Goals Summary 2022 – Wk #31
I’m off to a slow start this morning. I’m back home after an amazing weekend at the Willamette Writers Conference, and though I’m happy, my brain is, well, mush. So let’s take a bleary look at last week’s goals and see if I can come up with something to shoot for this week. Last Week Prep elevator pitches for Something Sulfurous and Victoria Prep additional Something Sulfurous pitches for #DVpit Draft packing list/pack for #WilWrite22 Enjoy #WilWrite22 How’d I Do? Prep elevator pitches for Something Sulfurous and Victoria Prep additional Something Sulfurous pitches for #DVpit Yes and No. I didn’t really prep formal pitches/elevator pitches for Something Sulfurous or Victoria. I talked about them more organically with fellow writers than I expected, which I’ll talk more about in my Conference Wrap Up post later this week. However, I did participate in #DVpit and did get an agent like on one of them, which I’ll talk more about later in this…
The Recap – July 2022
*Waves goodbye to July while “Slipping Through My Fingers” by ABBA plays in the background* July Goals Read at least 4 books Write at least 5,000 words of fanfic Fill the well How’d I Do? Read at least 4 books Yes! I read exactly four books in July! Write at least 5,000 words of fanfic Lol. No. Wrote a little over 2k words though, so at least it’s something! Fill the well Yes! I think. I’ve spent time outdoors, with friends and family, and doing simple little things that bring me joy. Playing video games, drinking iced coffee, tending to my plants. It’s been a very calm month, personally, and I’ve been basking in the serenity. Total Word Count: 8,607 July was a lovely month. There were fireworks, lots of time spent with delightful books, and even more time spent writing weird little stories with little to no concern about their…
Goals Summary 2022 – Wk #30
This week has been a blur of good news, revision, and video games. I have no complaints. Last Week Finish + submit The Secret Ingredient Finish The Hard Decisions Read a book Prep July Newsletter Write 3500+ words of fanfic How’d I Do? Finish + submit The Secret Ingredient Yes! This story came together much more easily than I expected. Revision was straightforward too! It’s now on submission at the market that inspired it, so fingers crossed! Finish The Hard Decisions Yep! This story is still a weird one to me. Another one of my stories that doesn’t really seem to fit anywhere. But I’ll keep sending it anyway. I’ve learned that lesson well this week. Read a book Yes! I finished reading A Poetry Handbook by Mary Oliver, and you can hear all about it on the next episode of Top Shelf Librarians! Prep July Newsletter Yes! It is done and should have…
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…
Goals summary 2022 – Wk #28
It was a pretty calm week. I don’t have a whole lot to talk about, but I’m sure I can still manage to ramble my way through this post. Let’s find out… Last Week Post 1 chapter of fanfic Read a book Finish slice of life fantasy story Finish The Hardest Decisions How’d I Do? Post 1 chapter of fanfic Yep! I finished one of my fanfics, so I’m posting two chapters/week until it’s all posted. Read a book Yep! Technically two, I think… Finish slice of life fantasy story No. I’m feeling a bit fizzled about this one. We’ll see if I can finish it. Finish The Hardest Decisions I decided not to look at this story this week after all. I want some distance before I dive back into it one last time. Weekly Word Count: 697 Initially I was disappointed by that word count, but when I compare it…
What is a Literary Agent & Why I Want One
Good morning, Bloggarts. It occurred to me that some of my readers might not know what a literary agent is, why a writer would want/need one, and what the querying process looks like. Since I’ve jumped feet first into this stage of my writing career, let’s talk about it! What is a Literary Agent? A literary agent is someone who represents authors and their work to the editors at publishing houses. Publishing is a giant business with only four major players (Simon & Schuster, Penguin, Hachette, and HarperCollins). Each of these big companies have smaller “imprints” which typically focus on particular genres of work. And at all of these imprints are Acquiring Editors. People who read manuscripts to find books they want the imprint to buy and publish. But, very rarely will an acquiring editor look at an “unsolicited” manuscript. Meaning, a manuscript that isn’t sent to them by a…
Goals Summary 2022 – Wk #27
The summer is flying by. I don’t know how to feel about that. On the one hand, I’m really happy. Keeping busy, getting a lot of quality work done, and generally getting that sneak peek at what a full-time writing life would be like. I really like it. This always happens to me. Every break, every vacation, I get a taste of this freedom and it tastes so fucking good. But it’s always temporary. Short-lived. I know that in about a month I’ll be back to the day job. And that’s hard. I genuinely like my job. I like my co-workers and my work and the kids. I do. But if I could afford to quit? If healthcare didn’t rely on my employment? I’d drop it in a heartbeat. Because nothing I’ve felt working at the high school can compare with the peace and contentment that comes with sitting at…
Mental Meanderings
Good morning, Blogland. We woke up early today so we could get our AC unit fixed (again), and now I’m sitting in my office sipping iced coffee trying to make sense of the putty in my brain. This is a good thing! This summer break has been very different than I’d hoped (so far). A lot less adventure and a lot more lounging, but it’s been good for my creative muscle. I’m reading widely, getting into a twitter routine that isn’t completely soul-sucking, and writing whatever clamors to be written. I’ve also been experimenting with poetry, basically since the pandemic started. Back in the summer of 2020 poetry was the only writing I could do. The words came in a trickle, and the best I could do by them was to arrange them in interesting little lines. Currently, I have folders of poetry organized by year (2020, 2021, 2022) for a…