A House Divided

I'm trying to complete rewrites on my Science In My Fiction entry. I am also trying to keep little Mowgli under some control or at least observation. He's determined to crawl after the dogs, the cat, and any fancy that strikes him. I'm determined to produce a good story.

The story, however, is nearly as recalcitrant as the baby. Half of it is now in past tense, half in present, with switches in mid-paragraph. Since new sentences tend to be in present, I'm trying out the whole story that way; if it stinks, I'll try all-past. Plotwise, it's almost where I want it but I can't seem to see what it needs when the file is open, only when it is closed -- and then when I look for where to put the new bits, there's no such place.

The story is also supposed to have links to new scientific events which have inspired it. There are plenty of those, as I am something of a science nerd, but the roots go deeper than that. When I was eight, I was torn between becoming a veterinarian or a meteorologist (yes, always something of a science nerd). Or, of course, maybe a writer. This story has some of both of those, back when I was blissfully unaware of all the dreadful things vets sometimes have to do, back when climate change was a rumor instead of something every yahoo what's had a drop of rain fall on his head has an opinion about. At least when someone ventures an opinion on some story of mine, I can be confident they've probably read some other ones by other people as well.

Maybe that's why this story is turning out to be difficult. It requires research, but most of my stories either require it or come from it spontaneously. It's in a new voice, but what fun is a story in the same old one? But it also comes more from my own past and present than most, and is at the same time about the end of the world. This is a most uncomfortable literary apocalypse, then.

But enough grumbling. I must go recover the baby from the next room before he does something dreadful.

Testing -- Facebook link

I'm also trying to get more people into the Travelers' Tales group, so if you want to follow my latest writing and publishing news, please join!

Chasing the Baby

On The Move

The baby is teething, crawling, kneeling, sitting, and doing his darnedest in the standing and walking departments. He's eight and a half months old, mind you, and I keep telling him there's no hurry. He disagrees. What he's not doing much of is sleeping.

In the course of writing that last paragraph, I pulled him out of a corner, sent him after a push-and-go toy, and...

and recovered a stray kibble of dog food from his grabby little fingers. It's no wonder I'm not posting much! Anyway, in the near-ish future, look for announcements regarding an online buddy's book, a review of my camera, and other such news.

Meanwhile, though, I will announce my own book, or rather ebook. Half-Sick of Shadows is now out at Shadowfire Press. I feel odd calling an ebook publisher a "Press," as nothing is pressed except perhaps time.