I was feeling pretty good at the end of May. I was focused on one short story that I felt strongly about. I was getting into a better mindset and the words were beginning to flow. The sensation of more writing starting to simmer, ready to boil over onto the page, made me feel excited to be in front of the keyboard again.
I got that short story, titled Silver Thaw, as close to perfect as I could and sent it out. I found an anthology call that I liked and gave another short story, The Athenaeum of Lost Words, a chance at being seen (after a quick editing pass). The nervous exhilaration that accompanies sending out my work into the hands of others is a wonderful, terrifying feeling. Being judged – silently, anonymously, and often without feedback – is a big part of being a published writer. It is what makes my hand pause over the ‘submit’ button. It drives me to edit a story over and over until I feel it is the most beautiful thing I never want to see again. It forces me to watch my email, sometimes obsessively, for those replies. And that excitement is what, I hoped, would help keep my momentum from last month going.
It did not happen that way. I did not lose momentum, but I did not gain either. I am at a slow crawl, my output at the pace of pāhoehoe lava. I can get out a few sentences at most in a day. I was unable to write a fresh piece for my writing group, a truly rare occurrence. (Note: last month I had a repeat story, the aforementioned Silver Thaw, but that was a conscious decision to get eyes on the revisions I made.) What I did bring is the first half of a story I have been working on for a long time, tentatively titled Unrequited. I had that part written and picked over once or twice and though it was not an exact match for our prompt ‘sleepless’ the plight of the central character does contain some elements of sleeplessness.
Now I have to finish that story and edit it at least once before our next meeting in July. It is an ambitious project that challenges form in some ways. They had a mixed review of what I was trying to do and gave me some ideas on how to improve it and make it clearer. With the story already mapped out and the input of the group, I should be able to hammer out the conclusion (I was nearly there when the block sprung up), edit it at least once, and have my wife give it a look.
Speaking of things my wife is reading for me, I have given her the first section of book 2 in my YA series. The structure of the narrative makes it easy to break into small chunks. Right now she has the beginning, which catches up the reader with the two main characters, introduces some new pieces of history, and brings the antagonist for this story front and center. The main adventure kicks off at the end of the first section, and after that it breaks into chunks of 2-3 chapters. I have been editing – I am having a much easier time with that – consistently, giving each section multiple passes as I look for places to trim the story down. Some of this was written almost 2 years ago, so it is fresh to me. I found myself very happy with big swaths of it, with a few scenes almost perfect in the first draft.
The Dark Lane Anthology is nearly here. My short story The Weiralla is in there. Once it pops onto Amazon, I will announce it here. I got the chance to see the proof copy and it looks great. I read two of the other stories and they were both wonderful! This is one you will not want to miss.
You are all caught up now. With summer officially here I hope to spend a few hours every day reading, writing and editing. Hopefully I will have a few new things to announce soon. Stay cool – it is getting hot out there – and keep watching for news here!
1 – Finish writing book 2 with at least two full rounds of edits. I am close to halfway through it right now. I’d like be nearly done by then end of this month.
2 – Be at least halfway through writing book 3. That blank page is taunting me.
3 – Have at least two short stories accepted for publication. Two submissions sent. Cross your fingers!
4 – Expand my search for someone to publish these YA stories. I have some trepidation about this. I have some publishers in mind but it feels different from querying agents. I need to grow a backbone and just hit send.
5 – Average two additional blog posts a month outside of monthly updates and publication announcements. Why do I torture myself with this?
6 – Read 36 books. May reads: I started a couple but I’m in the middle of both. (total for the year – 5)