This one is for my Bro...

It's like good news central here. My brother heard this morning that he had won tickets to see the Sterephonics in London and to meet them at a party later. I don't have the full details as he has gone racing off to London as the party is today. Here is my favourite Stereophonics song.



For him it's the equivalent of my getting a phone call from Tim Burton saying he wants to make The Poisoned Apple into an animated musical, and the same day Jack Bauer bursts into the reception at work and saves me from a paper cut.

My good news - I won £10 on the Lottery. YAY! Cate sits down and realises her news isn't quite as cool. Better news, Gustavo Bondoni has blogged about the cover of the Return to Luna anthology. Once again congratulations to all those who made it into the antho, I am forever jealous.

I almost had my foot on the moon...

Eric Reynolds of Hadley Rille Books today announced the results of the Return to Luna competition. Congratulations to all the winners.

Return to Luna Winning Stories and Honorable Mentions

The Winning Return to Luna Entries:

"Visual Silence" by M.C. Chambers - The Grand Prize Winner
"Black Ice" by F.R.R. Mallory
"In Their Own Words" by Brenta Blevins
"Apples on the Moon" by Karen T. Smith
"Best Gift" by Brandon Bell
"Growing Season in Mare Frigoris" by Benjamin Abbott
"Coping Mechanisms" by Gerri Leen
"Joe the Martian Goes To The Moon" by Ken Edgett
"Final Arrangements" by J.M. Fisher
"One Last Haul" by Mark J. Soppet
"Ménage à Trois" by Gustavo Bondoni
"The Return" by David Schibi
"The Platinum Desolation" by Andrew Barton
"Coyote and the Gamblers" by Shauna Roberts
"Book of the Dead" by Sarah A. Eastly
"Misdirected" by Adam Israel

The Honorable Mentions:

"Fermi's Paradox" by Giorgio Gaviraghi
"The Foothills of Shackleton" by David L. Clements
"The Day" by Russell A. Dale
"SMOG" by Jean-Michel CALVEZ
"Jumper: First Cat on the Moon" by Michael Janzen
"Growing Up" by Karen Szymczyk
"Moondust" by Kate Kelly
"Winter Solstice" by Jamie Eyberg
"Stargazing" by Alex Moisi
"Paying the Price" by Dorothy Diehl
"Treading the Regolith" by Catherine J. Gardner
"Lunar Decisions" by Eric Conrad


That's my third so-close but no-dice hit this month, plus one mega so-close but no dice last month (shush! we don't talk about that). Next month I'm scheduling world domination or more chocolate...

Actually every time I look at that list I really can't believe that my name appears at all. I keep expecting to go back and find it erased.


In other news: The first draft of The Poisoned Apple II (the I'm so in need of a title project but my writer is too lazy to think of one - boo her) is nearing completion. I've also been working (writing longhand so I have no idea of the word count but it's not huge - yet) on my Matchsticks book, and have an idea for a chapter book/picture book, and another MG book. Oh, and there's all those tempting anthologies that I want to try out for... Oh dear, my feet are tingling* I may be about to spontaneously com...


*Nope, didn't blow up, I'm still here - I just got writer's butt because I hadn't moved from my seat in like hours.

Coming Soon

Received an email this morning from Eric Reynolds over at Hadley Rille Books re the Return to Luna contest. I should note that it was a Round Robin email and not a personal, hey I just had to tell you Miss Catherine Gardner. Anyway, back to the email: they will be announcing the results on August 9th.

AUGUST 9TH!!!!

Thank God that's a Saturday.

And so the nail biting increases. If you've checked out any of their previous anthologies you will understand just how much I want to get in - they are Quality (yep, with a capital Q).

Hair-Pulling Nail-Biting Frenzy!!!

I've gone a whole week (plus one day) without working on a short story. YAY! As I have 25 stories out with editors, plus two waiting in the wings for submission dates to open, I knocked myself on the head (HARD!) and settled down to work on the second book in my 'The Poisoned Apple' series. Check out the meter to the right for the current word count.

My other MG book 'Matchsticks, Moths & Machinations' is in hibernation because a) it doesn't want to be an MG, and b) can't decide if it wants to be YA or Adult. It's based on a 3,500 short story I wrote that came back from critique with demands the readers wanted a back story and more! more! more! I was also writing it with my typical MG humorous slant but I think this is a story that needs to be darker and the humor trimmed back. I'm hoping to get the first draft of TPA II' finished by the 16th August (that's only just over 1200 words a day so it should be doable if I give up the constant internet surfing), then I'll set it aside and get to work on Matchsticks during my 2 weeks off work. YAY! Sorry, I get excited at the idea of not having to get up at 5:20 Monday thru Friday.

Okay, so back to the short stories. Of the above 25 submissions those I am most anxious about are (drum roll please):

Dwelling - at the Harvest Hill anthology
Frog & The Mail-Order Bride - at Andromeda Spaceways
The Graveyard of Dead Vehicles - at the Wolfsongs anthology
Flying Dutchmen - at the From the Asylum anthology
PlasticineCoffins.com - at the Ghosts in the Machine anthology
Treading the Regolith - my attempt at sci-fi at the Return to Luna anthology
Sneakers on Asphalt - at the Terrifying Toys competition
Cold Coffee Cups & Curious Things - Malpractice anthology
The Flat-Packed Golfer - at Stymie

Ooh, and my wee 100 worder (which I wouldn't normally stress about) 'Halloween Watch' which is submitted to Necrotic Tissue's BITE contest. We are supposed to hear next week (August 1st) if we've made it or not.


Oh, and very, very, very excited, stressed, excited, excited, excited about The Poisoned Apple. Please don't let me jinx myself.


And the ones I am not nervous about/given up on:

The Last Motel Room - which has been out with Horror d'oeuvres since last October.
Yee-Haw! - the OMG! anthology

Have a good word-filled weekend!

Moonwalking

I've almost finished working on 'Treading the Regolith', my story for the Return to Luna anthology. Fingers crossed.

It's my first attempt at writing a story that has no hints of horror, fantasy or the surreal and I may well have gone completely off-track. When it comes down to it does it matter? Okay yes, but... I'm currently half-way through the Desolate Places anthology (published by the same publisher) and I've noticed a few of the stories (though set in sci-fi land) are human based and I've tried to capture that feel in my story. Again, a wee bit of a departure from what I do, but then as I don't always know what I'm doing there's nothing new there. Did any of that make any sense? Probably not.

It's out for critique at the moment - gulp!

I've pilfered the picture for this post from the internet. Now that I finally have a gorgeous, wee-bit expensive (for me) digital camera I was going to take my own picture of the moon but wimped out. Maybe when I post news of a rejection/acceptance.

Off topic: It's gorgeous weather here and I'm cooped up in a stuffy little study - now that's dedication to my art.