On this morning thirty years ago, I was getting dressed for a genetics lecture at the University of Alabama in Birmingham. Our little black-and-white TV set was on, and we were watching the Challenger launch. I was watching when the O-ring seal in the right rocket solid rocket booster failed during lift off. It's hard to recall how I felt. I think ( Read more... )

This will be short. It's already 12:28 p.m., and I've lost more days than I care to count. I've damn near lost an entire year. The day is bright and clear, and my curtains are all drawn. It's 59˚F. In Minsk, that's summertime.

I have three stories I need to be writing, a novella and two short stories. A very short novella and two short stories. No ( Read more... )

It's not bad enough that the deadlines are presently smothering me, I have now apparently decided to hold my breath as well. Last week I wrote Chapter 7 of Alabaster: Boxcar Tales, and dutifully sent it away to my editors at Dark Horse, and they promptly sent it back to me with notes, some of which led to me makes some very minor tweaks. Ah, so at ( Read more... )

Cloudy, rainy, chilly, ugly here in Providence. Summer is dead.

From the realm of the unexpected and vaguely surreal, my editor sent me a blurb yesterday for Blood Oranges. The blurb is from Amber Benson. Yes, the actress who played Tara on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Anyway, here's the blurb: In the conjuring of Blood Oranges, Caitlin R. Kiernan ( Read more... )

Last night, I got word from my agent that my editor at Penguin likes the proposal for Blood Oranges (working title) quite a lot. So, it seems I have one less thing to worry about. Now, I just have to get the book writtenThe insomnia came again last night, but I resisted the urge to take Ambien ( Read more... )

On Thursday, I sent the proposal for Blood Oranges (working title, and almost certainly not the book's final title) to my agent. And now I'm waiting to hear back from her. I was hoping I'd get her thoughts before the weekend, but, alas, no. So...I wait. If she likes it as is, it will be sent along to my editor at Penguin. If Merrilee says the ( Read more... )

Having done the WoW.com interview, and having seen comments to it, and thinking over lots of comments I've heard inworld over the last year, I have drawn a rather depressing conclusion. It seems to me that the players who are most familiar with the game's "lore" are not interested in story, but are, instead, engaging in a sort of data mining, that ( Read more... )

There's not a whole lot to say about yesterday. I did not "hammer out" the proposal for Blood Oranges. Instead, I sat here all day, making notes for the book, trying to find something like a plot. That provisional plot I inevitably use for proposals, which often looks very little like the finished book. I think I may include the proposal for The ( Read more... )

A sunny, cold day here in Providence. I want nothing more than to go back to bed and read House of Leaves (it's sort of become my November book). Yesterday there were clouds.It was the sort of day that swallows light, permitting nothing but a pervasive grey. You turn on lamps to try to brighten a room, and the light is immediately diluted and lost ( Read more... )

A sunny, slightly chilly day here in Providence.

And I need to be far more awake than I presently am. And yet, I've already managed email. Go me.

Yesterday earned a W (=Work; X=Wrote, L=Lost) in my day planner, a definite improvement. I spent the day talking through my thoughts on The Next Novel, working title Blood Oranges. Spooky was kind and ( Read more... )