A little over a year ago, Davin Malasarn invited me and Michelle "Lady Glamis" Davidson Argyle to co-host the blog he'd founded, which blog you're now reading. It's been a swell year and we've had all sorts of interesting discussions and I have been pleased to meet a wide variety of writers (and readers) and I've been exposed to lots of cool stuff I'd never otherwise have read. So Davin, Michelle and I are getting to learn loads of things about you, our dear readers.
Yesterday Davin emailed me and Michelle and proposed that this week the three of us post a little bit about ourselves, just in the interests of full disclosure. Since Tuesday is one of my days to post, I get to go first. So here, then, is a very brief statement of who I am as a writer. Or something. I'm making this up as I go along, so I have no idea what I'm about to write. That'll teach Davin to propose this sort of nonsense.
Currently, my agent and I are getting a manuscript in shape to go out on submission. I've been working with Mr. Agent for a little over a year and I've been fortunate to not only have had his enthusiasm for my novel, but also his valuable feedback and the opportunity to meet some of his other Seattle clients. Which has been pretty cool. The novel I'm revising is a sort of wild take on Shakespeare's "Hamlet" and I write about the revision process on my own blog. When this finds a publisher, it will be my first published novel.
I wrote my first novel way back in the early 1990s. It was awful and I gave up writing novels for years, and began writing short stories. A couple of those have been published but since about 2007 I've mostly stopped writing shorts to concentrate on the novels. If you poke around my blog and the Literary Lab, you'll find examples of my prose writing. My most recent publication credit was as part of Davin's "200 Fingers Tapping" project for the exceedingly cool Opium magazine. A couple years ago I was rejected by "NOON" magazine, for which I've never forgiven them. A 2005 story I wrote called "The Solicitor's Clerk" can be found in a nice anthology. There is other stuff out there, but I don't so much want to draw attention to it.
You know what would be cool? If comments could include links to your published work. That would be cool.
Still waiting for that first publication. Good luck with the submission.
ReplyDelete(And the html for direct links is easy to find. But I can't remember it at the moment.)
My only real publication credit is an essay published as a feature in The Columbus Dispatch last December. It was inspired by one of my blog posts. I submitted to The Dispatch again yesterday, no word back yet, though.
ReplyDeleteMy agent and I are prepping a MS for submissions, I sent in what I hope are final revisions yesterday, and it should go out in the near future.
Yes, it would be very cool to post a link and I will be back to do just that as soon as I have one.
ReplyDeleteThis is good nonsense, btw.
I think this is a terribly dull post. I'd much rather talk about writing than about me. I was going to post something about writing scenes, but no...
ReplyDeleteScott, can I ask you a question? You don't have to answer, but if you don't mind... What's your day job? And how do you make time to write?
ReplyDeleteI like to hear about how other writers balance their daily grind and their art.
Genie, I have a full-time 8-5 office job at a medical school in a US university. I manage a little bit of writing at home after work a few days each week, but most of my writing is actually done during lunch hours or on my bus commute in the evenings. If I don't reply to comments during the day, it's because I'm in meetings or slaving away over spreadsheets and other stuff. Which means that mostly, I'm tired all the time.
ReplyDeleteI'm in awe that we're mid-way through all-about-Scott day and nobody has mentioned eels.
ReplyDeleteI have managed to mention eels in the first chapter of the rewrite!
ReplyDeleteScott, I think you should have included that "secret agent" picture of you running through some sort of wilderness. Isn't that how you feel most of the time at work? *quiet giggles*
ReplyDeleteYes, eels should be mentioned here today. Eels, eels, eels! I was going to say you'd better make sure eels are in this draft of the book!
I don't have links to my published works except that blogfest thing I won over at Simon's place awhile ago. You already read that. :)
So far, I have only one short story published. "Mariposa" appears in The Writer's Bump Anthology -- Best Short Stories from the Best New Writers. The book is available on Amazon.com, but you can also read the story online at www.writersbumpzine.com, Issue #4.
ReplyDeleteI'm working on my first novel now. Best of luck with your project!
Hmm...posting links to my published work would be nice, but since I don't have any published work that will have to wait I suppose.
ReplyDeleteAlso unpublished in any format, so no links.
ReplyDeleteI am currently wondering what your 'eel' scene in your chapter's about.
Rick, good luck on that manuscript about to go on submission.
Also unpublished in any format, so no links.
ReplyDeleteI am currently wondering what your 'eel' scene in your chapter's about.
Rick, good luck on that manuscript about to go on submission.
Lunchtime and on the bus?? Wow, you're my hero. I did a post recently on "guerrilla novel writing," sneaking time into little pieces of the day... but I have never attempted to write on a lunch break or bus trip. Now that's focus.
ReplyDeleteScott, I don't think this is boring us! :) I actually didn't know about your anthology, or if I did I forgot--possibly due to jealousy? I remember reading the story and liking it, though. Along with some other stories of yours. I also didn't know your first novel was that old and that you took a break. Fascinating. Eelicious!
ReplyDeleteIt's always nice to know who people are and where they're coming from. (And in this case, where you're going!) Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteMy only publishing credit thus far belongs to the Literary Lab Genre Wars Anthology. "High Tide"
ReplyDeleteAnne, that cred carries weight here.
ReplyDeleteThanks Crimey. I have my fingers crossed. I'll make all sorts of noise if we sell it.
I had a few poems published in college but I'm sure they are not anywhere online. I could probably find them in an old file folder somewhere, but that would still not put them online.
ReplyDeleteEssentially I have nothing to offer.
I'm sure that "Noon" mourns being in your ill graces. Do you realize this didn't really tell us much about you? What about the violin playing? What about the day job? What about some hobbies? What about your burning desire to be called "milord"? I'm just saying.
Good luck with your first novel publication. Despite the setbacks here and there, you're still writing so that's a good thing. The only list of publications I can point you to for me are the articles I've written for Brighthub.com (http://www.brighthub.com/members/estallsworth.aspx). It's not much, but it is where I began to write after not doing so for eons.
ReplyDeleteLate to the party again!! My only publishing cred, like Anne, is in the Genre Wars Anthology. Good luck with your queries, Scott. Eels? What's this about eels?
ReplyDeleteTo all: If you don't have a pub credit yet, keep writing! Your day will come!
ReplyDeleteLois: Fine, then. More data (so far down in the comment thread that nobody will ever read it): I was born in Beaufort, South Carolina but not raised there. I've gone to school for graphic art, music and political science. I took very few classes on writing or literature at university. I worked as a free-lance graphic artist for a while and made almost no money and learned that I'm not really very good at it. I play violin at a sort of intermediate level. Right now I'm working on some Beethoven and some French tangos as well. I grew up with dogs but as an adult have lived with cats. I'm mildly allergic to cats, but I overcome that by loving cats anyway. Mighty Reader and I have a nice old house with a garden we love and a stove from the 1940s that we're trying to either have repaired or replace with something equally cool that costs less than $5,000. I used to play guitar and sing in rock bands and I have three tattoos and permanent hearing loss in my right ear. The most important event on my journey to becoming a real novelist was in 1990 when Mighty Reader put a copy of Mikhail Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita" into my hand and told me to read it. I did read it, and things have never been the same since. To date I have earned $20 from my fiction. I know: it boggles the mind!
Now that was a bit about you! That's what I was talking about. Now I feel like I know you better. Too bad it's way down in the comments. I'm afraid you may be right that it will be lost on most. You could post it on your own blog.
ReplyDeleteI love the SC connection. Beaufort. I know exactly where that is and how to pronounce it which I never knew was tricky until I left SC. I grew up in Camden. My dad was born about 100 yards from my childhood home. We are from SC from way back.
My husband's undergraduate degree is political science, and after college he was a speech writer in DC and then sold out and went into business. (of course, I'm quoting him there.) He does crazy stuff like read the congressional yellow book (He's done it since he was about 10).
I may have to take a look at the Bulgakov book. It must be awfully good.
What a great idea and it's very nice to meet you, in a virtual way. I don't have anything published. I have 3 WIP's that are in various stages. I'm a newbie writer - discovered the joy of it in 2007. So very different from writing business letters, blogging and class essays.
ReplyDelete