A Mad Scientist and a Quck ABNA Update

If you saw the link I posted earlier, my story "A Bad Case of Rabies" was published in Mad Scientist Journal today.

This worked out pretty well.  Mad Scientist Journal is a really fun concept, where they publish a new short story every week, told from the perspective of a "mad scientist."  I had been trying to come up with something to send them over the last year, but all of my ideas seemed to fall flat before I could even get a few sentences out.

But then something cool happened.  "Rabies" came back with a personal rejection note from another publisher.  The feedback basically said that it was a fine story, but they wanted to know what caused the situation that sets up the story.  I thought about for a little while and then it hit me that when the narrator returns home at the beginning of the story, he could be the cause of it.  He could even be a "mad scientist."  It fit so well with the storyline that I quickly edited it to fit the MSJ guidelines (first person, etc.) and got it sent off.

This just goes to show how important it is to really pay attention to any feedback you get with a rejection letter.  I would have never considered modifying this story to make it fit in MSJ if it wouldn't have been for that feedback.

Now switching topics to the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest...  I worked on the novel last night.  In fact, I worked on it like an idiot saying up till almost 2:00 AM.  Our baby generally gets up around 5, so do the math to figure out how zombie-like I am today.

I made some good progress on the novel though.  I read through the first chapter, which is about ten pages long.  This first reading is mostly to get a better feel for the novel.  I read it with a pad of paper and took notes, writing down the characters' names and traits.  I also made notes on timelines and basic plot points.

I'm not really focusing too much on the writing during this first read-through.  The important goal right now is to make sure I've got a solid plot structure and I can worry about the copy-editing after that.

So that's it for now.  I'm hoping to go through another ten pages or so tonight, and then hit the bed for a solid six or seven hours of sleep.