So what have I been doing? Celebrating some holiday fun with Thaumatrope Twitter fiction. (Twiction?)

And

Oh, and did you see the Collection of Horrors? You should, I’ve written two bits of it, and you can download one RIGHT NOW. (Or, if you rather, get a subscription and get a whole bunch of Hunter the Vigil goodness, I can’t blame you. There’s some great stuff in there. Even some great stuff by David, the man from whom my babies come.)

Oh, and did I tell you I’m going to be in anthology? A real book and everything. Why yes, you should preorder your copy now.

Later, more book reviews and maybe some links.

Among a lot of other things going on this summer, it looks like I’m going to this writer’s conference in June. I’m trying to collate some info on dos and don’ts for the first timer at this kind of event. (I want to get the most out of it.) If I get any good stuff, I’ll post it here, practice it and tell you how it worked after the conference.

So, I put it you, internets. What do you know about this sort of event? Any personal thoughts, or short of that, good leads so’as I can school mah self?

I have a nice load on my plate right now, wrapping up some edits on UnHero, my first serious novel. (As serious as my novels get anyway.) I look forward to hooking up with J.R later so she can tell me how much it sucks and I can tell her how right she is.

I had initially gotten this last round of edits together with the intention of submitting it to a contest in early February. (This one, to be exact.) While musing over a chapter rewrite I still need to do, I went over some of the fine print and was made nervous by some of the details. The grand prize winner gets a contract with Penguin, which is awesome. Apparently though, that contract is non negotiable and includes a lot more rights then a writer with an agent might normally give up.

At least, that was my suspicion from my stalking reading various and sundry agents who blog. With that suspicion in mind, I wrote to an agent asking him what he thought about the contest.

To my total shock and surprise, this very busy literary agent wrote me back. He shared my concern about the number of rights they wanted, and he was concerned about what the contract itself would look like. He did say the percentages were all industry standard and that the contest was not a scam.

I gave it some thought, and still am, but I think this contest is for a different kind of manuscript than what I’ve written this time around. More importantly, I was surprised and delighted that this agent, who wouldn’t know me from Adam took a minute or two out of his day to answer my question. (Except that I have breasts, and I don’t remember the Bible mentioning that Adam had DDs.) Would that have happened before the internet? I don’t know, but I really don’t think so.

Anyway, thank you again Algore and your precious creation Teh Internets for the precious knowledge I have discovered within your tubes. Thank you also, Agent, for answering my question, though I doubt you’ll read this blog to know.

I guess I’ll just have to sell this damn book the old fashioned way, by dressing it in a mini skirt and heels and sending out to the street corner.

Coming up: Book Reviews. No, really.

Bonus Question: Is it weird that my Creative Writing professor didn’t know what the word ‘ichor’ meant?

Somehow, my husband has convinced me that going back and finishing my two year degree is cheaper for us right now than paying back some outstanding student loans. He’s probably right, and I guess I ‘need’ the education since I only seem to be getting so far with in my personal growth.

So, I start school again tomorrow and I am feeling very very mixed about it. Most of it’s just online classes to satisfy some random person’s idea of what a degree should look like. I am taking a creative writing class on campus in person with, I’m sure, a bunch of 18 year olds hoping for an easy A. 

It might be awesome, and I probably shouldn’t let my general hatred for the education system get in the way of my good time, but the feeling remains and I’m having a hell of a time shaking it.

In other news, I have a few things out to a couple of compainies, and I’m trying not to dismiss them just because it’s taking longer to hear back than I want. I have no outstanding work and that’s making me buggy. I can find my own work, of course, and I will, but contract work is just so much nicer. 

I have a head full of romantic stories. I don’t usually, and so it’s strange to me. Maybe I’m in heat.

On that note, 

TTYL

* If you are ever taking the 103 bus through suburban Philadelphia toward the 69th street transit hub, don’t do it while holding a giant cup of scalding hot coffee. My delicate hands are still smarting, thanks bumpy road!!

* The Stepsister Scheme is turning out to be more awesome then I had hoped. Oh dear. There are going to be five of these!! (Mr. Hines, I can’t decide if I love your or hate you!)

* If you’re a Requiem player and reading this, please go immediately and order your copy of Ancient Mysteries. I can honestly tell you at this point this is going to be the most beautifully produced thing White Wolf has yet put out. I was blown out if my seat by it, really. If you aren’t a Requiem player, you should be. 

*The word ‘seemed’ needs to be stricken from my language forever. Really. Done with it.

TTFN

If it’s cool on the internet, you know I’m right there, doing it three years later. So, that said, here’s what I got done last year and some goal setting for next year to make me feel bad at the end of 2009.

If you’ve got a year in review, link it to me in comments. If you’ve got goals for next year, link it to me so we can share successes together next year.

In no particular order:

1. I made money as a writer this year, and it didn’t involve taking my figurative clothes off.

2. My daughter went from a baby to a genius in the course of a year. I’m going to call that my accomplishment.

3. My husband made money as a writer, again, that has something to do with me.

4. I finally feel like an adult with a house almost to the point I want it. Or at least, I got it to the point that I’m comfortable, and I can live with that.

5. We got my sister-in-law the fuck out of bumblefuck Ohio, and now she’s starting a life out here in society.

6. Here’s the big one: I SOLD over 100,000 words. Not wrote. Sold. (Hard to say how many words I wrote. I’ll have a better idea next year.)

7. I got shit together to go back to school. Very anxious about it, but I guess it’s the best way to step up my game. I hope.

I think I have more goals for next year then I have crap done this year, but that’s how a career gets started, I guess.

1. Over all, I want to write about 250,000 words next year. That’s a ton of short stories and gaming work. If I sell a percentage of that, it’ll be awesome.

2. I’m going to get UnHero out to every agent and publisher in the free world until someone is dumb enough… Erm.. Clever enough to buy it and give me lots and lots of money.

3. I will get a few radio dramas up on the net for everyone to enjoy. I love the medium so much, and I have the technology. Time to get that show on the road.

4. With or as its own word count, I think I need to start another novel. Feels like time.

So that’s last year and the next. What about you, what are you doing?