Monthly Archives: January 2010

The last two days have been good to me. 

• I have edited two pages of The Open Door and have written about a thousand words on my anthology entry.  The anthology entry is a dooms day story. 
• I had my yearly eval at work.  Everything looked good.  I am still employed.
• Lis has not been having the contractions close enough together to make us sit by a clock timing and wondering, unlike Tuesday morning where we lived by the clock for a while.

I have found it very difficult to write or even think the last few weeks.  My baby is due between Feb 2nd and Feb 15th, depending on who you talk to at the hospital.  However, they all agree that the baby is looking like it will be early.

I thought I would be able to write until the baby comes – I was wrong.  Between writing down my wife’s contraction times, assembling baby contraptions, reiterating that ‘nothing is really happening’ to every friend and relative, and checking (over and over) our list of supplies and goods for both the hospital trip and for when we come home, I have not had any time for writing.  I barely have time for sleeping.

Any goals that I had at the beginning of the month seem silly now.  I have a baby coming, a first child, a little time machine… something that will make me younger on some days and older on others.  I still hope to have a story in the unnamed FSFW anthology, but my new goals are more home based.  I wonder how long it will be before I am back to writing 15-30 hours a week like I used to.  I guess, for now, that doesn’t matter.

I finished the first draft of my MS, The Open Door, on December 8th. I really haven’t wanted to look at it since then. I had a series of readers go through it and they all had wonderful suggestions, but I was tired and burned out. I ignored my blog also, as you can see. However, it has been a month. I read, watched movies, I found some time for myself, and I am ready to get back at it. Wish me luck as I try and turn my MS into a novel.

This entry was for a short story (<500 words) contest based on a drawing of an elf and faerie.  You can see more at Natalie Whipple’s blog, Between Fact & Fiction.  Look for the January 4th entry, Starting The Year In Style.

It was kind of a challenge because I really only write SciFi, but it was fun to try my hand at Fantasy, even as loosely as I approached it.

Matchmaker

“Okay dearie, I’m here,” said the impatient faerie while scrunching her hair.  “Wa-do-you want?”  The elf maiden bit her lower lip in hesitation.  The faerie flew up to the elf’s face, “Come on – haven’t got all day.”

“I want a man,” the elf said with more gusto than she intended, sending the faerie backward.

“You want a man, do ya?” the faerie drawled before yawning.

“Um, yes.  I want…” the elf started.

“Don’t tell me, Prince Charming – they’re taken, all four of them are taken.  So are all the kissable prince-frogs.”  The faerie landed in the elf’s outstretched hand and looked up into her oversized eyes.

“How about a beast that…”

“Taken,” the faerie snapped, “by some French girl with an American accent.”

“Knight in shining armor?”

“Rusted, and it took too long to get the armor off each night anyway.”

“A flying boy who never grows up?”

“You know, he settled down and grew old.”

“A drunken pirate?”

“Trust me, he is obsessed with someone else.  You don’t want to be in the middle of that.”

“A vegetarian vampire?”

“What’s with the vampire dreams all of a sudden?  For you and every other girl, taken.”

 “Um…”

“Can I sit down?  I didn’t realize this was going to take so long.”

The elf nodded with a frown on her face.  “Sorry,” she mumbled as she rubbed the jewel that decorated the neckline of her dress.  “Any men that know how to listen?”

“Not even in the faerie tales.”

“Well how about a lovable Extra Terrestrial?”

“He went home.”

“There has to be someone.  Who else is there?”

“Well, there is this rabbit hunter with a speech impediment.  Will he do?”

“Does he turn into anything good?”

“As with all men, we can only hope.  Want the hook-up or not?” asked the faerie.

The elf nodded, uncertainty in her eyes.

I have four New Year’s Resolutions

1. Read More
2. Write More
3. Submit More
4. Show Up / Be There

Not too much for one year, I hope.

I came up with these before the end of last year, and started on them on the first.  So far I have written two short stories that I entered into contests – didn’t win either.      I have also read one novel, Ender’s Game.  Not a bad start.  I still have to work on the ‘Show Up’ part.