Category: Jim’s Blog

Still waiting to hear from Fox Literary on the Query letter, so I’ll likely call it a loss this week and proceed on with other agencies.  One must keep the flow going.

I’ve recently attended a writers retreat where I wrote a short story titled “Famish” with the log line:  “A starving man in a glass prison struggles to escape and to recall why he was incarcerated.  I submitted it to the annual Writers Digest short story contest.  I’ll hope to hear something from them in a few months.

My wife and I attended the Zombie Walk in Benson this weekend.  Very creative and demented people in that.  Strangely, I saw more “Where’s Waldo?” zombies than pregnant zombies, who are usually to Zombie Walks what Stormtroopers are to Comicons.  I also finally got around to watching the first two episodes of Walking Dead.  Well-acted and gory stuff.  Especially the fate of Rick Grimes’s commandeered horse.  Blech!  But still most compelling.  Between that and Breaking Bad’s finale with Gus and Walt’s “Face Off”, AMC is getting to be my favorite place for dramas.

Back to the Bloody Empress now.  I’m about 1/3 to 1/2 of the way through this draft.  I’m liking the character interactions as I go.  Also enjoying setting up the doomed city of Lan Porthica.

More to come in later entries.

-Jim

I had a great time at the Fall Fiction Festival at the Ralston Library this afternoon.  Reading one’s work out loud is a great way to find holes in a scene.  I practiced reading it a few times with my wife, and found some places in need of tweaking.

We really have a talented group of people in the Nebraska Writers Workshop.  In addition to Repenter, we heard tales of biblical sadists, inept donut-store robbers, sympathetic western women of ill repute, fifteen-year old saviors, Hawaiian shirt-wearing vampires, and more.

Good exposure for the group as a whole, and each of us as writers.

Breaking news.  Or at least kind of bending news.

I will be reading at the Hollis and Helen Baright Public Library in Ralston, NE this Sunday 9/18/11 sometime between 2 and 4 pm.  I’ll be reading the first chapter of Repenter.  Other members of the Nebraska Writers Workshop will also be reading from their novels or short stories.  Come on out and celebrate the spinning of yarns.

In other news, I have Repenter tweaked up, and am submitting it to Fox Literary.  We shall see where that goes.  Well, it goes through the internet and its shadowy servers of uncertain security.  Or it goes with so if you’re misquoting Kurt Vonnegut.  In any event, momentum builds, worlds rise, and hope springs eternal in this little corner of cyberness.

Later gators.

-Jim

I had a great time at Contagion Outbreak.  I got to see Escape Velocity in print.  This website was also displayed next to my name.  So hello to any newcomers.  I’m very happy you came out to this neck of the web!

My wife and I witnessed a unique kung-fu demonstration, saw all manner of cos-players, and attended a few panels too.  One panel was hosted by some comic book arists who talked about the ins and outs of the comic book business.  Comic books also face the same upheaval of the digital revolution.  Greg Hall also had an informative panel regarding submissions of stories for writers.  We had to duck out early, but what we saw was most informative.  All in all, twas a pretty fun time!

I received a rejection from Angry Robot, but it had some useful feedback concerning adding a little more context in the early parts of my Repenter manuscript.  I’ll be taking a closer look at the “who’s” and “where’s” in the earlier chapters to improve the story.  I’ll be submitting it out to literary agents and cautiously exploring electronic publication in the future.  More to come!

My 600 word short story, “Escape Velocity”, will be appearing in the program for the Contagion Outbreak convention.  The story tells the tale of two former enemies who must vacate a dying planet within 90 seconds.  The show runs from June 10-12 at the Omaha Qwest Center.  Here’s a link to their site: http://www.contagionoutbreak.com/.  Most exciting stuff!

If you have a free moment that weekend, go on a quest to the Qwest and get your geek on!

I swear I be better about updating this thing.  In the weeks since the last entry, I’ve learned the value of short hand writing out the chapters major beats in sloppy cursive on a legal pad.  It helps get the words out if no one can read them but me, and then craft them on a word cruncher.  On page 65 of the second novel, currently titled, “The Bloody Empress”.  Gotta get back to it.  Stay chocolatey.

-Jim McGowan

Hey, all.  Sorry for the delay from the last entry.  I’ve since submitted to Angry Robot in March as part of their open door month, so we’ll see where that goes.  Hard at work on the Bloody Empress right now.

Also I’ve attended the Nebraska Writer’s Guild Spring Conference this weekend.  It’s the best one I’ve attended in my three years with the group.  First off, we were on the top floor this time around.  Windows are a big  step up from the lower level “dungeon” from the past years.  Three very good presenters presented us with all kinds of good information. Mary Colgan with Chronicle Books” showed us a soup to nuts presentation of a manuscript’s journey from the slush pile to publication.  “Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site was a very cute book that would be great for little boys in anyone’s life.  Terry Burns had treasure troves of info with agents, including how to submit and pitch to them.  I bought his book, “A Writer’s Survival Guide to Getting Published”.  A very well done book.  Alex Cava, best-selling author of the Maggie O’Dell series, then presented on the pitfalls of publishing and staying true to yourself as a writer.  Her later workshop contained some really eye-opening commentary on publishing against the backdrop of e books and publisher deals.

A great and informative time.  I was originally going to skip the Sunday portion, but I think I’ll show up for it after all.  That’s all for now.  Keep on keepin’ on.

I have a working draft for my one-sentence description, my character profiles, synopsis, and inspiration.  I’m also working on the first few chapters of “The Bloody Empress”, the sequel to Repenter.  Now it’s time to make the donuts.

Howdy, one and all!

We are live at Stelfire.  I’m Jim McGowan (James to my eventual novel covers), and I’m here to write stuff and eat gummi bears.  And I’m all out of gummi bears.  Silly “They Live” homages aside, I’m really excited to continue the journey to publication.  I hope to find many readers along the way.  REPENTER is the first in my series of novels depicting Ashe Stelfire.  First up is REPENTER.  It depicts his struggle against his former lover, Nirva Silv, the craft Corsis, and the A Pox, a disease that makes disturbing conversation with you as it rots away your body.

The road to publication begins with a submission to Angry Robot Books.  They currently have an open door during the month of March.  I’ll be submitting to them in the next week or two, and we’ll see where it goes from there.

Please feel free to look around the site, register and post on the message board.  A moderator will need to approve you initially, but you’ll be good to go after that.  Please feel free to also take the “Interested in Reading Repenter?” survey on the Home page after looking over the site’s content.

And if you have any friends who are fans of epic fantasy that’s a little bit comic book event story, a little bit “Final Fantasy”, a little bit film noir, and a whole lot of awesome, please send them on over.

Keep on keepin’ on.

-Jim

After a few months of tweaking, this baby is about to go live.  The fuze is lit.  Awaiting the bang.