End of year update....

I haven't done much with this blog.  I've been busy with my father, who's now in hospice due to stomach cancer.  I submitted a short story to a sci-fi magazine in October 2014.  I heard from The Iowa Review this month.  One of my submissions for a short story got rejected without comment.  That's the only thing I've heard from since August.

I have poetry submissions I've been waiting on for seven months.  Given my luck, it'll be closer to twelve or eighteen months before I hear anything.  Because of family commitments, I've cut back my revising and editing to just short stories.  I'd like to have my short stories read and critiqued this coming year.  I also have the weekly goal of writing five pages in the rough draft of a new historical fantasy novel called Ganbaatar.  It's set during the Mongol invasion of Russia in 1223.  I already have thirty pages written.  I'd like 280-300 pages by the end of 2015.

2015 would end with a completed Ganbaatar rough draft.  I'd then read and have that critiqued at WUTA in 2016 while I rewrote Kepler Falling using a first person POV.  Those are my goals for 2015 and beyond.  Though I want to submit my remaining short stories to different magazines and presses, too.

Submissions...

I have been working with my poetry.  I am in the process of submitting my better works to different literary journals.  I started back in March 2014.  I heard from the first place I submitted.  They were all rejections without comment.

The next set of submissions went out in May 2014 and July 2014.  I still have yet to hear from the presses.  I am hopeful, but guarded.  I have gotten many of my earlier works published.  I am not sure about my later works.

And then there is today's round of submissions.  Most journal don't open until September and then close in December or May.  Especially if they are academic.  I sent out some more poetry.  But I also submitted two short stories.  I also spent the evening editing a short story that had been critiqued.

I have not been able to go to my local writers' group on a regular basis because of my father's health.  I went tonight and got some work done.  I would like to get another short story critiqued this month.  I have lots of short stories in need of constructive criticism.  That is one of the advantages of being active in a local writers' group.

I have also looked for new markets to submit works.  I will hold off on my poetry.  I want to focus on my short stories and get more of them submitted to different publishers.  But that will take time.

And the poetry will take time.  In eight to ten months, I would like to put together a chapbook of my published and unpublished work.  I already have eighteen different poems for it.  I think I will pay someone to put the chapbooks together for me.  Instead of trying to do it myself...    

Coming to terms with things...

My father is dying.  He has cancer.  He isn't a candidate for surgery.  He's supposed to get some tests that will reveal the extent of his illness.  Hopefully, it's confined to the esophagus/stomach.  His doctor wants to treat him with radiation/chemotherapy.  I won't know anymore until the middle of next week....

My brother is shaken up by things.  I'm not.  I've already come to terms with my father.  I'm tired of his tirades and temper tantrums about not having grandchildren.  My father has always been selfish and self-centered.  Everything revolves about him.  What he doesn't understand or want to deal with, he denies.

When my father dies, I feel a terrible burden will have been lifted from my shoulders.  There are certain things I've never told my father in order to simplify my life.  I never let him read any of my stories.  I went to an unbiased audience for constructive critiques and objective criticism.  I've never let him read any of my poetry.  I haven't let any of my family read my writings.

I find my voice in the written word.  I don't feel like apologizing for it.  I don't want to hurt their feelings.  I don't want to deal with my brother's egotism or his jealousy.  So my family has a limited view of who I really am as a writer.  I can write poetry and it'll have enough force to get a message across, whether in love or anguish.

The older I've gotten, the more writing has meant.  I don't holding back when I write.  It's different when I'm with family.  I don't say things to offend people and smile.  But all the while I'm counting down the days when I no longer have to.

How do I tell my father I'm no longer a Christian when he invokes Jesus to save him from the grave?
How do I tell him I've been attending a Reform Temple for four years and now am active in a Torah study?
How do I tell my father Jesus of Nazareth means nothing to me?

I've lived with these secrets for a long time.  I'm tired of being burdened by them.  My father's passing will ease things.  But they say even the newly converted are the worst when it comes to their former faiths...

Sending out submissions

I sent submissions for short stories and poetry this past week.  I need to attend more WUTA meetings and have my other short stories critiqued.  I also need to go back to Big Books and attend the month critiques for various novels.

I won't be able to that until January 2015.  I'd like to get back to WUTA next Tuesday evening at the Focal Point.  I have lots of material to read.  I finished a final edit of a novella.  I also got revision of Kepler Falling done.  I'll review it one more time before sending it out for a copy editor.

My next project is rewriting short stories and revising Redemption of Eden.  Those are some of my late summer/early fall writing goals....

Back to revising and editing Price of Command

Too much has happened lately.  However, I've gotten back into the revising/editing grind.  I'm currently working on Price of Command.  I had been working on Kepler Falling.  I want to have Price of Command submitted by October 2014.  That way, I can feel I've accomplished something.

Kepler Falling will be my next editing project after that.  Alas, I haven't been able to make WUTA meetings at all.  And it looks that way for the foreseeable future.

Regards and good writing....
Blake

What I call myself besides chronically unemployed....

I call myself a writer.  That's partly true.  However, I've been unemployed for nine years.  I used to work as an analytical chemist for a pharmaceutical company in Des Moines, IA.  After I became ill, I left that job.

But that company folded a year or two ago.  Now, I no longer have a verifiable work history.  The part-time jobs I've applied for have been courtesy clerks/baggers.  I've gotten nowhere with the two different grocery chains I've applied to in St. Louis, MO.

For kicks and grins, I reapplied to one of them electronically.  Several days later, I checked the status of the application.  It said, "No longer under consideration."  The company hadn't even filled the position.

So much for my bruised ego.  But that was to be expected given my outdated work history.  In this economy, if you're out of work for six months, no one wants to touch you.  I can't even imagine what an HR person would say for someone unemployed for ten years.

I've been dealing with my family's medical conditions too much to really work part-time.  I don't know from day to day or week to week what I'll be doing.  That would make it hard on a work schedule.  It's been even rough to find time to write with all the zaniness in my life currently.

I haven't tried looking for work in my old career since last year.  My scientific skills have atrophied.  I'm not current on the latest HPLC technology.  Most of the jobs I applied for are beneath my education or skill level.

Then again, in this economy, any job is a good job.  So I continue the charade of calling myself a writer and taking care of my parents...

BETA Short Stories

I spent the past two weeks revising several short stories for submission.  One story is complete and ready to go.  The other could stand more critiquing being I submit it.  I have several more short stories for the WUTA critique group.

But life has gotten in the way of me getting to the meetings on Tuesday evenings.  I'll make it next week (finally).  But I'm bringing poetry for a change.  The two short stories will be read over the next two months.  I'll start rewriting them as soon as I get feedback from WUTA.

Mad Dash for ebook purchases....

I've made the mistake of adding on to my reading lists.  I purchase about 6 books this weekend.  Several were pre-orders.  I spent yesterday reading a manuscript for WUTA Big Books.  I got done with the 141 pages and then wrote a brief summary of what I'd read.

But life has gotten in the way of my writing.  One of my parent's wrecked their cars.  I'm now involved with car shopping for them.  I wasn't able to make the session for my books.  Not that it'll matter.  I now have too many things on my plate...

1)  Revising poetry.  I've redone my older works and written newer pieces.  I'm waiting to submit them when the small academic press start taking submissions again in the late summer/fall.

2)  Short Stories.  I have about nine short stories.  Five that are part of the Kepler Cycle.  Two that are Desmon Singh shorts, and two that are stand-alone pieces.  I'm in the process of revising "The Scorpio Affair."  This work has seem major editing.  It'll need more work before I could in good conscience submit it.   "The Scorpio Affair" and the four other shorts will be part of a larger collection of Kepler Cycle stories when I get done with them.  I still need to revise "Polar Landfall," too.

3)  Kepler Falling.  Once I get all the short stories revised and ready for submissions, I'll then go back to Kepler Falling.  This story needs a lot of work.  More than I really dedicate to it, right now.  The poetry and short stories will keep me busy enough for the rest of 2014.

4)  Redemption of Eden.  That is my Big Books submission for 2015.

5)  Idea for another historical fiction/fantasy novel involving the Mongols.  To be developed more fully once i have revised the two Kepler cycle novels and have them ready for submission,

Revising my poetry

I'd originally got my poetry published in the late 1990s.  I spent yesterday and today reorganizing my poetry for submissions.  I refile and reprinted my older poems.  I then put them into file folders by date.  I found out organizing the individual poems by date is the easiest way to deal with them.

I have lots of poetry.  I weeded out the ones I thought were too weak.  I also organized files for poems being submitted for publication and poems that have been published.

My poetry has been my best work.  Alas, poetry pays in copies.  The press I used to submit, The Sunday Suitor Poetry Review, no longer exists.  I spent last night combing through Poet's Market 2012 looking for new places to submit poetry.  I'd look them up and then go to their website for submission guidelines.

Some of the addresses for websites didn't work.  One of the problems I found is that most academic presses only take submissions from September 1st to May 15th.  I'll have to wait to submit until the fall for several presses.  Fortunately, I have more poetry than I thought available for submission.  But part of the problem is that presses on want material that hasn't been submitted to other publishers.  In other words, they won't take simultaneous submissions.  Alas, small presses usually take months to respond.  Some case it could be as long as 18 months.

So I'm starting out small with my submissions.  I hope to hear back from the first place I submit to by August.  That way, I can reuse any poems that are rejected for submissions to other presses.  Speaking of rejections, I used to keep track of the places that rejected me.  The last time I submitted poetry was winter 2008.  So it's about time I submitted something...

Regards and good writing,
Blake

BETA Versions of my novels

As part of a larger effort to get my work published, I revised Kepler Falling to 54,000 words.  The second part of the Kepler cycle, Redemption of Eden, is now 54,000 words.  Each novel could be published individually or collectively as one work (about 108,000 words).

I now in the process of editing Redemption of Eden.  I think it should take about a month.  I'm also working on another Desmon Singh story.  I don't know if this one will be a novella or just a short story.

Now, I'll be waiting for feedback on Kepler Falling.  Though I've been busy with other things.  I'm supposed to take Finding an Agent seminar at St. Louis Community College later next week.  I put together summaries for Price of Command, Kepler Falling, and Redemption of Eden.  I'm also thinking about taking several short writing courses through STLCC Continuing Ed this summer.  One course is called "Reading Like a Writer."  The other is a "Writer's Workshop - Editing and Revising."

Those two courses looking interesting.  But I also have a backlog of reading to do.  I'm in the process of reading The Faded Sun Trilogy by C.J. Cherryh.  I'm about halfway through the novel.  I don't know when I'll get done with it.  I have a backlog of 10 other books to read.  I haven't managed my time as well I as should.  That's something I want to dedicate more time to do...

Until then, good writing,
Blake

Rough draft of Redemption of Eden completed.

My rough draft for the novella, Redemption of Eden, is complete.  I finished it this morning.  I'm disappointed it's only a novella, instead of a novel.  But I can start revising it tomorrow morning.  I just want to veg out this evening and do nothing.  I spent 8.5 hours writing and editing yesterday.  That's enough to fry my brain for one evening...

Regards and good writing,
Blake

First Revision of Kepler Falling completed

I spent the past several weeks revising my first novel.  I went through it and did the first revisions since I completed it.  I also put together a new character and chapter outline for a sequel.  I spent this week writing the first two chapters of the new novel.

I also revised my second short story for WUTA's peer review sessions next month.  That's it for now.
Regards and good writing,
Blake

Completed rough draft of Straits of Magellan/Kepler Falling

I wrote about 50 pages of the space of two days and completed the rough draft of Straits of Magellan.  It was only 200 pages/32,000 words.  Instead of writing anymore, I merged it onto my existing novel, Kepler Falling.  That work is now 86,900 words/558 pages long.

I'm in the process of making all my character names end in their proper surname.  I'm also correcting misspellings as I go.  I'm about 200 pages/20 chapters into the novel.  There are 82 chapters total.  I'd like to revise/edit the rest of Kepler Falling by the beginning of March 2014.  Once that's complete, I can then submit Kepler Falling to WUTA Bigbooks Group for a critique and review.

I don't plan writing a second novel.  Kepler Falling is a stand alone work.  I want to rewrite "Matter of Honor" this spring once I get back all the Kepler Falling critiques.  I'll wait three months before I go through them one by one.

There are things I had to do with Kepler Falling.  I had to make all the character references ended in surnames.  I also had to change POV from first person to third person in the last part of the novel.  There are other things I need to do.  But I'll work on that when I get around to reediting Kepler Falling this summer.

I want to get "Matter of Honor" rewritten into a short story/novella format.  I also have another idea for a one off short story using the evil empire of Texarkana motif.  That I can explore later on when I get feedback on my current cycle of Martian future history short stories at WUTA this year....

Regards and good writing,
Blake

"I'm sorry, sir. But your references are too old..."

Problem:  My employment history and references are too old.  Several of the places where I've worked have either folded and no longer in business.  Or my supervisors have retired.

Overview:  I've tried looking for part-time work the past several years.  But I keep running into the above problems.  With the folding of my most recent employer, I no longer have a verifiable employment history.  

People have suggested several options.   One was trying to contact my former supervisors to see if they'd be willing to give a reference.  Another option is going to Social Security and get a detailed work history to show when I was employed...

You ask what type of jobs have I looked for?  

I did look for a chemist/research tech last year.  Nothing came of that.  I also looked at a bagger/courtesy clerk at a local grocery store.  I've tried going for that job over the past five years with no luck.  I've also tried at Barnes and Noble as a bookseller.  And working at Lowes.  Or stocking at Toys R' Us.

Still, nothing. 

Now, I write because I know it'll be probably be the only way I ever make money.  I also have a desire to learn the French horn again and eventually teach.  But that requires money.  I'll just have to wait until I have enough of it saved up before I can continue with that...

Still, having people question your references for a menial job because they are too old is discouraging, especially in this economy.  

Editing Short Stories

I spent the evening editing a couple of short stories.  They are based a future history of Mars.  There are about five or six stories that are interrelated.  I read the first one  at a Writers Under the Arch meeting last Tuesday evening.

The second short is an actual Martian Free Companies tale called "Just Another Paycheck."  That will be read for the next WUTA Big Books Group in February 2014.

The third story, The Scorpio Affair,  I'll start reading tomorrow evening at WUTA.  It'll take me about month to complete it.  It's one of my longer short stories.

But I took some advice from last week's WUTA meeting and rewrote my first story with a new ending.  I think it makes for a better short story.  The main complaint I had from readers it took too long to set up things.  It felt more like the beginning of a novel than a short story.  So I hacked and rewrote the ending.  Polar Landing is a page shorter.  But it fits in with the rest of the tales of the Red Planet better.

I edited the fourth tale, Raid on the Hellaspontes, tonight.  It's now in the queue to be read at WUTA later this year.  The fifth story, Professionals Need Only Apply, I'll work on tomorrow.

Regards,
Blake

Closure of Qualis, Inc. - Des Moines, IA

I worked as an analytical chemist at Qualis, Inc. in Des Moines IA from October 2003 to July 2005.  Qualis Inc. manufactured personal care and animal products.  Qualis also was a private label manufacturer for places like Hy-Vee, Walmart, Albertson's, and other grocery store chains.

I worked with chemical analysis of active ingredients and physical attributes testing of shampoos and topical creams.  I did mainly HPLC work.  It wasn't the most glamorous job in the world.  But it paid bills.

What I didn't know but found out later Qualis Inc. was having problems with both the FDA and EPA.  There was also a lawsuit against the company for the death of a child due to their head lice shampoo.  That was settled out of court recently.  The company closed its doors last year.

It took me a while to find all this information out.  My former employer didn't have a website.  I didn't even have email when I worked there.  It was a very retro set-up.  I had use my web-browsing skills to find out about the FDA and EPA complaints and the lawsuit settlement.  I tried calling to see if they were still in business.  I got a recorded message saying their phone number was no longer in service.

None of this is surprising.  The company had downsized when they sold off their head-lice shampoo line to another company in 2008.  Qualis Inc. then laid off their entire second shift.  I do wonder about the guys I used to work with.  I hope they found new jobs in Des Moines.  Part of the problem with Des Moines is there's few chemistry jobs available relative to all the white collar insurance and banking jobs.

I liked Des Moines, IA.  Outside of winter, it was enjoyable.  I never got used to the snow.  I was a good analytical chemist.  I feel sorry for my former supervisor who's father had come down with Alzheimer's disease when I left to move back to St. Louis, MO in the summer of 2005.  Joe tended bar on Fridays at the Greenwood Lounge.  I'd go get a gin and tonic and write after work at the bar to start off my weekends.  I miss hanging out with him and talking sports.  Those were good times...            

Happy New Year 2014!

Happy New Year 2014!

2013 saw the writing over 150 pages in a new novel and the production of nine short stories.  Even though I haven't been able to get to Writers Under the Arch, I've been writing and regularly editing/revising older works.

The goal for 2014 is two fold.  The first is to get several manuscripts ready for a literary agent.  The second is to finish the rough draft for Straits of Magellan.

I also have other personal goals this year, too.  One is to learn a new language.  I'll start that in the autumn of 2014.  I'd like to have the rough draft of Straits of Magellan done by then so I can move onto other things.  I also have more novella/short story planned after that.  Afterward, I'll be with writing new material.

Again, best wishes for the New Year and good writing,
Blake