No writing, no reading, not much of anything this week…except…I started playing the game Liar’s Dice in Red Dead Redemption.
Enjoy!
Archive for May, 2010
A day late. That means something good right? I don’t know about that.
I’m starting my first MBA class today, thus beginning a two or three year adventure that’s sure to eat up my free time and turn my haphazard writing schedule even more on its head.
Whether by coincidence or intentionally cramming, I’ve tried to toss do as much reading, watching, playing as possible this week, with some amount of success. My short-story is half edited and as long as today remains an intro class without too much work, I’ll be able to finish the rest of it today. This short story, called Widget, is only around 3,000. I intentionally made it short, partially because the 10,000 stories just take the wind out of me, but I’m also hoping the shorter format will prove to be a bit more publishable. If nothing else, I need to learn how to write an engaging piece in less than 5000 words for the sake of the trees.
I always find myself trying to balance informative blog content versus a real need to not give any of my stories away. I really can’t give out too much otherwise they become unpublishable, but that leaves me with some pretty bare scraps to talk about. Again, I’m falling on the side of wasting words, but my hope is that its come together as a cross between a 30s hard-boiled detective story and a comic book. And no, I’m not ripping off Watchman either. Dick Tracy maybe…
Beyond writing, I’ve been playing Red Dead Redemption. The reviewers have been calling it Grand Theft Horsey and it is very similar to GTA IV, but that’s hardly an insult. They took GTA and made it about cowboys. No complaints whatsoever. If anything, it’s been refreshing because the Western has been so soundly underplayed within computer games. For whatever reason, that genre has been neglected.
In Red Dead they have done a good job balancing the necessity of Hollywoodesque drama with a more realistic As with every game and movie mad ever, there’s that weird sense that there’s just a little too much going on it the world for it to be realistic, but again, I’m not going to complain. From the moment I hopped on my horse, crossed the desert during a thunderstorm, and then jumped on a train to get to the next town I was thoroughly hooked. So far, I’d say that I haven’t been this engrossed in simply exploring the world since Morrowind. Not even Oblivion or GTA IV encouraged me quite as much to just walk around and see the scenery.
Until I know my schedule, I don’t have any plans for future plans; no games, no books, no stories. Today, tomorrow, and for the foreseeable next 5 weeks the only thing I’ll be doing is studying up on be Micro-Economics. Not quite sure how or why that managed to come together, but seeing as class starts in 1 hour and 50 minutes, I guess it did…
Reading: The Greatest Show on Earth by Richard Dawkins. It’s a general overview of Evolution. I’ve read about that a few times before so it’s nothing all that new, but it’s engaging and and I like the topic. I really need to find something a little bit deeper on the topic, but that’s surprisingly hard to find. Maybe once the Cretin population dies off a little bit and America jumps up from near last on the list of industrialized nations and knowledge of Evolution. Also, why do the books supporting science have such great names: The Blind Watchmaker, Endless Forms Most Beautiful, Climbing Mount Improbable, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, all very evocative and poetic. The books criticizing science never seem nearly as artful.
Writing: That short-story I’ve been babbling about — it’s done and submitted. It’ll be a few weeks before I hear back. I’ve got another short story to resubmit after a rejection slip and another short-story to write, this one hopefully a lot shorter than the other one. The premise is a character whose genes were patented. I read a story about a patent case in the news not so long ago that managed to capture my imagination.
Playing: I’m finishing up Splinter Cell: Conviction. It’s much faster and action oriented that the previous Splinter Cell games, but they did a very good job keeping everything together. They did not overpower Sam Fisher too much, kept the gadgets interesting, and managed to pull the story along a lot better than expected. I miss the old, slow-paced planning Splinter Cell, but the gameplay was maybe getting a little stale. It seemed more realistic, but this did such a good jump with Conviction I can’t criticize.
I pre-ordered Red Dead Redemption, which looks like Grand Theft Auto in the Old West. Sounds amazing, can’t wait!
Watching: Maybe Iron Man 2? The character does not have much room for plot development. I imagine it has to be terrible. I know already that I’m going to be disappointed…I’m going to see it anyway, probably, maybe, unless someone saves me from it.
Cooking: maybe a pizza? I’m still got a few bread mixes from my x-mas Bread Machine.
Hiking: Minnewaska 6th time this year.
And that’s the weekend.
Another rejection letter for a short story. That makes seven for this year, three on this story alone. Perhaps, I need to see about making some improvements…
I finally finished Old Man Goriot by Balsac. It reminds me of a French version of Dickens, maybe with a bit of Three Musketeers added in. A sad book ultimately, but a social book, like Dickens might write, and a stirring one as well. I’d give more of a book summary, since it’s not the best known book these days, but it’s a tough plotline to pin down. A dozen odd lodgers live in the same boarding house. A social climber named Rastignac has a number of adventures therein involving a mysterious criminal, a forgotten heiress, and a broken old vermicelli maker. The closest plot I might link it to would be King Lear, but I’m not sure that’s the best comparison to make either. It’s quite the read, also short. Worth finding on the shelf.
My own short story is almost finished. I’ve got a finished draft that I’m trying to polish. It’s still drifting between 10 and 11 thousand words. I was hoping to chop it down to the mid 7s, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. SO far, I’ve got an intro that comes together rather well and the ending seems pretty tied up, but the middle has it’s guts to the wind. It needs a lot of polished, probably a few more weeks, and then I get it sent out. Sigh. It’s all very time-consuming.
I don’t think I’ve mentioned previously, but http://www.duotrope.com is the best resource I’ve found for looking up publishers especially for short stories. I can’t say I’ve had any particular success with any of my would be printers, but the search functionality at Duotrope has at least given me a shot. Absolutely invaluable.
Since I’m in something of a hurry I’ll end this right here. One last item because I’m a sucker for graphs: Is it better to rent or buy, a calculator. Enjoy!
A short post today. Last week was so exceptional that I suppose it was no surprise that this one had to be miserable.
Mostly, I’ve just been busy but not with anything interesting. I did finish the last of my editing books and I’ve started reading Old Man Goriot by Balzac. I got another rejection slip, this time from Strange Horizons, but the story only barely flt their oeuvre anyway. It wasn’t really a surprise and I’ve already sent the story back out to www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com.
I’ve got a 10500 word short story draft done. I expect it come in around 7500 words after editing, maybe a bit longer. I’ve been dabbling with an omniscient narrator which is a little new for me. I normally avoid it. The voice does not normally come naturally to me and it starts to feel a bit contrived when I’m showing everyone inside out. I think I’ve managed to work it in this one fairly well and I’ve keep the all-knowing voice to a minimum.
No other news. Long week over and a long week coming. I went hiking today which was absolutely gorgeous. I keep hoping that if I can get this writing business going for real, maybe I’ll be able to hike a little more. Here’s to the dream! Adieu.
It’s been a busy week for work and a slow week for everything else.
