vickeymalonekennedy.com Blog

Sooner Con 2010

Administrator — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 15:46:41 +0000

As SoonerCon 2010 http://soonercon.com Club Liaison I’m cooking up some exciting ideas for the SF/F Clubs attending this year’s CON. June 4-6, 2010.

There will be prizes for the club with the most members registered for SOONERCON 2010! Prizes for the club that signs up the most new members during SOONERCON 2010! Prizes for the club that has the most members show up in their club uniforms.

There will also be a Club Rally Room Party Sat night.

And many other club events throughout the CON.

If you’re club will be attending please contact me:

ladyvck@vickeymalonekennedy.com

not an empty nest in sight

Administrator — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 14:35:46 +0000

My baby boy just turned nineteen. It’s sad. Time disappeared so quickly. One day he was a cuddly little blond baby boy and the next day he’s a six-foot-four college sophomore still sleeping on my sofa.

He had a dorm room the first semester of his freshman year but wouldn’t stay there. I couldn’t understand why he wanted a dorm room considering we live on the same street as the college he attends. But it’s all part of the college experience. A part he didn’t really experience. So I refused to pay for a dorm room this year.

Don’t ask me why he isn’t sleeping in his own room. Maybe it’s because his TV is still in the garage. Maybe it’s because he can’t get into his room because of all the stuff piled inside his door. I’m not cleaning it.

Personally I don’t mind if he stays at home forever, but he does have a perfectly good room and a perfectly good bed so I’d like to at least move him back into it and get him off my couch.

I have five adults, three dogs, one ferret and one baby living in my house. Most of the time it’s okay. There’s not enough room to walk through the living room, much less sleep in there.

I’m thinking of redecorating. Maybe some really uncomfortable straight back chairs and fragile little love seats. Something pink, lacy and ruffled that a really big guy wouldn’t be caught sleeping on.

It could work.

Working while you wait

Administrator — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 04:03:09 +0000

Miss D had surgery on her shoulder this morning. Everything went well. She looked like hell (sorry kido, but you looked like death warmed over) when she came out from under the knife. She went home to bed and was doing fine when I talked to Bird this evening.

I went home, fed the baby and crashed myself.

I never really know where story ideas come from. Some just pop into my head fully developed. Others come in brief flashes or a few sentences and demand I flesh them out from there.

While sitting in the waiting room one of those, nearly, fully developed stories hit me out of nowhere. I’m not entirely certain where it is going –to Earth I think- but I do love the beginning.

I got 10 pages hand-written. For some unknown reason I didn’t take Dora with me. I’m about to type those pages and maybe finish the first draft before I crash again.

Oh yeah, saw an ad for the following contest while I was there:

Good Housekeeping’s Short Story Contest

Deadline: All entries must be received by September 15, 2009.

www.goodhousekeeping.com/family/real/short-story-contest

To blog, or not to blog, that is the publishing question

Administrator — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 04:51:44 +0000

I’ve been reading Midnight Sun on Stephenie Meyer’s website http://stepheniemeyer.com

It’s Twilight from Edward’s point of view.

Apparently someone leaked the first 264 pages of the book on the internet before Meyer finished the novel.

Because of that leak, rumor has it that she has put the rest of the book on hold for now and is working on other projects.

I’m wondering how they could turn Midnight Sun into a movie considering that it is basically the same story as Twilight just from a different perspective. Could that be part of Meyer’s motivation to drop the project? Are the producers of the Twilight movies encouraging her not to waste her time on a remake?

I’m also wondering if Meyer has considered continuing the book Midnight Sun as a blog, since part of it is already on the web. She could charge a subscription fee for readers to follow the blog –that way she won’t be losing money by posting it- and still sell the print version when it is completed. She probably wouldn’t even need to post new pages every day to keep the readers hooked.

I have a feeling that is the future of publishing: Authors posting novels as they write them on pay-to-read sites. It not only gets the material into the hands of the reader quicker it also increases the number of potential readers exponentially.

Publishing companies could reap the benefits too by providing the subscription sites and editors to clean up the author’s work before the stories are actually posted. Publishing companies could provide security services and encryption methods that would prevent the readers from simply copying the story and re-posting it for free.

Posting books to subscription sites, as the author writes them, could also be a good way for new authors to get their foot into the door of the publishing world. New authors could post the first few chapters for free and build up their fan base. Readers only need to subscribe to books and authors they like.

It’s a win-win situation. We’ve all spent our hard earned, shrinking dollars on books we never finished because they had shiny covers but the insides weren’t quite as lustrous. It’s green. And most importantly it’s instantaneous.

Let’s face it we already live in an IMing, blogging, texting, tweeting, real time world. Why shouldn’t we be reading the next best-seller that way?

Must be more productive!

Administrator — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 12:34:22 +0000

Must stop procrastinating.

Must update blog daily.

Should change the heading of ‘To Do List’ to ‘Must Do List’.

What I am doing today: Meeting Miss D for lunch and a movie. May go to see ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’. Then we will probably go to Hastings for coffee and writing. I’ve got a long list of projects to work on. Join us.

This evening I hope to attend the Southmoore students talent showcase at 7pm at Shekinah Church located on 104th and Walker. It’s free! However, each performer will have a donation box for any loose change. This donation will help them to attend the Smithsonian Educational Tour to New York next summer!

There are a few contests coming up that y’all might be interested in entering.

Glimmer Train

SHORT STORY AWARD for NEW WRITERS
Deadline: August 31, 2009

www.glimmertrain.com

Open only to writers whose fiction has not appeared in any print publication with a circulation over 5,000. (Entries, of course, must be unpublished.)
Stories not to exceed 12,000 words.

Writers of the Future

www.writersofthefuture.com

DEADLINE Sept 30, 2009

Norman Galaxy of Writers’ annual contest

www.nonprofitpages.com/normangalaxy

DEADLINE
November 7, 2009

Must be a member of Norman Galaxy of Writers but it is really cheap and easy to join.

Better late than never

Administrator — Tue, 19 May 2009 06:14:47 +0000

I’m back.

I went through a dry spell where writing and life in general were less than rewarding experiences. Thankfully I’ve found an oasis in the desert that has been my life for a year or twenty.

First I got kissed by Michael Dorn aka Worf at Dragoncon 2008. First step in awakening the dead.

Then I had a new baby. Well, my daughter had the baby. My first grandbaby. A little girl. Born Feb 3, 2009 at five o’clock in the morning. Talk about a breathing life back into a pile of dust.

I won money prizes at OWFI this year. 2nd Place Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror Short Story for “Inheritance”, 3rd Place Mazie Cox Reid Column Award for ” A Shot in the Dark: Tales of a Night Nurse”, and 4th Honorable Mention Adult Short Story for “Borders”.

My best friend Lisa A Willis gave me a beautiful Mentor of the Year Award.

2009 is looking bright and fulfilling already. I’m satisfied. Okay, I’m a little happy. I admit it. But don’t expect me to blog about it.

Oh yeah, I’m on Twitter and Facebook now.

Miss Klingon Empire Beauty Pageant 2008

Administrator — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:41:18 +0000

I didn’t take home the crown, but I did win the prize.

Read about the pageant!

vck

P.S. A special thanks to my dear friend Keith R. A. DeCandido for holding my hand backstage during the contest. He helped keep me on my feet and out of trouble. Big hugs and kisses to Keith.

The times they are a changing

Administrator — Tue, 20 May 2008 17:06:59 +0000

My son will graduate from high school this Friday. He doesn’t turn eighteen until Sept. But I figure once he’s a high school grad he’s pretty much grown. He’s always telling me I need to cut the umbilical cord.

Anyway, there is a part of me that is really excited about him growing up because once he is an adult I don’t have to be one anymore. I won’t be legally responsible for anyone but myself. It won’t be considered child abandonment if I just take off and stay gone for weeks at a time. I doubt I’ll have any more money but I won’t feel as guilty about spending my money on me, me, me, instead of the kids.

I’m not too worried about the empty nest syndrome. My daughter lives less than a mile away and comes home nearly every day for something. Usually money. He is planning to go to college at (not OSU his dear ole mum’s Alma Marta) but that other Oklahoma university right down the street from my house. So he’ll be living at home at least his freshman year. They got rules.

Still, I’ve been a mother -stop laughing Bill- most of my life. So it will be an adjustment. Of course I will still be their mother but there is a difference in being the mother of minors and adults.

I’m accustomed to telling them what to do. Not that I actually expect them to do what I tell them. I will probably always put in my two cents worth. But how do I transition from the ‘because I’m your mother and I said so’, parent to the ‘may I offer my opinion’, parent?

The Klingon in me says, “Just beat your opinion into them!”

But the Klingon in me isn’t always reasonable. (Of course I would never tell her that)

I’ve got good news and bad news.

Administrator — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 02:18:21 +0000

The good news first: I sent the first three chapters of ‘Lost Lizards’ to Mojocastle Press. Stefani sent me an email saying “This is wicked.” (that’s a good thing, right?)

Any ways, she did say she wanted to see the rest of it.

Which brings us to the bad news: My computer crashed and died. The Geek Squad implied the Death Squad had taken a contract out on my poor little computer. Prognosis; Put her out of her misery.

More good news: They can save my documents.

Bad news: They can’t save my programs, which I paid good money for, but of course I can never keep up with disc. Once I load them onto the computer I toss them onto the table next to my chair. Eventually a pile accumulates atop of whatever is on the table. Eventually the pile ends up in the floor, then in a box next to the table, then in the garage, then . . .

I’ve never been able to figure out what happens to the things that end up in the garage. They are still in there, of course. Amid a million other boxes of unidentified, albeit extremely important, never throw it away, stuff. But if you can find anything in there you are luckier than I.

Good news: Melissa loaned me her computer!

Bad news: I can’t get on the internet with her computer. Don’t ask why.

Good news: I can get the book ready to send in. Copy it to a disc. And then find another computer to email it from.

Guess what? It’s all good.

validation

Administrator — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 17:01:41 +0000

Writers are funny folk. Our work is solitary. Even when we surround ourselves with other authors, we do most of our work alone in some dark dismal corner of our own little universe.

Sounds a bit counterproductive because we need light to write. Well some of us do. I type with my eyes closed most of the time. Could explain my lousy spelling? No. I just can’t spell worth shit.

Like most artists, writers’ tend to be their own worst critics. We are never convinced our work is any good, or at least not good enough. Sometimes it isn’t. We’ve all written crap during our exploration of the craft. But still, occasionally, we create something we aren’t completely ashamed to have read aloud in public.

Like most artists, writers’ need validation. That validation can come in many forms. The day your family stops nagging you about wasting so much time on the computer with your little hobby, and starts nagging you to get back to work on your writing, is a moment of triumphant validation. Winning contests, selling something you’ve written, wowing your critique group with an awesome short story, are all moments of validation.

Still we doubt ourselves, our ability, our talent, our value.

Writing is not a nine to five job. We don’t punch a clock, or pick up a weekly paycheck. We get paid sporadically and usually in small amounts. I once received a check for $3 for a short story. Hey it was three dollars I didn’t have before the mail ran that day. And it was validation that my work had not gone unnoticed, unappreciated, or unpaid.

But every now and again I get a surprise validation. A check for a contest I had forgotten I had entered. An honorable mention from an extremely prestigious contest. A sale of a story I didn’t particularly care for myself but someone convinced me to submit it anyway. An “Oh my God!” from my daughter when she has just finished proofreading a new story.

Sometimes that jaw dropping, eye widening, expression of complete awe on the face of a reader is the most rewarding validation of all. It always surprises me when someone has that reaction to something I’ve written. It always makes me step back, look at myself in the mirror, and say to myself, “maybe I can write.” Of course an hour later I’m deleting an entire book I think sucks the big one.

But once in a great while, when someone gets that look of awe on their face, when my family nags me to get back to work, when I open an envelope in the mail and there is a check inside, when I get an email telling me I’ve just won another contest, I feel validated. I feel like it’s all worth it. I feel good about myself. I feel like I’m a real writer.

I feel that way today because I just won another first place at Whim’s Place for a flash fiction piece entitled, “In a Flash.” Unfortunately, Whim’s isn’t going to publish it on their web site this time. Their newsletter implied they may be going under. Which sucks!

Whim’s Place was a great paying market providing excellent exposure for their authors. I hate to see them fold. I encourage everyone to pay them a visit at www.whimsplace.com and encourage them to continue supporting and validating writers like me.