Casting Around the 'Net

I'm sitting at a coffee shop in downtown St. Paul right now (Claddaugh Coffee,) and I'm trying to decide what to write today. I need to do some plotting for my superhero story/novel because I hit a wall about "what happens next." Usually I solve this problem with a pen and graph paper, and I may do that in a bit when I head off to sit with Shawn at the clinic. Her doctor has requested an ultrascan of her corroted arteries because of her family's history of strokes, and all this nonsense with her migraines and other problems. I do like that they're looking into everything, but the whole process is stressing Shawn out a bit, as you can well imagine. So I agreed not only to take her in, but to sit with her during the procedure. In the inevitable wait time, I'm planning to scribble plot ideas for SHATTERED MASK.

So, while I'm waiting here, I thought I might try my hand at a short story. I've been trying to limit my fic writing to mornings and nights... which explains my much slower posting rate lately. However, this is a concession to the fact that I need to have some product under my belt to feel like a "real writer" (a term, btw, I dispised even before I was bitten by the fic bug. Because, in my mind, any form writing is as real as any other.) But, in my usual cast around the internet wondering what ideas might hit me, I came across an anthology that pays NEXT TO NOTHING, but which is looking for something they're calling "sword & zombie" (a sort of "sword & sorcery" thing, only, obviously, with zombies.) For some reason, that idea tickled me, so now I'm trying to decide if I can write "samurai & zombie" in a short format--this anthology is looking for no more than 3,000 for a complete story, which seems crazy-short to me, but I thought that even if I don't submit to them, that's a fine length to shoot for.

That's kind of my big plans for the day. Mason and I are also hoping to get motivated to go to kuk sool tonight. Lately, we've only been making it once a week, on Thursday, when Mason's friend Soren comes over and we met his mom at kuk sool after class. Once a week is kind of terrible, so I'm guessing I know one of my New Year's resolutions.

Okay, off to try to be creative. Wish me luck.