Matthew S. Rotundo's Pixeltown

Been in Minneapolis, visiting family, since last Thursday.  Just got back a few hours ago, and I’m beat.  Whipped.  What I’m sayin’ here, I’m dog tired.  So this is gonna be short.

Before departing for the Cities, I managed to cut another 1,000 words from “The Multiplicity Has Arrived.”  This made me quite happy.  I also tweaked a few spots, including the ending. 

While up North, I managed to do another read-through of “Gone Black,” and took another look at

flaming_ewok

‘s scathing but dead-on critique of it.  He’s right; the damned thing is still way too long.  Much of the first 5K words is still just laborious set up; nothing happens in these opening pages.  Most of this is stuff I think I needed to know in order to write the story, but to readers, it’s just dead time.  So out it goes. 

I’m still not sure quite how to fix the ending. 

flaming_ewok

had some solid suggestions for it, but I hesitate, largely because of some similarity it would then have to another work of mine.  So I’m wavering there.  But I’ll work it out.

One update for Write Club:  Heliotrope bounced “What Really Happened That Night” with a tier one rejection.  Response time, six days.

The Cities was a fab time, by the way.  Big do at Big Sis’s house, to celebrate a nephew’s graduation (congrats again, Joe!).  Also visited Duluth and the fabled North Shore, including Split Rock.  Many years ago, the wife had done a spectacular painting of the lighthouse based on a picture in a calendar.  Finally, she and I got to see it In The Flesh.  Surrounded by all sorts of mega-cool fog.  Wonderfully surreal.  Also went golfing for the first time in my life (it’s official:  I’m getting old) and went on a roller coaster–well, several of them, actually–for the first time in nearly twenty years (so maybe I’m not as old as all that, not yet).  My only regret was that I couldn’t get to

snurri

‘s reading, as I’d hoped.  Really wanted to be there, Dave.  But I was a hundred and fifty miles away at the time, out on the fabled Highway 61.

In all, a whirlwind trip.  Did I mention I was exhausted?

Right.  I’m outta here.

Had some difficulty getting myself on track last week. Part of that may be attributable to foot-dragging on my part (see below). It also seemed like I suddenly spent a lot of time responding to various emails and making travel arrangements–most of it writing-related, but not actual writing. Again, my inability to multitask rears its ugly head.

That said, I guess I did accomplish some genuine writing stuff. I got some line edits from Edmund Schubert for “The Frankenstein Diaries.” These proved to be very minor–easy fixes. Edmund quite rightly noted my protagonist’s tendency to burst into tears–appropriate at some points in the story, but overused in others. I dried it up a little.

Next I did something I’d been dreading: I took a hard look at “The Multiplicity Has Arrived,” trying to fix the story’s predictability. One of the main problems here is that it’s still too long; readers are getting too much time to figure it out. So I looked, first and foremost, for ways to cut it. I also questioned the story’s ending, and considered taking an entirely different angle on it. It’s good, even necessary, to challenge your own assumptions about a piece–but it’s frustrating at the same time, especially when you can’t think of solutions to the problems you see.

Then yesterday, just as I was about to set the story aside and work on something else, the clouds parted a little, and I noticed an entire scene that could be cut. All it does, I realized, is reiterate something I’ve already established. Eureka! What’s more, I will have to do very little revision to other scenes as a result of this one being cut–a sure sign that I didn’t need it in the first place. I also figured out a way to tweak the ending that should improve the story without requiring a substantial rewrite of earlier material.

Hope to have these changes done tomorrow. After that, I need to turn my attention to a rewrite of “Gone Black.” I’ll be on the road to the Twin Cities come Thursday, but I should be able to get at least some work done while I’m gone.

Hub deemed “Small Favors” to be “Suitable for publication, but not suitable for Hub.” That’s a tier two form rejection. Response time, five months.

Of “Doppler Shift,” Apex Digest said, “It was a decent story; it just didn’t have the horror aspect for which we’re looking.” Response time, twelve days.

Oh, and if anyone’s planning to fly to Atlanta for Dragon*Con, now might be the best time to book. I just checked Orbitz yesterday, and found round-trip airfare for less than $200 apiece. Can’t beat that with a stick.

And with that public service announcement, I’m outta here.