Uncategorized – Page 38 – One Thousand And One Parsecs

Camp NaNoWriMo: Day Twenty Six

Words written: 1,569
Total stories written: 4
Total words written: 21,280
Total words remaining: 8,720
Total words behind: 3,888

It’s been a while since the last nanowrimo update, hasn’t it? Don’t worry, I’m not ghosting it like I did for Camp NaNoWriMo in April! In fact, I’ve been catching up this whole time—just haven’t been able to get to the update posts. When life is perpetually crazy, you really do have to pick and choose which things you’re going to drop and pick up later. I thought I was overwhelmed when I was single, but it wasn’t until now that I’m a husband and a parent that it’s just been physically and temporally impossible to do everything.

Still, things are going well. The “Tolerant and Fair” story (which I’ve renamed to “Welcome to our Crazy Family,” since it does end on an upbeat, conciliatory note) took a lot longer than I was expecting, and probably needs at least one severe rewrite, but it’s done, and I’m actually quite satisfied with it—with the caveat, of course, that it’s a very rough draft. The story I’m writing now (working title: “Bloody Justice”) has been bouncing around in my head for a few days, so the first scene came rather easily, probably because I’m so eager to reach the climax. With a title like “Bloody Justice,” you know it’s going to be fun.

So yeah, I’ll hopefully finish up this Zedekiah Wight story (it is another Zedekiah Wight story, by the way) tomorrow, provided things go well. After that, I have no idea. Some poetry would be nice, but I probably won’t have that luxury, seeing as I’ve fallen so far behind in the word count. Maybe I’ll consult the Mythulu cards again.

Camp NaNoWriMo: Day Twenty

Words written: 1,315
Total stories written: 3
Total words written: 14,538
Total words remaining: 15,462
Total words behind: 4,822

So I said I was going to write that politically incorrect story, but instead I had a really cute idea for a flash fiction piece last night, and spat it out. Had to do with time travel and the way that my wife always says “can we go to sleep two hours ago?”

Anyways, the wife is feeling very sick right now, throwing up and everything. The baby is asleep, and I really should go to bed too just to be ready for tomorrow. In the afternoon, I’ll be out and about cutting up an old tree and hauling it off to the transfer station, so not sure how much writing I’ll get done. With luck, a solid 2k words. That’s the goal, anyway.

Camp NaNoWriMo: Day Nineteen

Words written: 957
Total stories written: 2
Total words written: 13,223
Total words remaining: 16,777
Total words behind: 5,169

Finished that story, finally! It’s actually not that bad. Working title is “In the Wake of Zedekiah Wight.” It’s 8.5k words, which is about 3k-4k more words than it should be, but with a bit of work I think I can cut it down. Will probably do that as a side project sometime in the next few months.

Not a super huge writing day today because I helped my sister pick up some stuff from her storage unit down in Manti, and also had to make a Costco run. That took up the whole afternoon, but I did get a good start on the next story, with the working title “Tolerant and Fair.” It is just about the most politically incorrect story I could possibly write, and may actually get banned (or get me banned) from Amazon if I publish it. No joke.

The main character is a twenty-something girl who grew up with three lesbian / gender-nonbinary parents, and she rebelled by dating a straight-edge Christian boy and becoming a Christian herself. They are now about to elope together after joining a colony mission to Mars, but he wants her to introduce him to her parents over a family dinner, so that she won’t regret it later after they’ve eloped.

Basically, it’s the whole “Mom, Dad, meet my rebel boyfriend” sort of meeting with the disapproving parents, except that the religious conservative is the rebel boyfriend and the ultra-liberal types are the disapproving American Gothic parents. It is going to be so much fun to write, and even more fun to submit. I really might submit it to Clarkesworld, Uncanny, and Escape Pod, just to get a rejection that says “please do not submit anything to us ever again.”

But in all seriousness, I know that this story will be on thin ice with Amazon, especially with how they’ve banned When Harry Became Sally (which I own now, by the way. It’s on the TBR). And in all seriousness, I intend to approach the transgender issue with some sensitivity to those who take the other side—but I’m not going to shy away from the fact that I really do think a lot of these girls are being deliberately misdiagnosed and permanently mutilated by a healthcare system that has been totally taken over by radical activists promoting an ideological agenda at their expense. Glenn Beck recently did an interview with Abigail Shrier where they discussed that very topic. Excellent podcast.

So yeah, I’m super excited about that story. With luck, it should be finished in the next couple of days. I know that I’m running behind on my word count for camp nanowrimo, but I really do think I can get it back up before the end, especially with a couple of these projects that I’m really driven to write. Just need a couple of days to really ramp it up.

Camp NaNoWriMo: Day Fifteen

Words written: 1,751
Total stories written: 1
Total words written: 10,591
Total words remaining: 19,409
Total words behind: 3,929

This story is probably crap, but whatever. I’ll finish it tomorrow for sure, maybe even come up with a twist that will salvage something good from it. But even if I don’t, I’m definitely going to finish it. Blech.

Other than that, a pretty good writing day, with just shy of 2k words. Didn’t get to any publishing tasks, but given how I’ve been using those to procrastinate writing, that’s probably a good thing.

Camp NaNoWriMo: Day Fourteen

Words written: 914
Total stories written: 1
Total words written: 8,840
Total words remaining: 21,160
Total words behind: 4,712

Only about 1k words today. Still getting into a routine. Not much else to write about: wrote and scheduled my next email newsletter to go out tomorrow, and went to the library as we always do on Wednesdays. Tomorrow should be a good writing day; I expect I’ll finally finish this story (working title: “In the Wake of Zedekiah Wight”) and have the insights necessary to write the next one. If nothing else, I should at least have a working title for it. We’ll see.

Camp NaNoWriMo: Day Thirteen

Words written: 1,363
Total stories written: 1
Total words written: 7,926
Total words remaining: 22,074
Total words behind: 4658

Decent writing day. I woke up feeling much better, which allowed me to get a lot more done. I’ve also made a conscious decision not to do publishing tasks before noon, so that should help to prioritize the writing.

The problem before was that when I sit down to work (usually while the baby takes her morning nap), I would procrastinate writing by doing publishing tasks instead. Important stuff that does need to get done, but not as important as writing. The afternoon is Mrs. Vasicek’s turn to watch the baby, so that’s when I’ll do the admin type stuff.

Another thing I’m experimenting with is writing on a tablet instead of the desktop, which is set up in the family room where everyone usually hangs out. There are advantages to that (see Stephen King’s On Writing), but when you need to write your way out of a rut, some privacy and/or quiet space can be very helpful to get you to focus. Fortunately, I’ve figured out a way to work with Mrs. Vasicek’s old Kindle Fire. Cheap, crappy tablet, but it has a basic word processing app that produces TXT files, and that’s all I need.

So that’s what’s going on here. Should have a couple of days to get back in the saddle and build the writing momentum again. At some point, I need to haul a bunch of yard waste to the dump and help my sister pull her stuff out of a storage unit in Manti, but those aren’t imminently urgent.

Camp NaNoWriMo: Day Twelve

Words written: 2,349
Total stories written: 1
Total words written: 6,563
Total words remaining: 23,437
Total words behind: 5,053

I’ve been gone on a family vacation for the last few days, so that’s why I didn’t post any updates. But even though I’ve fallen behind a bit, I do still plan to finish Camp NaNoWriMo—and it shouldn’t be too difficult, even though I’ve got 5k words to catch up to. I’m working on two stories right now, fleshing out a new recurring character that has really captured my imagination. I think I wrote about him a little in the last blog post. Anyway, it’s getting late, and I think I’m coming down with a fever, so better turn in for the night.

Camp NaNoWriMo: Day Six

Words written: 334
Total stories written: 1
Total words written: 4,214
Total words remaining: 25,786
Total words behind: 1,594

Not much writing today, unfortunately. Had to run some errands with the baby, including a visit to the house we’re renting out, which had a malfunctioning sprinkler. Also, I’m trying to typeset Queen of the Falconstar and order the proofs before going on a family vacation on Thursday, so that I can have the paperback up when the ebook launches on the 20th.

But in spite of all those things, I really should have gotten more words in. I have lots of ideas for this story I’m writing, and the more I write the better and more refined those ideas become. But I have to actually write.

With this family vacation, I’ll either get no writing done at all, or get a ton of writing done because all of the other domestic concerns are gone. I’ve been calling it a family vacation, but really it’s a men-of-the-family go whitewater rafting and spend the weekend up in a cabin kind of vacation, so I’ll be out with all my brothers-in-law while Mrs. Vasicek takes care of the baby back home. So there actually is a decent chance I’ll get some work done.

Anyways, that’s all for now. It’s a bit early, but I think I’m going to turn in so that we can get some extra sleep. Always need more sleep.

Camp NaNoWriMo: Day Five

Words written: 1,105
Total stories written: 1
Total words written: 3,880
Total words remaining: 26,120
Total words behind: 960

Way, way, way too busy today. So many chores, so much time doing babycare, so much other insanity. I have no idea how people play video games and get anything done. They must not have children.

Anyway, started a new story today. The character is a bit of my own take on Solomon Kane from Robert E. Howard. I thought there was a bunch of untapped potential in that character, so I’m drawing on that for inspiration for my own character. Except he’s not the viewpoint character in this story either, so really I guess the purpose of this story is to draw up a portrait of him from the point of view of someone else. Oh, and this story is a direct sequel to “When She Awakes,” which I just published.

Can’t say much more than that, and it’s already super late and the baby just woke up again, so gotta go.

Camp NaNoWriMo: Day Three

Words written: 1,778
Total stories written: 1
Total words written: 2,775
Total words remaining: 27,225
Total words behind: 129

Made good progress today. I’m still a bit behind where I should be, but not by very much. It’s a lot easier to write 30k words in a month than 50k words. Maybe I’ll make the full 50k nano word count my stretch goal.

Anyways, one short story down, and it’s a dark one. For that reason, I’m not too keen on it, but it was a story that needed to be written, to get it off of my chest if nothing else. The rough draft comes to about 4.1k words, but I think I can cut a solid 600 words out of it, or more, and it would probably be an improvement. But that’s going to wait until next month, at the earliest.

Also, I’m reasonably confident that this story will get me blacklisted at most of the pro-paying science fiction markets, or at least the ones that keep a blacklist. But I care less about that than the fact that most of them will flat-out reject it, on political grounds if not for the quality of the writing or the story, and I’m certain that most of them will. But whatever. I think my readers will like enough to make a splash when I self-publish it, and I care more about that at this point than about making a professional sale.