Weekend Update

Greetings! I hope this Monday morning--or whatever time or day you read this--finds you well. Today is more or less random musings and updates, nothing especially well-organized.
 
-First, I created a 'Publications' page. It feels a little funny, doing this, but hey, I've got published works, I suppose I need to plug them! I hope to add more to it, though I'm not actively shopping short stories at the moment, focusing primarily on revisions.

-Revisions are going pretty well, though I suppose the proof will come further down the road. I got in some very good work Friday night and yesterday morning, so I'm pretty happy with my progress.

-Chestnut update!

The top 8 or so inches of the 'tree' is clearly dead at this point, however, we've got a shoot going that's now a couple of inches long. Its growing inside a translucent corrugated plastic sleeve. I'd love to pull the sleeve and let it grow free, but we've got deer--and a ridiculous number of rabbits this year. I may have to build a cage for it.

-Our writers' circle anthology is nearly sold out. We had a relatively small print run (100 copies) to start, but now we're down to...hmm, not entirely certain, likely in the teens. One of the group members is taking a bunch down to a big arts event this coming weekend, so we should make some sales there. Reprint? Maybe. Volume 2 next year? We'll see....


-Two weeks ago tomorrow (say what?) we did another reading at another arts group. I did not 'nail it' this time. I read too fast. I'll blame the heat--it was hell hot in the room, and part of me wanted to get done before all the sweat fell off my face and soaked my pages. A woman in the front row looked to be sleeping. I'd prefer to think she was visualizing.

-At our circle yesterday, we had a member from another writers' group in attendance. We do a prompt and write for 30-45 minutes. His group will use prompt words and write in ten minute bursts. They do 3 or so rounds per session. It's nice to have a new voice in the group. I'd consider going down to sit in with them but it's a half hour drive on Monday evenings. I might have to skip my regular group one week and visit the other--it's good to experiment.

That's about it for me. How was your weekend?

Reading Day, Part III

Years ago I was friends with someone who had the uncanny ability to stretch her birthday out from a single day to a week-long celebration. There was the happy hour/dinner with work folks; there was the dinner out with her non-work friends; if she had a boyfriend, there was a birthday dinner with him; and finally there was Friday and/or Saturday night out as well, assuming the birthday didn't occur on the weekend (I suspect the years it did, she felt cheated). I feel kind of like that now as I milk this week's reading yet again, and will do so again some time next week. At least next week's post on the reading will involve tips and strategies for those of you who may be doing your own readings.

My wife will attest that I was a wreck all day. I was nervous, keyed up, had trouble eating. Probably the best thing I did was mow the lawn (half of it, anyway), which killed good hour and a half and occupied my mind. There's something very meditative in riding a lawn tractor around in big circles. I get a lot of good brain work in that way. We got to the arts center an hour before the scheduled reading and I promptly abandoned my wife and kids, hanging out with my writers' circle friends instead. Aside from reading, we had a job of selling books, so I had to know what we were going to do. The book launch was part of a bigger event, the opening of the gallery for the season, so there was the potential for a lot of people.

At five, the doors opened. We drew a fair number of people, a number of whom bought the book--and asked for autographs. I will say, signing your name on something like this is an even stranger sensation than seeing your story in print.

We were very fortunate to have great weather. It was sunny, warm--but not too hot. We had a stage set up in the courtyard, there was a bar with beer and wine. I did not partake until I was done. The drawback for me was I went in the penultimate spot. 8 readers, I went 7th, and it took about 45 minutes before it was my turn. Somehow, I did not need to run to the bathroom half-a-dozen times!

I could get away with black--it was still Memorial Day!

The piece I've read is called Katydid Nights, and I've actually written about it before. By the time it was my turn, the crowd directly in front of the stage had thinned a bit, but there was a nice number  of people spread along one side, watching--and listening. As I posted earlier in the week, I nailed it, and got some nice applause. Better still, while I was getting my celebratory beer while writer #8 was preparing to take the stage, the husband of one of my fellow writers told me, "That really resonated with me." That made me feel really, really good. Later, when the reading was over, another person approached me and told me the same thing. It truly was a great feeling--and it still is.

That's it for me for now. Next time I write about reading, I will have what I hope will be useful tips and suggestions to make it all easier. Have a great weekend, everyone, and thanks for reading!

Photo by Barb Enderley

Reading Day, Part II

So, we had our launch party and reading for our Writers' Circle anthology last night. How did it go, you ask?

More coming on Friday, maybe even a couple of pictures. Let's just say it was a good time, the feedback was great, and now it's back to 'the real world'. Hope you all had a good weekend!

Reading Day

I'm likely to break with tradition this week and either post twice today, or again tomorrow. It's my blog, and I can do what I want here, after all. Today is reading day for our Writers' Circle, beginning around 5:30 the first of our members will take the stage in front of an audience that will number somewhat more than 0 and hopefully less than 100. I get to go next to last, so by the time it's my turn, my shirt will probably be wet enough to wring out and fill a barrel. That's really kind of disgusting, isn't it?

We got our books yesterday, here's a snapshot (I'm not a great photographer, and the light is bad). It looks pretty good. The powers that be used Lulu for the publishing. It's slim, 76 pages or so, but looks really nice. Photographs and artwork are included, all the works of multi-talented members of the Smithy Writers' Circle (not me), and all the stories, poems and essays are pieces that were begun during a session.

A terrible picture, but a sharp-looking book, no?

I practiced my piece about 5 or 6 times last week, clocking in at a pretty consistent 6 minutes. Yesterday, when I read in front of the group, I could feel my nerves taking hold of me, could feel me speeding up. It's kind of like when you're driving a car on the highway and you glance at the speedometer and find yourself doing 80--that's miles per hour, not kilometers--and you're not sure how you got there. I shouldn't be nervous in front of those people, but I am, and I'll be more nervous tonight, even if (and especially if) I know everyone in the audience. When I used to do the wildlife shows, I got more nervous when I was doing a program for my kids' school than a school full of strangers. There's all kinds of crazy psychology involved in that, I'm sure.

Anyway, that's it for now. Depending on how I feel (and how much I drink after the reading is done, hah ha), I'll have more tonight or tomorrow. Have a great day!

Commencing Countdown

Well, I've been back at this for all of a week, and already I'm missing deadlines and not posting what I intended. The truth is, I've been working on a post all week, but I'm not quite comfortable with it. It's a touchy subject (you'll know it when it runs), and I have to get it just exactly right. Unfortunately, I haven't managed that just yet.

Instead, I'll share the poster of the upcoming launch of our Writers' Circle anthology--complete with reading! I'm not sure which is worse: the fear that no one will show up to listen to us, or the fear that someone will!

So, if you're in the area that weekend, please come to the launch. Sadly, I cannot open my house and home--it's a mess, and too full now that the Magpie is home!

That's about it here. Have a great weekend, all.

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!

Snowy Friday

Well, here I sit on a Friday morning, waiting for word from the school about whether they'll be open today or not. The Catbird was sent home early yesterday; the school was already set for a half day today (teacher training day), but I'm sure they're loath to give up a day to snow if they don't have to. The new superintendent here (and he's at least four years on the job now, so he's not really new, but you know how these things go) is from the North Country, so he's used to this stuff. It all depends on the roads.

I don't especially mind the snow--most often, the air around here is cold and dry enough that it's fairly easy to shovel--and in truth, I think our friends along the seaboard have had more snow than we have, which is unusual. This winter has felt especially arduous and endless, however, and I think it's largely because it's been so damn cold. We've had more single-digit and sub-zero days this winter than we've seen in probably6 or 8 years; it can really wear you down. As I sit here typing this right now, the thermometer reads a positively balmy 15 degrees, and we're supposed to push 30 today. Heatwave!

Speaking of winter, Matt Sinclair, the big brain behind Elephant's Bookshelf Press, sent out the cover for the Winter Anthology:

I really like the look of this cover--it really catches the mood, don't you think? The anthology is slated for a February 28 release date, a little delayed, much like this winter has been. Matt has been quite busy, as EBP has this and another anthology slated for spring, plus a novel due out in March, and more. That's a lot on his plate.

I'm very much looking forward to seeing this on, and  to reading the great stories others have submitted. Meanwhile, on another book note, I've seen my pages for the works submitted for our writers' circle book--nice! The laid out versions match the final version I submitted. This is the part where we see how many errors actually creep into during the publication process. The most glaring I've found so far are an annoying lack of paragraph breaks in one of my pieces.

Well, hey, look at that, I've just gotten word that our school is closed. I can see the steam coming out of our superintendent's ears from here--maybe it's enough to melt all that snow. On that note, I'll sign off here and hope you have a happy weekend. Be well.

Growth?

As you all know, because I keep telling you over and over and over again, the writers' group I'm in is putting out a publication this spring, featuring work done in the group. I submitted four pieces which apparently got passed around among the editorial team. Last week I got an e-mail back from 'my' editor. She informed me that three of the four pieces submitted were selected, made some very brief comments on each, and asked for background statements on the pieces in terms of what inspired me on each piece, what I was trying to accomplish, what I was unhappy with (if anything), etc.

Now, I'm going to admit that my selection process went kind of like this—"Oh, crap, I've got to turn in pieces. Let's see…Oh, this is finished, so that's in. Hmm. That one's finished, so that's in…." You probably get the idea. The problem with my writers' circle pieces is that, by and large, they are just that—pieces. It is rare that I write a complete story in the 40 minutes or so of writing we have each week; it's also rare that I get turn any of those bits into a full story when I get home. Finding something 'complete' is a treat.

The four pieces had the following 'born on' dates (note, I started with this group at the beginning of March, 2011): March 28, 2011, April 3, 2011, July 8, 2012, and October 20, 2013. Which piece was left out of the mix?

Yep, it was the one from March, 2011. It's a short story called 'Five Miles', which is a title I came up with the day I wrote it (What's more unusual than me coming up with a full story in writers' circle? Me coming up with a title for what I've written; titles don't come easy for me). On this particular day I was so fired up about 'Five Miles' that I spent time doing some rewrites at home and even sent it in to a couple of journals. It goes without saying that it was rejected, and disappeared until I was looking for pieces to submit for this anthology.

The other 'old' piece is something called 'Katydid Nights,' whose life cycle I chronicled here and will not delve into again, except to say that it underwent immediate revision (it was supposed to be part of PARALLEL LIVES), and when I cut it from that book, it sat. 'Katydid Nights' ended up spending two long periods in the drawer. It was also heavily rewritten, and viewed by several sets of eyes. 'Five Miles,' by contrast, was read and critiqued only by me, and it did not get a lot of attention at that. As I read it over now, that lack of attention really shows. Lesson Number 1: give it time. And attention.

Something I find especially interesting, though is that the two newest pieces, 'Combat Crawling' and 'One Minute,' received very favorable commentary from my editor, yet they both received even less work than 'Five Miles.' Both of those stories were completely written in the group, neat little pieces that wrapped up nicely. I took them home and typed them up, correcting only spelling—even if I thought, "Hmm, that sentence would work better like this", I didn't make the change. I kind of like to have 'the original' version to look back on, it's a strange habit of mine. Anyway, both of those works, a minimum of a year-and-a-half newer than the other two, were much stronger out of the chute. In fact, I'd say they might even be better unedited than somewhat polished 'Five Miles.'

New writers often wonder if they're getting any better. "How do I know?" they ask. "How can I tell if I'm really getting better?" Well, this is one way: go back and look at your older work. Hopefully, you'll be in for a pleasant surprise.

Ah, December

This post is coming to you from the Department of the Top of My Head.

IN the sports world, when a team is struggling through a rough patch, every win is treated as something of great significance. "This game is could mark a turning point in the season,"  the broadcasters and beatwriters say. "They really needed this win." It's a narrative that fans seem to eat up, but coaches know that this last victory is only really significant if the team then goes out in their next game and gets another victory, if they build on the performance of the last game. If the team goes out and lays an egg in the next game, or drops five out of the next six, well, that 'significant' win doesn't look so significant, does it?

Writing a NaNo is kind of like this. If you've managed to churn out 50,000+ words in the month of November on a novel, you deserve congratulations--it is a great achievement., one you can be proud of. The question now, however, is what are you going to do with it? This isn't just aimed at your NaNo, but at your writing in general. What are you going to do with it now?

The answer, of course, depends in a large part on what your goals are for writing. Let's assume, however, that you're here on this blog because you're like me, someone who likes to write, and someone who dreams that this writing thing can  turn into something--a published book (or 2 or 10), maybe a career, maybe even fame and fortune. If that's the case, then what you do next is vital. You need to finish the book. You need to let the book rest. You need to go over it again and again, rewriting, revising, rethinking. You need to get it in the hands of people who aren't going to just say, "My gosh, this is great!" because you're their friend/son/wife/whatever, but people who are going to tell you what they really think. In short (not really), now that you've rushed your novel through the artificial growth chamber that is NaNo, you need to let it breathe, let it develop properly. The racing part is over. If you're new to the writing thing, this is a good time to evaluate the process and figure out what really works for you as a writer.




Now, I will share two bits of news from my own front. First, I aimed at getting BARTON'S WOMEN query ready by the end of the month, and I think I'm actually there. Woot! Second, I have been informed that I have had a short story accepted by the fine folks at Elephant's Bookshelf Press for inclusion in their winter anthology, due out in January, 2014. Double woot! How about you? Did you meet your goals for November? Did you NaNo, and if so, did you 'win'?

A Project

An interesting project has finally come up and started rolling.

As I think I've said before, I'm part of a writers' group that meets at a local arts center every Sunday. It's a nice group of people. We have fun, and once in a while I actually produce something worthwhile ("Last Man Standing", published this past summer, was born in my writers' group, as I think I have said).

The director of the arts center has been talking for at least a year now about trying to publish our work in a book. As it stands, we've already had 'featured writers of the month' in the newsletter the center puts out. The book idea has largely not gone anywhere--we are not publishers, by and large, and she's too busy. So for the last year or so the talk would surface from time-to-time, but it wasn't going anywhere. Until now.

Yesterday we sat down with a person who is a new employee of the center, a young lady who has a freshly-inked piece of sheepskin in the field of creative writing and publishing, and is in charge of making the book happen. She handed out a production schedule, we talked a bit about what needed to happen, and when it needed to happen by, we talked contracts and rights--and then I had to leave for a potluck dinner for the Catbird's Cross Country team.

I have to say, I have mixed feelings about the venture.

On the one hand, it's always nice to claim publication, isn't it? This will not be a paid gig; I will not make any money off this, but that's okay, even though I want people to pay for my writing. Also, this will be a self-published book. As of now, our Editor-in-Chief is looking at Lulu for printing. As all of us will be involved in the project, this is a great opportunity for me to learn about the process, should I ever choose to self-publish. It's a low risk situation for me, submitting a few short pieces that likely wouldn't see the light of day anywhere else, anyway. And, of course, it's a way to show my support for what I think is a great organization.

But I am the doubting writer, so I have some doubts.

First, I am a notorious non-completionist when it comes to writers' circle. Most of what I write in the circle are fragments, bits and pieces of things picked up from here and there. Some of them are fun, some of them could be good, but most of them are not. The things that really grab me, the ones that I come home excited about, and actually do more with, are things that I aim at publication. And it often takes me time to get there. "Last Man" was initially drafted in about a week. It then sat for over a year before I dusted it off and started playing with it again. Yesterday, I printed out five pieces that I thought were kind of fun, that I thought had potential for this book. Two of them were pieces I submitted here and there, the other three were things that I liked well enough, but never polished to a high shine. To get all of them ready, I'm going to need to spend more time with them, and time is in shorter supply than it had been.

Second, I do have to say I worry a bit about quality. There were eight of us around the table yesterday, most of whom have been in this group for at least a year, some for longer. The skill level varies greatly. I'm no Tolstoy, but I do consider myself one of the better writers in the group (Yes, I actually said that; can you believe it?). At the risk of sounding like a complete ass, I worry a bit about having my work surrounded by things that may not be as good, quite frankly. There's a fear that someone may buy this book, read a story or two, and throw it against the wall--after putting all the contributors' names down on a blacklist. There, I said that, too. Could this hurt me in the long run?

No. I suppose that's my fear for the day, my doubting self coming up to the surface. This will be an interesting look at the book production process from the inside, and now that I've vented my fears, I can move forward.

Regrets--An Anthology Announcement

In case you haven't heard, Matt Sinclair and the fine folks at Elephant's Bookshelf Press are open for submissions for their next anthology. Now, if you're as observant as I am, you will have noticed a bit of a theme: their first anthology, Spring Fevers, came out in spring of 2012. It was followed by The Fall, released the following--you guessed it--Autumn. They skipped a season and released Summer's Edge and Summer's Double Edge this past summer (that's the one with one of my stories in it, ahem), leaving one season yet uncovered.

And so Matt recently announced that they are accepting submissions for the Winter anthology. Allow me to shamelessly lift some text off the EBP site:

Regrets, I’ve had a few…

To be human is to have regrets, to question decisions, even to doubt our own abilities and capacities. Whether it’s because of a path not taken or a decision made for selfish or –  perhaps worse – unselfish reasons, we all have had moments we regret. We might regret not recognizing an opportunity. Or we regret being too quick to clutch a seemingly easy victory that left us unable to grab the better opportunity behind it. I’ve known folks who have later regretted making the right decision. Of course, like most things in life, the difference between a right decision and a wrong one can be a matter of perspective.

That’s where you writers come in. The theme for the winter anthology is “regret.” We’re looking for stories that, in some sense, convey regret. As always, we’re looking for quality short stories, but this time the theme is a little different. As in the past, stories can be in almost any genre: no erotica.

The rest of the details are at EBP's blog, but I'll add a couple of things here: word count is limited to 5,500; they're open to any genre except erotica, and the deadline is a rather tight one: October 15th. Oh, and let me add that, based on personal experience, Matt and his editorial  team do a great job, are easy to work with, and release a quality product.

So, what say you? Are you up for the challenge? I'm trying to polish something up now for this, how about you?