Third Quarter Honourable Mention

I just saw the posting for the Writers of the Future contest. I got an Honorable Mention for my story Osmandyas' Spirit!!! At first I was not sure what an honourable mention meant; but after asking around I found out that not everyone who enters gets an honourable mention...so for my first work this is a great thing!!! I plan on turning the story into a podcast and publishing it that way. I am working on the next story, and last night I figured out how it is going to end. The story is called "Macro"

It is in the mail.

Osymandias' Spirit is in the mail on its way to California. It is great to be in the game.

into the final edit

Well I got great feedback from my beta readers. The big problem with the story seems to be around POV - Point Of View. it is also too long for a short story, but is within the length limit for the Writers of the Future contest, so i am going to send it there. My goal is to have it finished by next Wednesday. I have also been listening to Tee
Morris' podcast Podcasting for Dummies and I have been thinking that this would be a great story to do as a podcast. Sometimes late at night I wake up and wonder of print is dead. Words are not dead, but is the traditional book dead?

Ozymandias' Spirit out to beta readers

Well the story is done and came in at about 11,000 words! I have sent it out to 4 beta readers and now I am awaiting their feedback. I want to send this in to the Writers of the Future Contest for July 1. I do not know if writers call use the term "beta reader" but the term works. I guess it is bleedover from the Software world I make my living in. Now I have to get working on my next story.

Osymandias' Spirit

Well it is done. 10975 words and it is ready for the edit. I have been working on it so I could have a week of editing on it before I send it to the beta readers. Wow I am tired.

A Slave to My Tastes

Writing class was interesting last night. The format of the class is this: the first half of the class is a lecture on some important aspect of the writing profession, followed by a break and then reading what we have written. Last night was a lecture on the supply-demand aspect of publishing, and how in many ways books are looked on as a commodity. The part that struck me was how the publishers are always looking to fill the niches of taste with product and I realized that I am a slave to my own tastes. Without thinking I have chosen to read only in a narrow vertical of the market.

So I have decided that this problem calls for drastic solutions. I came up with this idea. I am going to go into the bookstore with a 12 foot long tape measure and 2 dice. The first roll will be how far down the shelf I will go in linear feet. The second roll of a single dice will be how may feet up from the floor I will go. And at the point where the 2 axis cross, that is the book I will read. When I am finished, I will go back and roll the dice from where the last co-ordinates are and re-roll to find the next book.

Some might see this as a page from the Two-Face School of Decision Making, but I put it to you that choosing books this way will eliminate any bias created by dust jacket artwork, or whether the book is in the middle sight lines and I am guaranteed to read new work. I will start at one end of the science fiction shelf and move on towards the other end of the store's fiction area.

Right now I am reading Nightfall, by Asimov and Silverberg and then it is on to the novel, Planet of the Apes. So after these are done, I will begin the experiment.

It is an exciting prospect, this non-deterministic method of book choice, because it is going to lead me into fiction I have never read before; and I might find that I really like crime fiction or new westerns or other unknown-to-me genre , or whatever is in the shelves that I land on.

Writing a Mission Statement

Well here it is. I read it to the class yesterday, and one person asked if I wanted a temple built too. I do realize that it is dramatic, but it is supposed to be a Mission Statement, not a ToDo list. Like any author, I want the reader to read what I write and "get it."

I want to write.
I want to write ideas that are memorable, meaningful and moving.
I want to write stories that shock and awe the reader, to motivate and change and force questions, easy and awkward.
I want to write so readers who hold power over others will tremble when they hear my words and worry in their beds at night that what they do may be found out.
I want the readers who are oppressed by ideas and circumstances that enslave them to see that they do have the power of choice, and through choices easy and hard, can live the way they decide to live.
I want to write about freedom and responsibility and the rewards of virtue.
I want to write and change worlds.

Casting Lead

Today I cast the last of 70 lbs of lead for a project I had to finish. I can understand why the medieval Europeans were so enamored with this metal. It is so easy to work, and is silver when it is freshly poured into the casting sand. When the lead cools, you can watch the crystal growth almost occurring before your eyes. I can see how easy it would have been to pour it into sheets and roll it into pipe.
I had my dad over and he watched some of the pours. He said that the cooled metal looked just like the structure silver had when it is in the rocks.
Despite the toxic nature of the material and how it damages the brain--and I handled it safely and carefully--it is still a beautiful metal to work with.

I joined Critters and now have to find time to participate there. I still have to write my mission statement for class on Wednesday.

Creative Writing II

Last night was the first night of a 10 week class in creative writing I am taking at Conestoga Polytechnic in Waterloo. The focus of this class is to create a "work of substance" that will be ready to send to a publisher. The class has 7 people in it and everyone is very spirited with strong feelings about what they are passionate about. I am bring one of my stories to complete, that I am 7000 words into already. The synopsis is complete, along with character sketches so now i just have to grind out the narrative.

This blogging is a new experience for me. I am not normally so upfront with what I am thinking about so the fear of being bombed with harsh criticism is ever present. Of course I have creative control about what i post up here and my soul is not hanging out on the line for all to see, nevertheless, I am posting thoughts and ideas that can be read by total strangers and that is new for me. I am sure that this is not a new feeling unique to me, but it is to me and so I figured it is a point worth noting.

In writing class we have to create a Mission Statement about our writing goals, and we will be measured against what we write in our statements. It has given me pause to wonder what I really want to get out of writing. I will post "my mission" here once it is finished. When I heard this I immediately thought about the movie Citizen Kane, where Charles Foster Kane writes out a Statement of Principles for his first newspaper.

I have not received any comments yet so I am not sure that anyone is reading this all yet. There is very little here to read yet. Just another message in a bottle floating out in the vast sea of ideas.

It is also raining here in Kitchener which is a good thing because we have not received any steady rain this April and everything is so dry. I fear this might the shape of things to come.

Making a difference.

Finished a job in Dorado,
Got up early to catch the plane in old San Juan.
With a rental car
and the time running down,
caught in traffic.

The clock ran down,
Hundreds of cars in the tropical morning light.
Drive a little,
Stop a lot.
Passing the reason for the snarl,
a single car,
unmoving in the middle lane.

The driver sitting behind the wheel, alone and waiting.
And as I passed I realized this simple truth,
that one person can make a difference.

10 years ago and I never forgot this lesson.