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This blog keeps me in touch with WDC. Jamesdillingham.com keeps me in touch elsewhere. |
| I like to stay in touch with WDC, even when I'm not contributing on a daily basis. My main blog is at jamesdillingham.blogspot.com |
| My business partner found himself a mile out in the ocean yesterday with his wife. Their kayak sank. A fishing boat passed by and then, the captain said later, that he had an urge to look back. He saw the two a distance off and went to investigate. As he pulled them onto his boat, a bunch of dolphins were seen swimming all around them. My partner thinks they were not only there to protect him, they were also the ones that called to the boat captain so he would turn around. j |
| Happy Thanksgiving week to everyone out there. I hope you are able to spend time with family and friends. I have a friend that is a philosopher of sorts. He once said that whatever you are in life, you can be replaced. If you are a Vice President, when you die, they will find another VP. If you are a mechanic - same thing. The only thing that is not replaceable is your relationship to others. If you are a dad or a friend, whatever, when you go away, you leave an empty place behind. This is what makes our friendships and families so valuable. Like the credit card commercial says, a turkey ... $.99 a pound, dinner with family and friends - priceless. Cheers, jim |
| Well, I took second place in the October Inspirational Quote contest. What feels weird is that I am not a big fan of my own story. I wrote it and took the time to make it as good as I could. I think that it is just that it turned out to be a love story and I am more interested in Galactic Space Battles. I just finished chapter 22 and will be posting it soon. I need about 2-3 chapters a week from here on out to meet my February deadline. Jim |
| I just signed up for the Writers Conference in Feb 2010. I also signed up for agent speed dating which will give me 3 minutes each with 20 agents. So now I need to (1) finish the novel and (2) try and get something published in the meantime...sci-fi magazine type thing. |
| I have a lot of work to catch up with that is taking away from my writing. This is only temporary but still...I miss my "world creator" mode. Arakun is now sharing the running of her contest Daily Flash Fiction. I don't know how she was able to keep it up for so long on her own. Now I have to get use to new judges and hosts. Should be fun. I am traveling again tomorrow. First to Grand Rapids and then Toledo. Home Thursday night. J |
| I loaded Windows 7 over Vista on Sunday and loved it. On Tuesday, it started to not work. Some of the features went away. By Thursday, my computer was a doorstop. I had to do a full Recovery which means I reinstalled the original factory settings which means I am once again a Vista person. I have a high-end laptop and all of the right hardware. It's Windows 7. Why does Microsoft have to suck so badly? My wife has been here all week. It has been a lot of fun. Tonight we are going into the city to see The Who's Tommy. She heads home Saturday night. On Sunday, I start Part Two of my book. J |
| I have a minute so I am going to spend it dribbling on my blog. Miscellaneous stuff... I don't understand extreme political conservatism so I am glad to see that I am no alone in disagreeing with them. I like the public option. I like the idea of a BIG change to health care. I am a small business owner. Yes, I hear the fear mongers loud and clear. However, I know that doing nothing or doing something small is not going to help anyone. If we try something and I end up going broke because it turned out to be bad for me...okay...I will survive so long as overall, it is an improvement for the country. I disqualified myself in the 14-7-1 contest. I decided I wanted to put the prompt at the top of my entry but forgot that in doing so, I was editing my entry. Too bad for me. The rules clearly stated I wasn't allowed to do that. I will stay in the contest but am not eligible to compete. That's fair. In the end, I write for me. I like the story I have going anyway and I want to see what happens. I read my entry Soul Mates for the Inspirational Quote contest. I don't see a lot of ME in there. Maybe that is a good thing since I haven't won that contest in a long time. I am off to the airport in the morning. I get back Saturday morning. In the meantime, my wife and stepson get in Friday night from Hungary. This is a big no-no. I am supposed to be here when she is here. My fault...maybe some flowers are in order... I am continuing to work on my story that I intend to submit for publication in an SF magazine. I want it to be about 7,500 words long. The problem is that I write so much flash fiction that I keep wrapping the story up at the end of each paragraph and have no where to go. "And they lived happily every after...word count 54." Tomorrow I start anew on the second half of my book. I have a front row seat, at least as far as Chicago, so I can get some writing done. Windows 7 comes out tomorrow. The good news is, it cannot possibly make things worse. My dog gets depressed when he sees me coming down the stairs in the morning with my travel bag. It's interesting how sad he can make himself look. By the way, is it just me or is Family Guy a really funny show. Jim |
| Interestingly, my blog on WDC has been viewed 999 times. I found this literary agency that says they want to help new writers and they charge no fee. I sent them a partial manuscript. They now say I need to have a professional critique done and it only costs $70-90. Not a lot of money but it raised a red flag. I did some research and it seems many people are concerned about this deal. Additionally, the company that they negotiate many of their books with is their parent company. I bailed. Looks like I am going to have to market my book the old fashion way...work at it. I have bought a book on how to find an agent. There are a lot of such things out there. In the mean time, I am writing a short SF story for submission to a magazine. I wrote an entry for the Inspirational Quote contest. I went with a love story since that got into my head first. I am not a love story writer/reader so I have no idea how it reads. but the deed is done. I am also in the 14-7-1 contest. My first entry was made at the last minute. The next day, someone pointed out a typo. I have to leave it there because it is too late for that prompt. Lesson here is that if you have 2 days to get the story in, do it the first day so you can use feedback to make it better before the deadline. It is raining now... J |
| I have my WDC blog set to tap me on the shoulder every 7 days if i haven't made an entry. What's up? I submitted the first half of my novel to an agent and am waiting to hear if it is garbage or not. I am working on a story of the Inspirational Quote contest. My next story will be for Orson Scott Card's webzine (at least I hope it is) http://www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com I am writing Flash Fiction on occasion. I will probably grab a prompt before climbing on a plane tomorrow. Some links: My business site: http://www.shift-work.com My personal site: http://www.jamesdillingham.com My http://www.youtube.com: Search for Hyperiongate. I just posted an editorial about Sears and their inability to pay a rebate offer. That was satisfying to post. I sent a link to Sears. Anyway...the "shoulder tap" has been put off for another week. Off to bed, early to rise...its time to fly! J |
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