Cate Gardner's Blog, page 44

Write1Sub1, ObsessivelyCheckDuotrope625

You've probably all heard of the Write1Sub1 guys, especially as the about-to-be-even-more-productive Aaron Polson is a member. I'm following their blog in Google Reader. And for those who haven't heard of them (you really need to visit twitter more), ninety plus writers have joined and they aim to write and submit a new story every week in 2011. Go them!

A strange fact about this non-participant: To date, I've written five new short stories this year and they're all out the door. Another fact: I'm still not entering play as I'm expecting the novel to take over any day soon (gets down on her knees and prays to her Jack Skellington altar). Another fact: I do hate missing out on all the fun and I'm loving the spirit of these guys.

So the reason for this post--If this was a short story, you'd have given up by now--today's Write1Sub1 blog post is an interview with Wendy S. Delmater, Editor-in-Chief at Abyss & Apex. I thought you all might be interested. Ooh, I wanted to type y'all then. I swear there are stars and stripes running through my bones.

Over and out. Nanu Nanu. Plot possibly lost.

Let's Keep This Short

The first three days of this mighty year were so productive, I spent the following week shining my writers medal and it took until late last week to realise that I'd only read 10 short stories for the year (and most of them in those glorious three days). Wrists slapped.

To rectify, I flipped open my kindle and read this month's Apex Magazine. You'll find the review here.

And to entice you all to read a flash story today. How about a story by Kurt Newton (Soft Whispers in a Dead Man's Ear) over at Leodegraunce. Its lifespan online is short and Kurt is always good value for money. And as this story is free, he's extra good value.

Ghosts and Pretty People

Today proved my most productive day of the year so far. I believe it may have something to do with my internet and TV going kapput for about three hours. Coincidence, I think not.

Leaped over a tricky scene in The Ghosts of Folding Time and added 2760 words to its pot, and wrote the second draft of a short (Asylum of Lost Shoes) which has lurked in my story file since September 30th. Bad me. Though, I am only following Mr King's advice in allowing that story to brew. Some of the stories hiding in that file are monsters though. Seriously ugly monsters.

Luckily all is well with the technology now, so I can skip downstairs and watch the rather cute Andrew Lee Potts play with some dinosaurs in Primeval. And ooh, I get a double dose of ALP this week as Alice (which I didn't even know existed until last week - thank you Carrie) arrives in the UK.

Life is sweet.

Write Hard: Writers Who Perspire (and I admire)

As per usual, Aaron Polson is in inspiring mode and has created a meme to celebrate writers who you believe live up to the "write hard" spirit (and hey, he nominated me - da fool). So now I have to nominate at least three writers which is pretty easy as everyone I know is awesome (and yeah, that includes you). Here be the rules:
When you win:

1. Post the picture above to your blog. You can link here if you want. It doesn't have to become part of the permanent clutter of your sidebar. Goodness no.

2. List at least three writers who you feel live up to the "write hard" spirit. Think: writers who work at their craft, writers who never give up despite the odds, writers who constantly turn out quality work. Writers you admire. Optional: explain why you think they are awesome.

3. Include these rules or a link to them.

4. Notify said writers of their victory. Ask them to pass on the torch.

5. Continue being awesome.

So here's a handful of people that both inspire me and who work very hard at this craft.

1. Natalie L Sin - if you've read Natalie's stories, you'll know why I'm nominating her for the award. She is kick-ass awesome and as much as we all love and adore (and often hate) our characters, I think she loves hers just a touch more. And most of the time fantasises about touching them more. ;) Look at the sidebar on her blog and the list of completed first drafts--sometime soon, Natalie's going to take over the world. Or if not the world, definitely Hong Kong.

2. Mike Stone - the hardest working, non-twittering guy on my block. Seriously, I don't know how he does it, but Mike doesn't allow the internet to distract him at all...Sometimes he even disappears for a week (maybe more). Plus, he'll go to battle for his words, and so he should.

3. Kate Shaw - Being a little Amazon ranking obsessed, I sometimes check out Kate's book 'Jack of all Trades' and feel a little frustrated that it hasn't garnered more attention. If you haven't yet picked up a copy, I insist you do. It blew me away (and made me chuckle - all good fiction should either make you wet your pants or make you chuckle or both). Another one who goes to bat for her fiction (and she's not afraid to try new things).

I of course also echo what Aaron said on his blog about the people he nominated they are all awesome (except for the first one he mentioned :D).

In the Mailbox

Look at what came in the mail for me... A welcome to Hadley Rille mug from the fabulous Eric Reynolds and the new look BFS Journal (totally gorgeous) which includes New Horizons, Prism and Dark Horizons.

PS Publishing have produced the journal this time and...

(neat little jump here)

...PS Publishing head honcho, Peter Crowther, has just signed a three book deal with Angry Robot Books. Fantastic news.

As a side note. How wonderful Britain would be if we all had pretty little mailboxes like they have in the US. Of course, I do wonder how you keep the mail from being stolen.

Shock Totem 3

Issue 3 of Shock Totem is now available to purchase from the publisher and from Amazon and it's full of bumper goodness with fiction, reviews and non-fiction from Aaron Polson, John Skipp, Steven Pirie, Mercedes Yardley, Amanda C Davis, Simon Marshall Jones, John Boden, Jeremy Kelly, and others.

And it's bumper indeed at 50% bigger than issues one and two (which included an offering from me).

The cover art by Mikio Murakami is to die for...Literally if you land on the sharp edge of the knife.

Tumbleweeds, Sad People and Ghosts. Oh my!

'tis Saturday afternoon, I've added another 1,000 words to The Ghosts of Folding Time so far and my web camera widget refuses to move from the left side of my screen. I think it's filming my productivity for posterity. Either that or Mr Grim (my laptop) is watching me. Gulp!

A few tumbleweeds blew through my inbox this week. The heady first week of 2011 has lulled into normalville--I think all the editors have fallen asleep again. I suspect they were powered by Christmas chocolate in its inital days. As was I.

No new short stories completed this week, but I am working on the second draft of a short, Sky Painted Metal Grey (The Thunderous Descent of Michael Skyworth), that refuses to play ball. Never fear, I'll beat it into shape*. You'll find the Rocky training montage in the previous post ;)

And most importantly, two people (or maybe one person who forgot they'd already bought it) purchased Strange Men on Amazon UK this week--or at least the sales rank shifted up twice. And I don't think I know them...Grinning. How sad am I?

*Note to family: Please buy me boxing gloves because paper cuts sting.

I Feel Like Rocky

...only I don't run in snow.



 *You may have to click on the white space above to see the video.New blog is doing tricky things.

So, I get up at 5:30 and I do some time on the exercise bike--we won't go into the precise details of minutes and seconds because they're embarrasing. Although, in my defence, I didn't want the bath to overflow. Bit of clarity here--not because I'd set the bike up in the bath, but because I'd started running the bath before I climbed on the bike.

My bath runs slow.

My bath possibly doesn't run slow enough.

Next training session occured at work. Once I'd filled my bin with crap, crap and more crap (as in paper crap not food crap--unless you count satsuma skin), I hooked my feet onto the side of it and did a little lifting with my legs. Man it hurt after a while, but it hurt my colleague more. Of course, as she is thin and I am not, I declared that maybe my fat was actually muscle. She didn't look convinced. Darn. Those who passed by reception must have thought us mad--hey, what's new.

Going to finish off the day with a mad boogie around my bedroom and spend a little time with Sid (my exercise bike).

And talking of new regimes... Have you seen my new blog design? Yes, I expect you're probably looking at it right now, but hey, you might be reading it in Google Reader. I spend a lot of time there. I've added a link page for all the awesome writers I know. If you're not on it, I probably don't know you or forgot you. If I forgot you, let me know and oops! The 'Blogs I Stalk' widget will be restored when I get around to re-adding all the blogs. New template wiped my settings. Darn.

Oh, and in case you haven't noticed, my web address has changed to http://www.categardner.net/, all visits to fright-fest.blogspot.com should be redirected here (or so Google reliably informs me), but http://www.categardner.com/ is defunct as I made a boob...

...which is kinda awkward because I'm trying to reduce the two I already have. ;)

Eccentric New Talent on This Block

There's a new talent in town. The author is eccentric, has a unique and stylish fashion sense, is a mini-diva, owns the stage and has freckles. I'd like to say she's just like her aunt, but I don't have freckles. ;)

Let me introduce to the world, five-year-old Amy Gardner's first book - Aladin - a piece of fan fiction.


And she did it all by herself with no prompting, as evidenced in her own words: "Mummy thought I was just drawing things but I was making a book." And she gave it to ME... Sorry, I know your books are all precious and I do keep them behind glass once I've read them, but this is my favourite book of all.

News Flash Friday

I'm juggling as to which is the most important announcement so I've tossed a coin in the air and it landed on tails thus I shall begin my announcements with news pertaining to Mike Stone...Not that I think he has a tail. Well, maybe a little spiked one.

Last November, Mike asked would I write the foreword for his forthcoming short story collection, Memory Bones. I think it's the most nerve-wracking thing I've done writing wise. I didn't want to get it wrong. I don't think I did--and I don't say that often. Hee-hee, someone drain all the swell out of my head, please. Be sure to check out Mike's collection when it's realised later this year by Graveside Tales. Trust me, it's worth your time and money.

Next item of importance... Head over to Barry Napier's blog and read an interview with me that Barry conducted at his local pub. Despite ramblings to the contrary, I swear there's not a drop of alcohol in my system.

On the rejection front I'm six for six...one is keeping an eye on her inbox on this seventh day. It is all rather strange. Perhaps next week I'll have six for six acceptances. Now wouldn't that be sweet. And, perhaps, even odder.