Progress Report, in which Magic Meter reappears, only to disappear again

Posted on December 15, 2008 by Matthew S. Rotundo

Revised the first three chapters of Petra Released last week.  Also, in preparation for the Codex novel contest, I slapped together a synopsis of the novel, and a one-page summary of Petra, so that judges in the contest (my fellow Codexians) wouldn’t be totally lost.  Got everything in by the deadline.

An interesting experience, writing a synopsis of a novel after writing just the first draft.  It was kind of cool, actually.  I had forgotten how much more complex this novel is, compared to Petra.  I think it might be useful to have the overall shape of the story defined now, before I get too heavily into the revisions.  And writing that Petra synopsis so recently really helped me meet the deadline for this contest.

That one-page summary was also an interesting exercise.  Think writing a synopsis is hard?  Try doing it in 250 words or less.  Ouch. 

Anyway, I got it done, so that’s cool.  I’m realistic about my chances to win this thing, but the contest is just for fun, anyway.

Since I promised Magic Meter would be back, here ya go, such as it is:

But enjoy it while it lasts, folks.  I don’t think you’ll see it next week.  Now that I’ve met the contest deadline, I’m going to finish my read-through of the draft.  I haven’t looked at this novel since completing it last August, so I’m interested in what I might find lurking in those pages.  Then I’ll get back to actually revising copy.

No updates for Write Club.

I’m out.

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“Ascension” climbs to AnthologyBuilder

Posted on December 10, 2008 by Matthew S. Rotundo
Just in time for the holidays, my novella "Ascension" is now available on AnthologyBuilder.

This was originally published in Absolutely Brilliant in Chrome.  I talked about it a bit in my recent interview on Blogging the Muse:

“Ascension” was inspired by the 1996 Mt. Everest disaster, in which eight climbers—two of them seasoned veterans who had summitted the mountain many times—perished when a snow storm stranded them near the peak.  I remember watching a news program about it, and as the story unfolded, as more and more people died on the mountain, while others suffered the effects of severe frostbite, hypoxia, and high altitude pulmonary edema, I found myself wondering about the bodies.  It’s something that was never mentioned in the program.  No one was talking about any efforts to get the remains off the mountain, so that they might be shipped home to the families.  This made some sense; it was certainly hard enough just getting the survivors down.  But still, I kept wondering, “What about the bodies?  Did they just leave them there?”  As it turns out, the answer was yes.  Later, watching another documentary on ascending Everest, I saw footage of climbers moving past human remains.  One person commented that the mountain was the world’s highest graveyard.

That struck a chord with me.  It’s no coincidence that “Ascension” opens with a climber coming across a corpse in the snow.

And if you’re of a mind, check out my other stories currently available on AnthologyBuilder.

I’ve neglected this market for too long.  I expect I’ll be sending a few more pieces that way soon.

That is all.

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Progress Report, in which I show Don Quixote a thing or two

Posted on December 8, 2008 by Matthew S. Rotundo

Query letter, synopsis, and opening pages have been printed out.  Copies have been made.  It’s time to send Petra into the world.

Took a while to reach this point.  Meanwhile, the economy has gone in the toilet and publishers are cutting back or suspending acquisitions of new manuscripts.

Yeah, figures.

Looks like I’ll be tilting at windmills yet again.  But the good news is that I have a lot of practice at it.

In other news, I’ve read through the first three chapters of Petra Released and made some notes.  I thought I might have a substantial amount of work to do on chapter two, but not really, as it happens.  Chapter four, on the other hand, is where I think the real pain begins.  That’s where I start a story line I am very unhappy with at this time.  On the plus side, I have a couple of ideas about fixing it.  Time will tell how much I can salvage.

Anyway, I get to worry about that later.  Right now, I’m focusing on chapters one through three, and on writing a synopsis for that Codex novel contest I mentioned.

I believe Magic Meter may be returning soon.  I know you’ve missed it.

Write Club update:

YFOP from Realms.  Response time, about six weeks.

Now then–Sancho, my lance!  (Take notes, Quixote.  This is how it’s done.)

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