The New FFO is up.

The new Flash Fiction Online is up, and I can proudly say that I have the Christmas story in this issue. This is the number 2 professional-rate publication for me (although it's not a speculative story). I have also been hard at work on my Historical Fiction novel--to the point of 85,000 words so far--and am not trying to concentrate on anything else until the first draft's finished.

Then I intend to do another, more serious attempt at the WotF, before it ceases to be available. I still have a collaboration to be hashed out, and my last WotF entry I ceased to send in because I liked it better for a longer story. Decisions, decisions...

I'm still doing most of the artwork for FFO, too--as well as working 9 - 10 hour days, 6 days a week. Well, I don't know how many of my readers, which are likely to be few, have actually checked out my LJ blog, but it is linked here--and I'm there more often, which isn't saying much.

Well, gotta go. This cold is doing a number on me.

I've Been Slacking...

...On keeping this blog updated. I suppose I've been shifting everything to my new (LiveJournal) blog. I started that because I have a few friends to link with over there, and not many on blogspot. So...to the updates:

I went to the D.E.T.S. (Down East Tattoo Show) this past weekend, and reeled in six more awards--bringing my numbers to 154--and opened the show with a rather large piece on another tattoo artist. I've become the tattoo artist's tattoo artist (a position of respect), and gladly. The last two years, I have taken a record 17 trophies, and then broke my own record with 18. This year was disappointing in that respect, and that I didn't get the damned Best of Show that I've been stalking, but i was only aiming for three--and doubled that--so it was, in the end, a victory.

My wife drank until 4:00 am on Sunday morning, and then had an epic vomitting, which lasted over half of the day. As it turns out, our oldest two had a similar morning and they didn't drink--at least, I hope they didn't...one's 8 and the other's 10, and they were left with their grandfather--our youngest had that problem Friday. My apprentice had it last night.

The April issue of Flash Fiction Online has four new illustrations, and is a more humorous issue. Jake and I proved our versatility with this issue (the word versatility has been flung all about this month's issue).

I think I got my WotF Q2 story in on time--I still haven't received the conformation email yet, though. This one is more personal than the others and the feelings run both ways. Some think it's the best yet, and the others think it's good, but not as good a story as last time. For me, it's a promise fulfilled. (Here you go, Mom. Rest in Peace.)

I've also cleaned up my last entry and intend to take my shot at the Robert A. Heinlein Centennial Contest. Since he was a master of Point of View, I thought it would be fitting.

Well that's all for now. I'll try to keep up better.

March Issue

The art for the Mach issue of Flash Fiction Online is ready--including the St. Patty's Day special. I promised mixed-medium, and that's what I delivered. We'll see what everyone thinks of it. }=^] Jake should have the issue up later today (or tonight), but there will be some suspence built-up because the St. Patty's Day special won't make its appearance until the holiday arrives. Have I got you curious?

I'm eagerly awaiting news from my other submission. Hopefully, no news is good news.

I've decided that I will use the story I promised my mother (Rest in Peace) I would write as the premise for my new WOTF entry. I've been inspired by an idea I've co-mingled with the original to create an original (or what I believe is original) story. This is a piece that I have begun a few times, but this time, I'm determined to finish, and finish well. Hopefully, my dedication will be fruitful.

Snowing here. Seems like every time it clears up, the weather gets us with another 1-2 punch. It'd be nice to see the ground, grass, and sun.

WOTF Q108 / FFO March

Well, I didn't win. After a delay, I was informed that I had joined the ranks of Honorable Mentions. Apparently, the story was teetering on being a Semi Finalist. When I hadn't heard back, I re-read my entry and found some glaring errors, of which the only excuse I have is that I rushed to get it in. I have since smoothed the glaring stuff and am debating on whether to re-enter or submit it to another market. After this much investment in the piece, I feel that it should be fruitful. Then comes the problem: classifying it. It's Fantasy with a sprinkle of Sci-Fi. Where do you send that? Hard Sci-Fi magazines will reject it because there isn't much science, and Fantasy magazines could do likewise because the setting is post-apocalyptic. Grrr. Just winning the damned contest would've solved that dilemma.

Flash Fiction Online's March lineup has already been decided. There is a holiday story that I pulled for, so I'm working something special up for that, and three others. It's growing. It seems the last couple of months have seen one more story than the last. Suprisingly, I already have a jump on the illustrations, though. I actually have a painting done. The others I have ideas for. I think, for the holiday special, I'll serve up something a little different; a mix of mediums. It never hurts to present the illustrations with the feeling of the piece's theme.

I also have a piece out under a pseudonym. With a record of one rejection, one outright rejection for WOTF (no obvious Speculative Element), and one Honorable Mention, I am charging into this year on a new level. Wish me luck. And good luck to you, too.

Predators And Editors Poll

I've been nominated--as an artist--for the annual Predators&Editors Poll. Flash Fiction Online (the ezine I illustrate) has been nominated for fictionzine, too. Anyone with a valid email (for vote confirmation) may vote. I've added a link--which I'll remove after the 15th, the end of voting. Some of my comrades at Liberty Hall have also been nominated. Some for their prose, at least one other for her art: Rachel A. Marks. Good luck to all the nominees; they are already winners--someone liked them enough to nominate them.

No word of my recent WOTF entry, yet. It's making me a little nervous--I haven't even had a confirmation of receiving of the entry. On the bright side, I guess it also means it hasn't been rejected. Good Luck to Chris Owens, too--he has been a semi-finalist and quarter finalist--if there's any justice, he'll succeed.

Exclusivity

Just a quick update, since I have once again been remiss:

I am the exclusive artist (bearing the title "Art Director") for Flash Fiction Online. Eventually, I'd like to be an accredited author also, but the widening of my art credentials is a small ego boost. I need all of those I can get.

Meanwhile, the collaboration has picked back up. The both of us have had other projects, but now--on my end, at least--that's clearing up. My own work-in-progress (the expanded Pantroth story) is on hold. I have had a burst of ideas, but, I'm allowing them to coalesce during the first draft of my share of the collaboration.

I'm letting The Third Rule cool off. When I hit that again, I want to go in fresh--and with no predispositions. I've had a lot of valuable feedback, and have to step away before applying it (or figuring out how to apply it). I still believe in the story, though, now I'm intending to look at it as more of a detailed outline. Hey those are the breaks.

As for Magnum Opus, I'm going to give that an overhaul, too. I think I'm going to focus on some fantasy elements and then send it out to RoF. Wish me luck.

Rejected

Like the title says, Magnum Opus got the standard email rejection from WOTF. I wasn't surprised--it had no monsters or magic. I'm debating either putting those elements into it (they're in that world), or combining it with another story to create a larger tale--one that is undeniably speculative. I wanted to make a couple of minor changes anyway.

As for The Third Rule, I just got a critique back that knocks the legs from under it. He (the critiquer) did me a favor by being thorough. As always, the first taste of the critique is as bitter as baking chocolate--you know it will flavor the finished product intensely, and you can't wait to get into it, but it's not to be devoured raw. I'm dealing with the fact that I have to rewrite most of it around a more thought-out ending. My critquer asked valid questions that I have to consider the answers to before the rewrite. It's good because I'm learning something new.

My collaboration is suffering for it, though. I think my co-author and I have bitten off more than we had thought we did. I think we just jumped at the first idea proposed, with no more thought to it than that. And now, it's catching up with us.

To think: I used to write just because I loved to imagine different stories. Now I write because I'm not going to let it beat me. I guess sometimes I can just be a stubborn @$$.

On a positive note, I illustrated an H. P. Lovecraft piece--What the Moon Brings--for Flash Fiction Online. It's colored pencils, but not too bad for an hour-or-two sketch. (And that was broken up into two nights and three locations.) Now, I'm just waiting for conformation on the other two stories I'm going to do the illustrations for.

The Third Rule

After a week of floundering and inspiration, I've finished a new short story entitled The Third Rule. I break away from the norm here in two ways: I don't normally write in 1st person, and I don't usually focus on characters so young. At first, it was easy to slip into the early-teen character, but it was difficult to have the P.O.V. character not be the protagonist. And then, I had a sudden burst of inspiration. I don't know where it came from, but I knew it needed a early-teen girl to make my P.O.V. character miserable. So I asked my daughter what her favorite girls' name was, and created some tension.

That did it. The story became about the interaction between the boy and the girl. Simple, right? Well, not quite. But, I think this is some of my best work to date.

It all started at Hatrack. I was babbling in a thread called "Your Favorite Apocalypse" when I coined the phrase Apocalyptic Taco Mix. Another Hatracker-and-LHer, Deb, was inspired to write a short called Meatloaf of the Apocalypse. Another with dual-membership, KayTi, said it would make an interesting trigger for a writing challenge. Hatrack Writers Forum Administrator, Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (AKA: KDW and SWMBO, which is She Who Must Be Obeyed), asked me to make it an official challenge. Since we hadn't had a rewrite challenge in a while, I acquiesced. Initially, two other Hatrackers accepted the challenge--neither of them was KayTi. So, I posted the fact that we had a challenge on the discussion board and Wallah!, we had eleven more challengers.

While this was going on--or just slightly before--I joined a Writers of the Future group. Amazingly, no one else from that group (also at Hatrack) was in the Apocalyptic Taco Mix challenge. I realized, about the time I was fully consumed in Jackie-boy's P.O.V., that I wouldn't have time to come up with another story by the agreed upon due-date. Since my WOTF goal was 5-7000 words, my Apocalyptic Taco Mix challenge would fit nicely. When things work out like they are meant to be, it's awesome! Hopefully, I'll have 9 or 10 critiques before the WOTF group submission. If that's the case, I should have enough info to clean it up enough to have a second edit. Then I'll be way ahead of the game for the December deadline.

Right now my wife (God bless my harshest critic) has it. As soon as she digs into it, I really know I'll have some work to do.

Writers of the Future (Quarter 4)

Well. After writing a 10,000 short story, having the first draft critiqued at Hatrack, editing it, editing it again, having my wife go over it (And people think I'm brutal with a critique!), and editing it a third time, I finally typed those two words at its bottom: The End. Pantroth has had his first adventure.

Though it probably doesn't show, I have developed this realm for years. Everything you could want is there, except for guns and peace -- the former is long extinct, the latter is keeping it real. Since finishing the story, Magnum Opus, Pantroth has decided to expand his tale. Since he's not the type to settle for a "maybe", I've started his expanded tale.

While I'm committing Pantroth's story to print, Magnum Opus has been sent off to the Writers of the Future Contest (WOTF). The day I sent it out, I learned that they may not consider it fantasy. They may reject it based on the lack of magic or mythical beasts -- more's the pity. It's certainly not historical. Fortunately, Magnum Opus was not written for them. If it makes the grade, awesome; if not, it has a home. I would not have changed it to fit them, even if I had the chance to. There are other stories and other quarters. But, I'm hoping they take it. I'm hoping it goes all the way. I'm hoping...just like every other author.

I'm already planning on which of my short stories could be expanded and polished for the next quarter...