning meeting and kick-off party), babysitters will come through and I can have a tad of uninterrupted me time. I think my muse might rejoice if it happens… assuming she doesn’t leave me for more active environs in the mean time.

Murphy’s Law strikes again. I haven’t gotten a story accepted in a few months (mostly because my submission and writing output have been down due to pregnancy and baby-related things), but, of course, during the time that our little girl has been in the NICU, two acceptances arrived.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited to be accepted, but, for one of them, the timing turned out to be disappointing.

First, though, let me say that a superhero flash piece that I wrote, “Frigid,” is going to appear in Every Day Fiction on August 21. And, look, my name is mentioned in the Table of Contents blurb. That’s a first! I’m excited to be back in EDF, as it’s one of my favorite short fiction publications.

The other acceptance didn’t work out so well. I won’t mention the name of the publication, but they emailed me on July 22 to accept my story for the August issue. To appear in that issue, I had to return the contract to them by July 29.

Maybe it’s just me, but what a short response window! Maybe I’m just used to most publications who accept you for months in advance? If only they’d accepted me for the September issue or something…

I won’t complain about their editorial policies. I understand, they have to do what’s best for their publication. And, I’m sure that they deal with story acceptances where they author disappears on them on a regular basis. I’ve read policies for dealing with that in many publications’ guidelines. So, from the editor’s perspective, I understand why they had to rescind their acceptance of my story.

On a personal level, though, I’m bummed. It’s frustrating that one of my few acceptances this year was rescinded because I was spending so much time at the hospital with my little girl that all my writing stuff (and most of my email in general) got left by the wayside. (Not that I would change a decision that I made — Summerlyn is the most important thing right now, and she’s doing really, really well. We’re hoping she’ll be home soon!)

The other thing that’s disappointing is the particular story in question that was rescinded. This story is cursed, I think. It was nearly accepted several times, but not. Then, the first time it was actually accepted, the ‘zine folded before they could published it. Now, it’s accepted again and then due to timing will still not be published. **sigh** Maybe I should give up on it!

While I have no hard feelings for the publication in question, I will say that this experience has made me appreciate EDF’s contract-on-submission method a lot more. It makes things so easy at the end of the process. There is no question that the story can be included in the issue in question and acceptances go off without a hitch.

Hello, blog readers.

Wondering where I’ve been these past few weeks? Well, it’s been a crazy time, let me just say. I don’t normally talk about a lot of non-writing stuff on this blog, but I’ll make an exception today.

A little over a week ago, my little girl, Summerlyn Anne, was born. She came 7 weeks early, which was a big surprise and not exactly what my husband and I had planned for. But she is apparently headstrong (she gets that from her daddy) and decided that she couldn’t wait to join the world any longer.

Summerlyn was born at 4 lbs., 3 oz., and 17 inches. Because she was a preemie, she has been in the NICU since she was born, but she is doing really well. She never needed oxygen and she got off the breathing tubes after just a couple of days. She’s now in an open-air crib, as well, and maintaining her own temperature. Once she learns to take all her feedings on her own, we’ll be able to bring our little darling home. Until then, life is being lived crazily between working frantically at home to finish all the stuff we thought we had more time to do (like the nursery) and spending time with her at the NICU.

I would share a picture, but I’ll need my husband’s help on that. I’m not great with the linking and the HTML.

I hope all my friends out in the blog-o-sphere are doing well, and I promise I’ll start regular blog updates again once the world slows down a little and I have time to get back to things that are writing-related. Right now, it’s all Summer all the time, and I can’t wait until my little girl comes home!

Naming is such a tricky thing. Sometimes, if I’m lucky, a character will spring to mind with his or her name already in place. Sarah Kirby from “The Widow and the Stranger” was like that. Some of the characters from my novel-in-progress — Caryn, Sean, Brilynn — as well.

And then there are the ones I have to struggle for. I flip through name books or name websites, looking for the perfect name. Sometimes I’ll pick a letter of the alphabet and go through all the names for the appropriate gender that start with that letter. I’ve always believed that characters should have names starting with different letters so it’s easier for the reader not to get them confused. In a novel, you can have a couple with the same initial, but the shorter the story, the more strictly I try to adhere to this rule.

I always thought that my experience naming characters would be helpful when it finally came time in my life to name a child, but now that my first little one is on the way, it’s not proving such an easy task. Of course, for the baby, my husband and I actually have to agree on a name. (Well, I guess that’s not always true, but it’s important to me — I want him to love what we name our child just as much as I do.)

The problem is, we have very different ideas about what makes a good name, especially for girls. We had our boy’s name totally picked out, but since the ultrasound said girl, we’ve been wrangling back and forth for months.

I love plant names… Sage, Holly, Rose, Laurel. He thinks that those names are too sissy, and has outlawed all plant names. Left to his own devices, he chooses many names that I think are too common or boring.

And, as if we didn’t have enough trouble between the two of us, there are always plenty of other people to offer suggestions and opinions. My sister loves the trendy names, like Piper and Taylor. My in-laws prefer more traditional names, like Ann — and they especially dislike names coming from the natural world (like Sierra) or names that would have nicknames. One friend told us that we should be sure to name our baby something that you can find on those racks of keychains in souvenir shops, because the child would be disappointed all of her life if she couldn’t be a part of that. Another friend tends to point out negativity in the meaning of a name (Leah was the unwanted sister in the Bible, Sage is a big ugly bush).

Now I understand why some people don’t tell anyone the name until the baby is actually born and the name is on the birth certificate, LOL! But a lot of times, the comments are helpful and encouraging, and sometimes other people see something that we didn’t see before. My husband especially gets a kick out of announcing the “name of the day.” I think it amuses him when people don’t like it!

We still have several months to go, and I have faith that eventually my husband and I will settle upon the perfect name for our little one. We have three top girl names that haven’t really changed in a while. And, of course, if the ultrasound proves wrong about the gender, we still have that boy’s name all ready. I suspect that, at this point, we need to meet our little one before we can decide on the perfect name.

But all this drama and back and forth over names has made me appreciate how much easier it was when I was just naming characters. Sure, those characters are very real to me, but if you’re writing along and suddenly the name isn’t working for the character, it can always be changed. And, when it comes to a character’s name, there is only myself to please.

Whether for a real person or a character, names are important. Names are identity. Names say a lot about who a person is. Nothing tells everything about a person, of course — I’m sure there could be an assassin or a ninja out there named Ethel or Maude — but names send a certain impression out into the world, and, for both my baby and my characters, I want to make sure that impression is a good one!

I’m working on another flash piece right now… it started with one of the prompts from my writing group’s April prompts writing contest. The prompt challenged me to write a story about ice. I wanted to do something different than just have the story take place in an icy setting or have an ice cube as an object. So, instead, ice is the main character… in a way.

Now I just need to buckle down and do revisions after my writing group was so helpful as to send critiques to me. I don’t know why I’m having such troubles making myself sit down and write or revise these days. Maybe my group should have more write-ins… I find myself being more productive at planned writing activities than in finding time on my own. When I’m at home right now, there is always something else to do — usually baby prep.

Memorial Day weekend is coming up, and we’re going to stay at my parents’ cabin for the holiday. It is usually so quiet and peaceful out there — also, there is no internet or cable to distract me. Perhaps I will find some good writing time while we’re there — when we’re not at my friends’ pool party!

So, I guess this is the last place that I haven’t talked yet about the biggest reason why my writing output has been down this year — and my reading and my blogging, too. Since this is a writing blog, I tend not to discuss non-writing/real life all that much, but maybe now it’s time.

A lot of you (especially the people that I know in real life) already know this, but for those who don’t, my husband and I found out over Christmas that we are expecting our first baby! The last ultrasound said that it’s a girl, and she’s due at the end of August! (Don’t ask me about names — we had our boy name picked out for sure, but we’re totally up in the air on girl names, and it’s looking like we’ll be that way until we actually meet her!)

We are very, very excited about this. It’s something we’ve wanted for a long time, though we only officially started seriously trying for it last year. There have been a few little bobbles so far, like a fainting spell and the morning sickness that didn’t go away until way into the second trimester, but for the most part everything is going really well.

I know it’s going to be a big adjustment. If it’s been this hard for me to get up the energy to write when all I’ve deal with so far is morning sickness and fatigue (I’ve been going to bed at 9:45, OMG!), what’s going to happen when there are 3 a.m. feedings and everything else that goes along with having a little one of your very own?

Whatever happens, it’s going to be an interesting journey, and I’m looking forward to every part of it — even the challenging parts.

I can’t not write — I’m always making up stories in my head, even when I’m too tired to sit down at the computer and write them down. I know that I’ll figure this out eventually, and writing will happen. We’ll just see how long it takes me to get there!