Awesome

Well...she's here to stay.

My last post talked about the lovely Willow and how if she adjusted to life at the Beynon house she would be a welcome addition to the family. I'm happy to report that after a few nailbiting days where she wouldn't eat her food, Willow is comfortable and happy in our home. We are all so very pleased.

With Willow adjusting to life in the house, I haven't been getting as much writing done as I would like. I made a little bit of progress on The Witch. I also reread Patriot in preparation to flesh it out to novel length. In addition, I have been mapping out a series of stories centered around the main character in one of my short stories, Old Timer. Another project that has been on the back burner is Middleman Acquisitions and it seems that a crossover between Old Timer and Middleman Acquisitions is inevitable. It's great to have tons of material, but now I need to knuckle down and get it on paper.

One last little note-about a week ago I was watching the Discovery Channel - someone who writes speculative fiction does well to watch the Discovery Channel -and I came across this little gem below.

Enjoy-I really did...

Willow

Soooooo....

See - there's this kennel and there's this dog - actually a bitch - she's like six years old and...well...she's looking for a new home...so...

It looks like the Beynons have a dog. We went to see her last night and everyone immediately fell in love with her. Now all that remains is to see if she's going to fall in love with us. She's always been a kennel dog, seldom been on a leash and never lived in town so if she can make the transition and still be wagging that big, bushy tail - well, we'll have a dog. If she has difficulty then, as sad as it will be, she'll need to go back.

Keep all fingers crossed - she's lovely.

A little something new

I posted something over at the Fiction Notebook that I wrote a little while ago for Waterstones in the UK. Waterstones is the United Kingdom's leading bookstore, think of it as the British Chapters. A while back they ran a contest for some very short fiction. The online version was very short indeed-600 characters only. If you follow the link to the Fiction Notebook and click on Short Stories, you'll find it there. It's called, The God of Parallel Parking. The Link to the Fiction Notebook is just over there to the left...

I'm also glad to report that I had an encouraging e-mail regarding one of my recent submissions. Although I knew that the piece exceeded the magazine's standard word limit I submitted to them because the idea for the story was generated by some constructive criticism by one of their editors. She had rejected a story of mine, but had taken the time to supply some editorial insight and suggestions on how to improve the rejected story. A very different story took root. She very much likes this new story and has forwarded it to her senior editor. Because of its length, it looks like it might be a tough sell but I am very much encouraged by this editor's enthusiasm. I’ll keep you posted.