On the Cusp...

It's been an exciting month. As I mentioned in my last post, I've been hunting for agents for both Dreamwielder and This Book is Sh*t! After an initial quick response and request for sample chapters from one of my top agent picks for Dreamwielder, all's been quiet on that front. However, I did find an agent to shop the This Book is Sh*t! proposal to book publishers in New York, and even more exciting, the Baldairn Motte book I worked on with Craig Comer and Ahimsa Kerp has been picked up by L&L Dreamspell. The three of us just inked the contract, and if all goes according to schedule, The Roads to Baldairn Motte will be coming out as a trade paperback and multi-format e-book in the second quarter of 2011!

Taking Care of Business

Well, it's been well over a month and a half since my last post, but I can honestly say I've not been idle. After finishing the first draft of Dreamwielder, I needed to take some time away from it for two purposes: 1) to give my peer reviewers a chance to read the damn thing, and 2) to give myself some distance so I could come back and look at the book with more objectivity.

So during that time I banged out the book proposal for This Book is Sh*t!, sent out the first batch of query letters to agents for This Book is Sh*t!, drew my map for Dreamwielder, and drafted my query letter for Dreamwielder. By then, the feedback was in from my reviewers and I turned my attention to revisions. There weren't any catastrophic problems with the first draft, and I actually enjoy the revision phase, so it went pretty fast. Most of the revision work consisted of fleshing out character motivation, ironing out some dialogue, and adding in scenes that were previously only summarized. All in all, I added about 3,500 new words to the book (knocking it up to 86,500 words), and the resulting product is 100X better. I'd like to officially thank my reviewers: Ahimsa Kerp, Eric Tryon, Mandy Burke, Craig Comer, my Aunt Linda, and my mother, Shirley Phillips. The critiques and suggestions they offered were critical in taking the book to the next level.

Up Yours, Chapter 32!

I am finally, finally done with the first draft of Dreamwielder. The climatic chapter was a beast to write. I spent damn near 20 hours on the single chapter alone, including one grueling 13-hour stint Saturday night where I nearly made it to the end, but fizzled out.

I make a habit of emailing myself the novel manuscript every time I add to it or make significant changes (just to make sure I have a back-up copy), and here's the transcript of my e-mail to myself when I finally crapped out early Sunday morning:

*

from Garrett Calcaterra

to gcalcaterra

date Sun, Feb 7, 2010 at 5:46 AM

subject Dreamwielder

mailed-by gmail.com

Message:

Fuck. 32... alolst

-me

Attch: Dreamwielder.doc 995K

I'm Somebody!

It's official: "The Key Ring" was voted Best Horror Short Story of 2009 in the Preditors & Editors Readers Poll! Thanks to everyone who voted and passed on the word to others. I have to say, this is way better than just being in the phone book.

Anyhow, I'm hoping to get "The Key Ring" published in a stand alone book with another novella I wrote a while back, "The Shadow." The book is tentatively titled Umbral Visions, and I'm sending out query letters as we speak. I'll be sure to make it known if I get any bites.

In the meantime, I'm finishing up work on Dreamwielder and am still taking submission for This Book is Sh*t! I have accepted about six non-fiction pieces for the poop anthology so far and will begin searching for a publisher as soon as I wrap up Dreamwielder (hopefully by the end of next weekend).

That's all for now. I'm off to send out those query letters and prep for my awesome Zombies in Film & Literature class I teach this afternoon.

Thanks again and cheers!

-Garrett Calcaterra

Mutterings at 3 AM after ten days straight of writing...

Well, I gave it one hell of an effort (as far as these things are quantifiable). I had hoped to finish the first draft of my novel, Dreamwielder, during this week off from teaching, but it turns out my novel is going to be a good deal longer than I anticipated. I wrote every day, including three excessively long binge sessions (two of which were matched minute for minute by my buddy Eric Tryon), and cranked out an impressive 36,000 words in ten days. It's not quite Stephen King numbers, but pretty good for me. Especially considering the novel was only sitting at 39,193 words when I picked it up last Friday. It's even more impressive considering I only wrote forty some thousand words of new original material in all of last year combined. The current running total for my novel is 75,091 words, and I have two more chapter to write... I think.

To be perfectly honest, I think the last few chapter are rushed, and I will probably go back to the beginning of the novel to run through the entirety of it before writing the finale. It's a little disappointing to not be finished, but I can't be sad. I'm close, and there was always much work to be done in the revision phase anyhow.

So, that's that. I'll have more news soon, but I'm a bit too delirious at the moment. I'll just say that it looks as if everyone's votes have put my story "The Key Ring" into first place for the Preditors & Editors reader's poll for best horror short story, and also put my story "The Missionary" in contention for print publication in Golden Visions. Thank you all so much for your support and votes. I'll let you know more soon enough when I hear the official voting results, and I will also update everyone on the This Book is Sh*t! project.

Until then... here's me passing out.

-Garrett Calcaterra

I need your votes!

I'm not usually such a big cheerleader for myself, but my novella "The Key Ring" is in the running for the Preditors & Editors award for best horror short story. It's a reader's poll, so that means readers decide by voting.

So give me a V! Give me an O! Give me a T! Give me an E! Vote, vote, vote! I'm looking to package "The Key Ring" with my novella "The Shadow" as a stand alone book, and winning this award would certainly make publishers take more notice, so spread the word. Pwetty pwease?

You can vote here (scroll down to "K" for "Key Ring"):

http://www.critters.org/predpoll/shortstoryh.shtml

And incidentally, Arkham Tales, the publisher, just got bought out by Leucrota Press, so the story has moved to a new website. You can find "The Key Ring" in Issue #2, downloadable here:

http://arkhamtales.leucrotapress.com/?page_id=245

Thanks!

-Garrett Calcaterra

2009: Totally Uninspiring

Here's my 2009 Writing Totals

New short stories, non-fiction articles, and screenplay shorts written: 7

New Chapters for Dreamwielder written: 9

Total word count of new writing: 45,500

Short story and non-fiction article submissions sent out: 105

Acceptances: 6 (2 print, 4 on-line)

Number of hair-brain ideas scrapped before coming to fruition: 4,359 (estimated)

Dollars spent on liquor and beer: I don't want to know

All in all, a sub par year. I blew by my self-imposed deadline for finishing Dreamwielder and have failed to keep up pace with a highly successful 2008 in which I wrote, submitted, and published way more.

I bid you good day, 2009! Here's to a better 2010 for everyone.

-Garrett Calcaterra