Six-month update

Six months ago today I had quadruple bypass surgery. Every indication is that it was a success and that I am healing appropriately. I completed cardiac rehab last week and, though I didn't lose any weight, I did gain muscle mass, strength, and stamina. I'm now able to do everything I was doing pre-surgery.

My diet has not changed significantly post-surgery, but that's because I changed my diet in early 2007, emphasizing more fruits, vegetables, and fish, and less fast food and prepackaged foods, and had already lost weight from the 2007 change in diet. I no longer add salt to my food and try to avoid prepackaged foods--such as potato chips--that contain significant amounts of salt. What I've been unable to do is break my Mountain Dew habit.

After changing my medications in late December I returned to writing and have been quite productive since then, completing a new short story approximately every three days. Pre-surgery I was averaging slightly more than one story each week. I don't know if I can maintain this pace or if the change in medications was ExLax for my brain, allowing me to push out everything that had backed up in there during the 3.5 months following surgery when I was barely writing, and that I'll slow down again when my brain is flushed out.

I find that I'm a little less patient than I was before and more irritated by little things that didn't bother me--or that I didn't let bother me--pre-surgery. I don't know if this is a permanent change or something that will disappear over time.

Otherwise, not much has changed.

Day sixty-nine, story twenty-two

I just submitted my 22nd story of the year, a 6,600-word confession about a small town girl in the big city. I started work on this in August 2004 and had written 4,800 words--the first 4,000 words and 800 words of notes and partial scenes--before I picked it up Sunday evening.

Day sixty-seven, story twenty-one

I just submitted my 21st story of the year, a 6,200-word confession about a single mother who thinks she's falling for a married man that I started writing in December 2007. I've worked on the story sporadically since then and finally put the finishing touches on the manuscript this afternoon.

Patience is a dish best served quickly

"I submitted my manuscript last year/last month/last week/yesterday/ten minutes ago and I haven't received a response. How long should I wait before I call the editor/withdraw my manuscript/submit my story elsewhere?"

I see variations of this question on various Yahoo groups and message boards nearly every day. Are writers less patience today than writers were several years ago, or are we just as impatient now as then but are more obvious about it thanks to the speed with which we can share our impatience with others?

I have to admit that I share some of the impatience of new writers unfamiliar with the slow, grinding pace of traditional publishing, but my impatience isn't related to the length of time it takes for a single editor to respond to a single submission. I have too many manuscripts floating around to even remember all of them, let alone worry about any particular one. My impatience has to do with communication gaps.

If I don't receive something in the mail (surface or e-) every few days--acceptance, rejection, contract, check, contributor's copy, request for revision, etc.--I start to get nervous. If more than a week passes without contact, I start thumbing through my file of submitted manuscripts, calculating which ones should have generated responses based on my previous experiences with particular publications. If more than two weeks pass, I get jumpy, leaping up to check the mailbox every time I hear a noise outside the front door and making my e-mail refresh every few minutes rather than letting it automatically refresh every twenty minutes.

So, while I understand and share the impatience of new writers, I have the advantage of knowing the solution for both of us is the same: Produce more work.

The more manuscripts under submission, the less time we have worry about any individual manuscript and the more likely we are to have some kind of regular contact from editors.

Published

My story "The April Fool" is the lead story in the April True Romance.

Day sixty, story twenty

I just finished writing my 20th story of the year, an 800-word romance that I started writing in March of 2005. It's headed out in tomorrow's mail.

3

I received my third acceptance of the year this morning, for a Mother's Day-themed confession I submitted on February 7.

Why you can't find your magazines

In mid-February, Anderson News, one of the four largest magazine distribution companies in the U.S., halted operations and has, since then, terminated about 2,500 employees.

Because of the way magazines are distributed, this means magazines that are available in one region may not be available in another. How soon will the remaining magazine distribution companies step up to fill in the holes left by the demise of Anderson News? Your guess is as good as anyone else's.

Because I feel grouchy today, here's tip for y'all: If you're going to write for magazines, you need to understand the business of magazine publishing. For example, writers constantly bitch about being the last paid by a magazine, but did you know that only a small fraction of the money you spend on a magazine at the store today even gets to the publisher...and it may be six months or more before the publisher receives that money? When a magazine distributor goes out of business, it can kill magazines.

Revisions r us

Sometimes revisions are more difficult to do than writing new material. Tuesday evening I received e-mail from an editor who wanted me to add 400 words to a story. No big deal. I can spit out 400 words in a jiffy. 400 new words. Not 400 words woven into an existing scene or story.

It took three days to add the 400 words. That's a paltry 133 words a day.

But I did it and I just e-mailed the revision to the editor.

Now my fingers are crossed. If he likes the revision, this will be my second sale to this market.

Writing opportunity for gardeners/essayists

I edit a weekly e-newsletter for Texas gardeners. Read back issues here: http://www.texasgardener.com/newsletters/index.html

I'm always looking for brief (500 words+/-) essays about gardening--serious or humorous--that I can use. Alas, there is no pay. Rights: one-time use and each issue is archived on-line after it's distributed via e-mail. Readership exceeds 2,200.

The essays must either be clearly Texas-centric or be "universal." (That is, essays about growing specific plants in Maine that clearly won't grow in Texas will be rejected.)

Reprints are welcome. Or dust off those rejected Chicken Soup for the Gardener's Soul and Cup of Comfort for Gardeners essays.

Send submissions (and questions) to me at Michael AT TexasGardener.com as attached Word files. Do not send submissions to my personal e-mail.

The editorship is a part-time gig so I'm only in the office for a few hours at a time a couple of days a week. Don't expect an immediate response from me, but if I haven't responded within two weeks, check with me. Sometimes submissions get caught in the spam filter and I have to go digging for them.

2

I received a contract today, for a confession I submitted January 16. This is only my second sale of the year, so I'm five sales behind schedule. Although I'm a bit dismayed that I'm behind schedule, I'm not surprised. I wrote and submitted very little between early September and Christmas, and it will probably take several months of high productivity to overcome a 3.5-month gap in productivity.

Birds of a feather

I actively participate in two Yahoo groups for writers and I regularly read, but rarely participate, in a third. I see a significant membership overlap among these three Yahoo groups and, for a time, I worried that there were only a dozen or so truely active short story writers in the world.

I know that isn't true because the three groups I'm involved with are for people who write mysteries and women's fiction. I also write in other genres, but I don't participate in any Yahoo groups or message boards for those genres.

Why not? What draws us to participate in one Yahoo group or discussion board rather than another? Is it the subjects we discuss, or is it the people participating?

Day forty-eight, story nineteen

I finished my 19th short story of the year a few minutes ago. It's an 800-word romance about two pianists, and was written entirely today. The manuscript will go into the mail tomorrow.

Day forty-six, story eighteen

I completed my 18th short story of the year earlier today, a 6,100-word confession/romance about a woman who meets the love of her life at a garage sale where she's unloading the things her ex-husband left behind.

I started writing this story in July, 2005, and had worked on it in fits and starts ever since. I had about 3,300 words written before I picked the manuscript up again earlier this week and was finally able to put all the plot pieces together so that I could finish writing the story.

It's already on its way to an editor.

Random thought

I swallowed a bee yesterday. Now I have hives.

Day forty-three, story seventeen

I just completed and submitted my 17th story of the year, a 5,300-word love story that I began working on back on September 2, a week before my bypass surgery. I wrote the first three pages and then the partial ms. sat untouched until earlier this week when I picked it up again.

It's the story of a soldier who returns home from Iraq to discover that her husband has drained their savings account, emptied their apartment, and disappeared. And, yes, it really is a love story. Of a sort.

Six words

Smith magazine at http://www.smithmag.net/sixwords/ asked for six word memoirs and the result was Not Quite What I Was Planning, a collection of six-word memoirs. Reading some of these had me thinking: Could I describe my writing career in six words? Can you?

It turns out I can:

Wrote much. Sold much. Earned little.

Still day thirty-nine, story sixteen

I finished and submitted my 16th story of the year a few minutes ago. It's a 2,100-word Mother's Day story. I wrote the first paragraph on January 16 and wrote the rest of the story today.

Day thirty-nine, story fifteen

I finished my 15th story of the year a few minutes ago. It's a 1,600-word, Mother's Day-themed confession. My plot monkey (a non-writing friend who occasionally helps me plot stories) gave me the idea a week ago, and the story bounced around in the back of my mind while I finished other projects. I wrote the story yesterday, proofread it this morning, and e-mailed it to an editor I know is looking for Mother's Day-themed confessions.

Published

My story "Figure Drawing" appears in the March True Love.

Day thirty-eight, story fourteen

I completed my 14th story of the year earlier this morning, a 2,500-word vampire story. I started work on this January 22, wrote the first two-thirds and the last paragraph, and then stopped to work on the story I finished two days ago. I returned to work on this story yesterday and wrote the missing section last night. I proofread the ms. this morning and now it's packaged and ready to go into the mail.

Day thirty-six, story thirteen

I finished my 13th story of the year earlier this evening. I started writing it in July, 2007, when I saw a call for an anthology titled Hardboiled Horror, but I all I wrote at the time was the opening scene. I picked the unfinished manuscript up a few weeks ago when I thought I knew what I wanted to do with the story. At that point, I had no clear idea of what market I might target. I'd already roughed out a draft when, on January 27, I saw the call for submissions to the MWA's latest anthology and had an Aha! moment. I had my target market. And that's where the 4,000-word manuscript is headed as soon I finished printing all six copies.

The tease

I belong to a Yahoo group for writers of a particular sub-genre of women's fiction, and we all write for the same small group of publications. Many members post their acceptances as soon as they receive them, and there will be a little wave of posted acceptances--two, three, four, and sometimes more, acceptances posted in a two-day period.

I've noticed an odd trend: If I happen to have sold something to the same issue of the same publication, my contract arrives a couple of days after the wave of acceptances posted to the group by other writers.

So I'm left sitting on the edge of my seat. I know the contracts have been mailed. I know mine seem to arrive after everyone else's. Will I have something in this issue, or not?

Sometimes yes. Sometimes no.

But for a couple of days I feel like I'm being teased.

Maybe I should stop monitoring the postings so closely and spend more time with my fingers on the keyboard.

Screeching halt?

Having completed 12 stories in the first 22 days of the month and none in the final nine days, it appears as if my productivity came to a screeching halt. Actually, I'm wrapped up in a new short story that is requiring multiple drafts and significant (for me) research. It seems each time I write a scene I find that I'm missing some bit of knowledge to make the scene work the way I want it to. Then, once I have the necessary knowledge, I must revise what I've already written to make the factual bits fit with the fictional bits.

If this story works the way I want it to, it'll represent something new for me. If not, it'll still be a pretty good story.

Bad blog habits

I have a bad habit of rereading my old blog posts. And not just reading, but proofreading and then correcting any errors I find. I suppose I could have worse habits, but, really, don't I have more to do than reread my own blog?

What writers talk about

I don't know if this holds true across the entire spectrum of writers because I don't often hang out with writers in the real world, but I have noticed some similarities in what writers talk about when they get together.

Beginning writers talk about the process--where they get their ideas, how many times they revise, what time of day they write, and so on.

Established and moderately successful writers talk about the business--who's buying, what they're paying, and so on.

Well-established writers talk about everything except writing.

Thank you

From the date of my quadruple bypass in September until I finally recovered enough to quit bitching and moaning about it in December, fellow writers--many of whom I've never met and know only through e-mail and exchanges on various Yahoo groups--sent me a variety of good wishes, advice, and inspirational messages.

Some of you commented here while others e-mailed me directly, but no matter how you contacted me: Thank you.

The downside of increased productivity

Yesterday I received three rejections--three! It's been a long time since I received three rejections in one day. It's a good thing I already had plans that would keep me away from the keyboard the rest of the day, or I might have sat at the computer, brooding and not writing.

All three rejections came from a group of magazines I've been selling to on a fairly regular basis since 1993. They've changed their editorial focus and are seeking a different type of fiction than what I've been selling to them all these years.

Bleh!

I haven't anything in progress that would fit their new requirements, and I haven't decided yet if I even want to write the type of fiction they're now seeking. That's a decision for another day.

Day twenty-two, story twelve

I just finished printing a new bit of crime fiction, the story of a burglar, an amorous couple who unknowingly trap him in a closet, and what happens next. I started work on this story in August of 2007 and finished the 3,600-word final draft earlier this evening. It'll go into the mail tomorrow.

Seeking an attention span

One of the problems I had pre-surgery, and one that's returned now that I'm no longer taking Metoprolol, is an inability to concentrate on writing one story at a time. I'll start working on a story, get an idea for another story and stop to work on it, and then stop work on that to work on a third story. Having so many stories in progress means never having to say I have nothing to work on, but it does get frustrating sometimes to realize how many completed manuscripts I might have if I wrote each story start-to-finish.

Today's amusing copyediting error

From page 314 of Fifty-to-One by Charles Ardai: In the midst of a gunfight aboard a ship, "[b]oth fell to the ground moaning."

To the deck? Sure. To the floor? Maybe? To the ground? No.

Interesting note: "Ground," in nautical terms, means "the bottom of a body of water." So, if these two fell to the "ground," they most likely were drowning. Moaning and drowning.

Rejected

I don't plan to note every rejection I receive this year, but thought I would mention the first, from Ellery Queen, which arrived in today's mail.

So that's one sale and one rejection so far this year, putting me two acceptances behind my goal of a one-per-week average.

Still day seventeen, story eleven

I just submitted a new 4,600-word confession. I had the idea for this story mid-day Thursday when the opening line of dialog popped into my head, followed shortly by the next two lines of dialog and a tentative story-line. I worked on it Thursday evening and Friday evening, alternating with work on two other stories, and finished it late this afternoon.

Published

My story "Dead Flowers on Valentine's Day" appears in the February True Love.

Day seventeen, story ten

I completed a short--800 word--romance this morning, one that I actually started working on in April of 2008. I had, maybe, 600 words written. I finished writing it yesterday when I realized how the story should end* and proofread it this morning before preparing it for the mail.

*It's a romance, so it ends with an H.E.A. Of course. But with an 800-word story, those last few lines have to be just right.

Day sixteen, story nine

The problem with setting a goal--even facetiously--of writing a publishable short story every day for a year is that it's damn near impossible to catch up if you fall behind.

Earlier this evening I finished and submitted my ninth story of the year, a 6,200-word confession that I began writing in April of 2008. I've worked on it sporadically since then and had about half of it written before I picked it up again a few days ago.

1

I received my first acceptance of the year today, for an April Fool's Day-themed confession I submitted on January 7. Not only is it my first acceptance of the year, it's my first acceptance of something written (mostly) this year.

Day thirteen, story eight

I don't know why Christmas stories are pouring out of me, but this morning while walking the dogs I had an idea for a short-short Christmas mystery. I made a few notes at the time and this evening wrote the story. It clocks in at a mere 700 words, which is what the target market wants, and will go into the mail tomorrow.

Published

My story "Single on Valentine's Day" appears in the February True Romance.

Here's my damn epiphany

On September 17, seven days after my quadruple bypass, I posted this under the heading "Where's my damn epiphany?":

"If I were writing a story based on the recent events in my life, this would be the point where my protagonist has an epiphany--that character-altering moment when he vows to be a better person and save the world from injustice. So where's my damn epiphany?"

Here's my damn epiphany:

I used to take writing for granted. I never had writers block (which is a lazy writer's excuse for not writing) and I could write almost anywhere under almost any conditions. Then I spent 3.5 months essentially NOT writing. My head was empty. Now I'm writing again and I don't take it for granted. I'm overflowing with story ideas and things I want to write about. I'm even having trouble sleeping because I have so many stories zipping through my head. But take it for granted when I've learned how easily it can disappear? Not now.

Day ten, story seven

I finished writing my seventh short story of the year a few minutes ago, a bit of crime fiction that takes place during the Christmas season. I began work on this a few years ago when I was having a particularly bad Christmas, and the first few hundred words describe an apparent suicide. That's all I had until yesterday, when I picked up the story and figured out what the story was really about. I worked on it yesterday evening and this morning, and the final draft, which clocks in at 2,500 words, will hit the mail the next time I leave the house.

Day nine, story six

Yesterday I woke early with three lines of dialog in my head. I immediately booted up my computer and those three lines of dialog became three of the first four sentences of a new story. I spent much of the day away from home, but I had access to e-mail and every so often I e-mailed myself a snippet of dialog, a sentence of description, or a note about what a scene should contain. When I returned home yesterday evening I copied everything into my Word file, put all the pieces in the correct order, and wrote the connective tissue that tied all the pieces together. By the time I went to bed I had a new 2,100-word story.

I proofread/edited it this morning. After correcting a few typos and adding a few words, it'll be ready to submit.

I don't expect a prompt response, however, because this is just about the worst time of year to submit a Christmas story...

Day seven, story five

When I posted yesterday about the challenge of writing a short story a day for a year, I didn't actually think it was doable. But here it is January 7 and I just finished my fifth story.

The final draft clocks in at 4,300 words. Like three of the four previous stories, this one was started pre-surgery. Unlike the other stories, all I had written was the first 200 or so words. Finishing it was a much bigger challenge than finishing any of the others.

"Sin, Suffer, Cash the Checks"

My brief article about writing confessions--"Sin, Suffer, Cash the Checks"--was posted today at http://seekerville.blogspot.com/2009/01/sin-suffer-cash-checks.html.

Every day for a year

During 2008 James Reasoner wrote more than a million words for publication (http://jamesreasoner.blogspot.com/2008/12/wrap-up.html). That's about 2,800 words a day, every day, for 365 days. In his case the result was 13 novels.

If I produced that many words for publication during any given year I would generate--give or take a few--365 short stories.

Imagine writing a short story a day, every day, for 365 days.

Now imagine finding markets for them. Real markets. Paying markets.

The markets are there. I already write for some of them. I've often had two stories in the same issue of a magazine, and have occasionally had three stories in the same issue, but to place 365 short stories in a year would mean filling some publications cover-to-cover several months in a row.

Now that's a challenge.

Published

One of my pseudonyms had a story published yesterday.

14 hours and then I drop

I've been going non-stop for 14 hours now--cardiac rehab this morning followed by a couple of hours revising a radio commercial and a newspaper ad, and then several hours of editing with brief writing interludes.

And I finished another short story. This is another I had started pre-surgery, about a missing husband. I'd written the set-up, but I didn't know why he was missing or where he'd gone. Yesterday I figured it out. I had somewhere between 1,000 and 1,200 words written before I picked the manuscript up yesterday, and the final draft clocks it at 2,600 words.

I also revised three short-shorts that I had written several years ago, cutting words to make them appropriate for a different market.

I e-mailed the new story to an editor a few minutes ago; the three revised stories go in the mail tomorrow.

Another day, another short story

This weekend I'm ass-deep in an editing project due on the fifth (one of the monthly publications I edit) and I'm behind schedule because of the holidays and because of my own procrastination.

One cannot edit for several hours straight without going nuts so I also worked on a new short story. The final draft is printing now and will go into the mail tomorrow.

It's a bit of crime fiction that I began shortly after my surgery, about a hitman forced into retirement by a quadruple bypass who has a zipper tattooed over the ten-inch scar on his chest. I wrote the first 900 words back in September and set it aside. At that point writing was as difficult as wrestling mountain lions and I had no idea where the story was going. Yesterday I "knew" what needed to happen and the final draft clocks in at 2,700 words.

And today I have much more editing to do if I'm to meet tomorrow's deadline.

2008 in review

Here's what happened in 2008:

52 acceptances

28 rejections

30 ms. published

My gross income from freelancing decreased 29.17%. Much of the decrease is the result of a key client ending my independent contractor status by putting me on payroll as a part-time employee. Income from all sources was up 4.93%.*

Income from
Advertising & Public Relations: down 63.90% (see above)
Editing: up 2.18%
Fiction (not books/novels): down 11.73%
Non-fiction (not books): down 96.97%
Royalties (from all books): down 69.40%
Seminars/teaching: down 69.40%

Last January, when I summed up 2007, I had a lot to say. This year, not so much. This year was what it was, and I'm just damned lucky to be here to sum it up.
___
*Updated 1/15/09.

Another new story

I finished another new story a few minutes ago. This time it's a short-short of 1,100 words that I started pre-surgery. I'd written about half the story but had made no notes about what I intended--if anything--to do with the rest of it. I reread the manuscript last night, and when I woke this morning I wrote the last half before I did anything else. I let the story sit all day while I did other things, and this evening I proofread/edited the manuscript. In a few minutes I'll slip it into an envelope so it can go into the mail tomorrow.

Slow start

2009 is off to a slow start. It's almost 3:00 and I haven't sold a thing.

On the other hand, I did just finish a new short story, and it'll go into the mail tomorrow.

It's a story I started pre-surgery. I had written the first 1,800 words or so and had made notes about possible directions the story could go from there, along with a note about how it might end. I wrote the last half of the story Tuesday and Wednesday and did a final edit/proofread this afternoon. The final draft clocks in at 3,500 words and the last half only vaguely resembles the notes I'd made.

That makes two stories finished since Christmas.

52

I made it, with almost 26 hours to spare. My 52nd acceptance of the year. That's an average of one a week (one-a-week was my goal this year as it has been for several years).

Alas, it's a short article about writing requested and accepted by a non-paying market.

Maybe tomorrow's mail will bring that year-ending 53rd sale that'll knock me out of my socks.

51 and published 2x

I received my 51st acceptance of the year today. Sort of.

I picked up a copy of the February True Story because it contains my story "Valentine's Surprise" and was surprised when I discovered that it also contains my story "Forgiving My Father."

Why was I surprised? Because I never received a contract for the story and did not know it had been accepted.

Random thought

If a Swiss cheese were to die, would it come back as a holy ghost?

In the beginning

Yesterday, James Reasoner noted in a blog post (http://jamesreasoner.blogspot.com/2008/12/32-and-counting.html) that he was celebrating the 32nd anniversary of his first sale, and it reminded me how long I've been doing this.

I've been writing since the 8th grade and seeing my work in print in various amateur publications (junior high and high school literary magazines, high school newspaper, science fiction fanzines, etc.) and semi-prozines (publications that paid a fraction of a cent per word) beginning in the 9th grade.

I made my first professional sale in September, 1977. The acceptance letter is dated September 2 and I received it on September 8. The story--a young adult fantasy titled "The Magic Stone"--wasn't published until November, 1978, when it appeared in Young World.

So 2008 marks the 31st anniversary of my first professional sale and the 30th anniversary of my first professional publication.

Not bad for a kid who just wanted to tell stories.

Crime for Christmas

Crime fiction has dominated my limited productivity this week. Last Sunday I finished revising a private eye story that had been sitting in my files ever since the anthology that originally accepted it became a dead project. Today I finished writing a new hardboiled crime story that I had started several years ago.

The private eye story went to a publication that recently purchased its first story from me and the hardboiled crime story is off to a magazine I've been selling to since the mid-90s.

Merry Christmas

It may be too early to know for certain whether or not I've received my Christmas present from Santa, but I awoke more clear-headed than I've been in quite some time.

Tuesday I met with my cardiologist as a follow-up to my emergency room visit on the 10th. I took advantage of the opportunity to discuss my creative drought since the surgery, and my cardiologist, who had reduced my metoprolol dose from 50mg/day to 25mg/day on the 10th, eliminated it from my drug regimen. (Metoprolol is a beta-blocker prescribed to combat high blood pressure, among other things, and, according to drugs. com, "can cause side effects that may impair [...] thinking or reactions.")

I've been too busy with the holidays to attempt much writing, but I suspect a clear mind is a step toward a creative mind.

I have hopes.

Merry Christmas.

Another new story...and a rejection

Writing since the quadruple bypass has been problematic, but yesterday I finally finished and submitted another new short story. Unfortunately, it's already been rejected because it was too similar to something the editor had already purchased. Because the story is tied to a particular holiday, the manuscript will have to sit in my files for six to nine months before it can go out again.

50

I received my 50th acceptance of the year earlier today.

A day spent in the emergency room

Three months ago today I had a quadruple bypass. I spent today in the emergency room.

I'd been feeling a little out of sorts since the weekend, but last evening I felt particularly tired. I fell asleep while watching TV after dinner, woke up about two hours later, checked my e-mail, and then returned to the living room and lay down on the couch. I fell asleep around 7:15 and, except few a few restroom trips, slept until 7 this morning.

When I arrived at cardiac rehab this morning at 8:15, one of the nurses (or are they physical therapists?) said I looked like I didn't feel well. I walked on the treadmill--at a much slower pace than usual--and then sat on a chair to rest.

The next thing I knew I was flat on my back on the floor, with a dozen people hovering around me, checking my blood pressure, putting cold rags on my forehead, raising my legs, and doing a variety of other things to ensure my health and safety. As soon as they felt I could safety sit in a wheelchair, they wheeled me across the hospital to the emergency room, where I was subjected to a variety of tests and wasn't released until around 6.

The upshot? My blood pressure medication is being reduced by half and I'm to follow-up with my cardiologist within a week.

It was not a fun way to spend my three-month anniversary.

Published, again

My story "Confessions of a Fatherless Daughter" appears in the January True Confessions.

What's your 'go-to' story?

Every short story writer needs a "go-to" story, a story that she can write without hesitation any time an editor says, "I need 3,000 words by Thursday." The go-to story might arise from a basic plot, a hook, or some other device that the author favors, but it must be one that can consistently provide an infinite variety of stories.

For example, a writer of short romances might go-to the basic girl-meets-boy, girl-loses-boy, girl-gets-boy-back plot.

Start by imagining a job or life situation for a female character and a male character:

She's a waitress; he's a truck driver.

She's a kindergarten teacher; he's a single father.

She plays second base for the company softball team; he's a league umpire.

Then give them a "meet cute":

While serving him at the truck stop where she works, she spills hot coffee in his lap.

It's the first day of school for his child and he arrives at her kindergarten class with his crying child in tow.

When she's at-bat, he calls a strike on a pitch that's clearly high and outside.

Although I've written a fair number of short romances, this isn't my go-to story because I only get as far as the meet cute before I fumble.

My go-to story is far more versatile because I can hang an infinite number of stories from a single hook:

A woman discovers (learns, realizes, confirms, suspects) she's pregnant.

What's your go-to story?

The banking crisis is so bad...

...that bank robbers have to take their exploding, dye-filled money packets in monthly installments.

...that bank robbers are skipping the middle-man and going directly to Congress.

Today's amusing typo

From page 100 of Lethal Exposure by Lori Wilde: "She grabbed the thongs and smacked a bunch of romaine lettuce [...] onto her plate [...]"

So, did she serve herself salad using summertime footwear or using skimpy underwear?

Either way, I don't think I'd eat it...

Today's sex question

From pages 73-74 of Lethal Exposure by Lori Wilde: "He'd lost his virginity on the commune. To one of Aunt Bunnie's hippie friends. He'd been sixteen, the woman a good twenty years older. He'd gone into the barn that day a boy and walked out a man."

Does that bother you?

Would it bother you any more or any less if it read: "She'd lost her virginity on the commune. To one of Uncle Barney's hippie friends. She'd been sixteen, the man a good twenty years older. She'd gone into the barn that day a girl and walked out a woman."

49

"Writing Dialog," published in yesterday's edition of Gila Queen's Guide to Markets, will be reprinted at a writing Web site. The editors of the site contacted me via a message forwarded by the editor of Gila Queen, asking permission and offering payment.

This marks my 49th acceptance of the year, and the easiest one yet! I need three more acceptances to reach my annual goal of one-per-week, and I've 5.5 weeks of year left to do it in.

Reprint published

"Writing Dialog," a humorous take on writing dialog I wrote for an on-line confession writing class and later posted here, has been reprinted in today's issue (#153) of Gila Queen's Guide to Markets.

Gila Queen is now delivered via e-mail, but I've been reading and contributing to it for so many years that I remember when it was printed on actual paper and mailed through the U.S. Postal Service. If you're not a subscriber, you should be. For subscription information: http://gilaqueen.us/

48

I received my 48th acceptance of the year in today's mail, this time for a Valentine's Day-themed story I submitted back in August. It seems that February's going to be a good month, with Valentine's Day stories in three different publications.

I did it. Finally.

For the first time since shortly before my bypass surgery two-plus months ago, I have written a new short story--completely new, from concept to final word.

Late yesterday afternoon an editor posted an "urgent call" for a story "4000-8000 words with a solid plot, realistic and gripping dialog, and a suspenseful conclusion," and she wanted it before 8:30 a.m. Thursday.

I saw the call around 4:00 yesterday afternoon. I spent the next few hours trying to imagine a story that would meet her needs and that I could draft in one non-stop block of time that evening.

At 6:30 I booted up my new laptop, started MacSpeech Dictate, and began talking. When I finally stopped at 11:10 that evening I had a complete, reasonably clean, 3,679-word draft. That's a dictation speed in the neighborhood of 13 words-per-minute, though I certainly didn't talk the entire time. I walked the dogs twice, did a load of laundry, and made repeated trips to the kitchen to refill my lemonade glass.

At 8:00 this evening I began editing and revising the story, and by 8:45 I had a final draft of 4,060 words. After reformatting the story from the default format I get when I dictate to standard manuscript format, I e-mailed the story to the editor.

If the story sells, I'll have paid for the dictation software, but I'll need to sell four or five more stories to pay for the new laptop.

What I learned:

The dictation software worked, though I had to make a few word-choice concessions--either using alternate words when the software didn't understand what I said or spelling the words I wanted--and I had to watch the screen closely while I dictated to ensure that I was getting what I wanted.

Part of the reason for this is that I'm not a write-and-revise-through-multiple-drafts writer. I'm a get-it-right-the-first-time writer and dictation software only has value to me if I can dictate my drafts as cleanly as I can type them.

Apparently, I can.

42-46, 47

The day began with five acceptances waiting in my e-mail inbox, all reprints.

And the mail brought a contract for a Valentine's Day-themed confession.

Speak like you write

One piece of advice often repeated to new writers is to "write like you speak." I don't know how valuable that advice actually is, but I'm in the process of learning to do the opposite, to "speak like I write."

Because I've been having trouble writing post-surgery, I've been exploring ways to change how I work. One idea I kicked around is the use of speech recognition software so that I could dictate rather than type. I sought opinions from other writers and found that, as a group, they had a vast array of experiences. The positive experiences and the negative experiences seemed to cancel each other out.

Ultimately, I purchased MacSpeech Dictate. I thought I had throughly checked the specs, but I hadn't; it won't run on my older Macintosh G5.

Another week of deep thought led to the purchase of a MacBook, one of the other ideas I had about changing the way I work. I thought not being tied to my office might inspire me.

The laptop was functional straight out of the box, I installed Microsoft Office and MacSpeech Dictate without any hitches, and I was soon able to dictate directly into a Word document.

Although I've only dictated a few things, I have learned the following about myself: 1) I don't enunciate my words as clearly as I'd thought, and 2) When I read back what I've dictated, it doesn't "sound" like material I've typed.

I've spent time "teaching" the program to understand me, and it does a reasonably good job of understanding what I'm saying; it's certainly no worse than my typing.

But will it ultimately make me more productive? Will not being tied to my office and not being tied to a keyboard make a difference? Will I regain my productivity by changing how I write?

Old publication on e-bay

A copy of Fantasy Macabre 8, edited by Jessica Amanda Salmonson and published in 1986, is now available on e-bay. It contains the first publication of my story "The Passenger."

Apparently, if I wait long enough, everything I've ever had published will show up on e-bay.

If you can't write, fill in the blanks

Coming up with a new story idea since my surgery has been like searching for an oasis in a desert. I know there's one out there; I'm just slowing dying of creative thirst while I search for it.

On the other hand, I've frequently mentioned the bazillion unfinished stories residing on my hard drive. A few weeks ago I looked through all of them and made a list of the stories that are nearest completion. Then I selected one and started filling in the blanks. That is, I completed the scenes that were mostly written and wrote the scenes that were nothing more than notes about what should happen.

I would compare the process to a paint-by-numbers kit because the creative work had mostly been completed. The pre-surgery me had created the template. All the post-surgery me had to do was put the right colors in the right places.

I started with 3,600 words and had slowly expanded it to 5,400+ words with only one critical scene still to write and an ending that had to be revised to fit the new material I'd added.

Friday, an editor--the same editor who purchased my 1,500-word story a few days ago--put out a call for February stories or stories with snowy backgrounds that could take place in February. She emphasized a Monday a.m. deadline.

I looked at my nearly complete story, realized that time-of-year was not critical to the basic plot, and revised the scenes I had written to include references to snow and cold and ice. Changing the season actually helped resolve two minor plot points and I was able to complete the 6,200-word story today.

I e-mailed the story to her a few minutes ago.

And it makes me think: Maybe there's a reason I've been stockpiling story ideas for all these years. Maybe there's a reason I had more ideas than I had time to write. It certainly helps now that I have more time to write than I have ideas...

41

I received my 41st acceptance today. This is the story I mentioned in my October 31 post; it's a story I pulled from my files, revised, and lengthened to meet an editor's "emergency" call for a story to fill a hole in her January issue. I wasn't the only writer to respond to her call, but...

Published, again

My story "Christmas Lesson" appears in the December True Confessions.

If you can't write, submit

I spent a good part of yesterday morning seeking markets for unsold manuscripts. I found markets for four manuscripts that I sent out as-is, and markets for two additional manuscripts if I were to revise them.

I often hear or--these days--read posts from writers complaining about a lack of markets for short fiction. Writers that blindly parrot the party line about a lack of markets only reveal their own ignorance and laziness. Writers that want to be published won't waste time complaining and will spend the time necessary to find the markets.

39, 40

Earlier this evening I received my 39th and 40th acceptances of the year, one for an essay I adapted from a presentation I prepared for an MWA/SW luncheon, and the other for "Writing Dialog," which I posted here back in July. (I guess that makes it a reprint, eh?)

Swift kick

If ever I needed a swift kick in the ass to get my writing career back on track, it's now. I may have found it: The 101 Habits of Highly Successful Novelists by Andrew McAleer (Adams Media, 2008). I haven't read it yet; I've only read the parts where Andrew quotes me. And if I do nothing more than follow my own advice, I should be back on track soon.

Removing distractions

Over the course of several days I have cancelled subscriptions to many on-line publications, cancelled memberships at sites that send me e-mail, removed myself from various e-mailing lists, quit a handful of Yahoo groups, and changed my memberships in most of the remaining Yahoo groups so that I no longer receive e-mail from them.

In short, I'm uncluttering my e-mail in-box.

Will this make me more productive when I'm at the computer? Possibly.

But mostly what I hope it will do is help untether me from the computer. The bulk of my income is generated by what I do when I'm sitting in front of a computer. For the past few years the bulk of my "life" has also been determined but what I do when I'm sitting in front of a computer.

Perhaps now I'll spend a little more of my "life" somewhere else doing something else. The exercise certainly won't hurt me and, who knows, maybe I'll be more productive when I am at the computer.

Falling off the wall

Sometimes I feel like Humpty Dumpty. I've been cracked open and all the King's horses and all the King's men have tried to put me back together again.

Successful or not, though, every damn one of them is sending me a bill!

A tale of time

There's an "old writer's tale" that says the longer an editor takes to respond to your submission, the more likely it is that she is going to accept it. A slight variation of the same tale says that the longer an editor takes to respond to your submission, the more likely it is that she is considering accepting it.

What a crock.

I've spent enough time in enough editorial offices--as an editor and as a freelancer--to know it isn't necessarily true.

Let me describe what happens to the slush pile in the editorial offices of some publications with which I'm familiar:

Publication A: The editor waits until two designated cardboard boxes are filled with slush pile submissions. Then he has a "reading party" and a group of volunteers spends an evening reading the submissions and passing on potentially publishable work to the editor. A submission that went into the box two months ago is no different than one that went into the box two days ago.

Publication B: The editor assigns almost everything to established writers and uses very little unsolicited material. Unsolicited submissions are piled on the corner of the editor's desk until the pile is so tall the submissions start falling to the floor every time he passes. Then he spends an afternoon clearing his desk. A submission tossed onto the corner of his desk two months ago is no different than one tossed there two days ago.

Publication C: The editor has found so little publishable material in the slush pile that he mostly ignores it. Similar to the editor of Publication B, he waits until the pile of unsolicited material interferes with his work, which happens only a couple of times a year. Again, a two-month-old submission is treated no differently than a two-day old submission.

Is there even a glimmer of truth in the "old writer's tale"? Perhaps. At publications where submissions travel upward through a hierarchy of editors where any editor along the way can reject a submission but only one editor can accept it, the length of time before response may indicate potential interest.

But I wouldn't stake my career on it.

If you can't write, revise

Earlier today, on a Yahoo group for writers of a particular genre, an editor posted her need for a 1,500-1,800-word story to fill a hole in her January issue. She needed the story by Monday.

I had a very short story in my files quite similar to what she was seeking. I converted it from third-person to first-person and added a few hundred words to reach her minimum length requirement of 1,500 words.

From the time I read her post to the time I submitted the revised story via e-mail, about 1.5 hours elapsed.

Apparently I still have the ability to revise completed work; what still eludes me is the ability to create new material.

(Note: The Yahoo group has 294 members, at least a third of whom are regular writers of this particular genre. Approximately another third are occasional writers of this genre. And the rest, excluding the handful of editors on the list, are striving to become writers of this genre. With an entire weekend to write, the other members of the list might provide some stiff competition for that one opportunity.)

An 'author' born every minute

During the past several years I've learned of many, many "authors" that were bamboozled, snookered, or fast-talked out of their money by any number of publishing scams, from "editors" recommended by "agents" to vanity publishers masquerading as real publishers.

Reminds me of the old saying, "There's an 'author' born every minute, and two to take him."

38

I received my 38th acceptance of the year via e-mail and expect a contact to follow shortly.

Two observations about this one:

1. Last year was a slow year for sales, with only 38 all year. I've already reached 38 sales and there are still two months to go. That's a good sign, but even if I manage one sale a week until year-end, I still won't hit the kind of numbers I did 2002-2006.

2. I wrote the first version of this story in 1998, and revised and expanded it from 2,000 words to 3,800 words in 1999 at the request of an editor who subsequently did not purchase the story. The revised version is the one that sold.

No agent required

The agent I queried at the tail-end of last month ultimately sent back a "thanks, but no thanks" response. Because the imprint (and the publishing company) I targeted when I wrote Novel #5 is open to unagented submissions, I put together a submission package yesterday and mailed it this morning.

If you can't write, rearrange

After returning home from the hospital last month, I forced myself to write. It didn't go well.

Even though I wrote more than 14,000 words--approximately 11,000 of them for a novel and the rest bits and pieces of various short stories--I struggled to produce each word, each sentence, each paragraph. The harder I fought to get the words on the screen, the more frustrated and depressed I became. Writing had never been like this. For years, fiction poured out of me as if it was water from the tap; it had become more like raising water from a well one thimbleful at a time.

A friend suggested that I stop forcing myself to write and, instead, let creativity return in its own time. So I haven't written fiction in a week. I may not write fiction next week or the week after.

But I can't stay away from my office. And if I'm not sitting at the computer working on a new short story, I must have something else to keep me occupied.

A few weeks before surgery I purchased two new shelving units as part of my long-term goal of redecorating and updating my office. Friday evening I assembled one of them--a job that I would have knocked out in half an hour or so pre-surgery, but which took several hours to accomplish. Saturday I moved the new shelving unit into my office and spent the day unloading the old bookshelves, discarding unwanted books and papers, and arranging things on the new shelves. At the end of the day I was quite pleased with the result.

My office is slowly becoming the inviting, attractive, and well-organized environment I want it to be.

Am I any closer to writing because of my efforts this weekend?

Probably not.

But my office looks so much nicer.

37

I received my 37th acceptance of the year today, this time for a romantic little Valentine's Day story I wrote back in December 2007.

Word of the day

E-ject: a rejection that arrives via e-mail.

Bits and pieces

After the novel-in-progress took a left turn a few days ago, I started looking at my unfinished short stories. During the past few days I've been adding bits and pieces--a sentence, a scene, a few plot notes--spread across many stories. But I haven't finished anything.

In fact, I haven't finished a new short story since August 30. I have a good excuse, but still... What I don't finish I can't sell and now would be a real good time to experience an influx of sales.

The novel took a left turn

I've managed to write about 50 pages of the novel I had outlined before surgery. Unfortunately, somewhere in the late 20s the novel took a left turn. My characters, my setting, and my basic premise remain intact, but my plot no longer looks like my outline. That means the novel will no longer fit the romance line I had intended it for. I think I know what line the "new" version might fit, but how I get from where I'm at to the end--and, amazingly, the end works no matter which line I aim for--is a quandary.

Sigh. Transitioning from a short story writer to a novelist is harder than it looks.

36 and published

I received my 36th acceptance of the year today. Sort of. What I actually received was a copy of the Winter True Experience containing my story "Holiday Surprise."

Because I never received a contract for the story, I hadn't known it was accepted. (Of course, I promptly e-mailed the associate editor to let her know of the paperwork snafu.)

Far from the madding crowd

I spent much of Saturday evening showing my unfinished stories to the non-writing friend I refer to as my plot monkey. I have hundreds of unfinished stories on my computer--confessions in one folder with sub-folders for Christmas, Valentine's Day, and other seasonal material; crime fiction in another folder, with sub-folders for Nathaniel Rose* and Morris Ronald Boyette*; and still other folders for other genres--and all evening I kept hearing, "Where's the rest of it?" and "I like this" and "I want to know how this ends."

I have so many unfinished stories that, by concentrating on finishing the stories I've already started, I could write for several years without needing to generate any new story ideas.

Which is a good thing because I haven't been generating new ideas. All the stories--characters, settings, concepts, opening scenes, etc.--that used to crowd my brain and leak out through my fingers are gone. I could drop a thought in my empty brain and the sound would echo for a week.

I never "heard voices" or had characters "talk to me" the way crazy people and some writers describe the process, but I constantly had ideas fighting for my attention. Because I had so many of them, I never had time to finish them all. I wrote as much as I could--sometimes an opening scene, sometimes a few key plot points, sometimes just the title when it was enough to remind me what the story was about--with the intention of returning later and finishing what I had started.

Many times I did return and finish these stories. but not often enough or I wouldn't have hundreds more waiting for me.

And now, when my brain has retreated to a linear thought-process of one-thought-at-a-time (the result of my surgery and increased blood flow to my brain? the result of the drugs I'm taking? the result of something else entirely?), it feels as if I've left the madding crowd far behind.

In fact, it's a little lonely in here.
----
*Private eyes who have appeared in multiple short stories.

Mystery trivia, Bouchercon, and me

Jack Bludis has been kind enough to remind me that I've been around so long that I'm now part of Mystery Trivia. He writes:

"While attending Bouchercon and a segment called 'The History of the Short Story,' they flashed a photo of the cover of an old Espionage magazine.

"On the cover in bold print was the name 'Ed Hoch.'

"Others whose names were shown on the cover were Ron Goulart and some upstart by the name of Michael Bracken.

"(On the cover, also, was an automatic pistol with a nude on the grip.)"

He's referring to the February 1985 issue, which contained "The Only Good Red," the second of three stories Espionage published of mine (they accepted a fourth but ceased publication before using it). That was about seven years after my professional debut with a children's fantasy in Young World (November 1978).

Only my surgeon finds this funny...

I've been telling everyone I know that I'm thinking of covering the scar down the middle of my chest with a tattoo of a zipper. So far only my surgeon has laughed.

Because I'm not a tattoo kind of guy, I used the idea as fodder for the opening of a story. Of course, before the first paragraph ends "Zipper" kills a guy. I managed to write almost three pages beyond that point, and I think the character has potential, but I've not yet figured out the rest of the story.

Published

My story "In the Blink of an Eye" appears in the November True Story.

Show us your...

Everybody wants to see my scar, and I've lifted my shirt more times than a Girl-Gone-Wild. Of course, this makes me think I should buy a video camera, get a large group of heart patients together, and make my own video to pitch on late-night TV: "Heart Patients Gone Wild!"

Chapter one

This weekend I wrote the first chapter of a new novel--the one I had roughly outlined pre-surgery--and a few pages of the second chapter. The words did not flow from my fingers the way I'm accustomed to, and sometimes my fingers produced gibberish. But after rereading, rethinking, revising, and retyping, I'm reasonably happy with the first chapter. It does everything I need it to do and the writing's not bad.

Medical update

I met with my surgeon this afternoon. My recovery is on schedule and, barring a set-back, I probably won't see him again. My next appointment is with my cardiologist.

I should be able to resume full activities two months after surgery--which would be November 10--and I've been encouraged to slowly increase my activities so that I can hit that target.

Should I have told him that I wasn't waiting around for approval and was already doing a few things I shouldn't have been doing?

Sentences

I'm writing fiction again. Sort of. I added a little bit--a sentence here, a paragraph there--to several stories-in-progress. I made no significant progress on any of the stories I touched, and I had no brilliant ideas for new stories (or even for new scenes for the stories-in-progress), but at least I'm creating fiction. My mind is no longer a complete bowl of pudding.

35

I received my 35th acceptance of the year in today's mail, for a Christmas story I submitted in August 2007.