So I was working on this story. It was an urban fantasy, although since the whole thing takes place in a single house, I don't know how "urban" it technically is. It's set in a universe I've written in previously, and the other stories were definitely urban fantasy, so anyway. I'm going along and everything's chugging reasonably well, when suddenly both guys turn all Serious and there's anger and guilt and shame and threats flying around. It all fits the story and I like how it's developing, but wrapping it at less than 8K words (Torquere's upper limit for short stories) is sort of iffy, much less the 5K we were kinda-sorta asked to please try to keep it to for the Halloween blitz, since the editors didn't want to have to work thirty-six hour days to get however many stories spruced up and ready to release by Halloween.
Okay, so that one goes on the back burner. Luckily another idea came wandering by so I grabbed it and started banging away, one eye on the calendar and trying really hard not to let my blood pressure go too high. (I tend to spring leaks when it does and that gets messy.) This one's even more "only technically" an urban fantasy than the other, since while the guys live in the LA area, the story takes place in Griffith Park and they're surrounded by forest and such the whole time, so....
Anyway, this one's actually a bit more Halloweenish than the first one, so that's good. I got it finished and gave it an edit, wrote up a cover letter (I really hate writing synopses [flail]) and came up with a title (even more flailing 'cause I hate coming up with titles even more than I hate writing synopses) and sent it off. That was the 19th, about five hours ahead of the deadline, yay. I got an acceptance within a day and edits in record time.
A nice lady named Jane at Torquere (who's my editor for "Spirit of Vengeance") taught me how to use the Track Changes thingy in Word to go over the edits, how to "clear" edits and add comments and such, for which I am eternally grateful. I felt a bit silly asking, since the story she's working on is my second with Torquere, but with the first I just e-mailed "It all looks good" back and that was that. [cough] Anyway, I know how to do it now, thank you Jane. :)
So I sent my edits back for the Halloween story (which is called "Chasing Fear" by the way) and in the middle of all this I got an invitation from Romancing the Blog to be one of their regular columnists. Wow!
That was seriously cool and I'm incredibly flattered to have been asked. I've been reading and commenting over there since I found them back in August, while poking through links on someone's blogroll, and I've enjoyed the discussions over there very much, so it'll be fun being a regular part of the community. I wrote up a short bio and found a nice pic I took at a butterfly farm on St. Maarten to use as my avatar there. I'll post a note here as soon as I find out when my turn in the barrel will be. :)
Speaking of taking my turn in the barrel, I volunteered to host Torquere's social community on LiveJournal this Friday, the 26th. (And I'm not nervous at all. Not even a tiny bit. O_O ) I'll post a reminder note on Thursday with a link so anyone who wants to can come hang out with me for the day.
Right now, the top two things on my agenda are doing the edits for "Spirit" and working on some commentary I'm doing on a friend's manuscript. One's fun and the other is less so, so you can probably guess which one's going to be getting more of my time....
Hope everyone else had a great weekend. Personally, I'm ready for a nice, long sleep. :)
Angie
10 comments:
Cool. Success breeds more sucess. Congrats. My weekend was pretty good, just too short.
Charles -- thanks. :) I'm figuring there's just something about my writing, my style or my characters or the way I craft a story or whatever it is, that fits Torquere really well. I'm lucky to have matched up with them, especially since they publish just about any length except the short-short. I can see being with them for a very long time.
And yeah, we definitely need at least a couple of more days assigned to the weekend. [nodnod]
Angie
Great that you're writing. And, if you need help with Word, email me. Then you don't have to feel awkward with your editor. (I'll probably be able to assist you, used it for about twelve years.)
WW -- I'll keep that in mind, thanks for the offer. :)
Angie
Great news Angie! And I will definitely be checking in on your guest blogging adventures! But I will need the reminder as I have cottage cheese for brains these days!!!
Ello -- thanks. :) I'll definitely post reminders, probably the day before to give everyone a running start, and time to collect the rotten tomatoes and such. ;)
Angie
Good work, Angie!
I've always been a little confused about how strict the "urban" business should be.
Bernita -- thanks! And yeah, I've never really wondered about it before, but then it's never come up before. [wry smile] Now I'm wondering where the borders are, though. What if the story's set in a park like my latest? What if it's in a suburb, or a small rural town? Does that qualify as "urban" fantasy? Huh. [ponder]
Angie
I've said it before and I'll say it again. You are on a roll. Keep it up. Wish I could find a groove like that.
Travis -- I definitely am. [nodnod] It's so... surreal? sometimes that I want to pinch myself or something. The only thing I can figure, like I said to Charles, is that there's something about my writing -- my style, my characters, my plots, something -- that fits really well with what Torquere wants. I'm certainly not about to complain, though; I got lucky enough to find my perfect fit (at least for this genre) and I'm more than happy to just go with it for a while. Thanks! :)
Angie
Post a Comment