Hi Gang,

I just updated the website with new software. Since this was a fairly major update (Drupal 4.6.5 to 4.7.x), a lot of things are being redone. If you notice anything wonky, please let me know and I'll try to get it fixed.

-anneliese

Today is one of those days where you wished you had spent a little more time on following through. I recently applied for a new job, and I applied electronically. No big deal. Well, I should have followed through when I did not get a quick response, but I am accustomed to goverment jobs where par for the course is a wait of three months before one hears anything. Thus, I was surprise to learn from an inside source that the potential employer was already conducting interviews. As it turns out, my inside source revealed, the employer never received my resume. It left my inbox and was sent into the virtual voids never to be seen again.

Been a while since I've written. My friend Ben, who momentarily resides in Hawaii though will soon be back in Seattle, urged to me to write some more. Apparently my diatribes were exactly what he needed to read before falling asleep.

Ok, the falling asleep part is not true, but we'll see if Ben is reading this anymore. (I expect an email, and please no baby pictures--my inbox is full :) We know you send them because YOU'RE in them, not because of Vanessa. I'm sorry to tell you, but Vanessa is cuter than you, Ben, even though you can talk and often write tremedously witty emails.

Hey everyone,

I'm letting everyone know that I've decided to leave SFWW.

Thanks for letting me join your group when you did. Good luck with your story projects and writing goals.

Adieu.

Boris

I've never kept track of my story progress this way like some other people. But I'm giving it a stab.

I'd mentioned outlining 3 Trek short stories for this year's SNW contest. I've since come to loathe one of them and found another to be problematic. Right now, I'm eking out the first. I'm seven handwritten pages into it. Don't know how many pages that'll translate to when typing it out or how many words, but it's a fair start. I know this'll be a sweet tale. I just have to finish the first draft, which I'm doing in my slow, if steady way.

To paraphrase Confucius: "It matters not how slowly one goes, so long as he does."

I got comments on a short original universe SF story of mine that I'm preparing for submission from JAMES PATRICK KELLY on Saturday May 13, 2006. Woohoo! I think I've gotten that final break through that I need to take it to the next level.

Market choices are Writers of the Future, Asimovs, and Baen's Univers. I'm going with WOTF.

I'll have to make some generous offerings to the writing gods for pairing JAMES PATRICK KELLY with my story.

All I have to do is rewrite it now. Easier said than done. But it'll be worth it.

And I'm busy on some Trek short tales now for Dean Wesley Smith's consumption.

It's that time again. Another Monday. It's been a quite week--a very pleasant change. Nice weather has allowded some beautiful hiking around Lake Michigan. Sadly we've had almost zero rain for April and May, it's all gone south, so the fire danger it quite high. We're supposed to be in the rainy spring season!

Written Eight chapters off "The Gravedigger's Son". It's coming along surprisingly well for a first draft. It's leaning more towards YA than middle-grade. In a future draft, I'll have to consciously decide which one the story is leaning towards.

Other writing news: I've started some editing for a roleplaying company, Battlelords (ssdc.com). No real money involved, but it's fun.

Being an alum of Clarion (the original, not Clarion West), I've got the great luck of getting crits on a story of mine that I'm grooming for WOTF/Asimovs from some published Clarion alums.

I've already gotten two: one from Tracy Taylor and another from Nancy Etchemendy. JAMES PATRICK KELLY is moderating the critique thread on my tale for the next two weeks. He'll offer his crit in about a week.

What can I say besides AWESOME!

My story was already at a high pitch and if it's not up another level once I get all my crits and process 'em, something is seriously wrong.

Now I've got to keep eking out my current Trek short tale, write up some crits, read the EXPERTS novel, and write up my Mission Impossible III review.

I've outlined the broad strokes for 3 Star Trek Strange New Worlds (SNW) submissions on Monday 5/1/06. Woohoo!

My Decatur script rewrite is ongoing, but it's not consuming all my writing now.

I'm looking forward to putting together a kick ass group of submissions for SNW 10 and making Dean Wesley Smith go wow.

I of course have nonTrek stories in mind, but I've got my Trek hat on now.

I answered a call for readers by Critters workshop captain/former SFWA VP Andrew Burt to read some an English translation of a German novel set in a mutant human universe a la X-Men, I'd say.

I was among the few selected by Andrew (Thanks a million, very flattered :-)) and I'm looking forward to diving into the manuscript for the first book in the series. I hear tell XPERTS has been selling like hot cakes over in Deutschland and talks are in progress for a movie deal (European, I suppose).

Some novels and an anthology of short stories are planned. Those who read this first novel will of course have a leg up on what the series and universe is about if they want to fight for novel assignments/anthology slots. I'll be curious to see what XPERTS is all about.