Completion

I finished a story last night. It's weird to think how long it's been since I felt that particular mixture of "hurry up!" and "don't let it end." It's a story I actually started last year, in fact I read its first few pages at Trinoc*con last year, assuming I would finish it shortly thereafter. Nope. A combination of things -- mostly due to starting my first year at Saint Rose. I finally dug the story out this spring, but the other big projects kind of overtook my time (yeah, and travel).

So there I was last night -- while Gene, too, was typing furiously for his deadline (how much happier he is without Flake-Wilkerson) -- getting near the end, impatient for it to get there, but wanting to get it right. After all, I'm going to read the complete version at Trinoc*con this weekend, so it gets immediate input. As always, there are bits that I hadn't quite figured out, so I had to wait until the characters figure out what makes sense. Stories don't always go exactly where you think they will. And there could be more to this one -- of course it's got two other things in front of it, fiction-wise, as I'm still finishing Unikirja and am four chapters into another novel.

Here's the other thing: It's going to take the whole hour to read it!

The story I thought would be a few pages longer turned out to be about 10K words, or 30 pages. Yikes! The major issue immediately is that most mags don't want stories above 5-7K tops. Although webzines (some of which do indeed pay) have relaxed those limits somewhat.

The topic isn't entirely niche either -- a zombie western. I think the title is good though (ask me if you want to know it, I'd rather not post it).

There's the hideous noise at my office on campus because they're rolling and digging the driveway. There's some kind of drilling or grinding going on at the school across the road here, so noise seems inescapable today. I just want to work! Argh.

It was really weird to find out that my pal Mildred has been keeping a writing blog since March and told no one. Of course, I immediately devoured it -- it's such a singular experience to get an unguarded glimpse into a friend's thoughts (and a thing done at one's own peril). I'm not linking to it, as she doesn't want it to be especially public yet (yes, a thing can be on the net and not public; there are thousands of blogs out there, so even looking for it, I couldn't find it until she gave me the URL).

Pearl, whom some of you know, has also been blogging in earnest, and not just as part of the group she's in, Short Punks in Love. She went to the BlogHer conference in Chicago, a gathering for women bloggers and wound up a sound bite on NPR.

You never know where stories will go...