Hiatus

I just returned from a week in the US - yes, another trip. I was completely unable to find any writing time for a variety of reasons, one of which was BASEBALL. I'm obsessed with baseball, and back in my homeland, I couldn't resist watching one game and part of another, then followed Tuesday night's home game on the Internet. I had almost tried to go to that one, but our flight was on Wednesday, and I didn't want to stay out too late. It would have been a nice one to go to, although I was expecting it to get rained out. It wasn't, and my team won.

Writing. Well, I'm back home and again working on side projects. Namely, my main side project. (Huh?) It's a book that I was intending to try to publish under a pseudonym. The beginning is just a little too much like Mirror, Mirror, but it might be a better story. We'll see. A few people have seen an excerpt from it on under that pseudonym on one of my many forums. I'll wait until I finish to decide. I'm 67,000 words into it.

I need to do something as myself now, perhaps more of The White Room, and another edit of Mirror, Mirror. I also need to work on something new, perhaps a short story, just to keep the creative juices flowing. I should also send some out for publication.

Tubed

Well, I got an answer on Mirror, Mirror today. That's two agents and two nos. They declined for different reasons. The first didn't think it was Sci-Fi enough for his market, and that I should aim more towards Lit-Fic. He was very positive about my prose and my writing style. The second agent was also complimentary, but was thrown at part 2, when Mark and Miranda swap places, i.e. when it floats into the fantasy realm.

I've had too many good comments to give up on it, but it is definitely frustrating. Probably the next course of action is to go through my YFoW comments and implement them. I need a break from it, though, so stay tuned.

Side projects

I finally finished one of my side projects, a story that has obsessed me for a month or so, but is completely useless and unpublishable. Now I can start getting serious again, but where do I start?

I've been thinking about revisiting The White Room, which was conceived as the first book of The Ark Project. It was about 2/3 through, but it needs a total rewrite. The prequel (The Ark Project) needs some minor reworking, too, so I might work on that a little as well. I need to add a scene or two in the middle. The narrative sags there a little, so I need to pep it up a bit.

The White Room will have to be my main focus until I hear back from an agent about Mirror, Mirror. I may have to fit in some reworking of that, too. There is another side project that will demand some time, at some point, but Mirror, Mirror may dictate what I do with that (top secret) project.

I should also write and submit a few short stories to get my name out there more.

Decisions, decisions.

Children, choose your parents wisely

I heard that phrase on the radio this morning. It sounds like something I may use for a short story, so watch this space.

The observant among you may have noticed two things:

1) I have switched to using my real name for this blog. Why? Firstly, I started another blog for my composing and it seemed strange using my writer pen name for my composing blog, especially when I publish most of my writing under my real name anyway. Atlanta Carter is still in action at the WritersCafe.org, and may even publish some shorts under that name at some point.

2) I've changed the name of this blog slightly. I had to do it because of the name change above. Who is AC? SF's Idea Farm doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

Finally, on a number of writers' sites that I frequent, I am constantly told to twitter. I just can't see it right now. I get little enough traffic here (and only one true enlightened follower), so that may have to wait. I haven't a clue what I'd write on it anyway.

The York Festival of Writing

I just spent three days at the York Festival of Writing, where I'm known by my real name, not this pseudonym. Although I had to sneak out to play an orchestra concert (and miss the gala dinner as well as probably the best workshop of the weekend), I found it a well-spent weekend. I met with an agent on Friday and am looking forward to receiving his comments today or tomorrow. There was a mix up on submissions, so he didn't have my materials in advance. He seemed positive about my novel initially (as I described the plot to him), but fear that he may doubt its series potential. I have since come up with some ideas, but I'll wait and see what he says.

I also had a one on one with a "book doctor" for ten minutes yesterday. I dreaded this one, because I was able to get my submission to him. I sat and waited, expecting the worst. He was free the slot before me and I could see that he was reading through it. I felt better when he got to the end and nodded his head. (He didn't know that I could see him.) He seemed excited about the story and generally liked my prose. It was the end of the morning session, so we continued to talk after the slot was finished for probably another ten minutes. I'd heard of so many people being slammed in their one on ones that I can only be grateful that I emerged unscathed.

The workshops were mostly helpful, giving useful advice about approaching agents and publishers, and I was prevailed upon to read the first page of my book aloud in the first session. Again, they were positive, saying that it was "almost there", echoing comments that my wife made when she read through it before I submitted it, as well as those later by the book doctor. Those are minor changes, so I felt pretty good about it.

Now it's back to work for me.

Two in one week, 2057 to be published in March

I just saw a mock up for the cover of the first issue of a new literary magazine/journal. What I liked especially was that it listed one of my shorts. (First, in fact.) I knew they were very interested in the piece, but they hadn't confirmed that they were publishing it.

I'll post it here, since it appears on the front page of their website.

Wulfstan's Literary Tumble

Published

Gael-huinn is now published on the Absent Willow Review. Here's the link: http://absentwillowreview.com/archives/gael-huinn

And their artwork ...

Do have a read, the more hits it gets, the better my chances of making it into the printed edition.