Writing is a Socially Acceptable Form of Schizophrenia

So, I received a really nice rejection from Andromeda today. I'm just glad that I made it to round three, but I'm still a little sad it didn't get chosen. The consensus from the other places that I submitted to seems to be that stories set in Hell are very unoriginal (even though one Andromeda reader commented that my piece was "genuinely funny") and the market is saturated with Hell stories.

Still, I'll get it back out to a couple other places on my list.

In other news, I have OMG SHINY NEW STORY brainworms, which are eating at my brainmeats. The idea's changed a bit from focusing on a genocidal alien cult, to something with many different scopes. The peacekeeping translators. The humans and their desperate bid for power. The main character's gen-engineered memory and her need to find her "brothers" and "sisters" with the same problem.

Mmmm...brainworms.

*brainmeats get eaten*

I went on a trip to visit at friend recently, and I had plenty of time to kill while sitting in the airport waiting to board the plane. Rightly, I decided it would be a good idea to get something writing related done.

I've had a character floating around in my head for the better part of two years. And at last she decided that, damnit, her story would be my next book.

She first popped up two years ago while I was sitting in Linguistics and I wrote down that words with -nym on the end means "name." My brain thought "Nym" sounded like a cool name. And who would have a name that means "name"?

Someone lacking an idenity.

Since she showed up during Linguistics...that would be her job. Translating alien languages.

Anyway, I wrote a bunch for the background of the plot, and several "candy bar" scenes, and the history for some of the important alien races.

I felt like I got something accomplished, a feeling that's been sorely lacking as I haven't been editing much or writing anything new that's sparked my interest.

Anyway, time to go back to work!