Mortaine’s Blog

5 years ago I left my cell phone in the backseat of a New York taxicab. Amazingly, they found it. Unamazingly, they never quite managed to mail it to me. Two weeks later, the taxicab companies tore out their backseats to use the cabs as hearses.

I’m still pissed about that. I loved that cell phone.

[What? Too soon?]

First, the advice:
My friend is in need of a haircut. He lives in London, but will be in the Chicagoland area (West Suburbs) soon. The last time I had a haircut in Evanston was in the 1980’s, but I figured someone on my Friends List is in London or Chicago’s suburbs and could offer a recommendation. He just needs a trim, but when you have long curly locks, you tend to be posessive of them.

Then the shameless plug:
If you haven’t checked it out yet, go visit BookMooch, which turned me on to a few weeks ago. It’s a book swap site that isn’t hopelessly overwhelmed by leeches. Just mooches. I’ve gotten a few books through it already, and have sent several out. My username there is the same as the one I have here. Special bonus: I’ve been using the “explain the condition” section to talk about both the condition, as well as my experiences with that book. Like “This copy is practically falling apart, due to the amount I’ve read it. I’ve travelled to foreign countries with this book, adapted one of the short stories into my very first short-film script (when I was 12), and generally read and re-read it over and over again. You will not get a pristine book when you mooch this. You will get a history.”

My inventory is here.

PS: I now have seven work-in-progress novels going. How did I let it get to this point?

I received fan mail today. The big milestone will be when I get fanmail from someone who didn’t know me before buying my book.

I went to the East of Eden writing conference this weekend. It was very inspiring and motivating. I pitched my sci fi novel to an agent, who has asked for the first 3 chapters by email. Yay. I was so nervous, I forgot to ask for his email address, but he reminded me before I left.

I had a 15 minute “advice from a pro” session in which I asked the guy (who used to be a stand-up comedian) how to be funny. I explained I was writing a political satire, and generally what it was about. The advice he gave me was valuable and, blessedly, stuff I was already doing, but without realizing it. Also, he had some great other ideas for me as well.

I went to sessions on formatting a screenplay, writing query letters, crime and forensics for mystery and suspense, breaking into mystery writing, etc. I discovered that I am going to have a very serious difficulty trying to negotiate the different genres I like to write in. Almost everything I write has a mystery or suspense element, even though I don’t really write mysteries. I write a lot of science fiction and fantasy. I’d like to write romances, if I could be any good at it. I have a half-finished political satire novel. In other words, I don’t really respect genre boundaries in my writing much.

I also sold a copy of the book at the conference, which was Also Very Nice.

Tomorrow: back to working my ass off.