“Naked Confusion” is up at The Cynic.

In other news, I received a rejection this morning stating my story was “cute and quirky and fit the genre but just didn’t make the cut.” Ha! The story of my life! It’s only the story’s second rejection, though. There are still plenty of places I can foist it upon.

And, as of yesterday, my internet at home is down again, for the second time in the last month. The modem’s acting the same way it was when my cable got disconnected. I’m almost tempted to cancel. I got a lot of writing done last night without it.

Finding the right market for a story can be tough sometimes (yeah, duh). Right now I’m trying to find a home for a piece that doesn’t seem speculative enough for spec markets, but I’m not sure if it’s “normal” enough for mainstream/literary markets (I’m talking about my cupcake story for those of who who’ve critted it). On top of that, it could probably be classified as romance, but none of the romance markets I looked at seemed remotely appropriate. So the story’s sitting here on my hard drive, all dressed up with nowhere to go. Perhaps I should just shoot it off to the least inappropriate market on my list and see what happens.

Anyone else out there have a story that you can’t seem to find a market for?

I’ve had a hard time sitting down and concentrating on any one writing project this week. I don’t know if it’s because I have a very blah week at work or if I was just distracted by general things, but I felt very scattered this week. I forced myself to sit down a few times this week at various coffee shops and write. I did finish revising a few stories, and I even submitted one (I’m still trying to find an appropriate market for the other). Then, today I worked on my NaNo zombie novel that I haven’t touched in months. Weird. I’ve also been working my way through Max Brooks’ World War Z (thanks, James!) and listening to lots of short fiction podcasts (mostly The Drabble Cast. It’s perfect if you have a short attention span like I do).

I think my main problem this week was that I didn’t have any major stories-in-progress to pick at, just lots of revision work. Hopefully I’ll be more focused this week. Maybe I’ll even make some decent headway on zombie novel (*crosses fingers*).

Oh, and Wednesday I have a flash piece appearing in The Cynic. I’ll post a link when it’s up. In the meantime, you should check out Erin Kinch’s “Alpha” over at Electric Spec!

The third episode of Picket Fences has a Tom Lehrer song (”New Math” to be exact). I suddenly have all kinds of respect for this show, though they do lose a few points because the guy singing it was acting unnecessarily goofy. I just hope Mr. Lehrer was paid royalties.

My two-month rejection streak has finally been broken! “Naked Confusion” will appear in The Cynic Online Magazine later this month. I’ll post a link when it’s up.

Got a new-to-me MacBook this weekend. My iBook, trusty as it is, is getting a bit old and slow, and the opportunity to purchase a gently used MacBook came up so I jumped on it. I went from having a 30 GB hard drive to 120 GB. OMG! What on earth will I do with all that real estate? Now that I can actually use Garage Band without it crashing five minutes it, maybe I can put some songs together? Or once I get Photoshop, I can start scanning pictures and designing buttons for my long neglected Etsy shop. To think just four years ago I was using an iBook with a 10 gig hard drive. Scary times . . .

I have several works-in-progress right now, many are close to being submittable, others still need a good deal of work. The SED contest definitely beefed up my backlog of potential stories. The trick is taking these rough drafts and half-baked ideas and making them into marketable stories. Isn’t that always the hard part . . .

Speaking of half-baked ideas, I’ve finally got a sci-fi story I’ve been chipping away at since February to the point where I don’t feel too ashamed to submit it. I’ll just tell you it about a guy who inherits his uncle’s ranch and gets way more than he bargained for. Many, many thanks to my writer’s group for all the helpful feedback on this one. All I have to do now is find some appropriate markets and wait for the rejection letters to roll in.

Thank “Bob” it’s over! And congrats to Erin who won with a staggering word count of 24,364! :-O

Yep, the SED contest is over, and I managed to write a story each day! My final word count was 12,808. I’m glad I made it, but I’m even more glad that it’s over. Some of the stories were better than others. Some I’ll expand, revise and polish, and others will probably sit on my hard drive untouched for the rest of eternity.

Now that I don’t have to come up with a brand new story every day, I have time to think about the next insane writing activity I’m going to subject myself to–the 3-Day Novel Contest. Last year, I had a good idea of what I was going to write from the day I registered, and I succeeded (I have the sticker and certificate to prove it, lol!). This year, I registered early and I still have no idea what I’m going to write about. I think I might do a collection of related short stories, like the 2005 winner, Day Shift Werewolf. Novels are far too beastly to revise and get in order, and I haven’t been in the mood to revise my zombie novel I wrote for NaNo last year and I haven’t touched last year’s 3-Day Novel, Ugly Cupcakes since I finished it in September. I think for now, short stories are the way to go.

Finally got my internet back! It only took the cable guy about five minutes to find the problem and re-connect me. It’s a Saturday morning miracle!

I’m still plugging away at the Story Every Day contest, but I’m running out of ideas for stories. Thank “Bob” there are only two more days left! Quick! Give me an idea for today’s story!

If you’re needing inspiration, I’d like to point you in the direction of these prompts from McSweeney’s. Not only are they fun to read and think about, they’ve inspired a few of my stories. Prompt 13 inspired “Drew’s Unfortunate Island Adventure,” which is set to appear in OMG! The Book of Awesome Stuff.

Finished my tenth SED yesterday! It was a pretty mediocre one, to be honest. I think of the ten stories I’ve written so far, I have three I’ll definitely expand and do something with and about three or four I might polish up and keep as flash pieces, and about three that are complete drivel.

Yesterday I also spent forty minutes on the phone with Charter trying to figure out why my internet wasn’t working. The ready light on my modem hasn’t come on since Sunday. You’d think not having internet access I’d get a lot done. No. I spend a good chunk of my time trying to get that damn modem to work. After having me restart my computer and unplug the modem a few dozen times (something I’d done several times before I even called), the Charter support technician decided someone would have to come out and see what the problem is. Fun! Two more days without internet access. And the really fun part is, since I live in an 80-year-old apartment building, the cables they have to access are tucked away in the attic somewhere, and that always bewilders the cable guy. My landlord always has to help them figure it out. So yay! :-\

It’s day 9 of the SED contest, and I’ve managed to churn out a story every day so far. Here’s part of today’s creation:

Loretta lived in a turquoise and white trailer near the edge of a cliff. Her husband, Dr. Cracker, sat at the Formica-topped kitchen table, eating a bologna and Cheez Whiz sandwich. Loretta stood in the open front door, watching the pink flamingos in her front yard. There was something different about them. She couldn’t put her finger on what, though. Maybe it was just the way the sun hit them. Or maybe it was the fact that the milk on her Froot Loops this morning was five days out of date. Dr. Cracker mumbled something incomprehensible.

“I don’ t know about hat, honey,” she yelled back. “I think maybe they’re in heat. Maybe that’s it.” She rubbed her dimpled chin, pursing her candy apple red lips. A muggy breeze swept past, whipping the skirt of her pink floral dress and causing the flamingos to sway. Dr. Cracker let out a long, deep groan.

“You might be right, baby. Maybe it was the Jehovah’s witnesses. Ever since I told them I worship Ba’al, they’ve been cold.” She closed the rickety screen door and shrugged the thought away. “I guess it doesn’t matter. I’m sure the flamingos are fine.” She assembled a bologna and Cheez Whiz sandwich for herself. Dr. Cracker was half-way through his.

“You’re such a good eater, Cracky, baby.” She smiled as she slathered a slice of snowy white Wonder Bread with sticky yellow Cheez Whiz. “You know what we should do? We should take the flamingos on a vacation. Maybe to see the Grand Canyon or to Vegas! We could finally get ‘em hitched. I know they’ve just been dying to finally tie the knot.”

Dr. Cracker gave an affirmative grunt.

“That’s it, schnookums, we’re goin’ to Vegas! Just let me finish my sandwich.” She laid two slabs of bologna on the Cheez Whiz-smeared bread, then topped it off with another Cheez-Whiz-slathered slice. She sunk her teeth into the sandwich, wiggling with delight in her creaky chair. “Oh, they’ll be so delighted to finally get away, go on their honeymoon! I can’t wait!”

Two bites into her sandwich, Loretta heard something akin to a shriek come from the front yard.

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