Cat Rambo

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

Currently On My Plate

What I'm focusing on this month:

The rewrite of Phat Fairy, because I'd like to send that out to an agent soon.
Continuing to draft/plan Queen of the Fireflies.
A short story intended for the Codex Writers' Halloween contest. Can't blog about it until the contest is over, heh, but wish me luck - last time I tied for second place, so I have high hopes for this time.
Catching up on the 1400 e-mails accumulated in my inbox and getting Fantasy Magazine sorted out finally.
Getting a backlog of stories out for consideration.
Getting my mother settled in Redmond.
Prepping to start teaching at the end of the month.
Picking up more freelancing work where I can.
Rock Band Beatles!!!!!!!

The Fantasy Magazine slush readers have been busy processing the slew of stories received when we opened. Here's the recent acquisitions:

"Stereogram of the Gray Fort, in the Days of Her Glory" by Paul Berger
"Abandonware" by An Owomoyela
"Lost Dogs and Fireplace Archeology" by Chris Howard
"The Slavesinger" by Louise Marley
"The Seal of Sulaymaan" by Tracy Canfield

mood:

busy

music: Baaba Maal - Miyaabele

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Monday, August 17th, 2009

Mom Report

Well, unfortunately, what the surgeon had said he didn't think was cancer, did turn out to be cancerous, according to the pathology report. We don't know yet what this means in terms of chemo, which still seems to be a bit up in the air, but she's going to see an oncologist in South Bend, and then come out here and see another, so she'll know what her options are. Still planning on flying her out here on September 1st.

mood:

awake

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Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

Schtuff

Got some great offers for people to write or otherwise do stuff with Fantasy magazine, going to get those all answered today, along with catching up with a couple of important Armageddon e-mails, and a PW review that I should have turned in yesterday but got derailed by the holiday enough into thinking it was due today, yikes.

Plus Phat Fairy, and a bunch of ARC-related stuff. I tell you what - I have two extra, and I'll give them out here on LJ to the people who write the most entertaining comment about what they'll do with the ARC in order to publicize the book. If you'd rather just go pre-order a copy, you can do that here.

On Fantasy Magazine, you can read an L. Frank Baum reprint, Ozma Appears, Rae Bryant's account of her first convention experience at Balticon, or John Ottinger's review of Peter S. Beagle's We Never Talk About My Brother.

mood:

chipper

music: Buckshot LeFonque - Some Cow Fonque (More Tea Vicar?)

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Sunday, February 22nd, 2009

My Baby's Almost Back

It's been a return to singlehood the last three days with Wayne in Philly right now. He's back tonight, and I'll be glad. Which is not to say an existence of pottering around the house and writing and eating Captain Crunch and the occasional bout of working on my BE pally on World of Warcraft has been bad, at all, but it's a lot more fun, generally, when my little cupcake is in residence.

One of the slush readers, referring to a comment I'd made about our favor of fantasy versus that of RoF or Beneath Ceaseless Skies, asked how I'd define our flavor. I'm still figuring that out. Any thoughts from the readers out there? Is there something that makes you think one story is suited to us where another is not?

(Armageddon players - working on a post about the question of player retention that came up yesterday, will post within the next couple of days, because it's an old question and one where I think the player and staff povs may differ significantly. More on that to come.)

Why is it the more I listen to Mike Doughty, the more I like his music? (I went on an E&BM bout too, spurred by your comment the other day, Rebecca. Good, good stuff.)

mood:

busy

music: Mike Doughty - I Just Want the Girl in The Blue Dress

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Tuesday, February 10th, 2009

Novel Stuff

Currently on page 412 of editing the tenth and hopefully final draft, which means I got through 200 pages yesterday somehow. Edits still not incorporated yet.
Number of unwritten scenes: Still uncounted, but as I approach the end, I'm thinking no more than ten.
Number of unwritten chapter tags: Still reckoned at 40.
Current word count: 120,239 Avoiding the temptation to start on the edits just to see this number change. Must finish draft first, but hopefully that will happen today.
On target for 3/21 deadline? Yes

Got a whopping seven nonfic queries out yesterday, and an immediate bite on one, which makes me happy, since even though the market's not particularly well-paying, it's a nifty one.

The cough is starting to die away and didn't wake me up at all last night. Huzzah!

mood:

cheerful

music: Annuals - Complete or Completing

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Monday, February 9th, 2009

Sunny Day

I seem to get more done on the bright days.

Currently on page 336 of editing the tenth and hopefully final draft. Edits all by hand, not incorporated yet. Realized that since I printed it at a line and a half spacing, there are 437 pages total, so I'm further along than I thought.

Ohmysweetgoddessletmedonewiththisnovelsomeday.

Number of unwritten scenes: Still uncounted. Wrote three small ones today.
Number of unwritten chapter tags: Still reckoned at 40.
Current word count: 120,239
On target for 3/21 deadline? Yes!

Plus I got a bunch of nonfic pitches out, seven altogether, and already heard back on one, although the article won't be due until October. I'd like to pick up enough nonfic work this year to pay for things like airfare to cons and other writing expenses. Plus, writing articles pushes me to be organized and to be socialable and on top of things.

mood:

chipper

music: Annie Lennox - Something So RIght

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Novel Status

Currently on page 202 of editing the tenth and hopefully final draft. Edits all by hand, not incorporated yet.
Number of unwritten scenes: Still uncounted. Just wrote another, so that's three accounted for so far.
Number of unwritten chapter tags: Still reckoned at 40.
Current word count: 120,239 Avoiding the temptation to start on the edits just to see this number change. Must finish draft first.
On target for 3/21 deadline? Yes

Still very excited about something that will appear this month, (I hope)! Just sent a batch of four pitches off to the Escapist as well.

location: butt in chair

mood:

chipper

music: PCO - The Sound of Someone You Love Who's Going Away & It Doesn't Matter

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Friday, January 9th, 2009

New Haircut! (pre-repinkening)

I thought maybe I should get a haircut in order to be presentable at ConFusion. ;)

mood:

cold

music: Norah Jones - Cold Cold Hear

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Saturday, November 8th, 2008

see my ships a-sailing

A rainy Saturday morning -- I'm about to get some writing on Phat Fairy in before heading off for a writing group afternoon. I need to stop and think out some things about the plotline before I go too much further.

Birthday #45 coming up next weekend. HOLY COW HOW DID I GET HERE? I figure with any luck and some preventative maintenance that puts me at about halfway through (maternal grandmother just passed 97). As always with these sporadic moments of assessment, I resolve to take better care of myself, to walk every day, to mediate, to do the dishes daily, to keep up on e-mail and be better about telling my friends how much I appreciate and love them. It's always an uphill climb, for I am a bad, lazy creature at the bone.

I have been reading a lot of urban fantasy this year and have found what I think is my very favorite so far, Lilith Saintcrow's books. Finished Working for the Devil last night, Night Shift a couple of days ago, and I've got three more stacked on the reading shelf. Thank you,

pauljessup , for mentioning them.

Wayne is torn this weekend: football, Fallout 3, or a judicious mixture of the two? I suspect it will be door #3.

P.S. I like this photo.
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location: butt in chair

mood:

cheerful

music: Michelle Shocked - The Secret to a Long Life (Is Knowing When It's Time To Go)

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Friday, November 7th, 2008

Things

I've been head down this week, trying to get a head start on Nanowrimo, since I know I always get derailed by my birthday mid month and then the Thanksgiving holidays. At the same time, I'm almost at the end of the rewrite of The Moon's Apprentice and hoping to have that ready to go out into the world by the end of the month at the very latest, hopefully midway through.

The nice thing about being productive in Nano is that it gets me in a mindset where I'm more productive all around, so I've managed to finish up one project, send off a batch of questions for an interview, get some Fantasy rejections done, and catch up on some e-mails (with another big batch to go, heh) and housework (and there again, I have done less than the amount that waits, looming, to be done). And re-pinked my hair, in celebration of the election results. This weekend I'll keep writing, meet with one writing group Sat, keep nibbling away at the project list, and finish up a batch of Fantasy mag business. Whew.

I'll also be at OryCon in a couple of weeks -- see you there perhaps!

mood:

busy

music: Fatboy Slim - Right Here Right Now

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Tuesday, November 4th, 2008

Voted

Wayne and I dropped off our ballots this morning. Tonight we're going to a friend's house to watch the results.

Nice review of the October Clarkesworld that includes a note about the podcast:

The podcast version of the same story, read by Cat Rambo, is equally impressive. Hines includes some Japanese terms and Rambo pronounces them correctly and smoothly so much so that one doesn't really realize there are actually foreign words in the story. She also adds a layer of meekness to the protagonist and a stern distinction between the various characters thanks to dialogue.

I was a little nervous about the Japanese pronunciations, so that was really pleasant to see.

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Wednesday, October 8th, 2008

Side Note as I Work

It's Wednesday, and Raven is ensconced in my lap. He came running because I was singing along to "Dear Prudence" and for some reason, he loves it more than anything else in the world when I sing. What a weird cat.

One of the things I've been poking at over the past week is a suggested ToC for the collection, and it got me to thinking about career strategies. Because from my perspective, we neo-pros get told a number of different things.

Here's the thing: one starts writing and trying to break into the field. This happens in several ways:

One writes a novel and sends it off to the Endless Pit of Consideration. We've all heard the horror stories of halls lined with unread manuscripts, writers sending birthday cards to their manuscripts, and on and on. The best and most determined send that novel off and start on another immediately. Go them. This is slow stuff, and career highlights occur at a glacial pace.
One writes stories and sends them off. Researching the field consists of catch-as-catch-can stuff, wisdom garnered from reading the multiplicity of writing blogs and books. Through persistence and a dogged willingness to keep sending stuff out, publications begin to accrue. There's a bit more encouragement here, because stories get accepted/published faster (usually) and then sometimes you get nice reviews or notes from people.
One starts writing, either a novel or short stories, and goes through one of the processing mills of f&sf, a workshop like Odyssey, Clarion, Clarion West, Clarion Moonbase Alpha, etc. Here a well-meaning pro or series of pros will tell you short stories is the way to go or else that novels are the way to go. Sometimes they will tell you both at the same time. These folks have a slight edge over the folks in groups one and two, because they do learn something about the publishing industry in a crash course that also helps them make contacts. A condensed version of this are writing workshops at cons.

The more you learn, the more you work at writing, in terms of both one's own writing and learning about the industry, the better your chances. At Norwescon one year, Bill Dietz said that persistence, talent, and likeability are all factors. You can get by on two. You probably cannot get by on just one.

But I digress.

At any rate, some people say short stories are the way to break into the field. They don't usually give you the second part of that, which is that it's not enough to have a scattering of stories in lower-tier magazines. You need some grade-A stories of the sort that get awards, and a luminous, evocative, knock-your-socks-off talent of the sort manifested by Ted Chiang or Paolo Bacigalupi. Good luck with that part -- I haven't managed it, but one can always aspire.

Short stories can get you noticed, I think, because editors read magazines and anthologies, and people do look to see who is apearing regularly in Year's Best collections. But then there comes a what then? sort of moment, a hitch in the step where you don't really know where your energy should be going. Pushing an editor to try and get a collection out? Finish a novel and start it circulating? Grabbing for the brass ring of YA-fueled multimillions? (Ha.)

So...there's people on all sides of the question reading this, (or so I hope). Are short stories really a good career strategy? What do you do after you've had a few published? Are there things new writers should be doing at this point -- for example, researching how Year's Best anthologies are put together and how to make sure their work gets considered for it?

mood:

chipper

music: Kocani Orkestar - Dervi Oro

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Tuesday, October 7th, 2008

Economics, Chez Rambo

If you're like me, you're eying the bailout and financial crisis and wondering - what does this mean for me, overall? Is this, for example, going to be used for yet another try at gutting Social Security? What is going to happen to my 401k plan? What are prices going to be like next year? Will I be able to sell my home if need be, or find a new rental? How secure is the employment situation? How will this affect the publishing market? And I, like everyone else, know nothing, despite a six month stint as an economics major, during which I managed to absorb astonishing little. This is all pretty mystifying.

So what we're doing is waiting and seeing.

In the meantime, we're doing things that can't hurt, even if the financial criss magically repairs itself:

Paying down credit card debt and making sure we're financially secure.
Re-evaluating the household budget to see what could be trimmed if needed, including things like looking at the cable bill to make sure we do need all those channels and renewing my library card in order to look for books there rather than at Borders.
Stockpiling nonperishables that we know we'll be needing in the next year: things like a year's supply of Claritin for Wayne, enough cold medicine to see us through the flu season to spring, and enough supplies in the pantry that we could live comfortably for a while amid the hordes of looters and zombies. I've always been a fan of buying in bulk -- we just ran out of Comet from the six pack I bought when I first moved to Redmond, for example. Having a pantry that has a flat of canned tomatoes, enough pasta to feed an army, and a ton of garlic makes me feel a bit more secure.
Stockpiling in case we get another winter stint without power: fuel for the wood stove, the camp stove, and making sure the hand-crank radio is in good repair and as easily located as the cribbage board.
Making sure we use up health benefits before the end of the year and are up to date on things like prescriptions.
Keeping a jaded eye on the scams springing up to prey on people worried about their finances. Thrift and frugality are, paradoxically, going to become marketing strategies.

Frankly, there's a lot of other stuff to be worrying about, such as this.

mood:

busy

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