2023 Awards Eligibility
It’s that time of year. The holidays are upon us, and the publishing world begins its wind down into the New Year. With that comes a slew of Awards Eligibility posts – writers, editors, and publishers sharing their 2023 publications eligible for the various awards ceremonies in 2024. I’ll be honest. I don’t fully understand SFFH awards, how nominations work, or how a work is or isn’t eligible. I think the only true requirement for eligibility is that the piece be published within the given year. Which means I have four eligible pieces: The Stories “In the Librarian’s Garden” (F, 4,781) – Issue 6 of Tree and Stone Magazine (Feb./Mar. 2023), ed. by Kevin M. Casin “The Lament of Kivu Lacus” (SF, 4,180) – Life Beyond Us: An Original Anthology of SF Stories and Science Essays (Apr. 2023) ed. by Julie Nováková, Lucas K. Law, and Susan Forest, pub. by…
The Recap – September 2023
It’s officially October, the spookiest of seasons, when my goth little heart is happiest. Yet today the sun is out, the temps just north of chilly, so it seems summer and autumn are still doing their waltz, trading leads as they see fit. I’ll cling to these last few sunny days, before winter settles in to smother me once more. September Goals Finish Novel Complete at least the first revision Keep up w/submissions and queries How’d I Do? Finish Novel YES! YES YES YES YES! The rough draft is finally, wonderfully DONE! Complete at least the first revision HA! No. Keep up w/submissions and queries Yeah. Things are slow in September as publishing shakes off the last of its summertime slump. But, I made sure things went out as rejections trickled in. Total Word Count: 11,442 That word count should be a pretty clear indication of how I feel about…
Goals Summary 2023 – Wks #13/14
Well. We’re still Airbnb-ing it, which makes the deep dive, detailed sort of planning and goals assessment… Difficult. I’m doing my best y’all. Last (?) Week Write 10k Send Newsletter Record Podcast Survive this crazy week How’d I Do? Write 10k Lol. No. Send Newsletter Yes! It even went out on time! Record Podcast No? But also yes. You see, we had to push it back a week due to a migraine, but it’s recorded and will be released soon! Survive this crazy week Yes. That is technically true. Weekly(ish) Word Count: 1,540 Without my whiteboard, the word count thing is a bit trickier to track. I’ve done a bit of math – which is never recommended – and this is what I came up with. Its accuracy is suspect, but I’m running with it. I did a bit of reading over the last couple weeks, though not much. I…
Goals Summary 2023 – Wk #11
Yes, this post is on time. No, it is not a miracle. My weekend was actually fairly normal, and it was so, so so so nice. What isn’t normal is that I have a little bit of news to share before we dive into the meat of this Goals Summary. Announcement! IT’S RELEASE DAY, babeyy! You can read my short story “In the Librarian’s Garden” TODAY at Tree and Stone Magazine! A quiet story about finding yourself and your true home, it holds a very precious space in my heart. I really hope you enjoy it. You can read it (and other stories) online here. (It officially releases later this afternoon. I’ll post on socials about it.) Or, you can support a young magazine and buy an ebook copy here. Thanks so much for your support, and for reading! And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming. Last Week Write…
Goals Summary 2023 – Wk #10
Hi. I’m sorry this is so late. These past two weeks have completely smashed my routines into little, shiny fragments. And without my routines, things like accountability posts tend to fall by the wayside. You’ll also notice that, again, there’s no Outings! post this week. Yeah. I’ll get into the reason for that in a bit. But first, let’s look at some goals. Last Week Write 3x Keep reading Tidy up office (for realsies this time) How’d I Do? Write 3x Yep! It wasn’t all on the novel, but my butt was in the chair three times last week! Keep reading Yep! Tidy up office (for realsies this time) Hahahahahahahahaha *sobs* Weekly Word Count: 5,309 Okay, so if all the writing wasn’t on the novel, what was I working on? Well, there was a big chunk of words spent on an emotional support chapter of fanfic. And then another chunk…
Goals Summary 2023 – Wk #9
Today is a slow day. A day spent sleeping in and watching robins hunt for worms in the front yard. We were out late last night, singing karaoke with friends until the bar closed. Like we’re still in our twenties. We are not. Trev’s had the worst of it, while I feel fine other than a slightly sensitive stomach and hoarseness I haven’t felt in a long time. I love karaoke, y’all. Like, a lot a lot. And when I go, I go hard. If I’m not a little raspier the next day, did I even have fun? Point is, we had fun, and we’re paying for it now. So while it’s quiet, let’s talk about goals, shall we? Last Week Write at least 3x Send Newsletter Keep reading Edit + Schedule Podcast Tidy up office (lol) How’d I Do? Write at least 3x Yes! It wasn’t all on the…
Fall Musings
Is still doesn’t really feel like fall. It’s going to be in the high 80s today. The sky is clear and bright blue, and even the trees seem to be confused, their colors stalled between green and orange and red. I know it’s bad, that the weather shouldn’t be this summerlike in mid-October. This time last year I was on a fall hike with some friends and it was misty, foggy, and FREEZING. I loved every second of it. Yesterday I wore shorts. But the light is different. Thinner somehow. The earth’s rotation has put the sun at a different angle, one that says “Autumn.” The weather, and thus nature, just hasn’t caught up. This time of year is always one of transition. Summers are for revisions remember? Maybe I pump out a short story or two (or four!), but largely I spend the summer months finishing up manuscripts for…
NEWS: Short Story Acceptances!
That’s right, Blogland! Acceptances – plural! I’ve been sitting on this news for a little while and I’m so excited to finally share it with you! The First Back in May, I received the acceptance letter for a short story called “Bell Biv Derailed,” which will appear in LOLcraft: A Compendium of Eldritch Humor from Dragon’s Roost Press this Fall! You can read about the anthology so far, and check out Dragon’s Roost’s other publications here. As I get updates on publication date and ordering, I’ll be sure to share! I’m really excited for this one. This story is a strange, fun one and I can’t wait to see what my fellow writers have come up with. Horror/Comedy is one of my favorite genres, so I’m excited for this anthology as both writer and reader. The Second You may have seen on twitter (or my other, personal socials) that I…
The Marathon
Sunday, I woke to an acceptance email for one of my oldest stories. It’s been on submission since 2018. It went out 32 times. THIRTY-TWO! Let’s look a little closer at those stats. First Submission Date: 4/21/2018. Total Submissions: 32 Form Rejections: 24 Personal Rejections: 4 Withdrawals/Never Responded: 3 Acceptances: 1 Final Submission Date: 7/21/2022. That’s over FOUR YEARS of submitting. Of sending out this story over and over and over, often waiting months between responses, only to hear time and again some iteration of “this one’s not for us.” And as the months turned to years, the doubt crept in: Maybe this story needs trunked. What if I run out of markets to send it to? Maybe it’s bad timing? It got good responses early on, but has been form rejected more and more lately so maybe editors’ tastes are changing? Maybe I should give up? I told myself…
Goals Summary 2022 – Wk #29
Gang! It’s Monday! You know what that means? Yeah you do – it’s blog time! Last Week Finish a chapter of HFW fic Finish The Secret Ingredient Read a book Finish The Hard Decisions How’d I Do? Finish a chapter of HFW fic Nope. I looked at it a couple of times, and reread the whole fic so far to get back into the story. But I didn’t put any words down on it this week. Finish The Secret Ingredient Yes! I’d thought the story had fizzled, but I sat down to it and the ending wrote itself in an hour. That was really nice. Read a book No. I’ve been playing video games in my non-writing time… Finish The Hard Decisions No… Didn’t even look at it this week. Weekly Word Count: 608 Well… that’s not much writing. Or progress. Or much of anything. So what the heck DID happen last week? Honorable…