Rachel Udin

Switching off of Blogger...

noreply@blogger.com (Rachel Udin) — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 02:39:00 +0000

I'm going to migrate to Wordpress, because apparently blogger doesn't like supporting FTP anymore and that's how I run the updates on my site. (Integration and so on)

Also, I am working on tailoring queries to agents for Magic Solutions, Inc., so that when the last edits roll through, I can send them out. I hope something comes of it and this manuscript shines as much as I want it to and I haven't been deluded by internet lore. (It's really good--to assure me and make me feel better.)

Of course, just because Magic Solutions, Inc. is almost done, it doesn't mean I'm not working on other projects. So I'm working through those other projects in addition to everything else in my life.

I'll have to look at what's selling besides Vampire books to keep on top of the market next. Perhaps I'll find an agent that way too.

Anyway, I appreciate patience while I try to migrate this blog over. Thank you.

What I've been up to...

noreply@blogger.com (Rachel Udin) — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 05:06:00 +0000

I finished Magic Solutions, Inc. put it through serious edits, and now... now I've procrastinated sending it out to agents because I'm phobic that I didn't edit it enough. I only have one chance with agents, but at the same time I know I'm just dragging my feet away from the rejection letters.

Besides, what's left over most people have said is very clean and they like the story, so my rejections can't be on the "It sucks" level... at least too much.

In the meantime, I'm working on the sequel, Magic Resolutions. I describe this book as more sexual references, but a little less violence. (I chose the title as kind of a pun...)

I'm also working on building the background for a Historical High Fantasy novel that I'm hoping to make very obscure what the related countries are unless you look things up. This is NOT set in Europe and it's not medieval. (Not even close to that time period). Finding research for it is proving to be difficult, but not impossible. It should hit the market in time for the next predicted boom I have--Fantasy set outside of Medieval Europe. I'm lucky it writes so incredibly slow.

Keeping Honest

noreply@blogger.com (Rachel Udin) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:34:00 +0000

I'm working on finishing up the third run of Magic Solutions, Inc. I'm glad that the book will be to target on word count, though it will need a lot of basic editing to get it to connect properly. I should finish before the end of the year just like I said I would.

I still need to restructure the squirrel chapter, but I've figured that out.

Update on Status

noreply@blogger.com (Rachel Udin) — Sun, 17 May 2009 01:34:00 +0000

I finished No Strings Attached now I need a kind person to read through it and check for basic mistakes and grammar. Is there a grammarian on the premises?

I also split some of the chapters on Magic Solutions Inc because the size of the book was too small and it was straining against itself with chapters that were too long.

I got through the Zombie chapter, which is by count chapter eleven, after the Squirrel chapter, which leaves me on chapter twelve. I'm pleased with this chapter, but sad to see my characters grow up faster than I'd bargained for. Perhaps it is temporary.

I'm gathering research for chapter twelve so I can make a plot and trying to feel out the chapter. The Zombie chapter turned out in three days. This chapter, however, seems to be a slow one. The idea I had was Rent-a-Soul is kidnapping senior citizens for their life force. The verse they live in is like what Florida is to the United States-- Worlds filled with retirement homes.

Because my books have made me a slave, I haven't had time to edit and submit short stories at all. I plan to finish Magic Solutions, Inc by the end of the year.

Five chapters to edit, Six (added) chapters to write. Despite the objections to my formatting, I'm sticking to TV season format with an episode count similar to the first run of Babylon 5, Buffy and Heroes.

Last update, No Strings Attached spawned itself a sequel despite my best efforts to keep it out of my head, the story just started to write itself anyhow. I find the story too fluffy and against my original intention for the story. Because of this, I'll let it write itself, but I definitely won't publish it. I have enough to worry about.

Magic Solutions Inc. Update

noreply@blogger.com (Rachel Udin) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 19:58:00 +0000

I've been working on Magic Solutions Inc. I got to Chapter 7. This one is on Giant God Squirrels. After a class in Cultural Anthropology I figured out that I should use Totemism to explain the existence of the squirrels and the worship of them. So everyone on the planet thinks they are descended from these squirrels. I think it will make it fun. I am going to be careful, with the blessing of my characters to not step on any religions. Most religions don't think squirrels are that important anyhow.

This means that the planet has clans, most likely. So that mens most likely Matrilineal or Patrilineal rather than bilineal.

I knew taking cultural Anthro classes would pay off in my fiction writing!

Anyway, I need to crystallize how it's going to shape up, but this chapter is writing scattered unlike the previous chapters. It's a bit odd to have the book write differently each chapter, but I let it do whatever it likes.

No Strings Attached is mostly edited. I just need to rewrite the Ghost in the Graveyard chapter which is proving to be harder to write than I previously thought. How to make the reader conscious where the character is not in first person narration is difficult, but I'm working through it.

I also have to kick myself and submit more stories. I think that my witch story is going to have to be retired.

I wish there was better submission management software too... I'm starting to lose track of what I submitted where, but I can't find a good submission software anywhere.

I learned...

noreply@blogger.com (Rachel Udin) — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 07:42:00 +0000

... that sending out submissions after November 25 to January 1 is like putting your submissions into a black hole. I remember why I didn't do it in previous years. This is the rumored black hole of the publishing industry... I never believed it before now.

... that the more you get rejections in a year, the more your writing improves.

... I hate rewriting, though for some reason I keep coming back to do it. Just takes 2 times longer than editing or writing the first draft.

... People don't really change, just our perceptions of them change as they become more like themselves.

... When I don't write for long periods of time, I start narrating other people's actions and then projecting them like they are part of my stories. (But I'm informed that's a writer sickness all writers have).

... When I'm stuck on a story, but not beholden to the loss of its internal glory, I tend to write other things like novels or poetry which help me get unstuck, even if I know they do suck.

And I did update the website and give it a nice little face lift.

I'll get those last three rejections!

noreply@blogger.com (Rachel Udin) — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 00:30:00 +0000

Alright, it's August. I don't have an excuse anymore. I need those last three rejections. Collecting rejections isn't a bad thing.

I hear from people. Isn't collecting rejections a bad thing? Isn't it bad to talk about wanting rejections. but the thing is, the more I send the stories out, the more I expect a rejection, the harder I will work to get that much better. I'll work harder each and every time. Getting a rejection is a validation for me that I've been sending out my stories and doing the right thing. How is that bad?

Given that, I have three more rejections to fill my quota for the year. I have to say that as I get more rejections in a year my writing seems to be far better than anything I've written in the previous year. I can see a lot more differences. Maybe I should increase my quota of rejections.

I also found the more people who share in your passion of getting a rejection, the less daunting it is to send things out. The less fear you have and the easier it is to just get that manuscript out there.

I have a story up to par enough to get rejected three times by the end of the year. It's not a crappy story, but to hope that I can get the rejections I need to reach my quota make it appealing. I do wonder if I sound nuts though and this post is going to come back to haunt me later.

New Section

noreply@blogger.com (Rachel Udin) — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 02:07:00 +0000

I put up a Writing Samples section. I'm afraid though that it doesn't really represent the range of work I write. Mostly it's in the weird and fringe category for now. I'll think about it more and add as necessary.

I celebrate rejections

noreply@blogger.com (Rachel Udin) — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 16:36:00 +0000

I heard that if you aren't getting rejections, you aren't submitting. Maybe its guilt, but I've sent out three stories within two weeks. I've been working on two novels at the same time--polar opposites of each other. I may as well do something productive before my trip to Asia.

I really have an urge to podcast one, but I need to finish it first.

Rejection

noreply@blogger.com (Rachel Udin) — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 17:20:00 +0000

I'm quite used to rejections now. I send the manuscripts, and they come like clockwork. It's gotten to the point that I can tell if something has gone really "under serious consideration" or if it was dumped in the fodder for rejection slips. Honestly, I don't mind.

I got my first rejection for the Children's Book. It's kind of a comfort, because the turn around was 2 weeks. Which means that it either has serious flaws, or I really misjudged the publishers by reading their website.

I'm working on other stories though, so it's not a total loss. I have to get used to working in between rejection slips and balancing life, or I'll never get there. I have a few publishers picked out for the next few submissions.

What am I Writing?

noreply@blogger.com (Rachel Udin) — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 07:20:00 +0000

I finished a children's book about a year or so ago to make into a picture book. I finally got the gumption to edit it and I'm sending it out to publishers. I'm hoping that sending out a picture book for publishing isn't going to bite me later when I send out my novels.

Currently I'm sitting on one novel which I can't bring myself to edit because of its many flaws--it was my Nanowrimo for 2005. It's about a woman who compares love to a dog as a way to deal with the death of her mother that she doesn't like. I want to send it out--but I'm having trouble editing it. I think I safely can sell this as off-beat chic lit if I ever get around to fixing it.

The other project I'm working on is half way through. I finally after a lot of pain have finally gotten half way. This one is technically Science Fantasy. I see it more of Soft Science Fiction operating along side High Fantasy.

The last project is a short fantasy story that I can't get myself to sell. Sometimes I wonder if I should just wait for the industry to change. I think I look at magazines on the shelves of Barnes and Nobles, read them, flirt with them, read a few of the stories, scare myself that my story isn't going to sell to them, read Writer's Market for about two hours, sift through them, and surface with only two magazines out of the say ten or twenty listed in the section. Then I find myself after about 2-3 rejections seeing my impinging doom as I see that there are no other magazines in the Science Fiction or Fantasy section that will accept the story I wrote! Then of course I scramble to think up something marketable that I could write, spend a day or two on that, get stuck on it and languish in my own personal misery. This pattern is awfully hard to break. Because I'm basically psyching myself out waiting for a Ouija board to fall out of the sky and tell me what to do. (And if you read enough writing books, you will pretty much begin to think that a Ouija board will be more straight forward than any book on how to get published. Even if You've read Miss Snark.)

Since I don't have a degree yet, I think I can try very hard in my college years to do something that most authors complain about. And that is writing for different genres and imprints. Yes, I am aware of all the dangers, and how your name is a brand... but I find myself wanting to be able to write it all under one name. I want my name to be attached to eclecticism. If this bites me later, so be it. Then I can adopt a pseudonym, everyone can look it up on the internet, find out it's me on wikipedia.org, and no harm no foul.

As it is, I write poetry, short fiction, flash fiction, novels, novellas and unfortunately novelettes. The only things I can't seem to write are Straight Mystery and Romance. Otherwise I write Science Fantasy, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Chic Lit, Straight Literature, Young Adult, Children's and I'm even playing with the idea of writing a Memoir on Adoption. I might get into horror if I get enough psychology underneath my belt and can play a decent chess game. It's roughly in that order. So I can't really imagine myself writing only one genre and having to stick with it for the rest of my life. The words, "You'll find your genre," or even, "You should write..." which usually include the reader's favorite genre by choice seem like a noose around my neck. While I respect opinion, I think that since I've been reading and creating all sorts of stories since I was five years old that those "excess" genres aren't leaving.

A Challenge to My Fellow Writers

noreply@blogger.com (Rachel Udin) — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 19:06:00 +0000

(1) Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
(2) Furiously sleep ideas green colorless.

It is fair to assume that neither sentence (1) nor (2) (nor indeed any part of these sentences) had ever occurred in an English discourse. Hence, in any statistical model for grammaticalness, these sentences will be ruled out on identical grounds as equally "remote" from English. Yet (1), though nonsensical, is grammatical, while (2) is not.

was said by Noam Chomsky. He is a a linguist who worked in generative grammar. His argument is that these can't be used in general discourse, not in a poem, but in dialogue and have it make sense.

So I'd like to see if anyone can use both sentences and create a convincing context for which they could be used. Limit yourself to 200 words.

You can post them here.

Welcome

noreply@blogger.com (Rachel Udin) — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 19:49:00 +0000

Hello, my name is Rachel Udin. I am a writer. I have started this blog and this website to tell more about myself as a writer. I am as of yet unpublished. Hopefully that will change soon.

If you would like to ask questions about writing in general, the publishing industry and so on, feel free to ask. If I don't know I can point you towards the right direction.