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I'm copyediting the Spanish in The Patron Saint of Plagues for the mass-market paperback edition. This is a great ease to my mind as the book went to press without a thorough Spanish edit. But copyediting a book that I effectively completed some four years ago? Feels like I'll be editing this thing till the day I die. (The mmpb edition is due out on my birthday, November 27, FYI.)
A couple film makers from a great big honkin' studio contacted me about optioning PSOP back in May, and, while I like them and their vision for the story as a movie (like that matters, but I do), the deal has hitched and started so many times, I haven't wanted to report on every development here. Now things look more positive. Stay tuned.
After a heads up from my editor, the next round of edits on The Magician and The Fool are expected any minute. I spent the day cleaning my study yesterday, getting ready for the home stretch run, and I'm eager to see what the hell I handed in this summer. Yeah, it was honestly like that.
Also, I finished an interview with Ms. Dornbusch over at ElectricSpec. Look for the interview and a short story of mine to run in late September.
It's been a while since I've posted, no? Sorry. Life. Meanwhile, Le Baby is walking. She's walking so well she can even stop, pivot and change directions. The fact that she likes to do so while swinging a purse is furrowing eyebrows all over the household.
-Isaiah
Take an oath with me, writers wokshops attendees, critiquers, and facilitators? Let's vow to scrutinize and challenge phrases such as "I really liked.." and "I didn't enjoy..." when critiquing our colleagues' work. Relative enjoyment is important for readers, but it should be tertiary or quaternary for writers in a critique circle. Enjoyment isn't irrelevant, obviously - it does speak to the aesthetic experience that a writer is trying to create. But describing how a story operates under its own rules is far more important and may speak to the gear works of that aesthetic experience, and, as a writer-critiquer, you may be short-changing yourself by relying on language that stands in the way of a closer examination ("I didn't like...") because your ability to create a vocabulary for such examinations is key if you want to see your own work effectively.
Meanwhile....guilty as charged....
| Your Taste in Music: |
 80's R&B: Highest Influence Old School Hip Hop: Highest Influence 80's Alternative: High Influence 90's Alternative: High Influence 90's Hip Hop: High Influence |
The story below appeared in a Scribe Agency chapbook last year. In other words, it's been given way for free in multiple media. So there.
The Suderberg Outbreak
Barth Anderson
I found one not far from the fire road and shot it before it could get to the woods. It looked sick and had trouble walking, so I was doing it a favor. I pulled the trigger, a puff of feathers, and it was dead.
How many had escaped the barn? Had the virus transmitted? No way to know. Once I ran out of shells, I'd have to do like my team back on the farm and start beating them to death.
I had gloves on so I picked up what was left of the broiler. It wasn't feeble from the flu virus, but from physical deformities. Tibial dyschondroplasia, where the femur had snapped below the hip at an early age. Typical. Weak legs were a side effect of selective chicken breeding programs - but, hey, they're not dancers. They just need to get fat as fast as possible and wait for the knife.
Besides, dyschondroplasia would make it easier for me to catch up with the escapees, and that would help.