Today a list came out announcing Finalists and Semi-Finalists for the Writers of the Future Contest, and I’ve known my status for over a month now. My finalist call actually came on Thanksgiving Day, however, that call went to my voicemail at work. I dragged my butt into work that Friday (I almost took the day off), and there in my voicemail was the message that my story was a finalist! I was so glad that I’d gone to work that day. It’s been very difficult to not blurt it out to people, but now that the coordinating judge let the names loose, I’m free to at least talk about being a finalist!

So, what does all this mean? The Writers of the Future Contest (WotF) is the best known contest for writers in the science fiction and fantasy genre looking to turn Pro. The contest is judged blind (meaning only the contest administrator knows which manuscript is yours, the judges do not). The manuscripts (I’ve heard that over 1,000 entries are submitted each quarter) are read by the coordinating judge who chooses 8 finalists. Those 8 stories are then sent on to 4 judges who rank them. The top 3 out of those 8 stories are called “winners” and definitely published in the yearly anthology. If there is room in the anthology there is a chance that a “non-winning” story could be published in the anthology.

So, my finalist story is now being looked at by four more judges (these judges are all huge names in the sci-fi/fantasy world) and I just have to hope that they like it enough so that I place in the top 3.

What does winning the contest mean besides the obvious professional publication?

1. Money. WotF pays more than almost any other short story publication, and even more if you’re the Gold Award winner. The Gold Award is about the same as many advances for a full novel!

2. Workshop. The contest pays for all its winners to attend a week long workshop followed by an awards ceremony usually held in Hollywood. They pay for the airfare, limo from the airport, hotel, and the workshop.

3. Networking. Not only the other winners, but one-on-one time with professionals during the workshop and I’ve heard at the bar after hours.

4. A wonderful professional writing credit that will help when I submit other short stories and novels to publishers.

So, at this point I have to wait and see if my story made top 3, hopefully I’ll know soon. And one more thing: I can’t thank Kris Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith enough, since I wrote my finalist story after taking their short story workshop!

This post is way easier to write than the life goals I just posted. Here I can really put some numbers down, and shoot for some quantifiable results.

Production:

1. Write daily with an average word count of 2,000 words. This isn’t too difficult for me, but may be ambitious depending on how crazy the day job gets. Other factors include those days when I’m trying to plot, or life happens. Maybe I’ll go for this then: 2,000 words/day, or 10,000 words/week. I know they aren’t the same, but at least with 10,000 words a week it gives me some leeway.

2. Short Stories – complete 12 short stories. This should be workable, and I would have set it higher if I didn’t want to concentrate on novels this year. In 2011 I stopped working on novels (the closest I came was a novella, but a short one really).

3. Novels – complete 3 novels. This too, shouldn’t be too difficult as I already have the ideas put together in my head or already somewhat plotted out. This gives me 3 months to write the novel, and 1/2 month planning in the beginning, and a 1/2 month for revisions at the end. This may be ambitious, but it’s something to aim for.

General:

4. Workshops and Conventions. I almost feel like I’m cheating here. I’m already signed up for World Con in Chicago as well as World Fantasy in Toronto. I’d love to attend the Kris and Dean Character Voice and Setting Workshop in March, but depending on how something else works out I may need to axe that one. Hopefully I’ll know soon if that work shop will be feasible for me this year. So, I think this goal is attainable one way or another, meaning: attend at least 1 workshop and 2 conventions.

5. Submit. Everything I start I must finish and then submit until the appropriate markets are exhausted. At that point, I’ll dive into e-publishing, but only once I’m satisfied the pro markets and select semi-pro markets are done.

6. Social Networking. Keep the website, blog, and Facebook up to date as well as Tweet a little more. This also means that I need to link these things so they update each other. I will also comment on other people’s blogs a little more. This is more of an ambiguous goal, but I’ll try to be better!

So, these are the writing goals I can think of right now, but it’s a starting point and now it’s been written down so I’m stuck!

I like the way Dean Wesley Smith discusses goals on his blog. He further breaks down goals by pointing out what should seem obvious regarding goals you can’t control. Things such as: I’ll sell a book to a publisher. That is more of a dream than a goal. A goal is something more concrete (at least in my writing world), something like: I will write and submit 20 short stories this year.

Anyway, I’m going to post two more times on goals: Life goals and then writing goals.

First, like many writers who are on the road to publication, a conversation will inevitably lead to this:  ”Oh, you’re a writer, are you published?”  I, and I’m assuming many other writers, hate this question.  No, I’m a writer. Published or not I’m a writer.  I know these people probably don’t mean anything, but it’s almost like you’re not really a writer unless you’ve been published–and not by a vanity press, or yourself.

This leads me to the next point:  writing requires, no it demands patience.  Most people in this day and age lack that virtue.  I know I lacked it when I was young.  I probably lacked patience all the way up until my early 30s.  There’s nothing wrong with that, I think it’s just a fact of life, but it isn’t getting any better.  Look at movies for instance.  Back when I was a kid and a movie like Star Wars came out, you couldn’t watch it again unless you saw it in the theater or you were lucky enough to catch it on television, and often years after it had its run in the theaters.  Today?  Shoot, you can be watching a new movie at home the day it hits the theaters (not legally of course).  Today’s world breeds impatience.  I believe this is funneling to readers and writers as well.

Many readers are impatient and want what basically equates to a movie in word form–and an action movie at that. Writers are impatient in other ways.  Many other ways.

Self-publishing and e-publishing are two of those ways and often become one way.  Patience is the key to writing and publishing.  Writing is a life-long journey.  If you’re writing a book simply to get published, receive accolades and make a lot of money, well, you’re in for a huge disappointment.  There are many other careers that are more stable, more lucrative, and provide benefits–but that point has been made many times by many other writers who have been in the field for a long, long, time.

I read many blogs about self-publishing and e-publishing and I will consider those options.  I mention that only because I don’t want anyone to think that I’m against that type of publishing.  So, are there people out there that can essentially decide they want to write, sit down craft a novel, maybe do another draft or two and then find an agent or a publisher?  I’m sure there are, but here is what typically happens, and I know this because I’ve spoken with people who have a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or perhaps even themselves that have written ONE story, or ONE novel and sent it out only to be rejected. I’ll add this caveat though: congratulations on finishing a story and then sending it out!  How many people start writing only to quit?  Most people.  Very few people ever finish writing a story.  And I know this because I was guilty of this when I was much younger.

Now, they send a story out, get a rejection or two and get antsy.  They spent all this time writing a novel, months, or years even and now they’re getting rejects. What’s next?  Rather than work on the next story and continue to send the story out they complain and obsess about the book they’ve already written.  And here it comes:  ”Screw it, I’ll publish this myself.”  Or  ”I’ll start my own publishing company.”  Or (heaven forbid) “I’ll pay someone else to publish my book, and I’ll hand sell it myself.”  Guess what?  Those are probably not good ideas at this stage.

If you’ve written many, many, words and you’ve been at this writing thing for a while, then I agree, there is no harm in self-publishing.  And if you have been at it for awhile, then you’re probably already aware of your options.  But if you’re a noob writer, you have to realize, writing and self-publishing is a lot of work. And if you don’t read in the genre you’re writing in, and have no clue how the publishing industry really works, well, you’re pretty much screwed.

I follow Dean Wesley Smith’s blog as well as Kris Rusch’s–they blog a lot about the new world of publishing and how to self-publish, etc.  They also teach classes on self-publishing!  Links to their websites are also in my sidebar there to the right. Check them out.

Kris and Dean also recommend that writers should pursue both traditional and self-publishing routes.  I maintain that a writer needs to have patience.  If a book took you years to write, well, what’s the rush?  Submit that book as many times as it takes.  If there are 50 publishers out there that publish your genre, well, you better submit it 50 times–even if it takes years.  I have short stories that have been on submission for two years–not to one market, but to over a dozen.  Patience.  If I exhaust the pro markets I feel a story would work in, well, I will then self-publish that story and do it right.

I could write about this all night long, but I think I’ve made my point.  Have patience and keep at it, if you’re a real writer, you’ll realize this is a life-long pursuit.

There are two things in my life that, if I am unable to perform or take part in them on a daily basis, I become increasingly (one or more of the following things):  dick-ish, depressed, anxious, short, sarcastic, and probably a few other choice words. I know, if anyone who actually knows me reads this, they’ll say, so how is it different than how you are on a daily basis? Ha. Ha.

What are these activities?

1) Writing.  This I have to perform each day or I really become a jerk. Yes, I think about writing–plotting, characters, scenes, dialogue, etc. almost all the time.  And ideas?  Shoot, they are a constant flood.  What needs to get done each day is new words of fiction.  Word count? At least 500 words.  My most recent example of this was when we had family over and for three days straight did zero writing. I became detached and a little depressed. Finally, I had to back out of a trip they made to town so I could get in some quality writing time. While they were gone I managed to crank out 2,000 words–not bad, and I felt a lot better!

2)  Working out/exercise.  This doesn’t have to be every day, but if I allow it to go beyond one day off I start feeling gross and out of shape.  People at the day job always laugh when I tell them I got fat at one point in my life, but it’s true. I’m very comfortable between the weights of 145 – 155, but during my year of being overweight I bulked up to over 185 pounds.  I didn’t have a huge belly, but when I saw a photo of myself I realized right then I had a problem.  I’d always been slender, but in my mid to late twenties I let myself go a bit once my Navy stint was over and I wasn’t exercising and I ate really bad stuff.  Once I saw the problem, I fixed it and haven’t looked back.  I dropped all the weight and then some to become the (somewhat) average looking person I am today.

I hesitate to call writing and exercising addictions, since I feel that would be somewhat disrespectful to those who actually are addicts.  I kind of liken it to people who claim an allergy or some malady, but don’t truly have anything wrong with them.  Oh, I’m ADD, or I can’t have gluten (whatever the crap that is), etc., etc.  I could go on and on about this particular topic, but that has to be for another post I suppose.  Anyway…

Writing and exercise relieve stress and are very therapeutic.  Boy, I’ve written a few pieces that will never see the light of day because they disturb me, but did those pieces help get a few things out of my system? Yes. Did lifting weights and running for miles help drain stress? Yes.  I’ve also noticed that running is a great time for me to work out writing problems and roadblocks. I mentioned that in a much earlier post.

So, if I am to be addicted, in the every day sense, not the clinical sense, I could choose worse things than writing and working out.  In fact, I’ll probably get quite a bit of both done today being that it’s a day off from the day job, and it’s Thanksgiving!  I know that if I don’t work out that I will feel like a bloated out of shape monster later.  So P90X it is!

Anyway, have a great Thanksgiving!

Last year I attended World Fantasy for the first time–and I went alone.  For many people I’m sure that would be intimidating, what with not knowing anyone in the industry and so forth.  Luckily, I tend to not have any issues meeting people, or striking up a conversation.  I’m also somewhat immune to fanboy moments, but I’m sure I could succumb under the right circumstances. That first World Fantasy for me was excellent, as I was able to make new friends that carried forward to World Con this past August, and then into World Fantasy 2011 in San Diego.

I went to far fewer panels at this con than I did at the other ones I attended. Why? Well, it’s because I was too busy talking to other writers, editors, publishers, and literary agents.  Once you become friends with a  few people, amazing things begin to happen. Such as what?

For one, many professional writers in the scifi/fantasy genre are helpful and want to help others succeed.  I received invaluable advice from, and developed friendships with many, many people in the publishing industry.  I’d name names, but honestly, there are so many!  If you can make it to one convention, I’d say go for World Fantasy.  I met YA writers, sic-fi writers, etc., etc.  Not only do you meet writers, but professional artists, editors, publishers, copy editors, agents, it’s unbelievable.

An example of what can happen at the con:  I was invited to a fairly exclusive Subterranean Press breakfast by Bill Schafer. Why? Because my friend Griffin and I for some reason entertain him.  Who was at this breakfast? It’s quite a list:  well, Bill Schafer and some of his staff from Sub Press, and:  Robert Silverberg, James Blaylock, Brent Weeks, Steven Erikson, Ian Esslemont, Gordon van Gelder, Peter V. Brett, and then you had me and my friend Griffin Barber.  But what a fantastic opportunity that was to meet these guys and have all sorts of cool conversations.

Another example of con goodness:  I’m standing in a walkway outside of one of the parties (I believe it was the SFWA party) and probably the only literary agent I’d want to have represent me (Joshua Bilmes) walks up and starts a conversation with me.  We chit-chat for a few minutes and for some reason I mention a client of his that I’m friends with (Tim Akers) and he suddenly offers me a Sun Drop.  I have no idea why or even what that is, but I say yes, thinking it’s some sort of drink. Joshua says, ‘ok, I’ll go get some cups’, disappears and comes back and pours us both a bit of Sun Drop (it’s a soft drink).  The reason he offered me this is because Tim Akers has told him about it and Joshua wanted to try it.  We continue chatting and he asks what I do and so forth and then offers me his business card and later tells me to query him when I have something ready. Now that is pretty awesome.  Joshua doesn’t read things sent over the transom these days, he solicits people specifically.  So, just by being laid back and cool and treating him like a normal human being, he obviously thought I’d be someone he could work with someday.  So, now I’m finishing up some edits on one of the novels I’ve completed and I’ll query Joshua.

I could go on and on, but I’ll mention a few more items:  I met writers who are local to Denver and I may be invited into an invitation only writers group that has some published authors in its ranks.  I again ran into Rae Carson who encouraged me to re-join the online writers workshop and promised she’d point me in the right direction regarding critiques.

A very important note about the convention:  almost all of the above great things happened at the after hours parties.

World Fantasy was outstanding because I got to hang out and have a great time with the friends I’ve made over the past year in the writing community.  And one final note:  Mark Van Name is one of the most helpful and friendly writers I’ve ever met at a convention.  He has provided advice and has offered to help me in ways most professionals wouldn’t have the time for.

Okay, so when I first meet people I tend to hang back and take things in, and learn my audience.  I have always thought this to be a wise approach, but when I start laying in the zingers and quick one-liners, people are always amazed.  It seems that I also take this approach to social networking online.  I’m not the type of person who spews forth everything I’m doing all the time.  If I don’t have anything to say, or I don’t think I have anything to add that is worthwhile, I don’t.  Some people post non-stop about what they’re doing, where they are, who they’re doing it with, etc.  I’m simply not like that.

If I post an update it’s usually in reaction to something I saw or read, something that has moved or touched me, or it’ll be some long overdue update on my life.  Once in a while I’ll even try to post something humorous.

As this is a life and writing blog, I shy away from politics, economy, and folderol of that nature.  I don’t think it serves me well to spout off my opinions on those topics.  If people are reading this they probably don’t care to read my opinions, or if they already know me well, then, I guess they already know my views on politics, etc.

I have stopped following blogs I really enjoyed because of the political bullshit they sling around.  I originally followed those blogs because I was interested in their lives and their writing. Go push your agenda somewhere else, or here is something:  go do something about it rather than just bitch online.

So, back to social networking (strange interlude complete).  I need a process, much as I have with writing.  Social networking for me is an afterthought.  My first thought is to write new words of fiction each day.  I mean, do people really care what I think or do on a daily basis? Probably not.  I often wonder how people who claim to be writers get any actual writing done other than blogging, tweeting, emailing, etc.

I work a full time job that consists of basically 12 hour days (commute time is included, 1 hour each way), 5 days a week. I get home, work out for an hour, clean up, eat, spend time with my wife, and then write the rest of the evening.  How many hours are there in a day?  Now, many other “writers” work full time jobs, but they also are quite prolific on the social networking front.  How do they do it?  Even if they were speedy writers, I find it hard to believe they write new fiction each day. What, 250 words maybe?  That is one page. Not bad, but not prolific. I keep veering off topic a bit, but my point remains, when it comes to social networking, I simply run out of steam for it.  The fact that I’m wasting so many words on this makes me wonder if my fiction writing today will suffer.

Now, if I were to tweet, Facebook, Google+, blog, email, update my website, etc. how much time would that consume? It would have to be two hours or so, and I simply don’t have that kind of time each day. Perhaps one day once I retire from the day job (about 10 years out) I’ll be able to tackle all this stuff, but for now sitting in the chair writing new words of fiction each day suits me just fine.  I’ll simply social network here and there, but probably more than I’ve done in the past.

Now it’s time to get some real writing done.

Me at the gate, looking for trouble.

Looking forward to seeing friends at WFC!

In January we moved to Colorado, specifically, Evergreen–a small town up in the Rocky Mountains. Our home is at around 8000 feet, and needless to say, it took a while to get acclimated. P90X at this altitude was pretty crazy, but I’ve since conquered that. The move to Colorado was day job related, but I have to say, my writing environment has never been better.

Speaking of writing, I’ve written more short stories in the past nine months than in the 2.5 years I spent in the D.C. area. Some of that is the lovely environment I’m in now, and some is the work situation–I was miserable at my last assignment, and now I’m happy at the day job.

Speaking of the day job, well, I’ve already traveled more for work in the past nine months than in the 2.5 years I spent in the D.C. area. I’ve been to some really cool places such as Alaska and Seattle, and of course I had to go back to D.C. (which I’d normally enjoy, but was under some major time constraints and couldn’t visit all the people on my list).

I’ve also traveled a little for my second job: writing. In June, I spent ten days on the Oregon Coast attending a Short Story Workshop taught by Kristine Kathryn Rusch with special appearances by Dean Wesley Smith. I highly recommend attending that workshop. Kris pushed me so hard that week, but I’ve never had more fun writing. The other writers I met at the workshop were incredible and I’m honored to have met them.

In August, I attended the World Science Fiction Convention held in Reno, NV. I met many wonderful people there as well as running into people I became acquainted with at World Fantasy last year, and I’m now able to name them friends. The relationship building at the conventions is the big draw for me, but many of the panels were informative. I roomed with Griffin Barber during the convention and had a blast–he’s a great wingman and always entertaining (he’s also a darn good writer, check out his blog it’s great and he updates it quite often). I also had the great privilege of having multiple meals with Griffin and Mark L. Van Name (author of multiple novels and all-around great guy), as well as catch a movie (the Fright Night remake which was pretty decent really).

Also at World Con I had a short story critiqued by Jay Lake and Eytan Kollin. The critique went well and Jay said he could see that particular story published in Realms of Fantasy if I tightened it up a bit–very awesome. And speaking of Jay Lake, I attended the Hugo Awards (with Mark Van Name) which Jay emceed with Ken Scholes – the ceremony was very entertaining.

Griffin and I also met with author Chuck Gannon at what they call a kaffeeklatsch. We discussed what Chuck was currently working on as well as Eric Flint’s 1632 universe. Chuck was able to provide some guidance regarding stories Griffin and I are working on independently for the Grantville Gazette.

And one last note regarding World Con:  I may have stumbled upon a writing opportunity there that I’ll be discussing at World Fantasy this year in San Diego–very exciting.

I’ll probably attend MileHiCon this year now that I work in Denver and live close enough to Denver to make it worthwhile.

Well, that’s quite a bit for one post–hopefully I make posting to the blog more a regular thing!

So I decided to show the query letter to Juniper, one of my cats:

Apparently my query put her to sleep.

You think agents and editors fall asleep like that on queries? Probably.