Grad school Archives - Annie Bellet

Posts Tagged ‘Grad school’

Another Tiny Update

Rejection number 10 (form letter) came in yesterday. Time to send that story out somewhere else.

On the “dancing, not quite from rooftops” level of awesome, I queried about another story that had been in the ether fora couple months and found that they’re holding it for consideration/second opinions. I’m going to interpret this is a win, even if they don’t take the story. It means I’m getting past the first glance, which is a mark of improvement. Go me.

I have an edit of that story also, so I responded thanking them for letting me know where I stood and offered up the edit if they’d like to see it. I like both versions (one is cleaner since more eyes went over it) but who knows what they’ll want? Anyway, I’m psyched that I’m at least being considered.

Meanwhile, I’m working on the novella which will never sell. Seriously, who buys fantasy novellas? I’m going to try to keep it under 17k words so I can at least enter it in the ‘Writers of the Future’ contest. I just finished Ken Rand’s (may he RIP) “Ten Percent Solution” and intend to put his ideas into practice to reduce the draft of the novella to as short as I can get it without hurting the story.

Then I need to type up Sparks and finish it. I know where the story is going now, and the logistics of the fort. All that I need to do is add some kick ass fighting and I’ll have story. I really like the concept, but I’m not too sure I can write good fights. I think I’ll enlist my husband to help me keep things realistic while still awesome. There’s always a balance in fight scenes between cinematic kick-ass and “he did what with that sword?”

After Sparks and A Prince Called Courage are finished, I swear I’m going back to Chwedl. I haven’t added a single new word to the novel in months (though I did do a bit of editing of the first 60k words). Time to finish that baby so I can move on to finishing my Albetross (ie Casimir Hypogean).

All right. Back to work on Novella that Won’t Sell.

Casimir What?

My writing class workshopped the first three chapters of Casimir Hypogean and I’m a bit surprised by the response. It was generally liked, a few even liked it better than Space Bones (the short story I had them read last time they workshopped me). The criticism I got was fairly mild stuff compared to the huge problems I thought they might find and all generally really helpful for showing me how to tweak things.

But the important thing was that a class of about 12 people, in which only 2 others even have read spec fic, everyone liked the characters, liked the setting, and wanted to read more.

Plus between my two pieces now I think I’ve got at least one convert since people are now asking for book suggestions if they want to start reading science fiction. That right there is a huge win.

Of course, Universe, if you are listening, getting into Clarion (even though with my sudden hospital bills I probably can’t afford to go) and getting Space Bones published would be a big win too. You know. If you’re bored, Universe.

Back to working on Prince Called Courage. I’m about half done with the novella, I think.

The Deep End

I jumped with both feet, so to speak.

Space Bones has been submitted to a pro market, Rusalka (poem) as well.

Now, I wait.

Oh, right, I hate wait.

Meanwhile, time to see what my workshop class thinks of the first three chapters of Casimir Hypogean.

Let Me Explain

No wait, there is too much. Let me sum up…

So far my workshop class this term is going far better though I’ve discovered sort of alarmingly that I really don’t like workshopping other people’s work (selfish as that sounds). It often devolves to arguing semantics, which is fun for a while, but week after week? Also, there was one story turned in by a published author that I didn’t actually do a critique response on because I found the writing and story impossibly boring. Not bad, just completely uninteresting in pretty much all ways. I couldn’t think of a nice way to say this, so I didn’t say anything.

And I just finished up my Clarion West application and sent it in. I formatted the two stories I wanted to send and realized that in the different font they were pages longer than they had been. So I had to choose between the two. I finally settled on Space Bones since I think the character interaction and dialogue is probably sharper than in Delilah. Also, the plot is more ambiguous and less biblically inevitable (as one friend put it). So there’s that. This is going to be the longest month ever, isn’t it? I’m not sure I dig the whole submitting thing.

So, to sum up:

I hate wait. Also, Nobu, finish the damn novel.

That’s all.

Shameless Pimping

I started a cafe press shop based on my travels and photography. There will also be a poetry chapbook up there soon. There are magnets, greeting cards, mugs, notebooks, and other neat gift or decorative ideas. Each features a photograph from one of my travels, everywhere from Venice to Bruges to Ireland.

Please check it out. All proceeds will go towards defraying the costs of graduate school.

http://www.cafepress.com/nobuart

Application is Done

So grad school application goes in tomorrow. Then I get to wait. And wait. I have no idea when they’ll tell me if I’m in or not. It could be months. Sigh.

And in other fun time news, my computer fizzled. I should know better than to ever shut down that ancient machine, because everytime I do it gives up the ghost and refuses to boot. I’m never giving it a rest again. It gets to run until the power goes out or the bloody thing implodes. Also, I’m giving in and putting together a machine that hasn’t seen the rise and fall of sentient reptiles. The only mildly scary part of this whole process is the fact that years of writing are stored on that damn computer. I know, I know. One should save often. And I keep meaning to get an external drive and back things up. But we’re talking about a girl who buys new panties instead of doing laundry and has been pretending her car will work again if she just ignores the fact that its dead for a month or two. Doing things the reasonable way isn’t very imaginative, now is it?

On the plus side, I do have copies of the things I need to work on for my other applications. So there is grace in the small stuff (and in gmail which saves us all)

Nothing to see here, move along

I am Jack’s wilted inspiration.

Hopefully once the whole grad application process is over I’ll find the ability to sleep and maybe with that sleep will come a sweeping revival of the cognitive process. It could happen.

I have a story to finish for the Clarion Writer’s West Workshop admission and less than a month now to finish that up and polish it. And by polish it I mean force it down the proverbial throats of a few friends via email and nagging until I get feedback.

Hopefully by the end of this week I’ll have a more useful or insightful update. Oh, and hi to my one reader, whoever you are.