An Exchange of Words: David B. Coe’s Weblog

The new issue (Issue 9) of Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show is online, and “Cassie’s Story”, my newest piece of short fiction, is now available for viewing.  IGMS isn’t free, I’m afraid.  You can register on the site for free, but then it costs $2.50 to view each issue.  This issue is a good one — in addition to my story, there’s work from Peter Beagle, Alethea Kontis, Ken Scholes, and several others.

“Cassie’s Story” is a departure for me.  It has a fantastic element that is central to the story, but it’s set in our modern world, and it doesn’t have magic in the traditional sense.  On the other hand, like so much of my work, it deals with social issues, in this case domestic violence.  It’s a dark story, but also hopeful in the end.   

I’m excited to see it “in print.”  This is only the third piece of short fiction I’ve published in my career (the fourth should be out later this year in Black Gate Magazine).  I spend most of my time writing novel-length stuff.  But this was a fun story to write. In any case, I hope you enjoy it.

Today I’ll be posting at the blog of my literary agent, Lucienne Diver.  Lucienne and I will be exchanging ideas on the relationship between authors and agents.  Our dialog will cover different ways in which agents can help further the careers or authors, and ways in which authors can make those efforts easier.  We’ll also be answering some questions as they come in during the course of the day.

So join us and be part of the conversation.  http://varkat.livejournal.com

Today’s post, “Writing at Your Own Pace,” can be found at http://magicalwords.net.  Visit the site and enjoy!

Kids have a swim meet today, so I’m cutting out early.  I did manage to get my 2000 words for the day, but I still haven’t had enough quality time with the new camera. 

It’s an away meet, so we have a bit of a drive ahead of us.  The team is undefeated, and though both of my daughters are at the lower end of their competitive age groups, both have managed one blue ribbon and several second and third place finishes.  Pretty good.  They get it from their mother — I can barely get across the pool….

We’ve been doing this for several summers now, and the kids love it.  So do we.  We never worry about them being around water now.  They have a great coach who teaches them the fundamentals of each stroke and stresses personal improvement and teamwork rather than individual achievement.  The team is incredibly close knit (18 year-olds rooting for 6 year-olds and the young ones then returning the favor) and so are the swim parents.  We all volunteer to help out with meets, and after the meet tonight bunches of us will probably wind up getting dinner together.  Fun stuff.

Catch ya’ll tomorrow.  Go Tigersharks!!

Well, I was going to post about something writing related.  Hadn’t decided what yet, but I’m sure it would have been nuanced and amusing and incredibly insightful.  But as you all might remember from a recent post, I’m a material guy, and my new camera just arrived!!!  Canon 40D!  10.2 megapixels, 3 inch LCD monitor, burst rate of 6.5 frames per second, and a integrated sensor cleaning system.  I get all hot and bothered just thinking about it.

So I’ll catch you tomorrow.

Bye.

Reached something of a milestone on the work in progress (Book III of my Blood of the Southlands trilogy) today. You can see it plainly on the bar below:

Pretty exciting. Still no title, but that will come eventually. The deadline is still a long way off (November 1) so I’m confident that I’ll have the book in on time. In the meantime, it feels good to be making progress.  

I also have a short story coming out later this week.  “Cassie’s Story” will be appearing in the summer issue of Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show.  Hope you all enjoy it.

Today’s music:  Gary Burton and Pat Metheny

Today’s Post, “Finding Your Writing Voice,” can be found at http://magicalwords.net/.  Check out the site and enjoy!

Spent a bit of time looking at a calendar the other day and realized that I’m going to be away for a big chunk of time at the end of July and beginning of August.  It’ll be fun:  visiting friends in New Mexico, camping in Canyonlands National Park in Utah, visiting Nancy’s folks in Idaho, and then going to WorldCon in Denver.  But that’ll have me away from home from July 21 to August 10 or so.  That’s a long time, and it threatens to put me behind schedule on the work in progress.

So for the past two days I’ve kicked it up a notch.  I’ve written 2,000 words instead of 1,500; eight pages instead of six.  I intend to keep this up for the rest of June and the first three weeks of July.   That will have me back on track to finish the book in September, which is my current goal.  I’m not sure I could have done this a few years ago.  I was a slower writer then and was much more prone to ups and downs; on some days I’d get six pages, but on other days I’d only get three.  I’ve gotten more consistent, which is kind of cool.

Anyway, I’m more tired than I usually am at the end of a writing day, and I wonder if I’m going to burn myself out this way.  I’ll guess we’ll see.

Today’s music:  Jim Hall (Concierto)

I’ve just got nothing today, folks.  I’m sitting here thinking that I need to post, that I could write about today’s work, or the craziness already overtaking the election season (”Terrorist fist jab”?  I just can’t get over that one), or the dinner party we just attended, or any number of other things.  

I spent the afternoon writing condolence cards to the husband and (fully-grown) children of my mother’s closest friend, who died last week.  And that process left me drained.  She was a wonderful woman and I’ll miss her a lot, but she was in her eighties and had been ill.  Her death, while sad, was not really a tragedy.  Still, as I wrote the cards, I found myself tapping into my own memories of losing my parents many years ago.  That may be why I have nothing left for the blog.

If I were to use a mood tag today it would read “melancholy”.  I’ll be more chipper tomorrow, and I’ll write a better post.

Today’s music:  Pat Metheny (One Quiet Night)

Today’s post, titled “Back At It,” can be found at http://magicalwords.net.  Please visit the site and check it out.  And enjoy!