My to-do list

My first order of business is to keep myself busy so I don’t go mad waiting to hear from the Clarions.  Sure the application deadline is past (or will be in a few hours), but they still need to review last minute applications, compare scores on all the applications, select their top 18-20 as well as an alternate list, then decide when to start contacting people.  I will be shocked if I hear something this week.  That doesn’t mean I’m not holding my breath each time I check my caller ID.

So how do I keep busy?  Writing, of course.  I’m still trying to finish up my second version of “Leech Run” for Baen’s Universe, not that I’m terribly optimistic about it getting picked up.  If it doesn’t (I’m not giving up all hope), I’ll set it aside until the workshop (I am still overly optimistic about that, in spite of myself) since it should be the first of my stories to be analyzed by the masses there.  (It could be “Glow Baby” if I end up in San Diego, but I digress).  Regardless, I don’t expect the rewrite to take more than another day or two.

I decided my next project will be to run with my woman-warrior story, as yet untitled but the file is saved under Kree.doc since Kree is the name of the alien race.  Before I go too far, I need to read The Science of Aliens, which is sitting on my bookshelf.  It will give some hard science credibility to my aliens and my story in general.

This project will probably take a few weeks at least.  I won’t be surprised if I get distracted by another project before I finish, but I’m trying not to do that.  If I get stuck, I’ll try to brush out another story for young readers, something under 2k words, so I can get back to the serious story.  I have a lot of emotion, intrigue, and social commentary planned for this one.  It may be tough, but I bet it comes out good…for me.

Anyway, that’s my to-do list for the next few weeks.  I’ll likely know about a Clarion before the Kree story is done unless I hit an unprecidented rhythm.  *sigh*  Time to get to work.

-Oso