Today's writing...

I don't have 1000 words to show for today, per se.

I did post earlier and have done some extensive revision work on As Dominoes for my WotF entry. I'm still a ways from being ready with it, but I'm feeling much better about the size and scope of the story at this point. I still have a few connections between sections to make, but I absolutely love the concept and the ending of this story. I will work tomorrow on the character development working into the ending.

Merry Christmas!

Today was a wonderful Christmas - providing us a chance to unwrap presents while wrapping 2007, a challenging year in which I believe we have established a foundation for a better year in 2008. As if to provide a punctuation mark, we got a bit of snow today - nothing accumulating, but still pretty as all get out.

This coming year will be all about balance: Focusing more readily on the positives, rather than the negatives. Handling multiple changes and multiple tasks as once. Including flexibility while not dropping balls.

I will continue to write daily, this being my sixth week in a row since Orycon. Ideally, I'll be able to wrap up my Writers of the Future submission tomorrow and get that sent in before Friday.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Our Last Words

Picked up the paperback publishing the winners of the 2006 Writers of the Future on Thursday. Today I read my first story from the book.

Damon Kaswell's Our Last Words is an intriguing speculative fiction piece that I still don't know whether was supposed to border on dark fantasy. What's damned wierd about this is that the author of this, the first story I read from this anthology was one that we saw on one of the panels at Orycon this year.

I can say with 100% certainty that I did not recognize his name before reading it. I think it was the title of the piece that drew me in. Perhaps it was the proximity to Kevin J. Anderson's piece about time to write that was positioned immediately ahead in the anthology.

In either case. I would recommend this piece. I generally quite liked it. It was an involving treatment of the nuclear holocaust tale that didn't fall into many of the cliche traps.

Bring on the break!

With the completion of today, I'm now mere hours away from beginning the holiday shutdown week away from the routine. I would have previously used the word grind, but I'm feeling less ground.

I just have a few emails to wrap up tonight and then will close on a couple of action item compilations to provide context around the return to work next year. Ensure that I can pick up right where I left off.

I should watch the weather closely as the remaining week ebbs so that I am clear on any risk to the trip north to Seattle on New Years Eve. If there's a threat, plan on cancelling early enough not to get billed.

That's right, I haven't talked about the plan.

The plan, assuming weather doesn't block it, is to drive up to Seattle on December 31 for a stay at the Seattle Westin hotel. The reservation request was made six months ago with a request for a room with a view of the Space Needle. We'll see whether that one gets pulled off. If all goes well, we'll watch the New Years fireworks from our room :-)

Okay, so perhaps a bit closer than I expected...

I checked out As Dominoes, my NaNo-ized novel from two years ago (that always seemed much more appropriate as a short story), last night in a bid to identify a candidate for entry for Writers of the Future. Much to my amazement, it actually looks like it might work - and it might be closer to useful than I originally expected.

So that will be the objective over the next few days. Complete the transfer from bad novel into tight little scary short story. We'll see how that goes.

Too little oxygen...

Sometimes, positive energy can be a bit of a problem...like when it causes you to commit to entering contests when you have nothing that obviously fits or is finished.

At Saturday's INK meeting, high on an absolutely fabulous time, all of us decided we should set a goal to enter Writers of the Future by the end of this month. Yes - two short weeks away.

I sure as well haven't written anything of the science fiction or fantasy genres yet. Perhaps there's something that I've got that's could pass as dark fantasy, but I think that's really more of a fantasy than fact.

The best way to approach this is that I have something that I think could relatively quickly be adapted to fit better. That's what I'll be focusing much of my time on over the coming days...as soon as I take a hit off this oxygen tank.