By Michael Seese
It's been a while since I've written about writing. So let's get you all up to speed.
First, I'm sad to say that I won't be going to Paris (not yet) because Eiffel didn't make the short list at the American Library In Paris. It's a bummer, to be sure. But, I still have another novel to my credit.
Looking to shake things up a little, I'm going to try a different tack for a bit. One of the agent blogs I read is by Chuck Sambuchino. A regular feature of his posts is "How I Got My Agent." Most authors offer tales of perseverance, or luck. But last week, I read about a different approach.
Michael Poore is an author whose debut novel is Up Jumps the Devil was praised by New York Times bestselling author Patrick deWitt as, “Part fable, part warped historical travelogue."
In Poore's own words:
I didn’t get my agent the traditional way.
I tried the traditional way, of course. I sent queries, I sent chapters, I sent samples and stories and clever letters, but they didn’t work.
In the end, an agent approached me. You could say this was an accident or a gift of chance, but you’d be wrong. The fact is, I concentrated on getting my work published in smaller markets, and it got noticed. You can make this work for you, too.
Poore's fiction has appeared in Glimmer Train, Fiction, Talebones, Southern Review, The Pinch, and other magazines. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, the Fountain Award, and the Sturgeon Award.
So, I'm going to try a Poore man's version of his tack. My goal for October is to submit something, somewhere, every day.
To be honest, I really don't think I'll be able to do it.
To be certain, I do have a lot of poetry and flash fiction I can use. The challenge is finding the places to submit it. But I'm going to give it the old college try. So far, though, I'm off to a good start. Here is what I've done.
October 3: "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" (flash fiction) submitted to Pseudopod, which makes podcasts of literature they like.
October 4: I posted "Past / President / Future" (which I had submitted for an NPR contest) to Readwave. It's a website which puts your work "out there" for others to see, read, and comment on.
October 5: I submitted three haiku to Haiku Journal. Later that day, I learned one already had been accepted. And today (Monday) another was. They rejected the third. But what did Meatloaf say? "Two out of three ain't bad." Both appear in Issue 19.
October 6: "No Blues" (flash fiction) submitted to The Broken Plate.
October 7: "The Finest Life Yet" (another flash piece) submitted to 100 word story.
Yes, I'm giving myself a bye for October 1 and 2, since I didn't read about Poore until the 3rd.
Let's see how it goes...
Showing posts with label Eiffel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eiffel. Show all posts
Monday, October 7, 2013
Saturday, June 8, 2013
Investment SPAM
By Michael Seese
First, sorry if you got some blank notice in your inbox a few hours ago. This $#@#%# system somehow published an empty post. Second, sorry it's been so long. Getting "Eiffel" finished and sent to Paris kind of drained me. (But I got confirmation...it's THERE!)
This one stood out the minute I saw it in my inbox.
And of course, take a look a the "From:" line.
Yes, I always get my investment advice on U.S. stocks from sources in Russia. Especially touting products which have "proven hihghly noteworthy."
At least there were no links which take you to some loser website in an attempt to try to actually harm you or your computer.
Watch out for investment SPAMs. Click to tweet.
First, sorry if you got some blank notice in your inbox a few hours ago. This $#@#%# system somehow published an empty post. Second, sorry it's been so long. Getting "Eiffel" finished and sent to Paris kind of drained me. (But I got confirmation...it's THERE!)
This one stood out the minute I saw it in my inbox.
And of course, take a look a the "From:" line.
Yes, I always get my investment advice on U.S. stocks from sources in Russia. Especially touting products which have "proven hihghly noteworthy."
At least there were no links which take you to some loser website in an attempt to try to actually harm you or your computer.
Watch out for investment SPAMs. Click to tweet.
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
I Love Writing!
By Michael Seese
"Well, duh!" you're saying.
OK, some days, it frustrates the h3ll out of me. And then...
When I last mentioned my current WIP, The Secret World Of Gustave Eiffel, I was working through the second revision. It's a much slower go, since I now need to get the right words--rather than any words--down on the page.
My daily word counts from the past few weeks bear this out.
3/19/13 248
3/20/13 471
3/21/13 85
3/22/13 422
3/23/13 0
3/24/13 191
3/25/13 0
3/26/13 647
3/27/13 705
3/28/13 397
3/29/13 1,275
3/30/13 398
3/31/13 160
Bear in mind, I've also been working on my taxes.
In real life, before the Eiffel Tower, Gustave Eiffel designed the railway terminal at Budapest. He is a pic.
According to the Wikipedia article (on Eiffel), one of the things that made it unique was the fact that you could see the "skeleton" through the glass walls.
An Eiffel structure with the iron visible...hmmm, where else do we see that?
The Budapest chapter was one that, on the first pass, had been really scant on the details. I had literally two or three paragraphs. So, during my revision effort, I got to this part and thought, What to write, what to write.
Then it hit me.
Between Vienna and Budapest (more or less) is Prague. (A wonderful city, by the way.) When my wife and I visited Prague a dozen years ago, an attraction we had considered visiting, but did not, is the the Kostnice v Sedlci, located beneath the Cemetery Church of All Saints. You may have heard of it as the "bone church."
Per Wikipedia (again):
The ossuary is estimated to contain the skeletons of between 40,000 and 70,000 people, whose bones have in many cases been artistically arranged to form decorations and furnishings for the chapel.
Bones...skeleton...structure...
Suddenly, I had this whole side story where the train to Budapest breaks down near Brno (south of Prague, about 55 km from the church), and Eiffel meets a stranger who offers to show him the ossuary, thereby providing the inspiration for both the Budapest station and the Eiffel Tower. (I also got to throw in some history as to why the noon bells in Brno chime at 11:00.)
Bingo!
Here is a little snippet.
“So you were going to tell me of your people, your history,” Eiffel opened.
“There is so much to say,” Rint said, “I hope four hours provides enough time.”
Eiffel soon learned that to say much of the history of the region revolved around repelling hostile armies would be a gross understatement.
Brno withstood two sieges by the Kališníci, the “Chalice People,” whose 15th century crusade later came be to called the Hussite Wars. Two hundred years later the city survived the aforementioned Swedish attack. In 1742, the Prussian army of Frederick the Great failed in its attempt at conquest.
“Such was our reputation as a city of staunch defenders, that your Napoleon Bonaparte chose to leave us alone after he marched into Austerlitz.”
“Fascinating!”
“And understand, the tales I tell of Brno represent a small sample of the adversity our entire region has had to face. Though this may be exaggeration, it seems as though as battle raged somewhere, always, within the Kingdom of Bohemia.”
“Believe it or not, my friend, I could say the same for France.”
“War!” Rint said, literally spitting to one side. The poets and minstrels strive to make war glorious. Even beautiful. War is neither. Let me tell you about war.”
Rint’s war stories were not like those of Alexandre Eiffel. They did not tell of heroics, nor make war sound romantic. They sung of struggles, sacrifices, and suffering, so much so that that Eiffel breathed a sigh of relief when Rint announced, “We are here.”
The outside, Eiffel thought, is nothing spectacular. Not even out of the ordinary. Smooth granite block walls. Gothic arch windows. Three spires, topped with iron hexagonal cupolas. It could be any church, anywhere.
“Shall we go in?” Rint asked.
“Certainly.”
Inside, Eiffel’s opinion changed the moment he looked up. The first feature which caught his eye was the chandelier. Spanning perhaps eight feet, it faintly glowed a pale, dull white, as it appeared to be carved from ivory or...
In that instant, his adjectival catalog inverted. Spectacular became spectral. Ordinary, otherworldly. Had his initial assessment included mediocre, he might now have thought macabre.
“What...what is this?” he asked.
“The locals call it ‘The Bone Church.’ I imagine you ascertain why.”
Everywhere Eiffel looked, he saw bones. Human bones. Thousands of human bones.
Feel free to share an opinion.
"Well, duh!" you're saying.
OK, some days, it frustrates the h3ll out of me. And then...
When I last mentioned my current WIP, The Secret World Of Gustave Eiffel, I was working through the second revision. It's a much slower go, since I now need to get the right words--rather than any words--down on the page.
My daily word counts from the past few weeks bear this out.
3/19/13 248
3/20/13 471
3/21/13 85
3/22/13 422
3/23/13 0
3/24/13 191
3/25/13 0
3/26/13 647
3/27/13 705
3/28/13 397
3/29/13 1,275
3/30/13 398
3/31/13 160
Bear in mind, I've also been working on my taxes.
In real life, before the Eiffel Tower, Gustave Eiffel designed the railway terminal at Budapest. He is a pic.
According to the Wikipedia article (on Eiffel), one of the things that made it unique was the fact that you could see the "skeleton" through the glass walls.
An Eiffel structure with the iron visible...hmmm, where else do we see that?
The Budapest chapter was one that, on the first pass, had been really scant on the details. I had literally two or three paragraphs. So, during my revision effort, I got to this part and thought, What to write, what to write.
Then it hit me.
Between Vienna and Budapest (more or less) is Prague. (A wonderful city, by the way.) When my wife and I visited Prague a dozen years ago, an attraction we had considered visiting, but did not, is the the Kostnice v Sedlci, located beneath the Cemetery Church of All Saints. You may have heard of it as the "bone church."
Per Wikipedia (again):
The ossuary is estimated to contain the skeletons of between 40,000 and 70,000 people, whose bones have in many cases been artistically arranged to form decorations and furnishings for the chapel.
Bones...skeleton...structure...
Suddenly, I had this whole side story where the train to Budapest breaks down near Brno (south of Prague, about 55 km from the church), and Eiffel meets a stranger who offers to show him the ossuary, thereby providing the inspiration for both the Budapest station and the Eiffel Tower. (I also got to throw in some history as to why the noon bells in Brno chime at 11:00.)
Bingo!
Here is a little snippet.
“So you were going to tell me of your people, your history,” Eiffel opened.
“There is so much to say,” Rint said, “I hope four hours provides enough time.”
Eiffel soon learned that to say much of the history of the region revolved around repelling hostile armies would be a gross understatement.
Brno withstood two sieges by the Kališníci, the “Chalice People,” whose 15th century crusade later came be to called the Hussite Wars. Two hundred years later the city survived the aforementioned Swedish attack. In 1742, the Prussian army of Frederick the Great failed in its attempt at conquest.
“Such was our reputation as a city of staunch defenders, that your Napoleon Bonaparte chose to leave us alone after he marched into Austerlitz.”
“Fascinating!”
“And understand, the tales I tell of Brno represent a small sample of the adversity our entire region has had to face. Though this may be exaggeration, it seems as though as battle raged somewhere, always, within the Kingdom of Bohemia.”
“Believe it or not, my friend, I could say the same for France.”
“War!” Rint said, literally spitting to one side. The poets and minstrels strive to make war glorious. Even beautiful. War is neither. Let me tell you about war.”
Rint’s war stories were not like those of Alexandre Eiffel. They did not tell of heroics, nor make war sound romantic. They sung of struggles, sacrifices, and suffering, so much so that that Eiffel breathed a sigh of relief when Rint announced, “We are here.”
The outside, Eiffel thought, is nothing spectacular. Not even out of the ordinary. Smooth granite block walls. Gothic arch windows. Three spires, topped with iron hexagonal cupolas. It could be any church, anywhere.
“Shall we go in?” Rint asked.
“Certainly.”
Inside, Eiffel’s opinion changed the moment he looked up. The first feature which caught his eye was the chandelier. Spanning perhaps eight feet, it faintly glowed a pale, dull white, as it appeared to be carved from ivory or...
In that instant, his adjectival catalog inverted. Spectacular became spectral. Ordinary, otherworldly. Had his initial assessment included mediocre, he might now have thought macabre.
“What...what is this?” he asked.
“The locals call it ‘The Bone Church.’ I imagine you ascertain why.”
Everywhere Eiffel looked, he saw bones. Human bones. Thousands of human bones.
Feel free to share an opinion.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Eiffel Slog-gress
By Michael Seese
Well, I'm in the revisit / revise phase of "Eiffel." As I said in my previous previous entry on the topic, I have finished the first pass-through, and now am filling in the blanks. The substantial blanks. Sometimes it's a drudge. Sometimes I fear having to tackle the task. And sometimes...
Last night I prepared to work on chapter 3, which takes place during Eiffel's school years. Some time ago, I had roughed out a wide-ranging conversation between Eiffel and one of his professors. I shelved it back then, because I realized that the topics they discuss should have a bearing on what comes in the rest of the book. So I opted to press on, vowing to later plug in references to the key events that I would devise as I moved forward. Prior to last night, as I contemplated what additional ideas to incorporate -- even though I now know comes in the later chapters -- I was drawing lots of blanks. But I had some time on my hands last night, so I persevered.
And the words just came.
When I first sat down to type, I had hoped to merely flesh out a few of the details already there, and perhaps refresh my memory of that skeleton conversation, so that I could see if any later events "fit."
But the words just came.
When the dust settled, I got down over 1,000 words. And I'm pretty happy with them. In fact, I would call that chapter done.
Such is the magic of writing.
Total count: 59,239.
Well, I'm in the revisit / revise phase of "Eiffel." As I said in my previous previous entry on the topic, I have finished the first pass-through, and now am filling in the blanks. The substantial blanks. Sometimes it's a drudge. Sometimes I fear having to tackle the task. And sometimes...
Last night I prepared to work on chapter 3, which takes place during Eiffel's school years. Some time ago, I had roughed out a wide-ranging conversation between Eiffel and one of his professors. I shelved it back then, because I realized that the topics they discuss should have a bearing on what comes in the rest of the book. So I opted to press on, vowing to later plug in references to the key events that I would devise as I moved forward. Prior to last night, as I contemplated what additional ideas to incorporate -- even though I now know comes in the later chapters -- I was drawing lots of blanks. But I had some time on my hands last night, so I persevered.
And the words just came.
When I first sat down to type, I had hoped to merely flesh out a few of the details already there, and perhaps refresh my memory of that skeleton conversation, so that I could see if any later events "fit."
But the words just came.
When the dust settled, I got down over 1,000 words. And I'm pretty happy with them. In fact, I would call that chapter done.
Such is the magic of writing.
Total count: 59,239.
Monday, March 11, 2013
Eiffel Terminé
By Michael Seese
(Per my French dictionary, that means "completed," rather than "dead.")
Exactly two months after typing the first words, I have completed the first pass of "The Secret World Of Gustave Eiffel." Total words to date: 57,323. For those of you keep score at home, it works out to just over 970 per day.
Not too bad.
So now it's on to Phase II. I think I'll take a "vacation" from Paris for a few days, and then get back to the daunting mountain of REALLY finishing it. The specific tasks will be:
1. Writing most of the detail in the first few chapters. Right now, they're basically placeholders.
2. Fleshing out details where I knew that I wanted additional description or dialogue, but didn't have it on the tip of my tongue. So I pressed forward, rather than lose momentum.
3. Finding the right word where I, likewise, did not have it "right there." (I call this an the previous my "digitial Post-Its.")
4. Making sure that there are no continuity errors.
5. Finally, making sure that, you know, it doesn't suck.
No problem.
My target for this effort is the week of April 22. That give my proofreaders some time to review and comment, a little time for me to implement the suggestions, and a few weeks (which I hope is enough) for the actual printing.
Tally ho!
(Per my French dictionary, that means "completed," rather than "dead.")
Exactly two months after typing the first words, I have completed the first pass of "The Secret World Of Gustave Eiffel." Total words to date: 57,323. For those of you keep score at home, it works out to just over 970 per day.
Not too bad.
So now it's on to Phase II. I think I'll take a "vacation" from Paris for a few days, and then get back to the daunting mountain of REALLY finishing it. The specific tasks will be:
1. Writing most of the detail in the first few chapters. Right now, they're basically placeholders.
2. Fleshing out details where I knew that I wanted additional description or dialogue, but didn't have it on the tip of my tongue. So I pressed forward, rather than lose momentum.
3. Finding the right word where I, likewise, did not have it "right there." (I call this an the previous my "digitial Post-Its.")
4. Making sure that there are no continuity errors.
5. Finally, making sure that, you know, it doesn't suck.
No problem.
My target for this effort is the week of April 22. That give my proofreaders some time to review and comment, a little time for me to implement the suggestions, and a few weeks (which I hope is enough) for the actual printing.
Tally ho!
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