Shay D.

I sold my first story to Crossed Genres on my birthday weekend, three years ago. It really does not seem like that long.

About six months later, my story "Detuned" was a runner-up in the AE Micro contest.

Two months after that, I sold "Carefully Constructed" to CG for Issue 20: Lies. I was especially proud of this one, as it is set in the same world as my novel-under-revision, and features one of the secondary characters.

With those successes under my belt (and some kind words of encouragement on a couple of rejections from Kay, too), I submitted "Turning" to The Monster Book For Girls anthology - and sold it.

This year, despite a couple of intriguing genres, I didn't manage to get anything written for CG, but I did submit to Dagan Books' FISH anthology - and sold "I Know A Secret" to them.

None of which I would have tried, if not for that first sale to CG.

So while I am sad to see the magazine close, I know that the novels and anthologies Bart and Kay put together will be awesome, and I look forward to all the shiny new things they create.

Been meaning to post this for a while, since I found Terry had put it up on an open forum.

The TOC for The Monster Book for Girls, slated for launch at FantasyCon 2011 in Brighton at the end of September.

( TOC (including me!) )

March the first, already, hmm? Let's see if I can't at least do 3 things make a post.

Thing the first: After much debate and planning, we're getting a puppy. She's a four month old Pomeranian. Name is still under debate. We're picking her up on Thursday night. In preparation for introducing puppy to household with senior cat, we acquired a Feliway diffuser. So far it seems to only be confusing the cat.

Thing the second: I did a first pass at our taxes last night (on paper, because I actually don't mind doing them by hand), and due to various circumstances from last year that resulted in me overpaying the government, I'm likely to get a fairly substantial chunk of money back. This is a pleasant surprise.

Thing the third: Cyberpunk novel rewrite progesses. Spouse is proving invaluable in articulating and expanding world-building concepts that I have written intuitively. (What? We only share a brain part-time.)

...I'm sure there were other things. In fact, there were other things while I was typing, but they have escaped me again. Argh.

Oh. I still have #SFContario notes to type and post. Those need to get done before Ad Astra. Sheesh.

Woke up this morning at about 6am (early for me - I don't like mornings) from a dream in which I had:
1 - submitted something to an editor I respected and had worked with before
2 - received a tl;dr type email reply from said editor, that thoroughly critiqued both the submission and everything else I'd ever written,
and 3 - started composing a contrite reply.

I don't usually dream about reading words in enough detail to remember them when I wake up (let alone start drafting email replies), but certain phrases stuck in my head; probably because they're the sort of thing I'm paranoid about.

"Your characterization is weak,"
"Your characters are very flat and two-dimensional,"
"You spend too much time writing about your characters' thought processes,"
"Your plotting is weak..."
etc etc.

Lies.

Or, okay. At least not 100% true (or I never would have sold anything). But obviously they're things I worry about enough to give my subconcious paranoia something to hold on to.

I know this is my inner editor run amok and fear mongering. What I don't entirely know is why. And it's hard to argue with your subconcious. Dwelling on it may just exacerbate the problem.

Meantime, the day job beckons. There are times I wish we kept pre-ground coffee on hand for the mornings, but I much prefer the taste of fresh-roasted and fresh-ground stuff. Commute first, then coffee.