C.B. Calsing's Blog, page 32

Script Frenzy!

April is Script Frenzy month. This is the screen writing equivalent of NaNoWriMo, except each participant only has to write 100 pages of a screenplay instead of 50,000 words.



I've decided to do it this year as an exercise to help me with one of my novels. I've sort of fizzled out -- partially do to lack of information about the details surroundings women in Louisiana prisons in the 1920s -- but also because I had some shaky plot points. I think pounding through all of that in screenplay form, like a glorified outline, might help me see things a different way, so that's my plan.



As always, I try to get other people around me involved. Any takers? No? I didn't think so. Anyway, wish me luck.

New short story posted

Coupon code for free copy: ZB59X (expires 5/31/2011)
I've posted a new short story on my Web site here. If you want to get the Smashwords version advertised there -- and linked to the picture at left -- wait until 23 March. The first version I uploaded had a glitch with the cover image. The new one should be up by tomorrow. If you like it, please leave a comment at the bottom of the page, or rate it on Smashwords.



This story started as an exercise in modeling mystery writing for my eighth grade students during our fiction unit this year. I've been told it was "well written," but it was an odd bit of speculative fiction which was hard to place.



I do see myself writing more Langston Pierpont stories. He's sort of a Kolchak character in my head, so maybe there will be more unexplained or odd cases for him to tackle.

Smashwords

I've been playing around with Smashwords for the last couple of weeks, and hope to have a few decent short stories up there in a bit, stuff that editors said was "well written" but didn't fit in their anthologies. I figure why not? List it for ninety-nine cents, throw a few 100% off coupons around, then compile them all into an anthology. That's my plan anyway. We'll see how it goes. I should have my first submission vetted in a few days.



Despite the guide they offer, it's still sort of difficult to perfect everything so that it works on a computer, an ebook reader, smartphones... It's a lot of work to play with pictures sizes and everything.

Finally...

I sent off the third version of my screenplay today. I think it works as a short feature. As a writer, I feel like their are holes in screenplays that need to be filled, but I know if I put every nuance and interaction in there that I thought it needed, the thing would run for hours. I guess that's why entire pages are pulled by directors, and still film is left on the cutting room floor.



It feels good to have one set of major revisions done, and I'm actually looking forward to getting feedback on this version, knowing that I can make more changes and keep getting it closer and closer to shoot-ready.

Krewe de Vieux

I went to the Krewe de Vieux parade last night. Lots of biting commentary this year, as always. My favorite sight was a sperm on a stick meant to be trumpeter Kermit Ruffins. I guess you'd have to have been there to get what I'm saying.



Yesterday I also made an appointment with a new tattoo artist who works three blocks from my house. I get the sketch this week, and go in next Saturday for the work. If everything goes well, maybe he'll do everything for me from now on. I like to support local business.



Finally on my list of weekend's accomplishments, I sent the (hopefully) final revised synopsis of the screenplay I wrote to the producer. If he okays it, I'll start revisions and finish it by Mardi Gras weekend. Some partying will definitely follow!



And then more writing.

My Racy, Upcoming Weekend

I will be going to my first burlesque show this weekend. I've watched documentaries and Youtube videos about it, but I've never gone to a live one before. I'm definitely a fan of the concept. The art, the athleticism, the humor. I thought once I might try writing jokes for burlesque acts, or creating some kind of monologue act, but, well... This writer gets up at 5:30 every morning, works four jobs, and fitting in another thing that would require rehearsal and late nights just doesn't seem to be part of the plan right now. Same reason I never joined roller derby. I'm probably going to have to supplement my evening with a little caffeine tomorrow night, to make up for the lack of sleep I'm bound to experience.



Saturday night is the Krewe de Vieux parade. This is the only Mardi Gras parade I go to, mainly because I can walk to it and parking is not an issue. Household tradition dictates we carry Irish coffee in a travel mug, and then stop at Markey's on the return trip. Krewe de Vieux is one of the more daring parades, I think, with lots of politically themed floats. I'm sure BP will be a target this year. They also still use mules to pull some of the floats, which I think is outstanding.



So, all in all, I probably won't be getting a lot of writing done this weekend, but I should be having fun!

Hellbore and Rue releases tomorrow!

Hellbore and Rue will finally release tomorrow and hit Amazon and Barnes and Noble, as well as being available from the publisher here. I just got my copy today, so I can't comment on any of the other stories, but I know "Trouble Arrived" is pretty good because I wrote it.



Having something release sort of makes me want to crawl out from my winter hibernation and put some more stories out there, but the weather... sheesh. My brain is on lockdown or something until we get back into the seventies. Come on, April. I need my brain juice circulation back.

Lovely Dishwashing

I worked two shifts dish-washing, busing tables, and taking to go orders at a restaurant this weekend. I haven't worked in a restaurant since 2004, and then it was only for two nights. Before that, I'd last done it when I was nineteen, way back in the nineties, a surly goth girl coming onto shifts in stained Beatles T-shirts and a leather jacket, smelling of clove cigarettes and complaining about my community college English teacher.



I noticed last night -- it sort of came as an "Oh, yeah, I remember how that works" -- that there is a special "kitchen time" in restaurants. At other jobs, you may get bored, you look at the clock, and time crawls by. The afternoon in a cubicle with nothing to do can seem endless to the unimaginative mind. Or you get a lot of work done, and bam! The day's over. Out for cosmos with the friends.



Kitchen time, though, is wholly different. In kitchen time, you bust your ass washing dishes, clearing tables, answering calls, refilling drinks, and then you look at the clock. You fell absolutely certain that an hour must have gone by since you last checked. How else had you managed to do all those things? But sadly, according the the clock which measures the pace of the world outside the kitchen, only fifteen minutes have gone by. Then you ask yourself how in the world can you survive this for the hours of your shift that still remain.



In those circumstances, you can kind of feel like the Flash, moving so fast that those around you seem to slow down. The world slows down. It's like being a super hero.

Sweet, Sweet Forward Progress

My last blog was my 100th post. No one gave me free tickets to anything, or a glass of champagne, or key chain. A key chain would have been nice. In fact, I didn't even notice it until just now when I logged in to my make my weekly contribution. To celebrate, as soon as I am done with this, I'm going to have a rum punch. I was going to drink one anyway, but now I will put a slice of orange and a little umbrella in it to make it special.



Yesterday's landmark was this -- I sold out of my first box of All Along the Pacific copies. All the money I made on those is going to buy more copies. I suppose it's a little optimistic to think there are more than twenty-five people who want my book, but I will find them. I will, dammit.



Another landmark today -- Sugar Park has reopened. There are some places you miss when they are gone, and lament each passing day that they remain gone. Sugar Park was one of those places. Maybe I look back on those years the bar was at 800 France Street as particularly special because they sandwich either side of Katrina, and Sugar Park was a place we all gathered to trade news, offer help, and generally feel normal. The place has changed -- not a bar anymore, more of a cafe -- but the faces and the food remain the same. The location link on this blog is their new address. Friend them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter. It will be worth it.

Cyber Launch Today

In case you missed the earlier annoucement, I'm over at http://www.cyberlaunchparty.blogspot.com/ today, officially lauching All Along the Pacific. If you'd like to win a copy of an anthology I'm in, leave a comment or a question. Thanks!