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M. X. Kelly

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Killer Spacesuits & Other Publishing News from 2020

12/30/2020

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It was a good year for getting published. I'm starting to crack some better-known magazine nuts. The best known of them is probably Bards & Sages Quarterly, which published my killer spacesuit micro-story "Fifty Percent of Smartsuits Fit You Perfectly" in their October 2020 issue.

Fairly new, but highly praised Speculative North published my little three-verse lament on light pollution called "Star Trip(tych)" in their second issue, in August. The issue was reviewed in Amazing Stories, by CSFFA hall-of-famer R Graeme Cameron. You can find the review here. He even had a word or two to say about my poem. **blush** I'm glad he got the point of it. 

Hirareth Publishing printed two of my poems, "Age of Oceans" and "
Marital Bliss: Robot Reboot" in the Summer 2020 issue of Illumen magazine; and another poem, "Fairy Wine," a creepy sonnet, in their June 2020 magazine ​The Fifth Di...Their editor, Tyree Campbell, was the first to ever accept one of my poems for print publication back in 2011. 

Lastly, my short 300-word micro-story A Little Sunshine and a Breath of Fresh Air ​was published in Queer Sci-Fi's annual micro fiction contest anthology Innovation in August 2020.

After a few years of fits and starts, mostly fits, I'm starting to get published at a better rate, and getting noticed by more notable magazines and publishers. I hope this is a good sign of things to come in 2021 and beyond. 
And I received an acceptance for this anthology, where 3 of my poems will appear. "Red," "under the robotic umbrella in the rain," and "Musical Thought Drones Are Here to Assassinate You Again Today" will be published in Lyric, ​a poetry anthology by Djinn Press, a Pakistani publisher.

​I've much to be hopeful for in the coming year. 
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Books I'm Looking Forward to Reading in 2021

12/29/2020

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Here is a shortlist of the nine books I plan on cracking open next year. The first one I am already reading; the rest are books I hope to be able to set my eyeballs on sometime next year. I hope to read more than nine books in the coming year, these are just the books that I am most eager to make my acquaintance with. Also, the gallery view on my blog page only shows nine images with any kind of clarity. My nine in 2021:
  1. Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie. Currently on the 4th chapter. Takes a bit of getting used to due to everyone being referred to "she" and "her" in an obviously female-oriented universe and the differing perspectives of an Artificial Intelligence that spreads itself across thousands of bodies, including a ship, but I am liking it so far. I like the idea of female pronouns being the dominant usage. This is a first of a series of Ancillary books for Leckie. 
  2. Fugitive Telemetry, by Martha Wells. Book 6 of Murderbot Diaries. I will drop anything I'm reading the moment this is downloaded to my Kindle and read it religiously. Murderbot rocks! I love this non-sexual, human-hating, human-saving, socially awkward cyborg. 
  3. Planetfall, by Emma Newman. Emma is a writer friend of mine in social media from back in our Friday Flash days and it's high time I started her series and I regret I haven't started it sooner. I know it is going to be kick ass. I've read some reviews and it sounds spectacular, along with the rest of her series, which are actively on my to-buy and to-read list. 
  4. Left-Handed Guitar Beginners Jumpstart, by Andy Schneider. I got an acoustic guitar for Christmas. I don't know jack about playing a guitar though i was brought up in a musical home with many guitar players. About damn time I learned it. 
  5. Ringworld, by Larry Niven. One of the first science fiction books I read as a kid and I'm looking forward to the revisit. It's been so long since I read it the first time, it will be a like a completely new read, until I start digging into it, then I may be all like "Oh, I remember that!" 
  6. This Is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. I remember reading the reviews of this and thinking it sounded very interesting. It's an epistolary novel (told through correspondence/letters, I assume, as epistolary novels generally are...Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is an example). It's a very short novel, and I love very short novels. 
  7. Record of a Spaceborn Few, by Becky Chambers. The third installation in her Wayfarer series. I'd be surprised if any of the characters from the first two books appear in this. So far, each of the Wayfarer books is a different section of the Galactic Commons and about different characters. I still like her writing and the worlds she creates are fascinating. The last book, A Closed and Common Orbit, had a species 3-4 genders, and one of them was a secondary character in the book. Very interesting stuff. 
  8. Latchkey, by Nicole Kornher-Stace. Book 2 of the Archivist Wasp saga. I was very impressed with Archivist Wasp when I read it a few years ago. Most ingenious use of ghosts as characters that I've seen. 
  9. Wicked Plants, by Amy Stewart. I admit this book is for research. I am planning a fantasy novel called The Herbalist's Companion and this book will help me some of the darker elements of it. It's a book about accidents and murders attributed to plants and weeds. Should be interesting. I also have a book on magical herbalism I've been digging into for basic herbalism research for the book. 

I have other books I'm planning fro 2021, some cool science fiction and fantasy and other books for informative research for the novels I'm planning. But for now, these are my starters.

I hope 2021 will be a great year for you, reader, and that your reads give you joy. 
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A Year of Living Courageously (and Lots of Reading): My 2020 in Books

12/28/2020

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I'll get right to it. I read some pretty good books in 2020. Well, there wasn't much else to do, was there? Though we did manage to visit some lovely state parks and wildlife preserves. But I've been mostly stuck here working from home, and so I read a lot. Got books in the bathroom, in my living room (which is, for now, my break room), and of course, my Kindle is by my bed. 
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​Here are my "best of the best" reads for 2020:
  1. Network Effect, by Martha Wells (book 5 in the Murderbot Diaries series). Murderbot is always number 1 in my heart. This one brought back another favorite character, ART (short for Asshole Research Transport). Waiting (Im)patiently for the next book in the series, due out early in 2021, "Fugitive Telemetry."
  2. Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching: A Book about the Way and the Power of the Way, by Ursula K. LeGuin. I am happy I found this little book of Taoist meditations by my favorite science fiction author. I am not finished reading it, and I plan on continuing to read it from time to time even after I finish it, which is what you ought to do with a good meditation book. 
  3. Legend of Korra: Turf Wars Series, by Michael Dante DiMartino. I recently saw the series as soon as it came to Netflix and wanted more. I wanted more confirmation of a gay approval than an American cartoon in 2014 could give me. Korra and Asami walking into the spirit portal hand  in hand confirmed they had feels for one another, for me, but it was nice to get their relationship confirmed for real for real. I wanted to experience what Nickelodeon could not give me, except in vague clues (first "I love you" confessions and first kisses)...and this series did not disappoint. No spoilers but haters can go taking a flying run under a pooping platypus bear. It's official. Korrasami is F**king Canon! I am debating reading the last series in LoK in 2021, "The Ruins of the Empire."
  4. Noragami, volumes 10 and 11, by Adachitoka. I can't wait to get to a library again and take this series back up. Seriously, f**k Covid. More adventures with our favorite "Stray God," Yato and his vessel weapon Yukine, and follower (the half-phantom, half-human girl Hiyori). One of my favorite mangas. 
  5. Fool's Assassin, Fool's Quest, and Assassin's Fate: the Fitz & the Fool trilogy, by Robin Hobb. Hobb's last trilogy featuring royal bastard Fitz and his Fool, the Beloved. A fitting and appropriate end to all of her Six Duchies novels featuring Fitz and his White Prophet. I cried so hard at the end of the last book. If you haven't read these, start with The Farseer Trilogy. 
  6. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, by Becky Chambers. Book 1 of the Wayfarer series. Cool characters for weird stuff to happen to, but they get through it. Not unscathed, though. Nice takes on alien/human relations (a lesbian couple of a human and reptilian woman emerges) and different takes on AI/human relationships as well. Great read. 
  7. ​Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach, by Kelly Robson. One of the weirdest, entertaining books I've ever read. Mutant earthlings from the future time travel to ancient Mesopotamia. What could go wrong? Uh...everything. If I have anything bad to say about this book as that it ended too soon and felt "unfinished." I was left wanting more. But it was a good want. 
  8. Fierce Fairytales, by Nikita Gill. Goddess what a wonderful, empowering little collection of modernized feminist poems, micro-fiction, and flash retellings of the old conventional fairy tales.
  9. A Closed and Common Orbit, by Becky Chambers.  Book 2 of her Wayfarer Series. But don't expect a madcap adventure with all of the characters of the first book. The second book only follows two of the characters from the opening book, Pepper and Lovie (Lovelace). I like this book but confess I was a little disappointed that the original crew of the Wayfarer was not in this one. I'm set to read the third book in 2021.
​I hope you read some great books in 2020 and will keep cracking open the covers. 

I wish you fantastic reading in 2021. 

Cheers!


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For 2021, full of hopes... And going easy on one's self...

12/28/2020

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Here we stand...

At the precipice of such a year that many of us (too many of us) are side-stepping and crab-shuffling to the front of the line (while social distancing, of course) to jump madly off the edge hoping to land into a much better year. 

​I hope we do. I hope we survive the train wreck that was 2020. I hope we are not getting our hopes to wildly "up." Common sense would say that this year could be somewhat worse, since the pandemic shows no weakening. We have vaccines. I hope they are good vaccines and I hope that the majority of people get them. I know some won't. That's an issue of independent idealism (at least in the US) that won't be rectified anytime soon. 

I also hope that my friends and family will make it through the beginning of 2021 with hearts emboldened, because surely any good from 2021 will not happen right away and to believe it will is folly. I still hope the needed good things come to everyone as soon as possible. We've all suffered quite enough. I am heartened that we are getting rid of the orange goblin in chief, but I'm not certain a centrist will make it much better. Well, got to be better than it has been. I hope he does well and LISTENS to the people who put him there. I am glad to have lived long enough to have seen a woman rise to second-in-chief. I wish her the best of luck. I hate to admit that she will need it against the rampant sexism in this country, but she will need it. 

On a positive note, 2021 is the Year of the Ox in the Chinese zodiac...and oxen are known for powering through. I hope we all get a little "bullish" spirit to help us along the way. 
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As for goals and resolutions, please be kind to yourselves. Don't put too much of a burden on yourselves while we struggle to get through these trying times. My list is very short this year. 

2021 goals:
  • Survive and live to see another year through.
  • Love people more.
  • Continue to "fight for people I do not know."
  • Finish and publish my e-book of published spec-fic stories & poems. 
  • Finish my novel.
  • Get healthier (stay with the "no sugar plan").
  • Read more good books. (New Murderbot book coming so that one will be easy).
  • Hug my girlfriend and our kitty cats more.
  • Kiss more too. 
  • ​Learn guitar and make a stab at learning music.
  • Finish some stories. Plan more on upcoming books, incl.​a sequel to "Dr Fountainbrew."
  • Survive and live to see another year through by loving and fighting and writing and making joyful music. 
  • Breathe deep...meditate...be a better person than my yesterday's self. 

I know that's a lot of goals for my plate. But I promise to take them in stride and at a reasonable pace. I hope all my friends and fam do the same. 
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2021 is the year of the Metal Ox. The Chinese New Year begins on Friday, February 12, 2021.
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Books I want to visit with in 2020...

12/19/2019

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Okay, so everyone knows how excited I am to read the new Martha Wells novel in the "Murderbot Diaries" series coming out this year, right?

I AM STOKED TO READ MORE MURDERBOT GIVE ME MORE, MORE, MORE MURDERBOT PLEASE! 

Yes, I love Murderbot. I am looking forward to reading some other books this year, though. My girlfriend and I exchanged new Kindle's for Christmas, and I'm loaded for bear on ebooks. I have pre-purchased the aforementioned Murderbot novel, which will be released in May.

So here I present the main books on my 2020 Reading List, beginning with...
  • Network Effect, by Martha Wells. Ahem. Of course! The full-length novel continuing the Murderbot Diaries. Up til now, all of the four books in the series were novellas. Hope this one has some revenge against the Corporation in it to please my anti-capitalist heart. Haven't read the blurb. Trying not to spoil it.
  • I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson. This has been on my to-read list for a long time. I have not seen the movie. I hear it is very good, though, and I may watch the film after reading the book.
  • Walls and Bars, by Eugene Victor Debs. In 2019, I read Labor and Freedom and was astonished how much has not changed (unfortunately) for workers in the US. This year, I want to read America's most famous Socialist's account of his time in prison. I expect to be similarly astonished by the lack of our country's progress in the incarceration of citizens. Maybe more sad than astonished, really. 
  • The Seventh Bride, by T. Kingfisher. A future bride must complete the magical tasks set her by a nobleman groom or else marry him. And his six previous wives are all imprisoned in the castle tower.
  • Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, by Irin Carmon & Shana Knizhnik. I want to read more about the people that inspire me. That being said, the next one is...
  • Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In, by Bernie Sanders. I know, it's hard to believe I have never read any of Sanders' books before now. So 2020 will see me start with his first one. Gonna get fired up and Bern it up! Hope to have a physical copy of this book in my hands soon.
  • My Best Friend's Exorcism, by Grady Hendrix. Okay, I confess. I got this one because of the title. Sounds pretty cool, though.
  • Hollow Kingdom, by Kira Jane Buxton. I love crows. Once upon a time, I was realllly into zombie stories. This is a story of a zombie apocalypse as seen through the glittery black eyes of a domesticated foul-mouthed crow. Can't f**king wait to read this one.
  • Invaders: 22 Tales from the Outer Limits of Literature, edited by Jacob Weisman. 22 stories by science fiction authors and authors of so-called "literary" fiction. W.P. Kinsella, Junot Diaz, George Saunders, Max Apple, and more. I just started this book a few days ago.

These are just nine books I hope to read in 2020. There will be more. I am continuing several manga series, Haikyuu!! (a story about a Japanese high school boys volleyball team's quest to win the Nationals), Noragami (the story of a stray god, his spirit weapon who is a young boy, and the teenage girl who becomes involved in their lives. I'm also re-reading the Thousand Year Blood War arc in the Bleach manga.

Happy Reading in the new year!
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The 2020 New Year, New Me, Forward-Looking Blog Post...

12/19/2019

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Yes, it's that time of year. Time to trot out the resolve and put it to the test, whether it succeeds (sometimes) or doesn't quite make it (more often than not). Resolutions this year are short and sweet. Some of them will be worked into what I'm calling my "Five Year Plan" (which, in all honesty, may take longer than five years to accomplish). More on that in another post.

THE 2020 PLAN:
  • Eat more veggies. Literally, for my bodies sake, I have to commit to this. Veggies make my body run more smoothly and since I received a diagnosis of diverticulosis this year, it's very important to keep things regular.
  • The Dreaded E-Word. Exercise. Our office building is now offering the fitness center free for use to all employees . I've filled out the forms and ready to get my butt back in there. I'm paying off my electric kit for my trike, but it's gotten a bit rusty from the rain so I will get it fixed and reconditioned, get the e-kit put on it, and start riding it around.
  • FINISH MY F**KIN' NOVEL ALREADY. I need to wrap it up, sit on it for a few months, then perhaps spend NaNoWriMo 2020 on first edits.
  • Start the process for creating an e-book collection of my stories. Was going to do this years ago but I lost the computer file of the story that was going to be the title story of the collection, a previously unpublished short piece called "Kill the Crow." I've been trying to recreate it. If I can't, I'll rename the collection based on my other black bird story that was published in our local writer's group anthology.
  • Write More Blog Stuff. I say this every year and every year I fall flat. I did do a lot of private blogging on a site called Penzu. It was mostly just political rants though, stuff too long and too radical for Facebook (yes, I write stuff even more radical than my Facebook posts).
  • Launch the new and improved The Were-Traveler. Even working full time now and editing as a second job (working on editing becoming a career in the future, but that is in my Five-and-Dime Plan) I still have the desire to publish and I hope I can make it work without getting unhealthy and burned out on it this time.
  • Write Longer Short Stories. In 2019 I wrote one of the longest short stories I've written to date. It was almost 6000 words and it was for an anthology about demons. It was rejected but the editors had said they liked it, if only it had been a bit more polished. Granted, I also need to learn how to "edit" my longer stories and that can only happen with practice, which I will. I also plan on editing this story (hopefully with some help and advice from some writer friends) and resubmitting it in other markets this year.
  • Write Some Poetry. I may take a break from Post-It-Note Poetry this year, in order to work on some editing projects and in planning my own writing stuff, and writing that stuff, but I definitely want to engage my inner poet this year. I did not write much poetry last year. Hope my poetic muse visits me a little bit more in 2020.
  • READ. READ. READ. Fiction, non-fiction and everything in between. My girlfriend got me a brand new Kindle so I need to hit the e-Books.

This is a lot of resolution making here, I know, and I know that less is more, so I stuck with the writing, editing, and publishing aspects of my life. These are the areas I want to grow in and make the most accomplishments in, as well as my health.

I wish you all the best in the 2020 year. Go out and kick the world in the ass!
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Yes, it's going to be messy as Hell!

11/7/2019

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So, hey there.

I posted recently that I was going to be doing more blog work, no matter what.

The no matter what part means that I'm just typing away nonchalantly here like a lunatic and not obsessing so much over the word counts and typos. I'll try and catch as many of the boo boos as I can, but the main goal of all of this is to get better at blogging and in order to do that, I gotta blog.

I also posted just recently that I was doing NaNoWriMo again this year. I'm in the midst of that right now. Seven days in and almost at 15,000 words on my novel.

I'm just writing right now, with no thought to anything making sense at the moment. Although I do have a (sort of, it's very unfinished) outline, I'm basically pantsing the hell out of it.  It's all good and the words are flowing. The characters are speaking their truths to me.

Been working on a few future blog posts, but the bulk of my time and concentration has to be for my book at the moment.

I'm sure you can understand that.

It's all going to be messy, the blogging and the noveling. But it's getting done.

Words to paper. Slinging it like Pollock paint.

All that matters is getting it down.

All that matters is ass in chair, typing furiously.
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A Novel in Progress (Again): A Doctor, a Goddess, & a Whole Bunch of Weird Folk

11/1/2019

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Cover by Nancy Brauer. 2017. Click image for website.
In 2015, I tried to use NaNoWrimo as a platform for arranging an anthology of my published stories and poetry, while adding a few new works. That seed did not take root that year, though I am steadily working on that project to publish independently, it's just going to take a while to edit older stuff and polish up the new stuff. 

In 2017, I joined the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month that takes place every November) in the hopes of beginning a novel that I had been planning and outlining for about six months or so. "I have a plan this time! I have an outline! I CAN DO THIS!!!!!"

Not.

Life, as it sometimes does, got in the way. I managed a little over 5500 words before caving to the pressures of being ill and not having enough time to write between working three goddamn jobs (welcome to American capitalism). I had to pay bills, ergo, writing my novel had to wait.

Now, in 2019, I'm ready to get back to this book. I have a full-time job, my health is a little better, and I have a girlfriend now to help me survive.

I've almost got everything set up on the new NaNo site. Not fond of the new layout but it is what it is. I've got my words entered from 2017 plus another hundred or so that I wrote this morning before work.,

To refresh: The Strange Blue Days of Dr. Fountainbrew takes place in an unnamed city (so far) in the weirdest neighborhood in the world. The protagonist, Dr. Fountanbrew, lives in his own comfy normal world, has never been in loved or loved by anyone, but he is well-liked. His comfy world gets thrown into turmoil when he meets two strange women one afternoon. He gets caught up in a fantastical world of human mutants and demi-humans and gods. And falls in love with a witch's broomstick. That's only the first couple of days.

Here's a brief summary of the good Doctor's"strange blue days" and the people he meets:
  • A Goddess who rules the realm of illusion and reality. If she offers a blue marble, it's in your best interest to accept it.
  • A witch's familiar, a man who turns into a broomstick by night (or perhaps he a broomstick who turns into a man by day). The last thing he was expecting was to fall in love.
  • An ostrich man who sells newspapers on the strangest street corner in the world
  • A six-armed girl who delivers newspapers, writes multiple novels simultaneously, and is a superhero in her spare time.
  • A scientist who runs a laboratory/orphanage for folks who are a little different He suffers from autassassinophilia and has erotic fantasies about being murdered by the secret agent who has been targeting him and test subjects.
  • A woman who transforms into a blue jay and flies.
  • A fox-woman who runs a tavern on the strangest street in the world.
  • A man who is bodily experiencing human de-evolution, and has the monkey tail to prove it.
  • A government agent with strange secrets of his own, and orders to take down all of above.
These mysterious people become part of Dr. Fountainbrew's world and within a few days turn it completely upside down. He is faced with a choice to join them, but is not informed of the consequences if he refused.

I am not making any big goal-setting statements like I plan to write 50,000 words in November or finish this novel this month. I just want to continue to write this book whose characters I fell in love with in 2017. I want to continue to journey with them and learn things from them. What happens and where I am (and where they are) after November remains to be seen.

So that is that. Join me in the madness if you want. On NaNoWriMo's website, I am waning_gibbous.
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Write Naked, Edit Naked, Too. (With a Little Bit of Armor On).

8/5/2019

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I've found a supposedly secure online journaling website that lets you rant and rave and write whatever you want without worrying about prying eyes.

It's called Penzu. (https://penzu.com/)
    
I signed up for a journal on there, just because sometimes you need a place to rant and rave and holler at the moon. Facebook (and to a lesser extent, literally, Twitter) can only handle so much of my wrath and my disappointment in the world. I need a place to bare my soul and my mind, lay open my naked thoughts and hopes and dreams and yes, to, a place to fling cursing arrows at the powers in this world that live to crush my thoughts and hopes, and especially dreams. That live to crush us all.

It seems easy enough to post on there and I'm doing a lot of bitch-logging (what I call rant blogging) on there and so I thought I might go ahead and mention it as a possible distraction-free writing tool, and as a journaling tool for writers.

The layout is rather simple, unless you want to pay for a Pro account, which of course has more bells and whistles. The screen is not customizable to provide for different backgrounds, but again, if you upgrade from a free to a pro account, you can make it full screen. I don't really need that as if I want to, I can make the text bigger. I am only using it as a private journal, so I have no need of the fancier add-ons. I have Writer, the internet typewriter for my more serious writing that I may want to go fullscreen mode on. And it's free there.

 Since few people will be seeing my Penzu posts, if anyone does, I don't feel the urgency to edit the hell out of everything I write on there. So, I'm just letting the words fly...incorrect, type-o'ed, foul and furious...it doesn't matter. It's naked emotion and my hope is that it will be cathartic and also let me bring some of that raw naked emotion to my fiction and poetry.

Your Penzu journal is lockable with a password key. This is helpful in case you want to vent about your life or just keep your "secret recipe" fried-chicken recipe secret. It's like having a friend to whom you can tell your deepest, darkest secrets. It's online, so typing is involved, good for those of us whose hands cramp only after a few minutes of handwriting and whose penmanship is penmanshit. I confess I can't even read my own handwriting on a good day.

The theory here is that not being concerned about and concentrating too much on writing dazzling prose, and on editing while writing because I'm too much a perfectionist, will lead me to better writing overall in my work. That's the idea behind writing naked and editing naked. (Did you really think I'd be in the nude? Well, maybe sometimes I will be).

Penzu will let me write my innermost fears and rants, naked and free, with just a little bit of armor (password protection). This is the Dear Diary we all wished we'd had when we were thirteen years old.


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​A ShoStoWriMo Plan: Mind the Cooking on the Back Burners!

8/1/2019

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I kinda have a plan for ShoStoWrimo. I have a bunch of back-burner stories that I want to finish and edit so I can submit them to markets. I am going to start the month working on finishing these stories, especially "Don't Wake the Babies" (to submit to a western/dark frontier apocalyptic anthology) and "The Invisible Motorbike" (to submit to one of the big markets, possibly Clarkesworld or The Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy). I have another story I just started ("Waiting for a Ship to Bear Her Away") that I'd also like to finish, just because I'm still trying to figure out if it is an alien story, a mermaid story, or an alien mermaid story. Sometimes I work these things out during the process of writing. The character herself will let me know what she is. 

    I do have some new stories I want to write. I have a story idea about a little girl who takes on a demon in order to steal back a box of memories (a memento box full of photographs of family vacation, school photos, baby shoes, teeth for the tooth fairy, etc) because the demon stole the box and through it, possesses her parent's memories of her, which has caused them to forget her.  I don't have a good title for it yet. I've been tentatively calling it "The Memento Mori Box" and maybe I'll stick with that, unless a better title comes along. 

    Lastly, if I have time this month, I'd like to continue working on "Let Joy." It was a story I started writing for the Queer Sci Fi Flash Contest for their Migration anthology. It went over the 300 word count limit by several hundred words, and I decided to make a longer tale out of it. I'd also like to work some on another story I started awhile back. Here's the plot: A little girl suffers from pareidolia. She can see images of things in the grain or marble patterns in walls, and in the sky. With one weird addition: she has the ability to bring the images she sees out of the patterns, and bring them to life! This will be called “Pareidolia.” It's another horror tale. 

    I do have some plot ideas for new stories, but I am really determined to focus on getting some of these back burner stories finished. My big overwhelming problem from the time I first took up a pen (or laptop) to write is that I leave some great stories unfinished. I'd like to change that about my writing style. 

    And that's the great thing about ShoStoWriMo. This is what my dream and idea for ShoSto is, shorties! You are free to write new stories or work on older, unfinished stuff. I'm here in my office singing: "It's my ShoSto and I'll write what I want to... You can write too, whatever you want to do!" 
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