Category: Status Update

So It Goes

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 1 Comment

So It Goes.  It’s what Vonnegut said about death in Slaughterhouse Five.  I’m not writing about a death — I hope — but it was at least a long coma.

If you peek at the date of my last post, you’ll see it was a little over a year ago.  Yes, a year.  I wish I could say that I’ve been too busy writing to blog.  Not so.  I’ve been busy being busy.  Life gets in the way…can’t find time to write…writer’s block…the same old tired excuses.  Bottom line, I really haven’t been a writer for the past couple years.  So it goes.

But the writer in me isn’t dead.  He’s been in hibernation, sulking in the back corner of my psyche waiting for me to stop sulking in the front corner of my psyche.  It’s been a rough couple years for me, no doubt.  It’s been tough to focus on anything at all, let along writing.  So it goes.

I find myself at the precipice of a lot of change.  I have a new job in a new city which means a new house which means unloading the old house (hey, wanna buy a house?) and uprooting my child which means altering the custody schedule. Good thing I have all this time during summer break to get things taken care of.  Right, time.  Why doesn’t there seem to be any? So it goes.

As every writer knows, time isn’t something you find, it’s something you make.  I was horrified when I realized that I hadn’t made any time for anything writing related short of conventions (another topic for another post).  So today I changed that.  I started small, with a few little flash fiction submissions (one reprint and two unpublished gems I had lying around).  I had to really scratch my head just to recall how to write a cover letter.  Three little stories in the wind for a few weeks/months.  And suddenly the ekg attached to this comatose writer made a little blip.  So it goes.  Or so it comes?

Yes, I need to return to actually writing to really resurrect myself as a writer.  That’s coming.  Directly.  But much like a coma patient with atrophied musculature, I can’t just leap out of bed and start typing a marathon.  I have to make sure I remember how to walk, then jog, then maybe some running.  Even just sitting up on the bed feels good. Time to see what the floor feels like under my feet.

Let’s see how this goes.

NaNo – Day 30 part 2 – and the winner is…

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

ME!NaNoWinner

Congratulations to me and thousands of others who successfully wrote 50,000 words this month.  My prize?  A lovely computer generated certificate and an icon for my website.

I am very happy and very proud of this accomplishment, but I wonder if there is a better word than “winner”.  Do people who finish a marathon call themselves “winner”?  Maybe “finisher” or “victor”.  (Victor means the same as winner but sounds different on the ear and requires clarification whereas “winner” sounds like you beat out other people to get a prize.)  Really, “I won NaNoWriMo” sounds almost identical to “I won Writers of the Future.”  Yes, I have wone both now, but one was a attle against myself and the other was a battle against hundreds (possibly thousands) of other writers.  Both are worthy accomplishments, but one definitely paid better.  Though a workable novel is priceless in itself and could end up worth a lot more money.

Anyway, I finished around 9:00 on the last day of November.  There were only 3 days this month during which I did not write, so I figure I could have finished 3 days earlier if I hadn’t been puking the day after Thanksgiving and just ill equipped to write that one weekend.  Looking at my stats, I’m surprised to see that Mondays were pretty good days for writing.  Mid-week was worse, surely due to work-related distractions.

I am glad I did this.  It shows me that  can write every day, even amid distraction.  I can outline.  I can follow an outline.  I can decide parts of the outline suck but keep writing anyway.  I can turn off the editor long enough to get some work done.  It’s been a long time since I wrote this much on a single project.  On the one novel I did complete, this amount of writing took about 4-6 months.

I need to keep powering through this novel, but there is a project I’d like to turn to briefly, my ever-festering steampunk fairy tale project.  It is so close to being done and really close to being great.  I think it’s time to attack it for a few days before I hit The Realm Crystal again.  I need to finish the draft and I REALLY need to edit.  For instance, I want to turn one of my bad guys into an obnoxious good guy (you know, the one that gets killed in the zombie movies and everyone cheers) who slowly gives in to his nefarious impulses, then gets devoured by the true bad guy.  (It was written as fairly bad guy gets too big for his britches and gets devoured by true bad guy…not quite special enough.)  That’s the biggest change, but there will be many.  But first, get to the last page — still a long trek from where I am.

I hope everyone else found NaNo as rewarding as I did this year.  Keep writing and keep dropping by.

The Good, the Bad, and the Update

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

Stuff going on all over the place here in Chaos land.  Some are good, some are bad, some are just continuations of stuff I’ve mentioned before.  I will refrain from classifying in order to protect the innocent and the guilty.

First, summer ends and school starts tomorrow.  Well, inservice anyway.  I got about 10% of the writing I wanted done over the summer, so I’ll go ahead and classify that part as bad.  I can say I’m eager to see this particular summer end, so I guess that hits good.  So maybe it’s a wash.  Either way, I’m up early and back at it tomorrow.

In other news, I’m starting to get adjusted to my bi-pap machine.  I’ve mentioned it before; it keeps pressure on my airway to combat apnea and snoring.  The foundation of the house appreciates the snore reduction.  It’s still an odd sensation and I occasionally feel like the thing is suffocating me, but less and less.  I’ve started spending time reading before bed with the mask on to get used to it before trying to sleep in it.  I will be bringing the machine with me to cons in the future which should make roommates a more realistic possibility.

Speaking of reading, I’ve started reading Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy which I picked up at LibertyCon.  It’s interesting.  So far, it’s pretty much a caper story set in a fantasy world.  A lot of the powers in the story remind me of the movie Push (Chris Evans, Dakota Fanning), which was a better film than its box office suggests.  The two don’t seem to be related, though.  Anyway, I’m really enjoying the first book.  I’m tempted to bring it to the inservice tomorrow, but no.  I’m too straight-laced to do that, alas.

What else?  The same middle scene of my steampunk fairytale continues to defy me.  I think I need to completely reimagine the scene.  That may well mean rereading the story up to that point.  I bet there’s a flaw before that scene that can be tweaked to lend to the proper flow.  I wanted to have a funcional draft before I went back to school.  I don’t.  Oh well.

And finally, I am toying with the idea of creating a podcast.  I’m not 100% what format I’m after.  I think I’ll do a reading as a dry run with the tech available to me to see how practical this idea is.  If it sounds like garbage, I’ll have to abandon the idea until I can afford decent equipment.  This is likely a reaction to listening to a lot of Writing Excuses of late.  I’m probably leaning toward an informal interview style, mostly via skype.  Anyway, it’s still an idea at stage two out of fifty, but I think it would be fun.

So, That’s the updates on me.  And I made it all the way through without telling you to go to Smashwords or the Kindle Store to buy Baker’s Dozen.  Okay, almost all the way through.  If you have a Smashwords coupon, it expires on the 22nd, so go get it.  And I am looking for reviewers still.  If you’ve ever reviewed stuff before and/or have significant web traffic, send me an email so we can work out a free ebook arrangement.

Until next time, stay chaotic.  (Trying out a new catchphrase.  Maybe?)

Baker’s Dozen is now available!

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Not all things in the world flow as smoothly as one might hope, and the road to this e-publication had a couple potholes, but nothing too damaging.  And now Baker’s Dozen is available through Smashwords!  As in right now, this minute.  Why are you still reading?  Go get it!  It’s only $2.99, for goodness sake!

Oh, what about Amazon, you ask?  It’s still a go there, too.  I’m waiting for the file to get through some approval hoops before it’s available.  It that’s where you want to get it, you might try looking around noon (central time) on Friday.  (If it’s already after noon on Friday, there should be a newer post on my blog with an update.)

 

Vastly Improved Cover

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

A lot of people saw the old cover image here on my blog or on facebook.  It said what it needed to and had a touch of flair in the title font, but that’s pretty much all it had going for it.  Now, with the help of my amazingly talented photographer/wife, I have a new cover.  A simple enough image, but a lot more eye-catching.  And only two days until you can get your own on Kindle!

How do I miss these things?

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

I guess I hadn’t sufficiently Googled myself in a while, but a search of “leech run” baker turned up some interesting things. This one is an analysis of the theme of “Leech Run” as it relates to identity. Profound? Not really, but it was never designed to be a profound story. Then there’s this Science Futures article inspired by “Leech Run” and published through Escape Pod. Neither of these are new; I need to Google myself more often.

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.

Chugga-chugga-chugga-chugga….

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

Time to pack for ChattaCon.  What do I need?  Hawaiian shirts?  It’s out of season, but it’s my thing.  Plus I got a new one for Christmas, so yup, the Don Ho collection comes with.  What else?  Laptop, as always, but I doubt I’ll have much time to write.  Forecast suggests a raincoat might be worth the trouble.  Doesn’t look like I own any books to get signed by guests…so just the Kindle for reading (plus whatever I buy there). Oh, and my business cards.  Other than that, no special equipment required.  I don’t costume or game and I have nothing to sell.  Just a weekend being a SF fan and writer.  Yippee.

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?

Newcomer to my Free Fic

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

I put a new story up in the Free Fiction section of this blog.  Not new per se, but not one that’s ever been offered for free.  “Brother Goo” was originally printed in Beyond Centauri from my good pals at Sam’s Dot Publishing.  It’s a kids magazine (something like 8 to 18) so this won’t be a dark, gritty story.  Middle Grade fiction is probably what it should be classified as.

And don’t forget to follow links to my stories in free online archives.  “ZFL“, “The Drake’s Eye“, and “How Quickly We Forget” are all available through Every Day Fiction.  “Leech Run” can be read or listened to at Escape Pod.  All these links are in my bibliography, but I recreated them here, too.  Links to places to buy books/magazines containing my stories can also be found on my bibliography.  A couple of those are available as ebooks, too.

Read, enjoy.

Only a Day Away

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

The weather is reflecting my psyche.  Orangish-brown clouds rolling in against the wind; the air is dark but the sky is bright.  Something ominous is coming.  Oh no, it’s…another school year!

By this point in the summer, I’m usually eager to go back.  This year is no exception.  I’m probably more ready this year than ever.  But there is always a dark side to it.  Waking up before dawn, the stress of a hundred simultaneous demands, papers to grade, students to train teach.  The ominous beauty outside is a lovely metaphor for what I am feeling.  It’s easy to see why writers lean on this device as heavily as they do.

My writing production has been about zero the last week or two, so going back to school may pump it back up for once.  I have a few stories that need submitting that will go out during my first inservice tomorrow (gotta do something).  And ideas always bubble up around this time, too.  So it’s time to saddle both horses — school and writing — and start riding for the horizon.  (Yeah, saw Cowboys & Aliens tonight.)  Hopefully I won’t get any saddle sores.

Hi-ho Laptop, and away!