Pinky swears are sacred (or, why I'm in writing overdrive)

[scarlettina]

So there I am at RadCon. It's dinner. It's Saturday night. There at the table are myself, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, bravado111, Dan Duval, bjcooper and mikigarrison. (I may be forgetting someone.) Kris and bravado111 are on my case about submitting my work: "You don't do it enough," they say. It became an embarrassing and yet oddly loving sort of scarlettina gang bang on the subject of submissions.

So I made a pinky swear. With Kris. In front of witnesses. It goes like this: I have to submit three short stories within three days of my return home from RadCon, or she gets to beat me up when I get to the workshop at the end of the month. The others get to fight over who gets to hold me down while she beats me up, but the end result is that she gets to beat me up. And I have to report on my progress. So here I am. Bullied. Abused. Beaten into submission.

Or rather, I should say, beaten into submitting.

So this is my first report: "Down to the Bone Water," submitted to Strange Horizons last night, February 18, Year of Our Lord 2008. (Well, I'm Jewish, so it's really the year of your Lord, since my calendar says 5768 but who's counting?)

So that's my first report.

Second report will come this evening. At lunch time, I finished what I think is a good, solid draft of "The Winter Wife" that's ready for submission. (bravado111, that's the green man story.) What scares me is the third story, because it's got to be a draft of "The Teacher's Daughter," which has been over-workshopped and overworked. What worked for me with "Winter Wife," also over-workshopped, was going back to my very first draft, thinking about my original intentions for it, considering what feedback I could remember (because reading over the notes I received would have killed any hope of my revising the story in a timely, dispassionate way), and then just picking and choosing what I thought would work. As I consider it now, I'm really pleased with what I've got. Now I just have to get it out the door.

Safety tip: Do not make pinky swears with KKR. Or, if you do, don't make them with the idea that You'll Show Her! God will make you sorry. And you'll probably get beaten up.

Comments

[oldmangrumpus.livejournal.com]

Well, quite honestly, they're right; you don't.

That's With Love, mind you.

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

Um. Right. :-)

[botgrrrl.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Even though I'm a Christian, I've never been a big fan of "Year of Our Lord". Mostly because the date probably isn't right anyway.

I do like C.E. (Common Era) as it tends to confuse my co-workers. It has no benifit beyond that.

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

Generally speaking, I prefer CE as well. I was just in a mood last night.

[botgrrrl.livejournal.com]

Hehehe. Sometimes it's fun to use a term or phrase to add "pomp".

[kistha.livejournal.com]

So how does one get on your (pre)reading list?

Both these titles have me v. curious.

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

At this point, I don't really have a pre-reading list, at least not right now. I'm beginning to think that workshopping or previewing my work may not be very good for me, given how some feedback has shut me down pretty effectively before. Maybe it's just a phase I'm going through, but right now, I'm sort of feeling like I want to keep things to myself for a while, at least until they hit print. I'm glad the titles make you curious anyway; I must have done something right.

[kistha.livejournal.com]

I understand. But now I must pout - those titles are provocative. :)

But please keep me in mind, and remember that as a reader, not a writer I just tell you what I like, and what worked for me. I do point out continuity errors, because I just can't help myself.

[steve98052.livejournal.com]

As an agnostic, I like the Common Era terminology. That works as for pretty much the entire world, not just the third-or-so of the world who recognize the dominus of "Anno Domini". I see that's the convention used in Jewish education, the literal translation of the Chinese term, and used in quite a few other contexts too.

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

Generally speaking, I prefer CE as well. I was just in a mood last night.

[e-bourne.livejournal.com]

I give to you:
http://emr.cs.iit.edu/home/reingold/calendar-book/Calendrica.html

Common Era is for pussies. :-)

Today is 4 Epiphi 2756, or cycle 78, Year Wu-zi, Month 1, Day 13 (year of the Rat, for the English speaking, I believe), or Maksanyo, 11 Yakatat 2000.

I love Calendrica. I love Calendrists.com. Why be tied to your own time when there are so many to choose from?

Actually, I do find it very, very handy. I'm currently living on 25 Pharmuthi, and struggling with the dates of a lunar year.

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

::cackle cackle cackle::

[mistymarshall.livejournal.com]

ha this is what you get for spending all your time around writers.....hee good for you!

[sleightgirl.livejournal.com]

I think pinky swears are great...maybe you could pay it forward? I know someone who needs a pinky swear for submissions.

Oh, and as an athiest, I still use AD, only because I'm confusing enough as it is.

[sleightgirl.livejournal.com]

Thanks!