A Meerkat's Bolthole

So, a long while back (two years, more or less) I had a story out on submission. And an editor said "I like this, I want to buy it. But... we haven't signed the contract for the anthology I want to buy it for yet so can I hold onto it for a while?"

And I - respecting and trusting the editor - said yes.

(okay, there was more negotiation than that, and a 'pending contract' and whatnot, but basically I said 'yeah, you can have it for whenever you can publish it.'  Because you do that for editors you like and respect, and think would be a good match for the story.)

That trust paid off, 'cause today the anthology was Officially Announced.

 Okay, this is VERY IMPORTANT. I just learned that Daily SF March Madness starts on Friday (tomorrow). My story, "Mad Cats and Englishmen" is in the first round!

This is utterly meaningless and carries nothing more than temporary bragging rights, and yet if I fail horribly in the first round, I will be crushed, crushed, I tell you.

You wouldn't want to be responsible for that, would you?

The rules: http://dailysciencefiction.com/

The bracket: http://dailysciencefiction.com/documents/dsf-madness-bracket-2013.pdf

(yes, I will remind you again tomorrow, don't worry)

 So, back a few months ago, Steph at Fangs Wands and Fairy Dust asked me if I'd be interested in participating in a "Fool for Love" bloghop. 

What would they need? I asked, already calculating my available time and brain cells.

Oh, she said casually (too casually), just, maybe a guest post, or a personal ISO ad from your characters, or even a recipe...

Wait.  A recipe?  I could do that.  Maybe a scene of, oh, Bonnie and Venec's first date, and...

And a few weeks, and FOUR THOUSAND WORDS LATER....

I was, indeed, a Fool for Love.

Check the blog, and find out when I'm up!

 

1) Today is the official on-sale date for BLOOD FROM STONE [BN/Powell's/Amazon]. With this book, Wren and Sergei's story ends -- for the time being, anyway. Bonnie and her crew get a run now, and I'm delighted to be playing with them, but... *blows nose, pretends it's just from the flu bug*

2) Today is the official on-sale date for BLOOD FROM STONE, so Monday's contest is now officially closed. I'll be sorting and choosing a winner today.

3) Today is also National "Buy Indie" Day. If you haven't already ordered your copy from a chain (and even if you have!) find a local independent bookstore and show 'em some love. Remember -- local dollars spent locally tend to STAY local!

4) A reminder for the completists: ILLUMINATION (Bonnie's story) is available in UNUSUAL SUSPECTS (edited by Dana Stabenow) and INFERNO (PB's story) is available at www.bookviewcafe.com (for the quite reasonable price of 99 cents!)

5) Today is also the start of the Brenda Novak On-Line Auction to Benefit Diabetes Research! Hundreds and hundreds of Fabulous Prizes! to bid for, including the full set of Retriever novels and an advance ARC of FLESH & FIRE . Bid early, bid often!

The header was going to be "I got nothin'" because the day stretches ahead of me like a busy but dull-to-report writing thing, and I'm all out of foodie neep (and, in fact, may not eat at all today)

However, I was reminded that I do indeed have something to report!

Because "Inferno," the PB back-history short story, has gone live at Bookview Cafe.

It is part, before anyone asks, of a series of "back history" stories I'm writing about a number of the secondary and supporting characters, that will only be available via BookView Cafe (until some publisher offers me wads of cash for a print collection, anyway, she said, being brutally honest. At which point it will cost you more to read, so get 'em now while they're exclusive!)


For your .99 cents, you will also get an excerpt that was only ever before available to eHarlequin readers -- a short excerpt from the book Sergei has been threatening to write about the Care and Feeding of Talent (as referenced in STAYING DEAD and, I think, BRING IT ON.)



EtA: and, because my brain's not back on-line entirely yet:(  picspam! )

EtA #2: is it cheating to put something you already did this morning on your daily to-do list?

So it looks like I'll have room to take on 2-3 new editorial clients this year (I only take on one person at a time, so they get 100% of my editorial brain). I offer everything from brainstorming/development to line editing and submission formatting, but NOT copy-editing or proofreading (there are folk out there who are better than I at that, you should talk to them first).

If you're interested, contact me at dymk-at--optimum-dot-net to discuss.
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Meanwhile, I seem to be alone in not pimping my work for various award consideration. Rest assured, it's less that I don't want to be considered and more that my short fiction output has fallen dramatically, and two of the markets that were supposed to publish stories last year have failed out. Alas.

However, for those who are curious/tend to nominate, for your consideration:

"Illumination" in UNUSUAL SUSPECTS, edited by Dana Stabenow (December 2008) [fantasy/mystery]
"Wolfling" in Abyss And Apex #26 [sf]
"Dreamcatcher" (novella) in e-format from Nocturne/Harlequin, as Anna Leonard (September 2008) [paranormal romance]

FREE FALL (Luna) [fantasy]
THE NIGHT SERPENT (Nocturne, as Anna Leonard) [paranormal romance]

First sale of the year: audio rights for "Blow Job Red" to podcaster SFZine. They're still pre-launch, so no idea when it will be available. Listen here for updates.

I'm starting to get antsy about my last unanswered short fiction submission from 2008. Although not superstitious as a rule, I hesitate to ping the editor, but... we're going on three months now. Antsy. Hrm. Wonder if just talking about it is enough to bring on the jinx?
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I finished the outline for MUSTANG last night. This morning I get to read it over and see if there's anything important I left out, then it goes off to madame editrix so she can approve it, and start a Contract Payment in motion. Normally my outlines are more like Google map directions -- accurate until they're suddenly not, and to be read with a casual and forgiving eye. Nocturne is a little more stringent with this -- the editorial director likes to know Exactly What She's Getting. so I have to do a bit more work up-front. Things will still change in the actual writing, of course, but there tend not to be the joyfully exasperating Ah-HAH! moments of plot recognition. Pluses and minuses to that....
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I am informed that my revision notes for THE VINEART WAR should arrive in the next handful of days. I'll be in the corner, fretting. Except here's no time to fret, as I need to get back to work on PACK OF LIES See my head go 'splodey, soon...
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And in the non-writing news, this amused me, in a sad sort of way. Our Geek President. "I’m still clinging to my BlackBerry," Mr. Obama said Wednesday. "They’re going to pry it out of my hands."

How cold is it outside? 17 degrees at 7:30am. A man standing in Smoker's Purgatory last night was overheard yelling into the skies "At least, damn it, send snow!" It's cold, yeah. With a bitter, bitter wind. I'm staying home today.

in vague order of importance..

1. Three more stories are up at Anthology Builder:
- "Site 14." An alternative look at our future past, if we'd gone 'down' into space, rather than 'up.'
- "Harvey & Fifth." written before 9/11, a story about the ghosts of tragedy, and how we live with them. The title comes from a street corner in Oklahoma City.
- "Blow Job Red." -- Yes, I wrote a hookers-in-space story. But the further out you travel, the more familiar things get....

2. Spent Sunday afternoon visiting a museum I didn't even know existed: the Neue Galerie for German and Austrian Arts. It's small but lovely (and OMG the cafe!) but of especial note is the temporary exhibit of the drawings of Alfred Kubin. The brochures ends with the line "He transforms neurotic terror into aesthetic achievement," and while brochures are mostly marketing hyperbole, in this case it's a fair assessment. If you're in NYC, it's worth an hour out of your day to check it out.

3. And then from high culture to cultured cheese.... "The Librarian 3" was good fun, if not quite cracktastic. But oh my... "Leverage?" May be my new addiction. Cracktastic caper cheese that's oh so very pretty without being plastic (yeah, the plot holes are swiss, but the taste is finestkind stilton).

4. and while we're talking cheese: For Harlequin's 60th anniversary, they've put together a calendar of "vintage covers" with titles like "Love me and Die!" and "I'll Bury my Dead." Pulp noir romance. Gotta love it! (seriously, these covers would have worked for any Mickey Spillane novel, too). And then there's the classic "Island Hospital" (nurse romances, oldie but goody) and "Nine to Five: the private affairs of not-too-private secretaries." It's nice to know, no matter how highbrow any genre tries to get, we all go back to very very pulpy roots...

5. Books Read: A HARD TICKET HOME by David Housewright. wealthy ex-cop do-gooder caught up in missing child case that turns out to have some ugly complications. A decent read (author is an Edgar-winner and has a slew of good reviews) but I kept thinking I was reading a John Sanford wannabe, and when I want John Sandford I read John Sandford. Still, I might get his earlier book, Penance, out of the library. About halfway through KOP, which is also good-but-familiar. But will reserve judgment until the denouement.


Recap of weekend posts:

Thannks to everyone who helped out, Vera's home is safe -- but we're still raising funds to give her a small cushion, and take care of a septic tank problem. If you've participated, thank you. If you haven't, there's still time to get on Santa's 'good' list...

And hey, don't forget my Holiday Book Giveaway. Remember to leave your mailing address!


I managed to keep from working on anything all weekend. I feel kinda ill, now. Need to go pound at the keyboard for a few hours...

Coffee is on, the fowl remains are being simmered into soup, various people are surfing the 'net, shopping, Mei-Chan is snuffling the floor looking in vain for scraps,and Lucy the resident feline (an oversized ball of long black fur) is trying to eat Mei-Chan's food. And it has not snowed. Why is Italy getting snow and New England not? *grumpy*

But I did not log on to grump about the weather (time enough for that later). I logged on to let y'all know that I've finally gotten off my duff and joined Anthology Builder. You guys all know about Anthology Builder, right? Go on-line, choose what YOU want to read from their inventory, pick a cover, and they will send you an actual print anthology of your creation. Cool, huh? And a great way to sample the short fiction field (or create a special gift for the short fiction reader in your life).

Anyway, right now there are three stories of mine up, with more to come.

1. "Don't You Want to be Beautiful?" -- one of my few humor pieces,about the Dire Effects of a makeover and a careful application of guilt.

2. "Fire Rising in the Moon" -- one of my favorite shorts, this can be read as mainstream psychodrama, or horror, or fantasy or....

3. "Exposure" -- the first appearance of Westin, vampire photographer. A murder mystery, a vampire story, a love letter to feeding what sustains us (art,not blood).

http://www.anthologybuilder.com

Enjoy!

I did not have a good time in Calgary airport, but am settled once again in Seattle,fed and cozy and decompressing off the WFC chaos. It was, all told, a very good convention (despite some off notes and utter exhaustion), with useful meetings and story-developments, and very good to see a number of friends who have been too-long from the scene (and even better to hear about some of the very excellent stuff they're writing),

And speaking of writing and good reports, found this in my in-box, from PUBLISHERS WEEKLY:

Unusual Suspects: Stories of Mystery & Fantasy Edited by Dana Stabenow. Ace, $14 paper (320p) ISBN 978-0-441-01637-2

This follow-up to Powers of Detection (2006) breaks no new ground, but offers 12 stories with enough well-paced variety to keep readers happy. In Charlaine Harris’s notable Sookie Stackhouse tale, “Lucky,” one insurance agent’s good luck makes him a target. A “resurrected” Humphrey Bogart is murdered in Carole Nelson Douglas’s “Bogieman” while Santa Claus investigates the murder of an elf in John Straley’s “Weight of the World.” On the lighter side, a divorcée gets used to a menagerie of ghostly housemates in Sharon Shinn’s “The House of Seven Spirits” and a young woman confronts a cave dragon turned loan shark to solve her father’s disappearance in Laura Anne Gilman’s “Illumination.” Strong tales outnumber the weaker ones by a considerable margin and will satisfy fans of both genres. (Dec.)

I figure, if I'm one of the five-of-twelve singled out,they probably liked it, huh?:-)