Eric Gregory

Normally this kind of news would call for a bottle of mead and festive animated GIFs, but I'm still a little sick and probably shouldn't look at too many flashing lights. In any case, I've sold my story "The Earth of Yunhe" to Jetse de Vries for his Shine anthology from Solaris Books. The book looks like this:

(You can take a closer gander at the Amazon preorder page.)

Inside: over a dozen optimistic near-future SF stories, all imagining how humanity might grapple with twenty-first century problems instead of traipsing listlessly through another game of Fallout. The full table of contents will be revealed as part of a promotional contest on the Shine blog (check back there on November 30th for contest details), but several exceptionally cool writers' names are right there on the cover: Alastair Reynolds, Holly Phillips, Kay Kenyon, and Jason Stoddard. More details to come in the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned.

Also:

(Crossposted.)

Yesterday:

Saw a pretty good performance of Avenue Q, which was all the better for being a break from routine and getting Liese and I out of the house. (Even if the ticket office's definition of "front balcony" didn't quite square with my definition. We were in the last five rows?) I managed to catch it in London a couple years ago, but Liese had never had a chance, so I was glad that it came around here and that we were both off of work.

Everyday:

When I set out to write daily for two months, I kind of neglected to consider that November is my month of Big Important Applications. So in that spare time when I'm not yanking out my hair over work-related whatevers, I'm head-desking over letters of introduction and personal statements and all that nasty, dread-inducing jazz.* I feel loads more comfortable with this round of applications than the last -- which is to say, I feel more comfortable with the kinds of futures I'm applying to -- and I'm also perfectly aware that all hope for goodness and light on Earth doesn't hinge on my acceptance, but the whole process makes me into an even more constant pot of anxiety than usual.

Long and short, daily writing is going to fall (further) to the wayside for a little while, though I'd like to round out the last week or so of Month One before this month is over. I'm a slow writer in the best of times, and when I'm working on Letters and Statements of Great Import, my hourly word-count tends to look something like a kindergarten counting exercise.



*Which sounds like pretty sweet jazz, actually. If you're just listening to it.

Voting. Today. Yes. I'd point my fellow Virginians to the Washington Post's endorsement of Deeds, which I think sums things up pretty well. Dude has run a totally inept campaign and just straight up isn't going to win, but he'd be a decent governor, and sure as hell better than the other guy.

While on the subject: FiveThirtyEight continues to be one of the few useful, thoughtful sources of political analysis out there. Here's their take on using today's gubernatorial races to gauge the national political mood. (Summary: it's not a very useful yardstick.)

New Words:
600

Total Words:
17,500

Forward Motion:
30mins on stationary bike

Music:
Danger Mouse, Dark Night of the Soul

Reading:
Canticle by Ken Scholes

Otherwise:
Long week with little writing, obviously. Ah well. There was a Live Action Zombie Game, and that's nothing to scoff at.

I'd let a few projects and obligations languish on the backburner, and I wanted to spend Monday cleaning the stove. Or something. Got a lot of stuff done, anyway.

New Words:
700 (non-fiction)
1000 (short story)

Forward Motion:
~3.8 miles

Music:
The groans of the zombie horde

Reading:
Canticle by Ken Scholes

Otherwise:
Further preparation for the Halloween Zombie Event. I possibly got in the spirit of things with a little Left 4 Dead. On the agenda tonight: pumpkins and knives. (!!!)

Spent Friday's writing time on other projects, but kept more or less on my slow, slow track over the weekend. My expectations for myself seem to have crept down to 500 words, which has become the point where I start to say, "Ah, all right, there we go." That slide isn't exactly surprising, but I don't want it to go any lower.

New Words for Saturday:
600

New Words for Sunday:
500

Total Words:
16,900

Forward Motion:
30mins on stationary bike Saturday, two mile walk on Sunday.

Music:
Oil heat. Mmmm.

Reading:
Canticle by Ken Scholes. (Awesomeawesomeawesome, and exactly what I'm in the mood for right now.)

Otherwise:
Napped and planned for our Extraordinary Halloween Zombie Event. Lots of stuff to do this week, so I'm going to have to buck up, sharpen my steel, get on the horse, et cetera.

Repurposed and expanded some old material for the beginning of Chapter 5. Smooth sailing.

New Words:
700

Total Words:
15,800

Forward Motion:
None. I bow my head in shame.

Music:
Glee, which I kind of wanted to like, 'cause hey, I enjoy spontaneous song and dance as much as the next person. But Jesus ugh. The plots plod. The songs grate. The dance sequences would be fine, except they go on about twice as long as they should, and seem calculated to give you a pee break, or a chance to call old friends and catch up and maybe bake a cake and work on your watercolor landscape series. I don't even know where to start on the characters, but of course The Straight White Kids take center stage despite their being boring beyond belief, the women all pine after one of the two male leads, and the Not Straight White Kids are exactly as stock, cardboard, and marginal as you'd expect. There's a bright tone to the thing that's sort of appealing, and I laughed at one or two jokes, but "the best show on TV" this shit surely ain't.

Reading:
Nope.

Otherwise:
Finally, after meeting with our doctor specifically to figure out how to deal with our health insurer, we managed to get more or less what we needed. I would have pumped my fist and hopped around, but the victory came after six straight hours of crap (which necessitated both Liese and I taking the day off of our jobs), and this on the sixth or seventh day of navigating the damned health care labyrinth, so we took a long nap instead.

Finished Chapter 4, the forever chapter.

New Words:
500

Total Words:
15,100 (My total estimate got off-track somewhere; now it's fixed.)

Forward Motion:
3.5 miles + 0.5 mile walk.

Music:
WHY? (The band, not a howl to the heavens.)

Reading:
Jane Eyre

Otherwise:
Health insurance fail continues. Public option. Us. Day one. For serious.

Our "health insurer" is arbitrarily refusing to pay for prescribed medication that's well out of our financial reach, so the Gregory household spent much of yesterday (and this morning) at depressing, infuriating phone war with the world. I'm on one of the book's few action scenes right now, so you might think a little sputtering, abject rage would fuel the muse, but no. Just makes me sputter. I've had so much more than my fill of greedy and/or incompetent assholes fucking over my loved ones.

New Words:
300

Total Words:
15,100

Forward Motion:
4.5 miles + 0.5 mile walk. Anger might not fuel the fingers, but I think it speeds the feet. The first two miles really, really sucked--I hadn't done much real, outdoor running in the past week or so--but around 3.5 everything clicked, the iPod switched from Nick Drake to Muse, and I just didn't want to stop. The thought of slowing down actually irritated me, so instead of stopping at the mouth of the Creeper Trail I kept on going into town. I've only felt something like "Runner's High" a handful of times, and this was one: I felt like I was operating to specifications, doing what I was built to do. It's nice to feel that way, you know, ever.

Music:
Muse

Reading:
McSweeney's 32

Otherwise:
Finished a major project at work. I feel like that should be more of a relief than it is.

Spent the weekend in Spartanburg and Asheville. The former is never exactly my number one getaway destination, but it was good to see family and I was so hungry for anything that smelled like a vacation that every second was fantastic. In Asheville, I hugged Malaprops forever and Liese took me to the French Broad, a chocolate shop that serves cayenne cinnamon hot chocolate (among other beautiful, evil things). I didn't expect or want to accomplish much over the weekend, and indeed, as a writer and exerciser I suppose I failed. I believe my failures pale in the face of my accomplishments, however, and as a hugger of distant relatives and consumer of fines chocolates, I frankly excelled.

New Words:
500

Total Words:
14,800

Forward Motion:
30mins on stationary bike

Music:
Avett Brothers

Reading:
McSweeney's 32, the issue in which every story takes place in the year 2024. I'm a sucker for McSweeney's, and a sucker for near-future SF, and so far this is more or less everything I could want out of a quarterly/anthology/magazine-y thing. "Memory Wall" by Anthony Doerr is one of the best stories I've read all year, exploring with great sympathy and imagination a world where the lost memories of the elderly can be excavated, replayed, shared, and exploited. It's a shame that "Memory Wall" (and the rest of the issue) will go mostly unread in SF circles, because this is really some of the best SF of 2009. Maybe the various Year's Best editors will take notice.

Otherwise:
Work. Grrr, argh.

New Words:
400 + 500 non-fiction

Total Words:
14,300

Forward Motion:
40mins on stationary bike

Music:
Avett Brothers

Reading:
Nothing, yesterday

Otherwise:
Heading to South Carolina for my grandmother's 90th birthday bash.

Attention was split today (both in writing and otherwise), but I felt okay about what I got done.

New Words:
500 + 200 short story + 200 non-fiction

Total Words:
13,900

Forward Motion:
~2.5 miles

Music:
Angel theme song or Avett Brothers. I get on a kick and I kick it, man.

Reading:
Jane Eyre. I've officially cast Robert Downey Jr. as Mr. Rochester in my head-play. Jane sort of morphs between Ellen Page (who was going to star in a new BBC adaptation, I think?) and Amy Acker.

Otherwise:
Liese and I have been on opposite schedules lately, but we got to spend a good part of the morning together. We usually don't see much of each other until late at night during the work week, so that was abundantly yay, even if we had to do battle with unhelpful pharmacists.

Nice to get back to familiar characters.

New Words:
700 (plus 200 of non-fiction)

Total Words:
13,400

Forward Motion:
~2.5 miles

Music:
Angel theme song

Reading:
Jane Eyre

Otherwise:
Gray skies and quiet campus.

Over the weekend, I listened to an interview with a writer who said that he tends to work on a given project in ten day units. After ten days, he finds it useful to briefly switch gears and stretch a different set of creative muscles. I don't know if I work the same way, but hey, I definitely started to miss my target around the ten day mark. Much of that slowness was down to a wonky, tight, and somewhat unpredictable schedule, but I figured I'd try switching gears for a bit and see what happened.

Spent yesterday's writing time playing horror power chords (glowing eyes! distressed campers!) on a backburnered short story, and it felt good. Words came easy, and thinking in a different key helped to untie a few knots in the big project. Not sure whether I want to spend another day or two on the story or go back to Sunflower, but I'll need to fit in some non-fiction either way.

New Words:
1000

Forward Motion:
40mins on stationary bike

Music:
The rain, son. The rain.

Reading:
Zeitoun and Jane Eyre

Otherwise:
Yesterday was the last day of classes before Fall Break, so students and faculty alike had a number of (literally!) last minute requests. No Fall Break for me, but the campus is more or less empty now, which is a nice change of pace.

The spate of slow days continues. Lots of thoughts on this, all of which'll have to wait. For now...

New Words:
300

Total Words:
12,700

Forward Motion:
~3 miles

Music:
The Avett Brothers

Reading:
Wasn't much of a reading day

Otherwise:
Food and fun with Liz and Stan (more rare commodities!) as well as the usual gang.

New Words:
500

Total Words:
12,400

Forward Motion:
1.5 mile walk, 30mins on stationary bike

Music:
The Avett Brothers

Reading:
Jane Eyre

Otherwise:
Sunday was fine. Now it's Monday. You know?

I'm watching my cat chase a mouse. Rather, I'm watching my cat chase and repeatedly catch a mouse, but he'll neither kill it nor drop it where I can trap it. I should probably thank the damned rodent, because if not for that excitement I probably would have fallen asleep hours ago. Being awake, I managed to get my words for the day.

New Words:
700

Total Words:
11,900

Forward Motion:
~3 miles

Music:
The Avett Brothers

Reading:
Jane Eyre

Otherwise:
Today (erm, yesterday) was homecoming, so I saw and/or spoke to a ridiculous amount of friends and acquaintances and people whose names I've already forgotten, whatthehell. Sarah and EmilySarah baked a pumpkin pie for Liese, and I reaped the benefits. Was thrilled to see Elyse, who is a rare commodity these days. Good times all around.

Another argh-worthy day where work precluded everything else.

New Words:
250 (plus about 300 of rewritten material)

Total Words:
11,200

Forward Motion:
None

Music:
The Avett Brothers -- I and Love and You

Reading:
Jane Eyre

Otherwise:
Sarah F's in residence, and other delightful people are in town for the weekend. Yay!

Which includes my story, "Chain of Hearts," and lots of others that I look forward to reading. You have to love an epithet like "the planet's brutal savior."

--

THE GOD MOCCUS IS BORN FOR THE BETTERMENT OF EARTH IN THE BLACKNESS WITHIN

New horror anthology from Apex Publishing Senior Editor Gill Ainsworth promises a better future, but not for all

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

[Lexington, Kentucky] – It won’t happen naturally, but has any god ever been conceived in a natural way? Moccus, the Real God, will come into our world as all gods should: reborn through science. No part of the planet will be outside His influence, immune to His powers.

The future might not be easy, but it will be better. Perhaps not for mankind, but Moccus’ thoughts are with the planet as a whole. Often harsh, never forgiving, He preaches His agenda: Earth’s fertility at all costs.

Comprised of thirteen loosely linked stories, THE BLACKNESS WITHIN is a horror anthology that unfolds the story of Moccus with a coherent, novel-like feel. From Europe to Australasia to the Americas, no part of the world escapes the Real God’s influence. Camille Alexa, Steven L. Shrewsbury, and 11 other established and emerging authors contribute their considerable talents to weave together the story of the planet’s brutal savior, coming in 2010 from Apex Publishing. For updates and further information, visit www.apexbookcompany.com.

GILL AINSWORTH is a Senior Editor for Apex Publications and co-editor, along with Jason Sizemore, of GRATIA PLACENTI and AEGRI SOMNIA. As well as having numerous scientific publications to her name, her fiction has seen print both in Europe and in the United States. She lives in South East England with her husband and children.

APEX PUBLICATIONS (www.apexbookcompany.com) is a small press dedicated to publishing exemplary works of dark science fiction and horror. Owned and operated by Jason B. Sizemore, Apex publishes the critically acclaimed Apex Magazine. In 2006, Apex Publishing branched into producing novellas, collections, and anthologies, earning a Bram Stoker Award nomination for the AEGRI SOMNIA anthology in 2007, and another for the collection MAMA’S BOY by Fran Friel, published in 2008.

###

Press Contact: Jason B. Sizemore
jason@apexdigest.com

Back in the saddle! Work day was as peaceful as yesterday was hectic, and the writing came easy.

New Words:
800

Total Words:
10,950

Forward Motion:
3 miles

Music:
The Avett Brothers: I and Love and You (!!!)

Reading:
Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
Jane Eyre

Otherwise:
Hoping to see an absurd number of friends this weekend. Are you one of them? For those available, Liese and I are talking about a shindig in Damascus. In other news, the books and albums above are all-caps AWESOME. FYI and all.