Science Fiction Writers Workshop

It's been nearly five months since I've been active around here. That's what happens when you spend too much time underground. I should add up how many hours I spent in Wind Cave this summer. I mapped around 2500 feet of new cave. Wind Cave is currently 125 miles long and the fourth longest cave in the world.

I didn't record it here, but I did reach my March goal. A day ahead of schedule too. I finished my teen caving book. Score! Now comes the major revision. A week into April and I've done major revision on four chapters of 26. I hope to complete the first draft come April 30.

I've taken time away from my free writing to work for ssdc.com, a scifi roleplaying company. It's great fun. (comment self-editted to avoid embarassing incrimination)

By the way, TEN, count them TEN challenge submissions. Holy cow! I'm amazed. Nice to see a sudden surge in group activity, even if only temporary.

After two years away, I have taken a new Seasonal Lead Ranger position at my old stomping grounds, Wind Cave NP, SD. It's a higher government pay grade (which means they'll pay me more) and it's a "lead" position which means I'll be in charge of 20+ rangers along with 4 other leads. I'm looking forward to change of pace. I'll be starting in early April and finishing my season after labor day. Then I'll return to MI for writing and warehouse work, which isn't as bad as it sounds. Oh, and my symphony gig, which I love, and pays! Isn't that a coup if you love making music? For those that may not know. I play the violin. Have done so since the age of 3, and after a semi-three year hiatus, have returned to a symphonic setting with excessive jubilation.

This week I'm spending the weekend snoeshowing in the UP of MI. Next weekend I have a symphony gig Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The weekend after that I have a regional "Networks" Day for local Children's Book writers from across Northern Michigan. Fortunately (and unfortunately) I will finish my winter job in a week or two and that will provide more writing time at the expense of income. So be it.

I've set myself the goal of finishing my Caving novel by the end of March. Unfortunately. it has no affiliation with science fiction, fantasy, or horror (unless you consider reading about teenage boys horror). I don't know when I'll officialy hop back into the SFWW mix (though I do miss it), but it's back on my radar screen.

Moving, Job Applications, Unappreciated Work, Running critique group, running quartet. All the usual mundane stuff. Then squeeze in hiking 35 miles of National Lakeshore coastline in three days and a 3 day SCBWI writing conference, and I'm flailing for time. Oh, and my knee really hurts. Plus there are legislative decisions I simply must protest. Repealing Habeas Corpus is never a good sign of things to come. Perhaps I'll think of the lakeshore right now, or caving. Must go caving. Going through a stage of "cave yearning". My writing has suffered of late. Only a few stories pushed back onto the market.

Today is one of those days where you wished you had spent a little more time on following through. I recently applied for a new job, and I applied electronically. No big deal. Well, I should have followed through when I did not get a quick response, but I am accustomed to goverment jobs where par for the course is a wait of three months before one hears anything. Thus, I was surprise to learn from an inside source that the potential employer was already conducting interviews. As it turns out, my inside source revealed, the employer never received my resume. It left my inbox and was sent into the virtual voids never to be seen again.

Been a while since I've written. My friend Ben, who momentarily resides in Hawaii though will soon be back in Seattle, urged to me to write some more. Apparently my diatribes were exactly what he needed to read before falling asleep.

Ok, the falling asleep part is not true, but we'll see if Ben is reading this anymore. (I expect an email, and please no baby pictures--my inbox is full We know you send them because YOU'RE in them, not because of Vanessa. I'm sorry to tell you, but Vanessa is cuter than you, Ben, even though you can talk and often write tremedously witty emails.

It's that time again. Another Monday. It's been a quite week--a very pleasant change. Nice weather has allowded some beautiful hiking around Lake Michigan. Sadly we've had almost zero rain for April and May, it's all gone south, so the fire danger it quite high. We're supposed to be in the rainy spring season!

Written Eight chapters off "The Gravedigger's Son". It's coming along surprisingly well for a first draft. It's leaning more towards YA than middle-grade. In a future draft, I'll have to consciously decide which one the story is leaning towards.

Other writing news: I've started some editing for a roleplaying company, Battlelords (ssdc.com). No real money involved, but it's fun.

Recently I got a very personalized rejection. This came from Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic. I've been sendig queries and sample chapters to children's publishers for a while now. I've generated more interest than expected, though only one publisher has requested the entire manuscript. Here, for your viewing pleasure, is my most recent and most personal rejection. It's very encouraging, yet very frustrating too. The Form Letter: Dear Writer, Thank you for sending your work to me at Arthur A Levine Books. I read the materials with interest, but unfortunately the manuscript doesn't sound right for our imprint at this time. I appreciated the oportunity to see your book, however, and wish you all the best in finding it the right home.

So. I can't wait for April to be over. This has been the craziest month ever. Without a doubt. Not the busiest, but the craziest.

No, there are no monkey related stories in this post; I just thought it made a cool title. Welcome to fiction. One of these days I WILL make up some strange story.

Anyway back to the crazy month:
So the business deal went awry and I lost my park service job by three days becase of the sour deal. It sucked for the deal to go sour, but that wasn't unexpected. What really sucked was losing my back up job by three days. So, I had to start researching for a job and I started with the park. To make a long story short, my job had already been offered to another, so technically it was gone, but not completely gone because there was a catch. You ready? There use to be a government means of choosing from the top three-five candidates applying for a position. That way, there was a little leeway based on "rank" which we won't even get into. However, the stupid powers that be passed a new law that requires military veterans to ALWAYS be considered above any other applicants. Well, as it turns out a military applicant had "ranked" higher than the person my boss hired. But my boss didn't know of the new directive, and he was told by his boss and others to unoffer the job to the poor college kid and offer it to the veteran (Talk about a shitty position). However, the veteran had worked at the park before and was rude, incompetent, and just plain awful. No one wanted him back, yet the directive was clear. So, The assistant superintendent was enlisted to contact the destrict office in Omaha, NE (I work in MI) to get an official waver to higher this poor college kid who just had a job "unoffered" to her because of official BS. So, the only way I was getting my old job back was if 1) They couldn't get a waver to bypass the rude veteran and hire the college kid. Therefore it was out of my hands, yet a really awful situation nonetheless. To summarize: they did get a waver, but the next day another park employee took another job at another park so I was able to come back and the college kid was able to be hired. A happy ending!