awesomeness

Today was fine and the writer's virtual meet up on Discord was fire but there was some really unpleaasant things today

For one, it snowed nearly 10 straight hours. There was so much salt on the roads that it wasn't sticking there much but we did get a few more inches. It was a gentle snow though, so very pretty.

But right before my afternoon class started, I thought I heard my phone in my office but I was down the hall talking to a coworker. I didn't have time to look at it. By the time class was over and I got home it was nearly 5. I saw there was a message on my land line phone. It was this collection agency that didn't autofill the name or the case number and I did call them a couple weeks ago when they did that and there was no viable phone number. I doubt it's for me but I DO want to know what it is.

But also on there was a call from my bank. Turns out they called my cell too. It's a real phone for my bank. My bank called BOTH my phones. OMG. WHY? We all know that it's not for anything good and I have to wait until tomorrow to ask after it. God I hope I wasn't cleaned out by a hacker.

Then just before seven I hear a metallic noise outside. I figured it was the blade of a plow. But as I'm talking to my parents a half hour later I check my cell to see if they canceled tomorrow. Turns out that was a crash where my road meets the highway and I'm cut off. I didn't see anything so I'm assuming it's opened now. DOn't know if anyone was hurt.

I did put in for money for my work con. I could go to that Mexican all inclusive I went to last year for two weeks for what this costs. Sigh. And I guess I'm to pay for an uber to get from the airport tp the con hotel but it's like 24 miles and no one has a shuttle. When I put in for a shuttle it said it was 385 and showed and SUV. I checked renting a car and it was the same cost so I'm assuming if I want to get there I have to rent a car or pay for uber (which I've never done since we don't have any here)

Such a weird day.

My imbolc was...frustrating. Before I launch into my writerly ways, let me tell you my tale of woe because what would a day be if something annoying didn't happen. I opened my email to find

1. my hotel was canceled
2. that gown I paid for, the email can't be delivered.


So 1. the hotel. It's for the loveland frogman festival. It's the hotel they use for their guests and festival goers (the conference center is a golf club without a hotel) I call them to find out WHY they canceled. me. She goes , 'oh, the state shut us down.' and hung up on me. I'm wow. how BAD do you have to be for the state said no more. A friend suggested that maybe it was because of ICE because didn't Hilton do that it in Minneapolis. Yes but that doesn't seem to be the case here. Now I'm looking for a new hotel AND wondering will the festival get canceled?!?

2. When recollection clothing was on Etsy I bought a beautiful walking dress for my steampunk and in June I bought one for my steampunk/cosplaying Rosie. She's no longer on etsy. It was meant to be delivered in August. it took a couple emails to get a response that she was struggling to get the cloth but she was on it. I've emailed every month since. No response. Now I can't even get an email through. Either she pulled up stakes entirely OR she blocked me. I need to go check the web page to see what's going on but I'm betting that's 200$ I'm never seeing back.


So writerly ways. I have nothing much to actually say, ha. BUT I stumbled onto an offer that was too short of a turn around to share it and it was all about taking a chance (literally it was a random lottery) to get pages of your novel read by a pro editor (like 3 pages) and they asked what turned out to be a shockingly hard question that I thought I'd pose to all of you.

What do YOU struggle with in your novel?

Part of me wanted to say description, ever since a particularly bad writers' group but then I thought eh, that sounds not really like I know what I'm doing. My real problem is my characters pull the story down rabbit holes I'm not sure it should be going through and evil little dog helped me put it in a more coherent way, enough so that one of the editors popped in with an answer (something other than buy my book, which there was a regrettable amount of that) He called it shiny object syndrome which fair. I've called it that myself not knowing it's the right term.

I get distracted by the newest shiny idea outside of the novel and within. It's something I need to work on. How about you?



Open Calls


Views From The Overlook I've shared this before. My story is ready (another beta read wouldn't be bad) I'm sharing this again because they have made a lot of changes to the open call (making it more fair honestly) and the pay is up to 2K for the story. I'm still taking my slim to none chance.

After the Hurt This one is weird. It wants stories that are 'after the whump' the weird part is they have categories from micro fic to novelettes but the PAY doesn't change, just ten dollars or a paperback of the anthology. Given that I wouldn't give them more than flash fic

When the Base Goes Dark: Holding the Line at Home Original horror fiction written exclusively by current or former military dependents

Eye to the Telescope Theme: Paying Tribute

Vampires Anthology Spine-tingling Short Stories of Vampirism in All Its Forms. this is one I'm writing frantically for but it just occurred to me I DO have steampunk vampire story (but it might be too short).

Untitled Suburban Gothic Anthology Suburban Gothic by Canadian authors

THE PING ANTHOLOGY

35 Magazines Accepting Literary Fiction



From around the web

Battling “Shiny Object Syndrome” as a Writer: How I’m Staying Focused on My Novella this was the advice I was given

Short, Sharp, and Hungry: What a Lifetime of Novels Taught Me About Writing Short Horror

Radical Immersion: Becoming Your Character

How to Sneak Clues Past Your Readers and Keep Them Guessing

Change Requires an Engaged Community

The Author's Guide to Instagram.

Five Top Tips To Smash Your Writing Goals

The Timely Sentence



One I think a lot of us should listen to


also interesting



From Betty

Five Ways Authors Sabotage Their Story’s Tension

How Big Should Character Problems Be?

What Actually Scares Me About AI

Three Ways to Develop Characters in Fiction


How to Craft Accurate Fight Scenes - Part 2

This Book Brought to You By

Coping Mechanism Thesaurus Entry: Negative Self-Talk

HOW TO WRITE AN 'I HAVE A BOOK COMING' EMAIL

Why Writers Should Stretch: Simple Ways to Reduce Pain and Stay Healthy at Your Desk

Why Writers Need Good Friends: 5 Powerful Reasons Connection Fuels Creativity and Calling

Dipping the Quill Deeper: Honoring Elders by Preserving Their Stories and Legacy

6 Reasons Writing for Change Requires an Engaged Community

I Meet the Villain Last

Writing Without Trying to Manage the Reader

But this has too much ice for me. They warned us they couldn't get all the ice off. Let it be known NO ice/snow had been removed from the handicapped lot in and in front of the building was a literal rink. Another coworker was out and he walked in with me in case I couldn't do it (No issues0

The heaters are broken so the rooms are icy.

When I left at five all the feet had taken off the snow. It was a bare ice floe. I could barely walk to the car. I texted my coworker and said end your lab. You'll never make it in the dark. I called off for tomorrow. I missed Wednesday's lab might as well miss both.

That'll get me down to Gallipolis earlier so I can hit the library and lunch before my mammogram.

community recs just remember halfamoon, the prompts are up, let's celebrate the ladies of fandom

and fandomtrumpshate is up and running. Auction off your skills, help people. Fandom helping people is a great thing. I need to get my offer in.

Rocket made me laugh. He wanted out this morning. I opened the door. That -5 F (-21C) air hit him, he dropped to his belly, scuttled backwards and used his litter box. Yeah I thought so.

And there is about 6 inches of snow which is relatively less than we were expecting right? But there is a thick layer of sleet ice between the snow. Someone plowed the drive some but obviously not near the cars. It's a thick snowbank there and ontop my car is several inches inside an ice shell that I have to get off because if I don't and it blows off it will shatter a windshield of anyone behind me. It's dangerous.

The ice is holding me up as I jackhammer this stuff off the roof of my CR-V...until it didn't. Naturally it gives out on my bad leg side so down I go onto my bad knee and shoulder. My head hits and my hat takes off. It takes a second to realize that was a cushioned fall and I'm fine. My knee bent the natural way so I didn't hurt it (and at this point I can't damage the cartilage more. It's gone) My next thought is, well glad no one saw that. I crawl to my back car door because I will need a handhold to get that bad leg under me on the ice. Had to look like a walrus trying to get up on the rocks to wave to the crowd.

My pants are covered with ice. Ditto my wool pea coat. I get my hat and at least my glasses didn't break. I finish cleaning the car. The ice breaks again but under my left leg so I could catch myself. It takes an hour to do this. Roscoe the three legged mini chichuahua races out to yap at me. I talk to his mom who is furious that the cleaner only cleaned in front of HER apartment and not the other three buildings. She gives me the rest of the salt so I deal with that

My knee is sore. My shin has a goose egg because the blood thinners made a big-ass hematoma but otherwise, I have bruises on my ribs/arm/shoulder but nothing bad. BUT my county and the county the school is in are both still at level 2 snow emergency so no school tomorrow either. I.e. we ran out of salt to fix the roads so we're fucked.




That's the ice sandwich I was walking on and knocking off my car. I otherwise did nothing else I said I was doing today but did get distracted by 3sentenceficathon somebody come slap me.

For Fannish 50 I had a few things I wanted to talk about but now I'm forced to deal with fans needing a good grip on reality. Between Hazbin Hotel, Helluva Boss, the Mighty Nein and the Amazing Digital Circus, it has to be said, YOUR head canon is just that. Yours. You don't get to threaten the creators when actual canon doesn't match it. You can disappointed sure. You can even quit the fandom. But nothing gives you the right to threaten the creators, the voice actors and other fans. I keep having to write this same blog post time and again (not that the ill behaved members are going to see it).


One of the big name Huskerdust fans quit in a huff (no threats, just they're done). I was wondering who'd be the next BNF (not me, my stories don't seem to hit well in this fandom for the most part but I have a small loyal following that I appreciate) but they're basically 'if you're following me for the fandom might as well unfriend me now. I refuse to have anything to do with this because...basically it didn't match their head canon and they'll be deleting stuff.

Have you ever done this? I mean I'm sure we've all quit a fandom for various reasons. I hated what Marti Noxon did to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and I didn't see half of S6 of Buffy and most of S7 (I only watched a tiny part of it knowing it was the end and I hated what I saw) Ditto the last season of Angel and part of S3 of Angel. I've faded away in other fandoms. What I haven't done is get so mad that fandom didn't match my head canon that I deleted my profiles, erased my stories etc.

I'm not saying that it's wrong. That's something personal to you (not like the death threats and other threats of violence I'm seeing) But I'm curious if you have gotten that mad, why did you feel compelled to delete it all? (Then again I've known some people who have deleted everything just because).