The Writing Front
My Office Area

Over the last few nights, rather than turning on the XBox and playing Bad Company 2, I’ve made it a point to read and/or get some writing done. Trinity is usually in bed by 2200 so the pod is about as quiet as it gets.

Berry is looking over In the Early Morning Rain with an eye toward chopping some words off for a new market target. In the meantime, I need to print off the last few pages of one of his stories which is up for a crit.

I finally printed out Edward, which is a work in progress, for a hands on look. It is easier for me to edit a hard copy than it is to edit something on the screen. Scribbling on the paper is far more effective for me than staring at the screen. This is probably a novella length project which means my options are limited.

Shit. Who am I kidding? I won’t submit to Asimov’s or Strange Horizons. I’m not going to pay international postage to send a story via snail mail to market. Many markets that I think are amenable to the type of fiction I write seem to be going under, shutting down or changing over to editors who are NOT amenable to what I write.

So my short fiction options are limited no matter what I write.

Finally, I did some work on another story which has been banging around in my head since Dario went to Greece a few years back. There was a picture of a set of steps that went down into the sea that keeps coming back to me.

In any case, I’m writing.

I do know this.

If I had a $1000 to spare a year, I’d start my own publication. I’d be the editor/publisher. I’d run it as an e-book app of some type. The pay rate would be “beer money” and the incentive would be the freedom to write what you want to write without having some fascist tell you want you can and can’t write about.

If I ever get that spare funding, I may start something.

So it goes.

The Teaching Front

Crashed the Stock Market in 121 today and ran the Bonus Army out of Washington. We should get FDR elected on Wednesday, zip through the Depression and get to the Japanese.

In 120 we’re covering Federalists vs Anti-Federalists, the Bill of Rights and moving into the Federalist Era.

And I’m teaching on three hours of sleep.

The Student Front

My American Lit One Midterm is way late. I only have to write a thousand words and yet my current draft is up to 1500. When I get it fully fleshed out I suspect I’m looking at 2500 to 3000 words. We’re covering the Early Colonial Era, which is not my favorite period of American History.

I suspect Agnostics always have trouble with that time period.

Other Fronts

Time to hit the gym.

Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri