julesjones

I spent a large chunk of yesterday afternoon editing the rough draft of the urban confessions story down from 6100 to 5000 words, and sent it off to Predatrix last night for comments. She seems to think it works, so after another quick typo hunt, I spent a large chunk of this afternoon formatting it according to the anthology editor's guidelines -- which include the requirement to provide a short blurb.

I hate writing blurbs. I believe I have mentioned this before.

Also, I only use MSWord at home when I have no other choice, and while I use it at work, we're still on 2003 at work and I have the ribbon-infested 2007 at home, which results in much swearing every time I have to use the wretched thing and can't find where they've put assorted standard functions. However, the file is on its way to the editor's inbox. If she doesn't like it, I shall probably add some material and self-publish it at Smashwords, at which point I may have to consider setting up a new pseudonym.

It was fun writing fluffy porn, but it was rather noticeable that I had to make a determined effort to stop it from picking up more plot than fluffy porn needs. I could probably get a rather longer story out of it without much effort. Nevertheless, I would like to point out to my usual editor that I can so write a short story that *stays* a short story. :^) Even if not very often...

(If any of you feel the urge to write a confessions story, more details at the editor's website: http://www.writerotica.co.uk/guidelines.htm )

And just as I finished dictating the previous post, I received an e-mail from Penumbra, rejecting Ghost Train 73 days after submission. However, it had made it past the initial cut, and it's a "please submit to us again" rejection. So while I would've liked to have found a home for this story, I'm not too dejected.

Received an email this morning to say that my short story submission to Penumbra had been passed on for the next round for consideration, and that it would be a while before I heard anything further. (They do multiple passes on submissions as they start to firm up the story line-up for the issue.) So at least it was considered a good enough match for what they want to be retained for further consideration. :-)

Just sent "Ghost Train" off to Penumbra. I don't hold out much hope for its chances, but am still glad to have sent it out again.

Been a good couple of days writing-wise. Yesterday Alex and I pulled out a novelette we started back in 2006, and didn't quite finish before she crashed healthwise. I've been wanting to get it finished ever since *I* perked up healthwise late last year, but she's been unenthused about writing romance and/or smut. However, Doctor/Master fandom appears to have refreshed the writing parts other fandoms cannot, so I prodded her again yesterday, and having re-read it for the first time in a couple of years, quoting choice lines to me as she went along, she said, "This is good. We need to finish it." She must be enthusiastic, because it turned out that she was correcting typos in the Google Docs copy as she went along. If we both manage not to fall off a health cliff for a few weeks, we might get somewhere with it. Her LJ posts when we started it almost exactly six years ago:
http://predatrix.livejournal.com/40243.html
http://predatrix.livejournal.com/40665.html

Just back from the post office, and posting my submission to Maxim Jakubowski's Mammoth Book of Erotic Quickies in the hope that it will get there before the closing date on Sunday. As you can imagine, self-editing even something as short as 7 pages/1500 words has been a somewhat slow process given the current state of my typing.

Not as slow as actually getting around to the editing, though. My crit group went over A Sparrow Flies Through 5 years ago, but for various reasons I wasn't able to do anything with their suggestions before whatever market I was interested in at the time closed. So I left it, and then stopped regularly checking the short story markets, and didn't see anything suitable for something this length and genre until my last Irregular Contemplation Of The Trunk a month back.

Thank you to my critters - it may have taken 5 years for your suggestions to come to fruition, but they were extremely useful in polishing the story this month.