Kam Oi Lee » distant worlds http://www.kamoi-lee.com writer. spaceship dweller. dystopian underdog. Wed, 01 Jun 2011 17:15:18 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 What I’ve gotten done this year in the writing department http://www.kamoi-lee.com/2010/12/14/what-ive-gotten-done-this-year-in-the-writing-department/ http://www.kamoi-lee.com/2010/12/14/what-ive-gotten-done-this-year-in-the-writing-department/#comments Tue, 14 Dec 2010 23:56:11 +0000 Kam Oi Lee http://www.kamoi-lee.com/?p=499 January – I submitted “Algae” to an anthology of novella-length science fiction. I also decided that for my next project, I would condense a pre-existing, old sucky trilogy into a single volume, titled The Free City.

February – I worked on detrilogization.

March – I received word that “Algae” had been accepted! Continued work [...]]]> January – I submitted “Algae” to an anthology of novella-length science fiction. I also decided that for my next project, I would condense a pre-existing, old sucky trilogy into a single volume, titled The Free City.

February – I worked on detrilogization.

March – I received word that “Algae” had been accepted! Continued work on detrilogization, then switched gears to write an “Algae”-related bonus story. Finished that, and was about to jump back into detrilogization when I got bit by the Sweet Heart Catalyst plot bunny.

April – Completely abandoned the detrilogization project to work on SHC. By the middle of the month, I had 12,000 words of utter tripe. I also refluffed my official writing blog.

May – I came to the realization that I’d bitten off a big chunk to chew with SHC. I began to split my time between the research rabbit hole (reading about cops and serial killers), and the worldbuilding rabbit hole (inventing new forms of telepathy). I also started a short story, “Wallwalker: Encounter on Planet 352″.

June – I worked concurrently on SHC and “Wallwalker”. Gave the first draft of “Wallwalker” to my writing group for crit.

July – After a short period of unmotivation after returning from Mexico, I jumped back into SHC. Received some feedback on “Wallwalker”. Also started another short, “Desert Walker”, but I didn’t really know where it was going, so I put it aside and began writing yet another short, “Bright Light”.

August – With about 20,000 words on SHC, I realized that I needed to start over from scratch. Also, I finished the first draft of “Bright Light” and gave it to my writing group for crit. Giant home improvement project is competing for my attention.

September – Small amounts of SHC work done, but the giant home improvement project is still cutting into my writing time. Finally received edits for “Algae”, so switched gears to work on that.

October – Sent the “Algae” edits back to my editor. Started revising “Bright Light”. SHC on back burner.

November – Still at work revising “Bright Light”. Then I received the second round of “Algae” edits, so I broke off to work on those, and managed to send the final version back to the editor by the end of the month.

December – Finished the second draft of “Bright Light” and gave it to my writing group for crit. Now getting ready to jump back into SHC.

Looking back at this, it could also be read as the chronicle of my slowness and easy distractibility. I kept switching projects, and I only managed to submit one story in 2010. I was hoping I might be able to have “Bright Light” ready to submit before the end of this year, but that’s looking pretty unlikely.

Alternatively, it could be seen as an accomplishment that I’ve managed to get any writing done at all, what with all the other stuff I’m doing (two jobs, playing in a band, various fitness pursuits, home improvement projects, and travel). I’m honestly not sure which one it is.

Anyway, Sweet Heart Catalyst is the next project. Part of me thinks I should return to my detrilogization of The Free City, but that will have to wait. I feel more inspired to work on something new, and I also think that writing a new thing to completion (even if technically, I’m starting over on it) will be easier and less time-consuming than refribulating an existing thing. I still think The Free City is worth doing (at some point), but I can only work on one novel at a time, or my brain will explode.

]]> http://www.kamoi-lee.com/2010/12/14/what-ive-gotten-done-this-year-in-the-writing-department/feed/ 4 Spring 2010 update http://www.kamoi-lee.com/2010/04/20/289/ http://www.kamoi-lee.com/2010/04/20/289/#comments Tue, 20 Apr 2010 21:35:44 +0000 Kam Oi Lee http://www.kamoi-lee.com/?p=289 Algae, my story about love, art, and iron mining on the frigidly cold planet Diamanta, was recently accepted to the Distant Worlds anthology of novella-length science fiction (to be published by The Library of Science Fiction and Fantasy Press). This will be my second published story, and my first story to appear in [...]]]> Accepted!

Algae, my story about love, art, and iron mining on the frigidly cold planet Diamanta, was recently accepted to the Distant Worlds anthology of novella-length science fiction (to be published by The Library of Science Fiction and Fantasy Press). This will be my second published story, and my first story to appear in print format (there will be an ebook version as well). Needless to say, I couldn’t be more stoked! The Distant Worlds anthology also contains novellas by Patty Jansen, A.L. Sirois, Michael C. Pennington, and Aleksandar Žiljak.

What I’m working on

Right now I’m writing the first draft of a novel, Sweet Heart Catalyst. My main character is one of a series of twenty-six identical clones who were genetically engineered to have telepathic and empathic abilities as well as unusual physical strength and resilience. So theoretically, he should be awesome at everything, right? Well… maybe not so much. He’s also young, and insecure, and so desperate to prove himself in his chosen field of law enforcement, that he ends up making a major mistake: he violates the rights of a suspect in custody. In doing so, he not only breaks the law, but his own personal code of ethics, and the biological software inside his head. Suddenly everything becomes a colossal mess, and he has to fix it–or else governments will fall, peace treaties will fail, bullets will fly, and a kidnapped little girl will die. How does he put everything right? I’m working on that ;)

In case anybody’s wondering what happened to my other novel project, The Outerlands, it’s on the back burner right now.

Rebirth of this blog

This blog has been quiet for a while, mainly because I found the effort of posting here too daunting. See, I got too caught up in feeling like any public posts I made had to be “worthy” of some standard. I was always reading things about how writers need to blog in order to generate more interest in their work, and draw more potential readers to their site, and “build their brand”, and so forth. Which are all great things. But I found that whenever I sat down, with those goals in mind, to write some sort of well thought-out, articulate, intelligent, writing-related article, it would (1) take me forever, and (2) leave me feeling tapped out, like I’d shot my wad writing about writing… instead of, you know, WRITING!

There are people out there who are doing amazing things with their blogs: discussing the exciting and challenging aspects of the writing craft, creating communities of mutual interest while getting their own names out there, and all the while managing to write and create and submit and publish. However (*giant light bulb*), I am not one of those people. Therefore I’ve decided that from now on, my main focus will be on the types of posts that come more naturally to me: progress on my WIPs, character art, neato things I found while doing research for stories, plus occasional tweets of a sentence from a WIP. Things that are probably not terribly exciting to anyone else, but that help energize and sustain my creative process. If this somehow peripherally results in one or two more people becoming interested in what I’m doing, why then, that’d be swell too. But for me to worry too much about “building my brand” seems a bit premature. Maybe when I finish story #3 ;)

]]> http://www.kamoi-lee.com/2010/04/20/289/feed/ 0