Speaking of super-kind, my neighbour took the dog for a trip to the pit today to spare me my headache doing so.
Yeah, so yesterday didn’t work out very well. I had a headache for most of the day and though I managed to power through a Twitter launch party for Chicken Soup for the Soul: Random Acts of Kindness, I was out of steam and ready to lie down when it was over. Worse? The headache is one of the rarer sorts I get: just rough enough that after ten or fifteen minutes of activity I feel a bit sick and want to lie down, but not so bad that I don’t feel good enough to try again a half hour later or so—and repeat. Ad nauseum (no pun intended).
I’m even less thrilled I woke up with the damn thing still in place. Likely this is due to my impending surgery next Monday, and hopefully once that’s done I’ll be free of the general ick.
So. That’s why I was gone yesterday. Today I’m taking it easy on myself and giving myself a quiet day with as little screen time as possible (this is my only exception).
Exit Plans for Teenage Freaks
I finished my edits for Triad Soul, and they are away, and I’m playing catch-up with EPfTF, word-count wise, for what I missed while I was doing so. That said, I was ahead beforehand, so I’m not actually behind.
Thus, taking a headache day isn’t so bad. Besides which, trying to do more with a headache just leads to more headache, and I don’t want scotoma or a migraine.
Self-care. Trying to practice what I preach.
Of Echoes Born / Short Pieces
I was struck by a word in a conversation with my editor a while back. He asked me if I knew what it meant (and I did, thanks to my eons-ago OAC Art class): Pentimento.
If you don’t know what it means, don’t worry, it’s not exactly commonly used in conversation. It’s a term in reference to painting, where an artist’s changes to a project are detectable through scanning, careful study, the passing of time or what-have-you, to find what they’d originally painted underneath. For example, the shoulder strap in Portrait of Madame X used to be in the process of slipping off her shoulder (the scandal!)
Anyway, why do I mention this? Because part of my decision to create the “Of Echoes Born” collection was to specifically include new content. I rarely write just for writing’s sake—I almost always write short fiction in an attempt to meet a call for submission—but the idea of pentimenti, alongside my usual “nudge the world just a little bit to the magical,” turned into a short fiction idea. I’ve been scribbling notes ever since.
Open Calls for Submission
Lastly, Writing Wednesday updates include my list off all the various open calls for submission I’ve found and/or am trying to write for. If you know of any others, by all means do drop them in the comments and I’ll add them to the list. If this is helpful for people other than myself, it’s even better.
Totals: January: 6 submissions (4 reprints, 2 new), 1 acceptance; February: 1 submission (1 new).
- Chicken Soup for the Soul – Various titles, various themes, various deadlines, 1,200 word count limit.
- Clarkesworld – Currently open for art, non-fiction, and short story submissions.
- Cast of Wonders – Young adult short fiction market, open to story submissions up to 6,000 words.
- 49th Parallels – Alternative Canadian Histories and Futures, Bundoran Press, deadline February 14th, 2017; 1,500-7k word count limit.
- MM Superpowers anthology – This isn’t the only thing open at Totally Bound (you can click through for the full list), but this is the one I’m eyeing; deadline February 28th, 2017; 10k-15k word count limit, with erotic content.
- Wet Summer Nights – White collar/blue collar, cross-town, wrong side of the tracks lovers theme; Mischief Corner Books; 10k-18k word count; deadline March 31st, 2017.
- Alice Unbound – Think Alice in Wonderland, only speculative and may embrace fabulist, weird, myth, SF, fantasy, steampunk, horror, etc. Exile Editions; Submission window: February 1st – May 31st, 2017; 2k – 5k word count limit; Canadians and ex-pat Canadians only.
'Nathan Burgoine 