Hello ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to another edition of my Weekend Update. This is comign on the heels of my previous post, an announcement of acceptance. To warn you, this post has nothing to do with writing in the beginning, and only a little at the end.
Today we hit the floor. Yes, I have joined the rank of Corporate Cubicle Cretins, assisting the elderly with their insurance policies. It's official. I have my own desk, a window view of the river, and easy access to the printer/coffee machine. Can life get better?
No, but it CAN get worse. This morning my wife told me she thought her water had broken. Thankfully, it seemed to be a reaction to some food she an my daughter had the night before. I escaped only by my refusal to eat bagged veggies, I believe. Considering she is 8 months along, though, she agreed to call her doctor. The doc had her go to the hospital, and my father was gracious enough to postpone his weekend trip with my mother to Michigan to get her there. This led, as my team and I were strolling down main street for our 2-hour celebration luncheon, to him calling me.
He then erroneously informed me her water had, indeed, broken. What he meant is the octor said that MIGHT be the case. We still have two weeks to go at the least, according to the doc, and that relaxed me. After two hours of sitting at work thinking my wife was in labor.
From that to Sunday when...I found out I need glasses. I'd been getting horrible headaches after squinting all day, trying to read the computer screen at work. My eyes were tired an bloodshot every night. So, while getting my daughter her checkup for school, I got my eyes checked as well. I now wear glasses, and am not happy about it.
Now for the writing mention:
Tomorrow, after mwoing the lawn, I'll be starting on another story for the Dark Jesters anthology.
See, told you it wasn't much.
Peace,
J.C. Tabler
Showing posts with label parents. Show all posts
Showing posts with label parents. Show all posts
Friday, August 8, 2008
Friday, April 18, 2008
Shake N' Bake
So my wife woke up this morning to find the house shaking on its foundation, windows rattling, the sugar glider going insane, dogs barking, cats meowing, and our fish swimming erratically. She then assumed she was crazy, and went back to sleep. I never once cracked my eyes open.
In short, we had an earthquake this morning that I was completely unaware of until waking up and checking the news hours after the fact.
In other news, my Ghost in the Machine submission is done with the first revision. I more or less slathered it in black ink, took out a good bit of fluff and unnecessary lines, switched things around, and added a few sentences. Later today I'll sit down with the printed draft and my laptop and start revising, then pass it off to my still-confused better half for a read. Because I don't trust her opinion (she married me, she must feel obligated to lie on occasion), I'll then send it off to some of my regular guys to look over and get suggestions. As always, by the time I get their suggested changes I'll have done the second revision, tidied it up, and sent it out.
Not much more is going on. Game night tonight with another couple we know, then tomorrow I'm assisting my father in laying down sob and clearing some of his property. Still looking for work, have an interview with the AFL-CIO on Wednesday for a union organizing position.
Back to the grindstone,
J.C. Tabler
In short, we had an earthquake this morning that I was completely unaware of until waking up and checking the news hours after the fact.
In other news, my Ghost in the Machine submission is done with the first revision. I more or less slathered it in black ink, took out a good bit of fluff and unnecessary lines, switched things around, and added a few sentences. Later today I'll sit down with the printed draft and my laptop and start revising, then pass it off to my still-confused better half for a read. Because I don't trust her opinion (she married me, she must feel obligated to lie on occasion), I'll then send it off to some of my regular guys to look over and get suggestions. As always, by the time I get their suggested changes I'll have done the second revision, tidied it up, and sent it out.
Not much more is going on. Game night tonight with another couple we know, then tomorrow I'm assisting my father in laying down sob and clearing some of his property. Still looking for work, have an interview with the AFL-CIO on Wednesday for a union organizing position.
Back to the grindstone,
J.C. Tabler
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Waiting on my dinner
Well, here I am sitting in my parent's basement waiting for my mother to finish cooking dinner. Desi had to work tonight, and I'm basically helpless when left to provide food for myself. So I decided to come over and prevent starvation by mumping a meal or two off of my parents.
For the record, that is my new word. "Mumping". I like it.
I finished up the first rewrite of "Colburn Men" the other night and printed up the copies needed for the necessary workshopping. In addition, I sent it off to the first "big game" market so I can get my rejection in hand before I start round two of rewrites on it. I figure it never hurts to hand things out and get the rejection back.
I've also started work on a story whose working title is "Creepy Doll". That will definitely change. More literary fiction, though after I finish the first draft of it I plan on going back to Speculative Fiction. I've got the basics of the ghost story tumbling around, so I want to get to it soon before it wears off. The Doll Story will be wrapped up by mid-February most likely, as I find more time to work on it.
Everything on the home front is still great. Desi and I had friends over last night for whine and pizza, then drank a bit of cheap whiskey before going to bed.
I am, of course, still waiting on the rejections for the King Arthur Story and "Dead Air" to come in. This will be the second rejection for Dead Air when I finally get it, though I may not get it for several months according to this market's turnaround time.
That's about the long and short of it for today. I've got to reread a couple stories I'm supposed to be critiqueing, then I need to watch all of season one of Dexter in two days.
Peace, my folks.
-J.C. Tabler
For the record, that is my new word. "Mumping". I like it.
I finished up the first rewrite of "Colburn Men" the other night and printed up the copies needed for the necessary workshopping. In addition, I sent it off to the first "big game" market so I can get my rejection in hand before I start round two of rewrites on it. I figure it never hurts to hand things out and get the rejection back.
I've also started work on a story whose working title is "Creepy Doll". That will definitely change. More literary fiction, though after I finish the first draft of it I plan on going back to Speculative Fiction. I've got the basics of the ghost story tumbling around, so I want to get to it soon before it wears off. The Doll Story will be wrapped up by mid-February most likely, as I find more time to work on it.
Everything on the home front is still great. Desi and I had friends over last night for whine and pizza, then drank a bit of cheap whiskey before going to bed.
I am, of course, still waiting on the rejections for the King Arthur Story and "Dead Air" to come in. This will be the second rejection for Dead Air when I finally get it, though I may not get it for several months according to this market's turnaround time.
That's about the long and short of it for today. I've got to reread a couple stories I'm supposed to be critiqueing, then I need to watch all of season one of Dexter in two days.
Peace, my folks.
-J.C. Tabler
Monday, January 21, 2008
Another Story Finished
I should mention that I don't really proof blog entries, especially after writing half the night or while sitting on the couch with a cigarette and a nice big glass of bourbon.
Alright, the Colburn story is done. I gave it the title "Colburn Men" just cause it seemed to fit, plus, as stated before, I suck at coming up with titles at all. The title, like most of it, will change with the first rewrite. Before the rewrite, though, I'm going to hand it over to my father. He remains the best editor I've ever had when I write a story that is appropriate for him to read.
The reason is if my father actually finishes the story, it has merit. Dad doesn't read for fun. He reads for work. Even when he does read for leisure, it's normally a historical novel concerning the Civil War. For him to actually read through an entire fiction piece requires a story he enjoys. He's my sounding board.
On top of that, years of careful proofing of his legal briefs has resulted in an amazing eye for grammar and "clunky" sentences. Where I might miss a grammar error on my own simply because I'm tired, bored, disinterested, or being set upon on all sides by animals, he doesn't.
Finally, if he shows it to his business partner, I've got something worth sending off.
Still, even if this story never sees the light of day, I personally enjoyed writing it. I found it to be a little emotional and a little funny, as well as being more than a tad moral. The last one I could do without, but the other two...let's say that this started as being something I was writing to sell, and ended up being something I wrote for myself.
Take'er Easy,
J.C. Tabler
Alright, the Colburn story is done. I gave it the title "Colburn Men" just cause it seemed to fit, plus, as stated before, I suck at coming up with titles at all. The title, like most of it, will change with the first rewrite. Before the rewrite, though, I'm going to hand it over to my father. He remains the best editor I've ever had when I write a story that is appropriate for him to read.
The reason is if my father actually finishes the story, it has merit. Dad doesn't read for fun. He reads for work. Even when he does read for leisure, it's normally a historical novel concerning the Civil War. For him to actually read through an entire fiction piece requires a story he enjoys. He's my sounding board.
On top of that, years of careful proofing of his legal briefs has resulted in an amazing eye for grammar and "clunky" sentences. Where I might miss a grammar error on my own simply because I'm tired, bored, disinterested, or being set upon on all sides by animals, he doesn't.
Finally, if he shows it to his business partner, I've got something worth sending off.
Still, even if this story never sees the light of day, I personally enjoyed writing it. I found it to be a little emotional and a little funny, as well as being more than a tad moral. The last one I could do without, but the other two...let's say that this started as being something I was writing to sell, and ended up being something I wrote for myself.
Take'er Easy,
J.C. Tabler
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Zombies on the Internet!
Well, I finished the edit on the Zombie story last night around one in the morning and crawled into bed to sleep like the dead (I know, bad pun) until around 7:30 this morning. After a few minutes of looking around Duotrope, I found a market. So, long story short, I've sent the zombie story out to get its first round of rejections before aiming my crosshairs a little lower and shooting for small game.
I should mention that I've got another story out and about, waiting on the rejection slip from that one to come over the internet postal service that is Gmail. This one is a cheap King Arthur piece that my mother loves, so I feel an obligation to try and sell it if at all possible. I wrote it for a class a while back, and did a few rewrites over the past couple months. It got sent off to garner a rejection from Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show in November, so we're still playing the waiting game. Of course, their standard response time is 90 or so days, so I've still got a month or so before I can print out the rejection, put it in a pile with the others, and start shopping that story around again.
This weekend I plan on sitting down to work on the ghost story. Hopefully everything will go according to plan, and I'll actually get some work done on it, at least enough to have a few pages typed up so I can gear up to really start working. At the same time I'm going to try and go for something that isn't spec. fict. for once. There's been a story rambling around in the back of my head about that ever popular topic, fathers and sons. I'm going to work on that on the days I get blocked on the ghost story.
On a slightly more personal note, our cat is now "the fearless hunter". We have a few mice in our apartment, not due to slovenly housekeeping because Desi is a fanatic about that sort of thing. No, our mice are the result of living in an old building in an older neighborhood, in the apartment that was occupied by a bachelor bartender for 7 years before we moved in and took a solid week to clean before we dared to bring anything inside. These mice apparently have a nest right outside our bedroom window, which has an old AC unit in it that Desi refuses to let me take out. She won't let me take it out of the window because I would have to put it in the bedroom closet, and she insists (I swear I'm not making this up) that doing so would take away all the space she needs for her shoes.
The result of this is that the mice are entering through a small gap between the window and the AC unit, where they artfully ignore the traps I have set along the wall on that side of the bedroom. The cat goes wild and wants in the room, and he has now taken out 3 of the rodents. The extremely expensive, rodent-like animal that my fiancee purchased now lives in mortal fear of the cat, staring out from the bars of his cage and begging us to protect him. The cat is amazingly proud of himself. I feel like an idiot for spending 15 dollars on mousetraps.
Well, that's all for now. I'll post a little on Friday or Saturday, whichever day I start on the ghost story.
Take'er Easy,
J.C. Tabler
I should mention that I've got another story out and about, waiting on the rejection slip from that one to come over the internet postal service that is Gmail. This one is a cheap King Arthur piece that my mother loves, so I feel an obligation to try and sell it if at all possible. I wrote it for a class a while back, and did a few rewrites over the past couple months. It got sent off to garner a rejection from Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show in November, so we're still playing the waiting game. Of course, their standard response time is 90 or so days, so I've still got a month or so before I can print out the rejection, put it in a pile with the others, and start shopping that story around again.
This weekend I plan on sitting down to work on the ghost story. Hopefully everything will go according to plan, and I'll actually get some work done on it, at least enough to have a few pages typed up so I can gear up to really start working. At the same time I'm going to try and go for something that isn't spec. fict. for once. There's been a story rambling around in the back of my head about that ever popular topic, fathers and sons. I'm going to work on that on the days I get blocked on the ghost story.
On a slightly more personal note, our cat is now "the fearless hunter". We have a few mice in our apartment, not due to slovenly housekeeping because Desi is a fanatic about that sort of thing. No, our mice are the result of living in an old building in an older neighborhood, in the apartment that was occupied by a bachelor bartender for 7 years before we moved in and took a solid week to clean before we dared to bring anything inside. These mice apparently have a nest right outside our bedroom window, which has an old AC unit in it that Desi refuses to let me take out. She won't let me take it out of the window because I would have to put it in the bedroom closet, and she insists (I swear I'm not making this up) that doing so would take away all the space she needs for her shoes.
The result of this is that the mice are entering through a small gap between the window and the AC unit, where they artfully ignore the traps I have set along the wall on that side of the bedroom. The cat goes wild and wants in the room, and he has now taken out 3 of the rodents. The extremely expensive, rodent-like animal that my fiancee purchased now lives in mortal fear of the cat, staring out from the bars of his cage and begging us to protect him. The cat is amazingly proud of himself. I feel like an idiot for spending 15 dollars on mousetraps.
Well, that's all for now. I'll post a little on Friday or Saturday, whichever day I start on the ghost story.
Take'er Easy,
J.C. Tabler
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