615 Words, Aching Calves, and ‘The Ocean Hunters’

January 26th, 2012 § 0 comments § permalink

I wrote 615 words today, and they were good words. My pace is slow with my sessions on this novel, but I am writing words almost every single day. That is progress.

I think I have a code name for this project. I am calling it “The Ocean Hunters”. As some of you know, my code names often reflect the work, though obliquely. In this current draft, I am really feeling my way in there as if I were blindfolded, and I feel a bit anxious, nervous. This says to me that things are just where they should be in my writing process.

The days are grey here in Berlin, and I like it. Seeing the city in the daylight is my favorite thing. Berlin in the hours of 9 a.m. through 2 p.m. feels mine, and mine alone. Today I ran before my writing session, and I clocked 3 miles at a glacial pace, since I really went at it hard yesterday for four miles. Tomorrow is a day off from writing and that makes me very happy. I have to rest these legs, too.

I have not put writing sessions into my weekends in Berlin, but now that I am moving into my first draft in full, I will want to add Saturdays to my schedule. I still feel very behind on query work, and I must make this time up. My previously written novels are not going to sell themselves.

Today’s writing soundtrack reveals a glance back at the past, through the prism of the remix. Book of Love put out some soft and warm pop back then, but their odd remix/mashup of Pretty Boys and Pretty Girls (a haunting AIDS-era anxiety dream) and Tubular Bells of “Exorcist” fame, made for the perfect cut as I myself hacked my way forward in this manuscript.

My Current Novel In Progress: January Update

January 24th, 2012 § 0 comments § permalink

I am making progress in my current manuscript, and today I wrote 421 new words (and spent time drawing images from the text). As some of you know, I often draw the images from my stories on a notebook in order to help me visualize places or explore the story. I’ll post a pic or two to the Tumblr later today.

This update marks my first update in a few months. This year’s work is simple. I will finish and polish this current manuscript. For my previous project, I capped the work at 85,000 words, and I think I will need a smiler constraint for this work. I don’t have that number yet. My writing sessions are not generating long word counts, and I think I need to make my way forward with more ease in order to not lose momentum.

In essence, I have got to keep writing. With a sizable body of work, I can set some limits to it later on. I will make this decision in February.

For now, I am working in what I feel is my most challenging project to date. This one feels ambitious, in terms of the level of language I want to achieve, but also its potential success to go to market. Wish me luck, Gentle Readers.

My surroundings have helped my writing on this project. As I write this, I am looking out onto the streets of Berlin, and I couldn’t feel better about having access to this city while writing this novel. This is a big year for my writing goals.

On the back burner I have more query work happening, since I am still looking for agent representation for my previously written works. As a companion piece to all this writing, I am training for a half marathon. To me, writing and running are companion activities, so we can easily say that 2012′s goals are not modest.

I have missed you, Gentle Readers. My apologies for being gone for so long.

Now I must return to my manuscript, which is currently 9,083 words long.

Crowdsourcing an Author Bio

October 19th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

I will be reading a brand new story at Tuesday Funk on November 1 at the Hopleaf.

My bio is due later this week. What do you like to see in an author bio? Want to give me some tips on what I should include?

Help me, Lovers.

Author Q&A In The Skype Ultraworld Today

October 7th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

My friend Beau, who teaches 7th and 8th grade, is discussing my stories “The Broken Chest” and “Red Light and Shadow” this week with his students.

Today at around Noon, I will answer questions live, via Skype for them. I’m so thrilled. Here’s a sampling of their questions:

THE BROKEN CHEST

  • Who, or what, was the Sphinxe? Does it really matter or was it just a way to pull the reader into the story then switch directions?
  • Does the Sphinxe matter to the ultimate story, which isn’t really about the Sphinxe at all?
  • Does the time/place/era of the story matter to the story you were trying to tell?
  • What inspired this story?
    In this story science and magic combine. Do you only write in the sci-­?fi/fantasy
  • genre?

 

RED LIGHT AND SHADOW 

  • Is this story an allegory for climate change, or was climate change a common knowledge concept that you could use to tell the story through the tree’s perspective?
  • Were the shadows meant to represent anything? A real environmental threat or an allegory to mythical/fictional creature?
  • Is there a hidden meaning beyond the implications towards global warming and environmental change?
  • How challenging is it to combine the flow of poetry with a prose story line?
  • Is the tree representative of people and their own mortality?
  • Why don’t trees have souls?

Tracking My Queries to Agents Using Highrise

October 3rd, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

 

 

Querying is not a simple task, and it’s not gentle on the writer’s ego. To query properly, you read up on an agent, you figure out the submissions guidelines for that agency, you customize your letter to said agent, and you send out a brief letter that is meant to represent all the hard work you have put into your manuscript over several years.

When the rejection letters begin to stack up, I do not freak out.

Our manuscripts are meant to be rejected. There’s nothing new about this. I generally feel better the longer the stack of rejection letters gets. Rejection means I am putting in my time, doing good work, even if an agent hasn’t loved one of my manuscripts yet. Eventually an agent will pick up interests in my novels, and constant querying is the way I will make this happen.

In order to track who I have been querying and how often, I have previously used two well-loved tools. I have updated spreadsheets in Google Docs, marking columns for dates sent, name of agent, response, and whether I can (or should requery) at a later point. I also combined this spreadsheet with Gmail filters, so that responses from agents are routed to special folders labeled according to each novel I’m querying for. Incidentally, I have two novels to sell.

I have used this combo of spreadsheets and filters for about two years.

However, checking these folders can be a bit cumbersome, especially when you consider that I also have to keep a separate address book to track agencies street addresses, agents’ Twitter accounts and more.

We are living in the age of automation, Gentle Readers. I looked around a few weeks ago, and I realized I was spending too much time tracking queries this way. The automation of software is here to help!

I signed up for a basic account for Highrise from 37 signals. A lot of companies use this customer relationship management application to keep track of sales and to integrate deals. I have used Basecamp extensively in my dayjobbery, and I decided to try it out.

Guess what? It does what I need it to do. I may post at length about this later on, but just check it out:

  • When I write a query, all I need to do now is cc the inbox that Highrise creates for me so that it begins to track the correspondence I have with a literary agent.
  • If I send a Word doc or PDF as an attachment, Highrise catalogues that file so I can see exactly what version of any manuscript I have sent
  • I have a very easy way to mark a deal as pending or awarded. The day I click that box for being represented by an agent, I’m going to tear my shirt off and run out into the street shouting.
  • I can keep a very clean and easily implemented list of agents, publishers and other literary contacts. This is key. I do not want to integrate this address book with my personal or work address book, so the ability to put this agenting address book in one place is key.
I am not sure if the 37 Signals team ever intended to have their product be used this way, but I feel like they did. I am using it often. The best part of the software is that it brings me right back to the most important activity in querying: writing a good query letter. With more free time to focus on writing the query for my novels and researching agents, I can worry less about double querying or managing folders.
Lovely and horror show.

My Short Stories as Part of A Curriculum? I Am Not Dreaming.

September 27th, 2011 § 2 comments § permalink

I just found out a story from my book the “12 Burning Wheels” will going to be discussed in a classroom in Dallas.

Indeed. Seventh and eighth graders are currently reading “The Broken Chest” from the collection, as well as “Red Light and Shadow” this week in my friend Beau’s class. His students will be formulating questions for the author through next week. I feel flattered and grateful. Can’t wait to field their questions.

You can buy “The 12 Burning Wheels” in print or download to your Kindle.

I’ll be reading a new short story on Dia de los Muertos. Join me

September 27th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

You heard it here first. I have been invited again to Tuesday Funk. On Tuesday, November 1st, join me at the Hopleaf in Andersonville.

THERE WILL BE SKULLS.

 

My Current Writing Progress: A Narrative

September 20th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

The story of the past two years is easy to tell.

In 2009, I wrote a handful of stories that became the collection “The 12 Burning Wheels.”

After the book was published, I continued writing, knowing that one should never stop, never stop.

Did I mention again that one should never stop?

The project I was developing at the time was tentatively named “Rochnacht.”

Sometime in 2010,  I simply…lost the plot. I won’t go into dull detail here on why, but both the inspiration and my own daily practice of devoting time to that manuscript dwindled pretty much to nothing.

And now, several months later, I have put “Rotnacht” on hold and begun something new altogether. Maybe I needed to detoxify myself a bit. Not sure.

I am working on a manuscript now, and working in my usual way: Write about two to three times a week, keep a track of word counts, and try not too look back at drafts too long until the whole novel is complete. When I wrote my second novel, I gave myself some very tight deadlines to deliver the manuscript, and I learned a lot from that process. Strangely enough, I enjoyed it.

This time around, though, I am not working on clockwork. I am committing to a minimum of 3,000 words per week, but that is perhaps the only real constraint. I haven’t come up with a code name for this project, but I’ll be sure to post it once I do.

This time, I am also getting early first reader feedback, which is a little different than before. In fact, I sent off one chapter to a first reader today, and I will send two chapters to my two others, who also happen to be fiction writers.

All of these events measure up to an eventful autumnal season. Productive, full of joy, and also filled with challenges ahead, as I try to figure out my way through a third novel. I’m not sure how everyone else does it, but this is the best way I know how. Make the time, write some copy, and don’t look back until the thing is done. Then commit several months to rewriting.

Later this week I’ll provide some updates on the querying process and when you can expect new books from me.

Beware the Revenant: My Blog Hiatus is Over

September 19th, 2011 § 1 comment § permalink

Today is a big day. I don’t have to whine anymore about not being able to devote time to the blog.

I’m writing, and there’s so much to tell you about. Thank you for sticking with me during my absence. Fire up your RSS readers, in case you still are using one.

I’m Retiring This Blog (OMG!), But My Twitter Lives On

January 26th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

Yes, you heard right. I am retiring this writing blog and relying on Twitter to stay connected with you on all matters of writing and books.

Here’s why:

I’m not going away! You can now find my posts on Twitter exclusively by following me at http://twitter.com/urraca. Additionally, I’ll make occasional video posts via my YouTube account. You can find it at www.youtube.com/user/urraca500. If you watched the video above, you’ll also know I’ll be redesigning my web site, so stay tuned for a re-launch this Spring. Thank you, Gentle Readers, for being loyal, true, and attractive.

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    Cesar Torres' new short story collection is available for $7.99 as a book and $3.99 as an e-book. Buy now.

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  • My Tumblr: Owl Marginalia

    • Officially overtrained, but not hanging up my tights yet

      Overtraining is not a myth. There comes a time when runners put on too much mileage or don’t add enough recovery time (and techniques) into their schedule.

      Overtraining, as a result, is a physical and psychological condition that makes going to the dentist look like a party. 

      As some of you know, I have been begun training for two half marathons this year, and I have run a good set of miles in the streets of Berlin. It is in this way that I have learned how little foot and car traffic exists in this city. The longest run I have done has been 8 miles. Up until then, I have felt like I have been floating on a cloud. Running this much has really centered me. 

      This week, however, the hard work I have been asking my body to do caught up with me. I think the five miler I did from the Wedding U-Bahn station in 14 degree weather made my system snap. When I started that run, I knew my body was going to put up a fight. Somehow, I got through it okay, and I did not lose a toe to frostbite. But afterward, things started falling apart. Now I’m fighting congestion, elevated heart rate (SCARY, SCARY, PUMP, PUMP! Isn’t running so FUN??), weird sleep patterns, aches and an overall sense of malaise. 

      Here’s what overtrained looks like. Yellow alert face, mouth and eyes pressed into the neat circles of the classic :0 emoticon.

      I feel like crap, I’m sore, and yet, there is an urge inside, dressed up like an insidious little gnome, that wants me to run those nine miles on Sunday. Maybe that little gnome is what I look like in my CW-X gear, plodding along Mitte on a Sunday morning. Of course, my own visualization techniques make me think I look like Carl Lewis, but just don’t tell Carl Lewis. My little gnome self is saying,  ”Come on Cesar, you can push it, you can do those nine miles even though you’re just steps away from an actual injury…”

      I am not going to do it. 

      In blog life, I try to make sure that I don’t whine, and I want to be clear here: I am not complaining about being overstrained. In fact, it makes me realize how hard I am focusing on my goal. And as I get older, I realize that the way to reach many goals is by knowing when to rest the body and the brain in order to take the next step to get there.

      Addressing overtraining can be accomplished by cutting back intensity and volume, or by taking time off. So, now that I know I won’t be running nine miles, I do plan to sleep long, lower my stress levels, rest my legs, and enjoy my time spent with loved ones in this great city of Berlin. You will catch me at the kino instead of the roads, and what great timing: the high will be 9 degrees Fahrenheit Sunday. If I wake up on  that morning feeling like a champ, I may run a 3-miler. If I don’t run at al, it’s no problem, because the goals are in my sights. 

      If I scale back and rest like a pro, I will run like a pro.

      02/03/12

    • P&G to lay off 1,600 workers after discovering it's free to advertise on Facebook and Google

      I am not sure how I feel about this Business Insider story connecting the layoffs directly to the quote from CEO Robert MacDonald, but the results are certainly interesting. And the figures on how much Procter & Gamble has spent on advertising feel staggering, though at that scale, what doesn’t feel staggering? 

      It remains to be seen how well a company like Procter & Gamble can implement advertising through social media channels. The real question is, are they going to use their existing agencies or recruit new ones for their social media blitz?

      Full story at Business Insider: P&G To Lay Off 1,600 After Discovering It’s Free To Advertise On Facebook

      02/03/12


    • It’s arrived. Madonna’s new video for “Give Me All Your Luvin’”. I’m in!

      madonnaciccone:

      Madonna - Give Me All Your Luvin’ (Feat. M.I.A. and Nicki Minaj)


      02/03/12