The weekend seemed very long, though I went to the flee market on Sunday and bought a Mayan mask. I'll probably go back again in a few weeks and see about buying some statuary since apparently the vendor's there all the time. I'm probably actually going to be reading most of today, since I have some stuff to get critiquing and we'll be camping over Memorial Day weekend and I'll likely not have time to do any for four days. I've been doing some more thinking about my new One World story and it's finally starting to take shape (I cut off on Friday with two of my characters nearly coming to blows and I think my original imaginings of the roles are reversed). Hope to work on it some more today though.

Interestingly, I've been mentioned over the WotF forum as someone who's "been successful with stories based on folklore and mythology of Central or South America", which I find rather tickling but I really do have to wonder what I've done to deserve that distinction. Sure, I've published quite a few Aztec-based stories (no SA fiction, though I have written one and it's currently still in the revision stage), but I have only one semi-pro sale in the genre, the rest are all token (the Black Gate reprint would make it two semi-pro, if that pans out). Perhaps token markets are a little more influential than I tend to give them credit for? I'm skeptical, but who knows.... Anyway, being mentioned gave me a smile. And maybe some day I'll actually feel I qualify. :)

Yesterday we went to Borders to see about buying a couple of The Spiderwick Chronicles books, and I can't believe they cost $12 a piece, for like 50 pages of text. What a rip-off! The trade paperback book of almost 400 pages I bought cost less than that. So I told Dana if she wants to read them, she'll have to check them out from the library. I hate to do that, but that's just outrageously expensive for a tiny hardcover that's a fraction of the size of one of the Series of Unfortunate Events books.

So today's plan is to start working on the rewrite of "The Hearts of Men" for the polish challenge over at LH, and get at least one story back out to market after a couple rejections over the weekend (the other two I'm waiting for markets to open up again.). I also saw that my editor over at Sorcererous Signals has nominated my story she published for the Million Writers Award this year, which is cool (and the second year in a row that I've had something nominated).

I just saw a preliminary mock-up of the cover for the Lilith anthology I sold "So Weeps the Thunder Bird" to, and learned not only that the antho title is being changed to "Lilith Unbound", but I got a glimpse of some of the folks I'm going to be sharing the TOC with, and my jaw has dropped.

Mike Resnick
Lawrence Schimel
Nisi Shawl
Ed Greenwood
Jackie Kessler

How did I ever manage to land in a TOC with Mike Resnick? Or Nisi Shawl (whom I totally owe an apology to about a Beatles song at Clarion West. You were totally right! It was the wrong song. It was all tied to drunken declarations of my extensive Beatles song knowledge:D)? These are some heavy hitters and then there's me with my little Lilith/Thunder Bird story. So I'm feeling like grinning a bit at a moment.

While Googling my name tonight, I discovered the first "review" of Paradox #11, from SFRevu. It's kind of a non-specific review, mostly summarizing the contents of the issue, but he did say that all the stories scored a Very Good for him.

Morning Star Rising NaNo

5,043 / 50,000 (10.1%)

Morning Star Rising (Total)

67,035 / 150,000 (44.7%)

So, an excellent start to NaNo, far better than I thought I'd be able to manage. This is more writing than I've done total in like three weeks, and I still got this far with having to stop to feed and play with babies (and he was quite cranky today, moreso than most days) and pick up kids from school. So maybe the 50k in a month isn't so out of the realm of possibility after all. Maybe I just need that deadline. I finished one chapter and started another one, and I'm pleased I was just able to dive right back in without much hesitation or feeling like I was out of the story.

In other news, my One World story "What Makes Us Strong" is now up at Atomjack. And those who were curious about the print I bought at MileHiCon, here's what it is. 

I'm going to go make dinner now and bask in my productivity!
 

My Quetzalcóatl story "The Divine Conquest of Mexico" is now available to read at Sorcerous Signals. It's accompanied by a really nice illustration done by Lee Kuruganti (who is a fellow Metro State College alumni). The story is part of a series called Sixth Sun Rising, though this is the only one of that series I've sold so far. The series started off as a novel, but this particular story was the first short story I wrote when I started writing shorts in earnest two years ago.

My first new sale of the year! I just received word today that my Quetzalcóatl story "The Divine Conquest of Mexico" has been accepted by Sorcerous Signals for the August-October issue. I'm quite excited about this one because it's been making the rounds for about a year and a half and went through numerous drafts during that time, far more than any other story I've written. It feels very good to have finally placed it, and I'm glad that I never gave up on it. It's the first sale in my Aztec fantasy series Sixth Sun Rising.

ETA: I almost forgot this: this morning I got an email from my editor at Atomjack telling me that he's nominated my story "The Last Arabian Prince" for the Million Writer's Award from StorySouth. Each editor is only allowed to nominate three stories, so I feel pretty special to be considered one of the top three stories he published last year.