Posts Tagged The Face of the Serpent
The Week That Is
Posted by DLThurston in Contests, Rust on May 11, 2011
Just some updates. First, got a rejection from Mammoth Book on Vampires of Mars. Cry cry, depressed, move on. The story is already back out the door and winging its way towards Writers of the Future. This is a story I really believe in, so I’m going to keep it in heavy circulation with its next several stops already well planned out. This is actually going to be a good week for me submission-wise as I send two stories out the door. Other one is for an anthology with a July 1 deadline, but the story is ready and I don’t want it hanging over my head. Especially since there’s another July 1 anthology I’m going out for that I’ve only got a few hundred words written towards. Eep.
Continuing to be told July on the publication of Steam Works, so I’m still hoping that anthology actually does happen.
The bigger news is about Rust. Several months ago I put Rust out for the Kindle and on Smashwords, largely to explore the process and see how it works for a series of posts over on Unleaded. I left it out there because, what the hell, why not? Well, I recently got my first review on Amazon. Two stars. Ouch. And that started the wheels in motion for eventually pulling it back offline. This isn’t a petulant “someone didn’t like my book so I’m taking my ball and going home” move, but rather one that I’ve always sort of planned. The review drove home that Rust isn’t necessarily the best public face for myself. It was a Nanowrimo project with a plot that’s disjointed at times, a bizarre conclusion, and probably less editing than I would have really liked to do. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t throw out a completely unedited Nano project, I gave it several passes. But in part that’s the problem: I gave it several passes. And I’m really not the world’s best editor.
So Rust will probably come down before the publication of Steam Works. It won’t be today, but it’ll probably be in the next month or so, and likely without notice. Anyone who still wants a copy is still free to grab one, just remember to keep your expectations low. I know, that’s the hard sell right there, isn’t it?
I’m likely talking to some new readers. At least I hope I am. I’ve been participating in 5 Minute Fiction the last two weeks (if you’re reading this on the morning it was posted, it’s not too late to vote for my story to help me move from a distant last to merely a distant 4th place) and have seen the readership of my blog spike both Tuesdays and stay higher-than-usual in between. It’s been a hell of a lot of fun doing these pieces the last two weeks, and plan to keep going and evangelize it to other writers as I can. It’s all the fun of Nanowrimo with just 1/10800th the time commitment!
Finally, I’ve been talked into Balticon, though will likely only be attending one day of the event. It’s going to be my first attempt at attending a con semi-professionally. Yes, I’m going to actually meet people and not shyly wander around and not ask questions in panels. Fortunately I’ll be guided by much more extroverted friends towards the right people to meet and talk to.
So there’s the week that is for me. It’s Wednesday, which means I’ll also be posting over on Unleaded today, just as soon as I figure out what I’m going to talk about. No. Seriously. I haven’t a clue right now.
State of the Writer: May 2011
Posted by DLThurston in Conqueror Worm, Home Brew, Script Writing, State of the Writer on May 2, 2011
Hey, look at that. It’s a new month, so it’s another chance for me to unbutton a shirt button to allow for optimal naval gazing. April was an oddly productive month for me, which is largely to say that I was productive in odd directions. The primary project of the month has been working on updates for my Lucha Libre story, something that’s turned into a pure joy to write and work on in a way few other stories have. Almost a shame it’s so short, but there’s really nothing else I can do with it. Going into May, that story is still going to get much of my focus because even though it’s not due until July 1, I’ve got a personal deadline of May 12 set.
In other projects, Future Lovecraft has just opened up, and yes, that’s the story I was talking about in my previous post. I have a concept that I like, I just can’t quite crack the blank page to really get a start that I like. Perhaps because I’ve got a few other stories running around my brain that are insisting on being told one-by-one. These are the Steam Worlds. These are the stories that came from my curiosity with the way that the Victorians imagined the earth and the cosmos working. One already existed, then four more titles came about in the course of about an hour. By the end, these stories will head to Mars, Venus, Phaeton, the Moon, and even inner Earth. Right now they exist in the following formats:
- Mars: Submitted to an anthology, still waiting to hear back (anxious, anxious)
- Venus: Plot noodled. I’m loving the plot I’m coming up with, which will include elements of Chernobyl, UrbEx, and 1940s air pollution disasters. And robots.
- Phaeton: Title with a vague X meets Y notion. Least developed of the five.
- The Moon: Change of title, change of focus, and suddenly there’s a story to be told here.
- Inner Earth: This one depresses me a little. Possibly the most ambitious theme and concept of the set.
I don’t know what will ultimately end up happening to them. Mars, being in current circulation, could really help the others get told and sold. Perhaps one day when several are sold and some rights revert they might merge together and be my first short story collection. For now, I’ll search for homes where I can find them without worrying about continuity between them. They don’t share characters, and don’t really share a timeline, they just exist in similar worlds.
Been reading too much Save the Cat. Has me wanting to write another screenplay. A proper one. Maybe one that I could put up on Amazon Studio. More on that if it actually starts happening. Also been thinking about a certain xenophobe and his Serbian mentor.
State of the writer’s beer: Mustache Cat fermentation has slowed. Bottling could happen this weekend, is more likely to happen next weekend. Might be able to crack a bottle in time for June. Looking at my options for batch two, considering a Ginger/Lemon/Honey Ale offered by Austin Homebrew.
It’s going to be a three Fortnightcap month. First one will be up tomorrow, probably in the form of a new article.