Another Submission

I just sent "AIDA to Eridani" off to Strange Horizons, yet another magazine for which publication counts toward SFWA membership.

One of these days, a paying, "professional" market will want one of my stories. .:determined face:.

More later.

Back into the Cold

I just sent "The Truthsayer" off to Pedestal Magazine. They're one of the ones for which publication counts toward SFWA membership. Fingers crossed.

More later.

Intergalactic Medicine Show

I just (literally 5 seconds ago) got a rejection letter from Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show for "The Truthsayer." However, the rejection was very nice and included the following line: "However, we would like to encourage you to send more of your work to us for consideration in the future."

Now, I had never submitted to IGMS before, so I don't know if that's part of their standard form letter, though it seems silly to send everyone--even those who suck--an invitation to submit more. So I'm taking it as a good thing and will absolutely send them something else later--assuming I ever have time to write again.

I'm thinking that, since I've been slacking and haven't sent "AIDA to Eridani" to the Writers of the Future contest yet, that I might send "The Truthsayer" instead. I'm going to browse through lists of other possible markets I have and see what else looks promising first, though. After reading some forum postings about WotF, I'm not sure I really want to pursue that avenue. We'll see.

More later.

Piccys!

I promised a friend pictures of my cubicle IN HELL (the same friend who gave me the X-Files poster, so she has a good reason to want to see my workspace), so here they are:


There's the whole thing (mostly).


Here's the poster in its non-hanging place of honor (I could NOT figure out how to get it to hang, so it's just kinda sitting).


This is my stuffed-animal-and-birthday-card shelf.


This is my desk. Duh.


This is my bookshelf. I love my books.


This is Rowdy. He belongs to a co-worker. Right now, he's directing traffic to her cubicle because it's a maze down here.


This is a co-worker who got an OFFICE. She was a little surprised that there was picture taking happening.


This is Rowdy's owner. She was, obviously, NOT surprised at the picture taking.

More later.

*dashes in*

I know I've let this blog slide unforgivably. Let me explain myself by saying that almost everything happening in my life right now is teaching-related, and thus either not very interesting or something that I really shouldn't be talking about here (instead I go to My Favorite RedHead's office and rant at her). I haven't had time to write, I haven't had time to work on my German, and I've barely had time to make the rounds of the blogs/webcomics I read on a daily basis. About the only extracurricular thing that's survived is the Buffy-Boards, and even that's taken a nosedive lately (though that's not entirely due to me being super-busy, but I won't go into that here).

The most interesting thing that's happened to me lately was the book fair, which I'm discovering is one of THE perks of being a teacher. Publishing representatives bring a buttload of books to campus, and we get to drool and pick out books and keep them. The publishers are hoping we'll choose to order their books for the classroom, so they bring lots of really cool books and usually food. I got brand-new, critically annotated editions of Dracula, Frankenstein, and Jane Eyre.

I'm thinking what I might do with my British Lit class (assuming I get one) is focus on the fantastic in British literature (cause it's all over). So we'd read Beowulf (duh), "The Faerie Queene," A Midsummer Night's Dream, Dracula, Frankenstein, and probably Neil Gaiman's Stardust or something similar. And maybe (maybe) Harry Potter.

But first I have to get through this semester.

More later.

Alderaan, No!

Hubble spotted something weird in the sky recently. Maybe the Death Star just got destroyed? The article itself is kinda boring (and I didn't even TRY to read the paper), but the comments make it worth it. Some scientists just have no sense of humor.

More later.

Another One Down

Due to the in-class writing assignments my students did all day yesterday and the peer reviews my other batch of students were doing today, I've had plenty of time to write, since they were all writing, too. So I finished the second Truthsayer story, unfortunately still titled "Truthsayer 2." I'll have to come up with something better, obviously, and sell "The Truthsayer" before I can even start shopping this one around, but it still needs to go through Critters--which will take a couple of weeks--and see a round of revising and possibly another trip through Critters, depending on how badly they tore it up the first time.

For those who are actually interested in these things, the story reached a word count of 7,655, making it one of the longest short stories I've written (they mostly tend to sit between 2,000-4,000 words). I'm not sure it will stay that long; there are some sections that Critters critters will probably want me to take out. But for now, it's pretty impressive.

More later.

Bibliophibian

I wanted to share this because it's pretty much how I feel. And a lot cheerier than yesterday's post. :)

More later.

God Save Us

Recently I've been trying really hard not to post about political issues here. It's not the main point of this blog--writing is--and tends to alienate people. Not to mention causing anonymous hits on my counter that look suspiciously like DHS. But this has me so upset that I have to say something about it.

If this continues and Britain gives in to Sharia entirely, it's not long before America goes, as well. Many people in America want us to be just like Europe/England, forgetting that we fought a war 230 years ago so we could be NOT just like England. If Britain is ruled by Sharia, America will be soon, too.

Guess what? I refuse to live under Sharia. I refuse to be ruled by laws that are based in a religion I do not believe in--or any religion, actually; the government should NOT be involved in matters of personal belief--especially a religion that believes that women, Jews, and homosexuals are less than human. A religion that would try to force me to wear a burka, not leave the house without W.E. escorting me, not ever get to work or do anything important, and get stoned to death if I don't comply.

They will have to kill me first. And I'll fight back. I will not live under these rules, now or any time in the future.

That is all.

Twitch

I spent this afternoon watching the racism debate (or screaming fest, depending on who was talking) on Dr. Phil and compiling packets of recommendation forms + envelopes + lists and deadlines for my recommenders. I now twitch every time I see the word "form." And my eyes are burning. And I'm tired. And I still have to grade about 40 response logs from my students. Blah.

Oh, look. It's 6:30 already. Now I should go make dinner.

*dies*

More later.

A Few More Stats

Yesterday was the most writing-intensive spat of revising I've had, mostly because the chapters I'm working on are very Arven-heavy. I think I've solved most of the problem, but I'll have to get some Critters people to look at it before I can be completely sure.

Chapters revised: 2
Original word count: 8,751
New word count: 7,002 (dammit)
Scenes with That Character removed: um . . . 4? I lost count.
Scenes inserted: one less . . . 3-ish
Mean things: The Necromancer slaughtering a litter of kittens and a farmgirl
Most interesting scene to write: Thalia learning how to use her magic--from woodland animals. It was REALLY hard not to be all Disney about it. It was supposed to be a bit creepy to begin with and then interesting when she figures out what they're doing there.

I've been so busy revising I've REALLY let my German slack. I need to fix that. Of course, I'm almost done with the book now (I'm on page 205 of 288), so I might as well go ahead and finish and then work on my German while I run it through Critters. Cause THAT will take MONTHS.

More later.

Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles

WARNING: If you haven't seen Season 2 Episode 1 (which aired last night) and you HATE SPOILERS, stop reading NOW.

I really only have one thing to say about this episode:

OMG, SHIRLEY MANSON IS A LIQUID TERMINATOR!!!!! I KNEW IT!!!!!!!!!!!!

I totally saw that coming, you guys. The second she showed up on screen, I was all, "She's a Terminator!" And we knew the T1000s had to be coming as soon as T:SCC got a budget.

Also, that opening sequence kicked ASS. I need to find that song; it's very very cool.

Next week will be EVEN COOLER because Monday night has T:SCC and Tuesday night is the season premiere of HOUSE! Which is just awesome. I heart House.

Okay. End fangirl squeeing. Yes, I'm a nerd and the weirdest things get me excited.

More later.

Insane Amounts of Stats

Yesterday all 4 of my classes were taking quizzes, which left me LOTS of time to write while they were scratching their heads and having panic attacks and bravely giving up on answering questions after 10 minutes.

Chapters revised: 5
Original word count: 14, 478
New word count: 15,011 (woot!)
Scenes with That Character removed: 1
Scenes inserted: 0
Mean things: You deserve better than me, stop being in love with me.
Favorite line from this section: "The Quartermaster stood in the middle of it all, glaring at everyone as if they had personally been responsible for every bit of wear on equipment that had been in the field for the last three years."

The real difficult stuff starts today, when I tackle the part of the book where That Character (Arven) started to really be an important part of the story. Somehow, Thalia needs to figure out about her own power (which is now enhanced by her Soulbond with William instead of being half-Elven) and the Soulbond, AND how to use her power--all by herself. Without anyone to teach her. And, boringly for the reader, without anyone to TALK to about it. There's got to be some way to do this besides lots of Library time or lots of sitting in the forest, and I've got to try to figure it out.

Phew.

More later.

A Plethora of Stats

Well, I meant to do a whole lot of writing/revising today, but I got distracted by an IQ test (154, baby!) and then by the Buffy-Boards, and then by the Pieces of Flair application on Facebook, and only managed to get through two chapters. But they were very eventful, important chapters.

Original word count: 5,243
New word count: 5,708
Scenes with That Character removed: 1 very short one, and one mention of him in another scene
Scenes inserted: 1 very short one
Other deletions: Thalia's ability to teleport. No more jumping about the world for her; she ran away on a horse instead. That will make the very ending a bit more problematic, but nothing I can't really fix.
Mean things: A knee to the groin. :D He so had it coming.

Must go make dinner and eat. W.E. doesn't eat enough anymore. Must feed him.

More later.

Another Thing, Also Exciting

As of this morning, I have officially lost the 20 pounds I was trying to lose this summer. And it's only a week late! :)

New goal: 20 more pounds by Christmas.

More later.

Things I Am Excited About Today

Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles season 2 starts tomorrow night.

House, M.D. season 5 starts next Tuesday.

My classes tomorrow will be EASY because they're all taking a quiz. And then leaving.

I got lots of sleep this weekend.

I bought a new batch of contacts yesterday and they were $20 cheaper than I planned on.

Things I'm Not So Excited About:
We're still barely scraping by from paycheck to paycheck. Stupid adjunct professor pay schedule.

I don't have the shows I want on DVD yet cause I can't afford them. Meaning I won't have time to watch them before the new seasons start (except maybe for C.S.I., which doesn't start until October).

Lesson planning for the rest of the week.

More later.

Several Hours Worth of Stats

Chapters revised: 3
Original word count: 7,139
New word count: 7,110 (stupid character removal!)
Scenes with That Character removed: 0, but 3 revised to take him out while keeping the same basic thing happening
Scenes inserted: 1
Worries: I feel like I'm screwing up continuity and timeline because I'm not sure when exactly things are happening anymore and who knows what and when they learned it! Hopefully the Critters people will be able to help me with this later

More later.

Stats

Chapters revised: 3
Original word count: 9,256
New word count: 9,561
Scenes with That Character removed: 0 (Hmm . . . he didn't even show up for 5 chapters. I'm more convinced than ever that he's a loseable character.)
Scenes inserted: 0
Interesting inserts: explaining the difference between seeing a rabbit murdered in cold blood and seeing one butchered for meat. There's a distinct difference. One or more readers originally didn't understand why Thalia was so upset about watching the Necromancer kill a rabbit. So I made it more clear that it was the manner in which he did it, not the fact that he did it, precisely.

More later.

Stats

I revised that scene-needing-embellishment that I was too tired to do yesterday. I'm a bit happier with it, though I plan to come back to it in a day or so and look at it again.

Original word count: 590
New word count: 740

Yay!

More later.

Stats

Chapters revised: 2
Original word count: 5,687
New word count: 5,425
Scenes with That Character removed: 0
Scenes added: 0
Scenes I need to go back through to do some serious embellishing but I'm too tired right now: 1

More later.

For a Giggle

Because I have nothing else to share today, and because I'm a nerd, and because it's funny. . . .

The Top 10 Things I Hate About Star Trek.

More later.