What I've Been Up To

I've been feeling tired lately to the point where I'm not quite sure what day it is.  Maybe I'm just having a harder time than usual adjust to daylight savings time.  Anyways, here's a little rundown of what I've been up to lately...

I'm still working on my zombie novel, although there's been a pause in the writing this last month as I smooth out some more plot issues.  The title's also been changed again from Frantic to In the Dust of the Earth.  It comes from a Bible quote about the resurrection of the dead, and I felt it was really appropriate to the story.  I don't expect any other title changes.  I'm not going to mention anything else though, because frankly I'm getting kind of superstitious about my novel.  I've yammered about past attempts at a novel, and now I think that's a great way to jinx a book.  Say you're writing a book?  Yes.  Give a brief idea of what it is as far as genre?  Sure, why not?  But other than that, don't spoil it with too much talk.

Undead and Inhuman, one of my previous attempts at a novel, is back on the drawing board as a submission to Blank Fiction's sci-fi issue.  As such, it's radically different from how I initially thought it.  For one thing, it's a lot shorter.  The plot is completely different, but the basic conceit of vampires fighting aliens is still there.  I don't know what the submission deadline for it is, but I know Blank Fiction's sci-fi issue is after their upcoming noir issue.  The deadline for the noir issue is mid-January, so presumably the sci-fi deadline is some time after that.  Still, I want plenty of time for revisions, so Undead and Inhuman currently has priority over all my other fiction work.

Speaking of other fiction, my Andrew Ursler series is still alive.  I've submitted the fourth installment to Arts Collide, and got the fifth installment ready to go.  Also, I gave a reading of Part 2 - Grind - at Sunday's Roar Shack Series at 826LA in Echo Park.  The turnout was much smaller that the series usually gets.  There was another reading going on in LA that was kind of a big deal.  Regardless, it was one of my best readings so far.  I felt a lot more confident with Grind than I was with previous pieces, but I still got some of the microphone fear to get out of me.

Last but not least is my work for Carpe Nocturne.  I'm not sure if I'm supposed to say this, but I'm going to anyways: my reviews for the Chuck Wendig novel Double Dead and the 2010 apocalyptic film Stake Land are getting printed in the upcoming winter issue.  I mean, it was listed under the winter content in our recent staff newsletter, and I don't think there's any legal obligation for me to keep my mouth shut if they're on the list.  Soooooo...whatever.  The point is I'm really proud of them even though they're just a couple of small reviews.  This is only my first issue with the magazine, but I've enjoyed it so far.  The work is tough, but far from bad.  I get three months between deadlines and the only tricky part is fitting the word count; my reviews max out at 275.

Fun as it all is, though, it's time for me to get back to work.