Belea Keeney

It appears that this book is finally making its appearance and on a full moon night. How apropos!

http://www.gravesidetales.com/store/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=5

Lycanthrope: The Beast Within press release:

Throughout history they have existed in folklore and nightmares…

By day they walk among us, hidden in plain sight. They are our neighbors and friends. But when the sun sets and the full moon rises, the beast within comes out…

And the hunt begins.

Grab a silver bullet and prepare yourself for 20 tales of animalistic terror crafted by authors from around the world. Travel across the ages and go beyond the myth to discover the horrific secrets of the werebeasts. See what lurks in the swamps of Florida; sprint across the rooftops of London in a deadly chase; follow an unfortunate soldier’s footsteps into the forests of Africa; find pity for a wounded soul who has yet to realize the full nature of his powers. These stories and others are ready to take you through a series of bone-snapping transformations that will make you howl for more.

From ancient cultures to the high-tech future, nowhere is safe from the shape-shifting bloodlust of The Beast Within. *** End promo

"Lure of the Wolf" is my contribution to this one, and I really enjoyed writing it. It's a tale of a librarian and the werewolf she finds living in her azaleas. Set is 2045, when the government manages the Vampiric Studies Institute and the Lycanthrope Commission, in an attempt to control some of the predator species that evolved after the wolves, big cats, and bears died off earlier in the century. A bit fanciful and, according to several of my beta readers, a bit romantic, "Lure of the Wolf" is now available.

Current Mood: tickled
Current Music: just the glistening of the full moon- heh heh heh

This is a hoot, an audio story that's now live:

http://sniplits.com/storiesforauthor.jsp?a=263

"The Tale of Trapper Tommy" is the story of a wildlife trapper who gets more than he bargained for when tromping around the swamps north of Tampa. Tommy is based on a real guy. Well, sort of. When I was living in my lil' cottage, I had squirrels in the attic, in the chimney, in the walls, and beneath the house. I called one of the wildlife relocation services, and they sent this kid out to the house, who was maybe, I dunno, twelve years old.

Okay, so not twelve, but a Very Young Man. (And kinda cute). The name on his business card was Thomas, but the Trapper Tommy moniker immediately jumped to my mind and stayed. And I used it.

Repeatedly.

To his dismay.

So, I took the name and wrote a story. "My" Tommy is older and wiser, but he finds something pretty creepy out in the woods. Something that scares even an old-timer like him. It was fun to write with a colloquial first-person POV; it's just so much fun to break the rules, ya know?+

Sniplits sells audio stories for just 88 cents. Seems like a bargain to me. I'm hoping the audio markets pick up as more and more folks get plugged in with iPods and whatnot.

And yes, I'm surviving Fay. I wish the bitch would just move on.

Current Location: apparently in the eye of the storm
Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: wind and rain

Okay, now I readily admit to not being techno-enhanced but I'm having an aggravating issue with this one document. It will lock up when I'm making a comment. Just locks up; I have to shut down through the Task Manager window and it does suck up the CPU to 100% once it locks. It only seems to happen with this one document which makes me think that the doc is corrupted in some way so how do I fix that?

Any advice appreciated! I've shut down Word about six times today already trying to get through this... I've been to the Microsoft site and browsed through the "support" articles there but nothing addresses this comments issue. It hasn't locked up any other time today and it's done it a couple times in the past but I can't recall if it was this same document.

:) I'm all ears!

The last few months I've been reading some wide perspectives on the State of Publishing today and some solutions that various people have suggested. It's made me stop and think about what I write, why I write, and if earning a living from writing fiction is feasible anymore. In just the past month, Haworth Press announced it's being sold off, its fiction division in limbo as of this writing; Triskelion officially declared bankruptcy, leaving its authors and readers out in the cold; Mardi Gras and Silk's Vault are in some similar turmoil right now; and a recent survey found that many Americans only read four books a year.

Cut here, 'cause this is gonna be long.
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Current Mood: pensive

Accomplished today:

For other people-
Worked on one of the book doctor projects. Slashed and hacked mostly. It seems to work better for me to swoop through a manuscript multiple times: the first pass to cut and move scenes as needed; the second to write new scenes and add to what’s already on the page; the third to smooth out transitions and whatnot. And the last for a final light copy edit. I find it easier to concentrate on one type of fix at a time. Otherwise, I’d worry that I might miss something.

Worked on the first pass at a proofreading job. It’s a rush job but I want to let some time pass before I sweep through it again and send it back.

For myself:
Got a lovely acceptance email from the Boundoff editors. They liked “Boxes” enough to take it for their podcast! (This was the story that got an honorable mention in the Creative Loafing short story contest). I’m very tickled.

Prepped “Cages” for submission to journal. I’ll mail that out tomorrow when I hit the road and go to the bookstore and the library.

I feel like I haven’t been home in weeks. Between Epicon, and having the day job down in Tampa since November, I’ve felt a little disoriented: living out of a suitcase most nights, but never really unpacking when I got home so I can pack up again Sunday night. Now that I’ll be home full-time, I’m going to be more productive.

I am. Really.

Current Location: home, home at last!
Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: XM jazz station

The energy is still there from the Eckerd workshop; I spent my lunch hour today getting more thoughts about Tanner on paper- how he got from Raiford to Bloomington; his nasty little scene with a bank manager after the ATM shuts him out of the system; and I even thought of schmoopy, romantic, dramatic ending. Thisbe and Jay both said my workshop story seemed like a segment of a longer work and the more I think about Tanner, the more I think I may want to write a novel about him.

Heh. Who knew? Maybe that expensive Criminology degree will pay off after all. Getting into his head will be a challenge but an irresistible one, I'm guessing.

A long weekend coming up and I'm going to make time to write more Tanner. Yeah, I've got editing projects to keep on too, so I'll have to manage my time well. I do well with days in and days out: running all my errands at once then staying in to work and write. Helps me focus.

The rest of the Writers in Paradise workshop was so worthwhile. Not only the critique from the faculty but the other students in our group were thoughtful and giving and had great suggestions. And having that writers energy all around was inspiring as well. For many of us dealing with the real world, it's hard to remember that some people do value intellectual work and achievement in writing and take creative work seriously.

Got three rejections this week: one from Zog's Notebook, two from StorySouth but one of those was "close, but not quite" with a helpful comment. Maybe the Tanner story will go there next.

Current Location: hotel room
Current Mood: determined
Current Music: Sopranos on A&E

All the good things that happen in a workshop are happening: on-target critique, lots in interaction with other writers, the creative atmosphere that comes from being with people who *understand* what the writing life is all about.

Thisbe Nissen is the workshop leader of the short story group I'm in and her process is so enormously helpful and supportive. First, someone reads a couple of pages of the story so that we can all get back into the piece and its world. Then we try to generate a concise sense of the story's "about-ness". Since different readers take away different things from a piece, it's instructive to hear what people may or may not be reading into a piece and what people completely gloss over or don't catch.

Third, Thisbe has people focus on the positives in the story. What really worked. A stellar piece of description or dialogue that rocks. It helps to establish that sense of trust, I think, for a writer to hear acknowledgment of what's been done right. If a writer hears that someone really "got" the good stuff, then it's easier to absorb the words about what didn't work.

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Current Mood: giddy

With today's unexpected acceptance of "Not to Forget" to Wordknot (http://www.wordknot.com/), I made my goal this year of 12 sales! This feels so good and reminds me not to set my goals too low for next year.

The podcast should be interesting. I've never listened to anyone else read my stories before and I suspect that I'll hear things I want to change. Which is fine; stories can evolve over time. This particular story is short, less than 2000 words, and I meant for a reader to read between the lines. I guess now a listener will have to listen hard:).

This, combined with an acceptance last week for an erotica piece to Fishnet, has made December a good writing month! Plus, I still have one story out to an invitation-only antho that I know will get a fair read from the editor so there's that one to hope for. Of course, there were rejections this month. Two from Glimmer Train, one from GUD, one from Greensboro Review.

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Current Location: sunset over Tampa Bay
Current Mood: excited
Current Music: seagulls cawing and waves

St. Leo University sponsored a "Celebration of the Story" yesterday with a series of panels, author readings, and talks by a variety of local authors. I was lucky enough to be on the panel about what to do with your story once you're done with it. It had a great mix of authors with lots of different experiences in the publishing world: self-published, POD, traditionally published novels and short stories.

Whether self-published or published by someone else, we all agreed that no one has more passion for their work than the author, and marketing and promotion are now a huge part of the sales equation. For Rita Cerisi, an author with three novels published by small and big presses, the idea is clearly distasteful. She wants to focus her time on writing, not selling. It's a tough position to be in these days because publishers won't sell your book for you anymore. The author has to do it. And here's why:

http://hollylisle.com/writingdiary2/index.php/2006/12/01/selling-to-the-net-or

It's always interesting to meet aspiring writers and hear their questions and concerns. I'm pretty straight up at panels; there's no need to hold back the truth. (Yesterday I told folks that at some point in time, they will have to go out and stick their hands up a cow's butt. Wait- it was an analogy!). As other writers have said before. "If you can be discouraged--you should be." Meaning, if what I say at a panel stops you from writing, then you shouldn't be a writer in the first place.

If you really want to do it, you'll barrel on, no matter what someone at a panel says, no matter what your family and friends say, no matter what. Because the only thing that should matter is the writing.

Current Mood: hopeful

I knew she'd been fighting breast cancer since the first writing class I took from her at USF back in 2002. And I knew she'd had a recurrence last year but still I wasn't ready when a writer friend emailed me this past week to let me know she died.

Judy Candis taught "How to Write Popular Fiction" as an adult education course for years. Her warmth and energy inspired me to finish my first novel; I left every class ready to go home and write, even at 9:30 at night! She was able to listen students' concerns, answer newbie questions, and teach by example various techniques for writing popular fiction. She didn't have much to say for litfic and I don't think it was a genre that appealed to her in any case.

Several of us from her Part 1 class met again in Part 2 and from there we formed a critique group. We helped one another write novels and short stories and essays and all because Judy had first urged us on.

What I learned from Judy, I need to pass on. To be helpful to new writers; to reach out to the shy and the unsure; and to be present for someone else when they need to talk.

She was inspiring.

Current Mood: melancholy

It's been a productive writing week for me!

Submission of two short stories to the Amazon Shorts program.

Submission of a short story to Crab Orchard Review. The editors were faculty at the Indiana University Writer's Workshop, which won't enhance my chances any, but they were certainly good teachers.

Submission of a book review to Vision.net. They accepted a previous review of "The Weekend Novelist" so it's a fair shot to sub this one for "Fiction First Aid".

Rejection from Aberrant Dreams magazine.

Rejection from Clarkesworld magazine- less than 3 hours, in fact. And with good criticism that makes me realize (sigh) that the damned story still needs an overhaul.

A tentative acceptance for the Country Boys anthology. I sent one reprint and one new story to Richard LaBonte. The new one I'd really written with his style in mind.

Invitation to participate in the St. Leo University "Celebrating the Story" panels to be held in December.

So, a slightly-busier-than-usual week when combined with a regular work schedule and Real Life. Plus, I'm waiting for the fall weather to mosey the hell down this way so I can get back to the barn and start riding again:).

Current Mood: pleased
Current Music: Movie: Knockaround Guys- great soundtrack!

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/08/23/Hillsborough/Loose_tiger_killed_at.shtml

This makes me sad.

Unfortunately, when a big cat escapes its cage, being killed is the typical ending. And they do escape more often than you might think. I keep an eye on this site: http://www.api4animals.org/popups/a3b_captive_feline_incidents.php When I visited Bloomington earlier this year, there were reports of some type of cougar/leopard/big cat being spotted on the east side of town. Possibly a "pet" that had escaped or that someone deliberately let loose.

At Lowry Park, my heart goes out to the zookeeper who let a door go unlocked; to the zoo director who felt he had to kill the animal; and most of all to the poor cat, who was probably only confused and frightened by all the hullabaloo, not realizing that people were terribly afraid of her. :(

It helps to remember, too, that zoo cats are not *handled* in the same way that some refuge big cats are. Handlers at Big Cat Rescue and the Exotic Feline Refuge do sometimes get in cages with the tigers and play with them. Sometimes. And only under supervision and only with cats they know well. Zoo cats aren't treated like that; you don't cuddle up with a wild cat who's only known cages its whole life. Calling her to come to her cage or putting a leash on her neck wasn't feasible.

I wrote The Man Who Played with Tigers about just such a scenario. (http://www.beleakeeney.com/tmw_tigers.htm) (All rights available). I was fascinated with the emotional push-pull of that situation--knowing that the animal was incredibly dangerous and yet wanting more than anything to keep him alive--and how a handler, who loved his tiger, had to face the possibility of killing it. Anyone who's ever had to euthanize a pet can relate. It's the right thing to do, but oh, how it hurts.

Current Mood: sad

Earlier this year, I applied for a Florida Artist Enhancement Grant. My goal is to attend the Writers in Paradise workshop (http://writersinparadise.eckerd.edu/index.php?f=events) in late January with the funding. I got an email yesterday from the grants funding office that they would be holding a conference call today to do the preliminary review of applications.

What a neat idea! It was a conference call arrangement and you could call in anytime and listen to the panelists look over apps and score them. I was number 72 out of 84 so I didn't call in until later in the time-frame and sure enough, got to listen to them "do me". One panelist asked me a question, I listened to them score my app, and they thanked me for joining in. It was quite a nice encounter.

Based on the average score I received and the app process, it looks as though my app will be moving into the secondary review, held in October, I believe. :) Squee!

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Current Mood: optimistic
Current Music: whatever's on the XM jazz channel

http://www.algonquin.com/catalog/?isbn=1565124995

I wish I were sophisticated enough about this stuff to put her cover here, but I ain't, so just click the link:).

Sara Gruen appeared last night at Tampa's Inkwood Books and charmed the bunch of us. She did it just right, IMO. A brief reading that was compelling and interesting (as opposed to 45 minutes of droning drabness), she had cute stories to tell about her process, and she answered questions with flair and a sense of humor.

Water for Elephants, from what I've read and heard, is a new path for Sara. Her previous books, Riding Lessons and Flying Changes, were both released as mass-market paperbacks. They were first-person POV women's fiction based in world of show jumping and that's what sold me on the books. (There may or may not be a third in the series; I'm not sure on this). WFE is new for Sara in that her POV character is a 90-ish year old man instead of a middle-aged mother. And it's released as a hardback, which means more sales when it goes to trade or MM paperback later. It'll be an interesting read.

Go see her when she comes to your town! http://www.algonquin.com/events/?event_var=author_events&author=Sara+Gruen
And buy the book.

Her website is: www.saragruen.com for more info.

The ever-helpful Miss Snark has warned writers about the "contest" here:
http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=8115089&postID=115336549165624875

Read the comments section as well. The Snarklings have dived in with further research, information and credibility questions regarding this scammish-looking scenario.

Proceed with caution.

A very interesting blog post about the new gather.com and Amazon shorts partnership.

http://www.susanflemming.com/myblog.htm?blogentryid=637926#topBox

Her July 13 post points out the giveaway required to folks entering the contest. Thought-provoking. Proceed with caution.

In sad news today, Barbaro, the beautiful colt who broke his leg during the Preakness, has taken a turn for the worse:

http://www.ntra.com/content.aspx?type=news&id=18897

This is such bad news, especially after he did so well after all his surgeries. He's only three! That's young, that's healthy, that *should* be enough to keep him going. It seemed he was healing up well and dealing with the surgeries well and dammit!

It may not be enough. Laminitis is a disease of the hoof that can be fatal. (It's why Secretariat was put down at the age of 17). Barbaro's case is due to his injury; the other leg can't sustain the weight of the horse and the infection develops.

I've been checking daily for updates on NTRA.com, half-nervous every time I logged on. Now a reason for nervousness and unease exists.

I'm so discouraged. A little hopeful... But mostly sad.

Current Mood: gloomy

http://www.kyhorsepark.com/

Wow, this is Disney World for horse geeks. I took a sedate trail ride on a horse appropriately name Tigger. Saw two shows of the “Best of Breeds” exhibition, visited with mares and new foals, got kissed by an 18-hand warmblood gelding who either really liked my blue hat or just thought I looked tasty.

The Hall of Champions is a must-see. The stallions there, one of whom is the thoroughbred champion Cigar, clearly believe that they are (still) Studly Hung-so-Well. They come out of their stalls, heads held high. They lean over the rope, literally pose for the visitors, and hold still for the cameras. And all just have the most “I am SUCH hotshit” ‘tude I’ve ever seen in a horse. Absolutely imperious, every one. Lotsa fun!

Lots of educational goodies, two wonderful museums, a trail ride, and hands-on with equines. Loved it, want to go back and Lexington is now competing with Savannah as the town I most want to live in someday.

http://www.exoticfelinerescuecenter.org/home.html

I visited this refuge in June, 2006 and it was thrilling and saddening and kinda creepy. (There's one segment of the tour where you're walking between cages about eight feet apart. One side has Very Interested Tigers in it, walking along with you; the other has Not As Interested Lions. Still extremely intimidating). So many of the cats' stories are dreadful.

This refuge is unusual for a few reasons. One: the cages didn’t have rope barriers in front of them. Now rope barriers don’t prevent a halfwit (or child for that matter), from walking up and sticking his/her hand in a cage but it’s psychological barrier for a visitor. You have a sense that you’re safe from behind the rope and the cats have the same sense, that strangers won’t be invading their homes.

So, in the section where I walked between cages with enormous predators stalking alongside me, I was viscerally reminded that I am so not the top of the food chain. For a few minutes there I was really wondering,” Did I take a wrong turn? Am I supposed to be back here? And what if one of these cages has a hole in it?” I’m tellin’ ya: majorly creepy.

Two: unlike other refuges (and zoos) where only perfect physical specimens are displayed, some of the damaged cats are on the tour. It’s sad to see an abused leopard, limping around his cage, his tail permanently kinked from injury. But dammit, it’s supposed to be sad. Though it might be disturbing to see, it’s the reality too many of these animals suffer.

If you're in Indiana, it’s well worth the visit and they are always glad to have visitors and donations. They are located about 45 minutes west of Bloomington, off State Road 46 west. And if you’d like to buy a gorgeous book about the center: http://www.exoticfelinerescuecenter.org/merchandise.html

The Indiana University Writer’s Workshop was four and a quarter days of panels, author interviews, workshops, and camaraderie with a diverse set of faculty, staff and students. Was it worthwhile for me to make the four-day, 1900-mile trip? Yes. Was meeting other students and spending time with them helpful? Definitely yes. Was it a hundred percent positive experience? No.

The diversity of the faculty was a big asset. Indian, African-American, male, female, gay, straight. A nice mixture that allowed for a diversity of voices from students. Dana Johnson gave a class on first-person POV and she brought a terrific handout with a wide variety of stories as examples. One line of hers with regard to writing dialect: “Ain’t ain’t enough!” You have to do more than sprinkle in a few grammatical errors to truly convince the reader with a vernacular voice. Good advice.

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