Writers groups

Just a note to stress the importance of socializing with other writers.

I suspect that I share some things in common with a host of my writing peers, although there are of course plenty who differ.  One of the things I suspect is common among writers is introversion. There are times I'd rather skip a meal (that's huge!) than go to the grocery store and be among people I don't know. I go to Sam's Club or Costco on weekdays just because I know there will be fewer strangers there.

That attitude made it hard, at least at first, to attend a writing group.  I overcame those feelings, however, and am VERY glad I did. Nothing has helped my writing like the friends I've made within my local groups, and now that they're friends I no longer feel like I want to run screaming for the door when I associate with them. I can only hope that I have helped them as much as they've helped me.

My point? If I can get out there with my degree of introversion, so can you.  Get out and join a writing group.  They're going to make you better whether they give you bad advice or good because you're surely smart enough to sort through input for the gems.  You'll get people who can critique your hardcopy, and not just online submissions. You'll get out of the house and potentially get some vitamin D in your system.  Your skin makes that, btw, when exposed to sunlight. ;)

I'm heading to my Sunday meeting later today, and am eager to share my writing and read that of others. Give it a try.  It's fun.

PPWC 2014: The Zebulon

For those of you interested in entering writing contests, I'd like to offer up the Zebulon run by my friend Jeff Schmoyer. 

The Zebulon Contest

I'm planning on entering, so the best you'll be able to get is 2nd place, but I'm sure that prize is very nice.  I haven't looked at it because the only one that matters in my case is the 1st place prize, but that's why there is more than one place and one prize.

LOL!  Kidding.

Enter, it's nice to win things.

1st place:  Refund of conference fees for 2014
2nd place: $40
3rd place: $20

The entry fee is $20, and you can get your first 2500 words of your manuscript critiqued for an additional $20.   Really, just go and check it out.  I don't want to retype it all here.

Success!

At least to a degree.  I got a request for the first 50 pages of my novel this weekend from an agency in NYC.  How sweet is that?

It's the end of a convention weekend, I'm whacked, and I'm going to rest tonight.  But tomorrow I hope to write another entry with more details. 

Night!

View from the 12th floor of the Renaiscance Hotel. 

Denver, and beyond that, the Rockies.

Right now I can't stop thinking about dinner!  My wife is supposed to arrive soon, we drove separately as she's not attending the conference and wanted to be free to roam around without stopping me from doing the same.

When she arrives, I'm going to eat like an American.  Which I am, so that's convenient.

Headed out...

Conference time...

Headed out to lunch at Red Robin with the wife, then traveling to Denver.  75.1 miles between my house and the Renaissance Hotel.

If I have time, I'll post about it from the conference, if not, I'll see you all Monday and post about it then.

Hectic week

I'm one of the most disorganized people you will ever meet.  I don't do paperwork well, I don't do planning things well, really, I'm a mess.

But creativity I have in overabundance. This week, due to the writers conference I'm leaving for Thursday morning, I have been unable to write a single word.  Seriously, not a single word has come out of me creatively in a few days.

In that case, there are other outlets, right?

I tried computer games.  Bleh, I really didn't get into them tonight.

Facebook?  It can get pretty boring too.

I am, however, also a very visually creative person.  I sculpt, a bit, although I haven't in a while.

I thought to myself tonight, "Self, what can you do that furthers your Dark Sea project, even if you can't write?"

"Make a painting," I replied.

Seriously, I should probably spend less time talking to myself, and more time painting or writing, so that's exactly what I did.

This is a work in progress, and will change dramatically as I edit it, but here is the initial work I'm titling Sunrise on Refuge.  THIS IS ROUGH DRAFT. ;)  Seriously, I have less than an hour in this.  It will get better if I return to it.  It will get more detail where it needs it, detail taken out where it needs that. Green, however, is probably the way things are there.  I will probably blue up the ocean, I am thinking it will be a deep dark blue with the sun just rising in the east.

Very green, right?  But then it's an orange star with a much thicker atmosphere, less oxygen, and more nitrogen.  I thinking it would be green.  So I will be detailing the rolling hills, working on the ocean in the front, adding in a few more clouds.  In my mind, this is what the coastline of Zeffult would look like as you approach it over the ocean from the west.  If you do that, however, you want to approach lower or an adept will get you.

Getting ready....

Hi all,

I'm getting ready for the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Conference, which has kept me hopping. I may have already mentioned that, but I'm running around like a headless chicken to be honest.

My one page synopsis is complete, and I have a generic query letter.

I am getting ready to print out 20 copies of my first 10 pages now, in hopes of handing them out at the conference to agents, fellow writers, or Klingon warriors if they'll take them. 

We'll see.

Deluge at Refuge

It's been raining like nuts here in Colorado Springs. Amazingly my writing group showed up in pretty good numbers last night, but there was a lot of concern about road flooding and the like.

I took some video on my iPhone, once I get things sorted out with that I'll put up a video on YouTube and link it here.

I heard the rain described as "biblical".  I don't have a boat of any kind, so I hope not.

I don't always get drenched in Colorado, but when I do, it's a deluge.
Stay dry, my friends.

It's been a while

It's been a few days since I posted, I've been busy.  Last weekend my wife and I actually socialized with real people, and on Saturday we played Glow Golf at the Chapel Hills Mall in Colorado Springs.  It was delightful, as was the meal we had beforehand at Steak N Shake, which will potentially supplant my love for Red Robin. Of course restaurants aren't like ladies, you can actually love more than one and not incur the wrath of both restaurants.

I'm 30 chapters into revising the book, and discovered I needed to completely rewrite chapter 30.  Bummer.  But, it was in the wrong point of view. I had it in Captain Dayson's, and it needed to be in Lieutenant Corriea's POV. 

So now I'm rewriting, and that's taking me a few days, because I am working my psyche up to it. :)

I want to thank my friends, Roberta and Chris for the help they gave me on Sunday with that chapter, btw.  It was these two excellent writers who convinced me it needed to be in Corriea's POV.

Ok, back to it, I think I have a good four hours in me now.

Happy holiday

I hope you all had one.  I did a bit of writing on Saturday, but really haven't done much except... well, I haven't done anything this weekend actually.  It was sort of nice, I suppose.