To Tell You the Truth, I Had to Lie a Little

[DKT]

I post a lot of this stuff on my blog, so if you're on LJ (or even if you're not) feel free to drop by and say hi there.

So to start off with, I thought I'd post an update of the stuff I'm working on and the stuff I'm submitting around.

Novels:

Fallen Horizon: I finally finished a draft of my SF novel I'm pretty happy with that deals with fundamentalists and terrorists.  I'll probably tweak some very minor things and send it out for critiques around the weekend.

The Unbelievable Origin of Superspiff and the Toothpick Kid: I'm hopefully going to podcast my superhero juvenile novel in the not too distant future, now that I can let go of Fallen Horizon for a little while. 

Short Stories:

Last Repsects: Getting republished by Apex Online next month!  wOOt!

Puritan Noir -- Love Burn: My dark romantic comedy circa the Salem Witch Trials as told by a Sam Spade-like narrator.  This needs to be rewritten a bit, I think.  After that, I need to figure out where to send it next.

Saint Darwin's Spirituals: My elevator pitch for this one is Golems and Ghost-fucking.  Hopefully I'll have some good news to report on this very soon.

God-Shaped Box: One of the few stories I wrote that has no sex, violence, or profanity.  (Superspiff and the Toothpick Kid almost qualifies, except it's got violence.)  And probably one of my favorites.  Out.  Waiting.  Gotta love the submission process.

Trust and Travesty: Just submitted this to the Writer's of the Future contest.  Will they dig Jane Austen meets James Bond Steampunk? 

In the Belly of the Whale: This has UFOs, angels, and a serial killer.  If I could figure out if this was horror, SF, or fantasy, I might have a better chance of figuring out who wants to buy it.

...and I should probably start on some new short stories, too.  I'd like to do another, longer Puritan Noir story but part of me wonders if I should wait until I sell the first.  I've got some seedlings of ideas for other stories in the Last Respects universe.  Then there's the next novel...

[DKT]

For anyone who enjoyed Last Respects, it's now up at Apex Online.  I was talking with a writer friend last weeks about creating playlists for writing, and I realized I'd never created one for Last Respects.  That seemed shameful, so I thought I'd create one with suggestions from readers.  If you have suggestions, ping me here or at my blog.

[goatkeeper]

That link don't work!

[DKT]

Heh.    My bad.  Should be fixed now.  Thanks, Norm!

[DKT]

Started on a new short story, Haole, a post-apocalyptic short story set in Hawaii.  I like it, but I'm having a hell of a time figuring out how it ends.  I'd written an ending but it seems so meh, I went back and canned it and am trying to figure out where it went wrong.  But it's great fun to have a new short story to be working on. 

I also got a fantastic rejection for God-Shaped Box with excellent critiques -- one that suggested it be a novella instead of a 1,500 word short story.  Hrm.  I guess I know what I'm working on next

Sent out Puritan Noir and In the Belly of the Whale. 

Fallen Horizon is doing the reader critique thing.  One crit has already come in, pointing out some very good stuff, some of which I knew had to be fixed but couldn't quite put my finger on how.  I'm looking forward to hearing what the other readers had to say. 

[DKT]

Good news!  Saint Darwin's Spirituals is going to be hitting with a one-two punch from Murky Depths and Variant Frequencies next year! 

In other news, I finished Haole and it's now going through the slushpiles. 

Now, what to work on next...

[DKT]

Five rejections in a week bites.  However, getting an acceptance on the tail-end of those rejections is very nice!  I sold my short story God-Shaped Box to Hub Magazine today.  Huzzah!!!

In other news, I finished writing a steampunk fable called "The Gearaffe Who Didn't Tick."  It might actually be the hardest thing I've ever written -- I always conjure up China Mieville/noir-esque images when I think of steampunk, so writing a fable with talking mechanical animals was a bit of a stretch for me.  But I'm very fond and proud of the finished story, so I think it was a good exercise.

[DKT]

Sold Puritan Noir: Love Burns to Coyote Wild!!!  wOOt!!!  I'll post a link when it goes up. 

I need to get started on Puritan Noir 2 pretty quick now.

[sirana]

Started on a new short story, Haole, a post-apocalyptic short story set in Hawaii. 

You spelled "Halo" wrong. Anyway, how did you get the gig to write a tie-in to one of the biggest video games?

[DKT]

Started on a new short story, Haole, a post-apocalyptic short story set in Hawaii. 

You spelled "Halo" wrong. Anyway, how did you get the gig to write a tie-in to one of the biggest video games?

Heh.  No, it's Haole, which is a Hawaiian term for outsider.  In Spanish, it might be "gringo."

Halo would be fricking fun, though.

[DKT]

Stories come from the strangest places.  I've got a very rough draft of the Christian and the Gay Robot short story, as commissioned by Anarkey.  And I emphasize the word rough.  At this point, it's only on a notepad and needs to be transcribed, and I need to fill in some details.  But it's a draft. 

For the time being, I'm going to call it God is My Programmer.

[DKT]

Chugging along with my novel, although I don't know that I'm going to finish my rewrite before May.  Probably sometime in May.  It's not a big problem, since it's a self-imposed deadline, I just wish I could make it.

Have not heard anything back about "The Gearaffe Who Didn't Tick" from Shimmer yet.  I think I'll send them a query when May hits. 

Sent "In the Belly of the Whale" to the Triangulation: Taking Flight anthology.  It might be a little bit of a stretch for the taking flight theme, but there are angels, and UFOs, and he is fleeing, so maybe. 

[DKT]

"God-Shaped Box" is this week's feature fiction from Hub Magazine!  Download it or read it online.  It's a quick read -- about 1,500 words -- and it's one of the few stories I've written that doesn't have any sex, violence, or profanity in it.  (There are some serious drugs, though.)

I wrote this story as a reaction to several things.  One, my friend responded to a couple other stories I'd written (including "Last Respects") about the religious themes/overtones in my story: "I can't figure out if you are super religious, super skeptical or just intrigued by the strangeness that is Christianity as a whole, as a study rather than a way of life."  Which is one of the coolest pieces of feedback I've ever received, because I get very annoyed when I read so-called "Christian" fiction that sounds more like a sermon than a story, and I would be bummed if my fiction came off like that.  I like fiction that asks questions, and I wanted to write something personal about my belief system that wasn't preachy.  Also, as I've said here before, I wanted to prove (mostly to myself) that I could write a good SF story that centered around faith and religion.

Anyway, I hope you like it.  If you check it out, let me know what you think. 

[DKT]

Working on the rewrite of my novel Fallen Horizon has been pretty much all-consuming.  I was hoping to have it done at the beginning of this month.  Now, I think if I can actually get it finished by next month, I'll be happy.  Then out to the beta beta betas...

I still really want to get the podcast of the children's superhero book up next month sometime.  I still need to hunt down some music and some album artwork and then get the website going.  I feel like such an idiot with technical stuff sometimes.

[DKT]

"Saint Darwin's Spirituals" is now up at both Variant Frequencies (NSFW without earbuds) and Murky Depths!  Check out the cover art!  That's *my* story! 

*Beams*

Also, if you do pick up the Murky Depths issue, I'd like to point out you'll also get Mur Lafferty's first-ever comic strip and a Depth Charge column by Matt Wallace. 

[birdless]

Sweet! i just stumbled across this whole child board. I'm looking forward to checking out your VF piece.

[DKT]

Sweet! i just stumbled across this whole child board. I'm looking forward to checking out your VF piece.

Cool, birdless.  I hope you like it!  It's a bit different than God-Shaped Box (all the sex and violence that wasn't in God-Shaped Box seems to have slipped into this story), but so far the feedback's been pretty positive. 

[DKT]

I'm finally feeling like I'm closing in on finishing the rewrite of Fallen Horizon.  It's take longer than I thought it would, and it will probably take longer still, but the end is in sight, and I want to make sure it's the best book I can write.  Still, I'm looking forward to it being finished.

Everything else is still stalled, including a possible rewrite of "Haole."  I got three very nice rejections from pro magazines.  Two of them pin-pointed where the story didn't work for them, so I'm trying to re-examine and decide if I want to do a major overhaul over the second half of that story.  It's kind of rough, because I do like what's there now.  But I think I'll just save what I've got, then rip out the second half, and rewrite it from scratch.  Maybe several times, and see if I get a better second half than the one I currently have. 

But I probably won't even try to hit that until I've finished Fallen Horizon.  And even then, I might need to work on something fresh, too.

[DKT]

Holy crap!  I just got the fastest rejection ever from Escape Pod.  It took less than 20 minutes.   

[Russell Nash]

Holy crap!  I just got the fastest rejection ever from Escape Pod.  It took less than 20 minutes.   

Wow, it must have stunk so bad, they smelled it coming. 

j/k, you know I love ya.

[DKT]

Holy crap!  I just got the fastest rejection ever from Escape Pod.  It took less than 20 minutes.   

Wow, it must have stunk so bad, they smelled it coming. 

j/k, you know I love ya.

Awwwwwwww.  *You* love me, Nash?  That's so sweet.  That might even make up for it!

[birdless]

Wow. Sorry to hear that, Dave. That barely even gave them time to read it! lol Maybe your title just realllly sucked.

By the way, I finally listened to St. Darwin. Some fascinating world-building there! It's too bad you only had 5000 words in which to frame the story.

[DKT]

Wow. Sorry to hear that, Dave. That barely even gave them time to read it! lol Maybe your title just realllly sucked.

By the way, I finally listened to St. Darwin. Some fascinating world-building there! It's too bad you only had 5000 words in which to frame the story.

Coulda been the title I guess.  Coulda been anything, really. 

Glad you gave St. Darwin a listen!  5,000 words was tight, but I'm hoping to get back to that world soon and eventually even write a longer short story about St. Charlie himself.

[Russell Nash]

Holy crap!  I just got the fastest rejection ever from Escape Pod.  It took less than 20 minutes.   

Wow, it must have stunk so bad, they smelled it coming. 

j/k, you know I love ya.

Awwwwwwww.  *You* love me, Nash?  That's so sweet.  That might even make up for it!

Don't get mushy or anything.  I still remember that you're the one who started the everyone against Nash thread.

[DKT]

I finished recording the first episode of my podcast last night!  I'm still wrestling with all the technical stuff of getting it up to my new website (Ah, PodPress.  THAT's what I'm missing!) but hopefully it should be up in the next couple of days.  It's a kids book about wannabe superheroes, the golden rule of comic books, and fandom.  It's probably the most G-rated thing I've ever written and is (hopefully) a lot of fun. 

I'll link to it here as soon as it's finished and posted (and maybe start a new thread in Podcast Pedantry).  I'm obviously very, very new at trying to do a podcast, so I expect there will be a lot I can learn from you all about it.