Month: June 2010

At long last, a home for “Leech Run”

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment


A sale!

How long ago was I complaining about not hearing any responses, two hours?  I ran out to get a movie (more on that in a minute) and come home to find that the anthology Zero Gravity has accepted my story “Leech Run”!  They’ve had it on hold for a little while.  Submissions closed today and I guess no one managed to bump me.

“Leech Run” has been seeking a home for a long time.  It’s the story that got me waitlisted for Clarion West last year.  Honestly Zero Gravity seems about the perfect fit.  It’s a Pill Hill Press anthology, due out late next summer (I’m finding conflicting dates, so it may be soon and it may be 2011); more waiting before “Leech Run” sees the light of day.  But a sale’s a sale, 25 bucks I didn’t have before.  A credential I didn’t have before.  Being read by people (eventually) that hadn’t heard of me before.

As for the movie rental, I went to a RedBox for the first time.  Efficient, affordable, the way of the future.  I went specifically to get…*cough*…New Moon.  I know, I know.  Not my choice.  The wife needed to see it again before she drags me to Eclipse on Friday.  Two in the same week.  I’m going to have to read some Moby Dick to balance it out.

Count up vs. Countdown

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

I have mentioned it before — I hate waiting.  I am bad at it.  Twitchy, impatient, obsessive.  I currently find myself doing two different types of waiting.

First, I am waiting for responses on stories.  Yes, yes, this waiting is perpetual in this business.  It’s been years since I had no stories out on submission, so I’ve been waiting for about three years this way.  Call me masochist.  My most recent submission went out three weeks (21 days) ago.  Not that long, I know, but I haven’t received any responses in those three weeks.  My other stories have been waiting longer: 31, 40, 46, 50, 51, and 74 days, though two of these (50 & 74) have brought in hold requests in that time.  My average is a little under two months.  Two months is not so long a wait, but two months times seven gets tough for me, especially when some of those two months could turn into four or six months.  That’s the first type of waiting, the open-ended waiting, the kind that could end tomorrow or a year from tomorrow.

The other type of waiting is what I’m doing with the WotF workshop: waiting for a target date.  I have 54 days left before I leave for LA.  I’ve already waited since…when did I find out I won, February?  It’s like waiting for Christmas; the days get longer the closer you get to the target.

So which waiting is worse?  I think the combination is melting my brain.

Sleepless somewhere other than Seattle

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 10 Comments

As my long-time blog followers know, I just just barely missed Clarion West last year — I was an alternate but never called to replace anyone.  I followed the progress of the workshop and friends like Jordan Lapp and Rochita Loenen-Ruiz very closely, wishing I was there with them, writing my heart out.  Wishing, but not writing.  I didn’t produce any new writing last summer.  It hurt too much to even think about it, knowing how very close I came to CW and falling short.

This year, again as people know, I fell shorter, not even making the waiting list.  There are a variety of factors that could have led to this (including my inability to count), but I’m home again.  At least I’m writing this time.  While I didn’t get many bankable words typed during my camping trip, I got my novel back on the rails.  Once again I have a chance to finish a draft before school starts.

I am still bummed about not being at CW.  I do suspect I’d be miserable there by the second or third week, missing my daughter.  Six weeks is so long.  So maybe I’m better off here.  That helps.  It also helps knowing that the story that didn’t get me in to CW got me into the WotF workshop (and the anthology).  It helps a little more knowing the story that got me waitlisted last year may have finally found a home (shortlisted for an anthology).  Nothing helps with rejection like success.

I’m happy for Tracie and Sandra and the others at CW.  I hope they learn a ton.  Same goes for the folks at Clarion – San Diego.  I’m still pretty convinced I will not be applying to either workshop next year.  It’s been a real hardship on my family just speculating how we would handle my absence and it would be too much for next summer.  Besides, I hope to get my career on track by this time next year (with an agent for my first novel, a solid draft for my second, three or four more short story sales, stuff like that).  I’m not expecting to be too good for the Clarion workshops, just have enough momentum that I won’t need them as a launching pad.

I’ve said all this before.  This post is probably more for my own catharsis than anything else.  (Hey, I looked it up and used that word right!)  I know there are kindred spirits out there, wishing they were among peers under the tutelage of pros.  I say to those spirits, don’t waste this time.  Write.  Write crap if you have to (we all do sometimes), but write something.  You don’t have to do the Clarion model’s story a week — who has time for that in the real world? — but get words on paper.  It is my biggest regret from last year, that I had nothing to show for that time.

I may not have time to write today (I have a lot of church obligations) but it is on my mind.  It will happen tomorrow and throughout the week.  And the next.  I haven’t updated my novel status bar in a while because I’m in an add-and-subtract place where any count would be false.  I hope to be past that and get it updated in a few days.  I bet the novel surpasses the 50,000 word mark.  That’s not bad as long as I don’t crest 80,000; that would likely be too much for a YA book.  I am excited about writing (not always the case, as you writers know).  It feels good.  The only way to get from those low points (like I was in last year at this time) to these excited points is to write your way there.  So get writing.  After all, that’s what makes you a writer.

Ahhh, indoors is nice

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

I am back from camping!  Hooray.  I got less writing than usual done, but I spent a lot of time prewriting.  My novel was stalled and I was unhappy with the depth (or lack thereof) of my characters, so I dropped a few bucks on a novel writing ebook.  I’ll discuss the specifics in another post once I finish with it.  It helped me explore my characters and find new life.  I think I added one chapter, rewrote a bunch, and convinced myself I need to do some massive deletions (from chapters that come later than the one I added–it was a squeeze in).  All in all I call it a productive writing escape.

I also picked up two books from a discount shop.  The one on screenwriting seems to focus more on basic story construction and less on the technique of actually writing for the screen, so I’m bummed about that purchase.  The other book is a re-re-reprinting of a second edition of a military strategy book.  Big score there.  I got through the chapter on the Greeks and was gasping for air by the pace it covered, which is exactly the type of overview I really wanted.  It may be a little light on detail, but I can google the details if I need to delve deeper into something specific.  All in all, four bucks well spent (between the two).

I’m very tired and want to go back to cleansing my DVR.  More soon.  Ah, internet.  How I missed thee.

Roughing it

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

Tomorrow I pack up the camper, the truck, and the SUV (new acquisition, already been pummeled from behind…different story) to go sit in a state park and sweat.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy camping, but the going part of it is always miserable.  My wife and I will fight as we pack, our daughter will whine, and I’ll expend more energy in a day than I normally expend in a month.  On top of that, I’m fatter than I’ve ever been and it’s too hot for me to be wearing a walrus outdoors.  Lots of fun

Okay, I’m being a bigger whiner than my daughter.  The camper is air conditioned.  My in-laws will be there to help with the rugrat (more a good thing than a bad thing…70/30).  Most importantly, I should get lots of writing done.  I always finish a story when I camp.  I have some good ideas floating around my head about my novel.  Unfortunately they’re all rewriting ideas.  I may be starting over.  That could be good since I’ve lost almost all enthusiasm for this project recently. A reboot may do the trick.

This will likely be the last update for a week or so.  Not that a week is so long between updates, but I’ll be mostly off the grid.  I’ll be able to get email when we go into town (usually a daily occurrence) since every McDonalds is supposed to have free WiFi, but I don’t intend to have prolonged service available.  I can get email on my cell phone, but I don’t.  So if you need me, be patient.  I’m not needed by people outside my family often, but it could happen.

SR released by ASIM; alphabet laments

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 2 Comments

Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine just released S.R. after their three month hold. They had some good comments and some potentially constructive ones. I’ll read it through, maybe tweak it, and send it back out; I’m thinking to my new friend Ed at IGMS.

My wife just left town for a few days. Not sure if that will lead to more or less writing getting done. The call of “Daddy” suggests less. 😦 We’ll see.

Post Con Report

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

While I have nothing to compare it to, I think ConCarolinas was about the right size and design for my sensibilities.  The writers’ track seemed to be very strong.  Attendance was strong.  And it was fun, right down to the last panel.

I sat in a couple of Jerry Pournelle‘s panels.  He is an opinionated man with a wealth of experience, not all of which he was able to express.  He was honest in a way only older people tend to be, pulling no punches.  For instance, he insisted he couldn’t pass along any advice on how to collaborate, as he has with Niven and others to huge commercial success.  But then he had advice on how to do it.  For instance, you both have to do 90% of the work.  I didn’t get around to getting him to sign anything for me (I only had one obscure book of his), but I valued his advice.

John Ringo, on the other hand, signed a copy of my friend’s book for me.  He assured me it was a collector’s item — a (now signed) hardback Hymn Before Battle, his first novel, I believe.  Sadly, not my book.  But Ringo had plenty of thoughts to share.  I was astonished how much research he could pull off the top of his head.  I missed his presence at the Hard Science Fiction panel (he was hydrating through it), but did hear his opinions on the writing of military sf, probably more his dish. Not an easy guy to converse with, I suspect, but if you can hold his interest, he’s quite brilliant.

Another author I was quite impressed with was Connie Ryan, author of The Forest of Hands and Teeth.  So impressed, I picked up that book today at Wal-Mart.  I was impressed to find it there, despite being a New York Times top ten YA book — our Wal-Mart doesn’t have much of a book selection.  She was kind enough to step in for a panel that was completely canceled, the one on breaking into the writing business.  It was well attended and she didn’t want to disappoint all us wannabes, so she gave a brief history of her career and fielded questions.  She wasn’t even supposed to be on the panel.  She was very personable for someone on the verge of super success: FHT has been optioned for movie rights and is (as I mentioned) on the NYT best seller list.  In all I think I saw four of her panels (including the impromptu one) and was impressed by her each time.

I met other authors.  The ones from Codex will likely even remember me.  J.F. Lewis kept greeting me by name.  I had a good discussion with IGMS editor Ed Schubert about what he wanted to see for his zine and other less on-the-nose stuff.  Nice guys, both.  Allen Wold impressed me tremendously as both moderator and teacher; tons of wisdom, that man has.  Like Yoda with a long beard.

The costuming was amusing but not my thing.  I was never there late enough to see the NC-17 costumes, but I saw a few revealing ones; they all seemed to lack the effort that went into the more authentic costumes.  The Sesame Street alien was pretty funny.  I think that may have been crossing into the real of furries, so I’ll digress.

Having never been to a con, I wasn’t sure what to expect of my fellow attendees.  There were a few that cranked the nerd scale way over to the socially deficient side, but most were just folks like me, enough that I’ve decided I need wilder Hawaiian shirts if I’m going to stand out as “the Hawaiian shirt guy.”  Oh well.

I did wish there was time for more audience involvement in the panels.  They were mostly a table of Guests having a discussion among themselves for our amusement without quite addressing the questions we wanted to hear.  A few attendees were brazen enough to butt into the dialog, but not many.  I did manage to heckle the first panel I saw, but one of the guys made a (alleged) joke and he told the crowd we were allowed to laugh.  I just suggested he should say something funny first.  It was an auspicious beginning; I reigned it in afterward.  🙂

I hope to return next year, preferably as a guest.  *crosses fingers* Next year’s writing GoH is alternative history guru Harry Turtledove.  It doesn’t seem to be in the cards for me to make it to any other cons this summer, just the WotF workshop.  As if that’s not enough networking.

Con Report: ConCarolinas: Days 1 & 2

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

I arrived in time for the first panels and managed to meet J.F. Lewis, a fellow Codexian, right off the bat.  Nice guy; not quite my genre.  We’ve chatted a few times since.  I also met Edmund Schubert, editor of IGMS.  Super nice guy; talked to him for about twenty minutes today.

My first Con experience has been a little less intense than anticipated since I’m splitting time between it and hanging with old friends.  In fact, the hanging with old friends last night led to my missing all the morning panels today.  Head still doesn’t feel quite right…

Anyway, I have seen Klingons and zombies and Storm Troopers and Ghostbusters and furries and pirates and more zombies.  I’ve been to some good, writer-relevant panels.  I went to one panel on surviving the apocalypse (whatever form that might take) that was pretty insane, or rather the panelists were.  Enjoyed panels including Jerry Pournelle and John Ringo.  I’ll update more on the details of the panels later.

I need a good dinner and a good night’s sleep so I’ll be ready for Allen Wold’s two-hour writing workshop tomorrow morning.  And no extra-curriculars tonight.

I’m skipping out on the rest of tonight’s festivities.  I wanted to see the movie premier of Exhibit A7, but it’s been compared to Cloverfield in its execution and my constitution can’t take that right now.  More fun tomorrow.

On my way

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 1 Comment

I’m getting ready to leave for my parents’ place in SC.  Tomorrow it’ll be off to Charlotte and ConCarolinas.  Wheee!  But first, a 4.5 hour car ride with my 3-year-old.  Wheee?

I’ll have my laptop so I won’t be off the grid, but my grid time will likely be limited.  I’ll blog about the Con in small doses, then a big dose when I get back.