Not a very effective stress management technique, is it? I think it just stressed me out more.  It’s like a drug; you feel a little better when you get some but it ultimately just makes you want more.  So here are my healthier strategies for dealing with the wait for Clarion responses.

• Write something brand new.  Start a story today with the intention of finishing it before you get that phone call (or heaven forbid, that email…or is everything conducted by email now?).  You’re a writer so you can do it.  It might be worth while to make this something outside your strong suit to brush up some skills.  That way, in or out, you have a new story to market when you’re done.
• Make sure everything you’ve ever written is in a slush pile somewhere.  You have been sending your stuff out, right?  If you’re in, you want to be able talk about your latest sales.  If you’re out, you want to be able to take comfort in the sales you make.  You can’t do either with those stories sitting in a drawer.  Even stuff you already sold can be subbed to reprint markets.  I’ve sold 3 reprints recently and I’m not exactly the hottest selling author on the planet.  I might not be the hottest seller in my hometown.  Get that stuff out there!  And if you’re like me, it takes an hour or so to choose a market, prep the story for specific guidelines, and get the thing sent (snail or electronic).  If you have any backlog at all, this can make a great distraction.
• Spend some quality time with the people you’ll miss if you go.  Six weeks is a long time and someone (spouse, child, boy/girlfriend, mother, dog…) will miss you terribly while you’re writing your summer away.  Go to the zoo.  Okay, the zoo might be cold this time of year, maybe even closed, but…do something worth remembering.  They deserve it.
• Read stuff by the instructors.  I’m not particularly well-read so I had to do some research to know who these people were.  Beyond their Wikipedia page, I also wanted a taste of their writing.  Wow, some of it blew me away the years I was applying.  And do you CW applicants really need an excuse to read some George R.R. Martin?  Or do you San Diego hopefuls think you could possibly have read all of Ted Chiang’s great short stories?  Go read.

I tried all these things while I was waiting on that Clarion Call.  Ultimately they helped, but I still trolled the internet for every possible “Clarion” reference Google or IceRocket could cough up.  That reply will come.

For what it’s worth, acceptance never came for me.  Waitlisted once, but never attended.  (Placing in Writers of the Future softened the blow.)  I can tell you that my career isn’t exactly on the fast track, but I’m doing all right.  Rejection isn’t the end.  So good luck (that’s a big part of it, luck) and don’t give up.

Oh, and you can check out my Workshop page.  If you find any dead links there, let me know.

Speaking of Escape Pod, they have just offered to buy another story.  ”Chasers” was originally in Triangulation 2004 back in…well, in 2004.  It has a similar narrative style to “Leech Run” so I thought they might like it.  Apparently I was right.  No clue when it comes out; watch here for details.

All in all, it doesn’t seem to be too bad. It’s kind of neat. I’m sure I’ll have to do some correcting, but I hope to do some writing with this. It keeps trying to make words out of my breathing. I suspect that’s related to the microphone or my positioning of it. I’ll figure it out. Or maybe I should stop breathing altogether.

If you have experience with Dragon voice recognition software and you have some tips, post them here. I really like how I can undo things. Oh look, it types the word quote undo. HMM… I’ll have to figure out how to do”. Scratch that, I guess I’ve got it now. Looks like the learning curve on this one is going to be a lot of fun.

I just bought the latest Palm version of Dragon naturally speaking. I’m going to try to compose this blog post with just the software. I am not correcting any errors. For instance, the word Palm should have been the word home so it’s not perfect. Eventually, I hope for it to type my punctuation, at least in part, all on its own. Right now I have to say the words to get punctuation. I wonder if I can get it to type the word.. I guess not.

All in all, it doesn’t seem to be too bad. It’s kind of neat. I’m sure I’ll have to do some correcting, but I hope to do some writing with this. It keeps trying to make words out of my breathing. I suspect that’s related to the microphone or my positioning of it. I’ll figure it out. Or maybe I should stop breathing altogether.

If you have experience with Dragon voice recognition software and you have some tips, post them here. I really like how I can undo things. Oh look, it types the word quote undo. HMM… I’ll have to figure out how to do”. Scratch that, I guess I’ve got it now. Looks like the learning curve on this one is going to be a lot of fun.

Full disclosure, I dictated this in Word first and copied it into this blog post. This is really the first thing I’ve done with it. I suspect some corrections will be easier to do by hand, while speaking others will be just fine. Before I go, let me try something just for fun:

& plus + — – –-?\Parentheses ()**pound #act@!! Exclamation free the re-three (ah, there’s the three) number three 3 that did it = words = $% ^’ Sam; oh suite, that worked. Okay enough of that. Watch for the Dragon tag on my posts to see how this goes.

Toy!

Full disclosure, I dictated this in Word first and copied it into this blog post. This is really the first thing I’ve done with it. I suspect some corrections will be easier to do by hand, while speaking others will be just fine. Before I go, let me try something just for fun: & plus + — – –-?\Parentheses ()**pound #act@!! Exclamation free the re-three (ah, there’s the three) number three 3 that did it = words = $% ^’ Sam; oh suite, that worked. Okay enough of that. Watch for the Dragon tag on my posts to see how this goes.

Toy!

I have a mountain of work to do for school and here I am typing a blog entry.  The thought of real work is so painful, though.  Why can’t my work be hobnobbing and talking on panels and browsing dealer rooms?  Well for one, that’s not work.  None of those things pay the bills.  Writing might one day pay some bills, but being at a con isn’t particularly conducive to writing, either.  Reality comes for us all.  Here are some tips for how to survive the painful transition between the con and the real world.

1. Catch up with work before the con starts.  Coming back to a pile of tests that need grading or files that need updating or invoices that need invoicing just makes it that much harder to dive back into work.  Moving forward is easier.  I bet you took the time to get your costume ready or compile a stack of books that need autographing or to fine tune your Halo strategy; apply the same kid of effort to catching up the job-type-job and you’ll be a happy worker Monday morning.  Well, happier.  (No, I did not do this.)
2. Go to bed early Sunday night.  As long as the commute isn’t standing in the way, get thee to a bed.  You’re probably sleep deprived and an extra hour or so will do you wonders.  Getting out of bed may still feel like pushing a rope, but it’ll be easier to get back up to speed.  (No, I didn’t do this, either.)
3. Wake up earlier than usual Monday morning.  That sounds counter-intuitive, but the extra prep time will be useful as you stare at the showerhead and remember the cools pipes and nozzles on those steampunk costumes or you eat your oatmeal and wish you had one of those stale con-suite donuts to go with it.  (I’m 0 for 3.  This may just be a list of things I wish I had done.)
4. Buy a souvenir.  A tee shirt, a book, a costume component, a bauble…something to remind you of the con experience.  It makes the experience concrete and shows that you got something you wanted out.  Otherwise you’re likely to sit and pine over how you wasted the moment and want to go back and try again, like that time you didn’t kiss what’s-her-name.  Seriously, this can help.  Just don’t catch yourself staring into your dragon snow globe like some mesmerizing crystal ball trying to relive the con.  (Ooh, I did this one!  A Fireflly Venn diagram shirt.  Very nerdy.)
5. Suck it up and get back to work.  That is a tip but also a directive to myself, right now.  Cons are great, but like any recreational drug, they should be used with caution.  (This was a metaphor.  Drugs are bad, m’kay.)

Now on to lesson plans.  :(  Wish me luck.

I write science fiction and fantasy under the name Scott W. Baker, but no one ever seems to include my W.  Not sure why that is.  There are other Scott Bakers (and of course Scott Bakker) out there writing and I don’t want to be them.  But don’t call me W; I don’t want to be George Bush either.

My claim to not-quite-fame is my story “Poison Inside the Walls” which placed in the 26th annual, international Writers of the Future contest and was published in the related anthology.  Since then, my fiction has appeared in Escape Pod, Daily Science Fiction, and other fun places.

What do I write about?  I’m all over the place, really.  Civilizations in space, space pirates, zombies (not in space…yet), time travel, aliens, paranormal events, military sci-fi, distopias, near future, farcical comedy, serious moral dilemmas…  Yeah, I cover the spectrum.  You can get a better taste by looking at my bibliography.

No, I have no published novels at present.  No, there are no novels immediately forthcoming.  Yes, I do have novels in the works, but who doesn’t?  When I get a novel finished, blog readers will be the first to know.

When not writing, I teach high school math.  I have a beautiful wife and a brilliant daughter (adjectives interchangeable).  I have a dachshund, a mutt, and the same cat in two different sizes.  I wear Hawaiian shirts — especially at cons.

So that’s me.  If you need to know more, don’t be afraid to ask.  And I’ll see you at the cons!

I’m slated for just one panel: surviving the zombie apocalypse.  That will be fun.  Has it been done?  Sure, but that won’t stop us.  I’ll probably try to sneak onto another panel or two or at least be that obnoxious guy in the audience that thinks he’s on the panel.  There’s one on newbie writers where my Writers of the Future experiences might be appreciated.  Then there’s always the hang-at-the-bar panel, always a crowd pleaser.  I’m quite certain I’ll be on that panel at some point.

If you’re anywhere near the Chattanooga area this weekend (that’s the south-east corner of Tennessee), consider hopping by the Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel for ChattaCon.  The consuite is killer and has two of my favorite double-e words: free beer.  What more needs to be said?

I’m not sure what MY favorite EP stories were last year.  I didn’t listen to them all, but I listened to a fair number.  That is, excluding my own story (which is obviously the finest work of literature ever composed by a mortal).  I’ll likely do a little re-listening and toss my thoughts out there…if I ever get the time.

Tis also the season for Codex‘s Weekend Warrior contest.  It’s really just an excuse to use my competitive spirit to reload my inventory with flash fiction stories, those being my best sellers.  Prompts appear on Friday evening and I have until Sunday evening to submit my story.  This was the first weekend and the story I produced is…I’m predicting top third of the pack, though it’ll be hard to tell since the pack is allegedly numbering in the forties this time around.  But it’s not really about the voting results; it’s about the feedback and having stories to send out.  I have my reading cut out for me this week if I have 40+ stories to read and rate and comment on.  Thank goodness none will be over 750 words!

My new school schedule is giving me a reality kick in the cajones.  Three different classes that are just similar enough to confuse me.  More prep time this semester than last, that’s for sure.  That means less writing time.  Oh please, weather, be good in 11 days so I can get to ChattaCon.  After that, snow school out all you want.

What’s worse, they all seem like good resolutions for this year, too.  So we’ll take it from the top.

1) Lose a pond a week.

2) Write 100 words a day.

3) Read more often. This s actually a deviation from last year, which targeted one novel and two shorts a month.  Instead I’m making this a quadrupleresolution:

• Finish reading all my partially-read novels.  That’s Steven Savile’s Silver, John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War, and…a couple others I can’t currently recall.  These are not books I’ve abandoned, just ones I set aside to finish later.
• Read 4 new novels this year.  Not a lot, but a realistic target.  I think I finished 4 last year.
• Read short stories weekly.  Maybe each Monday I’ll target some short fiction to read.  It can even be flash, but I need to read in the field.
• Read the Bible every day.  I have an Every Day Bible to help me accomplish this.  I want to read the whole thing in a year.  I’m a Catholic with some pretty stout beliefs (not all of them 100% Catholic-y), but I’ve never made any concerted effort to read the Bible cover to cover.  This year, it’s on.

4) Exercise twice a week.

5) Get organized.

Five good ones.  Let’s see if I can keep at least one this time around.

I have plenty of irons in the fire and I need to find a different fire to toss FS back into.  There’s a good chance I can see my third SFWA-qualifying sale on the horizon already, but crossing fingers and refreshing Duotrope aren’t going to make it happen any sooner.  I just need to keep the writing flowing.