Writing Projects Update

[mabfan]

For those who are interested...

While I was helping out my Mom in NYC I didn't really get much writing done. And since returning, I've had to put the novel project on the back burner to do some rewrites.

I am pleased to note that today I mailed a revised copy of "TelePresence" to Analog, taking into account a list of changes that the editor requested. If all goes well, it will appear in the July/August 2005 issue of Analog, celebrating the ten years I've published in that magazine.

I am also pleased to note that along with that I mailed some replacement pages for a story of mine called "Sanctuary." This is is a story that I have literally been working on for years. I got the idea for the story back in 2001. The earliest finished first draft in my files dates from July 2002, and the current version is completely different from that one.

The second version I submitted to Analog I did back in July 2003. In September 2003, the editor came back to me with a list of suggested changes and cuts, and because I was so busy with my job and with writing other stories, I never had a chance to revise it until this past summer.

I submitted the third version to Analog on August 11, 2004, almost a year after I received the editor's list of changes. Last week I received the note saying that this third version seemed fine, except for a few minor points that might necessitate a few replacement pages. I made those changes this morning, and feel confident enough to say that the story is done.

Comments

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

Speaking of your writing, I just finished reading "Seventy-Five Years" for TangentOnline. Why the name Peter Fitzgerald? He's my outgoing Senator, you know.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Are you serious? It was completely unintentional. I used the name "Peter" because it means "rock," and I used "Fitzgerald" because he's a senator from Massachusetts and I wanted to evoke a little bit of JFK.

I had no idea there was a real senator named Peter Fitzgerald.

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

Yup. His decision not to run for re-election opened the seat for the classic Barack Obama-Alan Keyes face-off here in Illinois.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

I'll go a step further and point out that had I known there was a real senator by the name of Peter Fitzgerald, I never would have used it.

By the way, Steven, it may amuse you note that one of the comments Stan gave me on "TelePresence" had to do with your Tuckerization. He noted that "Steven Silver" is a "well-known fan" and suggested that I change the name, unless I did this deliberately and with your approval. I assured him that I had.

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

I have to admit that I don't think of myself as a "well-known fan," despite some evidence to the contrary. I'm just, you know...me.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

I know the feeling. I'm still surprised to meet people who have actually heard of me through my writing and enjoyed my stories.

[zhaneel69.livejournal.com]

Congrats and this is good for me to know. As long as you keep plugging...

Zhaneel

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

As long as you keep plugging, eventually it happens.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

It's been ten years? Wow, time flies...

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I have trouble believing it's been ten years myself.

[neilfein.livejournal.com]

I have to say, I'm a little jealous of writers who write prose. You can write anywhere there's a space you can concentrate, for the most part. As a songwriter, I need a place to sit with a guitar or a piano and play and scribble. I've tried to write music in public, and I've never been able to make it work. Even though I can hear the notes in my head and write the music down, it's not the same as hearing it out loud and feeling my fingers play the instrument. I can refine something that already exists, improve the phrasing of a line (i.e., edit lyrics), but that's all I've been able to make work.

(I suppose I could work on MIDI compositions, which I do now at home, in public with a laptop and headphones. But that would presuppose having a laptop...)

Do you find that you can write on the train, or in a cafe, or a library? Or does the fact that other people are there intrude?

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

I never write in cafes or libraries, because I really need to be alone to write.

I did write part of a story on a train once, using a notebook. It was okay, but I had to type it all in later. I prefer writing directly on my computer.