write, damn it

I'm sitting in the recliner in my office (See? Man in a woman's body.) with my knee up on ice. I walked around the mall today and it hurts again. Not as bad as it did; not good enough to ride. I keep telling myself it's only Monday. But then, that argument won't work very well on friggin' Thursday.

About the mall, and this amused me, I wore old inside-out sweats. I figured I'd run into someone I know, I always do, and so I usually try to dress half-way decently. But since the "injury" I've really felt like wearing sweats and tennies, what with all the ice-on, ice-off action. I'm reasonably sure I matched, kind of, and I don't think I had any stains beyond a bunch of dog hair.

And I got more looks from guys today than in, like, forever. Was it the minor limp? The flat hair? The worn off makeup? The two squabbling kids? I dunno, but I think I'll dress down more often.

There's been a lot of talk lately about #queryfail on Twitter. For those of you not in the loop, it's where agents Twittered lines from queries that caused them to say no. I won't get into the debate except to say that I do believe Colleen Lindsay and the others meant well by it. I also understand how some folks took offense. But come on. Stop whining.

I have my share of disappointments. I might like writing queries; I pretty well suck at sending them out. And it's cuz of the rejection, of course. I've gotten three short story rejections in the past two days. That' s par for me on a weekly basis. But I also sent out those three stories again, got the contract details for one of my stories coming out in Sinister Tales, and took a call from my writing partner. I want a major book deal so badly I can taste it, but I also find a lot of joy in writing short fiction, in editing Electric Spec, in writing non-fic, in planning workshops for conferences and toying with ideas for new novels and stories. Right now I have eight stories in circulation, one novel with agents, I'm cleaning up another novel for resubmission, working hard on The Silver Scar first draft, and I'm contracted to write two novellas--one of which should be drafted by Friday. Hell, late last year I even rewrote the help text for an Internet app.

Ironic as this statement is--coming from me and given my topic-- whinging on about unprofessionalism on the Internet is, well, unprofessional. Real writers have opinions, even "strongly disagree" pretty often with others in the industry. But real writers are usually too busy writng to bother expressing them.