Rockin’

Talented friend Alex has a story up at Every Day Fiction called “With the Band”. Check it out!

Hello, NaNo!

Good gravy, November has been insane. We’ve been on crazy overtime at the day job (I’m sure Alex feels my pain), I’ve been trying to pack, and oh yeah, it’s NaNoWriMo! My word counts have been average. So far I’ve written 8,439 words this month. Not bad, I suppose, though I was hoping to build up a word count surplus this week before things get really crazy this month (because they will, trust me).

“8-Bit Procrastination” made the Top 10 stories of the last 30 days list at Every Day Fiction this week. So that’s exciting.

Also . . .

House of Horror’s Creature Features anthology is for sale. My story “Breaking and Entering” is in there. If you’re into stories with big, scary monsters, check it out, or give it as a gift to a monster-loving friend or relative.

That’s all there is to report for now. Blogging will probably be light this month (or maybe not?) due to NaNo, moving and work craziness. Good luck to all you NaNo-ers out there. May your word counts be bountiful!

Double Proofs!

I received proofs for two different anthologies this week. The first was from House of Horror’s Creature Features anthology, which contians my story “Breaking and Entering.” The second is the Sand: A Journal of Strange Tales Year Two Anthology, which contains “Love = Building on Fire.” To me getting published in an anthology is extra exciting, though I’m not sure why. Maybe because it’s in an actual book. Maybe because often you get an awesome contributor’s copy. Whatever the reason, it’s exciting, so yay!

Comment Craziness!

WordPress put some non-spam comments in my spam folder, and I just now discovered them. So, if you couldn’t find your comment, it should be up now. Crazy WordPress!

Fear of Writing

I usually don’t update this blog as much as I should or as much as I want. I’d like to say, “Well, it’s because I’m so busy churning out brilliant tales of mystery and intrigue!” And that’s partly the case (backdoor brag alert!), but the biggest, fattest reason this blog often goes through long, dry spells is fear. Fear of writing.

Why, oh, why would I be afraid of writing on my own blog, of all places? In the thrilling tax guidance books I work on at my day job, we often break information down into bulleted lists to make groups of related items easier to digest. So, let’s take a look at the reasons, CPA style:

• Fear of sucking.
• Fear that my musings will be pointless or incoherent.
• Fear that I have nothing worthwhile to say.
• Fear that no one’s reading this silly blog anyway.
• Fear of judgement.

The fact that I’m a generally anxiety-addled individual doesn’t help matters. And I think these are fears a lot of writers (and wannabe writers) have. Some of the fears are justified, and some are silly. The first fear, fear of sucking, is understandable, but sucking is an unavoidable hazard of being a writing (or doing anything, really). When you first vomit an idea onto paper (or pixels) it’s going to be rough, but if you never get that rough idea out there, you’ll never have anything to work with. So I need to learn to accept my sucktitude, then revise my sucky musings into something readable. My writing’s never going to be perfect, but an idea on paper is always worth more than an idea that never leaves your head (thus becoming brain crack).

On to the next fear. Of being incoherent. Like suckage, incoherence can be taken care of with a little revision. On to the next item . . .

Fear that I have nothing worthwhile to say. Well, there’s no judge of worthwhile-itude, so I shouldn’t worry about it. What’s worthwhile to some people, doesn’t mean jack to others. And there are so many weird, random people roaming the internet, I’m sure my dribble is worthwhile (or at least entertaining or informative) to someone out there. If there’s an audience for LOLcats, websites with pictures of people who shop at Wal-Mart, and this, there’s probably an audience (however small) for my blog.

Next fear—no one reads this silly blog. Well, I know a few people do, mostly fellow Wrinkers (yay!) so there. That fear is now sufficiently zapped. I’m sure if I update more regularly, more readers will stop by.

And now the final fear . . . the biggest fear . . . fear of judgement. As writers, we face judgement often—every time you submit a story, every time a story is published, every time you post something on your blog—there’s probably going to be someone out there who doesn’t like it, but who cares? There are people who love LOLcats, and people who despise them . . . same goes for Twilight (*cringes*), green vegetables, and Ghostbusters 2 . . . you can’t win them all.

This post has mostly been a pep-talk for myself. Hopefully it has either helped you overcome some of your writing fears as well or satiated your voyeuristic urges. There’s plenty to be afraid of when it comes to writing. The trick is to tell those fears to suck it and write away. Then, revise.

Something to Read

I’ve been bad about linking to friends’ stories lately, so here’s one! Fellow Wrinker Alex has a story up at Big Pulp called “Big In Ak-Sar-Ben.” This story is a blast! I’m glad it finally found a home!

Think before You Write: A Cautionary Tale

One of Mur Lafferty’s rules of writing is “don’t be an ass.” In the context she’s using it in, this basically means, if your story gets rejected or you get a bad review, put on your big girl panties and get over it. Don’t go on inflammatory Twitter tirades, and don’t email the offending editor and tell them what a jerk they are for misunderstanding your genius. But there’s another way writers can keep from making asses of themselves: if you’re one of only two-and-a-half print newspapers in town, don’t insult your struggling local art scene just to use a clever turn of phrase. Even if your city has a zillion papers (not that any do in this day and age of the internets and such), it’s just good practice not hurl insults at your citizens unless, you know, they actually do something awful, like leak Auburn Fantasy Dye Number 260 into a river or tear down historic buildings for parking lots.

The article I’m referencing is old news here in Panther City (that’s local speak for Fort Worth, y’all), and Mr. Fort Worthology has already ripped DFW.com a new one for their lame coverage. Arts Goggle has come and gone, and it was a huge success. If you’d like to see some genuinely sincere coverage of the event, check out this article. However, I think this article can still teach us writers a valuable lesson—that regardless of quality (or accuracy), your writing is powerful, and you shouldn’t abuse that power just to sound clever. Equating “indie” with “unsophisticated” is not only erroneous, it’s a slap in the face to independent artists of all types. And while phrases like, “unsophisticated but enthusiastic” may make you sound like the smarmiest, most pompous art connoisseur this side of the Mississippi, it is, in this article’s case (a) false—I’ve been to the last six Arts Goggles and I know there is some damn good art to be seen—yes, there is art of varying quality, just like any art show, but AG has plenty of art that is both sophisticated and enthusiastic (and quirky and weird and whimsical and awesome) and (b) insulting (see item a). Also, when you’re trying to be the hip, alternative weekly, insulting your (supposed) target audience is not a best practice.

So, grasshoppers, what can we learn from DFW.com’s screw up? I think the biggest lesson here is to think before your write (thinking before you do most things is a pretty good idea). Think about your audience, think about the possible consequences of insulting that audience, and don’t put style before substance (you know, don’t insult people who don’t deserve it just to sound hipper-than-thou).

3-Day Novel Madness!

OMG! I’m on the home stretch of meeting my 3-Day Novel goal for the day of 10,000 words. I’m at 8,300 right now! If you’re interested in watching my progress, I’m tweeting it at: http://twitter.com/StephORama

Good luck to all you other 3-Day Novelers out there! May your word count be copious!

A Thousand Faces #9 – Online Now!

Issue #9 of A Thousand Faces is online! A Thousand Faces is a journal of superhuman fiction. If you’re into superheroes, you should definitely check it out. This issue has my story “One of the Good Guys” as well as many other great stories and non-fiction you should check out!

Reject-O-Rama Continues!

Two rejections in one day! Oh yeah!

Oh, and Zombie Town is at 6,222 words!