Instead of plowing forward with the work in progress this morning, I did an editing pass on the 3000 words I have already. The story was written in an odd manner, so I wanted to make sure it held together. Certain passages required historical research, so I skipped those and continued on, then went back and filled in the details later. I think it stands up fairly well, and I only deleted a net handful of words during this pass. Changed quite a few sentences around, added a bit and took a bit away, but it’s still sitting at around 2900 words.
I’ve known about this for a little while but I kept quiet until the publisher made their announcement. My story “Red Planet” will appear in EVOLVE Two : Vampire Stories of the Future Undead, edited by Nancy Kilpatrick, scheduled to appear this fall. “Twenty-two of the world’s finest dark fantasy and horror writers presenting their visions of how vampires will evolve beyond 2012 and into the distant future.” Also in the anthology are stories by: Kelley Armstrong, Tanith Lee, John Shirley, Thomas Roche, Eileen Bell, David Beynon, Heather Clitheroe, Ivan Dorin, Erika Holt, Sandra Kasturi, Michael Lorenson, Ryan McFadden, William Meikle, Anne Mok, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Jason Ridler, Peter Sellers, David Tocher, Leanne Trembley, Steve Vernon, and Sandra Wickham. I did a double-take when I saw the name Peter Sellers!
I received my first royalty statement and check from Cemetery Dance for the Kindle version of The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly: 8 Secondary Characters from The Dark Tower Series. I was surprised and impressed. I’m also expecting the check for the Italian version of The Stephen King Illustrated Companion this week, so the year is off to a good start.
I also got a copy of Emma Straub’s story collection, Other People We Married, last night. Name sound vaguely familiar? She’s Peter’s daughter and I look forward to reading her work.
Thrillers: 100 Must Reads is the Readers’ Choice winner in the Best Dark Genre Book of Non-Fiction category of the 4th Annual Black Quill Awards. Yay us!
I know a large part of the country is facing a massive winter storm, so our little bit of winter probably isn’t of much interest. However, the cold front blazed through at about 6 a.m. when I was writing. I’d had a call from the emergency services a few minutes before, advising of strong winds and possible large hail. Changes in weather roll through here like a freight train. I’ve never seen anything like it elsewhere. We’re already down to 34° and still have another 10+ degrees to go before we bottom out. We won’t see 40° again until sometime after Friday, and the forecasters are currently saying there’s a 60% chance we’ll see snow, perhaps 1-3″ of it, on Friday. That’s unheard of. If it snows here, which it has been known to do a handful of times over the past twenty years, it almost never reaches the ground. Significant accumulation is going throw this place into a tizzy. Might just have to stay home (rather than risk my life to the crazy drivers out there who’ve never seen a snow tire in their lives) and make a pot of soup.
