Another bachelor weekend

Old What's her Face* decided to go to Nevada for a visit. She didn't make her mind up until last night. This is starting to shape up into a productive writing weekend. The question becomes one of whether I'm up to the task or not.

I've had a lot going on with promoting The Playground. I still have more to do, but at least I have some time to do it.

My daughter, She Who Cannot Stop Talking, took up most of my morning. She's been in kind of a funk lately, and it sounds like she's working her way out of it. That's kind of how life works, and I'm happy she is turning the corner. There isn't much I can do for her except listen. I'm a good listener.

I managed to get my wallpaper changed for the new month. It is kind of a science fiction piece with a nice vertical element. Most of the uber cool stuff goes behind the text window, but it's interesting enough to work. You still get some Chinese lanterns and such.

I got all my critique work printed out. I still have to work through it, but I have a couple of days.

I dedicated some of my time to exchanging emails about future Lisa Burton Radio shows. I also sent out a new questionnaire. The next couple are going to be really fun. (I promise.) I'm looking for more guests, so keep this in mind as one of your promotional stops.

The biggest unexpected benefit to me is collaborating with other authors on these posts. It's different than sending one of my posts off, or pasting something a guest provides. We have to work together to make these fun. I'm learning a lot, and expect to learn even more.

I'm appearing over at Helen Jones' blog today. We're having some good discussions about the importance of research in speculative fiction. Stop by and weigh in. What kind of strange research have you done?

I spent some portion of my day surfing through various social media. It's part of the job, and I'm not disappointed that social media seemed a bit quiet today. Still, someone say hi out there in cyberspace.

I bought and read a short story today, and it left me wanting. It just didn't deliver for me. There was nothing wrong with it, but everything in it felt like low hanging fruit. It was supposed to be a pulp adventure, and it was. It just needed a little something more from my point of view. A little bit more thought might have kept it from being so predictable. I'm not going to trash the guy, and I'm not returning the book. I understand how hard it is to write a good story. I'm not going to review it either.

This afternoon, I added 500 words to my own short story. Every story has some issues to work through, and this problem is interesting. It's a revisit to Jason Fogg, who first appeared in my Experimental Notebook. He's married now, and they're having financial issues. Good way to have readers relate, because we've all been through it.

I know exactly what I want to happen to he and Riley, and how they're going to come out at the other end. There are some interesting human elements to this one. The problem comes from having some detective job for him to meet these struggles and growth points. It really doesn't matter what it is, it just has to be interesting all on its own. It also has to provide that element of danger, and a twist of some kind.

I have something that might work, and the job isn't the point, the human element is. Still, something tells me a complete rewrite is in my future with this one after I get it hacked out. I want those who like the noir detective element to feel satisfied too. We're going to learn that Jason isn't invincible in this story and I'm excited about that.

I'm about to step it back for the day. I need to find out if Ichabod and Abby can save Sleepy Hollow yet again. After that, I'll surf through Helen's blog a few more times to play in the comment section. I may even watch a super hero movie tonight and drink a beer.

Come to Helen's site and say hi. Drop me an email about your character being on Lisa's radio show. Leave a comment here about your own plot struggles. (Hurry, before my daughter decides to talk my ears off again.)

* Entertaining Stories, protecting my wife's identity since 2013.