This is the current version of the cover of Issue 6 of Shroud magazine, which will contain my story “The View From the Top.” Usually I get cover credit under my pseudonym, “and others,” but not this time! Click on the cover to get a larger version of the image.
Last night was the first weeknight in a long time when I didn’t watch anything on television. The CBS shows were all reruns, the Fox shows were all pre-empted by American Idol and SVU was a rerun, too. I used the time to good advantage, finally finishing the review I’ve been laboring over for a couple of weeks and turning it in. Something else x-ed off my to-do list.
This morning I started a new short story, one that I have only about a week to complete. I managed 950 words, and I think I have the tone and feel of the story, the setting and the main character. I also have a pretty good idea of where I’m going, though I’m not entirely sure yet how I’m going to get there. That’s the fun of the first draft: discovering the story as I write it.
I would probably have gotten more done this morning except I got sidetracked for a while. I wanted to look up a kind of pistol that would have been relatively common in the 1930s or 1940s, so I brought up my browser. I noticed a message that linked to a cartoon, so I spent some time looking at older comics by the same creator. Then I looked at a couple of message boards. When I maximized Word again, I realized that I hadn’t done what I set out to do in the first place. Arrgh! That’s why it’s sometimes a good idea to just fake it in the first draft and do the research later.
It feels really good to be writing fiction again, though. It’s been quite a while since I’ve worked on a story. There should be more of that in the near future, though I have a number of non-fiction things on the to-do list as well.
I started reading Kate Atkinson’s newest book, When Will There Be Good News?, last night. I’ve read her two most recent books, starting with Case Histories, and enjoyed them both a lot. There is always a crime element to them (and a continuing character as well) but they’re more about the people involved than the solution to the crimes. I’ll probably take the book with me on my trip to Chicago this weekend, though I’ll be concentrating on getting the short story finished on that trip, too.
