S.L. Viehl's Blog, page 80

#576

Now that I can see well enough to read things, I'm catching up on some on-hold projects, such as sorting out and deciding what to do with the leftover ATCs from my 1000 Cards Project. I gave away about half of the cards at our MegaCon booth back in March, but I still have to do something with the other 500.

While dividing the remainder into what I want to keep, and what I'll part with, I did find one ATC I'd completely forgotten about:



This little white box is tied with metallic green cord to card #576, which is titled "Every day is a gift -- here's one for you." I made it on 9/12/2012, and wrote two project categories on the back: Jewelry (#2) and Found around the House (#68).

So what's inside? I don't know. I can't remember what I made to put in the box.

There is something in there, however; when I shake it I can hear chain rattling. I also checked my personal journal from that particular month, and while I don't mention exactly what I made for #576, I did write that I was working on some steampunk ideas. Knowing me it's probably a pendant or bracelet of some sort, fashioned from something I found around the house and upcycled. I don't want to open the box and sneak a peak because I really did make it to be opened by someone else.

Would you like to be that person? In comments to this post, name something forgotten or mysterious that you've found in the past (or if there are no mysteries in your life, just throw your name in the hat) by midnight EST on Monday, October 6th, 2014. I'll choose one name at random from everyone who participates, and send the winner #576 along with a signed copy of any book I've written that is still in print. This giveaway is open to everyone on the planet, even if you've won something at PBW in the past.

Contest

For those of you who are competitive, and like to write on the fly, and want to get feedback, here's an interesting contest for spec fic and general fiction: "WYRM’s Gauntlet features a new writing or reviewing challenge every round. All are invited to enter the first round (until the deadline hits, or we are filled), 8 will move on to the second, 5 to the third, and just 3 to the final round. As you advance through the Gauntlet, fewer and fewer challengers will remain, so judging must become shrewder. Challenges are not announced in advance, but as a new round opens. So pay attention." Length: no limit, Fee: none. According to Ralan, the prizes are: "1st=$150; 2nd=$75; 3rd=$50, +in-depth critique for all 3." No reprints, electronic submissions only, do read the contest rules because they're extensive. Opens October 4th, 2014; Deadline: October 18th, 2014.

Sight Seeing

Here's a lovely little film with artful glimpses of various people and places in Japan (with background music, for those of you at work):

Our Japan from Marc Ambuehl on Vimeo.

Just Write

Today I'm off to write something new and post it online before midnight. Everyone inclined to do the same is invited to join me.



My link: Bad weather seems to be waiting for me every Thursday! I also had a partial document meltdown, so I had to recover and reformat the whole story. Despite these troubles, I did get a few more pages written today for In the Leaves, with the new material beginning on page 27.

For more details on Just Write Thursdays, click here to go to the original post.

A Month Away

In four weeks National Novel Writing Month begins, and writers around the world will begin work on their novels. To win NaNoWriMo you must write at least 50,000 words in thirty days, and some folks make a competition out of who can get it done fastest, but there are no prizes for speed, and the only person you really compete with is yourself. There are no educational or experience requirements involved, so anyone can join in. Also, you don't have to write every day; no one tells you what to write and you don't even have to tell anyone that you're participating if you don't want. All of this makes NaNoWriMo the most user-friendly writing event on the planet.

Later on in the month I'll write up some pep talks, resource lists, idea discussions and the usual PBW/NaNo pom pom posts, but this week I just wanted to have some fun. So I pulled some of my summer vacation pics to make up some new NaNoWriMo blog badges (and click on any of the three to go to a larger version on Photobucket):







If you want to use any or all of my 2014 badges, please do -- or have some fun and make up your own.

Disability Sub Op

Future Fire magazine has an open call for their upcoming antho: "Inspired by the cyberpunk and feminist science fiction of yesterday and the DIY, open access, and hacktivist culture of today, Accessing the Future will be an anthology that explores the future potentials of technology to augment and challenge the physical environment and the human form—in all of its wonderful and complex diversity. We are particularly interested in stories that address issues of disability (invisible and visible, physical and mental), and the intersectionality of race, nationality, gender, sexuality, and class—in both physical and virtual spaces. Accessing the Future will be a collection of speculative fiction that places emphasis on the social, political, and material realms of being." Length: 2.5-7.5K with a preference for stories in the 4-6K range; Payment: "We pay $0.06/word (six cents a word) for global English first publication rights in print and digital format." No reprints, electronic submissions only, see guidelines for more details. Deadline: November 30th, 2014.

Crew No-Nos

Ten Things I Hate About Your Secondary Characters

Beyond BFFs: Instead of being normal mortals who are occasionally helpful, unavailable, supportive, jealous etc. the friends in your cast are capable only of being beyond best friends forever. These sterling souls are ever ready to drop everything and do absolutely anything to help your protagonist. This includes throwing themselves in the path of nightmarish monsters, committing serious felonies, driving off a cliff in a convertible and my person non-favorite, throwing an insanely expensive surprise birthday party that everyone the protag knows joyously attends on time -- with a table piled high with fabulous gifts, no less.

Bobble Heads: Every time this character shows up in a scene, it's strictly to inform the reader of something they don't know by informing the protagonist of something he already knows. Ala Alfred intoning "You know, my boy, if your parents hadn't been cruelly murdered in front of you in that dark alley, you would never have built the BatCave, took on the secret life of a caped crusader, or escaped your fate to become just another useless overindulged narcissistic jackass into whose food I regularly spit."

Born to be Dumb: I know you want your protagonist to be smart, and capable of solving complex problems, and eligible to join any chapter of Mensa including the one for Grand Master Chess Champions who kicked Bobby Fisher's ass in five moves on that Internet chess site, but does this mean you must give everyone else in the story the IQ of a carrot?

Closet Superduper Deviants: I'm still waiting to find out which of the nice people I know in real life are actually secret neo-Nazi skinheads who like to cut themselves, shoplift guns, blow up elementary school buses and have sex with the helpless farm animals they keep chained in their underground bunkers before they plan massive Federal Reserve robberies with their fascist helicopter-piloting ex-Army buds, how about you?

Lovely & Lifeless: Your secondary characters are all very attractive, super smart, fascinating people who form a powerful and protective satellite of WOW around your protagonist. Yet despite being the sort of people most desired by others, these exceptionally wonderful folks for some reason don't ever seem to have homes, families, relationships, jobs or any kind of life of their own.

Mom Stand-Ins: Odd that the nice lady who lives next door never drops by my house every other day to check on me, bring me food or sit down, have a cup of coffee and listen to all my problems before she tells me exactly how to fix them, kisses me on the forehead and goes home to prune her perfect roses. I should complain to the HOA.

Obvious Herrings: You keep telling me that these characters are up to no good, and definitely working against the protagonist, and yet they don't really appear to be doing anything for real but distracting me from the actual antagonist, whom I had already identified by Chapter Three.

Q&Aers: If the ratio of questions asked to statements made by your support character is more than three to one, then they really exist only to ask questions you believe the reader needs answers to from the protagonist. Or your editor made you delete that long-ass prologue, yes?

Red Shirts: Think of all the people you know in real life. Do two or three of them die pointlessly every week while you escape the same fate, but only by your teeth skin? Yeah, me neither.

Wrench Tossers: Here's the thing: People show up in our lives for more reasons than to expose a concealed injustice, report on an unlikely murder, rat out our love interest, be followed by someone who wants us dead, deliver a sword of unimaginable power, etc. Sometimes people just want to go get coffee and danish and hang out at Starbucks, you know?

Your turn -- got any gripes about secondary characters? Let us know in comments.

Alice Op

Leap Books has an open call for their upcoming Alice in Wonderland-themed antho: "Next year marks an historic moment, the 150th anniversary of the publication of the classic story Alice's Adventures in Wonderland! To celebrate how absolutely mad we are about this occasion, Leap Books, LLC will publish a special Alice-inspired anthology called BEWARE THE LITTLE WHITE RABBIT and you, yes, YOU are invited to the party!" Length and required theme: "Submissions should be between 4,000-6,000 words in length, include a protagonist named Alice and a stuffed white rabbit whose appearance signals the start of adventure. All YA genres are eligible." Payment: "Authors whose stories are selected for inclusion in the BEWARE THE LITTLE WHITE RABBIT anthology and who meet revision requirements and associated deadlines will be paid a one-time fee of $50 USD." No info on reprints, see guidelines for more details. Deadline: November 15th, 2014.

Smart Edit for Word

SmartEdit, one of my favorite editing programs, has now been released in a version that works inside Microsoft Word as a plug-in. Here's a screenshot (and you can click on any of these images to go to a larger version):



SmartEdit appears on the tool bar where the orange star is, and when you click on it, it brings up this menu bar:



Once you've opened the document you want to check inside Word, you click on SmartEdit, bring up the menu bar and click on Run Checks. From there it works its usual magic:



I already have the original SmartEdit program, and got these screenshots from the free trial, which I'm going to try out for the next week and see if it helps to have it in Word as I'm working (pretty sure that's a yes, but I prefer to do a thorough test drive anyway.) Registered users of SmartEdit like me are also being offered a 60% discount on the new in-Word version until October 8th, which is a very nice price break. Anyone can get the ten day free trial of SmartEdit for Word here.

Heart of Glass

Describing your art, how you work and what it means to you is often difficult. I think it's because there are so many aspects of the creative life that can't be encompassed by or even defined in words. The artist in this video, however, really nails it (narrated, with some background music, for those of you at work):

Glass Blowing from Jérôme de Gerlache on Vimeo.