Matthew S. Rotundo's Pixeltown

And that’s a wrap on the rewrite of From Earth I Have Arisen.  Just because I’m feeling a bit daffy, here’s Magic Meter to make it official:

The end result of all that hacking and slashing I’ve been doing:  over 8600 words cut, or 21%.  A helluva lot, in other words.  It’s enough to make me feel like a real writer again.  And let me tell you, folks, I’ve been missing that feeling.

There is one downside to completing one of the most difficult rewrites I’ve ever done:  From Earth has been officially demoted from novel to novella.  At its previous length, it was just over the official novel threshold (40K words).  Now, it’s well under that.  And will be damned difficult to market, to boot.

On the other hand, I take some small measure of encouragement from the fact that the last story of mine that underwent such a drastic cut ended up winning an award.  So, you know.  There’s hope.

Now I need to get some manuscripts into circulation and jump into my much-delayed next novel project.  Where are my notes again . . . ?

No updates for Write Club.

Onward.

Hey, wait—it’s October already?  Why wasn’t I notified?

When I went to bed last night, I could swear it was still the end of August.  And now I wake to find September just . . . gone.  How the hell did that happen?

Actually, I have a pretty good idea:  relentless schedule disruptions and pressures of the day job did a number on me last month.  But much of that is behind me now.  And so it is that after weeks of spinning my wheels and banging my head against various walls, I find myself with a rewritten opening to “From Earth I Have Arisen.”

Man, that was hard.  I still need another read-through to be sure the story still makes sense, and that it isn’t bogged down with too much exposition.  But the bulk of the heavy lifting is done.

I also managed to fit in a writing panel at Nuke-Con on Sunday—sparsely attended, but enjoyable nonetheless.  Nice folks over there at Nuke-Con.

Next up:  There’s another scene in “From Earth” that’s ripe for the cutting—a flashback sequence that can probably be summarized instead of dramatized.  And then I should finally be done with it.

September 2012 might have been a lost month for me, but I’m comin’ out swingin’ in October.  Just see if I don’t.

Write Club update:  6 months and 1 week to a very nice personal rejection from Tor.com.  So that’s something.

I’m out.