Antisocial Media?

One of the downsides to social media is the frequency with which I am called an idiot, or unintelligent, or worse. Nobody has said this directly to my face, although I'm sure there are some who believe it.

For some reason, people say things on the internet they wouldn't say in public or in a face to face setting. Recently I've seen an increase in the number of people posting political, philosophical, religious, anti-religious and even comments about music, literature and movies which include a comment about the intelligence of anyone who disagrees with the poster.

No, I'm not unintelligent if my political beliefs don't align with yours, or if I disagree with certain policies promoted by a political faction, or if I don't think a particular artist or movie is the greatest ever.

I have my own beliefs, as does everyone, and they are a construct based on my experience, my upbringing, my cultural background, my employment, and my age amid a range of other factors. I choose not to promote most of them, or even discuss them in public. But I try not to presume that those who differ are idiots, or worse.

It's interesting, but I often find the people who shout 'tolerance' the loudest are the most intolerant of other points of view.

Drive, She Said.

My story, Drive, She Said, has just been published in Cover of Darkness, #12.

It was my first effort at writing when I decided to give it a go. (So Sad, The Lighthouse Keeper was my second attempt).

Drive, She Said went through several rewrites, of course, with the last couple being under the guidance of Paul Haines as part of the AHWA mentor program. We both had hopes for this beast, so I'm thrilled it has finally been released.

And, you have to love the advertising blurb - especially when it includes the words "features", "supernatural horror", "Australia" and "Steve Cameron."

At Cover of Darkness, as many of you have already discovered, we do the Dark Side right.  If you’re quiet while you read, you can actually hear your hair rustling as it tries to stand on end.  This issue features “Shut-In” by William C. Rasmussen; “Posey,” by Mark Walsh, and the supernatural horror “Drive, She Said,” by Australia’s Steve Cameron [don't worry, we turned the words right-side up].

Out of interest, the sequel to this story, If You Give This Girl A Ride, was published a few months ago in Cover of Darkness, #11.  Does that mean Drive, She Said is now a prequel?

Fishing.

I landed a few fish this weekend.

I've used the fishing analogy for writing a few times now, and I think it generally holds true. This time, however, I mean actual fish. A couple of Australian Sea Salmon, and some smaller flathead which I threw back in.

I hadn't taken my rods and reels with me for the weekend trip, but once I was down there I decided I wanted to fish. I bought a small hand reel and bait, and stood on the small jetty for a few hours and chatted casually with the others that fished nearby.

Makes me want to go fishing more often. My wife dropped down to see me at the jetty and told me how relaxed I seemed.

The salmon we later pan-fried in butter, and they were delicious.

As for my metaphoric fishing lines? No new bites there. Sigh. The editors make me wait.

Some Activity.

A couple of rejections popped into my inbox this week. I originally had high hopes for these stories with these particular markets, but as time went on I had a feeling they were going to be rejected. At least they were personal rejections which means they were close. Real close.

Oh well.

These ones didn't hurt at all. I'll give them the once over and send them back out on their merry way. It's been quite a while since I've had a rejection that hurts. And the last one that did still aches from time to time. The wound is scratched open - especially when I see the cover image online or on my shelf, and wonder why my story didn't fit. I still think it would have been a great match.

There are others out there in the wildwoods, and a few deadlines fast approaching. Hopefully I'll have good news next time I post.

Fingers crossed.

Vale: Neil Armstrong.

One day, when I was six years old, the entire school was herded into a large room where we sat and watched grainy images on a regular sized TV as Neil Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface for the very first time. It's still one of the few memories I have from that particular school. It was cool and exciting to think that man had walked on the moon.

From all accounts, Neil was a nerdy engineer who was calm and logical. A quiet, private gentleman who wanted none of the hoopla that surrounded the event. (Apparently that was the main reason he was selected over Buzz Aldrin to be first.)

A couple of years ago I read a wonderful book about the twelve astronauts who'd been on the moon. Moondust, by Andrew Smith, looks at the men, and how their lives were affected by having walked on the moon. Lyrical and poetic and engaging, I still highly recommend the book.

Armstrong, reclusive and private, rarely gave interviews or spoke to the media. For this book, however, he consented and spoke with the author.

In a moment of unusual frankness, Neil Armstrong once recalled standing on the Moon and noticing he could blot out the Earth with his thumb. Did that make him feel really big, he was asked? 'No,' the great astronaut replied. 'It made me feel really, really small.'

We haven't been back to the moon since 1972. As Smith says:

'Of over 400 people who have now into space, only 27 have ever left Earth orbit and seen her from the perspective of Deep Space - all American and all between the Christmases of 1968 and 1972.'

And only twelve have walked on it. Perhaps it's time we went back. With current technology, and people on the surface, one can only imagine the possibilities.

As for Neil, he's now taken a bigger step into the unknown. Have a safe journey. Thank you for the inspiration and dreams.

Four For Four.

Where has this year gone? It's zooming past, and seems to be getting faster. We're almost through August, and there are only four months left in 2012.

And in those four months I have four stories coming out - one per month.

Four for four. You've got to love alliteration.

Bread And Butter.

Way back in the early 90s, while teaching English in Japan, I bought a couple of grammar books to help me along. I wasn't qualified to teach English (or anything else for that matter) and was unsure of a lot of the terminology.

One of the books I bought, Elements of Style (Strunk & White) continues to rear its head. Jack Dann in his workshop repeated "Strunk and White"  almost as often as "Show, don't tell." They were virtually mantras by the time we were done.

Since the 90s I have updated my edition of this book, and re-read it from time to time. I've also completed a couple of degrees in English and English Education, and ended up teaching conversation and grammar in Japan for around six years. I've also taught high school English for 8 years now.  I'm reasonably confident in my grammar, and I tend to write very clean copy.

I recently stumbled across a blog by a "writer" lamenting a lack of success and sales. Unfortunately his ramblings were almost undecipherable. Sentences were incomplete, punctuation was missing, words were misspelled. Whole sections of the post made absolutely no sense whatsoever.

Surprisingly, this writer claimed some publication credits. I didn't follow through on checking them out, and I'd never heard of any of the markets, so I'd question the status of said credits. Of course, I haven't read any of his stories either. Perhaps he's a brilliant ideas man, who has an amazing editor who pulls it all together.

I suspect not.

Strunk and White. Strunk and White. Strunk and White. Om Mani Padme Hum.

Grammar is a writer's bread and butter. It's the foundation, the basics. Typos and spelling mistakes can be forgiven, and that's what spellcheckers and beta-readers are for. But tense changes and no sentence structure? That's not on.