Dennis Spielman's Blog Archive for October 2007
Newest posts are at the bottom.
Fact and fiction are blurred here.
You have been warned.
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
I entered the postal office building on a nice Monday afternoon. It was Saturday when I received a notice for a package pick-up. Of coursed, they were then and again closed on Sunday, so I had to wait and wonder until Monday to pick up my unknown package. My mind raced trying to make sure that I didn't order or sign up for something somewhere. What could it be?
I got in line at the counter. I didn't have to wait long before a man called next. I don't recall the name on his name tag, but I remember his glasses. They needed to be cleaned and straighten up. I would put his ages somewhere in the 40s, but I could be wrong. He was nice fellow. I explained that I had a packaged to pick up.
"Do you have a pick-up card?"
"No, it's not with me," I replied. It was in my Mom's truck. I never did get it from her, but I figured I could still pick up the package.
It was not problem for asked me, "Can I see your ID?"
I showed him my driver's license. He nodded and went to the back to get my package. As I waited, my inner child got distracted by a poster showing the interesting stamps of Disney and Comic Book characters they had for sale. The man came back to the counter without a package.
"There it is," he told me.
I looked over to a large orange cart that reminded me of a mining cart. The width was just barely short enough to squeeze through a door and it's length was twice as long. There were several packages in this large cart. This couldn't be right.
"Is that all mine?" I asked.
He replied telling me that it was. I walked up to the cart and inspected the packages. All nine packages bared my name. All contained boxes inside them. Once I did the math, I realized there were 200 boxes, 100 each of two different sizes.
I awkwardly wheeled the cart outside to my car. I was slow about in in the post office since I wasn't sure if I was allowed to wheel out to my car, but no one stopped me. When I got outside, I took this picture of what I had gotten.
Now, I knew the boxes were free. During my research on opening a business, I looked into shipping items with the USPS. You can order boxes on the their web site, but I never placed an order for these boxes. I'm keeping the boxes because I will need when I open my business next year.
Still, there's a lot of to look into and questions to ask. After I loaded the boxes in my car, I took one of them with the cart back inside. I asked a postal worker, his name was Forest, some questions. I found out that there was no way to really track who sent in the order, but he assured me that the post office doesn't just send people boxes without someone placing the order.
The mystery is, "Who sent me these boxes?"
Monday, October 29, 2007
I finally submitted my novel to my first publisher! Since it is a young adult novel, I first sent it to Flux, a publisher that deals with young adult. They accepted (and preferred) e-mail submissions, so I sent them a copy first. On their web site they said they would only contact people if they were interested in the submission for publication and if I don't hear back from them within two months, I'll keep going around submitting my novel to different publishers. Hardly anyone ever gets accepted on their first submission.
Here's the final count: 210 pages with almost 49,000 words. And here's the new book description that I wrote for it:
Fifty years ago a demon known as Liquidus was summoned to seek vengeance, but it was sealed away when it was going to far. Now the demon has been released for more sinister purposes. Too Close to the Ground follows the stories of a man with mechanical angel wings who now controls Liquidus, a vampire who wants to steal control of Liquidus, a mysterious family that's trying to destroy the demon, and a teenager named Russell Phoenix who is connected to everyone as he gets dragged in a battle that will change his life. Times are getting dangerous in the small Oklahoman town. While attacks are being made against the Mayor's life, Liquidus grows more powerful with each life it takes. Russell must hurry to save the lives of his friends and not crash into the ground while doing so.
I'll let you know if I get accepted or rejected. Rejecting is a big deal. I mean, J.K. sent Harry Potter around and it got rejected a dozen times. I know submitting the novel isn't as big news as actually having it published, but it's still news I thought I'd share with you guys.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Well, guys I got my first rejection letter:Thanks for your query. Unfortunately, TOO CLOSE TO THE GROUND is not a good fit for Flux at this time. Best of luck finding another home for your project.
That's okay, I'll keep sending it out until someone picks up. I was just surprised to hear back so quickly from them.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Damn, it feels good to get the Rogue Ego web site open again. The update on the main page pretty much explains everything that's new. You know, pretty much everything is new. I'm starting from scratch and I don't have much to show for right now, but I'm going to change all of that. I've been writing stories and planning projects, and it's time I get serious. That's why it feels so good to have this site open.
One of the reasons I was so compelled to get this site going is because of the web series, Running Out of Lives, that I would love to do. As I described it to some friends on my message board, it's Saturday Night Live but the actors are video game characters. It's called "Running Out of Lives," because the running gag is we switch to a different skit whenever someone dies. There would be a short break to show how many lives the show has left whenever someone dies. The show is over when we run out of lives. Clever, huh? I'm not worried about the death gag getting old for a long time. Running Out of Lives is going to be a awesome show. I'm planning to film one episode to see how well it will do and to get people interested in it. Depending on how things go, what I would like to do is film a ton of episodes and release them for free of course on like a weekly or even biweekly schedule.
Then in February, I plan to do more serious project. A horror movie to be exact. It's still too early for me to talk about the movie, but you'll hear about it early next year when I start casting for it. I've been working on the script. I've recently did a major rewrite to it and now I'm much happier with the story. If you like horror movies, you'll have to check it out because it's really something different.
Okay, let's see, what else. I guess that's all. Keep checking back on the blog for regular updates. I'll let you know how things are going so far with the projects.