Tag Archives: Quill and Quire

July Goals And A Half-Year Check In On The Big Picture

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Here’s my latest monthly goals post:

So, how did I do in June?

  • Keep writing Thunder Road book 3. I’m not going to set a specific word count goal, I just want to keep up the forward progress and keep momentum rumbling. Okay, who am I kidding, I want to hit at least 50000 words in the manuscript by month end (which is not looking promising), which brings me to the next item:
  • Revamp my writing routine. There’s a good reason for this (besides getting my ass off Facebook and Twitter a bit more).
  • Polish the first short story I wrote in May. It’s set in the Thunder Road ‘verse and takes place just after the first book. No Ted in this story. I’m playing around with some minor characters. Who doesn’t like dwarf women kicking ass?
  • Finish drafting the second short story I started. Another one set in the Thunder Road ‘verse. I’ve written a story with this character before, and love the voice (Hopefully you’ll all be able to read that one soon! I’m waiting on the contract to make the announcement). These first 2000 words feel more like the beginning of a new novel, but I think I can make it work as a short story.

Not as good as I’d hoped, unfortunately. There are reasons for this. (*cough* EXCUSES! *cough* Ahem) I didn’t write for most of the first week on my new job. I had two book reviews (one for The Winnipeg Review, one for Quill and Quire) and an article for Prairie books NOW all show up close together, and with similar deadlines. My response to paying work is generally to say “yes” and then figure out how I’ll make the time later. For year’s it’s been these reviews and articles that have helped to pay for my out of town conference trips. I made an admirable run at my word count goal for the final book in the trilogy, hitting almost 47000 words, but that’s not 50000, is it? Sadly I didn’t even look at those two short stories. The big goal of revamping my writing has been working however, and while 500-700 words a day on my lunch break and another 300-400 on the bus ride home may not seem like much, that roughly 1000 words a day is considerably more than I was averaging before May.

So what’s on the deck for July?

How about everything left over from June, to start.

  • Keep writing Thunder Road Book 3: This time I’m aiming for at least 60000 words in the manuscript by month end.
  • Polish the first short story I wrote in May. It’s set in the Thunder Road ‘verse and takes place just after the first book. No Ted in this story. I’m playing around with some minor characters. Who doesn’t like dwarf women kicking ass?
  • Finish drafting the second short story I started. Another one set in the Thunder Road ‘verse. Another one without Ted. I’ve written a story with this character before, and love the voice (Hopefully you’ll all be able to read that one soon!). These first 2000 words feel more like the beginning of a new novel, but I think I can make it work as a short story.

And on the new side:

  • Write a short story for the Innsmouth Free Press “Wings” special issue.
  • I haven’t written any “Loki’s Guide to Norse Mythology” blog posts in a while. I have two on deck that I’ve been meaning to get to.
  • Attend the kick ass launch of ChiSeries Winnipeg Wednesday July 17th, at McNally Robinson. I am the co-organizer of this along with the Tiny Godzilla of Winnipeg’s YA scene (AKA the awesome and talented Samantha Beiko) and it’s been a long time coming, but we’re finally there! We’ll have readings from David Annandale, Andrew Davidson, and Sierra Dean.

I think I’m already veering into “unrealistic goal territory” as there is editorial work on Tombstone Blues to take into account, so I’m going to leave it there and see what happens in August. But since we’re half way through the year, I thought I’d also check in on those goals for 2013 that I posted back in January:

  • Finish Tombstone Blues
  • Start writing the as-yet nebulously titled book 3 in the Thunder Road Trilogy (I’m thinking this will be a good year to return to NaNoWriMo).
  • Attend at least one SF&F convention in a city that I’ve never been to.
  • Revise at least one of the three drafted novel manuscripts I’ve been letting lie fallow until it is in submission shape and then send it out.
  • Start a new writing project, just for the fun of it.

Still some work to do there, I see. I’m not terribly worried.

Tombstone Blues will be finished, I’m not worried about that, but I don’t feel I’m done writing a book until I’ve approved the final page proofs. So until then, I’m leaving it on the list. I’ve probably hit the two-thirds point of my discovery draft of Book 3. There will be lots more work once that’s done, but things are going well, and I’m way ahead of schedule on that project, as I’d only anticipated starting to draft in November.

I’d thought the convention would be an easy one, when I first made that goal, it was my intention to hit World Horror Con in New Orleans. That plan got a bit waylaid when I switched jobs, so I couldn’t make it. I will get to World Horror some day. And I will get to New Orleans too (maybe for the Romantic Times convention next year). I will be going to Can-Con in Ottawa in October. I’ve been to Ottawa, but not  to that convention… I’ll leave it up to readers to decide if I can count that one and strike it off my list.

I’ve revised one of my old manuscripts, it’s still nowhere near submission shape, but it’s probably next on the list once the draft of book three is done. It’ll be good to take a little break and let the draft breathe before I get back to it.

So that leaves starting a project just for the fun of it. Looks like that will be my project for NaNoWrimo this year.

Write on!

April Goals

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So not only did I not manage to post a list of goals for March, I also didn’t follow up with how I did in February. Time to remedy both of those things.

April Goals:

  • Finish the first draft of my current (and newly untitled–man I hate thinking of titles) urban fantasy Work in Progress.
  • Look at my short fiction not currently on submission and send those stories to new markets.
  • Finish my latest review for Quill and Quire
  • Finish my latest review for The Winnipeg Review
  • Finalize my soundtrack for as-yet-untitled book three of the Thunder Road Trilogy (The soundtrack is the first step of my novel writing process–its essentially my first rudimentary outline).
  • When I finish reading or watching something that I really like, say something about it here on the blog.

Some other things that are up for April, but don’t really count as goals include:

  • Talk to my high school English teacher’s Grade 11 and 12 classes. Mr. Samborski at Morden Collegiate was a huge influence on me when I was in school. He challenged me and encouraged my love of the written word, helping it become a desire to scribble down some of my own. (He’s also the reason why I prefer King Lear to Hamlet)
  • Attend C4 Lit Fest. Other author guests include: Kelley Armstrong, Samantha Beiko, Anita Daher, Sierra Dean, Susan Rocan, and Craig Russell.
  • Attend The Manitoba Book Awards to defend the honour of Thunder Road.
  • Have you nominated your favourite Canadian Speculative Fiction for the Prix Aurora Awards? I still haven’t finalized my lists, but I’ll have to soon, the deadline is April 15th.

Finally, for those without the benefit of long memories, here’s what I had wanted to accomplish back in February:

How’d I do? Not too bad, actually.

Only the Letter Month Challenge didn’t get seen through to completion. I did have fun with it, though, and will probably participate again next year. It was kind of a last minute addition to my activities this year, so I think if I plan ahead a little, I’ll do better next year. It was awesome to get real mail again. I can’t even recall the last time I received a letter in the post before I joined the Letter Month club (and come to think of it, I still owe someone a letter…).

Of the two stories I submitted, one has already been rejected, but that’s okay. I’m free to send it off somewhere else (as per this month’s goals).

Write on!

Reviewed And Interviewed

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I’ve been reviewing books for Quill and Quire since 2008. In fact, a Quill and Quire review was the first piece of writing I was ever paid for. As I was reading old issues of the magazine to get a handle on their style, a few reviews stood out to me, and still do, done by author/bookseller Robert J. Wiersema. So it was a thrill when I saw that he had reviewed Thunder Road (and even more of a thrill that he liked the book!).

Here’s an excerpt:

Ginther handles both the mythic and human aspects of Thunder Road with considerable skill… Thunder Road is a fast-paced, thoughtful novel, and news that it’s the first in a trilogy is welcome indeed.

I’ll post a link to the full article as soon as I have it.

In other news, kicking around bookstores, libraries and other places where the arts matter in Western Canada, you’ll find the Winter 2012 issue of Prairie books NOW (it’s free, and full of awesome prairie books, snag one if you can!) in which I am interviewed by the indomitable Perry Grosshans of THIN AIR fame (infamy?). This was actually the first interview I did as an author, so, another thrill.

Write on!

Another Sale!

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Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend. Good Friday got off to a great start as a woke up to a contract in my Inbox from Innsmouth Free Press for my Sword and Fungus (like Sword and Sorcery, but with mushrooms) yarn “First They Came for the Pigs”. I wrote the story on spec for the Fungi anthology edited by Orrin Grey and Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

“First They Came for the Pigs” will be lurking beneath this awesome cover by Oliver Wetter. Also cool: Molly Tanzer and Jesse Bullington–two amazing writers–co-wrote and sold a story for Fungi. I’m quite chuffed about sharing a Table of Contents with them. As soon as the editors release the complete TOC, I’ll be sure to post it here (I mean come on, that’s like the easiest blog post EVAR).

2012 is shaping up to be a pretty solid year so far; two short story sales (both succeeding first time out of the gate, I might add), four reviews for Quill and Quire and a number of other things down the pipe I can’t quite talk about yet. And of course, Thunder Road lands in the fall.

Quick Check In

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Eleven days since my last post?

So much for my one post per week, hell or high water plan…

Oh well.

I sold a story yesterday, so that’s good news. I’ll wait to give my avid couple of readers the details until the contract has been signed. I will say that I love the story (probably because this was it’s first sub, and it hasn’t accumulated any stink of failure) and am pretty chuffed. Can’t wait to see the little guy in print.

A couple of my reviews from the March 2012 issue of Quill and Quire are online now: The Hilary Davidson’s Next One to Fall and John McFetridge’s Tumblin’ Dice.

Enough to tide you over?

Great.

See you soon.

(I promise)