Category: News of Note

An Internet Fast and Other Sundry Things

A few minor things:

  • I’ve decided to do an Internet Fast for three weeks, which is basically limiting my personal Internet time to less than fifteen minutes a day. Some mental toxins have crept into my system, and this is my way of clearing them out. The fifteen minutes will mostly be spent checking email and keeping up with writing-related business, but it will also be a challenge to see how much I can keep up on with those fifteen minutes. I’ve been doing it for a few days already, and it’s been good, but it is a challenge even dealing with all my email in that time.
  • I turned in the mini-collection to PS Publishing: A Web of Black Widows and Other Stories of Love and Loss. Thirty thousand words. Six stories — four or which are original to the collection. Right now it’s scheduled for an early 2009 release, but we’ll see. I’ll be posting a page with more information about the collection in the coming months.
  • Check out the First Book blog: Jennifer E. Smith and The Comeback Season.
  • Read Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s Hugo-nominated novella, “Recovering Apollo 8,” for free over at Asimov’s. Wonderful story. Plus if you want to see how a great writer can break the rules (not that there is such a thing in fiction), this is a good one to study. There’s only a few scenes and much of it is told in narrative summary, with the first third almost entirely exposition, but it works beautifully.  It works because it gives you a sense of a small story within the larger scope of history, which was the right tone and approach.

New story published: “Stone Creek Station”

My story, “Stone Creek Station,” has appeared in the anthology Beneath the Surface, edited by Timothy Deal.  Published by Shroud Publishing.  Buy it here.

And here’s the opening:

While cleaning out my office, I pulled the old Rand McNally atlas off the shelf and the book fell open to the two-page spread of the United States. I closed my eyes and made a blind stab at the map; when I looked down at the book, my finger had fallen in the middle of Oregon. The problem was that when I lifted my finger, there wasn’t a town there, just a mountain range and some lakes.

Still, I was determined to follow my method, so I turned to Oregon in the atlas, and located on the more detailed map the spot where my finger had fallen. There were a couple of small towns in the area, but one caught my eye: Stone Creek.

It was impulsive. It was insane. It wasn’t anything like me at all — always deliberate, always cautious. But that was the point. If you’re serious about starting over, you can’t trust yourself to make a clean break  . . .

New story published: “The Dinosaur Diaries”

I have a new longish story (or novelette, if you want to get technical) out in the April 2008 issue of Realms of Fantasy: “The Dinosaur Diaries.” Part ghost story, part romance, part coming-of-age tale — it’s got a bit of everything, and I’m really glad to have it see print. It begins when the narrator, Jerry, finds fresh Tyrannosaurus Rex tracks on his Iowa farm, and only gets more interesting from there. If you don’t have a subscription, you can usually find individual issues at your local Borders. Here’s the cover:

rof0408_cover_med.jpg

Here’s the first page (and yes, they do break into more traditional paragraphing on the next page).

Click the image for a larger version.

Myspace and Writing Avoidance

So instead of spending my time writing, as I should, I created a Myspace page.  Check it out:  http//www.myspace.com/scottwilliamcarter 

Plus I created a temporary “cover” for The Last Great Getaway of the Water Balloon Boys, which you can see both on this site and on the Myspace page.

So I really need to get more writing done.  Really. 

 You see, I’m actually a very disciplined person when I’m not being undisciplined.