State of the Submissions

I have stuff out to the following places:  Wet Ink, Writers of the Future, Brain Harvest, F&SF, and Byzarium.   Oddly, four of the five are flash fiction subs, and the fifth is one of my shorter short stories, though not quite a flash.  Considering that flash is the form I find the most difficult to write, this is rather kewl and strange and funny.  It also means that I really need to work on those longer length short stories, and I really need to get some agent subs out there.  Right now I have no queries out.  None.  

After an edit I sent out a short, the one that INK looked at recently, to Lucky Labs.  Now C.S. can, if she likes, pick apart my editing style.  

I keep meaning to work on T.E.P. (aka the weird bird story) but it's a daunting project. I didn't mean for it to have parallel plots of equal weight that dovetail at the end into a (not quite there) uneasy ending.  It's so much easier to edit on Masks or one of the other novels.  That's telling to my level of (un)skill with short stories--I can dive into a novel and play for hours and the time seems to zip by, but when I approach a short story I feel like I'm handling a cactus and I don't have gloves on.  The minutes crawl by.  The only thing that's easy about editing a short story is that I can scan through the thing in just a few minutes and get a good sense of the overall pace.  That's a handy thing to be able to do.  I suppose it would be possible to do with a novel, skimming over the chapters almost as fast as a flip book, relying on intimate memory to get a sense of the overall feel.  It's something that would require practice, I think, and it wouldn't take a trivial amount of time.

I've mailed my deposit for Dean Smith's Master's Class coming up this fall.  Amazing how not that long ago it seemed that the class had been put off until the distant future, a future that now appears to be racing up on me.  I've started reading the required books for the class.  The first one is a pleasant surprise--definitely not one I would have picked up on my own.  I'm glad Dean recommended that we start with ones we're least likely to read.

So that's the state of Kami's writing.  I hope we'll meet this Friday on schedule.  See some or none of you then!

Clarkesworld

For those of us with stories in Clarkesworld's slush pile, do not despair!  Rejections (and acceptances!) will be forthcoming.

I'm just doing my part to spread the word.  Don't pester them with queries even though it's probably been more than the 50 days they recommend prior to querying, they'll get through the slushpile in due time.  If you need your manuscript back sooner rather than later, they're being very readily accessible for that purpose.  Details here.

Unfortunately it looks like the days of personalized rejections are over.  Alas, this is my first sub to them so I'll never get to experience that.  However, that wasn't my motivation for submitting to them, so I won't miss it.  

I never expect personalized comments, nor do I think some stories 'deserve' personalized rejections if they're good enough or whatever.  Editors are busy and I don't think they should have to explain their decisions to potential authors.  If I get a note I'm thrilled, especially if it's something that I can use to bring the story to a whole new level, but it's not the job of the editor to help me write the best story I can if that editor doesn't intend to publish it.  It's my job to learn how to write effectively, and I have lots of resources to exploit to that end.  And when I someday earn my place in a publication, then I'll be able to enjoy the process of working with an editor, including the suggestion/rewrite process with their experience and skills to help me make the story shine.

Someday ... soon!

Oh, and a shameless plug for my blog:  I just wrote an entry about prologues.  Hopefully folks will find it useful.  If the INKers would want that, maybe we can dump it in the Toolbox or repost it here or both.  If not, you know me, I don't get offended or feel rejected.  I'd have a much tougher time breaking in as an author if I did!

Critiquedit

I enjoyed a very good critique session today that could have only been made better if the folks currently at Worldcon were present.  I'm ready to put the short story in question into something approximating final form.  

The thick stack of paper I end up with after a critique session used to daunt me.  I'd begin the process of procrastination by setting it somewhere not-my-desk, where it would fester for a while.  Every time I looked at it I'd think I should get to sorting through that, but first I have to scrub around the kitchen faucet with a toothbrush.  Right now.  Just like a cat that has to interrupt crossing a room right now to lick itself, I'd feel a compulsion to get busy doing something unrelated to going over the written critiques as soon as possible.  

But, no more.  A lot doesn't get said during a fiction critique.  No one wants to point out every single little grammatical error or the fact that when the character teased out a nosehair you laughed so hard you blew milk out your nose, and you weren't even drinking milk at the time.  So going over the written comments is important, as is going over the notes you write during a critique.  Don't give me that look.  No, you aren't supposed to file those with the copies of manuscript into your to-do pile.  Your sex partner goes in the to-do pile.  The manuscripts go on the desk, so that when you next sit down to write (not blog or surf the net) you have to move them in order to get to work.  I'm a firm believer in not letting manuscripts that have been critiqued stew.  They've stewed already.  They've stewed while you waited to hear back.  The longer I wait, the more good ideas I lose as the short term memory is taken up by details of daily life that isn't going to be important five minutes later.  I don't need to utilize the fact that I had pizza for dinner.  I need to utilize the expression on a critiquer's face as she detailed the impression my work had left on her.  I need to remember what "Yes to Sara and C.S., go with the bastard" means.  

With that, I'm off to edit.  Cue music!

I can rest on my laurels when I'm dead

It's been an intense couple of weeks on all fronts.  I'm holding it together with one raw nerve.  Thanks for listening.

In writing news I've got my energy focused on one short fantasy and one flash fantasy that need to come back from critiques before I send them out.  I'm very tempted, especially with the short, to send it out as is.  Although I always welcome critiques and I truly believe that I come out with stronger stories after I've heard what tripped people up and what they took off running with, I have just enough confidence (or is it arrogance?) in my writing to feel that the stories do okay without the critiques too.  

I think unpublished writers really have to make their stories extra tight and compelling before they'll make it into publication.  My goal as a writer is to write that irresistible first published work and then keep writing tight and well-paced stories and novels throughout my career.  I don't ever want to become lazy and rest on my laurels.  Yes, it would be very nice to relax.  There's a part of me with a silken, seductive voice that says once you're 'made it' then readers can sit back and really appreciate every thought, every sentence as it comes to you unadulterated by hair-tearing revisions and word by word editing.   They'll be amazed by your brilliance, Kami, you'll see ...

Stupid voice.  Shut up!  The goo goo goo that babies make is only awe-inspiring to their parents.  Let's go put some words together and then make them shine with careful editing!

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Do you hear that? That silence? That would be the sound of me finally caught up with my writing tasks.

Not to say I don't have several more to work on, but the big ones, the main ones I've been fretting over for the last few weeks, are done.

Short story edit: check
Submit to INK: (late but) check
OryCon Writer's Workshop website info put together: check
Website info sent to webmaster: check

Whew.

And now on to the new goals.

Two short story edits
Two short story submissions
Some novel work

It's all good.

Throttled by the Wire

I didn't quite make the INK deadline Friday. I worked a solid five hours on my story and got up to the last few pages, but then the story took a needed sidestep which included adding a new scene. And by ten minutes to midnight, I knew I was in no shape to write a new scene, so I tossed in the towel, emailed INK with mea culpas and a request to submit late, and went to bed.

I am, however, pleased with the story. It is shaping up nicely, and depending on what INK does to it at our next critique session, it might be my best short story to date.

Which isn't hard when I only have three completed.

But still, three!

Today I'll be finishing off the story and doing one last read through before sending it off to INK. And then I'll let myself relax for all of five minutes and pick up tomorrow, hopefully with my novel. It's been over a month since I worked on it last and it is calling my name.

Yammering About Writer's Groups

After Lucky Labs a few of us discussed how writer's groups are not for everyone. We came up with two categories of people for whom writer's groups are bad. One is the sort of writer whose soul is sucked out by critiques. These writers come out of critiques wanting to set fire to their story and never speak of it again or, worse, with a writer's block that even Hercules couldn't lift. If a writer's group meeting doesn't make you want to dash home and write lots, it's not doing you any good. The other kind of writer is one who is uncertain about the hearts of his/her stories. If the writer is willing to make any kind of modification suggested, or all of them at once, because they have no commitment or passion or inspiration they're willing to trust, a writer's group will destroy the integrity of their voice. The fiction they produce may be serviceable, and readable, but it will be missing that spark that makes editors want to buy a story at best, and turn to ashes at worst. Ashes are really bad. Well, except when C.S. writes about them.

Anyway, the plight of the uncertain author seems like a conundrum. If you go to a critique group for expert, or at least respectable, opinions, shouldn't you listen to them? Of course, but you have to own the story, love it, believe in it. Sometimes a story you love isn't salvageable and you need to let it go, but you have to realize that, believe it, and trust that. Never take apart a story based on someone else's say-so if you're not absolutely sure they're right, even if they're All That. By absolutely sure, I mean you have an aha moment, a realization, a heart-felt feeling of oops when you see your story in a new light. You're not absolutely sure if your gut says, "Gee, Jim said he wouldn't wipe his ass with it, so I guess it's no good," or even, "Everyone had such valid things to say about the weaknesses of the story, it must not be worth fixing." You wrote the story for a reason. It's not like marriage at all, except in this: If you loved the story enough to write it, do what you can to keep that story alive. If it's time for divorce, so be it, but make sure you believe that in your heart, not because your mother told you he's no good for you.

Flash Fiction No Go

I got my (kindly) rejection from Flash Fiction Online today.  I guess that means I'm still immaculate!  Gotta look at the upside of these things, especially with two rejects so close together.  And yet I still feel like making headway.  Isn't the definition of insanity to repeat the same actions over and over and expect a different outcome?

In other writing news, I'm getting that next chunk of Masks edited.  I'll probably email it out in the next couple of weeks for critique either at the end of May or into June, depending on when INK thinks it'll be best as far as reading the chunkaroo.  

In other other writing news, I plan on cutting tile soon, the next step in the great office tile-o-thon.  I've got one three-sided cut that I'm dreading, but the rest of the cuts are straightforward singles or doubles, so hopefully it'll come together quickly.  Then my office will be free, free free! of the under construction signs.  Well, except I'm going to reshelve my closet.  That's a big ugh project, but not nearly as involved as the tiling.

Any other submissions in the works out there?  How's the weather?

Another One Away

Mailed off my submission to the WotF contest, with 20 minutes to spare. Whew. I didn't spend the weekend working on the edit, as I had imagined, but spent it considering the edit. When I sat down with it today, I thought I'd only go through to clean up the truly confusing parts and leave the character changes for later. Once I got going, though, I didn't stop. So it was truly the completed manuscript that I sent, the best story I could tell.

I hope I proofed it enough. I was a little rushed by the end. I wanted to give myself enough time to fiddle with printing, since there always seems to be some issue with printing. I have the added hoop to jump, too, of emailing the ms from Abba to Phoenix, since Abba and the printer aren't on speaking terms.

But the ms downloaded without issue, and the printing ran like a dream. Amazing!

I didn't mess up the envelope, either, like I did last time (forgot to include the SASE). I did have to run out earlier for more envelopes, though. But I checked on that before I got started today, so I had plenty of time for that, rather than last minute panic.

I'm amazed how smoothly this went, considering I was down to the wire! Yay! Another submission for our tally.

Next week, I'm going to submit AFE for publication. Just have to figure out where.

And tomorrow--Script Frenzy!

I'm so not ready.

Behind Door Two

It's good to have focus again. I've gotten two scenes edited on Trinket Box and I'm well on my way to reaching 100 pages on The Trunk (which was Mummy Case). My brilliant plan is to have the first 50 pages of Trinket Box ready for the group for the first March meeting and to have all 75 pages for February written for The Trunk.

If I can do the same in March, I'll feel ahead enough on both to be able to work on Script Frenzy in April. I might even be able to keep editing Trinket Box along with writing my script, but I'm not going to hold myself to that quite yet.

After all, there is Reven to consider as well. And I still have a chapter to finish revising for it. I'm hoping to get a little work done on that today.

I can't believe I'm already thinking about Script Frenzy. Actually, I've been thinking about Nanowrimo already, and contemplated putting off The Trunk until then, but reconsidered. That's just too long to wait and I'd rather have the pages now. I'll find something else to write by then. Something new and fresh, because I think I'll need it about then.

As for Script Frenzy, I'm still toying around with the haunted house idea TC and I came up with last June (longer, really, but that was when we fleshed it out--was that a pun?). I'm keeping my option open, though, but nothing else has yet to materialize. In March, I'll add another 5 or 10 pages to my monthly goal to be closer to what I'll need to write in April (100 pages).

Honestly, though, Trinket Box is eating up most of my enthusiasm. I love working on this story. I'm amazed how much of it clings to me, even now. Scenes I was planning on ditching I'm now finding too compelling and so I'm trying to find a way to work them into the flow of the plot. And thank god for Creepy Frenchman! He's going to be my failsafe for plotting when all else fails.

Focusing on these novels is going to destroy my chances of having another short story ready for WotF, though. I need to look up the next submission deadline if I'm going to make it. I'll need all the time I can to work in another revision.

UPDATE: The deadline is April 1st. Whew. Won't have to worry about it during Script Frenzy. But that only leaves me about a month and a half! Gotta start working on something for it.

Openers

I've spent a huge number of hours reading openings, and critiquing some of them, at the now infamous Nathan Bransford's Surprisingly Essential First Page Challenge.  (The contest is closed to submissions and they're sorting through the entries now.)  I've read various rules and suggestions for how to open a novel, but I have to say at this point that reading about it and/or thinking about it is no substitute for reading about a gizillion openings and picking apart as many as you can stand to critique.  

Go forth and read the entries.  Find the flaws in the best ones.  May your eyes be opened.  And then read Shock and Awe.   Although we always hear that a novel should open with a hook, in the middle of it all, preferably with action, that doesn't mean that the action has to be physical.  Suddenly I'm okay with how Masks opens again.  Yay!

Taking Advantage

I couldn't help myself.  I had to join in Nathan Bransford's "The Surprisingly Essential First Page Challenge."  I hate to take advantage such a clearly nice guy.  He even posted my submission for me because (I'm guessing) the dial-up load times were interfering with my ability to comment on that particular post.  I was able to comment on other posts so I believe I was timing out or some such.  Anyway, I looked over my stuff and decided, weirdly, to try with the opening to Mayhem, I think because it stands out most of all my openings.  This makes me want to rewrite the opening to Masks yet again.  Gawd, I just want to smash my head through the wall every time I think about changing the opening to Masks.  Anyway:

As a small child I once lost my balance and touched my hand on a red hot stove.  Before the pain stabbed into my fingers and struck my mind I remember feeling foolish and frightened.  I cried out a not-very-small-child curse and put my fingers in my mouth just as the pain hit me.  My mother hurled herself across the kitchen and pulled me up into her arms.  That scent of our tribe's plush wool, the softness of homespun cloth against my face, the red hair of a Kilhells woman and green eyes staring into mine had always brought me comfort.

I know I'm dreaming, but that same hot pain I remember feels real, and there's no comfort this time.  I'm trapped in that room again, the desert heat doubled by infernal fire in a hearth.  I'm tied with bark rope on top of a camel hair rug.  Instead of hot pokers, carving instruments are heating to white brilliance three feet from my face.  There's a helefrit straddling me.  Nearby, the blood of an infant has dried to black flakes.  I want to wake up, but just like when it was actually happening, I'm helpless.

Something wooden cracks nearby and all at once I'm awake, gasping, my heart pounding so hard it hurts.  My body tingles from the memory of my flesh burning and I'm sticky and smelly with sweat.  I'm back in the present, cradled in a hammock in the belly of a sailing ship.  Sailors stand around a barrel they've dropped.  One sailor glances my way from under the brim of his dirty white hat with an apologetic look.  The others don't meet my gaze.  I'm not sure if they know something's wrong with me, or if it's just me.  My name is famous.  I'm famous, though hardly anyone has met me.  It's always a surprise when people take my word for it that I am who I say I am.  I'm plenty tall for a woman, but I don't think I'm tall enough for a myth.  I don't wear armor, I've lost my sword, and not only did I fail to do anything to aid the war, I think I might be on my way to assassinate the only man who can save the world.

I think people believe that no one would dare claim they were me.  I don't feel up to defending my name or my honor, though, as I awkwardly climb out of the hammock and go to ease the pressure in my bladder.  I don't stagger as the massive ships rocks from one side to the other.  My sea legs come back faster each time I sail, and take longer to go away when I'm on dry land again.  For hours after a long voyage, sometimes overnight, it feels like the land rolls under me, and I often dream of storms at sea.

At the risk of repeating myself, I wanted to write about critiques in general and specifically what a wonderful group INK is and how privileged I feel to be a part of them.  

Steve is a picky reader, especially when it comes to internal consistency.  When he has trouble with the logic of a particular scene, I listen very carefully.  I don't want to become that author who writes about characters that do stupid things because it serves the plot.  I especially don't want to become that author with implausible happenings, ridiculous solutions and character motivations that make absolutely no sense.  He is also our only man.  I hope he doesn't start to suffer from estrogen poisoning at our meetings, because I really need that testosterone perspective, particularly since lately I've been writing male pov characters.

Carole is my eye-roller reader.  She doesn't technically 'do' fantasy, or to look at it another way, she prefers dark fantasy and magic realism.  She's my oh puke reader, and if I'm not making her puke there's a very good chance my writing could reach mainstream readers.  She's also a detail reader.  She's done so many jobs and been enough different places that she has tons of facts packed into her head, while having the valuable skill of being able to discriminate between what I mean versus what a reader who is unfamiliar with said item will hear.  For example, it never occurred to me that a reader would think that even the leaves on a bougainvillea vine would be red when I'm talking about papery carmine bougainvillea vines.  Not only did I assume everyone had seen them but I also looked like an idiot if someone had seen them (like CS) and thought I hadn't and had mis-described them from ignorance.  BTW, Carole, I have a baker character in the next book.  I'm looking forward to your impression of him and his workspace.

Carissa is my form and function reader.  If it has no function, she suggests eliminating it.  If the form is flawed, she catches it.  She also helps with things like details and character motivations, but where she really shines as a reader is as a surrogate editor.  She has read so much fantasy (and continues to read fantasy regularly) that she'll catch it if I'm falling into cliche'.  She also gets impatient with my writing in many of the same ways that editors get impatient with writing.  Their time is valuable.  As a rule they don't like excess wordage, extraneous scenes, scenes that go on too long, characters that have no purpose, expository lumps, etc.  No matter how carefully I disguise them (even from myself) Carissa catches them.  If a description passes muster with her, I'm confident that it'll pass muster with darned near anyone.

I had a really good critique, as always, on Masks with INK this last meeting.  I learned that I'd butchered what probably had been a perfectly fine fight scene before I 'streamlined' (read, took out too much for anyone to follow the action) it, that I'd turned my intelligent character into an unsympathetic hormonal mess, that I'd removed too much calculation in a character's reasoning and turned a dark scene into a mini-buddy movie that lacked chemistry, and many other things.  I also got some great brain-storming ideas that will have repercussions across two, maybe all three of the trilogy that Masks begins.

I sometimes worry that you think you're playing second hat to the Lucky Labs (who I'm also very, very grateful to,) so here's my note of appreciation and reassurance.  You're great readers, and you are all so definitely going to be in the acknowledgements.  Without my readers, I'd be a much less effective writer, no doubt about it.  You also have the horrible job of checking every blessed little tiny scrap of crap I write.  From my bios and cover letters to synopses and outlines, nothing goes out without an INK okay.  You also listen to my endless yammering on WIPs and bleeding characters and plotlines.  We've become more than a critique group.  We're a team, a business venture, and I'm very glad to be a part of you.  Thanks, INK!  You're the best.

Struggling Against the Wind of Submission

Heya, all you INKers! Submissions for the next critique group are due today by midnight!

I've been trying to get something ready, but I don't know if I'll make the deadline. I'll keep plugging away, though, as I want to get the story revision finished so I can concentrate on a newer story revision.

It is good to go over these older stories. I get a good sense of what I was trying to accomplish and where I went wrong and I'm having an easier time reworking them into a theme. It's also fun to see what language I used and how my usage has evolved. I was really wordy (okay, I'm still wordy, but not quite as wordy).

Example: In the old text I have "The wind had slept in the hours she had set out from the Iceholm, but the evening shadows had awoken it, and now she struggled against its icy attack as she made her way homeward."

Ugh, that's a mouthful. So I cut it down: "The wind had slept when she set out from the Iceholm. It woke with the evening and breathed icy daggers into her as she struggled homeward."

The sentence is also getting moved around in the paragraph. Still not liking the icy daggers cliche, but it'll work until I come up with something better. Icy breath? Breathed ice? Blew its icy breath?

Can't . . . turn . . . off . . . editing . . . brain . . .

Masks Edit

Well, I've gone through the bastard again.

122,000 words

615 pages in standard format (I write in Times but convert to Courier)

31 Chapters

I'm down a few thousand words even with a few additional scene and setting details.  This puppy is ready to roll.  Which means this is my last excuse.  I now have to do more research on Preditors and Editors and find the next agent I want to query.

Once again I'm very excited about working on the second novel in this universe, Signet.  But I'll be good and do that research first.

Close Enough for a Banana

Well, I've mucked as far as I want to muck on my WotF story without further feedback from the INKers. It's down to 3300 words from, what was it, 4500? Anyway, with the deadline up this close, it may be time to just move on to the submission package part of all this. I wish that part took zero time, but it always takes me hours, if not days or, in the case of my agent queries, weeks.

Speaking of agent queries, mine is sitting in limbo. Time to add my web page address and ship the puppy off, I think. It's doing no good sitting in my email draft box. So unless anyone up and screams "No, Kami, don't do it!" I'll be sending that off tonight or tomorrow.

The new printer works fabulous so far. It'll be fun to print out my story and cover letter on it.

Good luck everyone! Let's do this thing.

Deading the Line

Thanks to a snow warning tomorrow, I have a slight reprieve on my encroaching deadline.

My brother and all four of his girls were going to visit tomorrow, meaning I'd have very little time free to finish editing [Sorry, can't tell you] for the WotF contest. But he's not going to want to drive the hour or so through snow to reach us and chance getting stuck here, so instead of refereeing the girls I'll have more time to finish [Still can't tell you!]. Kate will miss playing with her cousins, but I'll make up for it by spending time out in the snow.

If it really does snow. One can never be too certain, afterall.

I have spent time on [Shh, it's a secret] today working on the transition from new opening to pre-existing story. I have one more transition to write, based on exposition I had already written so that part of the scene is fleshed out, and then I'll just be tweaking and correcting the rest of the piece. I'm glad to be near the end of bluescreen writing. While I struggle with rough draft writing in general, bluescreen writing scenes to inject into a pre-existing story is like facing undergoing a root canal. I just dread it. It isn't as relaxing as tweaking what's there and it isn't as creative as cutting loose in a rough draft. I'm bound to a text that I have to try to match in tone and structure and plot. I find it tedious to contemplate, though once I'm into the actual writing, the tedium usually falls away as I get back into the story and the characters. Thankfully, or I'd never get it finished.

So I'm looking forward to being finished with the last bit of bluescreen so I can go back to editing. Much looking forward to the plain old editing.

Purgatory is, I think, ready to send out to INK. I'm at the stage where when I read through it I don't find errors but find that the whole piece stinks and should be trashed. That's usually a sign that I need a reader, stat! I don't think it's short enough, but I can't find the obvious places that I know exist that can be deleted. Definitely time for readers. I'll do a line edit tomorrow and spend it off.

With all this gnashing of teeth about bluescreen writing for edits and doubting the veracity of a story, I'm ready to sit down to some nice, non-judgmental rough draft writing. And luckily I have my new short story primed for more words.

Masks on Fire

So I've been working on Masks in a way that gets me motivated to get those marketing letters in the mail and email.  So far I've fixed the opening (I hope) so that Bainswell is more of a threat.  Around the 5000 word mark, Mairi is on fire.  I hope that's soon enough.  Next, I realized that the scene in the snow will be far more interesting if he starts assessing on a very deep level the life he's tolerated so far, so that it makes more sense that he would never go back  In the new version he has a moment of wondering what kind of person his beloved Gutter really is if he can put a small boy's hand into the hand of a man like Lord Argenwain.  Also, I created something for Mark to lose when he ditches the horses.  Horses, you say?  He has two now, and two sets of saddlebags, and the weapons.  He's going to have a helluva lot to carry, and he's going to lose a bunch of it.

Once he's in the port city he's going to be so exhausted he'll let things happen that shouldn't, and in the morning he's going to try to cover up his trail.  This is much more fun for me.  I just hope it's more fun for the audience and doesn't start quite so slow.

BTW, it still opens with Mark in bed, but he's staring at the ceiling, avoiding the waking up trope, and I don't mention the mirror in the bathroom.

Can you tell I'm having fun editing?  Do you know why?  Because editing has changed work stations.  It's now no-longer in the Not Writing station, but right next to both the Not Writing Cover Letter and the Researching Agents stations.  By comparison, editing is a gas and I could do it all day.

Motivation From the Car Muse.

Watching the evening news tonight, a story about the severe drought in the U.S. south perked up my ears. Lake Lanier in George is drying up if you haven't already seen the report. My eyes went to the manuscript before me. Lake Lanier. Yep, there it was. One of my secondary characters in my car novel comes from a wealthy family who builds communities around the usually beautiful Lake Lanier area. Hmm, that information may have to be adjusted in the final draft depending on the situation down there.

Last week, I was in Barnes & Noble bookstore; not a local one but one across the river in Oregon. As I browsed the markdown book aisles, I ran across the obligatory 'exotic automobile' area and, I'm not kidding here, the exact second I picked up a book on Super Cars, the music on the store's speakers switched from some pop ditty to "Lil Darlin'" by The Diamonds. It's a tune from 1957, a favorite amoung some car enthusiasts, myself included, and is featured briefly in my car novel. I've gone years upon years without hearing that song anywhere but my own music library, yet there it played, out of the blue in Barnes & Noble...but only, I'm convinced, after I touched that car book.

Things like this, little things that make me think of a piece of writing I'm usually involved with at that time, happen a lot to me. I've got a list of other coincidences that relate to the current novel I'm working with but the two above are the ones that come readily to mind. And rather than think of them all, as odd or unusual as they might seem, as nothing more than coincidences, I can't help but see them as motivational pushes from my muse. It's odd but works for me.

Go on, Car Muse. I'm listening.

Sslllooowwww

Goodness, the nano site is slow! I can hardly do anything on there. I got a nanomail and it took ten minutes to read and respond to it. Brings back memories. And sympathy for Kami's ongoing connection plight.

So, Kami, have you tried to sign up for this year's Nano? Still going to, right?

I had yet another story idea last night. That makes four new ideas, three of which are nano prospects. Once more, I'm just synopsising what I have on the idea. I'll pick the one I'm going to write on November 1st.

Meanwhile, it's all Inkwell Cult, all day. Okay, not all day, but I've spent all morning working on it. I'm excited for the story and I like where it's going. Thanks loads to the group for helping give me more focus on the opening two chapters.