Horrorfind reading

You may find it easier to read this blog entry from my LiveJournal account because I've included a poll there. The poll, of course, won't carry over to Blogger. Here's the text of the post:

My Horrorfind Weekend reading time has been changed. (Thank you, Nikki!!) I'm now reading at 6 p.m. on Saturday, and am paired with the mega-talented and feisty Beth Massey. I was at her reading last year. You don't want to miss her. Well, you know ... you want to come for me, too.

Anyhoo, I'm having some trouble deciding what to read. I just don't produce much short fiction anymore. Supposedly, Seven Days in Benevolence will be ready for Horrorfind, but it's less than two weeks away and I haven't received the new proofs yet. If I knew it would be out and I'd have copies on-hand, I might read an excerpt. That's what I did at Conestoga, and frankly I feel like it didn't go over so well. A haunted house story really depends on that building atmosphere, and picking a scene out of the middle just doesn't work.

I could read from Ulrik, but God knows when that book might really appear. Crap! I just remembered I promised an excerpt of that story to Werewolf Magazine. Gotta get on that immediately. The upside to reading from Ulrik is that almost anybody coming to hear me will be familiar with Shara and maybe interested in the sequel.

Or I could read from the unsold Amara's Prayer or Little Graveyard on the Prairie or even this new novella I'm still calling Pain. Lots of people do that. I think reading from Little Graveyard would have the same problem as reading from Seven Days, since they're both ghost stories that depend on build-up. The prologue to Amara's Prayer might work.

There's the bar-clearing gross-out story "Dead Betty." This audience probably wouldn't walk out during the zombie oral sex like the folks at Galileo's did last October. There's "New Moon," but early readers don't like the main character, so maybe not that one. There's the redneck werewolf video dating piece that I finally took another look at the other day. It's not as bad as I feared, but nothing really happens in it, either. However, it does have some humor to it, and that seems to go over well. I can't read "Noodlers Nab Nekkid Nymphs" again, though it's probably my best piece for public reading where there's no content restrictions.

The dating video piece is short. I can read it in under 10 minutes (it's only four pages long). My Okie twang works in it. The prologue for Amara's Prayer is short, too. It's serious, and has some nice gore in it. Maybe I can do both of them. Hmm.

What are your thoughts. Those of you who, for whatever reason, read this journal have heard about most of these pieces. Based on what you know, what would you want to hear?

Pain update

I don't really like the tentative title of this novella. Yes, it's about a type of pain, but that isn't very descriptive. Plus, every time I think of it I think of Marcy Italiano's Pain Machine, which is totally different, but now connected in my mind. So, I have to find a different title. But, be that as it may, I've spent a couple of the wee hours of the morning hard at work on the book. Look at this:

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
6,294 / 25,000
(25.2%)


About half of that is tonight's effort.

Today, my school schedule came in the mail. I'm not in love with it, as I have no electives, other than that reading class for AP juniors and seniors. Worse, I suspect this is due to the fact no new English teachers have been hired to replace the four we lost, meaning the students are getting very few English electives to choose from.

Here's the lineup for the first semester:
1st -- Plan
2nd -- English 3
3rd -- Comprehensive Reading
4th -- English 2
5th -- English 3

Big change second semester:
1st -- English 2
2nd -- English 3
3rd -- Comprehensive Reading
4th -- English 2
5th -- Plan

No freshmen, but I'm guaranteed to see a lot of my problem kids from last year and from summer school in those sophomore classes. Fun, fun!

Summers off?

I often wish I had an office to go to during the day. Yes, I admit it, I would like to hide from my children. There's Alex, asking if I like some new Cookie Monster-sounding band, Sara asking for an endless parade of stuff, from her friends coming over to food to money to ... whatever, and the little ones telling on each other and asking to go here and there. All the while I try to work on the novella. The books goes really, really well when I can string together five minutes to work on it.

One of these days the kids will be grown up and gone and I'll look back and wish for days like these. But right now I'd like to have a few hours of me time.

We're about 20 days from school starting. I learned last week that half our English staff has quit. If you know of any English teachers wanting a job teaching high school in OKC, Western Heights is looking.

I now have over 1,400 MySpace friends. Of course, I've never met, or even e-mailed, most of them. And never will. The electronic world is kinda weird. I could have a lot more MySpace "friends" if I'd approve the non-stop requests from cam whores. What really gets me, though, is visiting the photo pages of women on MySpace and seeing the absolutely stupid crap guys post there. Tell me, ladies, has it ever turned you on to see a photo comment that says, "UR h-a-w-t!!!1! Id tapp u sexxy grl"? And coming from someone you don't even know? The anonymity of the Web is almost scary. I hope those guys wouldn't walk up to a woman on the street and just blurt out how much they'd like to hump her. Unless it works, which would just prove how out of touch I am with the dating world.

What else can I ramble about? Conestoga? Good time. Rachel, Melissa and Jeaniene totally outclassed me, but they are all just incredibly nice gals. People tell me I didn't do too bad on the panel, but I think I was learning as much as anyone in the audience. I finally picked up Rachel's debut novel, Stray, about a werecat, and am looking forward to reading it. I also got Maggie Bonham's latest, the second in her fantasy series. It's called Runestone of Teiwas.

Ah, and the youngest kids have found me. They are examining the cover of Greg Lamberson's Gruesome DVD. "What's that?" Amanda asked. "A zombie," I answer, to keep it simple. "When he was a regular dog, before he was a zombie, did he wear that?" Jacob asked. Johnny Gruesome, the headbanger from hell, is wearing a spiked leather collar in the cover picture. Priceless! I'm reviewing the book, film and CD for Horror World next month. (Preview: It's all good, so get out your wallet.) Jacob has left, but Amanda is still intently studying the DVD case. "Why did he sticked a knife in his head?" "Is this a real movie?" "Are these just actors?" "Why is she bleeding?" I'd let her watch it, but I think it's a bit too intense for a six year old.

We watched Spiderman 3 at the dollar theater yesterday; it was half-price day. It wasn't bad, but it sure felt all of it's 2 hour 20 minute run time. I was surprised Jacob stayed interested in the whole thing, but he did. Later we went to a park and Amanda played in the sand. She stood up with sand all over her legs and declared she looked just like the Sandman.

Alex got four tickets to Ozzfest in Dallas. He asked his mommy to drive him and two friends down there. Nevermind I was an Ozzy fan before any of them, including Kim. Humph! Oh well, most of the other bands suck. Though, I have to say I could get into Lordi. "Would You Love a Monsterman?"

Conestoga 11

Here I sit, back in Tulsa, peeling away my sunburn and dropping the flakes on the carpet of a La Quinta Inn across the street from the Conestoga hotel ... where I waited too late to reserve a room, which is why I'm across the street.

Man, it's good to see these people again. Yeah, some of them were at SoonerCon, but not so many of them. I'd try to name them all, but it's easier to just provide a link to the guest list. Brad Sinor was kind enough to show me where the green room was this year. They have most kinds of M&Ms in there. Ummmm. Laurell K. Hamilton and her entourage was in there for a while, then she went to do her signing, where people were lined up like I've never seen for an author at a convention. It wasn't quite an Alice Cooper or George Romero at Horrorfind line, but it was enough to make the rest of us authors drool.

I had a nice chat with Deb LeBlanc, who convinced me it was time to nudge a certain editor who is looking at one of my books. So, I did that. I also bought a copy of her newly released Morbid Curiosity. I've only heard and read the prologue so far, but I think this is really going to be a good one.

My reading was today. People actually came! I read Chapter 6 of Seven Days in Benevolence, although it's not out yet. Still no proofs of the right version, either. grrrrr

Tomorrow I have a panel on urban fantasy with Rachel Vincent (who is just incredibly nice), Jeaniene Frost and Melissa Marr. I only just met Jeaniene and Melissa this evening. Both seem nice. How I ended up on a panel with these three women who have major publishing contracts and respectable literary agents is beyond me, but hey, I'll be the token male on the panel. The programmers determined that Shara is an urban fantasy,and I suppose that's pretty accurate.

I also have a panel on sci-fi in the classroom, or something like that. Sounds like the same kinda thing we did at SoonerCon.

There is an animal rescue group here and they have wolves with them. There's a massive Russian wolf that is just beautiful. There's another timber wolf/husky mix, too. (And snakes and other critters that don't interest me.) I didn't bring my camera, so I'm going to have to find a disposable and try to get some shots of the wolves.

Seems like there was more I was gonna say, but a long Yahoo Messenger "discussion" with my oldest daughter has chased it all outta my head. She's just months away from being an official teenager, and somewhere or other has developed a very smart alecky mouth and independent streak.

Home from vacation

Oh man, where to begin? We just got home a couple of hours ago. We went to the last day of Rocklahoma on Sunday, the over to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, for a couple of days. That was after dropping off the three youngest kids in Enid on Saturday, the day after I got home from the teachers' workshop.

The concert. Fortunately, we missed Britney Fox. To think that band and Winger, White Lion, etc. can be classified with Motley Crue, Twisted Sister or even Poison is beyond believable. Anyhoo, Steelheart was on the stage when we arrived. Color me impressed. I was only familiar with one song of theirs, the ballad "Never Let You Go," which I really like (and Kim hates). The rest of their set was pretty hard, making me think I should look into them a little more. Then was LA Guns. They played some good music. None of it was their own, but ... Then Jackyl. Damn, those boys put on a show! Good stuff. Then Queensryche. Meh. I've never been impressed with them, and seeing them live didn't change that. I was and am still disappointed Wasp had to pull out. Then Twisted Sister came on and proved they still have it. Dee Snider is a maniac and a lot of fun to watch on stage.

Now then, it has to be said. Ladies, although the bands playing there had their heydays in the 1980s, it is no longer 1985 and you are no longer 18 years old. It was incredibly sexy for you to wear tight T-shirts without bras when you were 18, but now that you're 40 and, umm, havent' been taking care of yourself, not so much. And for the woman who danced through every set in just her black bra and pants, ewwwwwwww! When you're deliberately shaking your boobs and the movement rolls around to the middle of your back, you should find a shirt.

And guys, you should find shirts, too. And pull up your damn pants. Nobody, I repeat, NOBODY wants to see the hairy rolls of your back or the dark crack of your ass. And you do not grow wiser as more beer enters your mouth. It's the opposite, really.

Now, that probably sounds mean, and I have no room to talk in some areas. Sure, be comfortable with your body and all that. But that doesn't mean strip it down and parade it in front of people who do not want to see it. Or stand in front of them and shake it. However, watching the people is a big part of the fun of these shows, and there were a lot of ... interesting sideshows to observe.

Kim and I both got burned at the show. My burn is quite odd, as I was wearing a doo-rag. So I have a sharp line dividing my pale upper forehead from the rest of my dry, red, peeling face. How bad does it look? Well, on the way home today I was doing 70 in a 50 mph work zone and the cop commented on my sunburn before letting us go with a warning, despite not being able to find a current insurance card.

Eureka Springs. Hmm. The Ozarks are still beautiful, despite all the efforts to commercialize everything associated with them. Eureka Springs seems to be a mecca for old people and bikers, and there weren't that many bikers there Monday and Tuesday. It was an okay couple of days, but nothing great. Sara sent us text messages non-stop, complaining about how bored she was at Grandma's. Still, it was nice to get away with just the wifey for a bit.

Now, a couple of days' rest before I go back to Tulsa for Conestoga. I'm not on the program for Friday, so I won't be there until Saturday morning.

The goals we set

Ugh. Where to begin? I guess I'll start with the good news. My roomie left after the first night. I don't know why. Don't care. I'm just glad he did. I've had the room to myself since he left. He's still attending the workshop. I guess he's making the two-hour drive here and home every day. Power to him. I hear from one of his classmates that he's very smart and soft-spoken in class. I guess he saves the volume for when he's sleeping mostly naked in rooms with other men he's only just met.

The workshop has been incredibly draining. From 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. we sit in a room and listen to a nice, well-meaning man talk like AP test graders are the gods of some incredibly important pantheon. Yesterday we spent the entire day learning to read and grade AP English essays in four minutes or less. My brain shut off somewhere around 2:30 and I was zombified by the time he dismissed us. The grading scale is slowly sinking in, but it's still very difficult to tell a 5 essay from a 6 ... and sometimes a 7. A 1 and a 9 are easy to spot. I'm sure that studying the rubric and samples will help me get it. Then we'll just see if I have a chance to use it.

We're done tomorrow. Well, today now. Then I get to go home. It's been a long week. My little Mandy has missed me, I guess. She asks to talk to me every day when I call, and when Kim tucks her into bed at night she says she wishes Daddy was home. She's my little angel.

So. Goals. I'd wanted to write all of that 25,000 word novella during the evenings here. Didn't happen. I've been riding to the University of Tulsa and back with three lady teachers (two from Western Heights' English dept.). Generally, we'll get back to the hotel at about 5, then go eat around 5:30. Come back, I call home, then go to the lobby for free Internet. I stare numbly at the screen and do my best to answer the e-mail I need to answer, have a looooong Yahoo Messenger conversation with Sara about issues she already knows but refuses to admit I'm right about, then stumble back to the elevator, down the hall and into my room and into the bed. Hotel alarm, cell phone alarm, shower and repeat.

How'd I do on the novella? Including the 1,100 words tonight, it looks like this:
Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
2,222 / 25,000
(8.9%)


Yeah, I'm not even close. But, I have a good start, and some momentum. I can finish it before school starts.

Oh, and tonight I learned that if I turn on my computer in the hotel lobby and connect to the free Internet there, then come upstairs without turning off the computer, I maintain my connection to the free server. Yeah. It only took me five days to figure that out. So, if you're ever staying at the Doubletree Hotel in downtown Tulsa, word up. (Personally, I'm very unimpressed with this hotel. There's no latch or lock on my bathroom door and I can't find a damn vending machine with food in it on any floor.)

First impressions are everything

Good Lord Almighty! The roomie showed up. He let himself into the hotel room at friggin' 12:30 a.m. Okay, not a huge deal. I was still up, working on the new novella. We chat for a bit, he calls his wife and leaves the room to talk, comes back in and, while he's talking to me, who he just met minutes before, he strips down to his undies. Oh, he did turn on the TV first, tuning in a Steven Seagal movie that he watched until 2 a.m. It gets better. He finally turns off the TV and the light and promptly falls asleep. And snores. Loud! I mean, I sleep through thunderstorms, but I couldn't sleep with that noise going on for a long time. I did finally doze, only to be awakened less than an hour later by a particularly loud inhalation. I throw a dirty look toward his bed only to discover he's thrown off the covers and in the faint light of the room I see him laying with his back to me, uncovered, wearing nothing but his panties, snoring happily. After another half hour of this, I get up and dig my CD player and the Planet of the Apes soundtrack from my backpack to tune him out. Now, I often listen to music through headphones to fall asleep, but this time I had to turn it up so loud I was afraid the music would keep me awake. It didn't. I managed to sleep ... until the wake-up call he requested woke me up at about 6:24 a.m. It was some odd time. He slept through the call, me answering it and me slamming the phone back down. A bit later he slept through my cell phone alarm going off, too. He finally woke up as I was shaving, was all flustered that it was 7:35 a.m. and the workshop started at 8, decided to forego his shower, packed his stuff, said it was nice to meet me, and left, saying he may or may not be back.

What the hell?

Whatever. I checked with the desk and they said he checked out. So tonight I'm bolting the door and going to sleep.

The first day of the conference has been interesting, I guess. We took a sample AP test. I scored higher than our instructor on a couple of the sections. That said, there is a bunch of stuff I don't know. And, honestly, I'm totally confused about just what AP is all about. Are we not supposed to teach the non-AP kids how to write essays or what ethos, logos and pathos are? I was doing that with my classes already. Not as in depth as this, but we covered different kinds of essays and appeals to emotion, logic, etc. Oh well. I'm sure I'll have a better understanding of it at the end of the week.

The most impressive (depressing?) thing has been hearing the other teachers talk about what they'll be teaching this fall. "Will you be teaching AP language?" they ask. "Uhh, I won't know what I'm teaching until the week before school starts," I answer. "That doesn't give you much time to do a lesson plan." Nope. No, it doesn't.

So, I did the first chapter of the new novella last night. Went pretty well. At the last moment I decided to change the main character from a man to a woman. I saw that having a female in that role would open up a whole vista of back story I could explore. It seems I end up writing from the female perspective quite a bit, which always makes me think of Jack Nicholson in As Good as it Gets. The publisher's secretary asks him how he writes women so well and Jack responds as only Jack can, "I imagine a man, then I take away reason and accountability." Ya gotta love Jack.

One of my fellow Western Heights English teachers here at the workshop was shocked to learn today that I am a Republican. "With the ponytail, I never would have guessed," she said. She's also a Republican, one of the few in education it would seem. One of our other die-hard liberals is here, too. They're both good folk, even if one of them is delusional.