Wednesday 29 June 2011

WIP Wednesday - The Freedom of Kathleen Fair

On Monday, I discovered Freedom. Or rather, on Monday, I was brave enough or perhaps tired enough to finally download Freedom. For the uninitiated, Freedom is a computer program that blocks the internet and the only way to override the program is to switch off your computer and restart it (and I'm far too lazy to do that). You can set it for between 15 mins and 8 hours. So far I've set it twice for two hours, although I might go for four or five hours this weekend, and it works a treat. Both days I wrote a little over 2000 words in two hours; I don't think I've done that in years, at least not regularly. Of course, I shouldn't really tempt fate before I've tested it for a month or so, but so far...

...Fan*blinkin*tastic. I might conquer the world after all, or at least my 'to write' projects.

Thus, I am 5034 words into The Broken Birdcage of Kathleen Fair. So far the story has spun a web of gargantuan furniture, mirrors, Hellish graffiti, Perfume, a dead boy, and a girl who was supposed to be meek and mild yet somehow barraged into the story with her fists raised.

The manuscript currently hovers around the line: You should have run, Kathleen Fair.

In other exciting news, Daily Science Fiction have accepted my story Exit Stage Life. For a moment, I thought I might have amassed enough pro-pay wordage sales to upgrade my HWA membership to Active, but by my rough calculations I'm still about 300 words short. You need three pro-rate stories published amounting to 7500 words, and I have five pro-rate with about 7200 words. Damn my brevity.

11 comments:

Anthony Rapino said...

Congrats! :-D Very cool news. Oh, I've been banging on that particular door (HWA active status) for a while now. I try not to think about it any more.

That Freedom program sounds scary. I'm not sure I could use it without breaking down and restarting my computer. I'm lost. :-p

Anonymous said...

Good idea to shut off the ol' Internet every now and then. And congrats on the DSF sale! Maybe we'll share the same week.

Deborah Walker said...

I like the sound of that Freedom, I can't go five minutes without checking my blog/googlereader/e-mail et al.

Congratulations on your DSF sale. Milo looks like they're responding this week, so fingers crossed for you.

And as for HWA, five pro sales and still not made it? Yikes, surely some kind of reappraisal of the rules is in order. Flash is cool.

Cate Gardner said...

It's an impossible dream, Tony. I swear the moment I hit the goalpost, they're going to move it. Freedom is great. I thought I'd end up switching my computer off but I haven't. For $10 it's really worth a try.

Wouldn't that be fabulous, Milo. Fingers crossed.

You too, Deborah. Oh man, I'm an email/twitter/google reader/forum poster addict, hence the need for Freedom.


*I feel like an advert. :D

Andrea Allison said...

I've tried turning the internet off but it keeps luring me back. It's become rather disturbing how attached it is to me. ;)

Congrats on the sale!

Fox Lee said...

"You should have run, Kathleen Fair."

Best line ever.

Michael Stone said...

Congrats on the sale! Freedom sounds good but...hours without the net? I'm scared!

Danielle Birch said...

Woot! Congrats.

And a fabulous line.

Cate Gardner said...

Thanks, Andrea

:D Natalie

Don't be scared, Mike, the net is still there when you return.

Thanks, Danielle

Katey said...

Congratulations on the sale!

Hm, that's very bad of the HWA. What's that about brevity being the soul of wit...?

Cate Gardner said...

Thanks, Katey.