The Maine House

Month: September 2015

Primal Scream

AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGG

GGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

STUPIDSTORYWON’TWORKANDIKEEPMAKINGIT

WORSE!I’MSTUCKINAWENDIGPLOTSTRUCTURE!

Or, for a visual presentation of the revision experience:

 

Week in Review

The wave may not have risen that much this week, but higher than most:

NewMyths.com just published my story The Warmth of Sun in Winter, which was my first attempt at writing a positive story, that is, one in which no one’s disintegrated, evaporated or otherwise obliterated. Sure, the world is post-apocalyptic, but that’s downplayed,  and can the world ever really end if there’s someone you love still in it?

I finally finished a story called The Catskill Dragon, which took a week longer than I thought it would. I’ll send it out by tomorrow EOB after one more pass to make sure the i’s aren’t crossed and the t’s aren’t dotted. It’s set in 1863, and the main character, Cassaway Zenger, could be the main character for a whole new series, The Dragons of America. I’ve done the first outline of Book One, tentatively titled The Missouri Blue. Finishing that outline, along with the second outline for The Dragon Tower, allowed me to reward myself by finishing The Catskill Dragon. (The trouble with writing short stories is that they suck away the time you should be writing novels, the way side quests can distract you from the epic one.) Now it’s back to outline two for (OMG, I’m really going to write this) Mo’ Blue and outline three for Tower. 

At the risk of jinxing myself, I’ll say that I entered a story in Amazing Stories’s Gernsback  Writing Contest and it looks like I made the final round, that is, I didn’t get a rejection yet like some other people have according to the Grinder. There are 18 finalists, so all I have to do is beat 8 of them to make the anthology. Really, though, I just want to see if the ex-NASA scientist who is one of the judges thinks my science isn’t total nonsense. Curiously, the contest theme is a positive take on what our solar system will look like in 250 years. It seems grimdark may be ceding some ground to sunnier works.

Finally, if you have a Roku, get the channel for the 92nd Street Y. It has interviews with GRRM and Jimmy Page and many other fascinating folks.

 

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