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I NEED A CLONE
I need a clone.
It’s come down to this.
I need a clone.
After that comment from Disney Hyperion’s editor about my narrative voice being not unique enough for them to publish me I went through a serious funk. Couldn’t write a thing. Lost my narrative voice entirely.
Then I figured out what the problem was:
I let the Bastards in.
What I mean is, I let all those old farts who hated February chip away at my unready manuscript until it turned as bland as an unseasoned eggplant. That’s what I sent into Disney Hyperion and that’s why it was rejected.
I would have trashed it too.
So – I started rewriting the trilogy.
Not an easy decision. Three books is a huge pile of writing. But I’m up for it.
I think.
Now to the clone – you don’t think I’ve forgotten?
While all this was and is going on I’ve been battling vision loss in my left eye – no big deal I’ll throw on an eye patch and write pirate stories. Actually they think they can save it – just a few needles in the eye and some steroids, a little dye and a billion appointments, photos and dilation that leaves me blind for the day and I’ll be right as rain. Hah!
There’s also the time eaters of being on the reading collective of FreeFall magazine, my daughter’s up coming provincial exams (someone needs to hold the flash cards), migraines, getting the same daughter’s curriculum ready for home school next year, the billions of pets (we now own a dragon), housework, my daughter’s budding writing career (I’m so proud), and a billion other things including facebook, this website (I want to add a bulletin board – just have to figure out how), teaching at five camps over three months, Girl Guides – well I tell you, the fun never stops.
I need a clone.
Someone to take up the slack.
Do those dishes, up date my face book page, write the curriculums and put in the Girl Guide paperwork. All I want to do is write.
It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.
And now,
if you’ll excuse me,
I’ll be off to do just that…
now.
Created in a test tube under the bald Aussie desert. Made her first intentional kill at eight. Accidentally made her second, two and three-quarter minutes later.
Outer Conflict, Inner Conflict, Primary Plot, Secondary Plot
{Excerpt from February - The Art of the Hunt}
February stormed down the halls of the International Psychic Agency’s base her heart thudding in her ears. Reaching Administrator Simon Smith’s office, she smashed her boot into the door, splintering the wood. “I was in the middle of a job!”
Sulking
As you probably saw in my News column, Agent Sally Harding rejected my February manuscript. She was the one I saw at the Surrey International Writers' Conference. The one I really, really wanted for my agent.
Writing Prompts from the World of Weird
People often ask me where I get my ideas. Often they come by chance, some thing coupled with strange thing and a concept is born. Take my latest short story, Life Before War. It came about from
Report from the Surrey International Writers’ Conference
WOW! What an experience. After traveling most of the day, getting off at the wrong stop in Surrey, BC, finding a kick-butt Thai restaurant (much needed at that point) and getting back on track – me and my intrepid side kick, Lynn, arrived at the conference hotel.
The place was swarming with writers.
Contests VS Submissions VS Conferences
It’s a three way battle of the biggies today folks! Our competitors:
In the Red Corner: Contests
$5.00-$25.00 plus mailing costs ($2.50-$8.00)
Chance of winning: Depends on the amount of entries usually 1-0.2 %
Result of success: Brief fame, some interviews possibly and an entry on your resume
Character Creation 
I’m working on a new novel while I finish editing my trilogy. It’s strange being back in the trenches again. I know all the characters in the trilogy so intimately – it’s been nearly three years. I don’t have to think very deeply as I write them. They are my best friends. But with this new novel, I don’t know these people yet. The kids that wander this new world are foreign to me and right now, I’m just letting them move about my created word.
Published At LastPeeking Out of my Box
My original box was quite small. I was a playwright. That was it. Just a playwright. I did well at it too. By the time I was twenty-one, two of my plays had been produced – one twice.
Then some wild teenaged characters came to party in my head.
The Blank Page
A barren white page sitting on the computer screen. The empty paper of a journal. That boneless, tree mulch of purposelessness. The blank page can be daunting.
Setting and Senses 
Write what you know is an often repeated statement to young authors. But in the world of Speculative Fiction where we create other worlds, step into the future or change the past, writing what you know is harder than a simple phrase. However, the teachers of this philosophy are correct. You must know your environment before you can write about it.
How does one get to know a space station on a distant, impoverished and forgotten asteroid?
Rules
There are rules to writing. Ones that must always be followed and ones that writers can break given enough skill. But there are other kinds of rules too. Self imposed rules that can add dimension and depth to your work.
What kind of rules? Here are a few:
The Hero’s Sacrifice
Heroes - Brave, slightly insane, probably flawed and oh so necessary.
But what makes them heroic? Is it the saving the day? Rushing through flames and smoke? Getting the girl or guy at the end?
No.
It’s the willingness to sacrifice.
Summer's Work
Teeth snap through the taught skin. Red, the colour of dark blood, runs down my arm. Licking it brings a bright sharp tang. The sour sweet combo of chewed flesh sends electric shocks through my cheeks. My mouth quivers. Cherries are the taste of summer.
Back From Writing Camp!
Hi all. I just returned from WordsWorth, two one-week writing camps for kids.
Best Advice
Due to a Calgary Stampede induced broken thumb, Lynn Fraser, editor of Free Fall Magazine has graciously accepted my request to be a guest blogger.
What is the best advice that I as an editor can pass on to a writer looking to get out of the slush pile and on to the published page: Take yourself seriously as a writer.
What do I mean by that?
2009-06-29
Research
Research is one of a writer's most important tools. But how to do it without wasting precious time? I usually tackle my research in two ways.
2009-06-22
Authors Who Inspire
Just like the invention of technology, writing is built on the ideas of those before us. Here are a few of the people who have inspired my writing.
2009-06-15
Increasing Your Failure Rate
Recently I heard a statistician on the radio discussing how things happen by chance, randomly and with no real blueprint – despite how much we pattern-loving humans try to impose one. He quoted a colleague who had a theory that went something like – in order to succeed you need to increase your failure rate.
2009-06-08
Writer's Block
A hard scene
A nasty comment
A tapped out brain
A character that won’t behave
2009-06-01 My Writing Community There is more to being an author than just writing. There is a whole community of support that must be acknowledged.
2009-05-25
I’ve always seen drafts as layers of a picture. You wouldn’t expect an artist to go to a canvas and paint the exact final picture right away. It is the same with writing.
2009-05-18
Beginnings
Novelist Ken Rivard once told me, the first thirty pages of my manuscript, Boiled Cat, between us, “Begin every chapter with something startling.”
2009-05-11
How to Teach Children Writing
Pt II
The Destructive Power of NO
I once walked away from an information session on how to create animation because I heard the word, can’t. That same day I dropped another presentation because the instructor told us won’t. The words too hard, no and never were also flying about.
2009-05-04
The Passage of Time
A leaf withers and falls.
A flower ebbs and flows with the tide.
A cigarette burns to a cylinder of ash beside an unconscious man.
2009-04-27
Writing for Change
I was going to discuss the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo I went to on the weekend. Unfortunately, as far as the writing end of things, it was a little depressing. I learned what I already know.
2009-04-20
How to Teach Children Writing
Part I
The scene opens with KID and WRITER in the kitchen, listening to the Gorillaz song 68 State.
WRITER: I like this song.
KID: I don’t, it’s boring.
WRITER: You think it’s boring? Really? I think it sounds like the beginning of a
journey. Like an adventure about to happen. The band is in the car and
they’re off. They don’t know what is going to happen to them or where they’re going to end up. All they know is they are going somewhere. Things are going to happen to them, some good, some bad, but they don’t know anything yet because they’re just at the beginning.
2009-03-30
Hi there!
For my first blog posting I thought I would let you all know a little about myself in the form of a question and answer format. Simple, right? Well we’ll see. It’s usually the way I get to know the characters in my plays and novels so it should work for me, and hopefully, you.
Let’s start:
Full Name? Right now, Kim Firmston. Formerly: Kim Wakeford. I don’t have a middle name. If I did it would be something like Microwave or Screensaver, just to start conversations. Mind you it would be really fun if my middle name was Danger – that would sound cool.