Long story short, I’ve decided to switch back to Moveable Type running on stonetable.org. I’ll be cross-posting to my LiveJournal, so my friends who read me there will be able to continue uninterrupted.

The nitty-gritty boring stuff follows.

I used Moveable Type when I first registered stonetable.org sometime in the 90’s (whois will only show back to 2000, when I had to pay to recover it after letting the registration lapse). At the time, I only had a passing knowledge of perl so I couldn’t do much in the way of custom modifications. Eventually I just installed WordPress, since I knew PHP fairly well and everyone else I knew seemed to be using it.

That lasted for quite a number of years. It’s run well for me, but I decided it was time for a change for a number of reasons. I did switch to LiveJournal for a couple of months with the ultimate goal of combining the two. I was just struggling with the right way to do it. That’s when I came across Joseph John Adams solution. He had the exact type of setup I wanted, so I sent him and email and asked him how he did it. As it turns out, he’s just using Moveable Type on his website, and a now-defunct plugin called ljcrosspost that I managed to find a copy of. With it, I can keep posting to the domain that has really become my online identity and those posts will be automatically posted to my LiveJournal. I really like the community feel of LiveJournal and I’ll continue to be active there. This just gives me a way to utilize both channels.

Another reason for the switch is that I now breath, eat, and sleep perl at my day job. I prefer it over any of the programming languages I’ve used in my career. Since the core of Moveable Type is perl, I feel completely comfortable writing plugins and hacking in to it whatever I feel I need.

I’m using a stock theme right now, but fitting given my location. I’ll spend some time tweaking the theme and sidebar when I’m bored.

All three of my stories being workshopped are submitted to the group. phew.

I’m a little disappointed in myself. One of the story has issues that I know about but I just fell short time-wise trying to revise it. Stomach flu saw to that. The story is flawed, but that’s ok. That’s what the workshop is for, right?

There are seven people in this years workshop, myself included. With one submission from James Gunn himself, that brings the total number of stories to read to 19.
Dena flys to Alabama in four days. Dogs go to the kennel in five. I’ll drive down to Kansas in six. As I make my list of stuff to pack I realize how unprepared I am. I remembered to pick up an alarm clock and I have all of my toiletries but I have no idea what else I might need to survive living in a dorm for two weeks. I’ll have to play it by ear.

The deadline to turn in my three stories for the workshop is looming. Preferred date is Friday (today), absolutely no later than Monday. The clock is ticking.

The first story, Recycled Dreams, is as done as I can get it. The second story, Narang, is undergoing rewrites right now. I added near a thousand words of notes and rough changes tonight. With the infodumps I need to cut I’ll probably break even when it’s all finished. The third story, We Can Do It For Wholesale, is first-draft quality and probably as good as it’ll get before I have to submit. The weakest of three, I think, but it has potential.

Most of the arrangements for the trip are made now. Checks sent to pay for tuition and housing. Hotel for the Heinlein Centennial is booked. Arrangements made to board the dogs when Dena comes down for the convention. Despite all of the frantic work, both getting stories ready and preparing work to be without me for two weeks, I still feel good. I’m excited to get it all done so I can get these three stories finished and submitted and get going on the next.

Ham Radio

Last weekend, I finally went and took the test to upgrade my amateur radio license from Technician to General. That means I can now broadcast on a new range of frequencies that allow for longer-distance communication.

Grammar

I’ve been more aware lately that the current trend is to leave a single space after a period. This feels completely unnatural to me. I’m not that old, but I did learn to type on a typewriter where two spaces following a period was the status quo. Some even pointed out that web browsers only render a single space unless specifically told to do otherwise. It’s going to take me some getting used to this concept.

Writing

The current WIP is complete, coming in a few hundred words over where I wanted to be. Doing some chopping and revising before the workshop. I have another story in my head that I want to get started on, so the sooner I finish the current WIP the better.

CSSF SF Writers Workshop

Two weeks from today I’ll be loading the truck and driving down to Kansas for the workshop. I’m frantically finishing edits for the remaining two stories that I need to submit. Need to finish all the clerical details, plan my route, etc. I do plan on blogging regularly from the workshop. I don’t know if any of my classmates will be blogging but I will post links if I have them. So far I have only talked to one other attendee, who I will be sharing a room with.

I finished the final revisions I had for “Recycled Dreams” on Tuesday. It feels particularly good because this is the first story I’ve taken as far as I feel I can. There are always bits that I can tweak but the story I want to tell is all there, for better or worse. I’ve sent it off to James Gunn for his workshop. He is being awarded the title of Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master this weekend at the Nebula Awards in New York City so I don’t expect any word this week.

I’ve managed to write every day this month except today. Work was particularly hairy today. I didn’t finish until a few minutes ago. I have been working through the details of a new story, which I’ll begin writing tomorrow. I also need to write a cover letter and send my application off to Viable Paradise. That should happen this week as well.

I’ve always worked better when I set goals for myself. I do that for the “day” job and writing should be no different. There’s more to it than just saying, “Self, do this by Friday or else!” I need to make sure that my working habits are healthy. Random internet research says that it takes roughly three weeks to form a new habit. I have begun setting aside consistent time to write every day. One hour at lunch, ignoring telephone, email, and instant message. That doesn’t mean I’m limiting myself to an hour/day. I’m just ensuring that I write for at least that long. This was day two and the progress is wonderful. I’m half-way through revising “Recycled Dreams”.

Workshops:

I’ve decided to apply to two other workshops this year. James Gunn’s SF Workshop is a two-week workshop held in Lawrence, KS, June 25th through July 5th. Immediately following the workshop is the Campbell Conference and Heinlein Centennial. I was talking to Dena about going to that anyways. Heinlein is my favorite author.

The second is Viable Paradise, a one-week workshop held September 30th through October 5th on Martha’s Vineyard. I’ve spoken with two of the Semi-Os who have been to VP and both of them highly recommend it.

There is a catch with the workshops. In order to get the most out of them and not waste the instructors time, the stories I submit should not be in circulation anywhere else. So until they have been rejected or through the workshops, I won’t be sending them out elsewhere. I think the benefit of going through the workshops far outweighs sitting in a slush pile somewhere. I want them to be the best I can do before I send them into the wild.

Goals for May:

• Write every day
• Finish revisions of “Recycled Dreams” and “Narang” (and find new title for the latter)
• Complete first draft of new story
• Apply to Viable Paradise and the James Gunn’s SF Workshop