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January 31, 2006
Praying for Guidance
Praying for Guidance...that’s me today.
If you believe in the power of prayer, would you pray for me?
If you’re not the praying sort, I’ll take good vibes too.
I wish I always knew the right thing to do. I wish God would give me a clear, undeniable yes or no answer to my questions. But that’s not His way. And I’m sure there is a good reason for that.
So, I’m praying for guidance, the power of discernment.
What is that old quote I used to rely on?
Ah, I remember…I called it Selena’s Prayer and it was simply this:
“God grant me the wisdom to know the right road and the strength to walk it."
Posted by Selena at 09:43 PM | Comments (0)
January 30, 2006
New Story Published at DKA
There's a great new story over at DKA!
It's "The Star Inside the Swastika" by Ben Burgis.
Cruise over and check it out!
Here's a little tease for you:
"Fritz Handler is a good son, a good friend and a good soldier. As a fighter pilot in Hitler's elite Luftwaffe, he simply wants to serve his country and follow in the footsteps of his illustrious father, a Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology who served heroically as a young man in the Great War. Fritz thinks he knows who he is and what he wants, but when he starts to hear strange and frightening voices in the skies above Poland, all of that begins to change."
It's the first one I've published as Managing Editor. It feels great.
Posted by Selena at 06:31 PM | Comments (0)
January 29, 2006
Too Busy to Blog
I’ve been too busy to blog. Sorry about that.
Here’s the latest news:
I am still hoping to have another story published at DKA by the end of the month. Not another one of mine, I mean another story by another author. It’s in the works. I’ll let you know when it is up.
My cholesterol is back into the normal (if somewhat high) range. Yippee.
I’m still trying to watch what I eat though because it’s still kind of high, and I still need to lose a few pounds, and well, I just need to eat healthier. So, I’m having toast for breakfast and satisfying my chocolate cravings with chocolate soy milk (which is actually good for you, go figure).
Gotta go. It’s another busy day. I am realizing that I need some time off soon.
Happy Sunday everyone.
Posted by Selena at 09:16 AM | Comments (0)
January 24, 2006
In the news…
I’ve been very busy with my new FTLOI* job but I’m, you know, loving it!
There are three stories accepted and in the works at DKA. I hope to have one published by the end of the week, and maybe another by the end of the month. So don’t forget to visit DKA frequently.
My latest column was published today. You can check it out here.
A friend pointed out this quote to me today:
"How much of your life do you spend looking forward to being somewhere else?"
- Matthew Flickstein, "Journey to the Center"
That’s worth keeping in mind. But it’s also worth noting that usually when I am wishing to be somewhere else I am wishing to be writing or working on DKA/SR.
“I’d rather be writing" – that’s my motto.
*FTLOI stands for “For the love of it" by the way.
Posted by Selena at 10:05 PM | Comments (0)
January 21, 2006
A New Challenge
I have just been named the new Managing Editor of Dragons, Knights & Angels magazine.
I am very excited about taking on this new challenge. I just hope I do a good job. :insert nervous emoticon here:
You can check out the official announcement here.
Posted by Selena at 09:02 AM | Comments (0)
January 19, 2006
Too Busy to Blog/DKA Review/Good Reading
Has it really been four days since I’ve blogged?
It’s been a busy week.
Here are a couple bits for you…
New DKA Review
Well, the new DKA review is out at Tangent Online. It’s not so positive. But no PR is bad PR.
Despite this second not-so-positive review from Tangent, I think DKA will continue to grow. I even think that the reviewer will eventually read something at DKA that she likes. (Probably. Hopefully.) And if not, plenty of other people enjoy the work at DKA. A review is, after all, only one person’s opinion. (No offense, Brit.)
I confess, I am trying not to be nervous about the fact that next time around Brit will be taking aim at one of MY stories.
Good Reading-Short Fiction Edition
Have I got some good reading for you!
Check out “Voices from the Void" by Mirta Ana Schultz.
It’s the winner of Sword Review’s fiction contest and my personal favorite of the many stories I have read recently.
Seriously, check it out. It is wonderful.
Posted by Selena at 09:25 PM | Comments (1)
January 15, 2006
Story Published at DKA
A story of mine has just been published over at Dragons, Knights, & Angels! I’m very excited (in case you can’t tell).
It’s called “The Miscast Spell." It’s a short, fun piece.
I’m just glad my fellow editors liked it enough to accept it for publication.
You can check it out here
And you can say how much you loved or hated it in the forums
The forum thread is worth visiting just to see how Dragon Scribe (aka Phy?) makes me sound like a celebrity in the intro. Wow.
Posted by Selena at 08:05 PM | Comments (0)
January 14, 2006
I Love iTunes
I have totally gotten into iTunes. I even downloaded my first song today. I am trying to stop at one download a day because at 99 cents a song, I see how this could be very addictive and easily add up to a heaping lot of cashola.
The past couple days I have been importing my CD collection. The most assuming part of iTunes for me is the genre labels. I look at my music library and there are entries for stuff like Alternative & Punk, Folk, R&B, and Jazz.
“Do I like any of that stuff?" I ask myself. “I’ve got folk music in my collection?" So I search for folk in my iTunes library and discover that Indigo Girls is folk. Who knew? And apparently Anna Nalick is Alternative & Punk. (I’m guessing Alternative. Doesn’t seem Punk. But what do I know?) R&B? Oh, that’s Macy Gray. OK I can see that, I guess. Then I notice Jazz and I think, “I can’t possibly have any jazz." Oh, that’s the Candy Dulfer. OK. Well, I knew it was instrumental at least.
It reminds me of the time I told my mom I wanted a Toby Keith CD for Christmas. She went to the music store and couldn’t find it anywhere. So she finally gave up and asked the cashier. He told her “Sure, we’ve got it. It’s right over there in the country section." Mom said, “Oh no, you must be mistaken. My daughter doesn’t like country music." The guy was like, “Uh, OK, but it’s still over there in the country section."
She told that story over and over Christmas day. Every time someone new came into the room, she had to tell it all over again. I was so embarrassed.
Shoot, I didn’t know it was country. I just liked it. I have since accepted the fact that I like a lot of country music. So at least I wasn’t surprised to see that genre on my iTunes.
Then there was that time I went into the store looking for Alison Krauss’ “Forget About It." The cashier said it was in Bluegrass section. “In the what section?" I was prepared for Country, but Bluegrass? I don’t even know what that is. But clearly I like it.
I just can’t find the albums/songs I want using the genre label. That’s one of the reasons I hate shopping for music in an actual store; I never know what section I should be in and the stores seem really resistant to putting everything alphabetical by artist name. Fortunately online I can search by artist or song.
I do like the genre label in iTunes though. It’s fun. It’s a little surprise whenever I import a new CD.
“Let’s see what this one is."
Posted by Selena at 08:56 PM | Comments (0)
In Today’s News
I am so tired. I hardly slept at all last night. I stayed up until midnight to watch “Battlestar Galactica." (It was good, as usual, although what was up with Michelle Forbes’ hair in that “don’t flinch" scene with Starbuck? I swear it was a wig. It’s like they decided after primary shooting that they needed the scene, but Ms. Forbes had already cut her hair into a different style so for continuity they had to find a wig that looked like the hairstyle she had for the rest of the two episodes. Hey, just my theory. Got no proof.)
Anyway, back from the tangent. So, I didn’t even try to go to sleep until after midnight. Didn’t find sleep until sometime after 2. Then at exactly 3 a.m. I was awakened by thunder then a heavy rain, then more thunder and lightning. It was some kind of sign, but I already knew what it was trying to tell me.
So, hardly any sleep but still I got up at 7 a.m. to feed the cats and stab the diabetic one. Then I just sat on the kitchen floor for a while, too sleepy to get up and go back to bed. Now, I’m too awake to even bother trying. (Although I’m sure an afternoon nap will be a necessity.)
I’m on my last day off and want to try to put today to good use. I haven’t gotten as much writing done as I wanted, but I got a lot of Sword Review and DKA stuff done so that is certainly not time wasted. I did manage to work on the book some the first day, and last night I wrote and submitted a new column. It’s about regret, a topic that I am very familiar with. I hope it’s a good column. Sometimes it’s hard to tell. Sometimes you have to wait and see what sound it makes when it hits the ground.
Man, I hate winter. How far off is spring, again? Too far off for my tastes.
Posted by Selena at 09:18 AM | Comments (0)
January 12, 2006
Proofing Plus
I spent most of the day proofing the print edition of Issue #10, and let me tell you…you are in for a treat! There is great stuff in there. Two of the stories (“Music for the Soul" and “The Quiet Calling" are already available in the online version of The Sword Review. You can check them out here.
I can hardly wait for the others to be published online so everyone can see how good they are.
Also, my latest column was published today. You can check it out here
In other news:
DKA raised pay rates. I hope it will bring even more quality submissions our way. (It seems to have already had an effect.)
You can see the official announcement here
Also, you can now buy Sword Review merchandise at The Sword Review Store
I bought a hoodie sweatshirt and can’t wait for it to arrive in the mail.
Posted by Selena at 06:44 PM | Comments (0)
January 11, 2006
Today’s Tally
Not bad. I worked on Water-Born for two and a half hours.
And you know what’s funny? It’s kind of good.
Somehow in my memory any writing project I haven’t worked on in a while is mostly junk. I always forget how good it is. Then when I finally get back to it, the encounter goes something like this: “Hey, this isn’t bad. I wrote this? Oh, yeah, I do sort of remember writing this. It’s actually kind of good. Huh. What do you know? Maybe there is hope for me after all."
Gotta go, it’s almost time for “Lost."
Posted by Selena at 08:12 PM | Comments (0)
Not Writing
I have hardly been writing at all since November/NaNo. I’ve gotten a little done – a couple writing practices that turned out well, a few that didn’t, one column – but mostly I have been slacking off the writing thing. (Bad Selena. Bad!)
I am now at the beginning of a very lovely four days off in a row. Of course the downside of that is now I really have no excuse for not writing.
OK, technically I still have “I’m tired" and “It’s raining" and “It would probably just be dreadful anyway" but those excuses are lame. Really, all not-writing excuses are lame and ultimately self-defeating.
So, I am going to get some writing done today. (I did this at least. That’s something.) I am bribing myself with the promise of a nap this afternoon if I get make some progress on Water-Born before then. We’ll see if that works.
I will post a tally of today’s writing accomplishments at the end of the day. Having to publicly admit my failure to accomplish anything seems like it would be a really strong deterrent to slacking off.
Stay tuned…
Posted by Selena at 11:40 AM | Comments (0)
January 06, 2006
Cooking Mood
The last couple days I have been in a cooking mood. If you knew me better, you would know what a strange and rare occurrence that is. I figure it’s just residual “cooking-ness" from the holidays, which is really the only time I have been known to cook.
Yesterday I made quiche and chocolate chip cookies. The cookies I made from scratch. Seriously I used actual flour, baking soda, eggs, and such! Even the quiche was mostly from scratch; just the crust was pre-made. (You didn’t expect me to make pie crust, did you?!? LOL)
Today I am making chicken and dumplings – well, chicken and dumplings without the chicken because cooking meat grosses me out, so really I guess it’s veggies and dumplings. Hey, any casserole with biscuits on top is bound to be yummy!
Next on my list is another batch of potato-apple gratin, which debuted at Thanksgiving. “Gratin," as you may know, is a highly technical term meaning “baked with tons and tons of cheese," always a good choice.
Guess I better get to it before I fall back into my usual “I don’t cook" mode.
Posted by Selena at 05:23 PM | Comments (0)
January 05, 2006
So, you want to be a writer…
I found this link in Loriendil’s blog. It’s a great article for anyone who thinks they want to be a writer.
Check it out at http://www.committment.com/writers.htm
Yep, the "writing life" fantasy sounds nice and I wouldn't turn it down, but mostly I am in it for the writing itself.
Posted by Selena at 09:33 PM | Comments (0)
Today’s Tally
Ah, what a difference a day off makes! I feel so much better. I didn’t even mind that I ended up working from home some.
Writing is going pretty well. In the last couple days I have sent off three stories and one column. That feels good.
Sometimes I forget how much I have accomplished as a writer and I start doubting myself. So, I have a little scorecard that I keep in my pda for such times.
Here’s the current tally:
Subs pending = 5
Publications = 9
Totals Subs = 92
Wow, that is a lot of submissions. Most of them were no’s, but a 9.8% yes rate sounds like something to be proud of.
Posted by Selena at 08:41 PM | Comments (0)
January 03, 2006
A Pretty Good Day
It turned out to be a pretty good day. It was rough for the first half of so but then fate smiled and I was able go home and take a nap. Wow, what a difference that makes! I was exhausted but now I’m just tired. When is that day off again? Not quite soon enough.
I was able to get a fair amount of writing done though. I even submitted a story.
I’ve got three more that are nearly ready to go to their intended markets. I hope to get them subbed by the end of the week.
And then there’s that column I need to finish…
On the TV front – no new "Lost" yet, but "Battlestar Galatica" starts again Friday. I can hardly wait!
Well, I better get back to writing before I get too sleepy to read the screen.
Posted by Selena at 09:08 PM | Comments (0)
January 02, 2006
Coming Out of It
Maybe I am coming out of my writing funk a little because I actually did a fair amount of writing today plus some market research and other planning type things. I am formulating which story to send where next. It’s a delicate sort of matchmaking but I think I see my next few subs.
Today’s writing practice turned into a story worth typing up so I can continue to work on it. That’s a positive sign.
I have to quit avoiding my next column though or Lee is going to get me. ;) (Oh, hi Lee. Didn’t see you there.)
I’ve got a few days off soon (after a long, ugly stretch of six over-full days in a row) so hopefully I will be able to make good progress on my various writing projects by the end of the week.
Happy New Year to all!
Posted by Selena at 09:41 PM | Comments (0)