A final NaNoWriMo writing prompt post to aid anyone dragging themselves to the finish line or to inspire a short story for December. We're not taking any time off for Christmas, right? Well maybe a day or seven.

I finally updated my Duotrope submissions tracker today and discovered I only have 12 stories out (and one of those I suspect has fallen down a black hole - 272 days to the wonderful ChiZine and no reply to a query letter of about 50 days ago), so I think most of December will be dedicated to spewing crafting some new short stories.

Today, I completed a flash fiction story, Black Heart Balloon, which I hoped to send to RetroSpec until it took a rather vicious turn. Darn those bird carcasses and evil avian lung stealing fiends, it was a quite delightful piece until they turned up. I shall have to think of something almost as delightful this week. I have (including today) the next ten days off work. Don't envy me too much though, I have to do all my Christmas shopping. I'm sure my family don't want gifts this year. I think they'd prefer I spent my week riding the Liverpool Eye or skating in the new, rather tiny, ice rink in the city centre.

Oh, and for all of those who have completed NaNo or ripped written your little hearts out a hearty CONGRATULATIONS. You're awesome and we who have put our feet up, devoured far too much internet and wasted November salute you.

My laptop is switched on, there are words on the screen and up until a few minutes ago, I was writing - honest. I'm midway through a rewrite of Dead Sharp Tail (kind offer to allow me to fix the story and try again received this morning), I'm 900 words into the first draft of When Orange Lanterns Lit the World (a dystopian short), and panicking that I won't have any ideas/time to write something for 'Retro Spec' which will close to submissions in about a week. Cue palpitations.

And despite God forgetting to send the memo re the permanent change of the sky from blue to grey, there was a quick flash of sunlight from my inbox this afternoon. The Tangled Bank have accepted my short, The Sound of Sharp Voices, for their anthology. Nice.

I've always been a one corkboard girl for no reason other than I was testing the stability of my wall by placing as many things as possible on one corkboard and then, a few weeks ago, Danielle Ferries posted a picture of her Engine Room and I was transfixed (I kid you not) by her three corkboards. Wait a minute, I could have more than one? No one sent me the memo. Or if they did it was buried beneath all the crap on my old board.

Now that I'm all organised, I'll be far more productive. Ahem! Possibly. There's a board dedicated to my WIP novel (which would be a WIP if I was actually working on it), and another dedicated to short stories, with details of the next four stories that I expect to write, and my old board is littered with anthology guidelines that I'll never get around to.

I guess I should write now. Or perhaps, organise the rest of my room. Or twitter. Or... Find food.

Now that's a long blog title, I'm expecting Blogger to object (or LJ if you're reading my ramblings there) to it and if you're reading it now, I'm guessing they didn't. Anyhow...

I'm currently in the first flush of an idea for a short story (that my mind is trying to convince me could be novella length, but which we both know will end up scraping 2,000 words at most) and as per usual, I'm convinced this one is going to be great. That's nothing new. Here is how stories usually pan out for me.

Spark of an idea
Me: Ooh, interesting.
Idea begins to build
Me: This is going to be fan'frickin'tastic. Fantasy & Science Fiction here we come.

Open up blank page in Word
Me: I'm in love with you first paragraph

Several hours later
Me: First paragraph you suck

Some more hours later
Me: Idea you are plain old ordinary and why is there a garden gnomerunning around the plot.

Everything rewritten, rewritten and rewritten some more
Me: I'd send it to F&SF but my ink is low and I'd have to go to the Post Office and well, you know that idea was not as great as the one I just thought of.Now that story, I will send.
At this point I should add that I have submitted to Fantasy & Science Fiction once (story now retired) and sometimes the glow doesn't wear off until several editors have shooed me away.




King of my castle.. by ~Rowiel on deviantART

NaNoWriMo Prompt Words:

Tin Castle
Cheap Cigars
Chorus of Devils
Rooftops
Pathology
Playing Poker
Deja-Vu
Knee Caps
Scrap Metal

Going against my reserved Britishness, I did something that has left me glowing like a baboon's bum. I joined the SFWA a couple of months ago as an associate member (by current calculations I should hit active status about 2058 - yay 90 year old me) and today I discovered I can nominate short stories, novelettes etc for the Nebula Awards. I can't vote of course, but I can scream semi-loudly and hope someone agrees with me. Of course, I haven't a clue what to choose. Except of course Lisa Mantchev's Eyes Like Stars which blew me away.

Anyhow, why am I glowing like a baboons ass, or any ass in general, I put up a link to Trench Foot and downloaded The Sour Aftertaste of Olive Lemon in the 'Please consider this...' section**, alongside people who are like way-way-way (add several hundred more ways) better than me, but I figured what the heck, they can only laugh and point at me and with a face like a... Well, I'm used to it. :D


**I should add that the Please Consider this section is just someplace to put your work and not an actual nomination, I would never actually nominate myself... Just in case anyone is confused... Eek!

On the only day in a fortnight when it didn't rain (well at least until I was snug and warm at home), I had a day's holiday from work. Bliss. As they say, The sun shines on the righteous... So someone really good must have had today off work as well.

I finished Fairy Tale Reality, scrubbed out its title and called it 'The Meaning of Yellow', and sent it spinning along to Clockwork Phoenix with only a few days to spare (closing date is November 15th - gasp) and I have spent most of today procrasticating in the most delicious way and planning on building a literary fort to keep me writing, writing, writing during 2010 - I can convince my lazy brain of anything.

Oh, and today, I feel a little like this...



f f by `gnato on deviantART

Scars
Smeared Lipstick
Demon's Brain
Locomotion
Mop Head
Tightrope
Alias
Squeamish
Fish Eyes

Ah, the wonders of procrastination. Aptly, the below image reminds me of Aaron Polson (not in a 'he looks or smells like a fish' way, but probably because of his fish stories). Struggling with my WIP Short story Fairy Tale Reality, and having no idea how to end it, the image on his NaNoWriMo blog post today provided me with much needed inspiration on how to end the thing. Ah, the power of a single weed... Again, that is not a reference to Mr. Polson.

On Saturday, I set myself the goal of writing the rough drafts of two short stories over the weekend and I did. Standing ovation please...

Okay, Pretty Little Ghouls is actually a flash length story but as I wrote the first, second and third draft over the weekend I'm couting it. And erm, Fairy Tale Reality (title subject to change), may well have a first draft but at the moment it is all pretty images and little substance, but we're getting there. I hope.

R Scott McCoy, editor of Necrotic Tissue (no doubt you already know that), has posted an excellent blog post on changes he thinks the HWA should make to its membership rules. Among other things, I discovered the 90% rule means my pro-pay sale to NT doesn't count towards Active Membership, and with my only other pro-pay sale being a dark fantasy tale to Fantasy Magazine, I guess I'm back at the beginning.

Anyway, don't listen to me whitter, either go check his post or get back to your NaNoWriMo novel... Here's today's bits and pieces.



Dark Tales by `x-horizon on deviantART

NaNoWriMo Prompt Words:

Styrofoam Cup
Cloudy Mornings
Parachute Man
Sweat Trail
Motion Sickness
Rusting Skin
Psychadelics
Fencing Pipe Cleaners

The Scenic Path of Human Artefacts, the short story inspired by the NaNoWriMo Prompts I listed on November 1st, has been accepted for 52 Stitches. And so ends the two month dry spell... Or for the pessimist, so begins the next. Whatever the truth of it, I be happy.


Zombie Hunter Coat of Arms by =The-Prophet-Of-Chaos on deviantART

Being a little bit concerned that my prompts are too odd here are some less odd ones.

Fireguard
Skeleton
Monkey
Bananas
Pizza
Diamond

Bored now... Let's jazz it up a bit.

Cracked Pots
Swallowing Words
Stripy Snake Socks
Disposable Friends
Vile Goblins
Drenched Beard

Corinne Duyvis is leading me astray... One minute I was reading my favourite blogs before I settled down to do something that didn't involve procrastinating (coughs), and the next I was trying to think up a legitimate reason for playing over at Face Your Manga. Can it truly be called procrastinating if you use the time to create an avatar of the upcoming MC of your supposed steampunk book. So now I have a face to go with the stockings, insects and tower. A case of 'an object a day keeps the agents away'... Erm... Time for some NaNo prompt words...

 

Boiling Blood
Pearl Necklaces
Nevermore
Pretty Coloured Houses
Mork and Mindy
Scars
The Shapes of Noses
Calculating Calculators
Angry Vegetables
Box File

A second day of writing prompts and a confession that yesterday's prompts drove me to write a wee piece of insaness that is currently titled The Scenic Path of Human Artefacts and which will be visiting an editor near you very soon. I apologise to said editor in advance and put all the blame on the prompts.

In other news, I finished reading through Theatre and fixed as many typos as I found... We all know there are more lurking, right? And as the publisher is going to be away on holiday until November 20th, he has given me leave to get it back to him then... Phew, another read through etc etc etc. I be very nervous.

Horrific by ~einen on deviantART

 

I believe in Karma. I believe if you bite someone on the backside, a black dog will chase you down the street and take a bite out of yours... And so, my week possibly sucked a little because I have been treating my poor soliders so very, very badly. Their trials are almost over though. I'm reading over the rewritten manuscript of Theatre and catching all those nasty typos, I hope. My original plan was to have everything finished and sent off to the publisher by November 1st, but thanks to a man who lives on this island...

...my internet connection has been pants this week and I spent most of my spare time trying to save my computer. I won the battle - phew - although the knight didn't come to my rescue. This damsel saved herself.

Things that did not suck about my week included reviews of both Fifty-Two Stitches (especially happy that two wonderfully talented ladies, Mercedes M Yardley & Natalie L Sin, received mentions) and Malpractice (with a shout out for my favourite story by a certain Mr Jeremy Kelly), and the fact that Halloween waits at the end of it. Oh and there is nothing better than receiving an invite to view the costume of an almost three year old from said small person, it shall be pirates and fairies tomorrow night.

*Disclaimer: The silhouette to the left is not of Cate. Though she does have a pony tail, if she leapt into the air with such abandon her legs wouldn't straighten for a week.

So, I believe I said that I wouldn't be doing NaNoWriMo this year, and that for the most part remains true. I'm roaring towards the end of Theatre but we won't arrive at the magical words (you know what they are) until the days left until November are none. However, I will be participating in NaNo in my own rebellious way. I believe there are a few other rebels out there - shakes her pom poms at them.

I'm hoping to spend about an hour a day in November working on Grim Glass Vein, being away from the book means it's lost a little of its spark but hopefully good old Bonfire Night will reignite the fire. Shakes head in disbelief at that last line - feel free to leave the blog now. But for the most part November will be about worldbuilding. I had an idea for a most wonderful character a couple of weeks ago and she won't leave me alone. Victoria (name subject to change) wants to live in a steampunkish world only the writer doesn't know much about steampunk and the world so far consists of a pair of stockings, some insects and a tower. November shall be devoted to building said world and to deciding whether to use it to weave some short stories from in 2010 or to mark it down as my next novel project.

While I still have most of my fingers, I'm blogging to warn you to lock all your windows and doors and to not, however strong the temptation, venture into the internet this weekend. A nasty zombifying virus is infecting millions. Please do not visit this site, because if you do, you might end up like me...

I'd gulp but it hurts.

This week's WIP Wednesday post is sponsored by Natalie L Sin and Katey Taylor and their posts about inspirational images.

The below image, and a collection of others available on the same web page, about a Fairytale Ukraine village inspired a new scene in my novel, Theatre of Curious Acts. Can't you just see the dragon flying above it and surely you know that three of the four horsewomen and the soldiers they have trapped are standing just behind the lens.

Theatre currently stands at 38,056 words and at 50,000 words total (yep, it's a short one), I hope to have the redraft done by next Wednesday.

 

I often worry that unlike many other writers, struggling and otherwise, I can't claim to have written my first novel at eight or fourteen or three, and bar a flirtation with songwriting in my teens (I also played guitar very, very badly and my organ career was limited to playing Beautiful Dreamer slowly), I never considered writing as a career or even a hobby. Then, this morning I realised that I did at least world build in my formative years. I may not have realised that such things were part of being a writer, and may have wondered if I was slightly loopy, but I see now it was all part of what we are.

My local park (which appears in my current re-work in progress Theatre) provided the setting for a caravan park and I populated the chalets and vans with permanent residents. There were shops and a fairground - no circus though, I wasn't a scary child. My little park was not an exciting place and only everyday things happened there, but I guess it formed part of an early fictitious outing. I never wrote anything down, I played with the people in my head and if I could go back, I'd provide them with some adventures.*

*Note: Cate does not intend to write a story set in a caravan park anytime soon and the size of her park would have swallowed the local park and half of the neighbourhood but logic does not come into play in daydreams.

The short history of Dudley B Metal...

Shortly after returning to writing after an accidental break of three or four years, and returning to writing short stories after an intended break of about seven years, I wrote a story about a lonely robot's encounter with an unhinged serial killer--aren't all serial killers unhinged?--who had set up shop at the edge of a desert.

Bob's Spares & Repairs was originally published in the Help anthology way back in early 2008, and the manic bot's establishment now reappears in reprint form in Twisted Tongue Magazine. You can download a copy of the magazine for free.