Monday Morning This and That

-I continue to do battle with Windows. Each night, my computer automatically installs that one critical update that borks my fonts; each morning, I uninstall it. Hey, Microsoft, I want this update! I believe in your updates! Just give me one that doesn't make my documents an unreadable mess--I've got that part taken care of!

-Speaking of unreadable messes, this weekend has largely been a disaster from a writing perspective. I made almost zero progress this weekend, and this after telling two awesome beta readers that I should have it for them by the end of the month. Performance anxiety? I think part of the issue is I've found a rather thin spot in the narrative that I'm having trouble filling. Or it's a timeline issue. I'll figure it out.

-Whoa TV: my wife and I recently burned through the first two seasons of Orphan Black. Have you watched this? Very, very good show, and Tatiana Maslany is fantastic in her multiple roles. The concern I had rolling through season 2 is how will the show not collapse under its own weight? Convoluted conspiracies can be tough to maintain over the long haul, and they already started losing me a bit during season 2. I definitely recommend it.

-Frustration. Last night I was looking for a paragraph or two I had written with the intention of sticking somewhere in my manuscript. I couldn't find it, not in my notebook, not in any of the (too) many files devoted to the project on my computer. I know I wrote it; I just can't find it. It might actually be in one of my older notebooks. Time to dig.


-Oh, oh, oh! In case you're not aware, Elephant's Bookshelf Press has announced their next anthology. Can you write horror? If so, go check out their guidelines and get writing. Deadline is 6/8/15 for September publication. Go! Go!

That's it for me; how are you all?

Blathering On

So, Winter's Regret has been out for a few weeks now. Hopefully, you bought it, read it, and liked it. Hopefully, you liked my story, "An Unexpected Reunion." Being somewhat brain dead this week, I thought I'd share a little about how that story came about. I don't think there will be any great revelations here, but perhaps it will interest you. If not, have a nice weekend, and maybe I'll have a little more functionality next week.

Back in a time that's embarrassingly-long ago, an idea was born, an idea that grew into a manuscript I have mentioned here far too many times (hint: it's called PARALLEL LIVES). During the first two or three months I was drafting that novel, I was on fire. It seems new ideas and scenes were popping into my head constantly. It was almost like living with a movie or tape recorder inside my skull. Whatever else I was doing, the story was playing out, and when I had writing time, I was essentially transcribing what I had seen/heard/thought earlier.

At some point, the ideas dried up, but that was fine, because the story itself had run its course. And I did have a story (I should point out that a lot of these scenes just seemed to play out in my head independently of what had come before or what might come after; they were just ... scenes). But I also had too much. There were some scenes that were, functionally speaking, duplicates of other scenes. And some scenes that just didn't fit the way I thought they would when I first wrote them. Finally, there were some that I thought had to come out just because the thing was too long. "An Unexpected Reunion" fell into this category. I liked the chapter as it stood in the manuscript, but on further review, it wasn't essential. Out it came.

The tough part of turning that excerpt of a deleted chapter into a stand-alone short story was the fast that I still have plans on getting its parent published. So, I could have changed the names of the characters so they weren't people represented in the original manuscript and pretended it was its own thing, but I really didn't want to do that. Instead, I had to find a way to leave it open enough that, should (when) PL gets published, it all makes sense, but with enough of a story and conclusion that it leaves readers satisfied. I think I managed to do that.

That's it for me, hope you all have a nice weekend.

Hey! Because I'm always bad at this, if you're interested in buying Winter's Regret, it can be found

At Amazon or Smashwords or Createspace. Enjoy!

Here At Last

The calendar may say it's March, but at The Doubting Writer, winter is still going strong! That's right, folks, though St. Patrick's Day is just around the corner, we have ten below zero this morning! What else? Frozen lakes! Ice dams! Snow in the forecast! Our heating bills are insane!

Whew. Sorry, I just found myself channeling one of the old Crazy Eddie commercials. Anyway.....

It's finally here:

Included are stories by Mindy McGinnis, Cat Woods, Matt Sinclair, Paul Parisi, and some guy with a mustache and glasses. I'm thrilled to be in this anthology, and I can't wait for my copy to arrive--there are some excellent writers in there and I'm proud to have made the grade.

Where can it be found? I'm glad you asked:

Smashwords

Kindle from Amazon

Createspace

Now, it somehow figures: Editor Matt Sinclair never said, "You're stories must take place in the season of the anthology." If he had, I would never get published by him. "Last Man Standing," from the summer anthology, takes place in spring. And "An Unexpected Reunion," my entry for Winter's Regret, takes place in summer. I'm not sure it will warm anyone's heart, however. I do hope people enjoy it.

Next week, I will actually have my act sufficiently together to do a giveaway. For now, if you absolutely can't wait, go on and buy it, and leave a review--you won't regret it.

Have a great weekend, everyone!