Thursday, August 30, 2007

Liam's Latest Rejection

One good thing: You can't get rejected if you're not writing anything.
Another good thing: CAPTIVATING prose.

See below:



Dear Liam Johnstone,

Thank for your submission to Every Day Fiction. I regret to inform you that we are unable to use it at this time.

Well-crafted prose and an interesting idea. I don"t think, though, that we are given quite enough information to really make the story work. I need a bit more information to convince me that the protagonist is the good guy and the others are the bad guys, to buy into this world where a man can step into a loom and disappear. I had to read it a couple of times to sort out what I think is going on, and even then I"m not certain. But there"s definitely a germ of a good idea here, and this author should develop it. --Camille

This does sound like the beginning of an interesting story, and the prose kept me captivated, but it doesn't feel complete in and of itself. There's not much character arc or plot development. The prose is good, and we'd like to see more from you, but we need a little more from a story than what is here.

We wish you good luck in placing the story elsewhere.

--
Sincerely,

Jordan Lapp
Managing Editor
Every Day Fiction




I don't have any plans on putting the story this references on the blog yet. I'm going to try and work with it and see what I can do to make it a full story and submit it somewhere else.

So it sucks it got rejected but there's cause for optimism.

Until more later on,

Liam


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Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Frets on Fire

If you like Guitar Hero, or you're intrigued by the idea of it (even if you've never heard of it) you should check out Frets on Fire. It's freeware, it's free, it's available for download, you can use the Guitar Hero song-packs for it, and there are even tutorials showing you how to create your own songs. Which means there are a ton of songs that are user-created for you to enjoy.

Give it a shot.


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Saturday, August 25, 2007

Anniversaries

Kim and I celebrated two anniversaries this week. First, on Tuesday, was the third anniversary of our wedding. Much fun was had, eating Indian food and playing games, and just all around having a fun day. Kim goes more into it on her blog here.

Then yesterday, we celebrated the first year of our living in the Minchau house. We celebrated by helping Kyle and Erron finish moving out of their house. They're moving to Chicago, a move that is sound but sad. We'll miss the Andersons and their children and hope for their safe trip down, and their speedy return.

That is all for now.


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Tuesday, August 07, 2007

How I Spent my Summer Vacation

Being a recounting, collaborated upon by my son, of our trip to Vancouver

On the way to Vancouver, we stopped in Blue River for supper. We got too much food because the waitress brought the wrong things for Nicholas and Lillian.

We stayed the night in Clearwater. There was a playground and a game room. Nicholas got to play Foosball and Lillian had a lot of fun on the swings. There was a big wooden swing thing that you used for feet with. Kind of like a teeter-totter.

The next day, we stopped in Kamloops for awhile. We all had fun hitting Nick with the Superman ball.

Finally, we got to Trevor-and-Mina's place. According to Nick, we did nothing all week but I remember a lot.

We all went for a walk by the lake. Nick found a stick that was like a bamboo pole. We also saw a koi fish swimming around.

We went to the Sizzling Asian Festival at Henderson Centre and Nick made an origami flower.

We had a birthday party for Trina (Nick and Lily's cousin). It was a lot of fun. Trevor and Mina's building has a party room on the ground floor and there's a library filled with books. Trina came down dressed in a hang-bok. It was very pretty.

Nicholas and I went for a walk by a river with Uncle Trevor. Nicholas made friends with a snail. We just about sailed Bob the Snail on a leaf down the river but we changed our minds.

The next day, we all packed up and drove to Vancouver to visit Stanley Park. We spent most of the time at the beach where Nicholas collected shells. We put sun screen on him but it was too little and too late and Nick's back burned pretty badly. Kim and I still feel bad for that.

That is the first half of our trip. Maybe I'll finish the report, maybe I won't. I'm wacky like that.