Carey Burns

The end of the semester nears, which means I will be working four 10-hour days soon (we close on Fridays for about 8 weeks).  The lovely 2 hours of writing/revision time I get each day will be gone and I'll be forced to either hole up during my lunch break or stay up later each night.  Decisions, decisions...  But at least I'll have Fridays to myself to write.  (cue the dirty dishes to wash, the laundry to fold, the floor to vacuum, the toilet to scrub...) Last week I screwed up enough courage to send out a totally fresh piece of flash fiction to a market and while I wait, I'm trying to work on another longer piece.  I say trying because the antihistamines are kicking the life out of me.  Yes, that lovely sun allergy has returned along with the pleasant weather.  After finishing the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure yesterday, hives broke out on my hands and face and scalp, etc and I got all swolley.  (yes, I know swolley isn't a word, ...

The sting of a rejection hurts.  I almost wish they left physical scars so we writers could compare past injuries.   I can see two crusty old writers belly up to a bar, exposing flesh.  "See that one?  Yep, got that when I subbed to Tor."  "That one?  pffft.  That's a scratch compared to this one I got from subbing to Cemetery Dance." Anywho, I got a big old sting last night and I pouted and whined and sulked more than I have over anything in a very long time.  I even coined a phrase:  fanken crappenstance.  (it felt right at the time, but now the meaning is elusive)  When I woke up this morning, I was ready to set all of my flash drives on fire and just walk away.  Honestly, I was.  But writing is a drug.  It is a lover.  It's a damn part of me and even if I did walk away I wouldn't get too far before scrounging for a pen and something to write on. We writers are a cursed group.  We're ga...

So, the last few weeks I have been working pretty much non-stop on my first collection of short stories,.  (pssst...it is called Hair Baby and Other Weird Tales  and I'm shooting for publication in June)  The table of contents is sorted out, the interior looks good, and there's just one last story that needs completion before I hand it to the beta readers.  From the moment I decided to self-publish a collection, I knew what I wanted the cover to look like and spent countless hours messing with a photo of my cat, Zoey.  She's a great gal, that Zoey, but her image isn't very dark nor disturbing.  I mean, look at that smile! So I tried making her white spots black and added red to her eyes, which just eneded badly, especially with that grin of hers.  Luckily, this weekend we were in Le Claire, Iowa and stumbled upon a shop with a dark, brooding black tomcat.  My hubby took a picture of that cat, and ba-dah-bing...it is now the cov...

I had my first author event at The Book Mouse over the weekend and had so much fun!  They have a chinchilla named Ernie and a big cat named Sunny that Jill, my illustrator, and I pestered all afternoon.  The staff was awesome and I sold a few books, so the day was a success!  I can't thank them enough for having us. This event was just the kick in the rump I've needed to get back into my bigger writing projects.  I think it will be fabulous to return to The Book Mouse with my very own collection of short stories, just in time for Halloween.  Perhaps Ernie won't hide from me next time?  

So, the dust layer on my bookshelves has gotten thick and I decided for my Spring Break (yeah!) I'm cleaning the office.  Scrap by scrap, book by book, I'm dusting and purging.  I'm a month shy of being 39 and I like to buy children's books, especially if they're about witches or have a horror element to them.  When I was a wee child, I had some really cool books (possibly from the Weekly Reader program?) and most of them now grace my bookshelves; yellowed, torn, stained, and written on.  As I dusted them, I realized:  this is where it all began for me!  These books in the photo especially.  I've read and re-read so many times.  I've traced the amazing drawings on these pages.  My style is so similar to these books, it is making me wonder...is this the writing path I should follow?  Should some my short stories really be turned into childrens books?  I mean, I've been told I'm "horror lite" so maybe I should aim my wo...

I've had training as a helpdesk person where I work and the first thing we always have to ask a caller is "Did you reboot?"  If the caller hasn't, we then ask them to do it.  This Techno Magic usually fixes whatever issue they are having and then the caller thanks us and goes about their merry way.  The last couple weeks, I've been struggling with my writing, revising, and life (in general) and yesterday, I determined that I too, need a reboot.  My boss gave me the go-ahead and here I sit, in my pajamas after the best night of sleep in a long (very long) time.  Today, I'm rebooting myself:  no looming To-Do lists...no self-imposed word counts or editing.   I've got my iTunes on shuffle and not skipping any songs.  I'm even going to nap.  Heck, I might even read for fun.  If you have deadlines or a cram-packed schedule or just a lot of crap on your plate, take some time to reboot yourself.  If you t...

Okay, so recently I posted about being brave and now I'm really walking the walk.  I've schedule an author/artist event at a local book store for the end of March and I'll be contacting the local newspaper for an interview regarding the event.  I am now an official member of The Horror Writers Associaton (at the affiliate level).  I decided to query several small presses to see if they would be interested in publishing my collection "Hair Baby and Other Weird Tales."  If they are not, I'll be self-publishing that.  Now, I challenge you to do something that scares you.  Write a story.  Send that story out to publishers.  Sing in front of a group.  Teach a class.  Skydive.  We spend too much time worrying about what will happen IF we do something.  Sure, we might get rejected or sing off-key or students may tie you up and lock you in a closet or your parachute might not open.  But wha...