Beetle What?

My artwork made the cover of Digital Dragon Magazine! Woot!



Hop on over and give 'em a read--there are always great stories in this magazine (hence my excitement over making their cover!). Seriously, now. If ya read the story I posted about last time, ya know what's good for ya ;). Digital Dragon Magazine--CLICK.

Hoppy Birthday

Today I turn 40. I should have something really profound to say. Some deep piece of advice, some nugget of wisdom....

But I feel just like I did yesterday.

Yes, there are balloons all over my house right now--my husband surprised me by decorating our kitchen and living room, including two "over the hill" balloons tied to my office chair :P. Yes, I got to open gifts this morning--including tickets to Blue Man Group (yay!) from my husband, a hand-made felt pillow from my son--heart-shaped and with "I love you" written on the front with permanent marker--and a sweet card made by my daughter.

But I feel like the same me.

So, without further ado, I give you my latest published work that shows just how twisted "me" is. CLICK.

It's Been a While, So Let's Review a Book....

I haven't reviewed a book in a while, so I'd like to post about something I just got finished reading: Incarceron by Catherine Fisher. I loved this book. It is so unique, so original.

Incarceron is a high-tech prison--and an experiment. Take the dregs of society, lock them in, and use them to create a utopia. A flawless plan, right? The problem is it doesn't take into consideration human nature...or the possibility of the prison becoming self-aware.

None can enter and none can leave.

Then why does Finn feel certain he is from Outside? And if he is, how can he return?

On the Outside is Claudia, the daughter of Incarceron's warden, who is trying to escape her own prison--an arranged marriage. When she and Finn each find matching crystal keys, will Escape finally come?

I found this book completely amazing. Right up there with The Hunger Games. At least. Mind-numbingly cool.

What kind of ketchup bottle are you?

An odd analogy occurred to me today, and I felt the need to share it. Maybe it will bring a smile to your face...or a roll to your eyes. Anyway, here goes:

Writing is like pouring ketchup.

There are three ways, in general, to get ketchup out of a bottle--the old-fashioned kind, not the squeezie :P.

First, what I'm going to call the "pop and glop." Some people have this knack of being able to flip a ketchup bottle over, give it one well-aimed pop, and a perfectly-sized glop of ketchup comes out. There are writers who have mastered this method for their writing. They sit down each day--most likely always at the same time--and write for X number of hours, or pound out X number of words. This is great for disciplined writers who can through force of will or nature get into the zone.
This is not me.

Second, there are those that set the bottle upside down after they pull it out of the fridge, and leave it on the table until all the ketchup has run "down" to the "top." Then they carefully open the lid and pour. This is great for patient writers who ruminate on their work, "writing" it in their mind and then just heading to the computer to put the already formed work on paper.
This is...sometimes...me.

Third, there are the people who grab the bottle, bang on the bottom over and over with nothing coming out, and then--either by the natural force of gravity--or through a fit of frustration and a knife crammed into the bottle's neck--a ginormous gush of ketchup floods out all over everything. This kind of writer sits at his/her desk, banging his/her head, wishing they were a "pop and glop" writer or a patient up-side-downer. They spend day after day thinking they're deluding themselves, that they're not a real writer, and the darn ketchup is NEVER going to come out--and then...glug, glug, glug...massive amounts of messy creativity come gushing forth.
This is...most of the time...me.

How about you?

"The Artist" in Print!!!

My short story "The Artist" can be found in the pages of Beyond Centauri's July 2010 issue. Beyond Centauri is a "magazine of fantasy, science fiction, and ewww-gross for younger readers [for readers of all ages], published quarterly on the 1st day of January, April, July, and October. Beyond Centauri publishes short stories, poems, illustrations, puzzles, articles, and movie reviews."



"The Artist" is a story that was originally published online in Mindflights, which has recently closed it's doors. I am thrilled to see the story getting a second chance, and in a print magazine! It's a supplement to Finding Angel--a bit of back story about one of the characters.

To order a copy of the July issue, or a full subscription to Beyond Centauri, click here.

And here is the full line-up you can find in this issue:

Issue 29
Stories
Larry Hodges: The Meteor Always Strikes Once
Barbara Bockman: Area 29
Patty Jansen: From the Parrot's Mouth
Anne Culbreath Watkins: The Dream-Reader
John Bushore: Two For A Dollar
Kat Heckenbach: The Artist
Kate Runnels: Kotoko's Dream
BJ Blanks: Cob And Lobbers
Simon Hardy Butler: The Treasure of the Chickadees
Jessie Peacock: Watercolored Different
Debby Feo: Star Struck
Pamela Love: Something In The Wood
Flash Fiction
Larry Hodges: Patsy At The Snake Show
Poems
Elizabeth Penrose: The Land of the Golden Purse
C. William Hinderliter: scifaiku
M. Grant Reed: Cosmic Wonder
Debby Feo: Hidden In Plain Sight
C. William Hinderliter: scifaiku
K. S. Hardy: The Monk
Guy Belleranti: Rapid Reader
Ruth Naylor: What Might Force?
K. S. Hardy: Funeral For The Dryads
K. S. Hardy: Moon Miracle
K. S. Hardy: Robot Butterflies
Keith Sikora: Solere
Features
Adonis Emir: Tales From Behind The Wall
Tyree Campbell: Pyra and the Tektites [Part 4]
Illustrations
Dominic Ortega: Awakened
7ARS: Two for a Dollar
Richard H. Fay: Tree-Climbing Crimbolain
Lillian Kopaska-Merkel: fairy companionship
Marge Simon: Penaggalar
Cathy Buburuz: Solere

I've been reading a lot of blog posts lately by some of the teens who follow my blog. A common thread seems to be tying them together. Several of these amazing young women have been posting about their struggles with keeping Christ first in their lives, and seeing themselves as worthy of God's love.

Happily, they are realizing at a young age that God's grace is what makes them worthy, and they are accepting that grace and letting go of those fears and self-doubts. Some of their stories have brought tears to my eyes. I've wanted to leave comments for them, but I can't seem to grasp the right words.

So, here, let me make an attempt.

I am proud of you. I am amazed by you. I wish I had stuck to my faith when I was your age. I let anger take over, and doubt, and rejection. And those things are so hard to get rid of once you have let them take root in your life. So continue, as you are, to rip them out NOW.

I'm not going to say it's easy, because it's not. Some days it's going to feel down-right impossible. You may spend days, weeks, years, feeling like you're taking one step forward and two steps back. But do NOT ever stop taking those forward steps.

And thank you. Thank you for being honest and opening up to your friends and fellow bloggers, and showing each other that you...we...are not alone. That we all struggle. Thank you for not donning the plastic mask of Christianity. You are lucky to have each other, and I am lucky to have you.

Catching Up and Other Suchness

(Yes, I'm making up words for my post title.)

Another "lots of little stuff" post today. Looks like July is going to be slammin' for me. Coming next month:

"Frog Face"--a short story in Flashes in the Dark on July 13

"Fire Wall"--a short story in The Absent Willow Review on July 16

"The Artist" (originally in Mindflights) will appear in the print magazine Beyond Centauri

A drawing of mine will grace the cover of Digital Dragon Magazine

Caprice Hokstad's book, The Duke's Handmaid, will officially release. A couple of final tweaks have been made on the cover, including changing the tilt on the key I drew to make it more easy to see. Here's the final cover:



The publisher has also decided to use the key as part of the chapter headings, and a tiny version for scene breaks. How cool is that?

Speaking of book covers, I've come up with another design for Finding Angel. I'm not posting it quite yet, though. I appreciate all the comments on the other one, both positive and negative, and am taking all of it in while I do more designs. I have to say that the comment Jeff Chapman added today is the one that has hit the mark for me. He said a book cover can't possible convey an entire story, or the cover easily becomes cluttered. It must be eye-catching, though, and intrigue the potential reader. I agree with that 100%. Of course, it should be significant to the story--a space ship, no matter how cool, does not belong on the cover of a fantasy that has not one space ship in it. But since the elements I included on my original cover design are in fact quite significant to the story, I've kept them, but I'm working on making the overall image more cohesive and eye-catching.

And last, but not least, another NOTEBOOK NUGGET. Well, actually, two.

The first is a Bible verse that I really, really need to keep in mind these days:

"You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:13

The other, a fortune:

"A truly creative person rids him or herself of all self-imposed limitations." The key word there, of course, is self-imposed.

Seek Him with all your heart, and stop holding yourself back from your full potential. It may not seem that way at first, but if you think about it you'll see that these two ideas are inextricably tied together.