No Rest For The Wicked

f-locked

2008-07-23T07:15:55Z

I got a stimulus check so...

1) I bought lunch for KC
2) I bought short story collections by Amy Hempl and Alice Munro and a novel, Veronica, by Mary Gaitskill. I also bought a book by Jimmie Ruth Evans after reading about the author at beckycochrane's blog.
3) I bought Tricked Out by J.M. Snyder because I used to live in Richmond, VA and I bought Rockhounds 1 by cbpotts because I collect gemstones (cheap ones like prasiolite or peridot, nothing precious). I've already finished Rockhounds 1 ("Tuesday's Rubies"). Very, very good. Highly recommended if you like m/m erotic adventure.

Then I sent 70 dollars to my friend Dusky since he's worried about being homeless. :( I will get in a lot of trouble with my family and bf for giving or lending money so this is f-locked. I am curious about why he doesn't try to get a job with a fast food restaurant or something. I think he had steady writing gigs with money coming in and then the company starting bouncing checks to him and things rapidly derailed. It's possible he's also not in the best of health, but I don't know him that well. Anyhow, if he ended up homeless and I didn't send him anything, I know I'd feel terrible. AND I promise I'm putting the rest of the check in savings.

I received a free book from the Amazon Vine program called City of Refuge by Tom Piazza. It is AMAZING so far. It's about New Orleans during Katrina. I kind of almost cried when this mother from the Ninth Ward found out that her son was still alive. There's also a white family in the book and the husband wants to move back to New Orleans while the wife doesn't. Pretty intense conflict. I'll probably blog more about it again.

gavinatlas @ 2008-07-15T12:51:00

2008-07-15T17:52:57Z

KC, my best friend that I'm always talking about just got her book cover. As you can see, she's writing under the name Kimberly Frost. Her book will be out in February from Berkley.

yay

2008-07-13T21:53:14Z

I got a good write-up in Rainbow Reviews for Simple and Easy.

Thanks, Fred Towers :)

gavinatlas @ 2008-07-13T06:20:00

2008-07-13T11:34:31Z

Hey, anyone doing a surfing story? I saw Point Break and Big Wednesday, and they both helped, particularly the scene in Point Break where Lori Petty is teaching Keanu Reeves to surf. I feel like I have a pretty genuine interest in surfing now, but don't think it's something I'll try. Too chicken. I don't even want to try a wave runner, but John is going to force me.

If I die or something, he's going to be sorry. :)

Anyhow, I sent my surfer story to a couple beta readers. I hope they like it.

I had "Business with Pleasure" beta-read three times, and KC told me she thought it was ready to go. So I sent it out. :-)

gavinatlas @ 2008-07-10T21:09:00

2008-07-11T02:12:43Z

I did it!

I finished a second draft of one story and a first draft of a second. Neither is totally ready, but I'm pretty sure I'll make the deadlines now.

Yay. I'm officially allowed to play The Sims for a bit. :)

gavinatlas @ 2008-07-08T20:30:00

2008-07-09T02:56:06Z

A friend of mine told me there are four stages in revision.

1. You don't know there's anything wrong.

2. You know there's something wrong, but you don't know what it is.

3. You know what's wrong, but you don't know how to fix it.

4. You know how to fix it.

I seem to be perpetually stuck in either phase 2 or 3. Last night when I finished "Business with Pleasure" I couldn't stand it. Today I added about 500 words, and I like it a fair amount better. Unfortunately it's now at 4000 words, and if I have it beta-read, someone will say I'm missing something I need. Time to get out The 10% Solution and see what I can cut.

gavinatlas @ 2008-07-07T19:22:00

2008-07-08T00:46:52Z

I think in the back of my mind there's a sentiment that each story should be stronger than the last. When I end up liking older stories better than new stories I feel a bit unaccomplished and talentless.

But anyhow, eek! I have to finish three stories on time or I'll feel rotten.

For Ultimate Gay Erotica I need 3000-4000

My story "Business With Pleasure" is at 3100, but it's not finished and I'm not happy with it. Feels kind of flat. I think I have enough time for some revision though.

For Surfer Boys, I need 3000-5000

My story "Blue Star Boy" is at 2400. I think I know the ending, I just am not sure how the characters get there. At least I'm happy with what I have so far.

For Daddies, I need up to 6000 words.

My story "The Obsession of Darling Shane" is only at 1700. This is the story I'm feeling like I shouldn't write. However, I am going to alter it a bit so the daddy character is more of a caretaker. If I actually can pull off this story, I'll be happy.

So. I'm not allowed to fuss about how crummy a writer I am because I don't have time. And if none of them are accepted, it's no big deal. It's all good.

one star review

2008-07-04T04:27:47Z

The evening before last I found a one star review for my e-book, Claiming Danny. It wasn't cruel or unfair, and she had some good points although I disagreed with a couple of them. Despite the objectiveness of it I turned off the light and hid in bed until morning.

Today I decided that maybe I should change how I write a bit, but the important thing is that I didn't think "I'm terrible. I'm never writing again."

In fact, I wrote 1800 words today, which for me is a big deal.

A Very Bad Book

2008-06-26T08:03:57Z

The content of the book is just fine.

But somehow the cover is not colorfast, and I now have a purple stain on my light yellow shirt. How unfair. The book is from Houghton-Mifflin, and you'd think a big publisher would use a less messy dye. I'm not sure how I'm going to read this book now. Perhaps I'll tape some saran-wrap to the cover and just throw the book out when I'm done. Does anyone have experience with stain-causing books? What does one do?

gavinatlas @ 2008-06-22T23:24:00

2008-06-23T04:31:22Z

Today in history:

The Cuyahoga River caught fire.
Judy Garland passed away.

and slightly less tragic,
it's my birthday.

I received a gift card for Half-Priced Books.

I bought Best American Short Stories 1990
Best New American Voices 2008 (I feel bad for buying it used, but if I like this series, I'll buy other volumes new)
Young Man from the Provinces by Alan Helms
The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway

After reading a couple Hemingway stories, I felt energized to write 500 words. If only I could predict which things I need to read to actually get me to write. I suspect more Hemingway and more Lorrie Moore.

gavinatlas @ 2008-06-17T17:54:00

2008-06-17T23:28:22Z

I received a book in the mail the other day called The Deal, and I was going to save it for my birthday next Sunday, but I guess I didn't. The character was an English teacher, and I've always wondered what life would be like if I had decided to teach. It was a nice, vicarious experience although the character put up with a number of problems I had imagined a gay teacher would run into. I liked how the characters communicated. I think if I were that good at being straightforward, I would have had many fewer relationships that only lasted three months. The book took place in Houston, and I think besides The Lord's Motel by Gail Donohue Storey, it's the only Houston-set book I've read. I liked that. :) I may have to set something here. My favorite thing though, which I think is in all the Cochrane Lambert and Timothy James Beck books, is the close-knit group of friends. From experience, I can tell you it's not easy to write a lot of characters and keep them all distinct or have a scene with several characters having a conversation and not have it come out too confusing. The authors(in my humble opinion)did a really good job with those things.

John is in Buffalo which means I am free to write this week. Thus, I'm not allowed to start a new book. But notice I'm blogging instead of writing. Hmm, I think my Sims miss me. I wonder what trouble I can cause them.

gavinatlas @ 2008-06-11T23:12:00

2008-06-12T04:36:30Z

Do you ever need to know your character's favorite song?

I don't know that for a lot of my characters, but I think I feel better if I have that down. My bottom superhero, Blast Boy, loves Dannii Minogue's "I Begin To Wonder." He feels coolest flying through the air with that song on.

My character, Royal, from a story called "The Smile for the Teeth" considers "This Night Has Opened My Eyes" by The Smiths to be his defining tune. (Yeah, Royal is kinda moody.) Declan, the adorable and sweet drug dealer that Royal obsesses about probably loves to make out to "Angel" by Gavin Friday.

Okay, so I'm having trouble knowing what my surfer boy likes. Considering his ethnicity and where he grew up, it would make sense that his favorite artist would be Selena. However, as I know nothing of her music (despite seeing the movie), that would distance me further from a character who is already feeling enigmatic.

I don't know. Maybe he likes Joan Jett.

gavinatlas @ 2008-06-05T18:00:00

2008-06-05T23:20:28Z

Finished Mahu Surfer. I liked it very much. Likable character, complex and personal conflict, and very involving plot. I think I'm going to do more surfing research by watching YouTube videos. I'm planning on rewriting a scene based on what I've viewed so far. The story stalled out when I got to the sex scene. I hope I actually finish this one. Argh.

Am still reading Karen Russell's short stories. I keep telling myself I'm not allowed any more books as there is no room left. But there was a special offer at ISO a couple weeks ago, so naturally I bought two books. I got Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You and When You Don't See Me. Considering how slowly I read, I probably get through one book for every three I buy. Someday my obituary will read "He drowned in unread books."

I have to go see a musical in a couple hours. I don't really like them, but John does. This one is Sweeney Todd. Meat pie anyone?

gavinatlas @ 2008-05-30T19:06:00

2008-05-31T00:26:57Z

I wrote 2400 words on a new story called "Blue Star Boy." I hope I finish it. Why do I complete so little? The characters are about to have sex, and I've kind of frozen up because I want to make it special somehow. Interesting that so far the surfing scenes aren't the most difficult ones.

Went to Austin and was taught how to play Texas hold 'em. No plans to take Vegas by storm just yet.

gavinatlas @ 2008-05-24T21:01:00

2008-05-25T02:15:12Z

Sometimes I think I shouldn't read Amazon reviews. I've been reading a bunch of the short stories in a book called St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves. I thought it was pretty awesome. In the first story, a twelve-year-old girl is basically running an alligator-wrestling theme park on her own because her dad has run off and her older sister is too busy having sexual encounters with either a ghost or an incubus. All the alligators are named Seth. Very innovative stuff. Lots of great characters, beautiful sentences, and odd but intriguing conflicts. Then I read some Amazon reviews that kind of changed a lot of things. Oh, well. I'm going to keep reading anyway.

gavinatlas @ 2008-05-23T16:12:00

2008-05-23T21:23:23Z

I have nifty news. John (that's my bf) won airline tickets. Because they are first class tickets, he wants to go away as far as possible, so he's thinking Aruba. (They are tickets on Continental to Canada, the Caribbean, Mexico or the 48 states.) However, I have to say we're going to be sleeping on the sand because I don't think we can afford a hotel there. I wonder if people surf in Aruba? If they do I can say I was doing research for The Surfer Boys anthology,if I actually write something for it. I'm also reading Mahu Surfer by Neil Plakcy, so really I could do my research without leaving my room, but I guess every bit helps.

They have these new ants in Houston that eat electrical wires. I think they're after my computer.

gavinatlas @ 2008-05-21T23:46:00

2008-05-22T05:10:05Z

Hey wow. My real name received a rejection from Coal City Review today, so I grumbled for a while and considered letting myself have ice cream. Later I was absent-mindedly ego-googling when I came across a post in a blog that listed authors that "blew me away". One of the ones listed was Gavin Atlas. Holy cow. I've been sick and such, so this made my day much, much better.

Diamond Day :)

2008-05-02T17:08:57Z

Of the eight or so people who read my blog, I think all of you except one know Vincent Diamond, but I'm going to plug the release of Vincent's new book anyway.

Here's the cover:

Very handsome fellow, yes? Vincent is a wonderful friend and wonderful writer. You can read an excerpt at V's blog: vdiamond

Enjoy. :)

gavinatlas @ 2008-04-25T17:40:00

2008-04-25T22:51:02Z

I did it! I finished reading a book! It's ridiculous that I think of that as an accomplishment, but sometimes I have a lot of trouble reading. The book was called Beginner's Greek, and I read it for the Amazon Vine program. It was really pretty good, particularly the second half. I did read a review from a reader that said she thought the female characters were shallow and only likable for their looks. Hmm, I liked them. I thought they had some depth. Oh, well. Next I'm going to read James Michener's Caribbean. Or try anyway.

Oh, Claiming Danny is now on Amazon as a Kindle edition and it's a $1.59 now. There's no picture yet. I hope they put one up.

John is insisting that we make cookies. I'll let you know if we burn down the apartment complex.

gavinatlas @ 2008-04-15T13:07:00

2008-04-15T18:32:44Z

Sometimes I wonder how much of never getting any writing done is my ADD.

I've been reading a book called Beginner's Greek since early March and I'm only about 270 pages in. I am reading it for the Amazon Vine program, so I suppose it's not my first choice of something to read, but it's mostly pretty good except the novel's author is an investment banker, and I don't understand investment humor.

Still it takes me so long to do anything. I wish I could find a way to trigger a (safe) bipolar high. Then I'd get things done.

I wonder if I should quit Amazon Vine. KC would be annoyed because they often put my reviews first unless there are better Vine reviews, which sometimes happens. But since it sometimes takes me months to read a book I wonder if I should just concentrate on reading writers that I really think will improve my writing. Um, or books that I'm really dying to read because they're fun.

What's embarrassing is if I spent all my free time on books for the next 3-4 years, and I wasn't allowed to buy any more, at my speed, I'd still have plenty to read.

gavinatlas @ 2008-04-12T23:37:00

2008-04-13T05:06:39Z

I wrote to my cousin in India that I had that story accepted in the Preditors and Editors anthology. As it was the first time anyone has taken something with no gay content, it's the first time I could risk my family over there possibly asking to read it. Very happy about that even if it's not a great thing to have to hide most of my writing.

I just saw a Todd Solondz movie called Storytelling, and once again I'm wondering whether I want to go through writing this story I've been working on. Various people have told me that I shouldn't shy away from something just because it's controversial.

I finally received my copy of Hard Hats. They accidentally sent it to the wrong address. I don't know if I can explain, but there's something about the texture of the cover I really like. Something about it makes it nicer to hold than other trade paperback books, and it's not the photo or the fact that I have a story in it. Hmm. I read the stories by my two friends, Dale and Bill, and they were both great.

gavinatlas @ 2008-04-06T05:07:00

2008-04-06T10:17:49Z

Wow, look at this:

www.duotrope.com

Over 2,000 markets for short fiction, poetry, novels and short story collections. Did everyone know about this, and I'm just late to the party?

They do have an erotica genre search and you can look up "GLBT" as a theme, but I don't think it has all the e-publishers yet. Maybe the site is new?

Anyhow, I'll let you know if it helps me place/sell any work.

Nicked from angusdevotee (and everybody else)

2008-04-05T15:17:41Z

“This short survey is to encourage readers, writers, and poets to share a few simple things about ourselves. There are only twelve questions, and none of them have to do with eye color, sexual preferences, or high school crushes. Please read, answer, and repost. We might learn something from each other.”

1. Three authors that have inspired or influenced my writing are:
Joe Keenan, Charles Yu (His story "Class Three Superhero"), and JD Salinger (when I was younger).

2. The hardest part of the writing process for me is:
Revision

3. One book I have always intended to read, but I haven’t yet is:
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

4. (True or False) I sometimes read non-fiction for pleasure.
False, I think. Unless you count books on various obsessions of mine such as gemstones, colleges or airplanes.

5. (True or False) I came from a family that read a lot.
Both. My mom reads a lot. My dad thinks reading is a waste of time unless it's a book about medical physics. However, he does want to someday write a novel in which physicists take over the world. Now you know where my silly streak comes from.

6. My favorite movie adaptation of a book is:
Apocalypse Now (if that counts as an adaptation of Heart of Darkness)

7. The most boring book I ever read all the way through is:
Paradise Lost. (Apologies to Mr. Milton. It would have been The Faerie Queen, but the question specifically said I had to read all the way through.)

8. Poetry is:
pretty, but sometimes puzzling.

9. My favorite place to read is:
outdoors by the pool in my apartment complex on one of the three days a year we have cool weather. I sit there and pretend I'm king of all the palm trees.

10. The funniest thing I have read recently is:
puckishprose's livejournal. I wish he would post more.

11. The most mind challenging thing I have read recently is:
Now You See Him by Eli Gottleib.

12. When I stop by my local library the librarians must think:
"Oh my goodness, it's someone not here to use the internet! How did he ever get a parking space? Hey, isn't that the fellow who offered to volunteer a couple years ago whom we still haven't called? Well, look sharp in case he wants to borrow either of our books."

gavinatlas @ 2008-04-03T02:37:00

2008-04-03T07:38:01Z

Curses, foiled again.

Mavety rejected "Long Time Coming," but I have to say it was a kind decline. The editor said "there's some good stuff" but that there was a lot of dialog which made it feel more like a play and x-rated stories ought to be more visual. There was something that bothered me about "Long Time Coming," but I didn't know what it was, and since things bother me about most of my stories, I didn't know whether it was just a lack of confidence. I wonder if there's a way to rework the story. Maybe not though.

I saw the MySpace page for the Preditors and Editors' book, and it says it's an anthology of "horror, science fiction and fantasy." It is? Well, I'm glad they took my story anyway, but when the call I saw said "any genre" I guess I didn't quite understand. No biggie. At least I hope not.

Hey! Gary Braunbeck, an author with a pretty major house (Dorchester/Leisure, I think), is going to be in this anthology, and he has also been in an anthology with Stephen King. So I'm only two degrees of separation away from Stephen King. woo hoo! :)

gavinatlas @ 2008-04-01T20:32:00

2008-04-02T08:14:58Z

Well, good grief. I submitted a story to the Preditors and Editors anthology on March 28th, and it was accepted on March 31st. I'm sure that's the fastest acceptance I'll ever get. The acceptance is for my real name and, thus, it is not erotica. It's a humor piece that I think is one of my best stories. I've had a rotten time placing humor anywhere, but I'm hoping this doesn't turn out to be something where I hear "You dumbhead! You could have had this published in (insert name of high paying or influential market)! But now they'll never touch it!"

Anyhow, the editor said something like "Wow...very cool. It will read nice in the anthology along with the others. Thanks for your talents."

That felt good. I read the cover art is going to be done by Danielle Serra who apparently is pretty well-known. Well, yay. :)

My new story for the Daddies anthology (hopefully) is now about a 1000 words long.