With grateful thanks to Carlton Mellick III - I have been invited to submit a story to the horror anthology Up Jumped The Devil, edited by Doug Warrick (PS Publishing). This anthology features horror fiction based on Nick Cave's dark original music.

-Christopher

Upcoming Publications:

• "A Million Miles from Graceland" will be in an upcoming issue of Cemetery Dance.
  

I just finished a new story, Strong Strange Tree (working title). I started typing it on my iPhone last night on the way back from the Monterrey Bay Aquarium with the family. It took me about three hours to finish the draft, which was refreshingly fast. My friend, Peter V Brett, typed his entire novel The Warded Man on a blackberry, which sounds more complicated in comparison. Verdict? It's not a bad interface to write on in a pinch. With practice, it could even be the ideal pocket-sized scribe ;)

The work on the new novel (codename Wolf) is going well - which is to say it's an excruciating birth process. My lesson is in realizing this is how it's supposed to feel. Work on the existing novel (codename Wrestling the Dragon) is paused, but I feel another surge of it coming on now that I have had time to mull it over. I would not be surprised if the book I just started makes it to the finish line first.

I have a bunch of stories that are almost ready to hit the mail. They feel like horses kicking at the starting gates. As I strive to write fiction full-time, one of the hardest things to find is that balance point between doing work that feels perfectly polished, and doing work I know is professional. The truth is a professional doesn't have infinite time to spend on a draft. There comes a point where the manuscript needs to go out in order for the check to come in.

Everyone has to decide what this spot is for themselves. I hope to make my living solely writing fiction one day, but I keep my tech-writing day job so that I have the financial room to do my best fiction. Yet there is an inflection point a pro must find when the time spent polishing starts to outweigh the benefits. Finding this sweet spot has been a challenge for me. I've thrown more than a hundred hours each into some of the stories that I have written since Clarion West. Some have had the emotional investment of short novels. Each has needed all the time it took, as these weren't merely stories, but deep explorations of techniques I learned at the workshop.

I'm still reaching for that efficient point where I can turn out the best books and stories I can at a rate that can sustain me in this crazy writing life. I sense that as my skill grows, this magical point will get easier to reach.

I've been looking for a way to track my writing progress that breaks down the time I spend on projects - how long it's taken me to write the first draft of this story or revise that chapter. Most of all, how much writing time am I clocking daily? (I'm ramping back up to full-time fiction writing this quarter). Enter an amazing and totally free little software program for PC, Mac, and Linux:

timeEdition.


Not only does this simple program keep track of whatever projects you are working on, it posts the results in real-time to your Google or outlook calendar, so that you have an easy graphical display of your activities for every day, week, or month. You can also configure timeEdition to beep or stop timing when you spend too much time away from your computer.

It's simple, easy to use, and it has gotten me to work harder at my writing. Yesterday I clocked in 8 hours and 13 minutes of pure writing time. A quick look at my Google calendar tells me how much time I spent on each story, what I did, and when I took my breaks. The programs internal statistics break down how much time I spend on activities like drafts or editing for any project or all my writing.

It's not the fanciest gadget in the world, but it does exactly what I need. ; )

I'm very proud of my writing output today.

1. I did a major chunk of a novella that I've been rewriting for Writers of the Future
2. Started a new story, and
3. Started a new novel that demanded that I break ground now.

This on top of the novel that I'm already amidst should prove to make this an interesting month. =)

My reading of Tim Pratt's wonderful "Incubus" is up at podcastle. Listen
and enjoy!

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

This is going to be my first World Fantasy. Being a professional con, I have promised Maggie that I wont kick down (any more) doors, demanding where the party is. ;)

We'll see about that...

I can't wait to see all of you there!

I have to say that I am very proud of my Clarion West class - the legendary class of 2008.  Many of us have had acceptances and publications this year - in no small part to the way that we are still chatting on the class list and by phone, still meeting up, still critting each other's work, and still competing in class contests to see who can get the most stories out the door. It's stirring to see how active we all are, and how close we've kept more than a year out. 

We've got another class contest starting up for the most fiction written and submitted for the fourth quarter of 09 (grand prize - the winner's face on the coffee mug that we'll all drink our morning Joe from). I can feel my pulse quickening. It means a lot that I'm already writing regardless, but it means even more that I'm writing with my class, and pushing myself harder and farther than I may otherwise. Knowing that all my classmates are busy typing with me makes all the difference in the world. We're still together in spirit - and soon we'll all gather downstairs in our unbroken circle for the new day of revelations to begin. 


Update:

For a reasonably complete list of our collective publications so far see my friend carolryles new post   Clarion West 2008 Publications.

As we come to the close of the Clarion West Write-a-thon, I have to say that  I learned much from trying to do so much writing (except this time without the shield from everyday life that the workshop provides). I reassessed my goals and succeeded with most of what I was shooting for.

The one thing I did not complete by write-a-thon's end: The Clarion West Class Notes. These I will continue to work on and post for the benefit of all those wonderful folks that contributed. While I could have just transcribed my notes verbatim, I realized that I was cheating myself (and my readers) in not thinking these lessons through and including commentary on what they are unlocking in me one year later. The pace of things during the write-a-thon did not offer a lot of time for reflection, so the class notes now will be posted at their own pace, and the public unveiling will occur in their own time. 

Thank you so much to everyone who donated. I could not have done it without you. 

      

I'm almost on target with my write-a-thon writing goals. Week 2 story draft is done (Chronophage) and I'm running a bit behind on week 3 (The Company You Keep). The pressure is on. I barely have time to keep up with my daily routines, which is starting to feel more than a little bit like I'm back at the workshop in Seattle. ;)

I SAID I was crazy to do all these story drafts AND post my Clarion West 2008 lecture notes, but I'm hard at work on those too and I'll get the first installment up here very soon.

Thank you so much to the people who have contributed to my Clarion West write-a-thon page this week: Cat Rambo, Christa Cassano, Debbie Notkin, and Rachel Heslin!

I'm lucky to live along the Los Gatos Creek Trail. The windy fire roads and single-track along the lake, combined with the paved section that runs through Los Gatos, means that I can ride my bike to work. The journey from door to door is approximately eight miles each way according to Google maps (the exact distance will soon be conformed once use my new iPhone biking GPS app). This is just within the limits of doable for a beginner and a fast track for a dedicated rider.

This was no easy path to start on. I used to be that dedicated rider that hit the trails constantly, but I'm not in the bike shape I was at 19. The first weekend test ride to work a month ago took me over an hour to get to work and over two to get home (It's a steep elevation climb to get back up into the hills above the Lexington Reservoir). Still I was determined to get hard-bodied again and save the planet in the process. ;)

My progress has been fantastic. I feel suffused with new energy, I'm losing weight, and I look forward to bike days. My speed is increasing quickly. My best time to work was today - at 38 minutes. My best time home was yesterday at 1:12 (and I'll beat it today if I can). I just graduated to commuting by bike three days a week, and in time, it will be every day (except for days I need the car to run errands).

The best part is what I love about mountain biking - The sensation of flying through nature, of floating over the hilltops and rocketing down the slopes in the still dawn. Small rabbits run alongside and flee down the rust-rock trail. Birds surge from the brush and fly out over the lake. You yell and catch air as the sun reaches up to grab the sky.

What better commute than this? 

My reading of "Nine Fingered Maria" by Hillary Moon Murphy is now up on Podcastle. It's a tale of loneliness, magic and severance.

Listen and enjoy...


 

As some of you may know, I am writer for this year’s Clarion West Write-a-Thon. That means yours truly will be pounding the keys like a madman for the next six weeks of Clarion West, trying to raise funds for our great non-profit program.

Clarion West literally changed my life. A year later, I'm still dizzy from the amount of word-smith gold piled into my brain in six short weeks; of the dozens of friendships born there and since with great writers and editors; of all the doors that have been thrown wide open. It is my goal to share this experience with as many emerging writers as possible.

You can find my Write-A-Thon page here at this link, along with a PayPal button. My goal is to relive my CW experience by writing a story for every week of the workshop, just like the students that just started the 2009 session this week. Feel free to send a donation now, or with every story I write as encouragement. Know that every dollar helps send a talented new writer toward an education that's priceless.

I'll do one better. In addition to writing all those stories for the workshop, I'll publish my class notes for all the writing secrets bestowed upon us by our teachers - Chuck Palahniuk, Cory Doctorow, Paul Park, Mary Rosenblum, Sheree R. Thomas- and most of all the fabulous Connie Willis, who is being inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame this week.

ANYONE who contributes to Clarion West (to my page or anyone else’s) will receive instant access to the Writing Secrets of Clarion West 2007 notes (just post a message here that you've donated and I'll filter you in). I'll post the notes weekly for each instructor. At the end of the Write-a-Thon I'll unlock most of them for everyone to read - but for those of you who are truly invested in writing, and the dream of Clarion West - you'll have all of them now.

News! - because of Amazon.com's $25,000 matching grant, whatever you give will be doubled. Of course this amount needs to be first reached in order for Clarion West to receive anything, so contributing this year is doubly important.

Thank you!

I have two free movie tickets to give away for tonight's 5:00 PM showing of Audie and the Wolf At The Roxie in San Fransisco!!!

These are from the fabuolus folks at SF in SF. Alas, I cannot make it up to the city, so these two free tickets are up for grabs. If you want to go, send me a message and I will tell you how to pick them up at Will-call.

Wooooot! The new Star Trek is FRIGGEN AMAZING!!! It boggles my mind that they pulled it off so well. It's not just eye-candy, it was characterization and dialog. The story is summer blockbuster fare, but it has major traction and ties itself up neatly. The cast practically upstages the original iterations. This I was not expecting. I must have been grinning like a madman throughout the entire finale. When was the last time a summer action movie did that to me? =).  I'll be seeing this one twice.

Cryptic Studios rocks.  They rented out the theater and paid us to take the afternoon off to go see it. Rarely did such a rabid posse of geeks whoop it up in unison for such a worthy film.  

My job clearance has officially gone through. I am the Technical Writer for Cryptic Studios, the game company that developed the wildly successful City of Heroes and City of Villains. Currently we're working on the highly anticipated Champions Online and Star Trek Online games, as well as other cool secret projects. I'm as eager to start work as a kid is to run outside on the first day of summer.

This is exactly the kind of company I get passionate about - one filled with new and interesting challenges that leaves me pumped up for my own creative work. I have a lot of magazines, anthologies, and contests I'll be writing for this year. Though it's been awesome writing fiction full-time since Clarion West, it's heartening to come home from a job I enjoy, and get to work on the day's creativity.

Who knows? A year or two down the road at Cryptic and I may get to contribute part of my attention toward story development, like my Clarion West guest instructor Marc Laidlaw. Ultimately though, the thing I like about tech writing is that it is such a left-brain activity that it in no way depletes my desire to sit down to my own right-brain creative writing. Considering how quickly my fiction writing career has accelerated since Clarion West, I'm happy to have the means to focus on it. =)

Woot! After a long period of starving writer-hood, I have just received an offer from an awesome company as their full-time technical writer. Non-starving writer-hood here I come!!!

More details to follow once the offer is officially announced...

I, and my CW classmates albionidaho  and Owen, hit the Geek Reading event for the Electronic Frontier Foundation on March 21. It was a fantastic event, featuring our instructor Cory Doctorow, as well as Rudy Rucker, Annalee Newitz, and the ever fabulous Charlie Jane Andrews. I was interviewed by VidSF as a local speculative fiction writer and was amazed to find that I made it onto the news reel along with the guest speakers.

• You can catch the news clip here!

It was great catching up with Cory. He ran over to the front row as soon as he recognized us and gave us hugs. We all caught up on life and writing as he stood dining on a box of Asian take-out. I got him so sign a copy of his latest book for me: (C)ontent Selected Essays on Technology, Creativity, Copyright, and the Future of the Future. I've really been looking forward to this book since he gave us a peek at his views on the future in his lectures at Clarion West. The book is chock full of great ideas that fit the purpose of the event: the privacy and freedom of technology advocated by The Electronic Freedom Foundation.

We are making the future right now, and we have to keep that future free so that we can use this technology to share our ideas and preserve our freedom.

They say that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. We must be more vigilant than ever before in our rapidly expanding electronic frontier. This is not just our future freedom at stake - it is our present life and commerce, and our past repository of history. The people can use these tools to liberate and communicate, or these tools can be used on the people to spy and control. Many will seek to control these tools (and us) if we don't take a stand. 

Make your stand here. 

I've had some free time to write and process since Clarion West 2008. My last technical writing contract ended just before last year's workshop began, and I haven't found one since. I knew I was taking a risk in leaving the job world to attend the workshop. Clarion West 2008 was worth the risk. The workshop turned out to be beyond all my hopes and dreams. I wouldn't trade my experience for a million dollars. =)

Still, the tiny nest-egg I built up to attend the workshop has pretty much run out, and it would be nice for me to keep a roof over this writer's head. Silicon Valley is pretty short of Tech Writing jobs, as you can imagine. I've still got my resume out and I remain hopeful. Until then, I remember how to live as a starving writer.  I just started a summer job helping at wedding events (with the deep gratitude to my friend Nancy). It should pay enough to keep me fed and get me through the summer. A lot of friends are without jobs now, and I'm grateful for what I do have.

If you hear of a job opportunity for writers (or other interesting gigs) in the bay area, please post a link or send an email. I'm keeping an eye out for myself, and for several friends as well.

My reading of Nina Kiriki Hoffman's "Immersed in Matter" has been published at Podcastle. It's an amazing story about shape-shifting and the magic found deep within our inner nature. It's my first of many readings I will be doing for podcastle and other audio magazines. I hope you enjoy it.

http://podcastle.org/2009/03/17/podcastle-044-immersed-in-matter/

Please feel free to spread the word! =)