2010 In Review

Hey, before you read all this goal-setting ramble, hop over to Linger Fiction for a peek at their first issue and my short story (editor's choice, even), "A Game of Lost Boys".

Last year, I started with the following "What I can do" goals (along with how I did in bold):

1. Always have at least one story in front of a pro paying market. Mostly a success. Of course I've had a story on "hold" at a pro market for about five months...does that count?

2. Finish my final pass of Loathsome, Dark, and Deep and have it ready to query/submit in February. (Get on this one, eh?) Um, so I win here, right?

3. Write my fifth novel*--a ghost/suspense/YA thing with no title but one hell of a first line:

When I was younger, I imagined numerous ways to kill my sister just to see if she'd come back and haunt me. Written. Sitting unfinished (and unedited in large part). Doing Write 1/Sub 1 this year, I probably won't have time to write another novel, but I can finish this one, right?

4. Write at least one high quality story a month (or 12/year). I've gotten better at letting my stories "age" before editing. I'll do even better this year. I win. "The House was Never a Castle" sat for three months before final edits and revision, eventually selling to Shimmer. Yay!

5. Buy something from the small press every month. And read it. And review it for Skull Salad. More than one would be sweet. Fail. I bought at least twelve small press items (including subscriptions to three mags), but haven't managed to do the reviews. Thank goodness some other good peeps are helping out at Skull Salad.

I would like the following to happen as well, but these items require outside "assistance":

1. Land an agent/sell a book. I sold two books and sent out two query letters to agents. I'm kind of sour on the agenting front, to tell the truth.

2. Sell another story to a pro paying market. Huzzah! I technically sold two: "Wanting It" (forthcoming in Shock Totem) and "Different Strings" which won the Whidbey Writers Workshop Students' Choice Award for October...of course I never received the prize money...hmmmmm.

So where do I go from here? Tune in next week to find out. ;)

And HAPPY NEW YEAR!

WIP Wednesday: In Which I Leave My Body

Ever have one of those moments when you feel like you're living in another person's body?

I read a snippet from Geoff Willmetts brief mention of Triangulation: End of the Rainbow at Stephen Hunt's SF Crowsnest and had just such an experience:

‘The World In Rubber, Soft And Malleable’ by Aaron Polson has a title you have to love. A small town has a population that is slowly vanishing and one of the local graffiti painting teens remaining decides to celebrate their lives. This story wouldn’t have been out of place under the auspices of Ray Bradbury.

Ray effing Bradbury? Knock me over with a feather.

Speaking of out of body experiences, it seems I've won the Whidbey Writers Workshop Students' Choice Award for October with my magical realism flash, "Different Strings". You can read "Different Strings" online. You can also read some curious comments about one of Mercedes M. Yardley's previous entries. Thanks, Mercedes. I wouldn't have entered without your prompting.

Okay, enough of that astral traveling. Here's a piece of my as-yet-untitled WIP:


Here’s the truth about growing up in a small town: you tell lies to survive.

I worked in a grocery store in high school, part time on the evenings and weekends. I saw plenty of strange things there: avocados stuffed in a barrel of fresh popcorn left to rot, a co-worker who used an awl to punch holes in the caps of beer bottles, pies marked “Verda’s own home-baked” which came frozen on pallets with the Sunday dairy truck. I found a body in the trash bin once, but nobody can prove who put it there.