o-taga-san

I am pleased to announce that my short story O-Taga-San will be available from Drollerie Press from their Flyleaf imprint. It will be published on its own, and will cost you…pennies.

The story goes like this: I submitted a story at request for the Hellebore and Rue anthology, and while the editors liked O-Taga-San, they felt it wasn’t a good fit for the anthology.

Later, one of the editors asked me if she could still have it. I had been sending it around, and there had been some solid nibbles, but no takers. It came home again, and I sent it to JoSelle Vanderhooft and Catherine Lundoff. Both of these women are fine writers, and I’m pleased to be working with them as my editors.

Incidentally, if you know Lisa Morton, she’s in Hellebore and Rue. The story she’s published is that awesome hair story she workshopped at VP.

For those of you who were at Readercon, this is the story that I read excerpts from there.

So. Now I’ve written about lesbian Japanese adolescent shape changers. My breadth is surprising.

Ooo. Grammar class in two minutes. Gotta fly.

Catherine

Nothing Up My Sleeves…

Today, the writer is working.

Thanks to archeologist/writer/VP XIIIer Miranda Suri, I have whacked my my 9 chapters of troll-y goodness into 22 smaller chapters. The theory being that my chapters were way too huge for teens.

I hope to repay Miranda by giving her good crit on her latest novel, of which I read two chapters last night. VERY Aztec.

Thanks to all you nice folks who have been helping me get perspective on the agent partial. I’ll have it ready to go soon.

***

Um…resuming the 4th draft. Things are both more ambiguous and less muddy. Clarifications are happening where they need to. Characters are no longer blurting out their motivations. The book is plumping up. We’re a little over 54K.

And I don’t mind telling you I’m heartily sick of this book. This, this is the slog I so well remember from my dissertation. It’s a much better book than it was even last draft. I’m satisfied, win, lose, or draw, that I’m putting my best effort into it. But yes, the romance is gone as I look at spelling, organization, and what would bore a reader at 15.

And just think! If I am lucky enough to get this book accepted somewhere, I probably get to do this rewrite thing several more times! Hurray!

***

Meanwhile, there is some stuff swirling around “O-Taga-San” which I will update you on ASAP.

Feh. I’ve got to have devil-possessed David try to beat Grant to a pulp, mark 4. Later, taters.

Catherine

Birthday Thanks, Bits of This and That

Thank you all for the birthday wishes yesterday. I spent most of my birthday in meetings for the glory of the college, and every one of them ran late. Bryon took me out for dinner and dessert, and darned if that didn’t take some time too. And well, I won’t talk about afterwards, but yes, I didn’t have what you would call a productive day yesterday. It was a wonderful day nevertheless. It’s always a good day when you get roses.

Interesting birthday trivia. Even though we roomed together for a week at Viable Paradise, I did not know that Chia Evers and I shared June 10th as our birthday. That’s cool.

Today I’m waiting for Russian lessons, but something must have come up. Olga has a Russian friend who’s in the hospital with a serious affliction, and I could well imagine she’s translating somewhere. I have a meeting with the Iowa City dean and my dean about expanding ELA offerings down here, so I would have been here anyway. Yes, I know it’s Friday. That’s why I took a large chunk of Wednesday off to write.

And speaking of writing…O-Taga-San still needs clean up. I’ve gotten some great feedback, and I’ll get that in there. I received a yes to my query, so now I have to send in the story.

Early next week work will be killer, as we have some students coming for a summer program. I expect to have Wednesday afternoon, Thursday morning, and all of Friday to write, however. I’m in Kaz Mahoney‘s summer camp. This troll novel will be done by August. Enough is enough.

I’ll see you all again after my story is off.

Catherine

Forty-five

I like the birthdays with fives and zeros. This particular birthday has the bonus of being divisible by 9, which happens only, say, every 9 years. 🙂

I also finished O-Taga-San last night. A little polishing, and it’ll be ready to go out.

I have to admit, I feel pretty good this birthday. My lost weight is making me feel more zippy, and writing always makes me feel less compressed.

How are you this fine June day?

Catherine

Last Day of Wiscon

I’ve been working on a short story that someone has invited me to send for an anthology. The working title is Kitsune Girl, but it will probably end up being called O-Taga-San. This is kind of cool, using my familiarity with Japanese culture in a very different way. And it’s stretching me. The relationships in the story have thorns, much like they did in Sister Night, Sister Moon. However, I think the outcome of this story will be less tragic than the other.

***

The last day of Wiscon I had a good time lunching with Catherine Lundoff and her wife Jana. We had some good breakfast, and we talked about Catherine’s upcoming guest appearance at Akon, which went pretty well for her last weekend.

There was the sign out. Let me tell you, signing books is pretty cool. Caroline found us some great seats. Ellen Klages sat on the other side of Caroline, so it was a rollicking table.

Wiscon gives each author a bag of goodies and takes orders for munchies. It’s really something.

The most moving thing I saw all convention was when Lisa Cohen asked Caroline about when her new book was coming out. Lisa has had a very hard year. Caroline’s response was to give Lisa the copy of the book she had at the table, even though the book isn’t out yet (June 10th, folks!). Yup. I really am impressed by Caroline.

After the sign out, Ellen seduced Cassie, Dan, and Lisa with her iPad. I admit to getting pulled into that and all the Space Babe merchandise after checking out the Rothfuss baby. Cassie, Dan, Lisa, and I had lunch, and then I went back to Iowa with the other two musketeers.

A good time was had by all, and I look forward to making the pilgrimage again next year.

I may be a bit sparse for a bit. Interviews are heating up at work, and I need to get some writing done. Of course, just as soon as I say that, I’ll figure out something I need to tell you about.

Catherine