Time To Start Flogging Muses

While delighted over recent successes in selling stories, I have to remind myself that one of those stories was written back in April, with only minor editorial changes since then. The other was written at the end of September, meaning it's been a month without any worthwhile output. Just some promising but aborted starts.

Apparently I'm going to have to get tough with my muses.

They have obviously been slacking in a big way, and deserve to be punished. Punished sternly. Because I sure ain't going to get that pyramid built at this rate. I'm still getting glimmers of ideas, so I hope it's those brain supplements kicking in and starting to make me smart and creative and stuff.

Yeah.

You got to get tough with muses.

Writing in November

I am now of the opinion that they could have hardly picked a worse month than November to have Nanowrimo. I finally broke a thousand words. How pitiful is that? I've been known to put out twenty thousand words in a week. On the other hand I'm having the germs of an idea or two for a couple of short stories. Nothing concrete yet, but if either show any sign of turning into anything I will turn my attention to writing those in a heartbeat. I'm all about production, and this year short stories are my bread and butter.

The new wireless network is a bit of a hit or miss proposition so far. Sometimes it works, sometimes not, but it means I'm now exiled to the laptop since it can be claimed I have an internet machine on it. Sigh. I'm also going to have to adapt to this new keyboard. That's slowing me down as well.

Just listen to me whine about the hard time I'm having with all my shiny new toys :P

Ah well, this writer's block will pass and then I'll be out of things to complain about. Then what will I do?

On a side note;

Yesterday at Rowans speech therapy she was being offered a choice between two objects while I watched from a nearby chair. They then specifically asked her, "What do you want?" She stated all at once, "I want Daddy!" and ran over and hugged me. Words can't express how surprised everybody was, and how I felt. All I can say is that it was pretty darn good.

Lightning Strikes Twice

My story "The World in Strips" has been accepted by Pill Hill Press for their "The Bitter End: Tales of Nautical Terror" anthology.

That's two stories accepted over the course of one day . . . and now makes nine of the ten short story's I've written sold.

Wow. Just wow.

Knowing my karma, I better start wearing safety gear.

What I've Got . . . "The Warp." The First 500 Words

The Warp
By D. Nathan Hilliard
(My mishmash for Nanowrimo)

Liza woke, huddled in the back corner of her dark closet, and lay silently as she let her hearing determine her chances of exiting her lair alive.

After five minutes of nothing but the sound of her own pulse beating in her head, she decided to risk moving. The clothes carpeting the floor muted any noise she produced as she rose to her feet. Her questing hand found the rod where her clothes used to hang, now empty to ensure that no accidental clatter of hangers might bring any number of forms of horrible death upon her.
Putting her ear to the door, she stilled her breathing and listened again. This constituted her “door routine,” one of the many habits that kept her alive. Even though this door represented the fourth door between her and the outside world (the others being the bedroom door, hallway door, and then front or back doors), things had gotten in as far as three doors before. Only a week ago, she had been forced to lie almost two days in silent terror while listening to something move around in the bedroom outside the closet.

She never found out what it had been, and didn’t really care. Once it left, she only concerned herself with finding its means of entry and seeing what she could do to prevent it from happening again. Figuring out some way to lock the hallway and bedroom doors listed high on her priorities, although she feared the presence of a locked door might alert one of the more intelligent predators that wandered through of her existence.

Not everything that roamed her neighborhood killed out of mindless instinct. Some thngs put a little forethought into it.

Another Happy Dance Scheduled!

"Rite of Passage" has been accepted by LL Dreamspell for their Dreamspell Nightmares 2 anthology.

Woot!

In the midst of the doldrums of writer's block, this is great news.

Early to Bed

I fell asleep early last night . . . lulled to sleep by the drone of my magnificent new television turned to the comforting sounds of Monday Night Football. The wife woke me sometime around halftime and sent me to bed.

Still struggling with the writers block. I've pretty much decided that I'm just going to write a mish mash for NaNoWriMo. Just cram together all the different images I can use for future horror stories into one semi-sensical story. Then I'll have them for future use. I don't know if that would count as a real story, but at least it will be something.

Then there is the creeping matter of the housework. "Creeping" in the sense that the mess is rising like a tide around me.

Sigh. Talk about a horror story . . .

Oh well, time to get the kids off to school.

NaNoWriMo and the Real World

Sigh, it's November the second and I haven't started writing yet, due to real world issues.

Randy and Kyle came and installed my new 42" flatscreen TV last night, and I spent the evening restraining Rowan so she wouldn't be in the middle of things. Today, Rowans bus didn't show up so we took her to school, and I'm trying to straighten things out with the transportation dept of the schools. Then there is still the matter of the wreckage that is my kitchen, which needs to be cleaned up.

And this evening there is going to be the siren call of that aforementioned 42" TV and Monday Night Football.

It just ain't fair, I tell you!

And lets not forget my current case of writer's block. Oh no, let's not forget that.

Sigh. It's already the second day of November and I'm behind.

No pressure.

UPDATE: I finally got things squared away the school bus service and it looks like Rowan gets to come home for the evening. This parenting stuff is hard.

Shuffling Into The 21st Centruy

Guess what?

I'm making this blog entry from my new laptop while sitting at Denny's. Totally cool! I have arrived! I have now evolved to the ranks of Homo Technicus!

Typing on this laptop feels different, and my fingers hate adjusting to new things. But I shall persist. This is just too cool. And the response time is pretty much like being on a cable modem. I feel so geeky.

Now if I can just figure out my cell phone . . .

National Novel Writing Month

I have signed up to participate in NaNoWriMo, and naturally I do this while fighting the worst case of writers block in my short career. But that's no excuse for not whipping out fifty thousand words in a month, right? All I got to do is come up with an idea I like for this masterpiece. Oh, wait a minute, there's that writers block again.

Oh well, I got my shiny new laptop. Between the two of us, we'll overcome this somehow. BTW, why do they have this event in a month that has Thanksgiving in it? That's like a guaranteed two or three days you aren't really going to be able to write. Heck, after I finish stuffing myself with turkey and dressing, I'm lucky to remain conscious for two days afterward. Ah well, things are what they are, and enjoying a good whine might make me feel better but it not fix anything.

Me and mighty laptop will overcome.