Books on my Kindle That I Want to Read Some I’ve already read, but for some reason they aren’t marked as read on my Kindle. So in the spirit of completionism, I’m planning on re-reading them. Cross posted on Enjoy SciFi. Science Fiction Crosstalk by Connie Willis Existence by David Brin How I Proposed to My Wife by John Scalzi Some of the Best from Tor.com - 2014 by Various The Andre Norton MEGAPACK by Andre Norton The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury The Socket Greeny Saga by Tony Bertauski The Book of Dust in Book of Dust 1 by Philip Pullman The Moon Maze Game in Dream Park 4 by Larry Niven, Steven Barnes Extracted in Extracted Trilogy 1 by RR Haywood The Quantum Thief in Jean le Flambeur 1 by Hannu Rajaniemi Ancient Treasure in Lost Sols 1 by James Bisceglia, Jennifer Koth Rise of the Annunaki in Lost Sols 2 by James Bisceglia The Awakening in Lost Sols 3 by James Bisceglia Raven Stratagem in Machineries of Empire 2 by Yoon Ha Lee Green Mars in Mars Trilogy 2 by Kim Stanley Robinson Fish Tales in Plague of Angels 3 by Sheri S.

“To ghost, or not to ghost? That is the question.” “Shakespeare,” maybe Okay, that’s not how the quote goes, I know, but it’s a question I considered for a long time before making my latest life change. I quit my job. I worked as an hourly contractor in a customer support position for the last five years. It was close to the perfect job for me: the pay was right the hours were reasonable it involved some writing it was for a non-profit supporting deserving people and it allowed me to help people who needed the help.

I don’t open my email as regularly these days. So when I opened the mail today I was expecting the regular deluge of spam, newsletters, random offers, and missed events. And the box did not disappoint. Then I noticed a message that wasn’t from someone I knew or a pundit I recognized. The subject said something about submissions and I didn’t really read it, as whatever… One of my stories was accepted!

The Infinity Concerto by Greg Bear My rating: 3 of 5 stars I read this back when it came out, and I liked it a lot more then. I think my tastes in fantasy have gotten more specific. I liked how he reworked the idea of the Fae and how they interact with humans. But the pace was very slow and confusing at times. Plus, since the main character was a very reluctant hero, I found myself hoping the enemies would win at times.

I never used to like the phrase “it is what it is.” It seemed like something people would say when they were dismissing my very real anger or frustration. Or something they would say when they were trying to pretend they weren’t feeling anger or frustration themselves. I know now that the reason I didn’t like the phrase was because I didn’t understand it. I hadn’t truly lived it. Along came 2020.

A friend of mine calls the folks arbitrarily buying up every random thing in the store (e.g. TP and bottled water) “panic hoarders.” Honestly, that is an excellent name for them. I mean, I understand the people frantically buying Purell by the gallon (why, oh why didn’t I buy stock in Purell???), but bottled water? Did Covid-19 get into the plumbing? I guess I will invest in a LifeStraw. That way I can drink from the creek in my backyard.

It’s been a long time coming, but Digital Dryad is nearly ready for me to show it to agents and publishers. I’ve gotten some amazing feedback from my alpha readers and the Barnsian Nobility (my writing group) and it’s turned this story into something I’m proud of. Of course, that means that if I share it with an agent or publisher, they will likely 1) ignore it/me 2) trash it. At least that’s what I’m afraid will happen.

I’ve written 50,366 words in November 2019. I’m a little under half way through the novel. It’s been fun, and not really all that stressful. I had hoped to cross the 50K mark a little earlier in the month, but life got in the way. However, it’s all moot as I’ve proven to myself for the third time now that I can write a good chunk of a novel in 30 days if I just push myself to do it.

This year I discovered that outlining is my jam. In August, I finished Digital Dryad (currently in editing and alpha readers). I had been working on that novel since around 2009, but I was able to complete the entire second draft–a complete rewrite from scratch–in around 28 days. That novel is currently 79,000 words. I was able to write this draft so quickly because I created a comprehensive outline first.

From WorldCon 2018 I thought it might be fun to show some of my other notes that I’ve taken in Notability. I use an iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil, so that makes it easy to draw. I would say the only issue I have with Notability is that I can’t figure out how to export it as an image. So I end up exporting it as a PDF and then converting the PDF into an image.