tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-254900682012-01-02T13:06:41.010-05:00Because writing makes you do the wackyBarbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.comBlogger1861100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-69443980113019625622009-06-14T16:52:00.002-04:002009-06-14T17:06:55.076-04:00

For a while now, I've been posting the same content (at least mostly) to both this blog and my Livejournal. When it comes to comment traffic, though, this version of Writerly Wackiness has gotten rather quiet lately, so I'm going to put it to rest for now.I'll leave this blog up, and I may even resume posting on it somewhere down the road, but for the time being, if you want to find out what's

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-75559890709817495022009-06-06T12:19:00.001-04:002009-06-06T12:57:23.813-04:00

Crazy busy week. But despite the craziness, I just have to say that my new employment gig is awesome.Now I need to spend this weekend doing all the little things I put off during the week in order to get the not-so-little things done. I had been considering auditioning for a play for the first time in forever this weekend, but I don't know what the hell I was thinking given how much else I've

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-895245146949545992009-05-29T13:01:00.005-04:002009-05-29T13:41:58.423-04:00

It's been a weird week. And I start my new job on Monday, so next week will likely be even weirder.ReadingFinished Bitterwood earlier this week. I really wanted to like the book, but alas. It's essentially post-apocalyptic science fiction dressed up in high fantasy clothing, which could have been fascinating, but for me, it never lived up to the potential of that premise. I have several

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-86476423797857830542009-05-21T16:23:00.004-04:002009-05-21T16:50:22.784-04:00

Been feeling rather blah this whole week, and not even lovely weather and backyard chipmunk sightings seem able to cure it. It looks like I'm going to have to write off any hope of productivity and hand this round to the slug. I've kept up with the exercise and the piano practicing, but I haven't done any reading all week, and writing-wise I've only managed a sentence or two. I can't even use

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-58478939842166106342009-05-15T17:36:00.001-04:002009-05-15T17:38:57.362-04:00

ReadingThrough chapters 15-18 in Bitterwood. Also finished the audio book of The Road, which didn't end as bleakly as I thought it would. I give it a thumbs up overall.ExerciseIt's looking like I'm going to slack today, but I'll make up for it tomorrow. Otherwise, I've been keeping to the routine.MusicKeeping on top of my piano lessons and practicing. Monday was the last regular rehearsal of

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-8704942838873491462009-05-07T22:09:00.000-04:002009-05-07T22:10:36.362-04:00

...and beats it until it's worm goo.The week isn't over yet, but tomorrow's going to be a weird day schedule-wise and I keep thinking it's Friday anyway, so here goes. Any typos or incoherent sentences can be blamed on wine.ReadingOnly got through one chapter of Bitterwood this week, though I'll probably get through another one tomorrow. And only one disc left to listen to in The Road. Just

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-57067127285395805032009-05-02T13:42:00.004-04:002009-05-02T13:49:38.165-04:00

ReadingGot through chapters 11 and 12 in Bitterwood this week. I really wanted to like this book, but I have to admit to being disappointed so far. I'm going to finish it, but I'm not sure if I'm going to move on to the second book or not. Even if I do, it won't be for a while.I've also been listening to more of The Road in the car, and that--well, "enjoying" doesn't seem like the right word for

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-45329448045309016792009-04-24T16:14:00.000-04:002009-04-24T16:15:30.330-04:00

I came down with a cold last weekend, so between that and some major trouble sleeping and lots of beyond-the-ordinary-routine things to attend to this week, I didn't do so well with the productivity. I wasn't a total slug either, though, so that's gotta count for something.Reading: Didn't get a lot of reading done. I'm partway through chapter 11 in Bitterwood, and I started listening to the

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-19146220512354850132009-04-17T18:35:00.002-04:002009-04-17T18:41:50.761-04:00

This week has been strong with the bat-shit crazy side of the Force, making that whole productivity thing a challenge. Some of the things keeping me busy were good things (Easter with the in-laws, seeing a production of Edward Albee's At Home at the Zoo, a reception where my dad got a firefighter-of-the-year award from the local VFW). But other things...well, I think my brain exploded a few

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-37146513274617256002009-04-10T16:38:00.001-04:002009-04-10T16:43:11.100-04:00

The week is not quite over as I still need to get in my exercise and piano practicing for today, but that won't be a problem, because the zombie story? DONE!Reading: Up to chapter 8 in Bitterwood, and up to chapter 35 in Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. JS&MN has gotten much more interesting, so I'm glad I was able to go the audio book route with it as I doubt I would have made it this far

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-67635268467893169602009-04-06T00:27:00.000-04:002009-04-06T00:28:28.124-04:00

This weekend has come to an end far too quickly. Yesterday I made up for the exercise and piano practicing I didn't get done on Friday, and today I did almost nothing but work on the zombie story revisions. There were some brief breaks for food and an episode of Firefly on DVD, but otherwise, I was productive girl. I'm about 3,600 hundred words into the revision, and the story as a whole is now

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-13085208874952751232009-04-04T00:51:00.000-04:002009-04-04T00:52:43.333-04:00

...my shiny new iMac! The downside is that I didn't get much done today other than playing with the shiny new iMac, but that's ok, because shiny new iMac!I did get things done the rest of the week, though, so here's the productivity report:Reading: Chapters 4 and 5 in Bitterwood, and I believe I'm up to chapter 30 in listening to Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (my god is JS&MN a long damn book)

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-68046696708941204222009-03-31T01:11:00.001-04:002009-03-31T01:12:51.324-04:00

* Snuck in a bonus productivity day on Saturday. A friend and I deposited our writerly selves down with some tasty tea beverages that afternoon, during which time I got all of chapter 3 revised (yay for short chapters largely unaffected by major plot changes!), and even got the zombie story revision underway as well.* After downloading the free trial to my Macbook over the weekend, I think I may

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-17153603580319755352009-03-27T00:11:00.002-04:002009-03-27T00:34:37.143-04:00

Since I have no idea what I'm going to be able to get done tomorrow--chorus concert at a school in the early afternoon, theater tickets in the evening--I'm gonna go ahead and post my weekly productivity report now.Reading: Two more chapters in Bitterwood, up to chapter 23 in Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, and a story at Tor.com that I highly recommend for fans of the play Rosencrantz &

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-34119612544055311832009-03-25T16:12:00.000-04:002009-03-25T16:13:06.083-04:00

Crappy first draft of the zombie story? Done! And when I say crappy first draft, we're talking Crappy McCrapperson from Crappsville. But revision is usually the easier part of the process for me, so hopefully I'll have less trouble turning this mess into a not-so-crappy second draft. And hopefully it'll end up being much shorter than its current 9,100 words, because that's way too much zombie

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-38521447613605906592009-03-21T15:23:00.001-04:002009-03-21T15:23:53.875-04:00

The slug put up a hell of a fight this week--which I now realize is sort of funny since that means the slug is working very hard at trying to get me to do nothing. But except for the exercise department, I actually achieved a fair amount of productivity this week:Reading: I finished Prime Codex on Monday. The last story was "Radical Acceptance" by David W. Goldman, which made me smile. Space

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-73942429622171125482009-03-14T17:13:00.004-04:002009-03-14T17:29:42.615-04:00

On a positive note, I got notice today that my short story "Jarra," which appeared in the July-Sept. 2008 issue of The Lorelei Signal, was selected to be in the e-zine's year-end anthology, A Time To ... Volume 3 - The Best of The Lorelei Signal 2008.On a less positive note, that would be my first sale of 2009. Don't get me wrong, I'm definitely happy about it, but I've been plauged by this

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-3710547548894730822009-03-13T22:37:00.003-04:002009-03-13T22:50:42.642-04:00

It's been tough getting back to something resembling my normal routine this week. Monday was almost nothing but work and rehearsal, neither of which put me in a happy place. And I had been hoping to get a lot done today, but no such luck. I got a later start than I wanted today (I've been having a tough time getting my butt moving in the mornings this week), and my afternoon was mostly eaten away

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-17210609139468598642009-03-07T20:56:00.004-05:002009-03-07T21:15:06.340-05:00

I've actually managed to ease back into productivity mode these last few days better than I would have thought.Reading: Read two more stories in Prime Codex. "Tides" by Tobias Buckell was sad but lovely, with some truly wonderful world-building. "Urban Renewal" by Tom Pendergrass was a fun little tale in which the little old lady who lived in a shoe meets modern bureaucracy. Only three more

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-56805882749340216652009-03-04T18:41:00.008-05:002009-03-05T00:05:09.407-05:00

I was going to post my next writerly productivity report last weekend, but due to my father-in-law's death Friday morning, that and many other things didn't happen. After a sad and hectic few days, now is when life slowly slouches back toward normality, so here goes:Reading: I only got through two more stories in Prime Codex. "Button by Button" by E. Catherine Tobler was the first one in the book

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-61388004442796047272009-02-21T21:53:00.002-05:002009-02-21T21:55:57.861-05:00

The slug reared its ugly head again a few times this week, particularly toward the end of the week. So I didn't get as much writing done as I should have, but some level of productivity was still achieved.Reading: Read three more stories in Prime Codex: "Sister of the Hedge" by Jim C. Hines (this is one of those stories that I'm going to have to read again in the future to decide what I really

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-37417507578603173992009-02-20T14:37:00.001-05:002009-02-20T14:41:58.824-05:00

I have a huge amount of appreciation for my local fire department, and not just because I come from a family full of volunteer firemen. People dedicated to keeping your home from burning to the ground are a Very Good Thing in my book. However, the semicolon abuse (among other things) they recently delivered to my door hurt my brain. Names have been changed and/or removed to protect the innocent.

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-51906589313071697322009-02-14T20:48:00.008-05:002009-02-14T22:09:00.815-05:00

The Productivity Report since Wednesday:Reading: Read two more stories in Prime Codex. The first was "Wizards' Encore" by Geoffrey Girard. While there was a lot to like about it, particularly some of the imagery, the story never fully grabbed me the way I wanted it to. The second was "The Disenchantment of Kivron Ox-master" by Elaine Isaak, which was a fun story. I got a bit muddled by some

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-91830579655309052782009-02-10T21:25:00.001-05:002009-02-20T15:14:51.203-05:00

Slowly but surely, the productivity groove is being re-established. I feel like I have a much better grip on the new job now, and today I got my first grant proposal for them out the door, so yay. Another week or two, and life may start feeling normal again.I had a fun weekend that went by way too quickly: wine tastings Saturday afternoon, a fun dinner with friends Saturday evening, and an

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-14795234350071117032009-02-04T22:48:00.002-05:002009-02-04T22:52:50.918-05:00

Two weeks ago, I had all the time in the world. Now with a new job and a bunch of other stuff that's landed on my plate, I find myself suddenly submerged in the world of twenty gazillion things to do at once. Quite an adjustment. My brain threatened to explode a couple times yesterday and today, but thankfully, the bomb squad got in there and defused it before it was too late. Basically, I

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-67048637381524525262009-01-29T09:32:00.003-05:002009-01-29T09:48:25.239-05:00

My flash story "Monkey Love" is now up at Every Day Fiction. This one's slightly atypical for me in that it's romance with no fantasy, SF, or horror elements. My silliness, however, remains firmly intact.

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-26719713604367629432009-01-28T01:27:00.004-05:002009-02-20T15:16:52.841-05:00

My brain and priorities were all over the place today, so I won't pretend to have tried to stick to the slug-fighting schedule. But I wasn't entirely unproductive. Actually, I got everything done except the exercise and the writing, and I spent a hefty chunk of time going over a grant proposal I had volunteered to help with for the chorus I sing with. So I guess that counts for something.On a

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-34404745432768558782009-01-26T22:33:00.003-05:002009-01-26T22:51:46.480-05:00

I was feeling so much better throughout most of the weekend, but then a dang coughing fit struck last night and made that whole falling asleep thing a challenge. And getting up early for a Monday morning dentist appointment after a night of very little sleep? Not very pleasant. Nevertheless, I managed to be productive girl.Reading: A chapter on music and dreams in Musicophilia. I wake up with

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-23371385314600314312009-01-24T13:06:00.006-05:002009-02-20T15:17:37.655-05:00

Didn't have time to post the productivity report last night. The spousal unit and I went to see a friend in a production of 42nd Street. Man, is there ever a special place in hell reserved for people in the audience who sing along with the show. I paid to hear the actors on stage, lady, not your caterwauling.Onto yesterday's productivity report, in which the slug gains some more points:Reading

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-71310183244105542312009-01-22T23:00:00.005-05:002009-02-20T15:17:52.413-05:00

I was feeling a lot better today, though definitely not a 100%, which made the temptation to give into slugdom tempting. So I wasn't hugely productive, but I slogged forward, and slogging forward is better than sitting there on my ass playing mahjong all day.Reading: Yet more of Musicophilia. I've got one chapter left in the third section, which has been dealing with music and movement--lots of

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-62488091903264614292009-01-21T22:59:00.003-05:002009-02-20T15:18:08.642-05:00

The slug almost triumphed today. Almost. I was still feeling sick and crappy, yet managed to achieve a small level of productivity.Reading: About a chapter and a half of Musicophilia.Exercising: I took a sick day on the exercise front. Point to the slug.Music Stuff: Piano lesson in the afternoon, though I had to skip out on choir rehearsal in the evening. Stupid sore throat.Writing-Related Stuff:

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-17934609361661335052009-01-20T21:02:00.005-05:002009-02-20T15:18:33.157-05:00

The slug seems to have detonated a germ bomb. AsYouKnowBob has had a cough for a few days now, and this morning became my turn to join in the sick person parade. I don't have the cough, but my head feels foggy, I've got aches and chills, and my throat has gone from gunky to full-fledged sore since this morning. Blah. I just had a cold last month, damn it. Why do I have to be sick again

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-35433176854932668222009-01-20T00:43:00.005-05:002009-02-20T15:19:12.662-05:00

Cold snowy Monday + overflowing toilet mishaps = not the best start to the dayDespite that math, the daily checklist is still complete. And I also managed to put in some work on the monthly church newsletter I edit. In other words: suck it, slug.Reading: Another chapter of Musicophilia, this time about amnesia and musicExercising: About 30 minutes of pilatesMusic Stuff: Tonight was chorus

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-22958394876800884032009-01-16T20:54:00.004-05:002009-02-20T15:19:12.663-05:00

The slug came back to visit today. I had a lot of trouble getting to sleep last night, which made for a slow start to today, and the slug took that opportunity to sneak inside. Since then, however, I have kicked its slimy butt back out to the curb.Reading: I've reached the halfway point in Musicophilia. Today's reading included a chapter on musical synesthesia. Ever since I first heard about

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-36080605429895833192009-01-15T22:56:00.006-05:002009-02-20T15:19:12.664-05:00

This little experiment in posting my progress to keep myself on track has been going pretty well. My brain really wanted to slack off earlier today, especially when I looked out the window and saw snow, but as soon as I threatened my brain with public shame on the internet, it stopped whining and got to work.Reading: Two more chapters of Musicophilia. The first one dealt with stereophonic

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-89259145232173016192009-01-14T22:37:00.008-05:002009-02-20T15:19:41.808-05:00

My schedule got thrown off a little today, courtesy of sleeping in a touch later than I should have and working a piano lesson into the routine. Nonetheless, I successfully told the slug where to shove it.Reading: A short yet interesting chapter of Musicophilia. Tomorrow, when I have a little more time to read than I did today, I'm hoping to plow through the rest of the book's second section,

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-50466246857845162482009-01-14T00:33:00.006-05:002009-02-20T15:20:23.571-05:00

...and fired it directly at my head while I slept. I woke up to a hell of a migraine, which pretty much wiped out my morning and left me drained the rest of the day. Amazingly, though, I still managed to slog through the daily schedule. Must have been those capsules of Advil Migraine I fired down the Death Star's exhaust port.Reading: Today's chapter of Musicophilia was about people with

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-61896365298625490222009-01-12T22:54:00.005-05:002009-01-15T12:41:11.641-05:00

A new Monday, a new weekly battle against the slug commences. On the up side, the daily schedule has been adhered to once again. On the down side, the results of the writing portion were pathetic.Reading: More of Musicophilia, which I'm still finding extremely fascinating. The chapter I read today dealt with various forms of amusia, wherein tones are not recognized as tones. There were people

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-73292816972593035782009-01-09T20:52:00.009-05:002009-02-20T15:20:58.912-05:00

Now I know why the slug was dormant yesterday. It was resting up so that it could launch a stronger assault today. And yeah, I may have done some more internet goofing off today than the rest of the week, but I still did all the productive stuff I was supposed to do. Take that, slug!Reading: About a quarter of the way through Musicophilia now. After reading about people who developed musical

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-556647722814089542009-01-08T22:21:00.009-05:002009-02-20T15:21:26.166-05:00

Ah, today was so much better than yesterday. No gremlins, and I had a much easier time than usual getting out of bed.Reading: More of Musicophilia. Gotta love a book that combines my music geekery with my fairly newfound fascination with neuroscience.Exercise: 30 minute yoga session. I'm always amazed by the way yoga manages to kick my ass on a physical level while relaxing me on a mental

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-29856644773566522032009-01-08T00:46:00.003-05:002009-01-15T23:36:20.825-05:00

In its efforts to derail me, my inner-slug has apparently hired gremlin henchmen. First, the spousal unit and I woke up to no heat in the house. That was thankfully restored, though it figures that the repair guy didn't get here until the 3 part of the noon to 3 window we were given. Thank god for the fireplace. Before then, the power dipped a couple times at one point, which had me worried,

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-65037049215028893422009-01-07T00:47:00.003-05:002009-02-20T15:21:57.560-05:00

Despite getting a slightly earlier start to my day, it feels like I accomplished a lot less. My inner slug put up a fight, but in the end, I beat that resilient little bastard down. For now, at least.Reading: Started Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver SacksExercise: 20-30 minute Pilates workoutMusic Stuff: Didn't do anything, but not out of slugdom. Those Christmas

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-22365442118883319782009-01-06T01:03:00.004-05:002009-02-20T15:22:36.617-05:00

My goal for 2009: avoid 2008's slackery and slug-like tendencies, which were no doubt aided by my unemployed bum status.To help achieve this, I decided to establish a schedule, which I have been sorely lacking until now. A flexible schedule, granted, as occasional things like doctor appointments or theater tickets usually require shifting the routine around. My weekends tend to be all over the

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-34217319756493516562008-12-31T16:46:00.002-05:002008-12-31T16:55:58.524-05:00

Happily, I can begin my yearly writerly recap by announcing that a final sale snuck in before 2008 ended. For those who haven't already heard about it from me elsewhere, I sold my flash story "Monkey Love" to Every Day Fiction. Amazingly for me, the story is a silly yet straightforward romance with nary an alien, unicorn, zombie, or other genre element in sight.Now onto the yearly recap,

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-49048465793226456802008-12-18T13:01:00.006-05:002008-12-18T13:16:15.412-05:00

Dear Santa,Remember those story acceptances I was getting that suddenly disappeared about 4 or 5 months ago? I would like a steady lifetime supply of those for Christmas. It would be really swell if you could throw some pro-paying markets into the mix too.And I think I've been good this year, so here are a few other items I'd like as well: a new brain in proper working order, more hours in the

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-80721039569501321362008-12-03T14:26:00.001-05:002008-12-03T14:29:38.981-05:00

Blog time seems so much longer than real world time. I was just thinking, "Wow, I haven't posted an entry in ages." But then I looked, and it's only been two weeks.Anyway, there's not a heck of a lot to post about at present--unless you want to hear me wallow in self-pity, which I doubt you do. So I figure I'll take a stab at doing one of those monthly progress reports some of my fellow

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-36592534998228532292008-11-10T00:12:00.001-05:002008-11-10T00:14:28.311-05:00

The Amazing Expanding and Contracting Story has expanded yet again. I cut two hefty chunks of scene-age but apparently compensated elsewhere--the darn thing's 100 words longer now. Luckily, at 7,400 words, I think the rewrite's done now. Or at least I hope it's done now. I'm going to give that puppy a proofread tomorrow, and then it's out the door.Once that's out the door, I have a story

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-62302555822699756752008-11-02T21:28:00.002-05:002008-11-02T21:34:17.628-05:00

Writerly friend and TOC sharer Marshall Payne kindly pointed the way to a review of Kaleidotrope #5 at SFRevu, where both our stories get a shiny mention: Next comes three short-shorts. "The Blue Testament" by Marshall Payne. This one is a hilarious look at a miraculous event in a very modern setting. Barbara A. Barnett's "Efficiency" involves Trina and Gordon who have just moved. Trina has been

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-26360972358063346002008-10-31T12:55:00.004-04:002008-10-31T13:05:34.010-04:00

Happy Halloween!A reprint of my story "Troll Bait" is now out in the current issue of Flash Me Magazine. You can read the issue's feature story online for free, but you have to subscribe to read the rest. This is a special all-fantasy issue, so if you like both flash and fantasy, it may be worth your dollar to check out.And now, it's time to go celebrate Halloween in the best way I know how:

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-87696773387048466242008-10-26T18:58:00.003-04:002008-10-26T19:04:32.454-04:00

Draft 1: 6,600Draft 2: 6,900Draft 3: 7,200Draft 4: 6,800Draft 5: 6,200Draft 6: 7,300I think that's the most dramatic up and down any story of mine has gone through. Probably says a lot about this poor tale's long and tortured history.

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-11143350635251583162008-10-06T16:12:00.001-04:002008-10-06T16:13:47.260-04:00

I just saw that my flash story "Just Words" is now up in the October 2008 issue of The VERB, an e-zine for writers. I much prefer these Mondays of Pleasantness over Mondays of Writerly Pain and Suffering.

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-43593246302063647682008-10-02T17:45:00.000-04:002008-10-02T17:46:07.184-04:00

Dear Brain,Remember that focus thing you used to be so good at? I kind of miss it. What do you say we invite it over and hang for a bit? Because, you know, it really shouldn't have taken me two hours to come up with a handful of deity names. Yeah, sure, we got one sentence revised too, but the story's 6,200 words long. That's a lot of sentences to deal with.Love,Me

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-77011449019373625392008-09-29T14:39:00.005-04:002008-09-29T14:54:11.702-04:00

Life has kindly brought me another Monday that doesn't totally suck. Instead of rejections, today's mail brought me my contributor copies of issue 5 of Kaleidotrope, which contains a silly little flash piece of mine called "Efficiency." Shiny.

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-57705592351541667502008-09-27T15:27:00.004-04:002008-09-27T15:32:18.246-04:00

Haven't been posting much recently as things have been on the crazy busy side. I think I may have gone a whole day or two without mahjong or non-essential internet surfing earlier this week. Things will likely remain insane until a cabaret/fundraiser I'm organizing and performing in on October 12 is done, but I think I've got my ducks in something close enough to a row to warrant some

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-56559804299282173192008-09-15T14:11:00.003-04:002008-09-15T14:31:51.414-04:00

At last, a Monday that doesn't suck. There's a very positive review of my story "To Someone Who Needs Prayer" (from issue 61 of Hub) over at The Fix. And the other day, a nice comment about the story showed up in Hub's comments section for the issue, so yayness!This was rather refreshing since my last few Mondays have been a bit depressing in the writing department. Three weeks ago, I woke up

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-24888169501900213482008-09-02T18:53:00.004-04:002008-09-15T14:11:01.032-04:00

I FINALLY finished rewriting the first damn chapter of my novel. That took entirely too long. Those pesky short stories kept distracting me. Also the occasional game of Mahjong, but let us not speak of that procrastination-enabling beast.I initially said I had finished "revising" the chapter, but "rewriting" is far more apt. I recycled some stuff from the original version, but I had to

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-70172061788890725992008-08-29T12:27:00.003-04:002008-08-29T12:28:46.022-04:00

Reason #1First draft of story: Many people in Crit Group 1 think the protagonist is too slow figuring out what's going on.Second draft of story, in which the protagonist figures things out at the point suggested in previous crits: Many people in Crit Group 2 think the protagonist figures things out far too quickly.Reason #2Significant number of crits: strong setting, lots of great detail

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-20440522254760039822008-08-21T16:00:00.002-04:002008-08-21T16:03:56.243-04:00

Saw Spamalot last night. Laughed my ass off. Life is good.In the writerly progress department, my muse has clearly called in some favors with the revision gods. Early August, I looked upon my ever-growing revision pile with a sense of impending doom. But ever since last week when I finally sat my butt down and got to work, I've been ripping through those bad boys with--dare I say it?--

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-14240057705029689462008-08-15T11:31:00.003-04:002008-08-15T11:37:29.174-04:00

The shore detox must have worked, because my brain has been very cooperative on the writing front this week, though it didn't look like it was going to be that way at first. I sat down to work on some short story revisions Monday and was overwhelmed with this horrible "I don't know what to do with this story! Why can't it work as is?" moment of writerly depression. So I finally stopped beating

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-56928892881908644642008-08-07T21:45:00.001-04:002008-08-07T21:49:16.238-04:00

The ShoreGot back from Stone Harbor yesterday, with plenty of sand, craft fair purchases, Cape May wine, and sunburned shoulders to show for it. Twas fun, but between that trip and TNEO, I'm looking forward to staying home for a whole week before running away again. I've always been quite fond of my bed, and the bed-like torture devices I was subjected to at TNEO and the shore house have made me

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-36206812110030232702008-07-28T18:41:00.002-04:002008-07-28T18:44:48.489-04:00

Got home from TNEO on Saturday night after several hours of wacky road trip antics with one of my Odyssey classmates from last year. My brain is still a bit too fried to be coherent or detailed, but to sum up the awesome: I got to catch up with some of my fellow '07 Odfellows (begawk!), I met lots of cool new folks from other Odyssey years, I came away with lots of good crits and ideas (and

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-81719755126722136712008-07-17T10:45:00.001-04:002008-07-17T10:46:59.976-04:00

I received my first-ever unsolicited reprint offer yesterday. The Writer's Institute, Inc. would like to include my story "Love Spells" (originally published in Leading Edge) in a teaching anthology called Voices, which will be used as a component of one of their writing courses. I did my homework and everything looks shiny, so here's a yay! to my fiction being used to corrupt--er, I mean,

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-65382496351140051912008-07-08T16:05:00.003-04:002008-07-08T23:42:04.589-04:00

In other words, I just finished the last of my TNEO crits today. As of mid-June, I only had two left to go, but between the time spent on the previous TNEO stories and the critting I have to do for my in-person writing group every other week, I kept putting those two off because I was so darn sick of critiquing. Every time I picked up a story, I was overcome with an insanely strong compulsion

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-29081467056881072012008-07-01T17:12:00.001-04:002008-07-01T17:13:25.410-04:00

A reprint of my short story "Jarra" is now up in the current issue of The Lorelei Signal. There's a poll for favorite story in the issue, so if the spirit moves you, any votes cast my way will be much appreciated.

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-29127592452314492922008-06-16T23:34:00.002-04:002008-06-16T23:39:12.518-04:00

Life has finally returned to normal-busy instead of crazy-busy. At least for now.For the first day in months, I can say that, as of earlier this afternoon, I have absolutely nothing to critique. (At least nothing with a deadline. I can always find something to crit somewhere.) It feels wonderful. The round 3 TNEO stories could turn up at any moment now, perhaps even as I'm posting this, but

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-49819641018940131452008-06-08T00:04:00.002-04:002009-02-20T15:26:37.919-05:00

I haven't had much time for posting lately, but I wanted to sneak in a quick one to say that my story "A Red One Cannot See" (or, as I've more frequently referred to it, my lemur-on-a-dirigible story) was accepted for Shimmer's Clockwork Jungle Book issue. That was a very nice email to find in my inbox this morning. Yay little lemur!And on the subject of a red that one can see, sunburn sucks. I

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-73078586587801471602008-05-24T10:34:00.004-04:002008-05-24T10:55:25.932-04:00

Today's mail brought with it my shiny new copy of the print version of The Sword Review #27, which has my story "The Poet" in it. And I get to share the TOC with Marshall Payne, Michael Ehart, and some other shiny people, which brings additional coolness.On the productivity front, I finally started making a dent in the round 1 critiques I have to do for TNEO. It's a small dent, but a dent all the

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-39307039529460960982008-05-13T17:02:00.004-04:002008-06-09T13:28:31.401-04:00

I was doing so well while working on my last story, but then I finished it and promptly went back to being useless in the writerly productivity department. On the plus side, out of all the ideas and story fragments on my computer screaming "Ooo, me! Pick me!", I had a very nice conversation with one Friday night, and I think we made a connection. I had to reschedule our first date a few times

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-72193646931734724222008-05-01T18:23:00.002-04:002008-05-24T10:56:51.618-04:00

And the tense-hopper is done, a whole two weeks before the next TNEO deadline. That feels good. I have to admit to tearing up a little while writing the ending, and then again today while editing the ending. If I can make someone else cry with this story, I will consider my mission complete--that is, of course, as long as they are shedding "oh, that was so sad and touching" tears and not "I

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-30597247950693299822008-04-25T16:18:00.004-04:002008-06-09T13:28:40.339-04:00

As some folks already know from me babbling elsewhere, I queried Hub on a submission earlier this week and received a reply that they'd like to publish "To Someone Who Needs Prayer." Yay-ness! Currently awaiting the contract and what issue it will be in, but I will be sure to shamelessly plug when the time comes.I think the story was up to about 1,600 words when I had it critiqued at Odyssey.

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-48430823377200932022008-04-16T15:46:00.008-04:002008-04-16T15:53:56.742-04:00

Yesterday was a new one for me in the writing department. I started work on a new story and was happily writing away in past tense when all the sudden, about a few hundred words into the piece, I realized I had switched to present tense. I figured, "what the heck, it's a crappy first draft that can be fixed later" and kept going. Next thing I knew, I had switched from present to past and back

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-35094764279916226002008-04-13T23:43:00.004-04:002008-05-24T10:58:24.987-04:00

So much for going to bed early tonight like I had planned. Oops.Anyway, I finally got my writing groove back on this past week and finished my story revisions in plenty of time for the first TNEO deadline. I feel better now. I first wrote the story in question at Odyssey last summer, and I have since come to lovingly refer to it as "the orgy story." Its actual title, however, is "The Sun's

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-18889969749879962892008-04-03T16:28:00.002-04:002008-05-24T10:58:52.118-04:00

We'll start with the positive. "Lucky Clover" received some nice comments over yonder: A Mystery That ReadsI got myself all signed up for TNEO this summer. For you non-Odfellows out there, that would be the The Never-Ending Odyssey, a week-long workshop during the summer for Odyssey grads. Doing the short story track, though I may throw in a novel chapter as one of my submissions. The

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-85027543584618626462008-03-15T12:36:00.004-04:002008-03-15T12:50:53.196-04:00

It's almost St. Patrick's Day, so to help celebrate, I offer you leprechauns, clovers, blood, and some nasty-looking fairies. In other words, "Lucky Clover" is now up at Flash Fiction Online, accompanied by some damn cool artwork. So grab yourself a green beer or two, and enjoy!

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-85939222912705170542008-03-08T17:07:00.008-05:002008-03-08T17:43:05.457-05:00

First, the obligatory plug: A Time To ... Volume 2 - The Best of The Lorelei Signal 2007, which includes my short story "Second Moon" (the artwork by Lee Kuruganti that accompanied the story's original publication also graces the anthology's cover, and I think it's darn perty), is now available for purchase through Lulu as a trade paperback or PDF download. It should also be available through

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-43613873574616915742008-03-01T17:10:00.006-05:002008-03-01T17:23:09.836-05:00

My flash story "Soul Delivery" is now up in the Spring 2008 issue of Flashquake. And it comes complete with a nice introductory comment from Sharon Hurlbut, who selected the story as her Editor's Pick for the issue:"Delightful twist on the old tale of a man selling his soul to the devil. Excellent pacing and writing."And now that I'm done with the plugging, I should get back to doing some more

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-33355410745008936242008-02-25T16:08:00.003-05:002008-06-09T13:29:20.754-04:00

Woke up to find a reprint acceptance in my inbox this morning, which was a nice way to start the day. My short story "Jarra" was accepted for the July-September 2008 issue of The Lorelei Signal (my second sale to them). The story was originally published in the now-defunct Forgotten Worlds, with whom I had a not-so-pleasant experience, so it's nice to see the story get another home.Also got a

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-35175189479653560802008-02-24T20:36:00.002-05:002009-02-20T15:28:10.038-05:00

2008 is being nice to my flash fiction so far. I found out today that a silly little story of mine called "Soul Delivery" is going to be an Editor's Pick in the Spring 2008 issue of Flashquake, which will go online March 1. I will be sure to shamelessly plug it some more when the time comes.On the productivity front, I polished up my lemur-on-a-dirigible story yesterday and got it shipped off

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-66334781683480251912008-02-17T20:26:00.002-05:002008-02-17T20:30:02.320-05:00

Got a phone call Friday night that I've been honorably mentioned in the Writers of the Future first quarter for 2008. Step up from the last time I submitted a story to the contest, so yay progress!

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-69582679291802141002008-02-09T15:25:00.003-05:002009-02-20T15:31:45.789-05:00

Yes, I have been rubbish about blogging lately. But then, I've been rubbish about getting much of anything done lately, so at least I'm consistent.Other than two flash stories and a few beginnings to some stories I plan to finish in the near future, I've mostly been revising older stuff lately. I still have a few more revisions to tackle, but I'm taking a break to focus on a new story I want to

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-18166448818989771312008-01-11T16:44:00.001-05:002008-06-09T13:29:42.356-04:00

When it comes to finding time to sit my butt down long enough to do some decent work in the writing department, 2008 hasn't been so hot thus far. Too many other things going on, most of them stupid little annoyances. Like my internet service--or frequent lack thereof. When my DSL connection hasn't been randomly cutting out, it's been achieving dial-up levels of slowness--despite multiple

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-24023432341508761432008-01-03T12:35:00.001-05:002009-02-20T15:33:51.192-05:00

It's that time of year again when I hop on my blog to procrastinate by telling you what I achieved on the 2007 writerly front during the moments when I wasn't procrastinating.Odyssey. Back in January 2007, I figured if I was ever going to do an intensive workshop like Odyssey, this was the opportune time to do it. So as much as it scared me, I applied. And much to my surprise, I was accepted.

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-1444183110782617382007-12-17T14:51:00.001-05:002008-06-09T13:27:12.371-04:00

Just wanted to announce that my short story "Second Moon," which appeared in the April-June 2007 issue of The Lorelei Signal, was selected to be in the e-zine's year-end anthology A Time To ... Volume 2 - The Best of The Lorelei Signal. The Lorelei Signal's also running a poll for the best illustrations of the year. I really liked the illustration by Lee Kuruganti that accompanied my story, so

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-26724345851682135912007-12-14T01:11:00.000-05:002007-12-14T01:16:54.162-05:00

I'm actually feeling something resembling productive on the writing front--despite being crazy busy with chorus rehearsals and concerts , critiquing commitments, stuff that earns me a paycheck, that looming Grinch-inducement that is Christmas, and stuff that I never should have volunteered to do because it makes me want to bludgeon both things and people.I found a few moments these past two days

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-61208550840220136242007-12-03T00:35:00.000-05:002007-12-03T00:54:11.356-05:00

My short story "Prophecy's Birth" is now up in the online edition of Aoife's Kiss. This is another one of those deals where you can vote for your favorite stories and poems in the issue, so if you feel like showing the other authors and me some love, by all means, go for it. I am not one to discourage love. Unless it's an icky wrong kind of love. You know, like people who love John Tesh's

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-69065671795220360332007-11-28T16:45:00.000-05:002007-11-28T18:00:05.531-05:00

I was recently watching the Steven Spielberg version of War of the Worlds. I'll spare you my rant on the myriad ways in which I thought this film screwed the pooch. Instead I'll stick with just one of the film's more logic-challenged moments.So fairly early in the film, the aliens do their alien whammy thing that causes electronic devices to stop working. City-wide blackouts. Cars have stalled

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-1396518328677210862007-11-10T16:17:00.000-05:002009-03-04T19:11:43.712-05:00

First, the obligatory pimping of a fellow critique group member's work:Michael Ehart's The Servant of the Manthycore (with an introduction by Michael Moorcock that I will be eternally jealous of him for snagging) is available for pre-order from Double-Edged Publishing.It's good adventure-oriented fantasy with a kick-ass heroine and a bronze-age setting setting you don't see all that often. I've

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-66617842667332829802007-10-28T13:00:00.000-04:002009-06-02T19:07:01.996-04:00

I can't decide which of the following is worse: supposed writers who complain about "grammer nazi's" picking their work apart instead of recognizing their obvious brilliance, or people who, when complaining about the aforementioned supposed writers, proudly declare, "I'm a spelling and grammer Nazi."

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-14249968998480621532007-10-18T13:18:00.000-04:002009-06-02T19:07:13.688-04:00

"Ugh, don't use a semicolon. I hate semicolons.""You used a couple dashes in this. I hate dashes. I never use them in my own writing. I don't like the way they look."I've now seen variations on the above enough to be perplexed. I understand that people are going to have stylistic preferences and leanings for their own work, but lavishing hate on a properly used form of punctuation in someone

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-53951889640701763952007-10-02T14:21:00.000-04:002007-10-02T14:24:10.062-04:00

On the writing front, September started out very productive but quickly shifted into excruciatingly slow mode. I spent almost the entire month revising one dang story that insisted on kicking my ass at every turn. But eventually I beat it into submission and submitted it to Interzone's upcoming MundaneSF issue. And once I got that story out of my system, I polished up and submitted another (

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-65471949141476194192007-09-18T15:17:00.001-04:002007-09-18T15:18:30.692-04:00

Story time, and I promise it will eventually relate to writing. A few months after I started taking voice lessons way back in high school, I auditioned for All South Jersey Chorus and didn't get in. What pushed that result past disappointing and straight into traumatic experience territory was the fact that, despite those voice lessons that I was certain had turned me into a much better singer,

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-78785963791252647752007-09-08T13:21:00.000-04:002007-09-08T13:30:12.196-04:00

My short story "The Poet" received some positive comments in Tangent Online's review of The Sword Review #27. The last story of mine reviewed in Tangent didn't come off nearly as well, so this was nice to see. Though I'm still in shock that twisted, evil me wrote something that can be described as "sweet."

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-79400893666619198052007-08-29T16:00:00.000-04:002007-08-29T17:37:15.733-04:00

I can summarize my post-Odyssey revision process in one word: painful. Flash pieces haven't given me a headache, probably because they're so short and contained. Longer pieces, however . . .Last weekend, I finally got a short story I wrote at Odyssey revised and sent out. So I moved on to another short story. At first things were going well, but then I got to the last scene, which needed the

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-37124998772130085782007-08-14T15:32:00.000-04:002007-08-14T15:33:44.604-04:00

You're Alice's Adventures in Wonderland!by Lewis CarrollAfter stumbling down the wrong turn in life, you've had your mind opened to a number of strange and curious things. As life grows curiouser and curiouser, you have to ask yourself what's real and what's the picture of illusion. Little is coming to your aid in discerning fantasy from fact, but the line between them is so blurry that it's

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-67630639923235987552007-08-11T11:09:00.000-04:002007-08-11T11:26:41.268-04:00

One of my critique group members, who just loves it when I pick on her commas and adverbs, just had her first novel released yesterday. And since I bought my copy yesterday, I can now shamelessly plug it without feeling like a hypocrite. So here we go:The Reckoning of Asphodel by Celina SummersSynopsis from the publisher: Tamsen witnesses the cruel murder of her parents at the hands of her

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-83305459688481437962007-08-06T22:56:00.000-04:002007-08-06T23:07:48.622-04:00

After a week at the shore without internet access, I came home to 80-something e-mails--and that's not counting spam. My brain hurts.I didn't do any writing at the shore, but I did get a lot of reading done, which made for a nice change of pace. After Odyssey's daily critiquing grind, not having to crit any of that reading was even nicer. And while the frequent eating out that came with a

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-7417569354941201562007-07-24T18:03:00.001-04:002007-07-24T18:56:29.408-04:00

Now that I'm back from my fantastic yet grueling six weeks at the Odyssey Writing Workshop, I thought I should share some of the wisdom I have gained:My writing isn't nearly as good as I thought it was.Conversely, my writing doesn't suck nearly as much as I thought it did.There are a lot of writing concepts that I didn't understand nearly as well as I thought I did.I now have a serious arsenal of

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-12323733734202278212007-07-11T20:23:00.000-04:002009-03-04T19:11:43.713-05:00

After some gentle prodding from a few of my fellow Odyssians, I've started a Livejournal. It will probably end up mirroring this blog for the most part, though I'm thinking I might also use it as a place to throw in some more personal stuff when the mood strikes me and keep this blog strictly to the writing. But if any of you, my multitude of blog readers (5 is a multitude, right?), are on LJ

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-53560010600620569572007-06-29T16:10:00.000-04:002007-06-29T16:19:38.328-04:00

Poking my head above the Odyssey waters once more to say that I was happy to stumble across a positive mention of "Love Spells" in a review of Leading Edge #53 at Whispers of Wickedness (reviewed by Terry Grimwood):So, Terry’s favourite? Love Spells, B A Barnett’s craftily plotted gem which has an immensely satisfying twist in its tale, but manages to move the reader at the same time. If you try

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25490068.post-9318087629019468712007-06-22T15:01:00.000-04:002007-06-22T15:08:04.193-04:00

I'm going to come up for air from Odyssey real quick to announce that my short story "The Poet" is now up at The Sword Review.As for Odyssey, I'm busy as all hell, but loving the experience. The downside is that I can hear all of the criticisms "The Poet" would be receiving if I were to put in front of everyone here. But it's all good, and the folks here are mad awesome.

Barbara A. Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15031633304948114251noreply@blogger.com2