Bear Witness

Well, it’s been awhile since I pumped out some fiction.  I’ve been working on a longer novella, hit and miss, for ages, based on my own experiences on Long Island in 2004, and on a longer novel full of fun things.   But I just looked at my “written work” section and discovered that I had a good six fiction publications in 2010, but what have I done for you lately?  Not a darn thing sold since 2010–and that means not a darn fiction thing written, really.  I have sold some nice short pieces to GEEZ, and I’m glad.  But for fiction, it’s been awhile.

So, I’m thrilled that I got a story done for the Tesseracts 17 deadline (tonight at midnight).  Sent it off yesterday.  Hope they like it.  But I’m chomping at the bit to get more done.  So, I’ll see if I can’t pull off another story or two in March.  I have a lot of started stories that lost their way….or which got derailed by work or life or both.

I tell you it was GREAT to get back into writing fiction.  I wanted to write stories with werewolves, time travelers, Kings, ghosts–things you just don’t get to see everyday.  And I’ve been reading Graham Greene’s The Quiet American.  If Graham Greene wrote about magical creatures…. anyway, glad I’m back into the swing of things, and hope I can keep this up.

Proud that other Yukoners, including my two minions, Santana and Zeb, also found the deadline for Tess 17 to be an adequate kick-your-butt deadline for writing.  YAY.  Now, let’s see if I can do it without a deadline.

I also purchased an e-book for .99.  I have to say it was great reading.  Good ideas, and helped push me along.  It’s called 2k to 10K: Writing Faster, Writing Better and Writing More of What You Love, by Rachel Aaron.   One idea of hers, to sketch out a scene before you write it saved me a lot of time.  And made the scene crystallize more.  I’ve always been a huge note-taker–but her ideas were about making those notes more efficient and more usable for the final writing.  Working out scene problems ahead of time–before you sit down–saves time when you sit down.

Anyway, nothing but praise for that book, for Tesseracts 17, and for writing again.  Good to be back in the saddle.