Category Archives: Writing

Sybil’s Garage #6

Senses Five Press posted the TOC for the next issue of Sybil’s Garage. While not listed in the post, I have an interview with author Paul Tremblay in this issue.

The fiction and poetry are as follows, and I can say having read most of the pieces that this is going to be one of the best issues to date.

Poetry
Liz Bourke “The Girl”
Donna Burgess “Ashes”
Lyn C. A. Gardner “God’s Cat”
Alex Dally MacFarlane “The Wat”
Susannah Mandel “Metamorphic Megafauna”
Tracie McBride “An Ill Wind”
Kristen McHenry “Museum”
Jaime Lee Moyer “One by Moonlight “
Daniel A. Rabuzzi “Backsight”
Michel Sauret “Brick Wall Giants”
Michel Sauret “Son of Man”
J.E. Stanley “City of Bridges”
Sonya Taaffe “Skiadas”
Marcie Lynn Tentchoff “Sun-Kissed”

Fiction
Rumjhum Biswas “Mother’s Garden”
K. Tempest Bradford “Ã’lan Vital”
Autumn Canter “Day of the Mayfly”
Becca De La Rosa “Not the West Wind”
Eric Del Carlo “Come the Cold”
Jason Heller “The Raincaller”
Paul Jessup “Heavens Fire “
Vylar Kaftan “Fulgurite”
Keffy R. M. Kehrli “Machine Washable”
Sean Markey “Waiting for the Green Woman”
James B. Pepe “I am Enkidu, his Wild Brother”
Simon Petrie “Downdraft”
Genevieve Valentine “The Drink of Fine Gentlemen Everywhere”
Stephanie Campisi “Drinking Black Coffee at the Jasper Grey Cafe”
Toiya Kristen Finley “Eating Ritual”
Donald Norum “An Old Man Went Fishing on the Sea of Red”

How is this a good investment?

rejectI’ll admit it, I worry about money as much as anyone else. While I do make stupid purchases from time to time — I can’t for the life of me remember the last time I used that stainless steel hand warmer I bought last year — I for the most part try to watch my spending and make sure I get my money’s worth.

So, here’s a shot of a recent rejection note I got in a self-supplied, self-addressed and stamped envelope. Come on! I wasted a stamp on this? Perhaps including post cards with submissions would be a better idea. I could even put little YES or NO check boxes on the back, you know, to help them out.

No way did I get my forty-one -cents worth.

Retreating

Altered Fluid members (thanks to David and Robert for the photo)

A week ago I returned from my most recent trip to Gettysburg.  This time I went with my writing group on our yearly Altered Fluid writing retreat.  We rented two amazing houses approximately six miles east south-east of the battlefield.

I found myself making multiple trips to the battlefield for my own research, and every day I’d take a group of writers out and give them my own version of a tour of the battlefield.  No one dozed off on me, so I’ll consider that a success.

This is the first time I’ve visited Gettysburg while writing about the battle. It is an amazing but humbling experience to spend an evening reading and researching about men of the 19th Indiana Regiment, and then walk the National Cemetery the next day and see the names of some of those very same men etched in the stones that fan out along the ground.

Overall, I didn’t get as much writing done over our five days as I would have liked, but it was still a great time, both because of the location and the company.

Iron Brigade monument in Herbst/McPhearson woods

Writing Anywhere

mall.jpg My current job has me working night hours in Central Park.  I’ve got into the habit of showing up for work early and sitting in the Mall to do my daily writing.  For non-New Yorkers, the mall is best explained as “the filming location for EVERY movie scene of a couple walking during the fall in NYC”.  Lots of foot traffic, but it isn’t distracting, and you can’t beat the scenery.  Being outside has also proved that not having internet access while I write is actually a good thing.

Hour of the Wolf: Part IV

Bridges This past Saturday the 23rd, the members of Altered Fluid once again crawled out of bed at an insanely early hour to hold a meeting on WBAI’s Hour of the Wolf radio show.  As usual Jim Freund did a great job hosting as Alaya Dawn Johnson and her story sat on the chopping block.  You can find the PodCast on the radio station’s website (scroll down to Hour of the Wolf, 9/23 show).

I took this photo at dawn, as we FINISHED the show.  So much for me becoming a night person to prepare for my upcoming job.

KGB Reading

CyclerLauren McLaughlin will be reading at the KGB Fantastic Fiction series tomorrow evening, Wednesday the 16th at 7 p.m. Lauren’s first novel, Cycler, was released by Random House last month. As you may remember, I interviewed Lauren for Sybil’s Garage No. 5 late last year. That interview is available as a free download on the Senses Five Press website.

The First Day of the Rest of My… Week

calendarA year ago I posted how I was quitting my full time job to work on my writing.  I did that, but as with most things in life, it didn’t turn out quite as I expected. No dramatic change to the life of a writer, starting a new life of art and such pursuits, leaving what was far behind.  The truth is, honestly, over that past year I’ve spent approximately half of that time working.  Working at my old place of employment, to be exact.  It turns out that short term project work is something they need, and something I much prefer to a 9-5 with no end in sight.  Take some time off, write, go back, earn some money, repeat as often as I can for as long as I can.

Yesterday was the first day “off” after a 3 month project. I have 8-10 weeks ahead of me to get some writing done. I’ve settled on a novel that will take place during the American Civil War, because the era and people fascinate me, and I want to test my theory that you can write any type of story in any type of setting/period and if the story is told well, the setting and genre should not matter.  I hope to get a good chunk of this project done over the next 10 weeks, but since I’ve decided to keep it historically accurate (in line with David McCullough’s statement that he “always strives to tell the truth”, which I completely agree with), I might spend the bulk of this time doing research for this project and a few others. Regardless, I’m spending the summer paying myself to write – not recommended for those who like to actually earn money – and I hope to keep to my daily regime a bit better than I have in the past.

Catching up

notfound.jpg I used to always wonder why my father, who was essentially a mechanic in his regular job, used to procrastinate when it came time to help me work on my car. Now that I’m a computer tech and I find myself with a crippled computer at home and no desire to work on anything electronic after a full day at the office, I finally understand.

That’s a long way of saying my computer’s busted, I’m waiting on a part to fix it, and until it shows up I’m just not interested in taking any extra steps to keep myself online and connected. Meh, I can use the break.

In the meantime, Matt was good enough to to post about Altered Fluid’s most recent early morning appearance on Hour of the Wolf a week ago, saving me the effort. Thanks, Matt!