Seaside
I’ve been dealing with an illness in the family and haven’t been doing much since my last post but sitting by the phone waiting for various degrees of unhappy news and contacting family members.
However, yesterday I went down to the shore and watched the waves from the distant hurricane. The day was staring to cloud in, with the clouds moving from land to sea and a mist was starting to rise from the sand — it was just beautiful and the beach was far less crowded than it is in the summertime. (Of course the water is getting cold.) I had diner at a seaside family owned local restaurant (I was tempted by the lobster special but went for something more ordinary) and took a deep breath of the salt air as I left. The leaves at the tops of the trees are just starting to turn and the air isn’t summer air, any longer: I’ve bought a lot of apples and I’m looking forward to making baked deserts. I also had a long talk with a writer friend in which we compared notes about out respective genres.
I spent much of today and yesterday writing. A new piece. There may be a loose connection with the Astronaut’s Library novel, but I’ve yet to pin that down: it’s not important to the plot. I will need to consult a friend who is a lawyer: the narrator (a soldier) has skipped out on his duties (with reason) and by the next chapter he won’t get away with it any longer. I also read over this year’s International 3-Day Novel Contest novel again in order to think about the larger novel it is related to (the “Inspired by ‘The Ebony Frame’” novella.) I also checked my email after a few days away and found two significant rejection letters: one from a major Science Fiction publisher who took a long time to tell me the manuscript file I sent wouldn’t open (it may have been so long that I deleted the file with all their specific formatting requirements) and another from a magazine publisher replied with some specific criticisms of the story I sent out.
At the moment I feel unusually discouraged and like not-finishing the work I’ve spent the last two days working on; but that is because of the illness, not because my work has changed. I also feel like putting a banner up on this blog and my site: “Yes, you’re right. This work is part of a larger novel/series/universe. It was not possible to fit in quite everything without some omissions and compressions. I regret that the related novels are not yet in print, but I am doing everything I can in all haste to remedy that. There are certain faults in publishing the short stories based on a larger series of novels that no author can overcome. Be patient. I am working on it.”
Add to my count of works-in-the pipeline one novella (this year’s 3-Day Novel), the novella I began yesterday, and my notion for this year’s Script Frenzy (a play), and my poking dourly at the idea of doing NaNoWriMo this November.
Those aside, I have five finished things waiting to be sent out: that is unheard of, I try not to have any more than one or two items out of circulation no matter what else is going on. I will get to that and I will finish the new work. (This is the second thing I have written with a great deal of legal content and the second novel I have written with a lawyer as a narrator … I always ask the Narrator Lotto for “A Writer” but I tend to get narrators with professions (God help me, another Naturalist) that require a lot of background work.)
-Lisa Shapter
-Lisa Shapter
Posted by Lisa Shapter at 9/20/2010 7:23 PM 
Categories: Science Fiction, Narrator Lotto, The Astronauts Library, Rejections, Apples, Inspired by The Ebony Frame, NaNoWriMo, Writing, International 3 Day Novel Contest, Banner, Short Stories from Longer Works
Tags: Science Fiction Narrator Lotto The Astronauts Library Rejections Apples Inspired by The Ebony Frame NaNoWriMo Writing International 3 Day Novel Contest Banner Short Stories from Longer Works
Categories: Science Fiction, Narrator Lotto, The Astronauts Library, Rejections, Apples, Inspired by The Ebony Frame, NaNoWriMo, Writing, International 3 Day Novel Contest, Banner, Short Stories from Longer Works
Tags: Science Fiction Narrator Lotto The Astronauts Library Rejections Apples Inspired by The Ebony Frame NaNoWriMo Writing International 3 Day Novel Contest Banner Short Stories from Longer Works
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