Found this little quote

"What, then, was the state of facts as to the leading theological schools of the Christian world in the age of Origen and some centuries after? It was, in brief, this: There were at least six theological schools in the church at large. Of these six schools, one, and ony one, was decidedly and earnestly in favor of the doctrine of future eternal punishment. One was in favor of the annihiliation of the wicked. Two were in favor of the doctrine of universal restoration on the principles of Origen, and two in favor of universal restoration on the principles of Theodore of Mopsuestia."


Thought that was interesting. 4 of 6 early churches taught universal reconciliation/restoration. Seems to be a pretty damning fact for the current concept of hell (pun intended).

2010 ABNA Announced

http://www.amazon.com/b?node=332264011

I'm so ready for this. Got knocked out going to the semifinals with a rushed manuscript. I intend to plow through it all this time around :)

Rejected!

Argh! And no, its not the usual sort of form rejection I'm use to when searching out agents, but a custom, personalized one from an agent that's amazing. The gist of it being, "This is well written, but it's really not for me. Query me again with anything else that you come up with and I'll gladly look."

ARRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Well, its energizing at least.

September already!

Holy crap. Where does time go? For my lingering fan base (or maybe just the voices in my head) as well as the random visitor, let me sum up activity over the past year.

I entered the ABNA (Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award) for a shot at 25k and a published book. I was knocked out come the semi finals, for inconsistencies in characterization, a few spots of icky dialog, and loose ends to the plot. Sad, yes. But all for the better as Publisher Weekly's review (my consolation prize for beat X thousand others) was immensely helpful in finding my manuscripts weak spots. So now I've started the slow process of shopping it around.

Second, Mrs. Megos finally spawned our 2nd, a girl who is now 7 months old who is named -- of course -- Mutapina. I call her "pretty pretty princess" at times as well, as she's high maintenance (of course).

Third, I've revisited my satire zombie novel, incorporating all that I've learned writing the book after that (the one that went to ABNA) and really, really like it too. I plan on entering this zombie one into the 2010 ABNA, and hopefully it goes all the way. No plot holes that I can see. A great voice. Extra time buffing out the characters and making them shine, etc. Course, I'll be shopping it before that anyway, so we'll see what happens.

It's funny how every time I get something together, manuscript wise, I think "this will be it! Pubbed at last!" and when it doesn't happen, I spend a few weeks / months revising, learning, starting something new -- and the new turns out ten times better than I ever thought of the previous. When I wrote the zombie one and started sending it out a year and a half ago, I was convinced it didn't get any better than that. Then I wrote the 2009 ABNA entry and thought, "Yeah, zombie is good in idea, but execution was off. THIS is it!" Then I got hammered by PW, went back, and fixed both the 2009 entry and the zombie one (agent querying things happening in here too). And now I can taste the goal (being pubbed) I'm that close.

Before, I always wondered if I could get pubbed. Of course you hope always, but in the beginning its more like "I hope I catch a break" or "If only I get lucky and..." Now, however, I look at what's out there, what other people are writing, and think, "I'm so on top of all of this." Or, "God, I remember writing like that." It's not an arrogance, but more like being able to look back at a lot of practice, studying, and incorporating tons of feedback and seeing the fruits of one's labor. Progress.

Don't get me wrong, to the writers that write well, especially in genres or pieces that capture my attention, I say it to myself and them as well. "Hey, this is damn good!" I say it, and I don't care in the least in sense that I wonder if they'll nab my spot at a book deal. My spot is mine, whenever that is. It's coming. It's no longer if. Just when. And that's friggen exciting.

Opening lines

To some unnamed story, may or may not ever be written. But I thought it was a pretty good entry made by yours truly into a "Hook me!" contest :)


Chapter 1

Mark said we should get a shovel and dig for clams.

Amy thought it might be better to hunt for buried treasure.

My brother yelled at me, saying the voices weren't real and the beach was still dangerous. He said that there were still mines out there.

What did he know. He was just jealous I'd be rich and he'd still be hungry.

Happy 233rd!

Semper Fi!

This deserves to be immortalized