The Journal of Michael Merriam

I have finished the draft of the untitled monster-hunting barista novel. It clocked in at 68,000 words, which might be a little thin. I'm glad to be done with this one, and ready to start working on other things.

Had an author's online meeting with the editorial and marketing staff at Carina Press. All of Harlequin is behind the launch of this line. I need to set up an author's page at e-Harlequin. I am bemused that I set out to write a near-future Urban Fantasy and ended up with Paranormal Romance. The working title, "Should We Drown In Feathered Sleep," will probably not survive, but I'm okay with changing it to something marketing thinks will appeal more to the target audience.

I keep pulling out and petting my copies of The Horror At Cold Springs. I am a little boggled that I'll have two stand-alone novellas published this year. Now to sell a novel.

Met with the The Minnesota Speculative Fiction Writers last weekend to talk about the Northern Lights: 20 MinnSpec Tales anthology. Several members did not know the extended history of this project (it was first proposed in 2007). There were a few moments of "Michael squirms in his chair" as I took questions from writers I had rejected. Next weekend I will be presenting at MinnSpec again, this time with cloudscudding and Conrad Zero on social networking for authors.

I sat down today and worked out what needs to be done in order to salvage "Dark Water Blues." I can fix this, though it will mean some serious rewriting. I also realized I only have eight pieces of short fiction out right now, which is a low number for me. Turning more and more of my writing attention to novels has cut into the number of short stories I have in progress, though there are a couple of WiPs I'm excited about.

On the home front, we’ve been hit with several larger repairs lately: a new compressor for the AC in careswen's car, and heating elements for both the dryer and hot water heater. On the positive side, The Reverend Selena seems to be pretty much back to normal, though she still get IV fluids twice a week to help her ailing kidneys. Had wonderful and successful birthday parties for both careswen and greykev and went to dlandon's dance recital, which was a joy to watch.

Preparation for attending 4th Street Fantasy Convention, CONvergence, and possibly Diversicon are starting to rev up. I updated my website, mostly the bibliography page. I am looking forward to seeing everyone. I really need to spend quality time practicing with my bass guitar before music circles at these cons.

Big Update Done!

Rebuilt and updated: http://www.michaelmerriam.net/

Not such a good day writing-wise due to real life interfering, but I did manage to complete several other things, including getting some stuff to my webmaster so we can update my website, which has been in needing some work for a couple of months. I also paid the artist for the cover of Shimmer & Shadows, and talked with another person about a possible publishing project that I can't really discuss in public too much, because it's still in the "this could fall apart at any minute" stage.

Dark Water Blues


Dinner tonight with greykev. I have cornbread cooling and a peach cobbler to make. There will be Arkham Horror played tonight.

I am thinking about expanding my web presence. The only thing I have on the web at this time is this Live Journal, so I'm seriously considering setting up a web page. Is anyone here using sff.net, and if they are, how do you like it?

Frankly speaking, at this time I cannot afford a lot of money for a webpage, and while careswen has some knowledge of web design, neither of us are particularly expert at it, and again, can't really afford to pay someone a lot of money to do it. Also, it needs to be set up simply enough that I can change content from time to time without worrying about either: A) breaking it because I'm stupid, or B) needing to get a PhD to learn to add content.

At this point, I really don't need anything fancy, so I'm thinking about going with sff.net (like a lot of people in our field have), and just wanted to know what other people's experience with it has been.

In Peace
Michael