Just Under the Wire

Well, mailed out another submission to WotF today for the 3rd quarter of the contest. today, of course, was the last day to submit for that quarter. I really must try to get these things done sooner. Anyway, I hope to be hearing about my 2nd quarter story, in the near future.

I'm going to send out Simian D again for publication. A new online magazine called Lightspeed just opened, so I'll probably send it there if it doesn't make it into Asimov's. The next challenge, a big challenge, is to write a novel. I have a few good ideas, an opening or two but it is a daunting prospect. Well, justified or not, I have to believe that I can do it. The key, as Jordan Lapp, a recent WotF winner says is to "write fast and write often." I'm disciplining myself to do that.

Getting Back to Business

I have been a little lax on writing but I'm getting back to it now. I have a few stories in various states of completion. Yesterday, WotF announced the first set of honorable mentions for the 2nd quarter of this year's contest. I still don't know if my story was received on time or if it was received at all. I should find out in due course.

There are a couple more days until the end of the 3rd quarter of WotF, so I have my work cut out for me. It would also be nice to sell a story (or two). Considering the amount of science fiction films and tv shows I've been viewing lately (and read a bit, too) I feel pretty inspired. A writer writes...

Snow Day

Thank G*d for the snow! Fortunately, I don't have a house anymore so no shoveling. If class is cancelled tonight I won't have to go there either. Wrote last night before bed, actually stayed up late because I was writing. Will get back to it after this post. But you don't need to have time to write.

Picked up some little tidbits from L. Ron Hubbard on his thoughts about that (it's in Writers of the Future XXII):

"That is a queer mental quirk with people. If a man is a writer, he is doing something everybody thinks they can do."

I found this also to be true about teaching, which I did for five years. I knew a guy who came from the corporate world to teach... he lasted three days. Another guy lasted a couple weeks.

As a filmmaker you don't get a lot of respect either.  People would say it was easy because they thought it was all fun and games, but I've worked on set twelve to sixteen hours a day with just a 15 minute lunch break. I was on set before anyone showed up and left after everything was put away, and before and after I was writing or editing videos. (I also worked with a lot of so-called "professional" crew who couldn't shoot worth a sh*t, or didn't know how to do their particular job and had to be lead around by the nose).

This is what L. Ron has to say about people saying they could write if only they had the time...

"It's their way of an apology, I guess. Nearly everyone makes that remark and, to be brutally frank, it is a source of much merriment in the professional ranks... I have a law around the house here which says that writing comes first and the hell with everything else. The lawn grows into an alfalfa field, the pipes drip merrily, the floors need paint but I turn a deaf ear to pleas and go right on writing."

He goes on to say that his writing pays for all those chores to get done and covers all the other expenses. When times are tough you just got to push yourself to write. You make the time.

An Honorable Mention

I received my honorable mention certificate from Writers of the Future along with my story with a short note from coordinating judge K. D. Wentworth.  They're a real stand up organization. I've got to come up with a story that's got a real shot against some serious competition. I'm looking forward to reading the winning stories.

New Ideas or Variations on a Theme?

When coming up with a new idea for a story I often find that it is not so new at all. Take time travel for example. Time travel has been done to death, yet I feel I have stories that use it in a new way. There are certain aspects that haven't been done before. So, it really becomes a variation on a theme. Still, if I have something original to say using time travel as my vehicle, then it is just a matter of the strength of my writing that will make it exciting for the reader, even though they may have read many time travel tales before.


When it comes to editors and publishers I am not so sure that they can easily overcome their reluctance to read another story in that vein. I have some time travel stories just itching to come out, so we shall see.