The Writing Community and its Crickets

Click on the Apex Book Company Blog banner to head over to my first guest blog post. My posts will appear on the first Tuesday of every month. Please leave me some comment love over there and boost the signal.

Pretty please?

With sugar on top?

 

The writer is writing

My blog here has been quiet for over a month. I’ve been busy writing. For those of you that have walked with me on my journey to practicing writer, I know you are happy to see this. I still work on balance. I often feel like I’ve let my friends down on various social networking sites; I simply don’t have time to follow them all like I used to.

I pick up reading that relates to what I am writing. My review work has slowed as a result. A couple of projects I have worked on, one related to reviews and the other related to promoting my friends, have taken a back seat to the fiction as I churn it out. I feel that I am dropping balls. This is behind the scenes where it impacts no one else with one exception. The writer scheduled to be featured this month seems as busy as I am. We can’t seem to get the time to connect like we want. It becomes a series of hits and missed. Yet, I know it will be fabulous when the time is right.

I have two more short stories planned for this month. Yeah, that’s right. We only have a week left. If I pull it off, I will have met my annual goal last year. I am really excited about the progress I am making. I am learning so much about the practice of writing. For now, I must head back to my fictional Nebraska. Man is it cold there!

How are you guys doing? Read anything good lately? If you write, how’s that going?

 

December Pimpage Roll Call

Hello guys. Many of you are engaging in acts of retail during the next few days. Please consider supporting some of the artists and writers on my list behind the cut. At my household we try to buy books for gifts as much as possible. It works because we have so many readers in our family. I’ve also purchased things like handmade jewelry from friends of mine in the past as gifts. It is important to me to find ways to support the creative types in my life. Don’t get me wrong. It isn’t like I am pushing a large bankroll around. This above all reasons is why I also try to share the love and promote these works. Hey I might not have the cash, but you might. Your friends might. Beyond that, you may stumble upon some particular writer or artist or photographer that you beginto follow because the work moves you. That is my hope. Please spread the word. Please check out the links. Please make suggestions. I will do another one next week. Thanks guys.
Follow the link to my LJ post. Happy shopping.

 

I have the strangest friends…

Take Ron Malfi for example. He sent his friends an email this morning. Yeah, go ahead and ask this author where he gets his ideas! I got permission to share it with you. Hang with me till the end…

Hey Gang,

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I just wanted to drop a quick note to let you know that my novella, “The Stranger,” was just released earlier this week from Delirium Books. It’s available only as a digital book and, as far as I’m aware at this moment, no hard copy will be published anytime soon. Here’s a quick synopsis:

“It happened outside a motel in rural Florida …A strange thing, a peculiar thing. At first, David thought it was simply a mistake—the stranger who sat behind the wheel of David’s own car in the parking lot of the roadside motel. Had the man gotten into the wrong car? Was he lost? Hurt? But when the doors are locked from the inside and a gun is set on the dashboard, David realizes this was no mistake. And that was when the insanity started…”

Basically, I came up with the idea for this story a while back while sitting in my car in the parking lot of a Jiffy Lube. There was a guy in a car next to me reading a newspaper. I watched him for a while then wondered what I would do if the guy were to…well…start eating his own hand.

Yes. This is how my mind works.

Anyway, it’s a fun story and I hope you enjoy it. It’s available for download for $3.95 exclusively at Horror-Mall: http://www.horror-mall.com/THE-STRANGER-by-Ronald-Malfi-Digital-Edition-p-20095.html

Thanks for the continued support!

Ron

————–
www.ronmalfi.com

 

The Long December

AFP/Yoshikazu Tsuno

Counting Crows will be crooning us into this new month. October was about balance. I spent time learning how to balance my writing life with work and home. I spent time learning how to balance different aspects of my writing life with each other during the time I had to spend on it as a whole. November was about introspection. We will get to that in just a minute.

December though is about action. As you saw in my last post, I have some pretty definite goals to reach this month. They are not all I need to accomplish. I also realize that my writing time might be compressed during certain periods of the month. I’ve been planning for this. I want to get it done. I want to meet these goals. If I accomplish these, I will have done more than I planned to get to in my writing for the year. I also need to map out next month and the first half of next year.

This is where November comes back in. In a previous post I mentioned what I was contemplating last month. “November will be about introspection, gratitude, and growth. What are my goals as a writer? What have I accomplished this year? What have I failed to achieve and why? What will I work on next year? How will I get there? What should I continue to do? What should I drop?”

Let’s take these one at a time. My goals as a writer are pretty simple. I want to write quality dark fiction and get it in the hands of readers that will enjoy it. I want to learn, grow and continue as a practicing writer. I want to help others in their writing journey.

This year I’ve become a better review writer. I have promoted the works of others. I finished one story and have seen its rejection. I have mapped out several others. I have made better use of available social networking tools. I’ve made new connections, strengthened old ones, and added to what I hope will one day be my fan base. It is currently one heck of a support system/cheering squad. I built one website for another writer and created my own. I joined a small writing group and have managed to be an active participant. I have continued to beta read for a couple of people outside of the group and am improving my editing skills as I go.

So far, I haven’t finished the stories I wanted to this year. The bottom line is poor time management and lack of commitment to the practice of writing, in this case I mean words on screen/page/ whatever. I’ve been working on this during the last part of the year. Really there is nothing to it but to do it. I see my fiction page, and I lament that there isn’t more there for you, my readers and friends to go chase down. I am not diminishing my one, sold story. I am just frustrated that I haven’t sent more out this year. Maybe next year I will get to gripe about the tons of rejections I’ve gotten. I will be proud of that!

I think the previous entry and what is written above covers what my goals are for the remainder of the year, and as I am trying to set the pace for the coming year, you get a pretty good idea of my goals for the next. If you are on my LJ beta filter, then you will be getting more on this in detail. I will accomplish this by managing my time wisely, setting realistic goals, and honoring my commitment to the practive.

I will continue to work with social networks to broaden my audience and make more connections. I will also explore what I can do with my website to include the featured folks segments next year. I will continue to promote others and remain active in the crit group. I will stick with my beta reading. I will continue to run my writing community, Lobo_Luna on LJ. I will write more reviews and query zines to see if they are interested in them for publication. Most importantly, I will write. I will finish stories. I will redraft them and send them out into the world.

I am not sure what I should drop at this point. I think I’ve already taken steps to minimize the time I waste on the net. I’ve realized that the other aspects of my writing life do play an important role. I just need to be sure the stories are there too.

Ok that is my babble. What about you? What do you feel like sharing about your year? last month? this month? the next year? We can talk lessons learned, goals, or even how your Saturday night plans played out.

 

Dino Love

So after eating everything in sight – ok not quiet everything – it is back to work for me.

Over the holiday, I caught up on my critique work. I planned a short story. I read. I am telling you right now, Seanan McGuire’s Rosemary and Rue does not disappoint. I hope to have a review for you guys this week. I have a feeling it will be gone all too quickly.

My goals for this month are simple:

Promote the work of others due heavy December retail traffic. People, buy books. Please!

Finish at least two more reviews.

Crank out three stories.

Complete a second draft for my alien story.

Yeah, I have very high hopes for December. If I get all of this accomplished, it will be a true gift to myself. Care to share your plans for the month of December? Will you be polishing up your NaNoWriMo from November? I want to extend a hearty congratulations to those of you who accomplished your November goals, whatever they might have been.

 

the Year in Space

Image credit: R. Jay GaBany / www.cosmotography.com

This is the kind of breathtaking picture I get in my email on a weekly basis. I subscribe to a feed from The Year In Space. The site sends me a picture and a day by day breakdown of interesting facts regarding our romance with space. It also shares the timing of the moon’s phases for the month. This site gets much love from me.

Right now The Year In Space is offering free desk calendars to the first twenty people that blog about the site. I doubt I will get my link emailed in time. I don’t care really. (I got my link there in time!) It was a good reminder to share something I love with you. I hope you guys will go check The Year In Space out.

I know that I usually try to keep my posts here centered around my writing life. My ideas are often sparked by pictures and events that have happened in the past. I know I am not the only one. Here is hoping that you do subscribe and that inspiration finds you as a result.

 

My book of much want is on its way from Amazon!

Stays Crunchy In Milk by Adam P. Knave:

My lovely husband bought it for me!!!!!! I will of course review it for you guys when I read it. You already know I am a fan of Adam P. Knave’s work. I am super excited.

 

Just eleven more visitors…

I love numbers. I especially love round numbers, numbers in multiples of five, even numbers, and esspecially prime numbers. With eleven more visitors, the site will hit 2,000! **Edit: We broke 2K! Thank you guys!**

I’ve been working hard to draw traffic here. I’ve been experimenting with what works and what doesn’t. On one hand, it feels strange drawing folks to the website when I don’t have much in the way of my own fiction to report. However, it feels like I am building a reader base just the same. I love you guys!

My day will be interesting. I have been down for the count with a cold all week. I’ve gone to work (no high fevers, just low-grade stuff managed by meds – tons of antibacterial hand sanitizer used at desk- no I’m not the outbreak office jerk I swear) and posted my review for the week. I did one story crit. I even managed to get my first guest blog post out there! Yet, I’ve been light on posty traffic. I haven’t been reading for beta, crit, or review. I definitely haven’t been writing. I have been planning what is next though.

Today I find myself alone at home. This is rare. I drove my husband in to work. We stopped and ate breakfast together and got a chance to see the sky just as the sun started throwing pinks and purples into the blue. I am up early, and instead of heading back to bed, I plan to make good use of my day. My cough is being chased away by meds. My head finally is no longer threatening to explode. Today might be the perfect day to catch up.

I plan to finish reading the first three chapters for a good friend of mine. I’ve read this novel during an earlier draft and loved it. I can’t wait to see it published. Next, I have three horror short stories to critique. These are all long over due. After that, it should be time to see my husband for lunch. How nice to be in town as he works right up the road! I am usually working a city away. When I get home, I plan to clean up a bit then get cracking on a story or two.

What are your plans for Saturday?

 

To crit or not to crit…

Please head over to my guest post on Danielle Ackley-McPhail’s LiveJournal. You may remember I posted my review of her work, The Halfling’s Court: A Bad-Ass Faerie Tale recently. This is my first appearance as a guest blogger and would love your support! Go ahead. Toss a question my way over there!