writingdad

I've been really sick the last few days. Probably the Swine Flu as all the symptoms fit. Disappointing because I managed to avoid it when it laid the rest of my family low for a week or so. Thought I was in the clear, but probably someone who should have stayed home from work didn't and passed it along to a bunch of us.

Something I scribbled in a notebook about half way through the sickness (not that I'm entirely healthy yet, but give me another day or two):

When you’re sick, really sick, are you ever tempted to let the fever spike just to see what kind of dreams it would produce? Or does having that thought mean that I’ve already allowed the fever to get too high?

I may have had some strange dreams anyway, but can't pull enough of any of them together to call it a memory. I'd say maybe next time, but I don't really want there to be a next time. Like most people, I don't enjoy being sick and while I can imagine worse things than H1N1, I don't really want to experience them directly.

Dream big, I always say. Might just as well dream of perfect, eternal health.

I’m starting to have a bit of a published presence now, so I thought it might be time to put up a bibliography.  Most of what I’ve placed hasn’t come into print yet, so I’m going to divide it up into three lists.  First, my available stories running in inverse publication order, i.e. newest first.  Second, what isn’t out yet, in order of acceptance date and including a publication date if I know it.  Finally, editing credits; if the first two anthologies go well and I enjoy doing them as much as I think I will, this list will probably get longer.  As circumstances warrant, I'll update this list.
 

Released:

“Absence of Garlic” – Bards & Sages Quarterly, October 2009

“Searching for the Sea Monster” – Dead Bait, Severed Press, September 2009

“The Monkey Is Only Bait” – Everyday Weirdness, 22 August 2009

Coming:

"Goodbye, Valerie" – Dead Bells, Library of Horror Press

“The Helgron Speak” – Bards & Sages Quarterly, April 2010

“Failing Hope” – Zombology III, Library of the Living Dead Press, Spring 2010

“Strength of Stone” – Tales of the Children anthology Podcast, P.G. Holyfield

“Inside the Circle” – Through Blood and Iron, Ricasso Press

“Common Ground” – Alienology: Tales from the Void, Library of Horror Press

“Wreck the Mall” – Night of the Giving Dead, Library of the Living Dead Press

Editor:

Distant Worlds – Library of Science Fiction & Fantasy Press, 2010

Distant Realms – Library of Science Fiction & Fantasy Press, 2010

I also make occasional appearances on the 100 Word Stories Podcast, most recently Weekly Challenge 185.

I debated posting this.  Aside from hoping it doesn't conflict too much with the Writing Dad image, it occurred to me that my oldest child is pretty Internet savvy at this point and is this something he needs to read.  My oldest daughter doesn't have any difficulty find her way around, either.

Then it occurred to me:  do I really think my kids have any interest in my blog?  Made it much easier to post.  Still, this tiny piece could easily be classed as erotica, though I consider it a zombie story, sort of.  Either way, if you're offended or embarrassed by anything overtly sexual, you may not want to read the 156 words that follow.

She groans in my ear, fingernails still digging into my shoulders.  I try to slow myself, stretch things out so she might have another orgasm, but she hooks her ankles together behind my back and pulls.  Eyes closed, I kiss my way to her lips and slip a hand underneath her, fingers pressing into the smooth skin.

Some bit of awareness creeps into my hormone-soaked brain.  The not-quite rhythmic knock isn’t the headboard.  I increase my tempo, building quickly toward release and she gasps, holding me tighter, understanding, knowing.

A crash downstairs, wood splintering as the front door gives in.  Her fingernails scrape down my back then trace back up to curl in my hair.

“Mmmm.  That’s so good love, but do you think you can come before the zombies get here?”

My lips sink to her neck and I nip the smooth flesh.  “Hunh.  I hope so.”  The shotgun's close, but I hate being interrupted.

Stories Sold:  3. I pre-emptively mentioned the first two in the September report, but I’ll reiterate them.  “Common Ground” bought by the editor of Alienology: Tales From the Void for Library of Horror Press, and “Inside the Circle” went to the Ricasso Press anthology Through Blood and Iron.

The third sale isn’t a sale exactly.  Acceptance is probably a better word.  No monetary recompense for this one as it’s a charity anthology.  Night of the Giving Dead from Library of the Living Dead Press (yes, fundamentally the same publisher – there’s a lot going on; writers should check it out).  It’s a Christmas Zombie story called “Wreck the Mall” and no, it’s not what you think.  Charity that will benefit from sales of the collection is First Book.

Stories gone to print:  the October issue of Bards and Sages Quarterly went up on October 1^st.  Yes, I mentioned this in the September report, too, but I’m still happy about it.

Words of New Fiction:  10,916.  My actual new word total was over 15k, but with nearly 4k in blog entries divided between two blogs (this being one of them), the fiction count is a little slimmer.  If I can maintain the same pace for November and December, I’ll be thrilled, but another commitment might interfere with that.

First Draft Stories Completed:  4, and I missed by a couple of days on a fifth.  I’m planning 3 more shorts for November, but don’t know if I’ll manage to squeeze all three in.  Depends on the volume of submissions for Hidden Worlds.  Two will make me happy.

Submissions Out:  16.  Oh, yeah.  Granted, 12 of these were done in one overnight blitz and a couple of them have come back rejected already.  I like lightning positive responses, but the negative ones aren’t quite as satisfying.

Rejections Received:  4 + 1 assumed.  The assumed rejection comes because when I started to follow up with the publisher of the anthology, I found the table of contents posted without me.  Might have waited a little long on that status query.

Withdrawals: 1.  Double the expected turn around time plus a query that went couple of months with no response whatsoever equals a withdrawn story for me, and I was probably far too generous with time. Judging from the website, they haven’t published an issue this year and the Duotrope submission reporting is not promising.

My New Year’s plan for heavy editing on Heroes Inc may not work out.  May not?  Who am I kidding?  With the new title of Anthology Editor added into my repertoire, it might be a struggle to get anything done in the latter half of January after submissions close on the 15^th.  The next novel-sized project I’m looking at is (you heard it here first) a collaborative effort with a friend of mine and he’ll have my primary writing commitment with all other potential writing time being committed to Distant Worlds.

“Turn the World Around” is still proving to be a lot of work on the editing, but I’ll have the 2^nd draft done in a week or so and hopefully the third by the end of the year.  Currently stands at a little under 27,000 words and this month I’ve chopped almost what I’ve added.  Roughly 2/3 of the way through this draft.

October contained a lot of editing time.  November certainly will, too, but that may drop off as the submissions start coming in a little more thick.  Right now, it’s pretty easy to make a first round decision in the less than two weeks I’m targeting (my longest time so far is 8 days), but I have this feeling I’ll be getting more submission as we move through the period so I’m likely going to have to pick up the pace.

One further note on Library of the Living Dead Press, plus its younger siblings Library of Horror Press and now Library of Science Fiction & Fantasy Press: between the three imprints there are more than a dozen anthologies open for submissions at the moment (including Distant Worlds) and they’re accepting novel submissions.  If you are a writer and can call any of your work Horror, Science Fiction, or Fantasy, you owe it to yourself to check some guidelines, at least.  Oh, and go look at the Distant Worlds blog.  I’m hanging out there, too.

It seems like I watch less TV all the time.  The time shifting offered by the internet and DVDs is far more effective with my shift work than waiting for what I do want to watch to come on when I’m actually home.  But I do manage to catch a little.  Molson Canadian, arguably the beer most recognized at the national level in the Great White North, has launched a new advertising campaign in attempts to position itself as the unofficial official beer of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games to be held in Vancouver in a few months.  The slogan, apparently going to be printed on every case of beer, if it isn’t already, is “Give’r 2010.”

Seriously?  Wow, I hope they paid a truckload of money for that slogan.  I only have the vaguest notion of what a national advertising campaign costs in this country, and this one is going to be built around “Give’r 2010.”  I hope the total outlay is so high that Molson is forced to realize they can only be doing themselves a colossal favour by firing the entire mentally defective marketing crew (because you know it wasn’t a solo effort – such brilliance isn’t possible with only one person) who came up with it.  While management is swinging the axe, it might be even more profitable to target all of the executives who approved the slogan and campaign.

My intent is not libel here.  This is opinion only.  Maybe it really is a great slogan and I just can't see it.  But I also can’t help but wonder what slogans didn’t make the cut for this one to be the winner.

Maybe the classic “Go for gold!” never made it into the line up.  A simple, straightforward “Go, Canada!” probably never entered anyone’s mind.  Someone must have thought of going the hoser route with “2010, eh!”  It’s hard to come up with a worse slogan without being obvious that you’re trying to be as bad at it as you can.  “Molson supports Canadian athletes.”  Actually, that’s not all that bad.  “Join us in standing behind Canadian athletes as they compete in this once every four years Olympic opportunity.”  Now I’m reaching.  The only thing I can think of that would actually be worse and still fit into a slogan-sized sound byte is “Git ‘r’ done.”

But I’m sure they're saving that one for the 2012 Summer Games.

It’s easy to tell when an election is coming in this country, or when the governing party thinks one might be in the offing.  The attack ads start on every station, frequency rising and falling with the polls.  So far, they’re not that numerous, but they started more than a month ago.  Honestly, and I don’t think I’m alone in this, I’m sick  >>>  [ WARNING ::: DATABASE ERROR ::: CONTENT OVERRIDE ::: SOURCE: EXTERNAL ] <<<

> source terminal location: UNKNOWN

> source terminal identity: UNAVAILABLE

> source login information: ENCRYPTED

> message begins

 the post you are now reading is designed to dull your senses to THE TRUTH.  do not live the life of the worker bee, the cog, the well-oiled piston in the MACHINE OF DECEIT!

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human cloning isn't NEAR. it's already HERE. discover the truth at http://JCHutchins.net

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>>> [ CONTENT OVERRIDE CEASES ::: DATABASE STATUS: RECOVERING ] <<< can bite me.  Spin is spin, no matter what you call it, and I don’t feel like listening to it anymore.  I’m dizzy enough, thanks.

It’s odd for me to have weekends off, but when it happens, I’m usually working nights. Theoretically, any night off should then be a productive one writing-wise, even accounting for everything else that needs to be done while the rest of the house is asleep. This weekend, I determined to stop being so lazy about getting my own work turned around and submitted to new markets or actually send it out in the first place. After a tremendous amount of research (because I get side tracked reading every place there’s stuff to read) on Saturday night, last night I did up cover letters and spent time on formatting to get 12, yes 12, stories out. At this instant, I have no stories that are ready to go. They’ve all gone somewhere. Many, undoubtedly, will come back for an, but for today they’re all seeking homes.  My "desk" is clear, for now.

As far as new writing goes, well, I did a tiny bit of editing on one project and outlined a short story that I’m not quite sure how to classify yet.

As important as my own work, I also began reading submissions and answering queries for “Distant Worlds” this weekend. I honestly didn’t expect any submissions for a little while since a 20-30k word story isn’t something you bang off in a couple of days, but there are obviously a few out there ready to go. Better for me.

This weekend, or at least Sunday overnight, I was supposed to do the bulk of the first round of drywall patches in the kitchen. There’s a reason for the ugly wallpaper we’d left up since moving in at the end of 2002. Actually, there are a lot of reasons and I’m patching them. Should be able to finish the rest of the first round when I get home in the morning.

Wendy Wagner of (operabuffo.blogspot.com) has passed on to me, the Kreativ Blogger Award.  More on that tomorrow, but for now I’m happy to say thanks Wendy!

I’ve been poked several times in the last week or so about whether I intend to do NaNoWriMo this year. For those of you who have no idea what that is, the strange word is short for National Novel Writing Month. The objective is to write a 50,000 word novel in one month. Yes, 50k is a short novel, but doing it in 30 days is a major accomplishment. Outlining in advance is allowed, but it’s supposed to start on November first and be done (or not) at something over the mark by midnight on November 30^th. That’s an average of 1667 words per day in case you’re wondering or as obsessed by numbers as I am. Anyone who manages it has my respect.

So, am I going to do it?

Well, right now, I’m outlining a novel that I’d intended to start the first draft of on January first. I’m also in the earliest conceptual stages of mapping out a collaborative project with a friend, but we’ve got a lot of work to do before writing can possibly begin. For the solo novel, I doubt I’ll have the level of outlining done by the first of November that would carry me through an entire novel, but I’m envisioning it as a 90-100k project. I might be half way at that point (I doubt it). Burning through the outline and letting momentum carry me far enough to “win” might work. When November ends, I could relax a little and finish it off at my leisure, as if I have any.

Fifty thousand words in one month. In April, if you include blog entries and plotting, I just broke forty thousand. Lately, my typical month is more like fifteen with a lot of editing on previously completed stories. Three times my normal word count? Well, back to the numerical obsession, I re-plotted my writing plan for November. I started with a bunch of editing, two planned first drafts of short stories, and a bunch of free space for whatever writing I feel like doing. Putting everything else on hold and moving the edits I planned to do either into December or back into late October, I cleared out the whole month of November. With nothing else to work on at all, it might be possible. Just.

Except I’m working days in November.

My job involves rotating shifts: four-week blocks of days and nights. Nights allows me a lot more time to work on my writing than days. People are asleep for at least an hour after I get home and I get two nights each week that I’m awake for six or seven hours when no one else is. I start the next block of days on the 3^rd and go back to nights on the 30^th.

I can’t manage 1667 words per day without neglecting my family. 500 is good and 1000 on days off. Using that model, I get to 20k. A far cry from 50. So, am I doing NaNo this year?

No. I’m not even tempted. But if I’m on nights for any significant amount of time next November, that might be a different story.

Yes, again.  A little different this time, though.  My contributor's copy came today which was very exciting for me.  This is my third publication to see light this year, but only the second in physical form and the first that I actually get to hold.  So I thought I'd post a couple of pictures of the book as relevant.  No, there's no picture of me holding up the book next to my face.  I think I can only look like a dork doing that.  Still, this post is probably pretty dorky anyway.  We'll see.

So, here's the book sitting on my dining room table:


My line in the copyright notices, just above my middle finger.


And here I am in the table of contents:


And the actual page my story begins on (230).


Not exactly spectacular photography, but then I've never claimed any talents in that direction.  You might note the difference in title between the copyright notice and contents and the first page of the story.  The title page is correct and if the book goes to a second printing, I hope to get it fixed.  Not a huge difference, but an important one to me.

"Searching for the Sea Monster" is, I think, an odd little story that I hope everyone will enjoy.  I'm looking forward to the reading the rest of the anthology which I plan to start before bed this morning.

Starting with the Big News this time,

Stories Sold:  0.  However, on the 1^st of October, within a few hours of each other, I received two separate acceptances.

The first was into the Library of Horror anthology, Alienology: Tales From the Void. (The –ology is sort of a running theme with the publisher.)  The anthology is filled and closed, but it’s still got to go through the whole editing and design process before going to print.  Oh, and the story’s title is “Common Ground”.

Acceptance #2 came in the form of “Inside the Circle” being accepted for the Ricasso press anthology Through Blood and Iron.  Rob Santa, the editor/publisher really enjoyed my bad guy, which gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling of accomplishment.

Stories gone to print:  2.

Dead Bait went up on Amazon on the 18^th, although I think the pub date is listed as the 15^th.  “Searching for the Sea Monster” is in here.  Don’t let my lame title fool you, the story is rather creepy.  I can’t wait to read the rest of the anthology.  No, it hasn’t arrived yet – it’s shipping from Australia.

The October issue of Bards and Sages Quarterly hit on the 1^st of October (yes, also not in September, but I’m still only spilling over one day).  “Absence of Garlic” is in this, the first sale I made this year all the way back in March.  It’s available both electronically from RPG Now and as a physical magazine from Amazon/Createspace.

Words of New Fiction:  24706.  Highest total for a while, even with the amount of later drafts I got done on various stories.  Largest new word count since April, actually, but that was an insane writing month.  This is the writing benefit I have when working nights.  Not only do I get in a little writing on breaks at work, usually five or six hundred words worth, I don’t go to bed as soon as I get home so have some time then too, even after adding in a little housework.

First Draft Stories Completed:  9, although one of these was a mid-size reworking of an earlier story and another took the basic plot of something I never finished, twisted it, and finished.  And two were flash pieces under 1000 words.

Submissions Out:  3.  Okay, this was laziness even though one of those three became a sale (“Common Ground”).  The October number will be higher – aside from the stories I need to do research to send out, there are four anthologies closing this month I intend to submit to, three of which I’ve completed the first or later draft for.  The fourth is in progress.  There are three more I’d like to try out, but time is limited.

Rejections Received:  1.  “For Whom the Gnome Tolls” received a second positive rejection, though of a different sort from the first.  I have high hopes of finding a home for this story and I’m trying to figure out where to send it next.

I didn’t do much with Heroes Inc, and may not in October, either.  I think I may save the heavy edits for January when things are a little quieter.  Of course, I’m thinking about another novel-sized project, too.

“Turn the World Around”: didn’t make as much progress with this as I would have liked.  A touch over half way through the second draft and I don’t think I’ve left a single sentence intact along the way, plus it’s nearly three thousand words longer than when I started.  I finished the original first draft on the 2^nd of November 2007, so this was something I wrote only a couple of months after I first started writing again.  The story is good, I think, but the writing hurts sometimes.  Hope that means I’m better now than I was then.

September was more productive and I hope to maintain the pace through October.  Plans include the previously mentioned shorts, a lot of editing, and a little breathing space.  Plus a few blog entries.  We’ll see how things go.

I’ve dipped my toe into the vast ocean of voice acting.  It started a while back when Terry Mixon of the Dead Robots’ Society announced on an open episode that he was working on a full cast audio drama of a Sherlock Holmes story, “A Study In Scarlet” in which I read for Mormon Man 2.  Terry may have abandoned the project, but I hope not.  Reading through, I remember that I used to enjoy Sherlock Holmes and might again given the chance.

A little time passed before part of the outro on an episode of Twin Stars lead me to Audio Drama Talk and from their eventually to Voice Acting Alliance.  There’s a lot of people looking for voice work for a lot of different things.  Between the beginning of August and the middle of September, I’ve found time for a dozen auditions (between work, family, and writing, I don’t have a lot of free time and I’m pretty hard on myself with voice auditions, at least I have been so far).  Out of those, I’ve gotten three small roles, one supporting role (with 20 lines!), and I’m still waiting to hear back on a couple of others.

Two of those roles, including the largest, are characters with French accents.  Let me stress that my real-life French is embarrassing at best, although I’m working on it a little at a time.  My English-speaking French accent, on the other hand, can range between slightly and wildly outrageous (not quite Inspector Clouseau, or Holy Grail, but not bad, I think) and is probably offensive to actual French people, but no one’s complained yet.  Out loud.

And it’s gotten me some entertainment.  I hope it provides some, too.  I’ve also volunteered to voice as yet unknown characters for two podiobook authors whose previous work I’ve enjoyed.  Hope I’m able to help.

Right now I need to work on some Autobot and Decepticon voices, with maybe a zombie moan or two in between.  It's all about the fun.

Snuggled up next to a major road in Vaughn, part of a huge complex of strip malls (with pretty much all small stores, it’s hard to call it a power centre), there’s a strange little zoo known as Reptilia. And I only use the word little in comparison with something like the Metro Toronto Zoo. It has a much smaller geographic footprint, but as a specialty zoo without any large herd animals, doesn’t have the same kind of needs.

You might guess they specialize in reptiles. Other than food (crickets, frozen mice and rats, etc), the only non-reptiles I remember seeing are a few small poisonous frogs. Snakes, lizards, crocodiles in abundance. They run “touch and feel” shows once an hour with different feedings in between. If you like small furry things, you may not want to watch the snakes eat.

Everyone in the family had different favourites.

The Pink Princess liked to watch things eat, but otherwise tried to rush us through the zoo as quickly as possible. “Yes, I’ve seen that already, Daddy. Can we go now?” She did enjoy catching a few escaped crickets and getting to touch things during the shows.

Nature Girl has a snake fixation lately, but that’s mainly due to the fact that she desperately wants one for a pet. The pet store part of the zoo actually had a Snow Corn Snake, the variety she wants, but any kind of non-poisonous snake engaged in any activity held her attention pretty well.

Paleoboy would have a hard time picking a favourite, but drank in everything there. I think he was most impressed by Peaches, an albino python he and his sisters (as well as several other children) got to hold at the same time, and by the white crocodile.

My Wife isn’t all that keen on reptiles close up, but as long as they’re behind glass, they’re okay. The poison dart frogs probably held the greatest attraction for her. They’re small, colourful, and cute. If she were to keep some kind of non-standard pet, it would almost certainly be a tree frog but probably not any poison variety.

As for me, my favourite part of any outing like that is watching the kids discover new and exciting things. If I had to pick a favourite creature for the visit, it would probably be this cute little tree snake, brilliant yellow and no bigger around than my pinky. Also insanely venomous. If we went again tomorrow, I might pick something different, though.

What zoo would be without a gift shop. Reptilia’s also includes a pet shop. A variety of slightly domesticated reptiles available, including the previously mentioned corn snake. Among all of the stuffed animals, there’s a better quality variety of souvenir items including some artistic pieces and some very cool t-shirts

The entire structure of the place, including the shows and feedings, reminds me a bit of Little Ray’s in Ottawa. I haven’t looked up who’s been open longer, but Reptilia is definitely funded better or had a lot more starting capital. Little Ray is raising money to build a similar sized facility but I’m not sure where things are at.

If you’re in or near Toronto and have a positive view of reptiles at all, Reptilia is more than worth the visit. Two scaly digits up.

As a side note, this is blog post number 52 for the year, so I’m calling a win on this goal (#4).

In case you missed my ecstatic Twitter announcement last night, Dead Bait is available on Amazon.com. My author’s copy, along with those of the rest of the contributors (we only get one each), will be shipping shortly and the anticipation of holding something that contains some of my work is huge. At this instant, you won’t see me credited as an author – only about half of the authors are listed and Severed Press is working with Amazon to fix that.

This is my first story to actually go into print. The first of many, I hope. It’s not my first publication, but it’s the first time I’ll get to hold a book in my hands that I had a part in creating and that’s special. I’m not going to demand everyone go out and buy it, but the Amazon link is at the end of this post. If you like horror/creepy short fiction, especially with a sea life sort of theme, then you’ll find something to like in Dead Bait. My story is titled “Searching for the Sea Monster” and, if you do pick it up, I hope it’s one of the stories you enjoy.

As part of our end of summer vacation, we made the trek to Cambridge to African Lion Safari.  If you live anywhere in Ontario, I’m sure you’ve seen or heard the commercials.  If you don’t, the basic concept is that it’s a zoo where you stay in your car and the animals wander around free.  Really.  There’s some legal disclaimer about how the park isn’t responsible if you take your own vehicle through the paddocks, but it’s that or surrender control to a tour bus driver (the tour bus costs extra).  In your own car/van/whatever you can sit and watch the baboons for half an hour if you want to.  And we did.

Driving into the paddock area reminded me of that little sequence in Jurassic Park, but we had full control over the vehicle and didn’t have tracks to force us along.  Paleoboy and Hot Mom both said the same thing out loud.  And then the adventure began.

Highlights of being in the travelling people exhibit:

• Sleeping lions up close.  I don’t know that we ever got an accurate count of just how many lions they have there, but you just can’t get that close at a regular zoo.  Which is the whole point.
• Watching two cheetah stalking an oblivious llama on the other side of a 5 metre fence.  I imagine they’re very well fed, but it’s all about the hunt.  Watch your cat stalking a mouse or a bird.  They don’t need that protein, but every instinct they’ve got screams at them to take down prey
• Baboons on the roof and hood of the van.  We spent a long time watching the baboon troop.  Fifty, sixty, a hundred of them.  I have no idea.  Ranging in size from housecat to maybe as heavy as my 10 year-old.  If you held still long enough, you’d probably have one or two climb up onto your roof.  Apparently, they enjoy the view from up there.  I think we peaked at three on the van at once.
• The ostrich who tried to get us to feed him by mimicking eating motions and tapping on the windows with his beak.  Obviously he’s been fed before, and the pop tarts and granola bars the kids were eating looked pretty good.  When we cruelly refused him nourishment, he sniffed and moved on to try the car behind us.
• A rhino standing in the middle of the road.  Not nearly as big as an elephant, of course, but it gives you the feeling of the immovable object when standing still and the unstoppable force when walking around.  I wonder what it’s like to see a rhino charge in person.
• Being within arms’ length of a giraffe and, a few seconds later, mother and baby zebra.  I like giraffes.  They’re neat.  I don’t want one as a pet, but I do wonder what they feel and sound and smell like.  I’ve gotten good pictures of them at the Toronto Zoo before, but nothing like the close ups at the Safari.
• Stuck in the middle of a small herd of Bison.  Hairy, smelly mountains of fur and flesh on every side.  I actually put the van in park and we waited for a few minutes as they grazed around us.  Someone in one of the staff pickups came by and honked their horn repeatedly until the shaggy beasts moved, but it was still neat to watch them rub up against each other and the van.

We sucked every set of camera batteries dry with two of them taking pictures all the time.  The video camera still had some power left at the end, but we used that up on shows with no way to recharge.

It took us about two and a half hours driving to get all the way through.  After a ridiculously expensive fast food lunch (not quite up to Wonderland levels, but bad enough), we considered the park map.  There’s more to things than just the drive through, though that was something we’ll all remember for a long time.

And lest you think that’s all: a small petting zoo, three different shows with one running every half hour, watching the parade of elephants as they went to the river for their evening bath and then watching that bath, a really nice splash pad.  The flat tire wasn’t a black mark at all, more a short break as one parent wanted only half an hour for CAA while the other took the kids to the splash pad.

Final verdict on African Lion Safari: highly recommended.  Experience broadening and memory making, and you can do everything in one day without feeling rushed.  Bring the kids and bring your own food.

More new fiction this month as there are a lot of anthologies compiling right now.  I started trying to write for anthologies sometime last fall.  It’s fun and challenging at the same time to write to a theme even if I’m not successful.  Lots of editing in August, to, with six different stories progressing, several of which to the point where I should submit.

One of those was my story for Tales of the Children.  I’d planned to save this for the end of the post, but it’s getting really hard to hold in.  The story is called “Strength of Stone” (at least at the moment – I’m having a hard time with the title on this one) and I’m thrilled to say P.G. liked it.  He sent it back with some minor revision requests.  I’ve addressed those and have also passed it through the “reading aloud” test, and I’m waiting to hear back if it’s good to go.  Mr. Holyfield has much on the go and is recovering from Dragon*Con at the moment, but I’m not going anywhere.

The numbers:

Words of New Fiction:  14,033.  Significantly higher than July, this mostly consists of three start-to-finish short pieces, including “Strength of Stone”, all written for a purpose, although one was for an “open until filled” anthology that filled about ten minutes after I finished the first draft.  It’s okay.  The first draft was awful anyway and will need a lot of work to become readable.

First Draft Stories Completed:  3.  As mentioned above.  Another of those three has just finished passing through what I think is the last edit and will be going out tomorrow.

Submissions Out:  2, bringing me to 40 so far this year.  Currently 10 outstanding.  Yes, I was a bit lazy with the submissions this month.  I did spend two weeks on vacation, though, so two isn’t so bad, I think.  September will be much higher.

Rejections Received:  4.   Three of these were of the positive variety.  “We really liked it, but it doesn’t quite fit with what we’ve already bought for this anthology/isn’t horrific enough/is a little too dark.” 

Stories Sold:  3.  Woo-hoo!  “Failing Hope” to the good Doctor for Zombology III at Library of the Living Dead, “The Monkey is Only Bait” to Everyday Weirdness, and “Strength of Stone” to P.G. for Tales of the Children.  Yes, I’m using the word sold loosely since I’m not getting paid for the third story, but not only am I okay with that, I’m going to get to hear P.G. read it as a podcast episode.

Stories gone to print:  1.  “The Monkey is Only Bait” went up on August 22^nd.  This happened very short notice – the acceptance came on August 20^th.  Between now and Christmas, all but one of this years remaining acceptances should make their appearances.

September might be more productive since I’m going to nights and theoretically will have more time to both write and edit.  I’ve planned it to be pretty heavy.  Possibly too heavy, but I’ll adjust if life throws new priorities up or my schedule suddenly changes or the rooms I’m supposed to paint end up taking more time than I expect they will.

Notes on Heroes Inc.  Umm, well.  The end of September notes goal has sort of become a we’ll see if it get’s there by then.  Why is it the longer a project, the less eager I am to get it finished.  Am I developing a shorter attention span as I get older?  I thought it was supposed to go the other way.  I’ll leave this as in progress and see where it gets to.

Star Trek audio drama.  Need some script consultants.  I’m looking for a couple more volunteers to show me the plot holes and story problems and consistency of voice issues.  It’s not as big a job as it sounds – The total 8-episode project is only about 16,000 words – but I’m still probably asking for a couple of hours of time from each volunteer.

The thing I did spent a lot of time on in the last part of August and September so far is a novella I wrote last year in which Jim Henson and Harry Belafonte save the universe, sort of.  It’s inspired by the song “Turn the World Around”, performed by Harry Belafonte on The Muppet Show when I was a kid, and still my favourite episode.  The original first draft came in at a little under 24,000 words.  I’m about a third of the way through beating it into a readable second draft and I’ve added more than 2,000 words so far.  There’s a chance it might break 30k, I think, and it’s already the longest non-novel I’ve ever completed.  No firm goal on a time line for this as there isn’t a hurry or deadline someone wants to see it by.

As far as my September plans go, well, a wise muppet but poor teacher once said, “Always in motion is the future.”

Last weekend, Paleoboy and I spent Saturday at Fan Expo 2009.  A lot of cool things and a few disappointments, but we’ve agreed that we want to go again next year.  However, if we do go, it will be for the entire weekend so there’s far less stress over seeing everything we want to see.  With one day only, we skipped over a few things and didn’t really spend as much time in the dealer area as I might have liked to browse, but there was a lot to see even before we got in line to get in.

And the line to get in, Gods.  It could have been worse, I suppose, but by the time we snaked our way through what felt like an entire city block, the Leonard Nimoy Q&A was already packed beyond capacity.  Strike one for me, but he’d be available for autographs later so I figured I’d still get to see him.

Paleoboy got to play games he’s never seen or heard of before, including at least one he won’t be allowed to when it releases.  He seemed to have the most fun with the new Batman game, Arkham Asylum which he’s seen several reviews for on his favourite gamer shows and probably also won’t get to play.  Wait, that’s not true.  He had the most fun kicking my ass in a Halo 3 death match.  I got a little frustrated with the X-Box controls while he adapted to them very quickly.  The plasticity of youth or is it just that I’m a PC gamer and he’s a console gamer.  Give me a keyboard and a mouse and I’ll roast his little butt with any conveniently placed weapon.  But on the X-Box, I bow to Paleoboy’s expertise as well as his nine kills.

But back to gamer shows.  The only celebrities at the Con my son wanted to meet were at the G4TV booth, Victor Lucas and Scott Jones.  We waited for a little over 45 minutes as they slowly worked their way through the fan line, taking a little time to chat and pose with each person come to see them.  Highlight of the Con for Paleoboy.  He’s said several times that it was the highlight of his life so far and intends to frame the autograph and photo.  I enjoyed the taste of Tron: Legacy, conveniently located next to the G4 booth so I got to watch the 2-minute clip a bunch of times while we waited to meet Scott and Victor.  But my son’s reaction to the two Gamer Show hosts was far better.  I have photos and should have taken video.

I’d thought to do a bit of the fanboy thing, too.  Walter Koenig and Leonard Nimoy were both present as well as Billy Dee Williams and Bruce Campbell.  Other SF/Horror movie/TV celebs were there to do signings, but this was the crew on my list.  Never even caught a glimpse of Bruce Campbell, but I wasn’t looking at the right time and autograph cards were sold out before we even got into the Con on Saturday morning.  Then I discovered how much autographs cost.

Okay, maybe I’m naive.  I’ve enjoyed Walter Koenig’s work for my entire life, but I just couldn’t see paying $40 for his signature.  Same with Leonard Nimoy at $60.  I have to believe that it’s Fan Expo trying to keep ticket prices down.  Cheaper to get in = more expensive autographs.  I can respect that, but to stand in line for half an hour or more to get Spock’s autograph?  Can’t do it.  I might go $25 for a photo op, which takes about as long, but it’s too much for ink on a prepared photo.  Sorry.  ‘Entrance level’ autographs at Fan Expo were $30 – Lou Ferrigno, Avery Brooks, “Tom Paris”, the President from BSG, but I couldn’t justify that either.  Out in the hall next to the 501^st, you could pay $25 dollars for an autograph by Stormtrooper, “These aren’t the droids we’re looking for.”  Cool, but still too much for me.  Does it make me less of a fan?  I don’t think so.  It just makes me a little more responsible with my finances.  I’m not at a point in my life where I can toss money away like that.  I don’t think I ever have been.

Someone’s shouting, “How do  you put a price on a memory?”  You don’t, but the memories I’m keeping from Fan Expo 2009 all involve sharing time with Paleoboy.  Yes, you can gag or say Awwwww if you like, but it’s the way it is and it’s the reason I didn’t make him go to any of the panels I was interested in, but if we do go for the whole weekend next year, that will change because there will be more time.

Another minor disappointment was that he didn’t get to take part in the lightsaber duel training demonstration.  Eighteen and older for some reason, probably the fragility of the lightsabers.  He’d nearly talked me into volunteering, but then they stopped taking volunteers.

We also missed Dave Thomas and Master Chief, the first because of the insane line and the second by not paying attention to the time.  Oh, and Leslie Neilsen cancelled or we would have hung around for him, too.  But we did catch the end of the Star Wars costume parade as we were leaving.  Very impressive.  We’d been seeing Star Wars costumes scattered through the Con all day, but I didn’t realize just how many there really were until they gathered together in one place.  I got a couple of good group shots along with the rest of the crowd.

Did I mention the lines were long?  To get in, to see things, to play games, to see people, to get swag (not enough Swag in Paleoboy’s opinion, but I have to say DC put out a lot, and that’s where we got most of ours), to pay too much for crappy fast foot (note to self: bring more food next time).  But, like any other large gathering, I think Cons may be partly about standing in line.

So this has been a scattered, and longer than usual, post, but it hits all the major points, if not in much detail.  Father son geek out.  Next time we’ll go for longer.

Oh, and my souvenir was this really cool wooden sword I intend to hang on the wall of the room I do most of my writing in.  I'll post a photo of it tonight along with a couple of other pictures from the Expo, just nothing with Paleoboy in it (remember my last post?).

Considering I’ve titled this blog ‘The Adventures of Writing Dad’, I don’t tend to talk about the ‘Dad’ half of that very much.  A big part of that is my overdeveloped sense of online privacy where my kids are concerned, as evidenced by my following the trend of referring to my kids only by nicknames: Paleoboy, Nature Girl, and the Pink Princess.

Paleoboy has an e-mail account and started a supervised blog a couple of months ago (which he’s posted to exactly twice, I think).  The girls have not been granted that level of access yet.  Without going into any of the traditional arguments or the details of my viewpoint, I don’t think minors should have unrestricted access to the Internet.  By some of the posts I see on Facebook and Twitter, some adults shouldn’t have that level of access, either.  There’s way too much personal information available for the taking out there.

But I digress.

I don’t post about the kids much because they deserve to have input on what level of information is available about them on the internet (since it’s their information), when they’re mature enough to make an informed choice about that information, and it’s my job to help them reach that level of maturity safe and aware.

Still, the word ‘Dad’ is the most important one in my life.  Take everything else away and I’d still be pretty happy.  Happier with the writing, but that’s the point of putting the two words together.  Writing Dad.

So in the absence of any world shaking news, my next several posts will be about things done over the summer with the offspring.  Tomorrow, or maybe the next day depending on when I find time to write it, I’ll do a highlights reel of Fan Expo 2009.  Paleoboy and I went for the Saturday and it was the first Convention either of us has ever been to.

But right now, it’s time to start prepping for the first day of school tomorrow.