Carey Burns

I'm hopped up on sugar and the deliciousness of rum balls and my writer brain can't get itself together so today I've been surfing and goofing. Goody goody. The editor of Through the Eyes of the Undead sent me back my edits and I caught something we both missed so hooray for that. I'm very very very excited by this! Each step in this biz that is publishing is so amazing to me. From the moment when I take a deep breath and hit the send button to the hours-days-weeks-months it takes to hear back if they like what I sent to the edits and contracts and waiting until a real book appears...it is all magic. And I'm learning lots of things NOT to do as an author. As much as a negative review will probably gut me, I will not respond. I will not have a public meltdown. I will either A) ignore all reviews on Amazon and elsewhere or B) try to learn from any constructive criticism that floats my way or C) cry myself to sleep each night. Maybe D) all of the above, but wi...

The table of contents, or TOC as the fancy people call it, for the anthology The Zombist has been posted and my story is second, right behind Eric S. Brown! This is such a "wow!" moment! In other news.... After reflecting last night about how last year I was such a scared mess, I decided to write about it. Right about the moment I typed the phrase "consistent with ovarian carcinoma" the tears started to fall. I kind of hope that once I finish this tale, I might send it around to different women's magazines to see if they would run it. My tumors were not cancer, but the signs and symptoms I had are the warning signs for it. If more women are aware of what symptoms are indicative of ovarian cancer, they might ask their doctors to run lots of tests to see if that is what they have. Maybe some people can detect it early. Maybe...some people's lives might be saved.

Every time I send back a contract for my stories, I feel like it is all still just a dream. Last year at this time, I was terrified that I was going to die. I made a deal with myself to live life to the fullest, no matter what happened to me, and to stop being afraid. Thankfully, I'm fine and I've kept my promise to myself. Fifteen story acceptances, 1 second-place win, and countless rejections later, I'm a happy girl. Don't be afraid, live your life, smile as much as you can, don't just follow your dreams--outrun them!

What is the Taxonomy of Terror? It is my latest flash of genius that I have started working on. I will be writing a collection of horror stories where the "big bad" is something from the animal kingdom and I will split each section out by taxonomic classes or orders. I think it'll be neat. For example, my story-in-progress "Never Turn Your Back on a Chicago Rat" would be under the Rattus section and my story "Tarantula!" would be under the Arachnida section. Once I have amassed around 100K words, I will be editing the heck out of this beast and then I'll seek publication. Cross your fingers!

I got the fabulous news that my story "Goldfield Has Gone To Hell" has been accepted for the Library of the Living Dead Press Anthology The Zombist . On a sad note, "Frank Bodine's Hand" was passed on by yet another publisher. Someday I will get that story printed. My cold or whatever it is seems to be getting better, thank goodness. And, in ten short days I'll have a lovely break from work. Oh happy day!

I got my mini yesterday and the FedEx guy probably thought I looked like death warmed over when I signed for it. Ah well. I'm sick, what do people expect? I love the mini thus far. I charged the battery and shall be a writing fiend this weekend as long as my own energy holds up. It snowed a little bit last night, the light and fluffy dusting of flakes that I don't mind. Not the huge, sloppy flakes that drench you and soak the cuffs of your pants. Seems like the old Christmas list has expanded this year so I'm thinking of cutting back on the scale of gifts and getting people a nice little something or other. If it is thoughtful enough, that is what matters, right?

Well, I only got about 22K words written for my NaNo story, but I'm happy that I surpassed last year's word count. Kudos to me. I decided last night to seek out yet another potential home for my story "Frank Bodine's Hand" and now I wait to see if they like it or not. I sure do love torturing myself like this.... I've developed some sort of cold or flu or virus and I'm waving the white flag in defeat. I'm taking a sick day and I'm going to be a big whiny baby all day. Such plans!