My short story Rule of Threes, which was published in audio form at Sniplits last year, is this week’s featured story, which means you can download it for free for the next few days.

Which is just totally neat.

If you prefer reading over listening, a shorter version was published at Crossed Genres earlier this year. Audio, ebook, online, print — how many options do you want, right?

Anyway, you can download the story right off the Sniplits front page. (That star rating doesn’t look good, does it? I’m not quite sure why it’s still so low — I know for a fact several other people have voted. Chalk it up to a bug?)

In less self-promotional news, I’m taking things wonderfully easy since finishing my novel. I’ve finished three books in the past few days, just started on my beta reading binge (two fulls and three partials, with another partial on the way — rock on), and plan to dig into my Clarion West instructors’ books soon.

Now I just need to get back into the habit of commenting on other people’s blogs semi-regularly and we’re all set. Forgive me for slacking!

First, and briefly: LOOKIT.

That right there? My name. And my words. In this book. AWESOME.

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Last year, my participation in March Madness was a success — I wrote the first 40k of The Hands of Cally Wu that month and even ended up taking the last few days off.

This year probably won’t be quite as productive, but it’s still good to set goals. This time, I have several smaller ones:

• Finish the portrait I’m currently working on (more on that tomorrow)
• Finish rough draft of sortakinda-commissioned novella I started last month
• Make said novella suitable for beta reading (ie. revise out the major suck and cruelly inflict the rest on a CP or two)
• Finalise novel preparation work — and start writing if the mood strikes me

I actually tend to prefer setting major goals and focusing on those (often to the detriment of everything else); it seems to be how I work best. Still, I’ve been procrastinating on all of these things, and they all need doing — especially the novella, as I worry it’ll just keep getting postponed due to novel work otherwise — so I hope that something like this will clear up my to-do list and allow me to dive headfirst back into novel-ing. Which, let’s face it, tends to be priority #1 anyway, so it’s only fair I give everything else some headspace every now and then.

Are any of you participating in March Madness?

I can’t remember the last time I was so excited about dead trees*, but hey, sometimes you have to try new things.

That’s kind of a round-about way of announcing that the first quarterly edition of Crossed Genres just went live. It includes my short story “Rule of Threes” from their most recent issue, plus a whole heap of other no doubt fabulous stories that I can’t wait to dig into as soon as my own copies arrive.

(After I flip to the page I’m on, of course. This is my first print sale and I’m all giddy at the thought of seeing my name on paper.)

If you’re interested in taking a look, the book is available on Amazon, CreateSpace, and in various ebook formats from the publisher’s website.

Also: how nifty is that cover?!

* Actually, it’s up for debate: Am I more excited that a story of mine is seeing print, or that something actually pops up when you search for my name on Amazon? You decide.

It’s February 1st — which means the 27th issue of Crossed Genres is live! Go read my story “Rule of Threes” if you’d like to see teenagers die gruesome deaths in the Australian desert.

I mean, really, who wouldn’t? Right? Right! … Right?

Note to self: make some time in the next few days to check out the fancy stories/writers I’m sharing an issue with.

In different news, I got my agent edits this afternoon, which is a) LIGHTNING FAST and b) really exciting.

I’m going to have to get used to all these things I hadn’t expected. The weirdness of saying ‘my agent’–yeah, I saw that coming. But no longer needing to check QueryTracker on a daily basis? Merrily skipping agent interviews now that I no longer have to check if they happen to be into my brand of fantasy? That’s just bizarre.

Back to work!

… from all the lovely comments here, on Twitter, at the Secret Agent contest, on AW, in e-mail, in your own blogs… You guys really know how to make a super exciting thing even better. I’ve been walking around with a goofy smile on my face all day.

In this grueling in-between period — I’m still working on that ‘patience’ thing us writers are apparently supposed to have — I’m aiming to keep busy. I put together a Scrivener file for this really neat superhero novella I’ve been planning for a while. I want to get a start on that this week. Can’t hurt to get some new words out, right?

I’m also trying to get back into the Always Read the Fae Print mood properly in order to figure out the sequel. I actually made a start on that sequel back in November ’09, but never got far, and after that… well, I honestly didn’t think I’d ever get a chance to write it. So many other projects have taken up space in my head since then that it’s taking a while to get back into the right mindset. Good thing I still have a soundtrack for it in my iTunes — that’ll speed things up!

I also have even more shiny news to share: my short story “Rule of Threes” will be in the February issue of Crossed Genres. The month’s theme is ‘tragedy’. Truly, there’s nothing more tragic than man-eating Australian salamanders. Some of you might’ve listened to this story back when it was published at Sniplits; the version that will be published now is a good 1000 words lighter, so it should be a much tighter read. I’m really excited, not just because of the obvious, but also because the story will be in the magazine’s first quarterly publication — which makes this my very first print sale. You have no idea how long I’ve been looking forward to that.

So basically: life is super exciting. To be continued.

… and the first, too, if I’m not mistaken.

Sigh.

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First off: Sniplits is having an awesome Thanksgiving promo. Select up to three short stories, then enter the coupon code ‘Thanks2010′ on the check-out page before September 30th — and you get the stories completely free! (I believe you do need an account for this… but hey, those are free too.)

Now I’d of course suggest my story Rule of Threes, but I’m sure there will be plenty of other stories to your liking, too. (And should you feel so inclined: I’m quite eager for that star rating to change…)

I listened to the story again the other day, and I cannot get over how weird it is to hear someone else tell the story. It’s so wildly different from how it sounds in my head… which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, of course! One of the awesome things about writing is seeing all the different interpretations of your work.

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On to the WIP Wednesday part of the post: Remember how a few weeks ago I said that instead of doing NaNo, I’d be editing a book? Remember how I’ve been suspiciously quiet about said editing? That’s because it didn’t happen. Between beta reading, portrait drawing, and stressing out over agent matters, I’ve been distracted and never got beyond making a to-edit list.

I know, I know. You hereby have permission to flog me.

On the bright side, I anticipate being done with beta reading before the end of the month. Then it’s time for some short story edits, and then I plan to – finally – buckle down and finish the rough draft of Heirs.

I attribute the sudden change in focus to, well, the agent offer. If I could get an offer on a book that I hadn’t touched since April, I can totally get one on a newer-and-better book, right? Especially since the market for this genre is less flooded?

Right.

Work with me, here, I’m trying to think positively

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Anyhow, in order to actually show something: Today I visited the frame shop to pick out a frame and matting for a commission. The commissioner gave me free reign, which was wonderful, but it didn’t make the choice any easier…

That’s after at least half a dozen frames were dismissed.

Anyhow, with this portrait finally done, I’ll post some work-in-progress pictures soon. Should be fun!

Meet the Face-Your-Manga’d version of Cath, protagonist of “Rule of Threes”, my short story which is now live over at Sniplits.

She’s usually not that smile-y.

It is so freaking weird to hear your own story told in someone else’s voice. It’s all different! And weird!

But kind of awesome, too. Mostly that.

NaNoWriMo: T minus 101 minutes.

Yeah, I’m doing it again this year, and despite last year’s success, I’m a nervous wreck. Instead of feeling comforted by knowing I can do this, I’m fretting over whether I can do it again. Sigh.

On the bright side, I got my first acceptance in over a year last week: Sniplits will be publishing my short story “Rule of Threes”. Yeah – that’s the one with the man-eating salamanders. I’m mad excited, and really curious to hear it in audio form. That should keep me motivated for a few weeks, right?

Besides, this should be a fun project: werewolves, fae, Germanic gods, half-changelings, assassination plots… good times, good times.

From that description, you might gather that this is a sequel to last year’s NaNo book, Always Read the Fae Print, with a working title of Changelings You Should Know About. Being a sequel, it’s low-pressure – I’m not writing it with the goal of eventual publication (that’d be a bit presumptuous, considering I haven’t even started querying book one), but a) as practise and b) to get the voices in my head to shut up.

As a side project, I’ve made it my personal goal to convince as many people as possible to incorporate werewolves into their NaNo plot. Current count: 3.

I’ll keep y’all posted.

Hour and a half left before I start writing. I guess I’d better go stare at my outline some more. Wish me luck!

So Wednesday is technically over here, but most – if not all – of my readers are west of my time zone, anyway. You’ll forgive me, I’m sure.

So, much of today was spent editing my short story Rule of Threes in hardcopy. I even took a photo of my writing space:

That’s right. Sun. Be jealous.

The obligatory snippet:

      There was a car, there—a ute that had swerved off the track hours ago and come to a screeching halt, ending with its front facing town once more. The driver hung over the wheel, dead.
      From this distance, Cath couldn’t see how many creatures were gnawing on him—in this darkness, she couldn’t see anything at all.
      The engine was still going, an irregular whine in the distance. If no one came soon, the ute was their way out. They could make a run for it and tear out the body and the creatures. They’d have to ignore their own cars, parked right below in the open garage, Marlene’s white and battered and Cath’s blue and sleek and spattered with the neighbour’s blood.
      She’d loved that car, once. It’d be faster than the ute, faster and closer, but they had no choice. If they went inside for keys—
      Marlene had gone inside for keys.

Yeah, at this rate, I’m going to have the entire danged story up here. I’m waiting to hear back from an Australian friend who was kind enough to beta for me to get the setting/dialect right, but I’m hoping to get these edits finished this week… and that’ll mark the longest I’ve worked on a short story to date. I started this danged thing in February or March. I’m happy with how it’s turning out, but I’ll be even happier to be done with it after so long.

Anyway, it looks like things are reversed for a change – I’m doing my writing on paper, and my art on the computer. Wild. Here’s a preview of what I’ve been working on for most of this week:

And with that, I bid you good night.

To boot? Many of our drug-related problems are, in fact, caused by tourists from countries with less liberal drug policies than ours. Just thought I’d casually point that out.

Yesterday, I polished and submitted a flash piece I’ve been working on for the past to weeks or so, In The Details. I don’t do a lot of flash, but I really enjoyed it. I’ll definitely need to give it another try.

This means that on the writing front, I’ve just got my short story Rule of Threes left to edit and submit before I can get back to working on Wielders. In WIP Wednesday tradition, here are the opening paragraphs from Rule of Threes.

(To jog your memory: man-eating salamanders.)

      Only one bar left in the upper-right corner of the screen. The battery wouldn’t last much longer. In the left corner were no bars at all — there hadn’t been since Cath’s arrival the day before. Angular green numbers told the time: nearly ten at night.
      Cath lowered her mobile. In the distance, the tower jutted high into the air, already fading into the background with the sun no more than a glimmer in the distance. It would go dark soon.
      She couldn’t see them in the dark.

My blog also got a make-over. It’s still very basic, but it fits my website now. More importantly, it doesn’t squeeze together the truckload of images I posted yesterday like my other layout did. One of these days, when I find a bit of spare time under the couch, I’ll make it prettier.