Fantastic Folk Friday - The Swap (Plus a Giveaway)

I shall try not to squee too much, but I received two fabulous books in the mail this week. The Ultimate perVERSEities by Kurt Newton and Cthulhurotica edited by Carrie Cuinn.

And both were born of swaps... I sent Kurt and Carrie 'Strange Men' and they sent me their books. Swaps rock. This is my second swap with Kurt. I traded my novelette Olive Lemon for his Black Butterflies last year. This could become a habit. (And he wrote the nicest, quirkiest inscription inside).

And Cthulhurotica is double the goodness, not only is it edited by Carrie, but it also includes a KV Taylor story, Transfigured Night. Katey gets into all the best books. The anthology also includes stories and essays by Jennifer Brozek, Cody Goodfellow, Mae Empson, Nathan Crowder, Don Pizarro, Silvia Moreno-Garcia and many others.

Now onto the giveaway. Carrie sent me two copies of Cthulhurotica and I want to give one away to you. So what do you have to do to enter... Leave a comment saying you'd like to be entered in the draw.

And if you don't win you can find more information about Cthulhurotica and Dagan Books next anthology In Situ at their website. Actually, you can find out more info even if you do win. I'm generous like that. Closing date is Friday 18th February 2011, midnight (your time). And if you haven't yet picked up a copy of Strange Men let me know and I'll throw in a copy of that book too.

Theatre of Ideas

Five thousand word day for the win. I could have made it to six thousand but my need to declare it to the world via twitter led me to the main pc and it trapped me there for several hours. I swear, I've been hammering at the monitor but no one would let me out.

The rewrite of Theatre of Curious Acts is going well, the publisher didn't like the first fifty or so pages of the book and I've slashed them down to about ten, removed two characters, reduced the other two characters to bit parts and pulled my main MC from the rest of the book to the front (don't ask, the original version of Theatre had a complicated layout as it was set out as four novellas/novelettes and one short that all tied in together) and now the story starts in the trenches of The Great War with some nasty trench rats. The positive thing is, I've fallen in love with the story and am eternally grateful for this kick up the ass that will hopefully help me build a much better book.

In other news, the wonderful Kurt Newton has reviewed Olive Lemon on his blog. Happy, happy, happy. Plus, whilst panicking that I wouldn't have a story for the Cafe Doom competition this year and that I wouldn't have any flash stories to send to 52 Stitches when it reopens, I played with some words hoping to make an inspiring title. I found my title, I found my character, and they fit neither of the above. Oh, but it does have butterflies flying about my insides. Either that, or I have gas.

The Death of Frog & Other August Related Fact

Ah, beautiful August.

Sales: 2
Publications: 4 (52 Stitches, Sideshow Fables, The Daily Tourniquet, Bucket 'O' Guts press)
Approx Word Count: 36,107 approx.
Total Word Count 2009: 167,121 words
Stories out in submission land: Not certain, but I'm almost at code red.
WIP: The Horrifiques 37,089 - words (first draft); Dead Marigolds (at the thinking stage).

I think I’ve written more new words this month than I have in about the past three combined, of course I would need to go back and check my figures and I refuse to do that as it takes effort, but I have had a most fabulous ‘wordage’ month. Not that the words are fabulous, in fact as the amount I complete in a day speeds up (as it always seems to do the further into a book I get) I’m convinced the words are considerably stinky, but who cares. I’ve changed the title – possibly – I’m sitting with it for a while and I may or may not use the new one. I also think I’ll hit my original estimate of 45,000 words for the first draft (I was in panic mode days ago) as the story has taken a turn that I never expected – hence the title change.

No short stories this month – eek! I’m convinced, I’ll never write another short again.* Ooh, unless you count hint fiction – I wrote three of those. Yep, I’m counting them.

Oh, and I retired Frog – a moment of silence please.

*Expect a post sometime next year where I wail that I’ll never write something longer than a short ever, ever again.

The Not So Sour Chapbook

I'm imagining trumpeters and a fanfare playing in my room rather than the sound of the hoover that's vacuuming up the grass that I trod into the house after mowing the lawn.

Nate Lambert over at Bucket 'O' Guts press has accepted The Sour Aftertaste of Olive Lemon for their chapbook line.

There were definitely squeals, there were definitely tears, and there was almost a broken Cate at the bottom of the stairs - I ran down them too fast in my slippers. More squeals and then a question, 'What's a chapbook?' Another run up the stairs followed by interested party to show them the chapbooks on my bookshelf. Further squeals.

Insert Words Here

If only every day could be like the two that have just galloped past – that’s longhand for I had a good writing weekend.

Uninterrupted writing bliss with occasional breaks to twitter. Okay, more than occasional.

The Sour Aftertaste of Olive Lemon is almost complete. As much as I’ve loved writing the story and editing it, my favourite part was, on realising it was going to be too short for its intended market, setting the backbone of the story aside to write scenes that I could insert into the manuscript. I think it’s one of the least stressful parts of the writing process along with those magical words: ‘The End’.

Amen.