The Writings of Shawn Gray

Correspondance

2010-02-18T11:17:00.000-08:00

So today's entry is going to be a little different from usual. Before everything gets lost in the shuffle of cranking out words, and arranging things for Script Frenzy, I want... No, need, to pass on a bit of correspondance that I've been having with the folks down at The Office of Letters and Light. On Feb 16th, "Tim", and intern for the director of Script Frenzy sent out a notice to all MLs asking for people to nominate someone from our region to be featured on the site in something similar to the WriMo report from the NaNoWriMo website. We just had to provide a short summary of their general awesomeness, and let it go at that.

I thought long and hard, as there are so many people in the Sudbury region that I believe are deserving of 15-minutes of fame. In the end, I chose my official unofficial co-ML, and sent this off (18 hours ago):

Hello Tim!

You asked if there was anyone whose awesomeness would be great to showcase. As much as I would love to put myself up for dibs, I'm not nearly as awesome as my unofficial Co-ML, so I'm going to tell you all about her, and what makes her awesome.

Julia Muldoon (username PiscesMuse) signed on this year to the Frenzy for the first time, still hot on the heels of Sudbury's greated NaNoWriMo to date. She's come up with a tonne of ideas for us this year, and has been spearheading the organizing of an overnight write-in at Laurentian University, similar to the outstanding one we had for NaNo which yielded 18 unique participants and saw most of us crash through the 50k word mark. With her energy, I'm certain we'll be seeing a nice chunk of participants for this year's "From Dusk Til Dawn" event. Julia has also been brainstorming Sudbury's version of a Scripter's PDA, has done a lot of the running around to get event locations and themes hammered out, and other general energetic madness. She's been doing all of this, but without being able to take the official title of Co-ML as it will be her first Frenzy.

Julia also plans on working on a musical for this year's SF. With her background in theater and love of musicals, I know it'll be a blast and that in all likelihood, we may even end up hearing a couple of songs performed!

If I could think of anyone to feature, it would definitely be Julia. She's a great candidate.

About an hour ago, I received a reply from Tim:

Hi Shawn!

That's so great! Thank you so much for taking the time out to nominate Julia, it's much appreciated. And hey, nothing wrong with self-nominating! We'd love to feature you, too!

Oh man, it does sound like Julia's doing some pretty awesome stuff up there in Sudbury, especially in such an unofficial capacity. We'll definitely do our best to tip our hats to her.

Thank you again, and, actually, if we could feature you, too, that'd be great! Do you mind sending me a little bit of info about yourself? Hope to hear from you soon.

At first, I didn't want to reply. I mean, as much as I sometimes love to blow my own horn, I don't like bragging or taking all the credit when it isn't due. But inevitably, I gave in because it was requested, and wrote the following:

Hey Tim.

I guess I could send some information about myself, though I don't feel nearly as qualified to talk about myself in as glowing terms as I can talk about everything Julia's been doing for the area. I think it's still an inspiring story, and something I have the Office of Letters and Light to truly thank for it.

I first picked up on NaNo back in 2004 (though I forgot my original password by 2005 and had to create a fresh account) as a suggestion from my poetry workshop classmates while I was in the midst of getting my degree in English at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. I had more or less given up on writing short stories and novels up until the event and it set me back on course.

By 2006 I had moved up to North Bay, and got involved with the much smaller NaNo group up there. At first, there were no events planned, so I proposed a handful on the group forums, and we all met up on campus at Nipissing University, where I was getting my Bachelor of Education with a focus on multimedia technology. Unfortunately, the last half of the month I was up in Timmins on my placement, so was unable to do any guiding of events.

When Script Frenzy launched in June 2007, I was all over it. I was excited, and I was alone. As much as I wanted to get something out of it, it's a lot harder to keep yourself going without a group of people checking up on you to make sure you succeed. I missed the activity, and the comraderie that I had found in Ottawa during the first years of NaNo, or in North Bay where I was helping to get things going. In 2008, I put up some flyers around Timmins, but there was little interest in writing.

By Fall 2008, I was in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. I figured it being a bit of a larger city, it had to have a good writing base. With no ML in sight for NaNo, I hastily applied just before the deadline. We had a great turnout, and for the first time beat North Bay in word count. I signed on as ML of SF in 2009, but was disappointed by the turnout. The same light advertising that I had done for my first NaNo as ML was a total flop for SF.

So for NaNo 2009, I got some advertising for both NaNo and SF out at the Northern Lights Festival, where I was sharing a booth with the Sudbury Writers Guild and the Sudbury Hypergraphic Society. As November approached, I got with a few of the previous year's veterans, and we came up with some plans. Advertisements went up, we got a cease and desist order that I had to rectify with the city, but our goal was achieved. And with the help of some of those veterans (Sylvie / sinful_cinnamon especially) and a couple of new people (chiefly Julia / PiscesMuse ), it was a huge year with overnight write-ins, launch parties, TGIO party, and a dozen write-ins at a half-dozen different locations.

The thrill of arranging and seeing these events go off were truly inspiring for me, and despite all the work involved, I loved every minute of it. It gave me a hope to get out of my dead-end job and maybe do something with my degrees. So I applied for school, again. And I got in to my program. The program? Event Management at Algonquin College in Ottawa. I loved organizing events so much, that I figure I may as well do it for a living.

Even before receiving my acceptance notice, I was looking for people that I thought could work together to keep NaNo, and Script Frenzy, going and growing. I found Sylvie for the one, as she was instrumental this past year, and I found Julia for the other. I've taken all I've learned from NaNo and SF, and I'm passing it along to them as we get the ball rolling and events organized for this year's SF. We're going all out on the advertising, getting the events organized, and ensuring we have good locations (even on April Fools).

In the end, I'm sure this year's SF will be just as fantastic as this past year's NaNo, and I hope to have the photos to prove it. If Ottawa is still vacant for an ML for next year's SF, I hope to fill that spot and give the city a heck of an event to match the ones that set me onto this trek way back in 2004.

So you see Tim, it's not me that's done anything particularly awesome, its the OLL that deserves the recognition and the spotlight. Without the OLL, I never would have figured out what to do for my future, with schools closing left and right up here, my old goal to be a teacher would remain unrealized, and I'd continue to be stuck where I was: selling electronics most people don't really need. Instead, the events headed by the OLL have given me a direction, and I'm just happy to give back as much as I'm able, when I'm able.

Send my thanks to Chris, Lindsay, and everyone else up there at the OLL. You all do a bang-up job every year, and I'm thrilled to be a part of it in my own way.

I'm going to be borrowing a part of that letter and using it as my future bio, because I think I've done a bang-up job of describing what I've been up to
the past few years, and I've done it without bragging. The letter does give my true and honest opinion of everything that's been happening over the past few years, and gives thanks where it's due. I know there are a couple of people out there that are doubtful, concerned, or just plain confused about why I chose to apply for another program, and I hope that this answers those doubts and sways people the way that I feel. Quite honestly, my greatest fear is that this last letter was probably the greatest piece of writing I've done to date.

Back on to writing, I finished up outlining Blackfoot this morning. Turns out I'm writing a novella, not a short story. It also turns out that it's a modern fantasy, as opposed to a dark fantasy. Surprises all around! Time to get off and do some writing, the opening needs to be retooled to fit the story's new structure and goals, and I hope to crank out a few thousand words before tonight's write-in.

Keep on writing!

Out of a Rut

2010-02-12T17:06:00.000-08:00

So I've been working myself out of that little rut that I fell into this past week. Changed the background colour of my "paper" and started fresh with a character idea. Ended up spitting out about 1000 words of a new piece I'm tentatively calling "Blackfoot". Not sure as of yet whether that's going to be a short story or a novella, but I think it's going to fall into the dark fantasy category (or maybe just fantasy, we'll see).

Been starting to get the ball rolling on Script Frenzy 2010. I've thrown some posts up on the SF boards in my region, the Ontario region, and the Ottawa region. Basically I extended the new ML for Ottawa (when they get one) a helping hand, and let both Ontario and Ottawa know about SudSprinter. Currently neither region has an ML. Since it looks like I'll be going down to Ottawa in the fall to obtain my graduate certificate in Event Management, I'm hoping to join in, or take over as the SF Coordinator for that area next year.

I've also been posting in the ML forum. It's from the ML forum that I pull my next segment. The ML from Vegas mentioned having trouble getting people involved in the event. So I came up with a nice, long post about some of the things I've done, or plan to be doing this year. Here's my post:

There are a lot of things that can be done to garner attention and people in your project. Here are a few ideas I've had.

One thing I did this past year was attend a number of local events and conventions (not that we get many this far north), and handed out flyers to attendees (with permission from those in charge of course). There's still a bit left before the kick-off, so you may be able to give that a try.

Get an article in local arts flyers and newspapers. Just a short bit about what Script Frenzy is about, where to find more information, and your Script Frenzy contact information so interested people can get in contact with you. I've been fortunate up here to have some connections within the local arts community, so I can get in their newsletters.

The standard getting flyers up in businesses and on hydro poles is an option, but be careful and check local bylaws first. I got hammered last year with a cease and desist order for my hydro-pole usage because my area has some very strict guidelines about what exactly you can do in these regards.

Use social networking as a force for good. Facebook, twitter, myspace, and even the new Google Buzz are all good ways to get the word out for your event. If you're anything like me, you've got a lot of contacts on most. Paper your contacts once about the event, and add on a notice that they should pass it on to anyone they may feel wants to join in the madness. This can do wonders for expanding your base.

Advertise it as a way to meet local writers. That's a part of how I managed to get in contact with a lot of people this past NaNo. Sure, we're not novelling in Script Frenzy, but we are working on dialogue, which is an important part of any novel, and anyone writing a script, just might be one of those people that likes to write other things. Using it as a way to unite the writers in your area, so they can form their own, perpetual writing groups is a great way to go. Those writing groups will recruit on their own in time, and they'll drag their members back year after year (as I've now seen with the Sudbury Hypergraphic Society, The Underground Writers, and the Monday Night Writing Pack, the status of the Late-Nighters remains to be seen, but I'm hopeful).

I'm sure that sounds like a lot of work, but trust me, they'll notice. I've received a great many pats on the back from my NaNo group this year, including those that participated last year, and the two that were around the year before. It's a beautiful thing seeing stuff come together like this, and when it happens, there's no thought of giving up nine days in.

Hope this helps!

If there were any doubt that Event Management was the right track for me to embark upon, I'm sure that single post, in combination with everything else that I've done for NaNo and Script Frenzy in the past two years, should dispel those doubts. The only problem remaining is the question of money. Not going to focus on that at the moment though, since I know that a good event coordinator can bring in a fair amount from contracts.

Anyhow, I've some outlining to do, and a couple more e-mails that I need to get sent out. Should be more info flowing here in the near future!

Hitting a Wall

2010-02-07T18:09:00.000-08:00

So I'm stuck. Like most writers out there, eventually we do hit walls. There's all sorts of advice on how to blaze past it, and I've shoved my way through a great many of them in the past, but it's here none the less. I had been working hard to hammer out the first chapter of a YA novel. I struggled immensely, managed a little over 1000 words in about a month, and decided that it just wasn't going to work out. Or atleast, that idea wasn't going to work out.

I came home from the Monday Night Writer's Pack, and cranked out about 800 words of a different piece. Mostly random, no real plot or ideas, just playing around a bit. It sounded alright, and over the past week, I've more than doubled the number of words. Catch is, it was just a kind of exercise and I've no clue where I want to go with it, if anywhere. I may have the kernals of something, but they haven't popped yet.

To make matters worse, I had a deadline this past Thursday to submit a piece for critiquing with the Underground Writers, and there's one today with the Monday Night Writing Pack that I'm going to be missing. I'm going to have to send an apology in lieu of submission to both I'm afraid. The piece I sunk a month into isn't fit for human eyes, and the one I started last week, although better, isn't ready for critiquing by any soul.

The editing of Hedged In has come to a bit of a stand-still as of late. I have to get it all finished up and rewritten before the month is out, so I'm probably going to end up focusing on that. Maybe I'll submit the first 4k of that novella to the groups in March. I don't think it'll quite be publishable quality, but I'm going to get my free print copy to which I'm entitled. If the critiquing of the edited version goes well enough, and another rewrite puts out something I think is ok, I'll grab a couple of beta readers and e-publish it through Smashwords. If I get $20 out of it, I'll be happy enough.

Julia and I have begun work on Script Frenzy. We've got a basic timetable planned out, and a to-do list that we'll have to chew through. It looks like we'll be going all-out this year, with a tonne of events including another all-nighter. We've given each event its own name (more or less). Hopefully we'll get a good turnout and Script Frenzy can grow like NaNoWriMo did this past year. I've got a pretty good idea of what I'm going to be scripting this year, and I think it'll be a blast!

Anyhow, I'm going to try to break through my wall. Someone told me changing the colour of your "paper" works. We'll see how that goes.

Post Critique #3

2010-01-24T09:19:00.000-08:00

So this past Thursday, my writing group, The Underground Writers, did our third big critique session. It was our first session with a new member (Julia Muldoon) in the group so we were all pretty eager to see how things would turn out, what kind of information would get exchanged, and what her piece would look like.

On the whole, things turned out really well. The pieces were generally newer (or older pieces that had been edited with some of the more recent advice from other pieces), so it was all around an easy critique. I had submitted my short story, Blood & Puppies, for critiquing this round. Generally the reviews were along the same line. Near the end I have a PoV shift that needs some work, there's a bit of blocking trouble for that last portion, and there's a small bit at the beginning that really doesn't make much sense. From what feedback I got, I have to quote Randy Lalonde on the all-around progress: "Your dialogue has also gotten stronger and has outgrown your descriptive prose." Not a bad bit of review, and it shows me exactly where I need to work with my next handful of pieces. Basically, keep tightening the dialogue, and work more on tightening the description.

I wasn't sure about the working title going in, and I'm still not sure about it coming out. The reviews on the title have been mixed. They're about half-and-half. Those that like the title, or even squirm at the title, claim that it's a very re-tweetable title, and that people may just stop and look at / buy the piece because of it. The others aren't overly fond of the title, because it doesn't work too closely with the actual story. I hope to come up with a better title, but if nothing pops up before I finish the rewrite, it'll probably stick.

On other writing news, editing on Hedged In has been progressing a little slower than I thought. I figure I should still have it done by my deadline, but whether I'll be as happy with it at that point as I want to be, that's another question. I may end up having to bow out of one of our monthly critiques just to get it to the point that I want it at. That would mean putting other projects on hold, and I'm not up for that right now.

I began a new project a couple of weeks ago and I'm almost through writing the first chapter of it. I had received word about a scholarship that teetered on writing a young adult novel. The cash involved is pretty nice for someone looking to get through another year of school. So I spent an evening reading over the back covers of dozens of books in the YA section of Chapters, and I even bought and read one (Graceling by Kristin Cashore). I spent another evening coming up with a few YA-style treatments, and then I began writing a first chapter of one of my ideas. I don't even have a working title for the piece yet, but when I do, I'm sure you'll all be able to read it here.

Anyhow, I have some more writing that I need to get done today. I promised myself a good two solid hours of writing, and I aim to do it.

2009 In Review

2009-12-30T20:18:00.000-08:00

Here we are, only a day away from the end of the year. It's customary at this time to review everything that's happened over the course of the past 364 days. I was holding out for a little while longer in the hopes that something different might find its way into my inbox before the year was out. Naturally, nothing really arrived, so here we go.

In 2009 I stepped down from my position as manager of The Source so I could focus on my writing, failed to spur interest in Script Frenzy 2009, got engaged to my beautiful fiance Sabrina, successfully ran the Sudbury Hypergraphic Society booth at the Northern Lights Festival, watched the SHS rip itself asunder, felt the formation of the Underground Writers, completed drafts of numerous short stories, submitted work to publishers, received useful critiques on a number of short stories, received several rejection letters from publishers, successfully ran National Novel Writing Month 2009 in the Sudbury area (with more than 50% of those with a word count surpassing the 50k mark), restarted the Monday Night Writing Pack, completed the first draft of two novels, and made the decision that I need to return to college.

Hell of a year eh? So where does that put me at the moment? I've been editing the first draft of my NaNo novel. A good chunk of it has been cut, and I've about as many words of notes for corrections, additions, and changes as I do remaining in the original draft. I need to scramble to get something ready for the first Thursday of 2010 for sudmission to the Underground Writers for ciritiquing. I'm thinking the first 3-5k of my NaNo novel might not be a bad idea.

I'm also starting to work on the planning for Script Frenzy 2010. I don't want a big flop like 2009. I need another successfully planned and executed event prior to my return to college, and I'm hoping that SF'10 will do it. Much like NaNo, I'm thinking write-ins every Monday, rotating locations on alternating weekdays, and two all-day write-ins. I don't think I really want to do an overnighter in April. I'll need some more concrete ideas worked out before I bring it up with anyone, but I think we could have something useful pop out of it, and I know I could use the experience for my future career.

By now I'm sure you're all wondering what I'm talking about. Originally when I was thinking about returning to school, I was looking back at a field that I had given up on previously: computer programming. After having consulted with a fair number of people, all except one having got back to me, it doesn't look like that would be a healthy choice. Generally, the market's too full of programmers, there are thousand of qualified applicants for every posted position, and the jobs are unpredictable.

So I started hunting around for something else that I could possibly look into doing. And I dug, and dug, and dug... It was a painstaking process, and finally I was told that I had to look outside what had become my comfort zone. No sooner had been mentioned than something came to mind. Both last year and this year, when I organized NaNo in the Sudbury Area, plus when I had worked out some write-ins in North Bay a few years back, I absolutely loved it. It was stressful, it was a lot of work, but I loved doing it, and numerous times I wished that I could be paid to do stuff like that. Turns out, you can. A quick little 1-year graduate certificate from college in Event Management, and I could fill the role of Events Coordinator for just about anything (from organizing conventions and fairs, to business get-aways and other learning vacations). Cool huh? I think this is the route for me, and from those I've mentioned it to, they're in agreement (though they hate to see me leave Sudbury to do it).

So we're at the point in the 2009 wrap-up blog where we're supposed to post our resolutions or hopes for the New Year. Let's see.

1. I will finish rewriting and editing my NaNo 2009 novel before the end of March.
2. I will organize and run a successful Script Frenzy 2010.
3. I will apply for the Events Management program, OSAP, and numerous bursaries and scholarships.
4. I will cut up one more credit card.
5. I will get published.

Ok, so #5 is a repeat from last year. I'm going to try for it again. If I keep working at it, it'll eventually work. Wish me luck folks. Happy New Year.

Editing a NaNo Novel

2009-12-08T18:28:00.001-08:00

So NaNoWriMo is all finished up. It's been over a week and it's time for things to get swinging again, despite the December rush. I flipped through the NaNo site today and got my code for Createspace. Anyone that managed to complete their 50k words during the month of November gets a code that gives them a free proof copy of their novel from them.

Prior to this year, I never would have really looked at the whole self-publish realm. Basically, it's just like self-aggrandizement. People self-publish their crap just to feel good about themselves. Nothing of real quality comes out of it, and there's no way to take it seriously or make any actual money off of it. Yeah, that's what I used to think. Then I met Randolph Lalonde, the author of the Spinward Fringe series.

Randy has been writing his series for a while, and currently lives off his self-published novels. Most of his writing is available only in e-book format, though you can now order print copies as well. His books are actually really good and addicting, so it's no wonder he's doing well on the self-pub market. Taking a chance and actually reading some self-published stuff has given, in my mind, some legitimacy to the style.

Sure, I still want to see some stuff get published through traditional sources. I plan to submit some queries once I get the first book polished, and have all three books in my Werewolf & Witched Trilogy drafted. So why did I bring up Createspace then? Well, I want that free proof copy. And if after a couple years of shopping around the first novel (which can stand alone if I so choose) no one has picked it up, I can go ahead and put my approval on the Createspace publication and give a go at the self-pub market. Scrounge up an e-book version for Smashwords and Mobipocket, and I'll end up seeing whether I can get some coin back from my efforts.

But more important, the Createspace thing gives me a deadline. Basically, it tells me that I must have my novel fully polished by Mid-May 2010 at the latest. Moving along those lines I did a couple of things today: I formatted things for Createspace submission (5.25" x 8", size 8 font, 3/4" margins), cut the file off at the end of the first book, ran the thing through spellcheck (an hour-long process), and then began editing. I made it through the 26th page. This is going to be painful.

It turns out almost every character other than the MC has the same name in these first 26 pages. People take on other character's speech habits, and there are already inconsistencies of character. I've cut almost half of what was there, and will have to rewrite a good chunk of the other half. This is the chore of a NaNo novel I suppose.

While I'm moving my way through the editing of this novel, I'm going to have to continue to work on the second novel. As I said, I won't be shopping the book around until after I have all three done at least in first draft form. I want to have the first draft of the 2nd book done before February, and the first draft of the 3rd book complete before April so I can focus on Script Frenzy.

Lots to do, little time to do it in. Wish me luck!

Post NaNo Recovery

2009-12-06T11:50:00.000-08:00

Here it is! Finally, after a lot of work, numerous write-ins and a couple of parties, National Novel Writing Month is complete. It was a hell of a month. And by a hell of a month, I mean a great experience I can only hope to repeat and better in future years. This blog is all about what I've been doing this past month, and how I've gone about creating some good writing habits.

The first piece of advice any author is likely to give anyone hoping to get into writing is this: write every day. NaNoWriMo is all about getting into that habit. For every day of November, the goal is to write at least 1,667 words. By November 30th, you need to be above 50k words in order to call the month a success. In addition to a difficult letter, and numerous e-mails as the Municipal Liaison for the Sudbury area, I wrote 70,195 words. Now that the month is over, you would think that would mean that I'm finished with my NaNo novel. You'd be wrong.

You see, my novel, or rather novels, are not done. The first book of the trilogy is skeletanized, with a first draft outlining a lot of the basic events as they are supposed to happen, and it contains a number of scenes that need to be cut, and holes that need to be filled out. The second book, I'm only about half-way through skeletanizing. The third book I haven't even started yet, and I'm good with not starting it until a few months into 2010.

So, I've a few goals for myself to work through. This month, I need to get through skeletanizing the 2nd book. I started it, I need to walk it through to the ending. I don't need to write at the same pace that I bashed my way through November, but I do need to get a fair number more words done. I'm aiming at about 30,000 more words. I figure once I'm at 50k, I'll have a good skeleton that walks me through the 2nd part of my trilogy.

I also plan to go through my first book, or the first 50k words of NaNo, and start crossing out the scenes I want to cut out. So I'll be getting that thing printed up and I'll do a brief read through. I won't be doing any major revisions, just crossing out and re-outlining the plot. I figure that's something that I can do during my breaks at work, so that's how I plan to take care of it. When I'm home, I have other priorities.

The Monday Night Writing Pack is starting up again. It will once again be an informal thing, and for most of December it looks unlikely that I'll be able to attend. Seems the boss thinks I need to be in on Monday nights for some reason. Not a big deal really, but I'll try to get my butt out to the library as often as I can. I'm promising myself at least two good evenings devoted to writing every week, with a minimum of an hour a day. I did it for all of NaNo, so I can do it some more.

So what are these novels about? The first one focuses on a werewolf taking revenge. The second one focuses on a reckoning of witch covens in Sudbury. The third part I'll have to look at a coming of age story for the young werewolf-child. Not sure if that's quite the route I want to take with the third story, but the second one kind of went into the realm that I originally wanted to take the third book to, and the first novel didn't end quite how I had originally plotted it. Funny how things can change while you're writing.

Basically, I have to say that I'm super impressed with this year's event. Not only were there excellent turn outs at ALL of the events I setup, and not only did I make a tonne of writing friends, and not only did I have fun, but I actually managed to crank out a pretty good skeletal draft of a novel that I'm not so sick of I never want to see it again. Over the next few months, I'm going to be cranking out the remainder of book 2, editing book 1, and maybe even editing book 2. Then, maybe next November, or maybe during Script Frenzy in April, I'll crank out Book 3.

I've got high hopes. Let's see them come to light.

NaNo Day 6

2009-11-06T18:55:00.000-08:00

Welcome back everyone!

Today is Day 6 of National Novel Writing Month . As you all know by now, I'm Sudbury's Municipal Liaison, which means that I had to organize all sorts of stuff for the upcoming month. So far, they've been playing out really well. I've been super impressed with most of my writers this year, with 14 of them above goal so far, and another 13 with at least half of goal. I know a few of the writers under that are likely to shoot up over the course of this weekend, and I look forward to hearing about their successes.

We held our launch party early on October 23rd. It was attended by a nice handful of people, though not quite as many as I had hoped. Ken, Andy, Miriam, Steph, Julia, and Randy made it out to keep me company, as did a few non-writers. It was a good gathering, and most of us already knew each other from last year.

On Nov 1st, the Underground Writers held their own pot-luck kick-off at Sylvie's place. We got off to a good start, with great food and excellent motivation. In attendance were Sylvie, Steph, Randy, Andy and myself. Aura was on her way out, but unfortunately we were wrapping up by the time she was heading our way.

The first official write-in was on the evening of Nov 2nd at the New Sudbury Library. It was an absolutely awesome showing! Mike showed up and said hi, but the people that stuck around and wrote included Heidi, Andrew, Rebecca, Julia, Meghan, Angelique and myself. We pretty much took over a whole corner of the library.

An impromptu write-in occurred in the early morning on Tuesday at the Tim Hortons downtown. I know that Aura and Miriam were in attendance, but I'm not sure who the other person was. I wasn't there, being asleep and getting rested up for the next day's work.

Thursday night was the weekly Underground Writers meeting, and though it was sparsely attended by just Steph, Randy and myself, it was incrediably productive for all of us. Sure it started and ended with the usual chatter, but we all cranked out a fair number of words. Definitely awesome, and I love how the group is doing exactly what it was formed to complete.

For word wars, things have been going pretty well for Sudbury so far. We've pretty well clinched the war against NY Southern Tier, though they do have a chance at catching up. For overall total, I think we've got the win. But for words per person and top 10, they have a chance of turning the tide. It'd be hard and they'd really have to push themselves, but they can do it.

Our word war against North Bay is a little more uncertain. It's only taking the top 10 into account, and I've seen a few of their higher word counts. We've got a lot of work if we're going to pave our way past them and to non-singing safety. On the bright side, they seem to be roadblocking as their average word count has been stalling over the last few days. Their leads may be dipping a bit in enthusiasm.

Tomorrow marks our second official write-in, this time at William's Coffee Pub. From what I'm seeing so far, we have about 7 or 8 people that are likely to show up. Steph will unfortunately be out of town and watching the Senators beat another team in Ottawa, so she'll be missing another write-in. No word on the other members of the UW, but I'm pretty sure most will be able to make it out.

It's been a hell of a pace to keep up. To make things even more fantastic, I have been writing every day. I'm currently sitting at 15,741 words, and average 2,624 words a day. I seem to be getting that in about an hour's worth of writing. Saturday promises a lot more than an hour's worth of writing. I call that sweet. I also call a goal of 5k for tomorrow. I want to end the week at 20k or higher.

This works out pretty good since tomorrow is double your daily day. Tomorrow WriMos are supposed to write double their normal daily average. That means I should try to write 5,248 words tomorrow. Maybe I should stretch for 5,259 so I can end the day at 21k... Decisions, decisions.

Anyhow, I have to go write another ML e-mail. It's been a while and I don't want my flock to think I've abandoned them.

NaNo Preparation

2009-10-17T17:44:00.000-07:00

Alright, so it's basically been a month since I posted anything here. My apologies. I'd say real life got in the way, but doesn't it always?

Actually, in this case I've been busy preparing for the big event of the year: National Novel Writing Month. For most participants, preparing for NaNoWriMo is a simple matter of coming up with an idea, maybe doing a couple of character sketches and some basic outlining. At the far end, some participants may plan out meals ahead of time, schedule themselves to attend a few events, and chit-chat with people on the forums in preparation for the event.

But me, I can't stop at just that. I'm the Municipal Liaison for the Sudbury region, which means that I'm the one that schedules and books locations for events. I try to organize launch parties, mid-month parties, and the TGIO party. I book write-ins, come up with interesting competitions, raise money for the Office of Letters and Light, and get whatever small prizes and discounts I can manage for my participants. I create booklets with schedules, maps, hints and tricks; I obtain stickers, goody bags, and more. I put up posters, contact newspapers, get on the phone to arts and writing groups, and otherwise drum up interest in the month-long event. So instead of running myself ragged in November writing a novel, I run myself ragged in October and November between planning the events and writing the novel.

This year I have a huge list of thanks to put out. A handful of last year's participants have been really helpful. Steph, Sylvie, and Andy: you three are awesome! Thanks for the help getting things postered and getting events scheduled and booked. I'd also like to send my thanks to a newbie: PiscesMuse, you've been a big help. I look forward to meeting you at the kick-off. From the response that I've seen so far, people have been noticing the posters, which is fantastic.

What we've got planned so far: Kick-off party (Oct 23, Doghouse), Sudbury Writers' Guild Speech (Oct 29, YMCA), New Sudbury Library Write-ins (2, 9, 16, 23, 30), William's Write-in (7), Chapters Write-in (10), Mid-Month Madness (13, Laughing Buddha), Fromagerie Write-in (18, 28), Laurentien University Write-In (21), TGIO (Dec 5, my place). The Underground Writers will also be doing weekly write-ins on Thursdays, and we'll have our own kick-off lunch on Nov 1st. So, if we include the UW stuff, we're looking at 4 parties, 1 speech, 14 write-ins. There are requests for yet more write-ins, but I think I'm going to have to cap it there...

So far, I've managed to finangle 10% discounts during the month of November off most things at The Source in the Southridge Mall for participants, nine 2-GB thumb drives, a $25 A&W gift card, and a signed copy of Spinward Fringe: Origins courtesy of the book's author, Randolph Lalonde. I've also a score of stickers, "hipster PDAs", name tags, and word count calendars. I'm hoping to snag a couple of $10 Tim Hortons gift cards between now and the TGIO party to add to the prize pile.

On top of all this, I've also managed to finish and edit (repeatedly) "Tactical Medics" which I sent out to the Underground Writers for critiquing. I've also pounded out another 1587 words for a short story I'm tentatively calling "Blood & Puppies" even though my fiance hates the title. I have a handful of poems completed and have received a second rejection letter for my pile. Still managing to squeeze everything in there between work, pumpkin carving, and paper mache skulls... But that's another story for another day. ;)

Helpful Critiques

2009-09-21T18:02:00.000-07:00

The Underground Writers has had their first critiquing session. This was something that we all felt was missing from the Sudbury Hypergraphic Society, so we made sure to put concrete deadlines for something to be submitted to the group for critiquing. I believe I mentioned in one of my previous posts that I had rushes to finish a draft of "Bloodspurt" for this particular session. Well, the word has come back from the group. They were entertained, always a good sign, but they could tell that it was definitely a rough draft. It was obvious where I started rushing to the ending, and numerous small comments came up about different parts and people's preferences.

Overall, I was pretty impressed actually. I knew there were a lot of problems with the piece, but I would have missed about half of what they mentioned. The pieces I critiqued were all pretty well polished in comparison with my draft, so I feel really bad about hogging so many useful comments. Everyone received their fair share though. A piece here, a transition there, some dialog, some character... There was a little for everyone to work on, and from what I'm hearing, most can hardly wait to do it again.

I almost have my piece ready for the next deadline. "Tactical Medics" took a slightly different route from the one I had originally anticipated, but I am very impressed with what I've managed to crank out this time. It feels a lot more polished, and pending a quick read-through by a regular reader, I'm pretty confident this piece will be a little better for the group to scrape through. I have the third draft sitting in front of me, and it's been chewed down to 4,027 words from 4,183. I had to add a couple of paragraphs to make the ending a little more foreshadowed, and to give the characters a little more character. I may need to look at their dialog a little more to differentiate between the two primary characters, but I'm not overly concerned. Gonna look at that when I move from third to fourth draft.

Rejections are In

2009-09-13T17:27:00.000-07:00

So, the big news. Finally got a response out of Poetry Magazine. It was a nice little rejection letter. So there are now four poems that need to move out to the next possible location. Not quite sure where to send them next, but I think "Arrogance" would kinda work in Aasimov's Science Fiction, "Tinted Mirror" would work well in Necrology, and the other two, "Invisible Eris" and "Two Days", may not quite work anywhere.

Some may take rejection as defeat. I take it as a necessary evil. If things weren't rejected, we'd never be able to get non-serious writers to pursue something else. You gotta have a tough skin to write. That's not a secret. I know that I've had some poetry published in the past, and I know that it's been a while since I wrote poetry with much commitment. I expect to have a lot of places reject my work before anything is accepted. A few successes here and there couldn't hurt any though.

Since I was rejected, I've finished the first draft of a new short story, "Tactical Medics", and am about six drafts through a fresh poem, "Ignorance." The short story, is a bit of a fun slap in the face. I'm pretty excited about the first draft, but I won't be getting too far ahead of myself. I want to give it a couple good thick edits before turning it over to the Underground Writers on October 1st. That'll give me feedback for October 15th, and I can clean it up and maybe submit it somewhere (On Spec ?) for November 1st. I'm saving "Ignorance" for my next set of 4 poems to ship out to Poetry Magazine, which I also hope to be able to do on November 1st.

Speaking of work in progress. The Underground Writers currently has "Bloodspurt" in their hands, and I'm sure they'll be ripping it up good. I've already read through a few of the pieces that I need to have done for Thursday. One of them is absolutely fantastic, the others are pretty good starts of which I hope to read more. When I get "Bloodspurt" back, I'll know how much time I should really be editing that piece. I'm sure its a lot. With a bit of luck, I should be able to send it out for the beginning of October, but that may be optimistic given the piece itself.

Dug up a couple of fantasy pieces I started a couple years ago, and I think with some work, I can finish them and get them sent out somewhere. I'm betting on Tales of the Talisman for one of them, but figure it won't be going out until the new year. With National Novel Writing Month sitting on the horizon, I won't be putting words down on anything but Hedged in November. Still have some time this month I suppose.

Anyhow, enough writing in the form of procrastination. I need to turn my writing to one of my WIPs. Good luck everyone!

On Words and Working

2009-09-03T14:30:00.000-07:00

Always busy with this business. I've done a lot in the past month since I last posted here. I haven't written nearly as much as I had hoped in the past while, but that's because I've been doing a lot of other work in other areas. Trying to get things running smoothly all around can take up a lot of time, but now that things seem to be hammered out, I think I'll be able to crank-up my word count, tune up the ticker, and get myself on the healthy track.

I managed to finish the first full draft of "Bloodspurt" (4189 words) on September 1st. I knew while writing it that it wasn't quite turning out the way that I wanted it to, but that may be mid-project dislike and boredom, the bane of writers across the world. It seems whenever you hit the mid-point of a project, other ideas start battering at you and you find it difficult to keep going, and then, you have to decide whether the ending you originally thought up will still work with the piece and things fall apart. I managed to hammer my way through it so that I could call the first, unedited draft finished. I had a very concrete deadline, and I'm glad that this was provided for me, though I'm sure about half my story is going to get itself ripped to shreds.

I have my writing group to thank for the concrete deadline. The Underground Writers decided about midway through August that we needed to have deadlines and that we needed to critique in order to help each other grow as writers. I know that I have a lot of room for growth, so I was very eager to get some stuff out. We have a 1st of the month deadline for pieces, which means that we essentially have to complete one piece, or at least 5k words every month. That may not seem like many words, but in some cases, that could be a huge difference, and even if the pieces being sent out never get seen beyond the group, it's still a good way for us to learn from each other.

Of course, "Bloodspurt" wasn't the only piece I worked on over the past month. I've also managed a number of writing exercises that I may be able to make use of in other pieces, a short science fiction song, and a handful of words for my novel, The Fall of Order. Not nearly as far along as I had hoped, but it's something. I need to get the first draft fully wrapped up by the end of October so I can step into NaNo 2009 fresh.

Still no word from Poetry Magazine about getting published. So I'll have to wait a bit longer on that front. I'm hoping to sit down sometime this labour day weekend and scribble out five or six decent poems to send them after the current batch is accepted/rejected. If rejected, I'll cycle the current batch to the next publisher on the list and work my way from there. I know two of the four can definitely be picked up, the other two probably can as well. I have high hopes.

Submissions Outs

2009-08-10T15:42:00.001-07:00

It's time for another of the many periodic updates of writing in my neck of the woods. There's been a few ups and downs since my last entry, and I hope to cover them all without sounding like I'm bragging or whining, a difficult feat. I just hope I don't forget to cover something important.

First off, in regards to The Fall of Order, I've managed to squeeze out a measely 2044 words since my last update. So much stuff has been going on in the real world that I've been struggling to bring myself to edit this piece. Still going to crank away at it. I actually have two hours tonight set aside to work on this project. I'm hoping to get past the roommate's story and move into a nice little betrayal scene. Should be fun stuff. Wish me luck.

For my NaNo novel, I've come up with a sort of "Epiphany Summary" and drawn the main ideas out of the main group of character's epiphanies. These will be something of a guide for the novel. If a scene doesn't somehow move one of the character's closer to their epiphany, or have them get blocked in trying to reach that goal, then the scene should have no place in the book. I then scribbled down a list of some 32 scenes, 11 locations, and 9 research topics I'm going to have to dig into. I took a bit of time the other day to do some research at The Townhouse. Since one of the characters comes from the big city, I was thinking of making her a bit of a metal-head. Went out to a Wolven Ancestry concert and scribbled notes while I pretended to drink. Not sure if I'll use those notes in this story, but it's still useful research. Floated the story synopsis by a few writers and got some nods and "neats." Not overly useful criticism, but I can trust them to tell me "It's not my kind of thing" if it's a shitty idea, so I think I'm safe.

I've also begun work on a couple of pieces of flash fiction. One story, entitled "Bloodspurt" managed 485 words in the skeletal draft. The other piece I've barely touched on and sits around 118 words so far. I hope to clean up "Bloodspurt" and have it ready for submission by late-September. The second piece, I hope to have cleaned up and ready for submission by the end of October. That should leave me free to work on NaNo during November. I also have two short articles of approximately 150 words taking opposite sides on the Death Penalty debate that I may be able to put aside for a piece some point in the future.

Yesterday I sent four poems (Arrogance, Tinted Mirror, Invisible Eris, and Two Days) to poetry magazine. They have an 8-week response time, so by October 5th, 2009, I should know whether or not they'll be picking up any of my work. I have hope for two of the four poems that I sent. The other two, well, I had been told they were worthwile a couple years ago but never made use of them. I don't feel as good about them as the people that told me to send them, but we'll just have to wait and see. According to the site, they pay $10/line, minimum $300 (though the Writer's Market says min $150). If all were accepted, I'd be looking at a $760 US cheque. That's nice to think about, but I'm not going to count on anything. Just going to keep scribbling some poetry and see if it takes me anywhere.

On the writing group and arts Sudbury side of things, there's been something of a cataclysm. The Sudbury Hypergraphic Society has split between those who beleive the point of the group is to write, and those who beleive the point of the group is to promote arts activities and their own work locally as a non-profit organization. I had always thought the purpose of the group was to inflict hypergraphia (a neurological disorder whereby one is unable to stop writing) upon ourselves, and thus fell firmly in the first camp. It's sad to see something that I helped form rip itself apart, but many of us have seen it coming for a couple months but had been hoping that it would blow over. It hasn't and thus a split has become necessary. Unfortunately, that means I have two red shirts with the SHS ironed across them that I now need to toss at Value Village.

On the bright side, the new writing-side of the group has agreed to meet weekly instead of bi-weekly. We will be writing and critiquing. That is our goal, our purpose, and our endeavour. We will see ourselves published when we are ready, and we will support each other in our writing endeavours. The "Underground Writers" as our blog has been called for the past 26 days, will continue to carry on the spirit that many of us though the SHS was supposed to embody.

That pretty much brings everything up to date. Time to get to work on editing The Fall of Order. Stay tuned for future updates.

The Next Project

2009-07-28T14:10:00.000-07:00

Hello once again. There's always a tonne to do when you're trying to get into making money off your writing, and when you volunteer and run writing activities. Needless to say, I've been making with the writing. I've worked on three different projects over the past couple of weeks, only one of which I've spoken about here, so I'll review my progress.

On The Fall Of Order I've managed to crank through a fair number of words of editing and even a little bit of new writing. In a span of about five days I managed to edit/write about 10k. That's not too shabby a number. The problem is where I'm sitting with it currently. I know exactly what needs to occur next in order to link my sections, but I'm having trouble getting down to actually write it. The idea just doesn't seem concrete enough for me to take it to the next level. As a result, the last four times I've sat down to work on it, I've barely managed to get through any words. I'm pushing it aside for a couple days so I can hammer on with it fresh instead of frustrated. That may put my final deadline back a few days, but I'm hoping once I get past the roadblock, I'll cruise.

During the most recent meeting of the Sudbury Hypergraphic Society, I managed to crank out a fresh, 16-line poem. Normally cranking out a poem wouldn't excite me overly much and I wouldn't even mention it. But today, I feel I actually wrote, and re-wrote (9 time) a pretty decent piece. I'm going to get it cleaned up and titled, and then send it out to see if I can't get five or ten for it from a magazine. I think it stands a fair chance.

This past Monday night, when I sat down to work on The Fall of Order, I couldn't do it. Instead, the idea for this year's National Novel Writing Month popped into my head. I managed to crank out an idea statement, two character sketches, and then a one-page treatment giving me a really good idea about the direction of the novel. I was very excited when I left the library, continued to work on the idea while on the bus, and decided to float it by a few peers. So far, the reaction is very good. Very good as in "when are you writing this novel because I want to read it right now." Working out another pair of character sketches today for a couple of important secondary characters. I have confidence that I'll be able to write a really workable piece this November. I just hope I can wait until November to write it.

Enough for today. I need to get back to my other job.

Word Count & Cheering Squad

2009-07-19T17:30:00.000-07:00

Hello once again everyone.

I've been getting a fair bit of writing done over the last little while. Earlier today I cranked out a fresh scene for The Fall of Order. In my first draft, The Fall of Order had been written as a bunch of seemingly unrelated short stories about a necromancer. As I moved into the second draft, I decided that the stories were too unrelated to leave in that form. As a result, I've had a lot of work restaging while I edit.

When I sat down to get to work earlier this afternoon, I discovered that I had arrived at a point where the necessary scene had not been written. I had not written a short story involving the fate of John. As a result, I managed to crank out a pretty tightly written scene that not only revealed his fate, but also took a few steps into the past of the principal villain, revealing a part of her reason for doing what she's doing.

It ended up adding just a little over 1500 words to my novel. I'll be sitting down and editing the next scene sometime over the next hour or so. In its original incarnation, the next scene was written as a part of a writing challenge for the Sudbury Hypergraphic Society. It ran around 768 words. I figure, after editing it and weaving in the larger storyline, it'll probably end up around 1500.

A few other members of the SHS and myself got together last Thursday to figure out a way to keep motivation up for our writing. To push each other to continue to write, and to write more. One of the things we came up with was a word-count blog. As a result, Off-Week Write-Ins was born. Each of us will post our word counts daily, as well as any excuses for not having written, or thoughts about our progress. Generally the posts will be really short (ie: 726 words on The Fall of Order and 120 on "Rifters." Go me!). We also hope to meet on the off-week of the SHS meetings for mini-write-ins, just like we used to have during National Novel Writing Month. This will work much like the Monday Writing Pack that I attend, and have nothing to do with the SHS other than having a couple of same members.

The next Sudbury Hypergraphic Society meeting is this upcoming Friday. We'll probably discuss delaying the book sale until next year, and then move on to our writing or maybe some critiquing. Either way, it should be a good night with another nice word count.

Anyhow, time to get back to my writing. Wish me luck!

Rifters and The Fall of Order

2009-07-13T16:32:00.000-07:00

So I've been doing a lot of writing about various literary groups operating in Sudbury lately, without really talking much about my own writing. So today, other than this quick link to the Sudbury Hypergraphic Society website, I'm going to only focus on that. There are two pieces that I'm working on quite heavily right now. One's a short story named "Rifters." and the other is a novel tentatively titled The Fall of Order.

"Rifters" is a Science Fiction short story with three principal parties. There is the dominant group, called "The Doctrine", who beleives themselves in control economically and physically over a large region of space, which they believe to be going low on resources and is determined to expand by any means necessary. There is the rebel faction, called "Xanteeous," who is dedicated to uniting the smaller corporations and staging a coup in the area, throwing out The Doctrine, and forging their own peaceful and stable empire. And then there is the un-allied, a group of smaller corporations sitting on the fence and selling their services to either order.

If it sounds a lot like Star Wars, you're not the only one of that opinion. When basically boiled down, it does sound a lot like that. The thing that I haven't said anything about it the why of it all, and the how of it all. I don't want to get into too many details, but I will say that it has something to do with what I learned while I was playing Eve Online, an online MMORPG. Eve is an organicly evolving space-age MMO where players form corporations, broker deals with other corporations, and compete for profit and pleasure. I've never read the Star Wars novels, so I can't say this with much certainty, but from the movies, there's almost no talk of how everyone is supplied. Where do they get their ships and weapons? How do they recruit? How do their spies know what's going on? And just as importantly, how are they funded?

With Rifters, I intend to take a really close look at that last aspect. Think of it as a look at the business of revolution in space. That's how I'm aiming my story. Yes, you have all these actions pouring forth on the front, but sometimes you need to move away from the front or it's all going to fall apart. I plan to take Rifters a little away from the front. The main character will not be the leader of the revolution, but a side character, someone on the supply lines perhaps. With movies like Serenity and Star Wars dealing with more of a frontal assault, it's time to take a step off to the side and see what else is going on, and how it can change the path of the war. That's what interests me. What characters are ignored, but are integral to ensuring success, and how can they be portrayed to grow the empire? Those are the questions I'm asking myself as I write this piece.

The Fall of Order is a novel that I've been working on for some time, but have been vaguely referring to as my "necromancer series." Initially it had been written as a series of short stories, vaguely related, and all leading toward a single, disastrous ending. With the bulk of those stories completed, I came to realize that it couldn't quite work in that format and have been busily trying to weave and rewrite the stories into a single, cohesive piece. I've added new subplots and characters as I try to put together something solid.

I'm doing pretty good at it so far, and have crossed 50,000 words of edited/rewritten manuscript. I have about 35,000 words of unedited short stories sitting nearby that I need to weave in still. I figure by the time all is said and done, I'll be sitting around 100,000 words. I want to have that "second draft" completed by early September, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to squeeze it in without a few good days of dedicated writing. Luckily I've booked a few days off of my day job selling electronics, so if I'm able to get out of the house I should be able to crank out what I need.

So you know that The Fall of Order has something to do with necromancers, but that's about where your knowledge ends at the moment eh? For a basic theme, let's call it an acceptance story. The main protagonist has to come to accept himself for what he really is, and in so doing will need to confront and triumph over the arch-villain who is responsible for the death of his mother, and many of the people that he's alienated himself from because of his denial of self. Alone and isolated, the protagonist must rise to the occasion.

Enough for tonight. Gotta head out.

Northern Lights Festival Boreal 2009 - In Review

2009-07-06T14:52:00.000-07:00

I'd like to issue a hearty hello to people who are following this for the first time! Welcome to my writing blog. Many of you are probably looking for the Sudbury Hypergraphic Society (SHS) or the Sudbury Writers' Guild (SWG) websites. I've just linked to them for you, just hop on over and grab your updates about their upcoming events.

This past weekend I manned a booth at the Northern Lights Festival Boreal in Sudbury. The weather cooperated for most of the weekend, giving us a comfortable 21 C and some beautiful sunshine. I was at the booth almost all day Saturday and Sunday, only breaking for food and washroom. It was great to see and talk to so many people who share a passion for the arts and the community of Sudbury! I was thrilled to speak about all the great things coming up in the area with so many different people from so many different walks of life.

One theme seemed to be pretty common among the people whom I had opportunity to speak. They were all surprised to discover that Sudbury had a writing group, let alone two! Although the SHS is a newly formed organization, just through its eighth month, the SWG has been in existence since at least the early '90s. So why have so few people heard of these groups? I would claim it to be lack of trying, but considering both the SWG and SHS just obtained their websites recently and neither have attended many local festivals in the past, I have to go with lack of publicity. One would think that to be something to approach the Sudbury Arts Council (SAC) about, but that group has just ended a two-year hiatus and is trying to reform and reorganize after having been left in something of a shamble.

It seems the arts community in Sudbury has been running itself as a series of small, unrelated and for the most part, untalking groups. For a city like Sudbury, the arts is due to push the city into its own renaissance. The hustle and bustle of the industrialized and unionized city is subsiding because of the economic recession, and people are trying to turn their hobbies (jewelcrafting, painting, writing, acting, woodwork, etc) into a secondary income as they're forced to resort to minimum wage jobs. With new groups forming across the city to encourage these endeavours, it is my hope that we can all come together and help rejuvenate the city, becoming an artistic jewel in Northern Ontario. The Northern Lights Festival Boreal showed me that there is a huge interest in the arts in Sudbury. People just find it hard to find out what is going on across the city, and how to get involved in something that is of interest to them.

My main purpose during the festival was to push and introduce people to the SWG, the SHS, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), Script Frenzy, and The Ontario Poetry Society (TOPS). All of which are active in the area. Miriam H. Harrison now stands as the current branch head of TOPS, and will be getting something happening on that front starting in the fall when she returns from a fact-finding mission out west. I am the Municipal Liaison for the Sudbury area for NaNoWriMo and Script Frenzy, and successfully lead a group to completing their 50k novels last year. Representing the SWG this weekend we had their incoming president, Scott; the VP Miriam, the webmaster Andy, and members Judy and Ken. For the SHS we had Andy, Ken, Miriam, and myself.

By sharing a booth among members of different literary organizations, I really came to feel that we were doing more together than could ever be done as individual groups. Different people were interested in different aspects of our table, from the casual onlooker who spotted the ancient typewriter (and our free draw), to the writing enthusiast that wanted to know about everything. I think, come September, the SWG will find itself with an influx of fresh blood from many of the people that we spoke with at length about the group. I also fully expect a blossoming of participants in NaNoWriMo this upcoming Novemeber. I look forward to seeing what becomes of all this.

I also look forward to hearing from a lot of people about donations for the SHS' summer book sale. We'll take just about any book you wish to donate, and resell it at the book sale August 22nd, 2009 at the Market Square. The proceeds from the sale are going to be donated to a youth literacy program. If you wish to book a time to drop off the books, contact me.

One thing I know for sure, Sudbury is not a cultural void. Although it may be hard to find the group you're looking for, we're out here. Even more important, we're ready to start working together. The time to rejeuvenate the culture of Sudbury has arrived, and I can hardly wait.

Spring Cleaning

2009-06-21T14:54:00.000-07:00

I've been a pretty busy little writer the past little while. I've come up with a few good pieces in the past little bit, and with some editing, I should have a piece sent out to a small press in the maritimes by the end of the month. New Found Spec Fic is looking for pieces for their second issue (with more to come I'm sure). Payout is at $0.01/word with a max of $45 plus one contributer copy. The piece I'm hoping to send out, "Raccoons", currently runs about 1100 words. It won't be much for income, but it will be a piece properly paid and published if I get accepted.

I've also begun work on two other short pieces. "Rifters" is a space-based economic adventure piece. It's coming along a little slower than I would have liked, but I should be able to call the first draft finished in a month or so. I figure I'll probably submit it to NFSF or another Canadian-based Spec Fic magazine in September.

The other piece, "Elder", is a horror piece that I'm getting a little excited about. I won't say too much about it other than it involves a crazy old guy and a spurt of blood. Hooked? Didn't think so. That little bit sounds so general that no one can pull my idea from it. Afraid I don't want the word leaking and someone stealing this bit from me. I don't really have a market for horror at the moment given than most places aren't accepting submissions at the moment.

Of course my big focus for the summer has nothing to do with these short stories. I have to crank out and fix up my necromancer piece. I began weaving the chunks together this past week and cranked out a half decent, but unfortunately melodramatic opening. I want a dramatic opening, not a melodramatic one. So I'll end up having to cut and shuffle about that portion and maybe have it come up as a segment of very vivid backstory after the main story problem arises.

The Sudbury Hypergraphic Society is still having meetings and trying to get things going in the Sudbury area. The radio show idea was supposed to be put into action this month, but so far no one seems to be putting a foot down and saying "Clay, book us a recording time." That means our short-shorts will not be heard on air as soon as we had wanted.

The Sawyer visit in May went off very well however. There were fourteen people present at the Buddha after Sawyer's reading at Chapters. He seemed very pleased to have the chance to talk about the craft with people that were looking to get into the field. Apparently we're only the second group to invite him to a small session like this. There were tons of questions asked and answered, plenty of experiences shared, and lots of learning accomplished.

For the first weekend of July, the SHS has a booth setup at the Northern Lights Festival. This is only a short distance away and we've done very little to prepare for it. I'm busy getting our new web page in order so it can be launched prior to the festival. We're also trying to find ways to pair some of our writing challenge pieces with art so we can have a sort of presentation of the types of things we do at our meetings to help hone our skills. On top of all that, I'm going to need to come up with some pamphlets for National Novel Writing Month so that I can try to promote the event during the festival. Someone else is going to have to come up with some sort of pamphlet to promote the SHS and the book sale at the end of the summer.

Speaking of the August book sale, it seems we've found our charity. The hope is that this will be an annual event, with word hopefully arising from this years event. We will be donating the fund to a particular school in the area for the purpose of helping them buy books for students to read. School libraries are nearly nonexistant and it's hard to convince kids to read when the options before them are their parent's age. So we'll be donating the funds to one school this year, a different school next year, and so forth. The book sale will be taking place downtown at The Market Square on August 22nd, 2009. Anyone in the Sudbury Area interested in donating books for resale is asked to drop them off with Danielle at Mimi & Lulu's or to contact me and make arrangements for drop off.

That's enough of an update for now. I need to BBQ some burgers and get back to writing.

Post-Frenzy

2009-06-07T16:52:00.000-07:00

So it's been a while since I've had the chance to write here. I've been focusing on my work, cranking out pages of short stories and working on a full-length novel. Time to review what's been going on.

Script Frenzy was a bust again this year, being just me writing a script by myself here in Sudbury. I managed to get it done, but not until a couple days after the deadline. It didn't turn out as well as I expected, but since I do plan on fleshing it out and converting it into a proper novel in the future, I can't be too disappointed with it. First drafts always look like garbage, it's up to the second draft to chip away the crap, sharpen the image, and blow the audience out of the water. Not looking at doing the conversion for a while though. Have a few other big projects on the go.

My major project this summer is a necromancer series. Originally I was writing a few short stories about a necromancer, but it seems to have evolved quite a bit into a much longer somewhat connected series. I'm in the process of ripping the stories apart so I can weave together a solid overarching thought. I want to have a "final copy" done by September so I can crank out a query letter and see about finding a publisher.

I also have a pair of smaller projects running right now. I'm working on a pair of Science Fiction pieces. "Raccoons" is a piece involving a man, his hat, BBQ sauce and raccoons. It's a little off the wall with a totally unreliable narrator. The other one, "Rifters", is a space business oriented piece dealing in the ultra-finance world of multi-planetary conglomerates. I'm working on the third draft of "Raccoons" and am sitting about halfway through the first draft of "Rifters."

Script Frenzy

2009-04-16T17:17:00.000-07:00

Sitting about halfway through April, I'm also sitting about halfway through my script. Maiden of pain is turning out pretty good in my opinion, though I should be a little further along than I am currently. The characters are getting well fleshed out, the plot is moving along well (and making sense). I think I even have the theme growing nicely.

I've mentioned my script idea in a couple of previous posts, including how I plan to actually expand it into a proper novel. So far I've gone through the main opening, have begun to progress along transformative phase, and have been pushing the limits on my serial killer's murder spree. The male lead is going nuts slowly, and the female lead is loving every minute of it. I've read a couple of gems of dialogue to a few people, who have been pretty happy with them and are eager for more.

Now that I'm crossing the halfway point, I need to grow the love sub-plot, push the spree over the top and make it personal, and get the transformations fast-tracked as we come closer and closer to the final revealing ballroom scene. I'm very excited about how this is going, even if I'm a little behind where I think I should be at this point in time. Thankfully, as this piece currently has no purchaser, I don't have a horribly strict deadline (just 100 pages by the end of the month).

If you want to know how I'm doing, or what I'm doing, at any particular moment in time, I am available on Twitter. Having people pop on to cheer me on, and jeer any posts of laziness would be a big help.

Pushing Ahead

2009-04-05T18:22:00.000-07:00

It's been a week since the Ad Astra convention, where I spent almost every waking hour surrounded by writers, editors, publishers, and adoring fans... Ok, they weren't my adoring fans, but they were still adoring fans. Biggest fan moment for me, seeing Robert Sawyer and Ed Greenwood sitting on the same panel. Drinking in my room until 4:30am with Gord Rollo, Ken Lillie-Paetz, and Miriam H. Harrison was another big moment for me.

I attended most of the panels I had planned, with only a few minor modifications at the last minute. I ended up having to skip Marketing Yourself for the second half of the Instant Fiction panel. It was well worth hearing the winners read their pieces aloud. One author had written a story from a responding traffic officer's POV about a demon coming out of a pothole on the 400. That was an absolutely fantastic short short (250 word story). My own piece needed an extra 20 words to give the ending I wanted, so I ended up using the crappiest ending imaginable. I've since rewritten the ending the way I wanted it at the beginning. With some more tweaking, I may stretch the story to 500 words and turn it into a half decent filler piece for a science fiction magazine.

I also skipped out on the panel on Paranormal Research, Urban Legends, Tesseracts Anthology, and First Contact. The last couple happened after the Sudbury Hypergraphic Society decided to return to Sudbury, and the first two were on the Friday night and were really just optional in my mind anyways. I have a full notepad of notes that I have to digest and a list of books longer than my arm to try to get my hands on. While at the con, I kept my purchases modest and ended up coming home with only a mounted Shadowrun poster and a chainmail teddy bear for Sabrina.

Since I've been back, I've been busy. I haven't updated my works in progress page yet, but I've completed a few more short stories, and am just one or two stories away from tieing up my necromancer series. The SHS had its meeting at Mimi & Lulu's, covered what we picked up at the con, and chatted about a few upcoming events: The Northern Lights Festival, The Sudbury Hypergraphic Society Radioshow, and the Sudbury Hypergraphic Society Summer Book Sale.

The Northern Lights Festival: We will be getting a table to help promote our members and their work. We'll also be promoting Script Frenzy and NaNoWriMo. I'm going to be booking the weekend off my day job so I can man the table most of the weekend. Hopefully I'll have something up for people to grab.

The Sudbury Hypergraphic Society Radioshow: Starting in June or July, the SHS will be performaing readings on the local radio station. We'll be reading and performing our own work to the listening masses. It's another way to get some exposure for ourselves and the art community here in Sudbury.

The Sudbury Hypergraphic Society Summer Book Sale: Sometime in August, the SHS will be hosting a summer book sale. We'll have a load of fiction, craft books, and some other great books up for sale. All proceeds will be going to a literacy charity. We haven't chosen one just yet, but once we choose one, I'll pass it on. At the moment, people wanting to donate books for the summer book sale can drop them off at Mimi & Lulu's (c\o Danielle), The Source by Circuit City at the New Millenium (c\o Shawn), or to any SHS member they happen to know.

And finally, Script Frenzy started on April 1st. Day 5 is just about over, and I'm sitting happily at 25 pages of script. As some of you may already know, I've writing a Dark Romance script temporarily titled "Maiden of Pain." Think of it as Pygmalion meets Saw. I've been chewing through it pretty steadily, and I'd be very surprised if I stopped at the 100 page mark. I plan on expanding the description after I've completed the rough of the script, and turning it into a proper novel. All in, I'm thinking 300 pages.

Ad Astra

2009-03-26T13:11:00.000-07:00

This weekend I head down to Toronto for the Ad Astra science fiction, fantasy and horror convention. This will be my first year attending the event and I hope to get a tonne of advice out of it. At Ad Astra, there will be numerous fans of the genres, but more importantly, writers, editors and maybe even publishers may be in attendance. It's fully possible to hang out at the bar with someone like Robert Sawyer and pick up a few tricks of trade. That's why I'm heading down there. I'm not a well-published author, nor have I had much experience in the field. There are a lot of areas within which I can learn and grow. This will be a working weekend for me. Although I would love to see the Steampunk Fashion Show, or attend the Masquerade and Dance, that's not what I'm heading down to see. Instead of enjoying that stuff, I will be attending panel after panel. Check out my time-table:

Friday Mar 27:

7:00pm Opening Ceremonies
8:00pm Paranormal Research
9:00pm Hectic Day Jobs: Sparking Creativity?
10:00pm Instant Fiction
11:00pm Urban Legends

Saturday Mar 28:

10:00am What's in a name?
11:00am Effective Combat Scenes
12:00pm How Not to Submit Your Work
1:00pm Editing Yourself
2:00pm Different Kinds of Fantasy: Epic, Urban & Everything in Between
3:00pm What is Real Evil?
4:00pm Creative Block
5:00pm Supper Break
6:00pm Strategies for Short Stories Publication
7:00pm Gore and Torture: Is it Horror?
8:00pm Free time?
9:00pm Move over Meatbrains
10:00pm Evolution of the Zombie

Sunday Mar 29:

10:00am Conflict Within
11:00am Working with a Smaller Press
12:00pm Dueling Openings
1:00 pm Marketing Yourself
2:00 pm Tesseracts Anthology
3:00 pm First Contact
4:00 pm Closing Ceremonies

Maybe next year I'll be able to take in a few of the lighter events!

Script Frenzy Preparation

2009-03-20T12:46:00.000-07:00

We are now only one week away from Script Frenzy. Every year in April, people from around the world attempt to compose 100 pages of script in just 30 days. In its inception, Script Frenzy was located in June and the goal was 20,000 words of script. Last year they moved it to April and converted it into the format that it currently holds.

I've participated in Script Frenzy twice before. My first script was a horror script, which drew some inspiration from a student film I had participated in when I was at Carleton University. The student film was entitled "Weekend After Thanksgiving." In the film, the neighbour had recently died under mysterious circumstances that were rumoured to have been caused by black magic. A group of students are spending their last few nights in their apartment and packing up. One student is interested in the occult, investigates, and goes mad. The student film was horribly written and poorly executed (but a lot of fun to make). I decided I would borrow a part of that premise and rewrite it, for fun, how I would like it to turn out. It was a good exercise and my movie script veered a long way from the student film that had inspired it. Unfortunately, I was unable to make the deadline.

Last year my attempt was in a different genre. I attempted to write a cyberpunk film, a la Shadowrun. I fell into the problem of too much description and too little speech. Although the ideas and story are strong, it did not turn out to be a good script, and I was unable to make the final deadline. I plan to rewrite my script at some point, but as a novel instead. It should work out quite well that way.

This year I dug through my file of old writings and scraps. I did not have any idea what I wanted to write. I came across a scrap that I had scribbled down in 2003. Think Pygmalion meets Saw. The logline: A dark priestess of torture and mercy corrupts an upstanding nobleman to the depths of depravity, while being snared by his charms. This will be fun to write. A touch of Dark Fantasy and Romance all in one. After Script Frenzy I hope to expand it and turn it into a proper novel.

Script Frenzy still doesn't have much of a following in the Sudbury area unfortunately. Only a handful of people have signed up so far. The event is very helpful for people struggling with dialogue, so I hope more budding authors decide to give it a go.

Syllables Sound Sexy

2009-03-19T18:49:00.000-07:00

Alliteration strikes again! Muahaha.

Ok, so I'm just planning on doing a short little post today. I know I promised one on the 7th to keep people up to date on how I've been doing. Things have been coming along pretty good on most fronts. Still don't have any queries or submissions out, but that's a part of what I plan to work on this week since I'm stuck up here in Timmins anyways. I've a week of vacation and will end up getting my driver's licence at the end of it finally. As such, I'll also be doing a lot of driving.

I will tend to have the mornings and evenings to myself however. This puts me in a good position to work on researching and writing letters of submission. I've three pieces that I feel are complete enough for me to send out to a few different places. Will have to wait and see how it turns out. I will be sending out "Lakeside", "Through a Window", and "Last Tuesday". I've a couple pieces from my Necromancer series that could probably stand on their own pretty well, but I'm thinking of trying to get them out as a single piece once they're completed. If I can't seem to find a way to get them through that way, I'll split them up and see if I can get parts published separately. After the stories have gone through their hold, I can see about putting together an anthology.

I could look into going the self-publishing route. That sort of thing works really well for some. Randolph Lalonde immediately comes to mind. Randy's been self-publishing through CreateSpace for the past year, and now manages to make enough from his self-publishing to write full-time. The thing that keeps Randy going though is his following and his frequency of publication. His following will rabidly devour his latest pieces, search the web for hints about his next work, and try to find out all about him. I know Randy through the Sudbury Hypergraphic Society, so I know that he's really a pretty down-to-earth kind of guy. He's easy to talk to with some of the same troubles the rest of us have in terms of writing, but with the added pressure of having to get his work finished and out in limited time because of upcoming bills. I have my job at The Source for my bills, though I hope one day to use my writing to more than cover that.

In other news, Ad Astra is swiftly approaching. The latest list of panels is somewhat uninspiring, but I should still be able to get something out of it. I'm very excited and have just about everything ready for the event. The Northern Lights Festival will definately be a goal for the SHS, though we won't be doing a performance piece. We will be having a booth and will be advertising some of the events that we're involved in. There's to be a book sale this summer, plus I get to advertise NaNo and SF.

Speaking of Script Frenzy, I've been racking my brains for an idea and finally stumbled upon it in my crap-file. Dug through a handful of my older work, mostly stuff that I had a couple pages, barely an idea from, and stopped on years back. I found a small folder of research from when I was thinking of doing a novel for WoTC back in '04. I've since taken the idea and worked out a pretty good outline for a screenplay. Think of it as Pygmalion (My Fair Lady) meets Saw. I think it'll turn out really good, and after the script is done, all I need to do is fill in some description and it's a dialog driven novel. I think its a good approach. Certainly something different. I just hope that I can finish up the rough of my Necromancer novel before the end of the month. It's going to be busy between now and then!

Anyhow, back to work with me. I've a lot more to do.