One project done

Yippee! Break out the kegs! Hide the women and children! I have just finished the first draft of my longest piece to date. Invasion is done at 263 pages of crap I am sure, but it is done. Now to let it sit while I finish the second draft of my YA book, Big Chief's Gold.

In other news- I just received my copy of Monstrous in the mail today. It looks awesome and features our very own Aaron A. Polson (He did have the A. in the byline) It also features a great modern master, Steve Alton, of Meg fame. (Just so you all feel a little better, his first book Meg took him ten years to write but he has written like ten books since then, which has been about 10 years.)

Now I think I can relax a little and focus more. I just feels good to get another project crossed off the list. Kind of like the plumbing project I did yesterday.

Month 2, Day 1, Jamie 0

February is upon us and the warm air that my place was blessed with yesterday is gone. It did not get warm enough to melt all of the snow despite getting close to 60 degrees (I still have 30 inch piles of, now dirty, white stuff all over the yard). It is supposed to warm a little later on this week. Just as long as we don't get any more snow I will be happy. My snowthrower has operated more than it should have this year.

Now it is is time for *January in Review*-

January was actually a pretty good month, by my estimation. I wrote 2 flash pieces and two short stories. One of the flash pieces was accepted by Flashes in the Dark and will be on the website the 25th of this month. I had eight stories rejected and I have 17 stories out in sub land (the longest being to Another Sky Horror Antho at 388 days, the shortest being to Necrotic Tissue from last week) I have two stories, should they get rejected, will be retired. I managed to write a couple of thousand words in my book, Invasion.

I also managed to read or finish or start: Deep and Dark and Dangerous (YA book but a very good ghost story), The Poisoned Apple (Hello Cate!), and I am half-way through Just After Sunset by Mr. King. I have also been reading through Shroud #4 (Much different than I though it would be but I am enjoying it immensely).

I don't know what my plans for this month are yet, other than editing the hell out of my short stories and possibly finishing draft #1 of Invasion. I have a slew of books to start on if I want to (Money Shot, Return to Luna, Zombie Haiku-and that is just to start) and I will be turning another year older this month, to be celebrated by opening up a well chilled can or bottle of beer (hell, you could tap a Keg. I won't argue, just be sure to invite me over) and drinking with a medium rare steak and fried potato and onions.

Hope the weekend is going well and I look forward to seeing the progress we all make in the next month.

Is it morning already

I swear I need to get to bed early tonight. I have already been up for an hour and a half and that was after I was up way too long with my son last night. God only knows why he woke in the first place. I am getting way too old for this stuff.

The house is quiet now, my boy is sleeping (for how much longer I don't know) and the resident college student is still asleep as well. Everyone else in the house has either gone to work or school.

I am considering taking this time to edit my 2012 story, although I really want to start on my Dead Bait piece as well. I am thinking of using the character I used in the piece I sent to Devil's Food. He was an interesting character and he liked to fish so I think I can make something work. Plus I have the added bonus of already knowing the character (even though that could work to my disadvantage and I might not include enough about him to make him real in this story.) I think I can do it, especially if I know where the potential weakness may lie.

I know I am procrastinating my book Invasion but I can't help it. I feel I can jump back into a book easier than I can write short stories right now (damn my fingers. They aren't working at all today. I have to keep one finger on the delete key) I had better get a pot of coffee going and start the day. Good luck to everyone and happy Wednesday.

Last post before the weekend starts-

Unless something terrific or horridly tragic happens this weekend you won't hear from me until at least Monday. Now, before you go wailing 'how could he do this to us! Why me!' in the night, or day depending on where you are at in the world, let me explain. My wife doesn't work this weekend. When she is home my writing,inevitably, takes a turn for the worse-i.e. I don't do any writing at all, unless my boy gets me up at two in the morning and I am not tired for some reason when he goes back to sleep.

Okay, now that I have appropriately reassured you that I will, indeed, be back sometime early next week.
Now, lets get down to business. NaNo report: going well, I have about 400 words until I hit the 15,000 word mark. Can't complain about this progress. I am well ahead of schedule. I am liking the story as well. My characters are just getting into the meat of the plot. The action is about ready to really ramp up. (big explosions and close calls)

Been a slow week, heck it has just been slow for correspondence from editors lately. At least the markets I have shown interest in. I am hoping this is a good sign. something Brian Keene said on his web site the other day struck me. 'If you want to be a professional writer you need to submit to professional markets.' sounds good to me but also harder than it sounds. There are only so many professional markets.

Anyway, here is to only good news to editors and much productivity on whatever project you happen to be working on this weekend and I will talk at you all later.

Better late than never-

Well I am going to do my month in review a few days late. It is only three days into November and I am already swamped.

In October I mostly focused on my YA book, Big Chief's Gold (working title). I have been trying to rewrite it and focusing on very little else other than housework. Other than that I wrote only two other stories, both flash.
1. The Proposal, a 700 word flash piece for the Dogs antho. I have yet to hear back from them.
2. Nine, a 650 word story I originally wrote for the Cat tales antho but after I got done writing it I realized I had failed one of the main guidelines (I tried to follow it but I just couldn't do it) of cats must be shown in a good light. I don't know if the cats in my story were in a bad light but something told me it wasn't quite what they wanted. I held it over and submitted it instead to 52 Stitches where they quickly accepted it. (Yippee!) It is officially my first paying market after giving away 7 other stories. (Thank you Aaron and Ed!)

Other than that I recieved a whopping 6 rejections for the month of October. I recieved them from Hobart, Dark Recesses, Time and Space, Night Train, Nineth Letter, and Susurrus. Half of them were personallized and quite nice, the rest were the same boring form letters that we all know and despise.

I already know that I will be working on nothing, other than the occational edit during November. Other than that I am trying to focus on my NaNo book Invasion. It was an idea that I came up with last year but haven't had the time to flesh out. I am hoping I can get this rough first draft done this month. It is more of a political thriller than anything else. I have never written anything quite like it. I hope it isn't complete crap when I am finished with it.

Good luck to all this month. Talk at you later.