This is the sale that I previously mentioned that I made during my recent LiveJournal absence.  I'm rather thrilled with it as I love this story and it took me forever to sell, forever being roughly 4.5 years.  It always got good comments from the editors who chose to comment, but it just never seemed to fit anywhere.  Now maybe those editors who chose not to comment would've had less than flattering comments, but I'm just as happy not to know.  I'm not one of these writers that must know every thought that runs through an editor's head about my story.  I'm cool with the verdict of buy it or don't buy it.

The story's theme hits the theme of the anthology perfectly.  Over the Brink will contain science fiction and fantasy stories about environmental disaster, and this is perfect for "Take One With Water."  I originally wrote it as an apocalypse story.  I'd never written an "end of the world" story, so I did.  I chose to write that aliens had stolen our oceans.  Yes, you read right.  Our oceans. It's a bit hard to do I would imagine, but then I'm thinking with a human brain.  We don't have technology that can do that, but maybe aliens do.  It's hard to know since they've chosen to not yet reveal themselves or their technology to us.

I didn't take the story to the full, worldwide implications.  I stayed small and centered on one female soldier's journey through this disaster and her personal crisis of morality.  The story I wanted to tell was done in 2600 words, so it's indeed a short story.  As it turns out, OTB had an upper word count limit of 3000, so it worked out great in the end.

Now, a bit about Third Flatiron Publishing (http://www.thirdflatiron.com/liveSite/pages/home) since most of you have probably never heard of it.  This company belongs to Juliana Rew out of Boulder, Colorado.  She's a former science and technical writer for the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and has mentored minority and female college interns at NCAR on writing scientific papers.  She's obviously skilled in her field, and she's handled all of her dealings with me in a professional and classy manner.  I definitely plan to submit again.

TFP will publish digital speculative fiction anthologies, and there are three planned.  OTB release on June 1st, and while the other two don't have release dates, they have submission deadlines of June 30th on "war" and September 30th on "origins."

I'm excited to see the antho when it comes out. Check back here for the publication notification and probably a cover photo. Yay for new publishers!

Will really be two months since my daughter got married?  Ayyyaaaaeeee.  And I haven't posted since then?  Wow.  I suck.  But, on the bright side, below is a pic of Erica and my husband, Steve, from the big day for those of you who wonder, "Do these Livejournal people really exist?  Do they also live in the real world or are they made up people to populate my carefully constructed reality?"  These two are the biggest part of my life.  And now my SIL David.  I'll yank a photo of him one day and throw it up here.



And now, after hanging my head in shame for the absence, I'm back and ready to go.  I've got some more posting to do, so expect one soon about a sale I made in said absence.  Until then, enjoy your Wednesday!

Hey, guys!  It's been a while since I've posted, getting ready for my daughter's wedding and all, but I'll leave that story for another post (after this Saturday which is the big day!).

I did want to share my joy however in announcing a short story sale to Bards and Sages Quarterly for "Potential Overload."  It's my first time working with them, so I'm excited to be appearing there in the July 2012 issue.  Yay!

I'll keep you posted on the developments.

Whew.  My daughter, whose picture is my icon (taken prior to prom a couple of years ago), is getting married on March 10th.  That's right at one month away, people.  It's now time to deal with all of those things that I said should wait until the month or two before the wedding.  I've dealt with a lot of them, the two month mark being one month ago, don't you know, but there's still a lot of details to deal with regarding floral, venue, and whatnot.  And money, let's not forget the money.  All the vendors are coming due...some have a month-before due date and some are at two weeks and some are at one week.  Jesus, don't ever let anyone tell you that weddings aren't a major expense, not unless your daughter is a back-to-nature girl who wants to get married by a free pond and eat at the free picnic tables nearby.

Steve and I had set a budget, but things like this have a tendency to run away with you.  You're already paying so, so much for things, so what's another $100 here or there?  They add up.  We've been indulgent to the busting capacity of our wallets, but we can still only do so much.  We've been to weddings that were way more extravagant than this one will be, in our family even.  This one thought won't be anything to sneeze at.  I would call it middle of the road as far as weddings go.

But she's our only daughter and only child, and it's the only wedding we're ever going to pay for.  We love our future son-in-law (they've been together for four years...since they were 15 and 16), but should the worst happen and the marriage doesn't last, our daughter knows the next one's on her.

I also want to give her the wedding I never had.  I got married by a Justice-of-the-Peace and had to rent a witness for $5 at the courthouse.  Steve and I were living together in Hawaii on his first Navy posting, and it had to work out that way.  I was 26 though, and the actual wedding didn't mean much to me.  I've never missed having one, but Erica is young and would like to have one day all about her (and her intended, but you know what I mean).  Steve and I understand, and we want to send her out into the world knowing that we've done all we could to see that she's ready (we can't help it if the world isn't ready for her).  It's our send off, and it will be a beautiful and emotional day for us.  I totally intend to be a puddle during the ceremony.

They've been engaged for over a year, and I've resisted the urge to really blog about it at any length until now.  It was an abstract thing that wasn't within my sight.  Now I can see it, and need to handle it.  You, my friends, get to hear about it from now until then :).  Get ready.

Steve and I went to see One for the Money this weekend.  I've been looking forward to the release of OFTM for months.  I'm a huge Janet Evanovich fan having read 17 Stephanie Plum novels, all the Between the Novel novellas, and one on the new Diesel series.  Now, mixed in with all of my anticipation of the movie was the tiniest bit of dread in expectation that Hollywood would somehow screw it up as they have a way of doing with the Movies-Made-From-Books.  I was hoping though that knowing the number of fans out there for this series would mean putting a little more effort into it.

The most crucial thing for me was going to be choosing the actress to play Stephanie Plum.  I was automatically disappointed when they released that they'd chosen Katherine Heigl.  Ms. Heigl is a fine actress.  I've liked a lot of the movies she's done, but I just didn't feel she was right for this role.  I was hoping they'd go with someone a little more hardcore...someone with attitude.  Ms. Heigl has always come off to me as a softer personality than what I felt was required for this role.  I don't know who in this current batch of young actresses, I was hoping for, but I was thinking along the lines of a young Lori Petty.

Their choice for Lula was perfect.  My daughter and I felt that Sherry Shepherd was the only actress in Hollywood to pull that role off, and we would've been disappointed with anyone else.  Alas, Lula doesn't have a large part in the first story of the series.

We were pleasantly surprised at the job Jason O'Mara did as Joe Morelli.  I love Mr. O'Mara's work as I was originally introduced to him in Life on Mars and loved his performances there.  At first, I was confused at the choice for Morelli, but he made it work.

I'd never heard of Daniel Sunjata, the actor portraying Ranger, but I liked him.  He did a good job of combining dangerous, mysterious, and sexy.  And I loved Patrick Fischler as Vinnie.  He was a great slimeball of a cousin.

Finally, Debbie Reynolds as Grandma Mazur also didn't do it for me.  I love Debbie Reynolds' work.  She's an icon in the business.  I felt this role required a little more Cloris Leachman type crazy though.  She pulled it off well in Malcolm in the Middle.

As for the movie, it was a decent representation of the book.  It stuck to the plotline pretty well from what I remember.  I will say however that my daughter was right.  She'd seen it on opening weekend and said it was slow in the first half.  I had to agree.  I think the makers went the route of introducing the characters a bit too much right off the bat rather than get the story started and then let us get to know the characters as we go along.  I'm also not sure the screenwriters picked the best scenes to go in the movie.  All in all, other than what I thought was a miscasting of Stephanie Plum, I think the movie's weakest point was the screenwriting.

So, in a word, okay.  I was glad to have seen it as I'm a fan of the books, but I think it could've been done better considering the money and effort that I'm sure went into it.  I'm really hoping for an awesome second one.

Where do you guys weigh in on pen names for authors?  I'm virtually unknown, but I'm self publishing an array of short stories that I hope will become popular.  They range from children's to young adult to adult in the science fiction and fantasy genres.  It's not quite so important now that readers be able to differentiate my categories of stories for sale, but it may be in the future.  Do I want my juvenile readers stumbling upon a horror story meant for adults?  Adults have, in the past, been the main buyers for e-readers, but more and more, kids are getting their own e-readers and being allowed to buy for them.

I think it's pretty obvious what my stories are about from the summaries, but I'm wondering if I shouldn't foolproof it by publishing under different names for the children's and other stories.  I think young adult and adult could be lumped together since so many young adults read adult books and vice versa.  It would be an open secret; there's no reason for it not to be known.  It would however eliminate the branding problem of each genre.  I think I'm going to have three publishing names.  I'll keep Linda A. B. Davis for young adult and adult science fiction and fantasy since I've already got a little bit of a name going there.  I've decided on Zinnia Day for the children's stories, and I still need one for horror.  I do write some horror.  I just haven't published it yet.  I'm not sure at what point I need to change things like the listings on B&N and Amazon as well as my website.  At this point, I haven't sold so many children's stories for e-readers that it will matter if I go and change the author name over.  If I wait too long though, it will be harder.

What do you guys think?

Oh, happy Friday!  I've just released a new duo of short stories to the public through Barnes & Noble and Amazon.  "The Temptation of Milo Maines" with the free, bonus story, "Gator in the Glades" is now available on both outlets for the Nook and Kindle.  The cover and summary are below:

I'm starting my week with a newly released fantasy story meant for young adults but is fun for adults, too.  "Enlightened" is now available on www.bn.com and www.amazon.com for just 99 cents.  It's the ninth of my short stories available to the public in a single purchase each.  Here's the blurb:

Therese is stuck in an ordinary life until a mysterious girl gifts her with some tiny new friends. As their influence affects her attitude, people around her notice. Can Therese keep her lights a secret, even when her best friend is begging her to share? Then can she protect them when things get ugly? Little does she know it might be the other way around.

And the cover:

By nature, it's unavoidable.  Here's my list of books read this year:

The Firefly Dance by  Augusta Trobaugh, Kathryn Magendie, Phyllis Schieber, Sarah Addison Allen (Anthology)
Zoo City by Lauren Beukes (Fantasy)
Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches From the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture by Peggy Orenstein (Nonfiction)
A Bad Day for Sorry by Sophie Littlefield (Suspense)
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin (Fantasy)
Silver Borne by Patricia Biggs (Fantasy)
The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting (YA Fantasy)
Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr (YA Fantasy)
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (Fantasy)
Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch (Fantasy)
Black Blade Blues by J.A. Pitts (Fantasy)
Me and Emma by Elizabeth Flock (Mainstream)
Skin Walker by Faith Hunter (Fantasy)
Stripped by Marcia Colette (Fantasy)
The Outlaw Demon Wails by Kim Harrison (Fantasy)
The Last Detective by Robert Crais (Suspense)
Tickled to Death by Joan Hess (Suspense)
Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi (Science Fiction)
Live Wire by Harlan Coben (Suspense)
Smokin' Seventeen by Janet Evanovich (Suspense)

Mix in an unknown number of short stories, magazines and novellas, it's been a busy reading year for me.

My favorite of the year?  The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch.  By far.  Special shout-outs to Elizabeth Flock (Me and Emma) for a powerful and interesting novel and to John Scalzi for an awesome remake of the original Fuzzy Nation by H. Beam Piper.

Now, on to 2012!

Yaayyy, you caught me.  I've been absent from LJ lately with real-world things, my apologies.

To catch up though:

1)  I finished a novella within the framework of a workshop group contest.  Reviews are mixed on it.  Keeping in mind it's a first draft, two readers really liked it, two really didn't, and two were in the middle.  I'm proud of myself for finishing something this long (20K) and have it even be readable, especially to where two of the readers did enjoy it.  I think I've decided to write another novella from the other end of the story and merge them together with alternating chapters.  This will work considering the scope of the first novella.  Both perspectives are easily separated and easily merged.  Of course, all comments will be considered even if not accepted into revisions, and I'll have a head start in world-building for the second novella.  I truly believe it will be a strong story once it's all said and done.  It won't be to everyone's liking, but in the sense that Twilight isn't to everyone's liking yet Meyers continues to succeed with the readers who do like her work.  (And no, I'm not comparing my writing to Meyers' work either for the good or the bad...she's just an example of subjectivity and the success that can come from it.)  You don't need the whole world to love your books, just some of the world.

2)  Cleared up one family conflict with a talk with a brother yesterday, and am happy to have that out of the way for the holidays.  I hate conflict within the family as they are my family always.  You can't just walk away.  I feel compelled to power through these things until there's resolution.

3)  Found out the local college dropped my daughter's classes due to us missing the payment deadline.  There was some confusion apparently on the pre-registration deadline, we missed it, and now she can only get one of the classes back so far.  I'm hoping we can claim a "withdrawn" or "dropped" spot on the other classes before they actually start.  This one's a pisser as there are other important things happening according to her graduation date.  I'm a planner, and I like...no, I love...it when things go according to plan.  I hate the unknown on life plans.  Sometimes, I plan on things being unknown until a certain date, but this wasn't one of those things.  Yes, it's her life, I know, but this was what she had planned.  I should note that she's not nearly as bothered by this whole thing as I am, but I also don't think she understands the possible timeline ramifications to what she has stated as to what she wants to happen.  Still, I have to remember that it's her life, and at this point, I'm just here to facilitate.

4)  My novella will not actually be my next writing project.  There are two anthologies for which I want to write a story to submit.  I'm working on them in my brain trying to settle on a winning nugget.  As I've stated before here, half the success of a winning anthology submission is to meet the theme.  If the story is coherent and enjoyable, you've got probably another 30% there.  Then, it's just a matter of where the editor ranks your story among the other strong submissions, and that final 20% is up for grabs.  While those are just my numbers, I believe them to be somewhere in the ballpark of a winning submission.

To all of my LJ friends, I wish you and yours a wonderful holiday season.  We're working on it here in northwestern Florida where the temps are in the low 70s, a warm yet gorgeous winter day.