What’s Going On, 9/3/10

Tags

Alpha Redemption, Casey Herringshaw, dogs, Fred Warren, Grace Bridges, interviews, Jeff Gerke, Josie, Operation Encourage an Author, P.A. Baines, Residential Aliens, Splashdown Books, The Muse, travel, WhereTheMapEnds

1. Earthquake at Splashdown: No, not the 7.0 temblor that rocked NZ’s southern island, but a new release from Auckland-based Splashdown Books: Paul Baines’ Alpha Redemption, on sale now! If you’ve got a few minutes to spare today, stop by the online release party at http://tinychat.com/splashdown today, September 4, and chat with Paul, publisher Grace Bridges, and the rest of the Splashdown Books team. I’ll be there too. Start time is as follows, adjusted for time zones:
Europe 10 PM
US-Eastern 4 PM
US-Central 3 PM
US-Mountain 2 PM
US-Pacific 1 PM
NZ-8 AM Sunday, Sept 5

Josie

2. Yes, I am a Pushover: Another dog joined the family this week, as I was defenseless against the +3 Puppy Eyes of Doom attack employed by my daughter, my wife, and our new addition, Josie. Yes, this picture violates the Articles of Confrederation, but she’s so darn adorable. Besides, I’m the benevolent dictator around here and can break the rules whenever I want to. Nyaah. The little cutie wasted no time confirming that in Dog Math, 2 + 1 =5.  She’s keeping us very busy.

3. Boeing, Boeing: I’m off to sunny (hot, humid, rainy, and oily) Florida for another work trip next week. At least it will give me plenty of quiet, solitary time to write when I’m off shift, if the family separation blues don’t kill my motivation. I’ve got a novel draft within finishing range, so that’s my focus this time. Unfortunately, the trip prevents my attendance at the American Christian Fiction Writers convention in Indianapolis later this month, where my novel, The Muse, is a finalist for the Carol Award in the speculative fiction category.

4. The Chattering Class: My conversation with Jeff Gerke of Marcher Lord Press is online at WhereTheMapEnds, and I’ll be the featured next week at Casey Herringshaw’s Operation Encourage an Author, starting Sept 6. We’ll be talking about The Muse, my other writing projects, and answering any questions that folks care to ask.

5. Yes, I did write this week: Submitted a short story, and sent a sci-fi anthology review to Residential Aliens, where it will appear soon. Did some work on the aforementioned novel project I’ll be finishing in Florida.

Can I Quote You on That?

Tags

Christian science fiction, E-zines, Fiction, Fred Warren, Jeff Gerke, Magazines and E-zines, Marcher Lord Press, Online Writing, science fiction, Science Fiction and Fantasy, speculative fiction, The Muse, WhereTheMapEnds

Via some strange twist of fate, I’m the featured interview this month at WhereTheMapEnds, a speculative fiction blog run by Jeff Gerke of Marcher Lord Press. We talk about my novel, The Muse, my current writing projects, favorite stories, the future of Christian spec-fic, and much more. Check it out!

Scribbler’s Scoreboard, August ’10

Tags

Carol Award, Clive Staples Award, interviews, Reflection's Edge, Rubes, scribbler's scoreboard, The Muse, WhereTheMapEnds, Writing

Dog days of summer again. Long, hot, and chock-full of real-life busy. Not much action on the writing front–worked a little on a couple of stories in progress, did an interview, and got a rejection. Waiting for results on the Clive Staples Award (last day to vote!) and the Carol Award nominations for my novel The Muse, winners to be announced in September. One story published: “Rubes” in Reflection’s Edge.

Next month is a long work trip and a full-court press to finish one of my pending novel projects (donning Rally Cap), so probably not much short story activity in September. Maybe a couple of re-subs, and I might finish those two stories in progress if I get a bolt of inspiration.

The August Scoreboard:

1 August – “Rubes” published in Reflection’s Edge

12 August – 27-day rejection from Every Day Fiction for “Old Wheezy”

31 August – Interview at WhereTheMapEnds

Still waiting on responses from Bull Spec for “Promises” and Beyond Centauri for “The Flying House”

What’s Going On, 8/21/10

Tags

Family, Jeff Gerke, Jerusalem Cafe, Lyn Perry, Magdalena Abakanowicz, Nelson-Atkins Museum, Residential Aliens, school, WhereTheMapEnds, Writing

And I say hey, yea, yea, yea…

Haven’t seen that for a while. Best hat on a rock singer since Tom Petty in  “Don’t Come Around Here No More.”

Another lousy week for blogging, which is bad for my traffic numbers, bad for my morale, bad for my writing–pretty much bad all around. So, I’ve come up with a fiendishly simple way to generate a post when my wit isn’t sparkling, I’m between book reviews, my stories are getting rejected, and I’m sitting in front of the screen with my mouth hanging open, drooling.

I’ll just talk about what happened this week.

1. School started up again: My lovely wife teaches kindergarten, probably the most equipment-intensive grade level, so she’s spent most of the last month getting all her pieces and parts together, a process which includes me lifting heavy objects, reaching things on high shelves, and helping her with a variety of laborious, repetitive tasks involving lots of cutting and gluing. This week, she’s been snowed under with staff meetings and before-school orientation sessions for parents and kids, so we’ve been passing each other on the way to work and collapsing into bed late each night. Stress, dehydration, sleep deprivation, and irregular meals–not exactly a recipe for peak performance, but we’re getting through it.

2. School started up again, part deux: My darling daughter is a high school junior this year, and she has the usual insane extracurricular schedule to go along with her insane pre-engineering academic schedule. Between band, cross-country, and church youth group, we’re running around town for something every day of the week. Oh, and everybody is doing fundraisers right now. Anybody want a Greater Kansas City Metro coupon book? Anybody?

3. I love my job, mostly: This week, I wrapped up the exercise planning project that has defined my work life for the last six months. There’s still a little tweaking to do, but the hard part is over. Now I’ve got a couple of weeks to prepare for a looong work trip to the oily part of Florida.

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

Roman Sarcophagus

4. Family Time: You’d think my parents would have given up in despair after having me, but to their credit, they persevered, and I have a slightly-younger brother. He works as a National Guard recruiter in the wilds of west Kansas, and I don’t get to see him often enough. He stopped over a couple of days this week enroute to the KC airport, and we had a nice visit, including a trip into town to visit the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, a rather impressive collection of paintings, sculptures, and artistic artifacts from Ancient Egypt to modern times. We had lunch in Westport at the Jerusalem Cafe, a great place to catch a Mediterranean-style snack. The falafel pita was very tasty.

Standing Figures, by Magdalena Abakanowicz

5. Writing-type stuff: My inspiration tank was low this week, and my writer’s block is perched on my desk like that stack of bills in the Geico commercials, laughing at me. I’m also mired in a backlog of book reviews. As C.S. Lewis wrote, the reward for doing something well is to be given another, harder, better thing to do. People seem to enjoy my reviews, so they’re starting to push reviews my direction. It’s good exercise, but I have to read the (often large) book first, then come up with some witty things to say about it. It takes time. I’m also doing some slush reading now at Lyn Perry’s fine ‘zine, Residential Aliens (check it out–better jet, subscribe to the print version, which features some great spec-fic art and other cool extras). That isn’t as time-intensive, but it requires diligence–I’m supposed to reduce Lyn’s workload, not increase it.

6. Other oddments: I’m interviewed next month at Jeff Gerke’s WhereTheMapEnds, a Christian spec-fic writing blog and forum associated with Marcher Lord Press. Another interview, previously published in the anthology Out of the Darkness and Into the Light, will be republished soon under the title, Walking a Thin Line: Writing Fiction From a Christian Point of View.