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Post by steppedonwolf on Oct 29, 2009 17:38:43 GMT
No more talk of work.
I've booked this week off and had a great time. Last Friday, got a personal best of 517 on the Portsmouth round at archery (maximum is 600 - my PB beforehand was 487). Very happy.
Wandered around Winchester yesterday, bought a bed in Southampton and a friend is coming over tonight to help me carve up some pumpkins for the Halloween Shoot tomorrow.
Editing of The Caretakers is going well, although I had to tear chapter 3 to shreds and start again. Not going to make the Spinetinglers deadline because they're not accepting emailed submissions - they want the whole manuscript posted.
Bit tricky at the moment, so I'm going to hunt round for another potential home for it.
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Post by steppedonwolf on Oct 29, 2009 17:43:14 GMT
Oh, look.
I am now Zhar, one of the Twin Obscenities that appears as a colossal mass of tentacles in the Mythos.
Watch as I telepathically transmit my urges to worshippers/potential publishers...
What a nice week it's been.
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Post by steppedonwolf on Dec 22, 2009 17:14:51 GMT
Well, what an end to the year.
The work situation triggered off a depressive illness, so I'm on meds and have been signed off work. Had to get the pills doubled before they had any effect, but the good news is that they're starting to kick in now. Seems I was a lot more unwell than at first realised, so it's going to take a while before I'm back to full health.
So what else? Well, The Caretakers was finished before all this kicked off, but no sign of a publisher so far. Leucrota Press turned it down, but at least they gave me a reason. It's the 'show vs telling' that let me down.
Pill Hill Press didn't want to know, either - and they rejected it within two weeks of submission. After showing it to a few people, there's no doubt that the opening's a bit of a mess - the first chapter is especially weak. When I'm better I'll go over it with a big red pen or a cigarette lighter.
Some good news - my story Winter Sun made the shortlist for Festive Fear 2. I'll know next summer if it's made it to the final.
And I've heard that I won the Lovecraftian thread! That's great news, because there was some seriously tough competition there.
Now, to think of a theme...
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Post by Vaughan on Dec 29, 2009 0:52:01 GMT
Sorry to hear that. Such things take time and rest, I'm afraid.
Hope you have a better New Year.
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Post by steppedonwolf on Jan 6, 2010 23:56:49 GMT
Sorry to hear that. Such things take time and rest, I'm afraid. Hope you have a better New Year. Thanks for that, Vaughan. Much appreciated.
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Post by steppedonwolf on Jan 16, 2010 10:08:24 GMT
Dreams...
Something really wierd happened Thursday night. I dreamt I was helping a woman give birth (she was doing the easy bit, obviously). The baby was stuck so I had to get a pair of surgical forceps to get the baby out.
The head came out okay, but the body remained in there...
I woke up to get a text from one of my workmates, letting me know that his wife had just given birth. This was just before midnight.
Next morning he phoned me and told me what happened. The birth was problematic. A pair of surgical forceps had to be used to get the baby out...
Thankfully head and body came out with no disconnection. But the wierd thing was that I'd had that dream at the exact moment his wife was giving birth...
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Post by steppedonwolf on Jan 25, 2010 5:26:14 GMT
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Post by steppedonwolf on Feb 23, 2010 1:24:05 GMT
Oh, buggeration.
The Spirit of Summer is proving to be a tough sell. Shortlisted for Necrotic Tissue but didn't make the final cut. Sent it to DF Underground, a new and upcoming Dark Fiction outfit who don't have a place for it. Still, another nice rejection letter.
Now we'll see if Dark Recesses have a dark niche for it...
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Post by steppedonwolf on Mar 12, 2010 1:00:14 GMT
Submitted my latest story The Visitor Centre to Pound Lit Press, for (hopeful) inclusion into the Terminal Earth anthology.
This story is a sequel to my 1999 tale Totality, and deals with the events after The Rapture. I found this a tough one to write, took me two weeks when normally I'd have knocked out a first draft in less than a day.
Now I have a story idea for the market I posted a link to recently - and have figured out what's wrong with the opening to The Caretakers. A rewrite of chapter one and the creation of a prologue is under way.
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Post by TheWalkinDude on Mar 15, 2010 10:34:41 GMT
you know i sometimes have the same issues. One of my mates read a stry of mine and said that the whole introduction let the rest of the story down. at first i wondered what he meant, i loved it, but i went back over it and realised he was right. i was like "Mother f*cker!"
anyway i hope you fare better with the rewrite of The Caretaker!"
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Post by steppedonwolf on Mar 24, 2010 19:17:38 GMT
Thanks, WD. The opening is now much improved - but we'll see what they say at Pitch Black tomorrow.
Yes, preparations are underway for my trip to Brighton. Car's out of dry dock with a replaced gearbox, fingers crossed it gets me there and back safely. Now to get some packing done...
My first ever World Horror Convention and it feels a bit nerve racking. Still, it'll be great to meet all those horror writers and get some books signed.
And I'm meeting Krabstik from the GNS board on Friday. Here's hoping to a good weekend!
And if anyone on this board sees me, please pop over and say hello...
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Post by steppedonwolf on Mar 29, 2010 14:37:10 GMT
WHC, Brighton. Now, where to start... I didn't get any sleep the night before, being nervous about the Pitch Black session. No need, it wasn't like The Apprentice or Dragons' Den. The agents and publishers were really nice and a pleasure to talk to. Even if the work wasn't right for them they took the time to discuss it with you, and showed genuine interest. Some very interesting discussion panels and a great mass-autographing session on the Friday. F Paul Wilson is officially one of the nicest people on the planet, he was happy to sign a book for my mum (who's a massive Repairman Jack fan) and put a dedication in. Met Krabstik from the GNS board on the Friday as well and we made a brave attempt to drink Wetherspoons dry... The Friday night party at the Horace Bar on the pier was fantastic. Free food and free bar all night - that's right, you didn't have to put your hand in your pocket once! Shame I lost my camera afterwards, but that's my own fault. BTW - if anyone comes across a Sony cybershot DSC-P200 with pics of the convention on the memory stick please let me know. There's a video of my godson trying to say his first word, as well as snaps of the recent archery club make&mend session, so I'm gutted that I lost it. My fault for being drunk, though. (Hangs head in shame.) Saturday - James Herbert interview had a surprise guest. That's right, Neil Gaiman was moderating the talk! 'The Rats imitators' issue was raised, and Neil mentioned GNS and said "The only thing you can do with a Guy N Smith book is laugh about it." Then someone pointed out that Guy was in the room... Mr Gaiman's face was a picture. Massive queue for James Herbert signing afterwards, only to be expected. He was great to meet, laughed when I told him The Rats got me into trouble at school for the section "It took the doctor two hours to remove all the fragments of glass from Mary's vagina. She'd sought consolation from the whiskey bottle in more than one way." There was a bottle of absinthe on the signing table as well, medicinal I think. Sadly, he wasn't offering it around. I was late for the Guy N Smith kaffeeklatsche, got in half hour before the end. Lots of things spoken about, including the release of his new book Nightspawn, coming out in April. Brooke Vaughn was sharing his signing table, Guy has nothing but praise for her so I'm looking forward to reading her debut The Barn. I also met Sharon Ring, the editor of Dark Fiction Review and my arch-nemesis on the Facebook Scrabble . It was so nice to meet loads of folk I'd only known from Facebook. One of the highlights for me was the Black Lace books reading in the Fitzherbert room. It clashed with the Ghostwatch screening and the Phantom Gaslight Music Hall, but it was worth it. Kristina Lloyd, Janine Ashbless, Mathilde Madden and Olivia Knight reading dark erotica - amazing stuff. 'Minotaur porn' is a concept I'd never heard of until then, and the final story was an MR James inspired piece with a truly eye-watering necrophilia/sex scene...all the stories and novel extracts were well written, well read, scary and sexy at the same time. I'll definitely be reading some more of these talented ladies' work. All in all, a great weekend and one I'll definitely repeat. Next year's WHC is in the States so I need to get my passport renewed. One last thing - I'm amazed by how many smokers there were. I don't think the Royal Albion was expecting that amount, either. Next time I think they'll put an ashbin out there. The pavement was carpeted with cigarette ends. It was nice to know I wasn't the only alcoholic chainsmoker there.
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Post by steppedonwolf on Apr 11, 2010 16:22:56 GMT
Well, my stars have changed from blue to brown. Ian Dubya has kindly made me an admin.
Hopefully this will give me God-like powers to destroy any spammers who even THINK about coming here.
Go on - I dare you.
Other news - still waiting back to hear from all the publishers and agents I bothered at WHC's Pitch Black, but it could be ages yet. In the meantime, cracking on with some new short stories to meet deadlines for themed anthologies...but I'm itching to start the new novel.
The Caretakers is 150,000 words long, which is too long for most publishers to take on (especially for a newbie such as myself.) Crying shame, it's only about 400 pages of a normal paperback, and would've been considered short by the standards set in the late 80s/early 90s.
Still, knowing that even Dorchester Publishing won't take on new novels in excess of 90,000 words has given me ideas for the next novel, and I'm sure Fairlight will fall well within the 70K-90K limit set by most publishers.
On another note...I guess I'm getting tougher. My second rejection for The Visitor Centre, but I was actually happy to receive it. Why? Because I got a personalised response, the editor told me exactly what didn't work for him/her.
Something I hadn't realised before, and something that won't take much tweaking. And yes, I have a new market in my sights for it...
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Post by ian on Apr 21, 2010 21:12:52 GMT
Have you thought about writing another novel yet Ade?
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Post by steppedonwolf on Apr 21, 2010 22:53:16 GMT
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