That’s it, 3rd draft of “IMPROPERLY PREPARED BLOWFISH” (née “Tsueno’s Slips”) is done, and it only needs a good, clear-headed proofread before it gets sent to Machine of Death. I’m not sure it’s exactly what they’re looking for, but what the hell. I can always cannibalize it if they don’t take it.
I’ve sent out a pretty radical redraft of “Cai and her Ten Thousand Husbands” (née “The Crystal Methuselah”), I’m not sure I’ve logged that yet here. The place I’ve sent it is probably a long shot, but I am proud of the story and decided to aim high.
Still to send out: “Ogallala” (which needs a final proofread, and I’m still casting about as to where to try first), .
Next up: Actually, I don’t know. I’m stalled on “A Killing in Burma” and “Chingu-ya!”, so I may get into a total rewrite of a pre-Clarion trunk story, the rewrite for which sort of oozed into my mind lately. It’s a Christmas story, meaning it’s violent, bloody, dark, and horrible. But kinda cool, and somewhat “New Weird”, so who knows. It might make a dent somewhere. The original title was “A Plea From Factory Unit 5”, but since this will be 3rd person, not epistolary form, I’ll need to stew up a new title while I’m busy compressing it and making it more visual.
Writing is going to go back onto hiatus for a bit, though, with a busy weekend ahead of me. Moving and meeting Lime’s dad all in a couple of days. Most of my crap is already at the new place, actually, but there is still some small stuff, and a few big pieces of furniture, left to move.