a couple of writing related links and a writerly update

[truepenny]

janni has a wonderful writing contest on her blog. And you can win a copy of her new novel, Thief Eyes.

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Catherynne M. Valente (a.k.a. yuki_onna, she of the Hugo Best Novel nomination, the Norton nomination, the Lambda nomination . . .) is now fiction and poetry editor of Apex Magazine. They'll be open to submissions again in June.

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I'm working on this next chunk of A Reckoning of Men and also a Storytellers Unplugged post (since my slot is tomorrow and I missed last month) about Tombstone. It's kind of weird; I woke up this morning and (a.) I wanted to write and (b.) I had ideas. I brushed my teeth and took my pills and fed the cats with the background music in my head mostly being the wolf book.

I can't write very much in my head before I have to write it down; my memory doesn't retain long chunks of anything (this would be why I am one of the few Shakespeareans you will ever meet who cannot recite great wodges of Teh Bard off the cuff; I can't even manage an entire sonnet). But when things are going well (which they have not been for the past couple months), I will wander around wrestling with a sentence or two, maybe as much as an exchange of dialogue. Cleaning litter boxes is great for this, which frequently means I have to make cryptic notes to myself before I climb into bed. Because in the morning, I will remember that I had a good idea, but I will not remember what the idea was, and I hate that feeling with the burning fury of a thousand fiery suns.

So, yeah. It's spring outside; the daffodils are blooming, the apple tree is budding, and the rose bushes are starting to unfurl new green leaves. And it seems to be spring in here, too.