Time Tells
October 15, 1998
4:50 a.m.
I've spent the past thirty minutes going back and reading from this journal. So now I know it all started March 28th. That was the PlotFest. Thank you, Lisa [ the writer ]. Didja notice it on the way in? I dropped it for a month, then picked it up again, writing several more drafts before Amy and Brian and Lisa [ the writer ] commented. At that point it was titled "Was Blind But Now I See". After more versions, it was Lisa's [ the wife, not the writer! ] turn to hack on it. Thank God a deadline loomed, or maybe I would still be writing it. Regular readers may have caught on by now--but for the others, the story is one entitled "Out of the Blue", and I sent it away on June 30, just in time to meet the deadline. Last night, Joanie from Author Services called. The tale has taken third prize in the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future contest. It was my last chance in this contest, and it made it. Needless to say, I'm quite pleased. Reading back this morning, I'm even more pleased. I wrote the first draft quickly, but then the rest was like pulling teeth without anesthetic. I remember being so caught up in the setting that I couldn't pierce the story, but taking my time with it, letting the story come. I remember talking to Lisa [ both of them ]. Now it will be in volume 15. I get another trip to LA next year. A guy could get used to that kind of treatment! Yeah, yeah, yeah ... I hear you. Enough gloating, Collins. Don't you have a story in progress? Get back in there and write, dangit!  Daily Persistence is © Ron Collins |
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"Frank Lloyd Wright said physicians can bury their mistakes, but architects can only plant vines. Well, folks, a writer has nothing between them and their audience but those words. And those words are awfully permanent. Yeah, I'm taking great pains with this story because it's a strange tale, hard science with a leap of faith required from the reader. In order to have this leap of faith occur correctly, it's imperative that I do my best to get everything else just right. If not done well, this story can probably be pretty danged embarrassing. But if it is done well, I think it's a tale that can carry people for awhile. Only time will tell, of course." Ron Collins JUNE 18, 1998 |
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