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All Redstone, All the Time

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

My school year is coming to an end. I led successful reviews for the AP US History Exam and did what I could for my AP Macroeconomics students (I’m still not an expert on the material yet). I’m finishing up my history classes with the Civil War and Reconstruction. I’m also finishing up my last football commitment by doing spring football for the upcoming freshmen. It is a very good group, but it reminds me that coaching is not worth the time commitment for me anymore. I got to take part in my school’s spring band concert, reading a narration and (ironically) the National Hymn. The band is an outstanding organization, and I was very excited to take part, and things went quite well.

Paul’s (my friend and RSF publisher) house in Nashville was flooded and he’s been handling it well, but it is a huge task to set things right. I spent a couple of days there, but he’s been nonstop for two weeks. We were nearly finished with Redstone submissions when the disaster struck, and were able to finish up.

I read over 200 story submissions for Redstone Science Fiction. We accepted ten and a reprint. It seems that I have managed things pretty well. We have a twitter presence, a facebook presence, and have regular traffic to the site.

We’ve done a couple of interviews, and one I did ended up being referenced by John Scalzi on Whatever, which was infinitely cool.

The website layout has received several compliments and I’ve got most of the pages for the June issue done. We’ve got the non-fiction to finish up, but that will happen in the next few days. We very excited because our good friend Sarah Einstein, who is writing an essay for us, won a Pushcart Prize for 2011 for her creative non-fiction.

We may have peaked a little early, but I think we will get a lot of traffic, come the first. I still need to complete the writeup of a couple of interviews and my own essay on ‘writing’ books.

I’ve submitted and been rejected up and down the line since my acceptances this spring. I’m putting everything back out, two submitted today. I think I can write better after my first Redstone experience. I’ll have plenty of time when school is done in a week and a half. We’ll see.

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I Submit

Saturday, March 13th, 2010

I’ve shaken off the doldrums, distractions, and disappointments. I have submitted every story I own. We will make this happen. Damn it.

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Brainstorm

Sunday, February 14th, 2010

I have gathered so many ideas and factors to include in my story that it may be too much. Should I stick to a story? Should I make this a longer piece? Am I actually going to make it happen?

I get so distracted at my computer, I’m beginning to think I would do better to write by hand. I broke my glasses a couple of weeks ago & finally got in to optometrist this week. While stuck in exam rooms, I lifted pen and paper and was able to crank out several ideas. It may be that home is simply too distracting. We’ve got rooms filled with storage that I think I’m going to have to clean out to try and create a separate space.

Nearly all my stories are submitted. I may actually have a chance with a couple.

Things are moving along with Redstone Science Fiction. I’m going to try out using WordPress first. I’ve downloaded several templates and I’m going to set it up at first with some pre-1923 public domain stories so I can go ahead and set up links and pages.

School is going fine, I may be a little behind, but that’s normal and AP Economics is much improved this time through. Exercise is going great, I feel much better, but the constant alternation of rain & bitter cold can end at any time..

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Plugging away

Friday, January 29th, 2010

I have resubmitted all my stories, except ‘Detention’. I’ve considered rewriting it, but I may just stick with it as is. I think the website/podcast will be interesting to do. I’m researching the best way to get quality submissions. I’m hoping the higher payrate will help, but you have to get teh word out there somehow. I have the general course of my next story and the basic protagonist. I need to work out the specific conflicts.

I have been exercising regularly and strenuously after school. I’ve also made sure to eat better and take my vitamins. I’m getting better about sleep. the problem is setting aside the time to write. I think the time to write has got to be carved out between 7pm and 9pm. After the dog walk & supper and before I run out of steam. I have to work it around time I spend with my wife watching TV and time I spend on the internet. Systematizing my daily activities & chores around the morning & evening dog walks has gone quite well. I just need to extend that a little farther to include writing time.

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Ancient Bridge accepted

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

The first story of my modern era, “The Ancient Bridge”, was accepted by Sams Dot Publishing and will be published October 2010 in Beyond Centauri, a YA Science Fiction & Fantasy quarterly. It’s a coming of age story with swords, lost causes, and bandits.

Hypersonic Tales, the e-zine that has accepted “Service”, is running a little behind. I’m getting antsy to see it out there.

“Alchemy” is out. “DIY” is past the average response time for the market, which could be good, or it could just be the holidays. Got an almost on “An Advance on Junior”.

I’m tinkering with the ending of “Advance” and trying to decide where to send it. I guess I should send it to the other top markets that move relatively quickly, just to make sure, and then work towards a more likely market. My skin is getting increasingly thick and the rejections are less daunting, but it’s the lost time that is frustrating now.

I think the convention of no simultaneous submissions shows just how much the field has enormous supply and minimal demand. It’s a pain as a writer. Of course, if simultaneous submissions were the norm in this modern age of electronic submission, then we’d all just e-mail/post all our stories to all the top markets at the same time and they’d be swamped all the time. And it would be up to the writers to tell markets to withdraw an accepted work. Oh yes, we’d all do that. As much as I enjoy a little chaos, it really does make sense. Oh well.

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