Summer Gothic: Crawling Forward

We've got a cover! There it is.

That's the same graveyard image I've been using on the temporary art for a while, and the "ghost" is Haleigh Huggins, the daughter of a friend of mine who agreed to play along. (Hi, Haleigh!) My wife Lea made the dress and hovered over my shoulder while I painstakingly merged her into frame, offering advice like "That's too sharp. That's too blurry. That's too shiny. Her fingers are messed up. That filter makes her look too green. Something's showing through her forehead."


Criticism is the best antidote to error, saith David Brin, and  the whole thing came together well because of it.

This fell beast is getting closer and closer to completion.

Meanwhile, it's time I got my ass back to writing. I still need to churn out "Rocket Science" for this year's Flash Fiction Night, I need to write a third Perrilloux story to submit for Dreams of Steam 3, and I need to finish draft #10 of The Blood Prayer, since I've found another poor sucker willing to proofread it. However, last night the whole first paragraph of my 1950's time travel pulp novel burst fully-formed out of my brain and I've got to stop myself from going any further on that particular project until a few of the others are out of the way. Oh, and I have to rewrite my kayak story with yet another new ending.

Sheesh.

Summer Gothic, and other bits

Quick Summer Gothic update: I sent all the story critiques out over a week ago, and half of the revised, pretty-much-final drafts are in. Specifically, I've got 11 of the twenty-ish stories I want to publish now sitting in my Master Document, and I'm just waiting on the others. I've given people until February 15 to do the rewrites, but that doesn't stop me from being antsy.

This weekend: the cover shoot! I'll be sticking with the stock "overgrown graveyard" photo I've been using in the promotional material so far, but I've got a friend's daughter who's agreed to be the obligatory Dead Person who I plan to "ghost" into the image (assuming I can make it look professional and not half-assed).

In other news:

• Flash Fiction Night 2012 is set for March 20, 7:00 p.m., at the Hoover Public Library. There are still plenty of slots for participants, so let me know or call the Hoover fiction department at (205) 444-7800 if you have a story you'd like to present.
• Kerlak has opened a story call for Dreams of Steam III, so I get to do another of my "Perrilloux" stories. Hopefully I'll be able to get into the collection again; the first two have been so successful that the competition to be in Vol.3 will probably be pretty fierce.

Summer Gothic: Let's Do This Thing

Okay, now I'm worried. Yesterday was the deadline for submissions to Summer Gothic, the anthology of Alabama ghost stories that I'm editing. The stories are in, and on the whole they're good. This thing that so far has been nothing but a daydream in the back of my head is really going to happen.

Nervous? You bet'cha.

Of course, there's a lot still to come: Cover art, interior design, contracts, deciding for sure on which P.O.D. service to use - but most importantly, sending each story back to the author with notes for revision. The best experiences I've had with my own short stories is when editors have returned them with comments and requested another draft. Since Summer Gothic is as much a teaching exercise for the various writers' groups I'm involved with as it is an opportunity for publication, I'm going to "pay it forward" and do the same for this collection. I've had a committee looking at each story that came in (anonymous for now, I think of them as Ryan, Randy, Paula, and Simon) and I'm going to condense all their praise and criticism into a packet for each contributor who makes it to the next round. The story call website will shortly switch to a production blog so everyone can keep track of our progress.

So that's where things stand in the exciting country of "What the Hell Have I Gotten Myself Into?" If all goes swimmingly, this thing should see print in the spring of 2012.

And every one of you will buy a copy. Right?

NaNoWriMo 2011 - One for the Books

My gods, is it over? Can I come out now? May I actually watch TV without feeling guilty about it? Gee, whiz.

This was actually a pretty productive month. I didn't struggle as much to keep my head above water as I did last year, but I never got very far ahead on my daily word count either. At least the universe didn't conspire against me more than normal this time. Final word count: 52,135. This was a continuation of the novel I began last year, so I just pasted my new work onto the end of my previous installment, which brings draft 1 of The Ghost Cauldron (formerly The Wolves of Majadan) up to 103,926 words... and counting. I can comfort myself with the knowledge that I don't have another 50K to go until this thing is done - but there might be as much as 40K left to the end. After that, I can leave Majadan behind for a while and get on with something new.

My first year as Birmingham's Nano ML was exciting. We had a huge turnout for our kick-off party and a lively crowd for our write-ins, at least at the beginning at the month. Attendance at these things always dies off as November moves along, people develop plans, and the majority of writers fall gasping by the wayside. Nevertheless, Birmingham writers produced over 7.3 million words of fiction this year, which is quite an achievement.

Next November: (see, I'm thinking ahead) The Whisper - the love child of Clark Kent and Hunter S. Thompson meets a Fifties beatnik version of the Shadow to thwart the plans of a dastardly time-travel cartel to destroy the world for fun and profit.

Meanwhile the deadline is fast approaching for Summer Gothic submissions. Stories have been trickling in, but I've heard promises of many more to come in the next few weeks. Get those in by December 15!

Also, if you're in the Birmingham area this weekend, drop by the Birmingham Public Library for our annual Local Authors Expo. I'll be selling and signing copies of Dreams of Steam vol. 1 & 2 from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm.