Allegra and I are among the contributors to the Ceaseless Way anthology I mentioned last month. At one point Allegra drew up some sketches for possible illustrations; for technical reasons we (it’s a collaborative project) decided against using them but here are some of her initial drafts. Hopefully not showing how they fit the stories will make you curious enough to pick up a copy when it comes out.
All art by Allegra. Copyright remains with current holder. #SFWApro
Filed under Writing
Will it stay in that groove? Don’t miss a single thrilling blog post to find out!
Monday was not particularly good as I was wiped out from a)Ravencon b)Culturequest, a Mensa general-knowledge contest that I competed in Sunday afternoon. Much as I’d have liked for all five of us to work together — Courtney, our leader, runs a tight ship — we had to do it over Zoom and we don’t work quite as smoothly. We wound up debating endlessly over the questions, slowing us down — it’s a timed quiz — and then I’d cut through the debate by pushing for an answer. A lot of mine were wrong. Oops. Though I did kill it on the literature section — more so, surprisingly, than film.
That left me exhausted on Monday. Tuesday, though, I finished a fun Local Reporter article about the new library planned for Carrboro and got started on future articles (always work ahead of deadline).
Wednesday I worked through the 1941-49 sections of Savage Adventures and got them done. Not completely: wherever I wasn’t sure how to interpret what I wrote or that it was an accurate synopsis, I made a note. Next week I’ll check the novels to make everything accurate and clear.
Thursday I sat down with Chapter Three of Let No Man Put Asunder. It’s the second big fight scene and a lot of my beta readers said it was less interesting than some of the conversations later in the chapter. I needed to change that, obviously. I needed to map it out so it worked logically. And I wanted to have more result from it than “we fought, we survived.” As Lester Dent says, action has to do more than move characters over the scenery. I studied the book Fight Write, browsed a few articles. Plotted the scene out in detail. Finally I went to work.
I think I succeeded. We’ll see what the writing group thinks, though it’ll be a while before it gets to them.
I also put in some work on the Ceaseless Way collaborative anthology and printed up the last section of Southern Discomfort. Didn’t quite get to work on it.
Oh, and I seriously worked to put the Pomodoro break-every-25-minutes approach to time management into action. While it’s hard to do exercises when I’m watching the pets (as I was most of the week) I can squeeze in five minutes every so often (ditto for their own exercises). I made my exercise goals for this week by working out on pomodoro breaks and I’m pleased with that.
#SFWApro. Cover by Charles Ravel, all rights to images remain with current holders.
Filed under Nonfiction, Personal, Southern Discomfort, Time management and goals, Writing
After two years of fumbling, the Ceaseless Way collaborative anthology looks like it’s finally happening.
We started back a couple of years ago when my friend (and former Durham Writing Group member) Kat Traylor proposed a collaborative project, loosely built around a theme of questing and pilgrimage. I submitted Impossible Things Before Breakfast, editing it slightly to give it more of a quest slant. Later, as we were a little short, I added Fiddler’s Black, which involves a quest for redemption.
My friends Allegra Gullino and Ada Milenkovic Brown contributed stories, as did some of Kat’s friends I hadn’t met (e.g. Secily Luker). As usual we were slowed by assorted challenges, one person getting married, another getting pregnant; I’d have taken a lot longer if I hadn’t had two stories that fit the theme ready to go.
A bigger problem was that trying to do things collaboratively — Kat did not want to be The Publisher — is always a challenge, particularly when communications are over Discus. Another problem is that we spent a lot of time trying to come up with a legal structure that would let us do multiple books. A partnership was the obvious option but some of the contributors wanted to stick with just contributing stories. And drafting a partnership agreement when we couldn’t guarantee having the same partners on future anthologies was difficult. Finally we speeded things up (Ada gets primary credit for this) by focusing on the one project we had right now. We drew up a collaborative contract and signed it.
Another big step, starting in March, was doing monthly zoom meetings. As we’re scattered from Durham to Europe to Japan, it’s tricky to schedule but we’ve made it works. And talking to each other at the same time makes a huge difference in organizing, delegating tasks, etc.
I’m optimistic we’ll pull off our fall publication date after all.
#SFWApro. Covers by Jerry Grandenetti (t) and Rick Hoberg (b). All rights to images remain with current holders.
Filed under Short Stories, Writing
Well, as best the vets can estimate with a stray taken to the shelter at eight months old. I don’t know what awful person dumped her on the street but I guess I owe them one because she’s my little angel.
If she has any flaw it’s that she can be very stoic when she’s in pain and sometimes we miss it. Plushie’s a cry-baby when he’s hurt but that makes it easier to know there’s a problem.
Work this week went well. At Atomic Junk Shop, I look back at the moment Roy Thomas began indulging his two obsessions, the Golden Age and continuity problems. I also take a look at the debut of DC’s Creeper.
At The Local Reporter I wrote about development in Carrboro and a black oral history project, From the Rock Wall. 
My own stuff went well too. I got more work done on Southern Discomfort and proofed Savage Adventures through the 1935 material. I also sat down and did some thinking about Let No Man Put Asunder, both the backstory (what degree was Paul working for when things fell apart?) and some of the structure. I’m not sure if I’m ready to start writing yet, but I am pleased with the work I did.
I did some more work on my self-publishing plans, writing back-cover copy for Savage Adventures and Southern Discomfort. I also came into some money which will cover the cost of setting up a Behold the Book website. I’m trying to figure out the design now, using a WordPress theme (I don’t want to spend money on anything custom).
Those of us working on the Ceaseless Way collaborative anthology held a Zoom call last weekend. It was a big help: we have a deadline (September) and a list of what needs to be done. We’ve started work on the list.
I did not get the exercising done I wanted but I’m pleased overall.
#SFWApro. Cover by Steve Ditko, all rights to images remain with current holders.
As some of y’all probably know, “eat the frog” is a maxim that you should start the day doing your toughest or least favorite task; then it’s in your rearview mirror the rest of the day and whatever else you’re doing will feel like a cakewalk. In that light, perhaps this week is getting all the frogs out of 2024 so we can sail smoothly through the rest of it.
First off, of course, there’s Plushie. After his back injury he’s on cage rest for six weeks and does not like it; the drugs sometimes quiet him down but otherwise he vents by barking vigorously. The only way he’s happy is when TYG or I get in the cage with him. Which I do most of the day — my computer set-up is a lot more portable — but that means it’s hard to exercise, and Wisp and Trixie get short shrift of my attention. And even with a supportive “husband pillow” it’s not the best setting for concentration. Depending how much space Plushie gives me, it can be quite uncomfortable.
Here’s our boy with his shaved front legs. I think that’s where they put in the catheter.
Further complicating things, TYG sleeps downstairs on the couch in case Plushie has another pain attack (unlikely but she’s a devoted dog mommy) and doesn’t feel alone and start barking (much more probable). To avoid waking her up I get down a lot later than usual, working in bed instead.
Then Tuesday, as I drove back from a business lunch (more on that in a minute) I felt an odd sort of vibration but decided it was the car making a small skid on the rain-slick road. That night, however, the tire-pressure alarm light came on warning the right-rear tire was losing air. It looked pretty good and got TYG to the emergency vet to bring Plushie back, but the following morning I took it in to our dealership’s repairs department just in case.
While the tire pressure sensor is often unreliable as temperatures change, this time out it was spot-on. Something had punctured the tire and started a small leak. They patched it up and took care of the state inspection at the same time. However I didn’t get back until 1pm and because of coming downstairs late I’d barely gotten anything to drink before driving out (the drink machine refused my credit card). I was dehydrated and tired and did not get much done.
Plus Tuesday night our security system kept blaring until we worked out a bypass for the window, which took several minutes. I did not sleep well so I wasn’t sharp enough to do much while waiting at the dealer’s. Wednesday night the system went off again because the fire alarm upstairs was too old — not just the batteries were old but the alarm itself. This explains the system flagging it as a problem for some time but I’d misinterpreted the directives. This issue took me an hour on the phone to resolve… and then Thursday night the system started sounding off again. TYG eventually unplugged it; the technician came this morning and got everything fixed. Thank god.
In short, not the best week and work reflected it. But I got more done than when Wisp’s leg was in a cast last summer.
While it’s not online yet, I did finish another article for The Local Reporter and got most of what I need for a couple more.
With some feedback from friends I picked out my two favorite logos (for Behold the Book) from the sketches Samantha Collins sent me last week. Still more design work to come but that’s a big step. As I wrote Wednesday, I’ve also started thinking about cover design for Southern Discomfort. I submitted a short story too.
As for that business lunch, my friend Ada Milenkovic Brown and I are both in a collaborative anthology, tentatively titled The Ceaseless Way. The organizer, Katherine Taylor (formerly of our writing group, still a friend) has been emphatic she wants it to be collaborative rather than giving everyone their marching orders. That’s cool, but like many collaborative efforts it’s sometimes bogged down from lack of anyone taking point. As we’d all like it out this weekend, Ada and I sat down and worked out a contract for a collaborative project, modeled on one SFWA keeps on its website. We shared it with the group for feedback today. If everyone’s on board with the final draft, time to talk deadlines and such.
This is good. I still need to be more productive — and definitely get more exercise in — but it wasn’t as big a trainwreck as it could have been. Fingers crossed that next week will be something close to normal.
#SFWApro.
