So…whatcha doing tonight?

Today has been a relentlessly hard day.  Actually, the last three weeks have been, and I screamed and cried and beat my heels against the ground a little bit.  But tonight I have a date!  A word warring date!  I’m meeting my friend this evening in the #nanowrimo chat room (the official NaNoWriMo chat) around 9:00 Pacific, and we’re going to write for two hours.  I know this is a bit late for some of you, and right in the middle of the day for some others, but you’re all invited to war with us!  We’ll just set aside this block of time to have the chat room up (yay, friends!) and cheer each other along (yay, cheerleaders!) and write.  I don’t go by Mercedes in there, but ask around and I’ll pop up.  It’ll be fun!  And if you like it, we can do it more often.

Don’t forget to bring me flowers.  I like flowers.

Also, my poem “one day” was accepted for the “Follow the Butterflies” issue of Emerald Tales Magazine.  I know a few of us are sharing a TOC, so rock on!  I’m in the August 15th one.

I hope to see some of you tonight. 

Come Listen To My Sordid Little Tale

A tale of an unlikely friendship, a friendship that puts everybody’s reputation at stake…

Or something.  Finally I have the “all clear” to announce this: I’m a member of the Shock Totem staff.  Rock on! 

I submitted a story back to them in September, and they accepted it in October.  After the acceptance, I began hanging out on the ST forum, pretty much my first forum ever,  and we hit it off.  They are a really stellar group, I have to tell you that.  So a while later, they ask if maybe I’d consider being their nonfiction writer, and, well, yeah.  So starting in Issue 2, I’ll have a nonfic piece in there talking about real life horrors.  The first piece is already written. 

So why is this sordid?  My primary concern was that they’d pull my short story out of their first issue now that I was staff.  I worked my butt off to get that story in there!  They have a 1.4% acceptance rate,  and let’s face it: it’s hard to get published in a well-done, professional pay magazine, especially when you’re a nobody like I am.  I didn’t want to lose it.  (And it counts for HWA!  Booya, baby!  That’s two pieces in two days!) But on the other hand, we didn’t want anybody to think that they were running my story because I was staff.  They wrote a news release on the blog telling how I came aboard.  I’m all happy because I’m a “murderous vixen.”  Sweet talkers.

The first issue goes on sale today, and you can check it out here.  Buy one! 

Anyway, submissions open up on August 1st, so send us something awesome!   I’m going to help with the slush reading, but I’m going to read everything blind in order to be as fair as possible. Unless you’re Matt Betts.  Then I’ll reject it straight out.  :P  Just kidding.  It feels good to say, “Yeah, I’m working for this magazine,” and not have to be all, “Uh, Shock Totem?  I’m, er, impartial.” 

Also, the shovel thing is absolutely true.  I’m guilty, I’ll admit it.  What isn’t true?  I’d never ride a moped.  Mopeds are for sissies.  I’m a motorcycle girl all the way, yo.

My First WIP Wednesday. And I score!

There’s a reason that I never did WIP Wednesdays: I have about a zillion works in progress, and I don’t want to face up to that fact.  But you know what?  Huzzah for accountability!  I love to read how other people’s WIPs are going because it’s inspiring.  So buck up, me.

The Demon Novel: 16,633 words.  I hope to finish it at 50k by August 1. 

Big Ben- 3,000 words.  I’m about halfway finished.  This was the piece that felt magic, but I lost that.  Can it be recaptured?  This will not help me with the HWA contest.

Irises- 1,500 words.  It’s perhaps 1/3 of the way through.  Delicately pretty.  Also no HWA help.  But they’re longer pieces!  So at least one goal is being achieved.

The Witch of Sunnyburg, Mim, Violet, Charms, and The Amazing Adventures of the Blood-Spattered Man are all started (barely) and would be the type of stories to count towards the HWA.  Along with a handful of others.  You see that I’m fairly schizophrenic when it comes to my work.  It kills me to settle down on just one.  My first priority, though, is the demon novel.  Rock on, woo!  I’ve never abandoned a novel midway through, and I’m not starting now.

My poem “the stranger with blue eyes” went up at Fear and Trembling today.  And you know what?  This DOES count toward HWA!  Hahahahaha!  Go Team Mercedes!  You can read it here.  This poem is based on an experience that I had at a Seattle bank.  I also used this as the jumping off point for RunStarGirl.

Tomorrow I have a dirty little secret to confess.  I’ve been dying to share, but that privelage was denied.  Until now.

NaNoWriMo and JulNoWriMo

Does this sound like gibberish to you?  So most of us are familiar with NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and a lot of us even participate in it.  But there’s an unofficial JulNoWriMo, as well, where we write a 50,000 word novel in the month of July.  And I think I’m going to dive in.

I need the deadline.  I need the push.  The demon story is kick-kick-kicking the back of my head in, and I think a flurried rush of writing would be an excellent way to exorcise it.  So I’m coming in a week late, but I already have 10,000 words written on the story, so there we go.  My struggle right now is to carve out time to write, and this will force me to prioritize or else I shall die a slow, painful, Palin-like death.  And I don’t want to die.

My story “Lady Luck” is out in Bards and Sages Quarterly.  Rock!

Good Morning, Sunshine…Rawwwr

So my son started four weeks of summer school today. 

Me:  Yay, yay!  I’ll put him on the bus at 6:45 am and then I can write until 11:00!  My daughter will just play quietly at my feet!

Yeah, right.  For one thing, I am not a rise and shine type o’ girl.  I’m more rise and snarl.  I write hate mail to the sun.  I pounce unwary passers by and rips their throats open with my teeth.  Morning writing doesn’t mesh well with my personality.

And my daughter decided that with Niko gone, she is the only child.  Mommy exists solely to entertain her, braid her hair, and give her high heels to walk in.  We spent the morning playing in the hibiscus.  I was growly.

So writing:  not a word.  Other pressing orders of business:  accomplished, with a lot of dancing and jump roping in between.  I’m thinking that I may need to reevaluate my “Golly gee, I can write in the morning!” plan.  Or just blow it up with dynamite altogether.  Mmm, dynamite.  Dynamite and mornings go together juuuuuust fine.

Google history: heir apparent, samhein publishing, esy las vegas, grimoire, acidity in coke, southwest superstitions, wrapping sea glass, wire working, death by asphyxiation

Fireworks in Vegas!

photo credit - www.vegastripping.com

I love fireworks.  I’m positively mad about them.  The thing that really made chemistry click for me was when we learned how to make the different colors in fireworks.  I was in heaven. 

Every year I used to go out into the desert with my friends to watch the fireworks, or climb on the roof of my house.  This year I’m watching them out of our window, and it’s pretty spectacular.  Vegas does put on a good show.

I was driving around town yesterday when I came up with a pivotal scene for my demon story.  I thought that thing was on the back burner, but it came waltzing into the forefront of my mind.  Perhaps the best thing about this HWA contest, besides the good-natured trash talk, is that suddenly I’m writing again.  Sure, it isn’t anything that would actually help me in this contest, but that doesn’t really matter.

Happy 4th, everybody.

Give Me A Happy Ending

So after a brief conversation about The Pirate Movie (Oh my gosh!  Other people have not only heard of it, but have actually watched the thing!) I’ve been happily obsessed.  And I’m also very busy today, so I’ll leave you with the closing musical number of the cheesy 80’s goodness that is The Pirate Movie. 

Now I want to slide down banisters wearing a purple and white cape.

 

Must. Write. Longer. Pieces.

Okay, flash is fun.  It’s succinct and charming, but MAN, it is not going to get me into the HWA!  Luckily the last two pieces that I’ve been working on are longer, although they won’t get me into the HWA, either.  They’re both sad realistic pieces, and I have no idea where that is coming from. Normally I have a thing against reality.

I received a rejection that crippled me!  All right, so it didn’t, but it knocked me right out of the running for one of my other contests.  The one that I was two rounds ahead in?  Not anymore.  I kicked and stewed and generally felt sorry for myself until I received a delightfully irate email from my competitor saying that he’d been axed as well.  ALL RIGHT!  That piece also wouldn’t have gotten me into the HWA.  I have to work very hard for this membership, that’s for sure. No skating on this one.  My pieces are all over the place (fantasy, horror-ish, essays) and now these almost literary realism stories.  Cripes, this might take me a while!  But it feels good to write.  I’ve been too scattered lately, so this totally rocks.

Speaking of horror, you guys should totally hop on over to visit the Shock Totem forums!  I’m on there all of the time, no joke!  I’ve never really been into forums before, but there’s a really nice group over there, so I stuck around.  They’re a professional pay magazine, their debut magazine should be out next week or so, and I have a piece in there called “Murder for Beginners”, which I’m really proud of.  And it should actually count toward HWA!  Woo!  Anyway, support these guys, if you so desire, because they’re good peeps.  I threatened to hit them on the head with a shovel, and they still accepted my story.

Also, my ultra-short “Evanescent” went up at 50 to 1 yesterday.  You can see that here.  This…also won’t get me into the HWA. 

Blood in the Water!

 

So I was having a rather bad day when I zipped on over to Matt Bett’s blog and I read his “Arg, you die now!” post. And it cheered me right the heck up. Yay! Trash talk! Threats of slaughter! An unnamed prize! I smell blood in the water.  I like challenges.  A lot. 

The first thing that I did was rip off his Challenge Banner, because it rocks.  I don’t know how to make stuff like that.  Then I strutted around at home, being all, “Yeah!” and “Woo!” and “It’s on!”  Then I decided that I’d better let the rest of you know.  “Yeah, woo, it’s on!”  Now you’re all caught up.

This challenge was going to begin on Monday, but Nice Guy Matt was gracious enough to give me a few days to pull myself together after my daughter’s scare.  That was greatly appreciated.  Note that nice guys finish last. 

I’m excited to do this, because it will be fun and motivating.  Thanks to Matt for not batting an eye when a stranger sashayed over to his blog and challenged him then and there.  Thems the breaks, kid!  And technically he opened that particular can of worms by replying to my HWA and SFWA post here at abrokenlaptop. He was asking for it, is how I see it.  Yeah.  I’d say more trash talky things, but my daughter is brushing my hair, and it’s difficult to be a tough beast when you’re also doubling as Barbie. 

This is it, Matt.  You’re on.

Now! Lies!

Whew!  I have to say that I’m feeling much better today.  I watched Nina like a…I was going to say “rabid hawk”, but I really don’t think that I’ve heard of a rabid bird.  Anyway, she didn’t have another seizure, and the doctors say that everything looks fine, so I’m hoping against hope that it’s a one time thing.  I’m choosing to be the optimist here.  I also haven’t written anything since before Girls Camp, and I’m feeling it.  I’d love to work on something today if life allows.  That’s why I post on my blog so often: it’s my bare minimum of writing.  I need it.

Now!  Lies!

“Sometimes you can learn more about a person by what they don’t tell you. Sometimes you can learn a lot from the things they just make up. If you are tagged with this Meme, lie to me. Then tag 7 other folks (one for each deadly sin) and hope they can lie.”

Carrie Harris tagged me a couple of days ago. Why? I dunno, but I’m excited, because I like lying a lot. But I’m also painfully honest and never get to lie, so this just rocks.

Pride: What is your biggest contribution to the world?

Myself. Forget helping other people along; there’s just me. Anytime you want to come over and bask in my presence, there’s a $49.95 ticket price.

Envy: What do your coworkers wish they had which is yours?

They’re all wild about my voodoo doll from New Orleans. It was the homeliest thing that I could find, and now it has a happy home sitting on my desk and giving everybody the evil eye. Coworkers wish that they had the thing and his hateful expression in their possession. Jealously is an ugly thing, I tell you.

Gluttony: What did you eat last night?

I’m tired of the next-door Meat Cleaver Kids and their ceaseless antics. Just sayin’.

Lust: What really lights your fire?

I’m totally into the hairy, sweaty men who greet me with grunts and crude hip gyrations. I dig it. If it weren’t for their drunken “Hey baby” salutations, my heart would never pitter-patter.

Anger: What is the last thing that really pissed you off?

Didn’t I already tell you about The Meat Cleaver Kids?! You making me repeat myself?

Greed: Name something you keep from others.

My true intentions shall never be known. If I show up on your doorstep, we’ll spend the first 30 seconds smiling uncomfortably. Then the smiles will fade, and we’ll stare at each other without speaking for a good two minutes. Your mind will be racing. Does she have something to tell me? Did I borrow something and forget to give it back? Is she (oh my gosh) stalking me and I haven’t realized it until now??  I’ll also be holding a basket of freshly baked muffins, but I’ll make no move to hand them to you and you’ll feel rude if you reach out to take them.  So it’ll be just you, me, and the muffins.  For hours.

Sloth: What’s the laziest thing you’ve ever done?

How about making you read this blog post because I’m too lazy to read it myself?  Bwa ha.

UPDATE-  Oh yeah, I forgot to tag.  Talk about slothful!  I tag Gabriel Beyers, Jeremy D. Brooks, Shad Boots, Ray Veen, Barry Napier, and um, anybody that stumbled upon this site looking for “heels” or the all famous “asymmetrical bob”. Because it’s summer time, ladies, and we’re all about having cool-yet-stylish hair, woo!