Looking Forward
Took Wednesday off for a sundry amount of things to do. Very productive day around the house and around town, knocking off things from the To Do list.
Thursday was a long day, but not because of work. Another day off for our "employee appreciation" day, the company taking all but a skeleton staff to Comerica Park to watch the Tigers and Devil Rays play. Since I'm a Cleveland Indians fan, of course I won some Tigers paraphernalia. Given the choice of baseball hats, I went for the orange one, since it matches the orange of Bowling Green's orange-and-brown school colors and I can wear it when visiting Lindsey at school this year.
The hat worked as a jinx as well, since Detroit lost, 8-1, and the Indians won later in the day against the White Sox. So, I'm going to wear the hat for the rest of the baseball season and hope the jinx continues. Plus, it's a neat looking hat.
The only odd/interesting note yesterday was a rejection from Black Static for "Tigerfly," which I'd shipped off week before last. As far as rejections go, it was great. Andy Cox had a lot of nice things to say about the story. It was a very helpful bit of editorial instruction there, the kind you dream about when you receive rejection letters and the editor has the time and inclination to say something other than "sorry, not for us." Don't get me wrong; I completely understand the reasons for form rejection letters. Any musings are strictly the writers.
Ultimately, what I took away from the rejection was a sense for Andy's editorial style/preference, and a different way to look at "Tigerfly" that might make it, upon rewrite, a much better story than what I've got at the moment. It probably illustrates my personal outlook on life, as I noted in a comment to one of matociquala's recent posts, where I noted how I'm keen about "redemption" as a theme within my fiction. My version of "Tigerfly" reflects that, and it wasn't the ending Andy expected or wanted as he read the submission.
A very interesting slant. Today, I've grown as a writer. And now I know that, once I've put the novel to rest, I've got some things I can do to make "Sacrifices" a sure-fire success. It's that moment where the tumblers click into the lock that ccfinlay mentioned way back about when he wrote "A Game of Chicken" and knew it was going to sell. So, I think I'll have two winners when the dust settles -- "Tigerfly" and "Sacrifices."
It even bodes well for the writing tonight and this weekend as I finally put the novel to rest. Melissa and the kids are off to Ohio again to visit family. I think I can knock out the rest of the rewrite, and then set it aside to work on the shorts before opening the monster again.
As a sidebar to finishing the novel, I'm in a quandary about the name. It's working title has remained as Fallen for the longest time. In honor to the album by Evanescence, which served as its soundtrack, but also in recognition of the book's general tone. But I've lost my taste for it and I think I'll need to solicit title suggestions from anyone who wants to look through the book as a beta reader. More on this later.
Thursday was a long day, but not because of work. Another day off for our "employee appreciation" day, the company taking all but a skeleton staff to Comerica Park to watch the Tigers and Devil Rays play. Since I'm a Cleveland Indians fan, of course I won some Tigers paraphernalia. Given the choice of baseball hats, I went for the orange one, since it matches the orange of Bowling Green's orange-and-brown school colors and I can wear it when visiting Lindsey at school this year.
The hat worked as a jinx as well, since Detroit lost, 8-1, and the Indians won later in the day against the White Sox. So, I'm going to wear the hat for the rest of the baseball season and hope the jinx continues. Plus, it's a neat looking hat.
The only odd/interesting note yesterday was a rejection from Black Static for "Tigerfly," which I'd shipped off week before last. As far as rejections go, it was great. Andy Cox had a lot of nice things to say about the story. It was a very helpful bit of editorial instruction there, the kind you dream about when you receive rejection letters and the editor has the time and inclination to say something other than "sorry, not for us." Don't get me wrong; I completely understand the reasons for form rejection letters. Any musings are strictly the writers.
Ultimately, what I took away from the rejection was a sense for Andy's editorial style/preference, and a different way to look at "Tigerfly" that might make it, upon rewrite, a much better story than what I've got at the moment. It probably illustrates my personal outlook on life, as I noted in a comment to one of matociquala's recent posts, where I noted how I'm keen about "redemption" as a theme within my fiction. My version of "Tigerfly" reflects that, and it wasn't the ending Andy expected or wanted as he read the submission.
A very interesting slant. Today, I've grown as a writer. And now I know that, once I've put the novel to rest, I've got some things I can do to make "Sacrifices" a sure-fire success. It's that moment where the tumblers click into the lock that ccfinlay mentioned way back about when he wrote "A Game of Chicken" and knew it was going to sell. So, I think I'll have two winners when the dust settles -- "Tigerfly" and "Sacrifices."
It even bodes well for the writing tonight and this weekend as I finally put the novel to rest. Melissa and the kids are off to Ohio again to visit family. I think I can knock out the rest of the rewrite, and then set it aside to work on the shorts before opening the monster again.
As a sidebar to finishing the novel, I'm in a quandary about the name. It's working title has remained as Fallen for the longest time. In honor to the album by Evanescence, which served as its soundtrack, but also in recognition of the book's general tone. But I've lost my taste for it and I think I'll need to solicit title suggestions from anyone who wants to look through the book as a beta reader. More on this later.