Guzzling Workahol

November 20

I'm busy. It's self-imposed. When things in my life get overwhelming and I feel things spiraling out of control, I focus on the work, the thing I can control. So the past few nights I've been working a lot, getting some good stuff done. I've got five chapters of my book totally finished now (of 33 chapters total), about 70 pages (of 550 pages total). I should finish the rest of it before Thanksgiving. Huzzah! Mostly just line-editing, some slashing of unnecessary stuff, some deepening of detail. The usual. I'm still very into it, though I'm also looking forward to finishing and moving on to other projects -- some stories, a collab with Heather, my Marla novel. The writing is going very well.

I got a rejection from Gothic.net (which doesn't bother me overmuch, now that I know they haven't paid Mike for a story they ran in the summer!). Very strange comments from the editor -- he liked the beginning, but found the ending clichéd. Now, the ending of this story is extremely distinctive -- it's a total re-examination of a major myth, and gives a serious twist to the usual interpretation of that myth. I'm willing to believe that someone, maybe, came up with the same twist before, but it's for damn sure not a cliché. Other things about the rejection lead me to believe that the editor read the beginning fairly closely and then skimmed the end, which is fine, but it annoys me that he then gave me advice about how the ending fell apart. So it goes -- off to another market. It's a good story, and I think it'll find a home.

In happier news, I got my page proofs from Realms of Fantasy today for "Captain Fantasy". It should come out in the April issue (though that's not definite), which means I'll have stories in two consecutive issues! The managing editor, Laura, wrote: "I love this story. It is very different from what we usually publish, and it has so many strong visual images. I think and hope I found the perfect artist to do the illustration. I've seen very rough sketches and think it's going to be great." The artist? Joel F. Naprstek. There's not much on his website -- it's essentially a placeholder page -- but there's enough to see that he's an honest-to-gosh comic book artist, which is the thing I wished but dared not hope for. I can't wait to see what he does with the story! I have fanboyish dreams of writing comics, I confess, though it doesn't seem likely to happen anytime soon -- I'm still trying to figure out how to write stories and novels, after all. But this is a somewhat comic-bookish story (hell, my influences -- Alan Moore, Garth Ennis (more the Marvel stuff in this case, rather than Preacher), and a misspent youth of action figures and Superman movies and Spiderman cartoons -- are very visible in this one. The non-comic-book influences are the Orestes plays and Oliver Sacks), and with luck I'll get a comic-bookish illo...

Various things are swirling in the ether. Thanksgiving should be fun (though my boss will be in Cuba for the holiday, so there's no famous-writers-and-amazing-food dinner at his place this time), getting together with Susan and some of her friends. Heather and I are doing some sweet things this weekend, and I may get an early experiential birthday present, though that's somewhat in doubt. I'll keep working -- I need to write/polish poems for an editor who requested some, write a couple of short reviews, finish up work on the next issue of Star*Line, and, of course, get this novel done. I like being productive. At least, when things are contrary and somewhat crumbling, nested stresses piling up, I can always fall back on my work -- and my love for Heather. And coffee. And wine with Heather and Susan on Tuesday nights. And art. Those are the things that keep me going when it's cold out...

Words written since February 1, 2002: 181,700

Words written since last entry:
500

Send a three-book contract from a major publisher, with a seven-figure advance. Or some cookies.

Tim Pratt
P.O. Box 13222
Berkeley, CA 94712-4222

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