The Plague Documents

Not much new to report.

Rejections from Strange Horizons and Heliotrope. Still on hold with subs at Neo-opsis, Trabuco Road, and Renard's Menagerie. I'm planning to query that last one, as I've heard nothing yet and it's been awhile.

Potter's Field 2 is now filled, and scheduled for publication in October 2007, with yours truly on the TOC *happy dance*

I had some cards made on the free offer from "Moo Cards", and I have to say they are really nifty. Wish I'd had them to give out at Baycon.

Biggest news is that eldest son graduated from high school this month. It didn't seem like it would be that big of a milestone (it's not like him finishing was in any doubt), but somehow, it IS. He's off to college in the fall, and I'm torn be between being happy for him and desolate at the thought of his being gone. I do have plans however to get younger son to move his computer in the vacated room (where there's an internet connection). Yes, I realize he'll have less supervision, but I'll get my office back in the evenings!!!!!!

Stories pretty much in a holding pattern.

One in the slush at Strange Horizons

Another in the slush at Renard's Menagerie

Two stories in second read piles, one at Neo-opsis, and one at Trabuco Road.

So that's everything I have completed: either sold or out home-hunting.

A story WIP, that exists in scattered notes at this point. And bits and parts for a novel, that I really would like to get back to, but I want to finish the story first (at least a proper draft).

I probably won't get much done for the next couple of weeks. Eldest graduates high school next week, and my parents are arriving tomorrow. *sigh* I'll do my best to steal some time on the alpha smart.

Spent Sunday and Monday at Baycon 2007. Saturday I let my husband talk me into going kayaking at Point Reyes (Tomales Bay to be more precise), which actually turned out to be pretty fun. Oh, and part of the novel I'm supposedly working on is going to be set in that area, so it was a writing-related trip ;->.

Anyway, I have to confess I'm not a great con person. I'm shy, I'm not good at parties, and I can't remember names for the life of me :-(. Still, thanks to a dear old friend from college who is on the staff and knows everyone, I had a wonderful time. The most interesting talk I went to was by Janice Voss, former astronaut, currently Science Director for the Kepler Project, the purpose of which is to seek Earth-like planets orbiting distant stars. Most of the other sessions I attended had to do with various aspects of publishing. At one session on editing, the editor of The Journal of Irreproducible Results had a list of topics he'd like to see articles on. I grabbed it with glee, as there were several subjects listed that are things I've been interested in for some time. I'd love to have something published there, so I do plan to give it a try.

I forgot to include that I subbed a story to Asimov's on January 16. Haven't heard anything yet.

Also, I had a response already from my query to Neo-opsis, and my story there is still under consideration. Fingers crossed!

Just haven't had much report lately. In February we took a 10-day cruise to the Mexican Riviera, which conveniently originated in San Francisco. It was lovely until we left Cabo for the 2-day sail home, during which time my oldest son came down with a nasty case of Camphylobacter jejuni. He was very ill for a couple of weeks. No sooner did he finally get pretty much back to normal, when our area was hit with an outbreak of Equine Herpes Virus-I, a highly contagious and potentially fatal horse disease. No vaccine, no 100% effective treatment. So all the local barns/ranches have been on voluntary quarantine, and precautions have been extraordinary. Fortunately, the efforts appear to have paid off, and while we're not completely out of the woods yet, it's been about 3 weeks since any new cases have appeared.

Excuses, excuses, but seriously, writing has been on a back burner. I have been pottering around a little with a new story, but am no where near even having something like a draft at this point.

In the meantime...

Yesterday I received a rejection from Weird Tales for a story I'd submitted in early March of 2006, and withdrawn back in August. Good thing they didn't decide to buy it, because afaik it's still under consideration at Neo-opsis (although I just queried them today, as it's time...).

Polite rejection from The Harrow

Polite rejection with helpful comments from Clarkesworld Magazine

Form reject from IGMS

Other than that...I'm thinking to participate in the oww's annual April critithon. I should get moving, I think it started today.

Also, Baycon is coming soon to a town near me. Unfortunately, I've nothing to submit to the writers' workshop this year, but I'll definitely be attending at least part of the time. Anyone else going?

The holidays were pretty much insane, and before that I wasn't very well for a couple of weeks following Thanksgiving. So I am ashamed to admit I didn't accomplish very much in December at all.

A few things have happened though, so I will report:

"White Death" is now online at The Harrow. Yay!

I WON the Apex Digest drawing for displaying a banner for Aegri Somnia on my journal. My prize was a copy of Scott Nicolson's novel, The Farm--autographed and everything! My prize has arrived (thank you, Jason! *blows kiss*), and though I haven't had a chance to read it yet, it looks great!

Otherwise the only change is that "The Stampeders" came back from Aberrant Dreams. So I'm looking for markets, and easing back into a workable routine of writing and critting. Also among my New Year's resolutions are logging into this journal more often and being more sociable :-)

Well, NaNoWriMo is over for another year, and at 25,998 total words, I am not a winner. But, heh, I'm not a loser either :-). I really did get what I wanted out of the effort: it forced me to establish some better writing habits and learn to make use of little dribs of time.

Regarding my putative historical-fantasy novel, it's going to take place in at least two different eras (possibly three), so at least I now have a definite handle on what I want to do with one of those eras (characters, scenes, and what details I *have* to research to make my scenes work).

Out of force of habit, I kept working on it this morning *big grin*

In other news...

The only change from last month is that "The Resurrection Men" came back from Horror Library 2. Their note makes it sound as if they gave it serious consideration, but maybe they were just being polite. I'm not sure where to send it next. At 5,500 words, there aren't that many markets left that I haven't tried yet. Call me defeatist or curmudgeonly, but I can't be bothered with subbing to Weird Tales or Cemetery Dance (even though I enjoy reading both these publications). I'm just out of patience with waiting for six months plus for no response at all. So I'm thinking maybe Talebones or Potter's Field Two.

My goals for this month are to whip "The Oracle of Building 42" into shape and send it out, and to look serious at spinning off a short story from my NaNo ramblings. There seem to be several age of sail/pirates themed anthologies seeking subs at the moment, which dovetail nicely with what I've been working on.

And that's it for now! New "Dr. Who" and "Battlestar Galactica" tonight -- woo hoo!

"The Resurrection Men" is still in the slush at Cutting Block Press's Horror Library, Vol 2".

"The Proust Effect" is at Intergalactic Medicine Show, awaiting its turn for rejection.

Aberrant Dreams has had "The Stampeders" since the end of July. Their guidelines say 1-5 months, so I guess in another month I can start to whine ;-).

"The Knife In The Mirror" is still waiting hopefully at Neo-opsis.

"The Oracle of Building 42" has been up on the oww, and has gotten some very useful feedback. As soon as NaNoWriMo is over I will take it down, polish it up, and send it winging on it's way into the world.

Another positive review of my story ("Promise Them Aught") in Apex Digest #7 up at SFRevu. Also, nice comments from Michele Lee on her LJ at leatherzebra.

Speaking of Apex, Aegri Somnia, an anthology of work by featured authors (including our own Jennifer Pelland!) is available to preorder. I'll post the banner, just as soon as I can figure out how to make it show up...



As for NaNo...I'm at 8,806 words as of yesterday, which is behind, but an absolutely amazing total for me. Wrote some more this morning, but haven't downloaded it off my alpha smart yet. "Win" or not, there'll be no losing. It's great discipline for me :-D

Right, back to NaNo with me for now :-)

"The Resurrection Men" is still with Trabuco Road, which hopefully means it's still under consideration.

Ideomancer rejected "The Proust Effect" with detailed comments. The comments are appreciated, but I'm not sure I want to rewrite this one--again. *sighs* It hasn't been to that many markets, and has come very close at several, so I'm going to keep trying. Not sure exactly where just yet...

"The Stampeders" has been at Aberrant Dreams since the end of July. Their guidelines say response times of 1-5 months, so I guess it would be premature to query. And presumably they're backlogged, as they're closed for submission until January.

"The Knife in the Mirror" is somewhere in a second-read pile at Neo-opsis. They warned me it would take awhile, so I'm determined to remain patient.

Apex Digest has been saved--YAY! And issue #7 should be out soon (including my story, "Promise Them Aught")! I'm devastated that I didn't win any raffle prizes, though (unlike jenwrites, who won at least a couple *sniffs in envy*).

"White Death" should appear in the January issue of The Harrow.

In other news, I finished revising "The Oracle of Building 42". I want to have another look at it, then repost to the oww for another round of comments. Which reminds me, I've been very bad about critting lately and need to get back to work.

Also, as suggested by the little logos all over my journal, I took the plunge and signed up for NaNoWriMo this year. I don't honestly think I'll win (which is a bad attitude, I know), but I figure any word count I get down is better than the no word count I have at the moment. So it's all good. Anyway, I've been slowly researching this project for some time, but I'm devoting October to trying to put some kind of outline together and organizing my notes.

Subbed "The Resurrection Men" to Apex Digest. It's quite different in style to the one they bought, so I've no idea if they'll like it. But I figured I'd never find out if I didn't try...

As I reported in my last post, The Harrow said they wanted to buy "White Death," and that a contract would be arriving shortly by email. So far, I've heard nothing more, so I'm having this horrible fear that it was all a mistake. I hope someone was just on vacation...

I subbed "The Proust Effect" to Strange Horizons. I have this horrible feeling I may have already sent them an earlier incarnation of this story (which they rejected if I did), but I couldn't find any record of having done so (and my records are otherwise pretty complete). I tend to trust black and white over my memory, so I sent it anyway. Fingers crossed that if I have committed such a horrible faux pas that: a) it's different enough they don't remember, b) it's new fiction editors reading, so they won't remember, and/or c) they're in a forgiving mood.

"The Stampeders" is still in the slush at Aberrant Dreams, and "The Knife In The Mirror" at Neo-opsis.

I finally got back to work on revising "The Oracle of Building 42." I've many good critiques to help me...maybe too many... But still, with the kids back in school and after-school sports, I have a lot more peace and quiet than I did during the summer (when I had, well, none). Other than finishing that one, my plan is to be ready for NaNoWriMo this year, and make some serious progress on the novel I've been picking at for some time. In the meantime, I might just take some of that and spin off a short story for Sails & Sorcery anthology. Oh, I have a couple of ideas which just might work for that one...

Wish me luck!

Rejections from Horrors Beyond II and Grendelsong.

Still waiting to hear from The Harrow. They have an online tracking system, so I know they have it and it's been assigned to a reviewer, but no progress yet.

Weird Tales never responded to the query I sent a month ago, and I sent the story to them on March 3rd, so I withdrew it. I sent the story out to Neo-opsis on August 1st, and received a note back on the 4th telling me that the first reader liked it (yay!), and has passed it along to the editor. Also warned me that it might be as long as 8 months to wait now. Well, at least I know they have it and are considering it!

I also queried Peridot Books on August 2d, and heard back the next day that my story there is in a "maybe" pile. There go my fingernails--figuratively, that is. In reality, I'm more likely to eat too many tortilla chips.

That leaves me with one story sitting here that needs to be sent back out. As it does have both science and horror, I'm thinking to try Apex Digest, though this one is quite different from the story of mine they bought.

In other news, the road over Devil's Slide opened yesterday, which is the best thing to happen to me all summer. This means I can go ride, or at least visit, Morocha every day, and skip the stress of a lengthy, traffic-filled detour. In fact, I'm headed to the stable as soon as I post!

Unfortunately, I'm still not getting much new writing or revising done, or critiquing. It's not so much "writer's block", as a failure of organization. The ideas and scribbled notes are there, just not the time to sit down and do anything with them. Of course things like vacuuming and gardening aren't getting done either. Really, getting back to the school year routine should help me no end. I feel awful hating summer, but I do. There, I've said it.

I feel pretty much like a slug, as I haven't gotten any new writing done in quite some time.

I have lots of good excuses for June. No, they're not actually good excuses, but there you go. Youngest graduated 8th grade, which was an incredible kerfuffle of grandparents coming, rehearsals, last minute clothes shopping (for said son), and parties. More than a little over the top, imho, but he was in a small school with a tight-knit community, and finishing was a big, big deal. Still, I'm very happy that he graduated--next year they'll both be at the same high school which is in walking distance. Yay, no more school runs! Though I'm sure there'll be plenty of other places to drive them :-/. In fact that's the story of my summers: trying to work around driving them places, and having peace and quiet only in the early mornings before they get up.

Then I was off to Tucson for a week for a scientific conference, and all that plus the usual family and horse stuff pretty much ate June.

The good news is that the ToC for issue #7 of Apex Digest has been posted, and there I am! Definitely a thrill :-)

Still waiting to hear from:

Horrors Beyond Anthology - according to their guidelines, responses should be out by July 31.

The Harrow - according to their online tracking system, it's been assigned to a reviewer, but that's all. The story went to them on June 16th, after a complimentary rejection from The Late Late Show.

Peridot Books - their latest submission cycle ended June 30, and they are reading for the September issue, so I should hear something soon.

Grendelsong - sent "The Stampeders" there after a quick and encouraging rejection from FBS e-zine. Anyway, Grendelsong says they normally respond in about 30 days, and we're not there yet.

Weird Tales - I have yet to hear from them on a submission from March third. That's way past the latest response times posted to the Black Hole--although there's nothing recent there, and I've seen nothing recent reported on the Rumor Mill either *grinds teeth*. The editor has moved, and I bet my submission is lost. That would be the story of my life... I queried by email on July 6, but no response as of yet.

Other than that, my Baycon story is still awaiting revisions, and I have a couple of germinating ideas I've made a few notes for. Hoping to have something more to report by the end of July (apart from yet another birthday, boo hiss).

Best news first: got my contract from Apex Digest on Saturday, so I signed and dropped it back in the mail today *rubs hands together with glee*

In other story news this month, I had a rejection from Abyss & Apex. That story has now gone out to a new market, FBS E-zine.

Still waiting to hear from: Horrors Beyond II Anthology, The Late Late Show, Peridot Books, and Weird Tales.

Baycon was great. It was my first con (other than a handful of media cons), so I dipped my big toe in this year, and yes, now I have the bug. My lovely friend, Nora, who is on staff, took me under her wing and introduced me to a lot of people. I was commuting, and so didn't stay for parties, but next year...look out!

I survived the writers' workshop in one piece as well! This was my first experience of face-to-face critting, so I was apprehensive, but everyone was very nice--which isn't to say they weren't critical, they just knew how to do it with class. There was one other sacrificial victim, and a panel of four writers (Lori White, G. David Nordley, Kevin O-Donnell Jr, and Morgan Hua). I gather the format (a few minutes for each critter to say their piece, then questions and open discussion) was pretty standard, and everyone gave me written notes as well. Naturally some of the comments were contradictory, but, heh, I have a lot to think about, which was the purpose.

And last but not least! wistling tagged me for the "username explanation" meme. "Plaguedocs" was the name I came up with when I started my reading blog, You Are What You Read back in December of 2002. I always loved the image of the plague doctor: leather "beak" stuffed with sweet-smelling herbs, crystal "goggles", gauntlets and all. Plus I keep finding myself reading about infectious diseases, as well as incorporating those microscopic monsters into my stories. TB, polio, and rabies have all featured so far. Smallpox and Hansen's disease are currently incubating.

So that's it, really. And, btw, wistling is a very cool username, with an interesting story behind it.

As for June plans... With a big work project to finish, an 8th grader graduating next week, parents coming to stay for said graduation, and a trip to a professional conference at the end of the month, I don't expect to get much writing done. I'm planning to work on revisions to my Baycon story while I'm away. Other than that, it'll mostly be jotting notes for a couple of germinating ideas and bouncing any stories that come back to me right out the door again.

Let's see...

No word yet from Aberrant Dreams or Weird Tales. I queried Aeon today and received a very quick response that they had never seen the story I'd emailed back on February 1. I took Bridget up on her offer to resub it for a quick read. And the moral is: when in doubt, query sooner rather than later! In other activities today, I subbed "White Death" to The Late Late Show, and "The Stampeders" went out to The Pedestal.

I'm all registered for Baycon, but I'm not sure what's going on with the writers' workshop. I realized that the two workshop webpages had two different deadlines, and I managed to submit my story after one but before the other one. I sent a query email on Friday, but so far I've had no response. Oh well. I have a lot of good ideas on what to do with the story from the oww, so I'll just go ahead and revise and attend regular sessions instead. A preliminary schedule has been posted for the con, and it looks pretty cool.

Other than that, I'd scratched out a few notes on an idea for a flash piece with the idea of submitting it to Paradox's alt-hist contest.

Stories out at Aberrant Dreams, Aeon, Realms of Fantasy, and Weird Tales. Not expecting to hear anytime soon from any of these except Aeon, but I think I'll leave it a bit longer before querying.

Didn't get anything new sent out this month, or even finished. Did make significant progress on reworking a story I'd started, but never finished, some time back. I'm still hoping to have it finished in time to send to the Baycon writers' workshop. Deadline is April 15, and I should make it...

I signed up for the April crit marathon at the oww. The aim is to do a crit every day. My goal, at the very least, is to finally finish off the handful of crits I need to complete to earn my second "bee" (which will only make sense if you're on the workshop, otherwise never mind). But here I sit with a shiny new completed crit ready to post...and the site is down.

In totally unrelated news, my new icon is a pic of my horse, Morocha. I've only had her since the end of January, and it has been raining almost every day since (sorry for the sound of whining). We're still getting to know each other, and we both have training and fitness issues which would be easier to work on if we had two dry days to rub together. My biggest worry at the moment is that the road will wash out. She lives on a farm about 10 minutes down the coast highway--just the other side of a notorious stretch known as "Devil's Slide." It's already slipping, and if it becomes undrivable, I'm looking at a two-hour plus round trip.

Well, as I posted a couple of days ago, I sold a story to Apex Digest! Yippee! I don't have the details on which issue yet, but will post them once I know. The story is called "Promise Them Aught" and is sort of a creepy, mad-scientist twist on "The Pied Piper." It's one that went out to a lot of markets (15, not counting Apex), and got a lot of positive "but not quite right for us" responses. I was sure I could sell it, if I could just get it in front of the right editor. So there you go: persistence wins again :-)

Otherwise, I'm still waiting to hear from: Aberrant Dreams, Aeon, Fantasy, and Talebones on other stories.

February rejections from: Glimmertrain and Son & Foe.

Apart from that I've been making progress on the novel (working out characters and plot details), watching the Olympics, and working with Morocha. I still don't have a saddle, but it's supposed to be delivered on Friday!

Better late than never...

Lots of rejection this month *sigh*. Specifically from: Whispering Spirits, WotF, Aeon, Baen's Universe, Glimmertrain, and Son and Foe.

Stories still out at: Aberrant Dreams, Aeon (different story to above), and Talebones.

Three sitting at home now, waiting for me to do some market research and figure out where to try them next.

Otherwise, I've not done any new writing for awhile, but I have been doing research and making notes for the novel I failed to make much progress on during NaNoWriMo. As evidence, I offer a recent post to my reading blog, "You Are What You Read".

And January was the month in which I bought my new horse, Morocha, a retired polo pony. So, in her honor, I give you my Leonardo's horse icon.

For December 2005

Rejections from:

Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
Lone Star Stories
Fantasy

Stories out at:

Whispering Spirits
Writers of the Future contest
Aeon

Plans for January:

- Have one completed story I'm currently revising. I've done most the detailed stuff, but now I need to spread it out over the dining room table and consider the overall structure. It was originally told out of order, but some of the critiquers didn't care for that, so I've restructured it in a more linear fashion. But I'm not sure I like it. So... It's just something I haven't been able to concentrate on with the kids out of school and my parents visiting for the holidays. It's waiting for my first bit of quality alone time ;->

- I need to figure out what to do with a couple of my serially-rejected stories. I'm thinking to try Talebones with one. So, I need to print out a copy and take it to the post office next week. The other one I might try workshopping at Zoetrope. I opened an account there, but haven't really explored yet.

- Get back into the critting habit! I'm soooo close to earning a 2d bee on the OWW, but I've really fallen off the wagon this year. I want to do at least one crit per week there, plus I'll need to crit several stories on Zoetrope as well.

- Look over the all-sorts story bits I have on that back up disk I thought was lost, but now is found (yeah!), and see what can be salvaged. I still like some of those ideas, but serious rework is needed.

- Pick up again on my NaNo project. Even though I failed pretty miserably to make much progress during November, it's still a project I do want to complete. So, something I plan to make a steady effort on.