Research

"Leave out the parts people skip."
-Elmore Leonard, quoted by Spacesuits and Sixguns

Encouraged by my two flash fiction acceptances, I spent a few hours today on http://duotrope.com looking up possible publishing markets. Right now I'm only looking at those which publish in print and accept e-submissions. I had to narrow it down somehow, duotrope has a massive listing, and that seemed logical.

I'm getting ready to go to the bar. Julia's bartending upstairs today (2:30-close) and she just called to see if I would bring her the newspaper because she's bored to tears. However, I told her about the story I was working on last week and she asked to read it. I finished the rough draft on Saturday and have a copy with me, so we'll see what she thinks. I'm a bit apprehensive, though, because she's mentioned a dislike for fantasy, which my story essentially is. Then again, the fantasy element is pretty light, so it might not be enough for her to dislike it. We'll see.

Last fall, when I took my pottery class, I had to get a sketch book to sketch the pottery pieces I made. As soon as the class ended, the sketch book fell abandoned, but now I'm using it again. I do have a few sketches in there, but mostly I'm using it for possible story notes and publishing markets notes. Here's an example of some of my possible story notes:

Idea: Marriage to a secret figure
-idol marriage
(Humor) Woman chats with a carved wooden hubby
(Humor-or-Horror) Woman has baby from idol hubby

Image: Natasha Wescoat tree with people buried beneath it
-twisty/fantastic branches

Idea: Exotic trees that can only be fertilized by corpses.