Dawn Bonanno

When I first started submitting my writing about ten years ago, I had neither patience nor a thick skin. It was a recipe for disaster. So I focused on novels and took a four year break from writing short stories and submitting. To be honest, I really didn’t know how to write a short story. I thought I did of course, and was shocked, outraged, that the magazine didn’t accept my work. A few years later, I tried again, with a space opera that was actually a story. I even sent it to the right markets, but that didn’t stop the tears when the rejections came back.

Since then, I’ve made a study of short stories, reading and writing them, figuring out what I like, wrenching skill out of each word I wrote. I’ve had one story published (in a now defunct, rather short lived e-zine), and I was happy. But my stories weren’t very good, so I tried again, thinking I was serious. Compared to where I am now? It was laughable. In all honesty, a beginning writer needs overconfidence or they’d never make it over those early stumbles.

Then I started timing those rejections, getting my hopes up when the rejection didn’t come back, wondering if I’d finally made it past the slush pile. Daydream about publication.  I still hope of course, but not at the expense of a writing session.  I do till check dates, but once a week, when I confirm my weekly goals.

This week, I received three rejections; 4 for the month; 23 for the year; 51 lifetime short story rejections.

 I’ve heard of writers who tape them up, but that gets kind of hairy with email, unless you print everything out. I used to save them in a folder, but it got to be too much trouble to file them, so I made a spreadsheet and track the info there. It’s fun to open it up and scroll through it, and remind myself to get back to revising so I can add more to the list.

Do you have a thick skin and patience, or are you stalking Duotrope on a daily basis? 🙂

If it wasn’t bad enough the first time…

This was THE market I wanted to break into. Seriously. The closing of this wonderful magazine is like when Indy was sealed into that tomb of snakes with Marion in Raiders. I understand it’s pretty much the economy, but still.  How much darker and deeper we have to go? *sigh*

I thought October was going to let up for me. It hasn’t, but my writing is still going. I revised my “writer” article, and I’m still working on the angle. It isn’t quite right for the message I want to send. I’m also drafting another article (a review) but I’m rereading the book I want to review. I’m working on Alex’s novel crit (and sadly, getting nowhere). I had some medical stuff going on this week, but the good news is that I’m getting around really well now. The toe is healing and the only thing that really bothers me is descending stairs. Oh and running after my two your old son. But, what can I do there?

The other big source of my time is this online conference I’m trying for the first time. Have you heard of Muse?

The Muse Online Writers Conference

I’m blown away by how much there is. I signed up for a flash fiction workshop, and the instructor (an editor) has given assignments every day. I actually wrote a piece of flash fiction and twice revised it. Since Monday. It’s not the best thing I ever wrote, but hey, it’s a start. A friend of mine is running a workshop on description. It’s good stuff, but time consuming. I feel like I can’t do it justice. I don’t like doing this half-assed. So, I’m behind on hers. There’s one on time management the instructor is calling “Book Factory” so you can have time to write multiple books a year. I’m waiting for her to get to the good part. 🙂 And it’s all FREE.

It’s too late to sign up for this year, but it runs every October for a full week. Sign up, and join in next year. Seriously. Did I mention pitch sessions? Yup. None for me this year, but they have ’em.

So what are you waiting for? Go!

I’ve posted previously about my obstacles this month. Things are improving, but the issues still remain for October. I’m planning my goals with this in mind, but not limiting myself entirely, just taking it into consideration. I’m still aiming high. One major goal is the revision of my story The Lonely Orchard. The deadline for Realms of Fantasy’s women’s issue is in November, and I’d like to get a story in for it. My chances go up when they eliminate half the competition. 😉

September Results:

• one story reviesed and submitted (new submission)
• one article written
• one story rejected and resubmitted
• one critique
• started my PARSEC story

October Goals

1. Article revision and submission (due before 10/10)
2. Novel Crit for FM buddy
3. Revise The Lonely Orchard and (let it breathe for a week then) submit
4. Short Story writing: one in progress – bring it to completion
5. Novel prep (culture building, outine work)

It’s a contest of wills. If you push hard enough and ask the right questions, the story (or whatever you’re trying to create or do) will become tired of resisting you.

It took me a month to revise a story people said was “close” or even “ready”. I wasn’t happy with it. I asked the right questions of the right people, pushed,shoved, and wrestled the story into what I feel it submission readiness. This afternoon, i almost gave up. I started freaking out about my promises to myself to try my best. How could I give up? I couldn’t, not and call myself a writer. If I hit the deadline and the story was awful, it’s one thng not to submit. But to give up? Not in me.

So, yes, I made my deadline, and I’m loving the story.

Don’t take the good writing time, the easy writing time, for granted. Because certain times pop up that make writing difficult. Like when in the same month you discover you have seasonal allergies, and you develop a nasty cold, and you break your toe. I’m struggling for the writing time, doing it in dribs and drabs and mostly on paper at this point, but I’m doing it. Lesson learned? Being 10 minutes late for work is much more preferable to the hours of time I’ve now lost because my body needs sleep to heal. Or the meds drain me.

It’s slowing me down, but I promise you: it’s not stopping me. That submission for writers of the future? It WILL be going out within the next 7 days.

I’m always learning. I learn from my own mistakes, I learn from reading how-to books, I learn from writing critiques and from continuing to write. There’s almost nothing as powerful as a strong critique that’s completely on track with where the story went wrong, no not went wrong, simply fell short. I took advantage of a wonderful offer by Stephen V. Ramey, fellow writer (and Writers of the Future finalist!) and slush reader/editor at Triangulation: buy the newest anthology “End of the Raindow” through him, and he’d offer you a critique.

There are a few things you should know about Triangulation. This is a market I’d like to break into because it’s “new” writer friendly. A friend pointed me to their website last year and I’ve been tickled ever since. I submitted a story last year that they liked but not enough to buy, but enough to offer some very detailed feedback. They work usually on the same theme as the PARSEC short story contest. They are again this year.

While I’m whittling away on a story I’m sure they can’t refuse (writer’s toolbox neccessity: massive ego during first draft, or one is doomed), I sent dear Steve a fantasy romance to critique for me. I’ve already had a bunch of critiques on this one through both my writer’s groups and revised based on that feedback. Let me tell you: the mansuscript he sent back to me was bloodied with comments. It looked like a mass consolidation of five or six crits on the story. I’m still working through the comments, some of which I’m reacting to with a “duh!” or “omg I never realized I did that”, and “why didn’t I see that?”.

He offered an analysis along with the bloodied manuscript that both reminded me of where I was going with the story (and somehow had forgotten?) and offered suggestions of where I needed to get back on track. He showed me where I had fallen short with promises, and how I could breathe life back into the world and muscle that tension into doing its job.

I’m still trying to absorb it all. It’ll probably take a few days.

If you’re thinking about submitting stories and thinking about buying End of the Rainbow, check out Steve’s offer, which also has details on next year’s anthology theme. 🙂

Oh, and thanks Steve. It’s giong to be a few sleepless nights as I piece this puzzle together.  😀

I’ve got multiple projects in progress, and I’m having fun, but I’m moving forward slowly. Work committments are exhausting me, the cold still hasn’t left, but I’m not giving up. My new story is in worldbuilding phase, I even drew a worldmap where this island exists. It’s a new world for me — a telepathic one. D&D psionics and Star Wars were my first introduction to that kind of magic, and I’m glad I finally found a place to put it to work for me.

Calico revision is still in the works. I plotted out three scenes to go in at the 75% mark, but something isn’t quite working. I need to reevaluate them to see what the deal is.

Exciting reading news: a new anthology arrived in the mail. It’s one I think my own story could have made it into with another revision if only I hadn’t submitted it in the last hour before the deadline. I could be dreaming here, but that’s how I took it. They gave me amazing feedback on my own submission. So naturally, I’m damn curious to see who and what made it into the anthology.  And here it is, Triangulation: End of the Raindbow. I read the first story, a flash piece by entitled “The Rainbow Vendor” by David Sklar. And it’s cute. 🙂 Onto the rest… in between my own writing, of course.

And I found a new site to stalk, thanks to another wotf contestant: http://www.writingexcuses.com/. I just listened to their Sept 7 podcast on POV. Very interesting. They’ve been at this for a whle; I’m going to have to play catchup.

Rough week with work, the family, even the writing. We’re fighting colds, which means everything is more difficult than it needs to be.

Crits are slow this week. I’ve got two pieces that I’ve read from oww that I need to write the crits for, just haven’t been able to get analytical enough. I have a novel crit to continue. I have a short story to write, and another to revise. The revision isn’t going too badly, I just need to decide on adding a scene, and changing the ending up a little to accomodate the story’s growth. The rest should just be tweaking. I’m focusing on this, and hoping that’ll get me charged up for the rest of the work.

Fitness and health goals are progressing well. Haven’t gotten into the workouts yet, but I ditched the cherry coke, pepsi, and cherry-vanilla pepsi. I hadn’t realized I was up to 40 oz a day, but I was. I needed the caffeine. Or thought I did. I swapped out the soda for water and lemonade, and popped a vitamin b complex in the morning. I feel better (aside from the cold), I’m walking more, and I’m losing weight. It’s good.

So, pushing through. Maybe Sunday/Monday will get me through this revision. 🙂

I’m pleased that I recovered from that ickiness that was July. I accomplished quite a bit this month:

* 2 short stories – revised and resubmitted

* 6 critiquies done

* novel critique for FM writing buddy in progress

* 2 rejections received, one of which was the contest story that made it to the top ten stories, and hit the judges panel. 🙂

September Goals

I really want the novel  to get going, but my brain is stuck on short stories. I’m finally at the point where my endings are satisfying or even unexpected (in a good way) according to my readers and critiquers. I can’t give that up yet. Must push the envelope. So, a compromise:

* Shadow of Blood (novel) – am session for outline and worldbuilding work; aiming for 4 chapters to be written by month end

* 2 short stories for revision and submission (one is a resubmission, one is a new submission)

* 1 short story draft (must get started on those Parsec stories!!)

* Critiques (novel in progress, plus I still owe a few crits on OWW. I’d like to repay my helpers sooner than later).

Some serious goals. I hope I can make them all. I have a day off, half of which I can spend towarad writing, and possibly some out of town visitors at the end of the month, but I can probably fit some writing time in after they’ve gone to bed… 😉

Well, more ready than before I submitted it to WOTF and received my rejection. 🙂 This particular story has been on the revision burner since April. I posted it to two crit groups shortly after I submitted it to its first market (on a deadline, or I’d have waited). I usually have 3 – 5 short stories in progress at once in various stages of first draft, revisions, crit queue, and second revisions. I knew something was wrong wth the story, but couldn’t put my finger on it. Then, between my two seperate crit groups, I received pretty much the same feedback. And, 99% of was accurate.

I think I’ve nailed it this time, I spent hours on a major revision, including a more intimate voice. Most of the stories written before 2010 have voice issues, and I need to address those in the first revision.  I’ve come a long way, and I’m hoping this story is the one. 🙂

I read a novel one of my writting buddies wrote with the intent of critiquing a genre  (young adult) fantasy that I don’t normally read. I was really afraid of committing to a critique when I wasn’t sure I could pull it off. But, better to try and let him know where I failed than to not try at all.

Amazingly — I loved it. Not that I’m posting his critique here mind you. I didn’t realize the depths of YA, and though I suspected one of my novels may be flirting with the line between adult fantasy and young adult fantasy, my buddy’s novel made me realize: Forgotten Star falls quite heavily in the genre. Shadow of Blood will too, if I take out those scenes no living being will ever see because of how awful they are. I thought I was writing dark fantasy when I started it. I was, really. But I’m really not a dark fantasy kind of gal. Not that kind of dark. So here I am with the best two prospects for a novel deal and they’re YA.

Guess this means I need to read a lot more of it. 🙂  What YA do you enjoy that’d you’d recommend? I’m also wondering if YA science fiction is as difficult to write as adult science fiction…

The bad news: I didn’t win the 2010 Parsec Short Story contest. The good news? My story was one of ten that made it to the final judging panel.  I can’t tell you how much I needed to hear tht today. 🙂

Forward moving, I’ve gotten some feedback on the story from some pros, and it needs a quick revision. 

Congratulations to the Parsec winners! I hope you’re enjoying your moment. 🙂

It’s taking me longer to complete tasks, but I’m back on track, writingwise. The day job is a challenge at the moment, which is my primary mental reason for distraction and physical reason for the exhaustion. Suffice to say I’m pleased they trust me to take on new things, and that I’m equally pleased to be employed. That said, I’ve come up with a way to manage myself mentally and physically, and before I spout off to you about what I’m doing, I’m going to try it out first. 🙂

The orchard story is making progress though slowly. I’m also trying to map it. I usually map first, create the world and then build cultures and problems into it. This story was written at a time that this wasn’t precisely my MO, so I’m going backwards. It’s much harder to create a map and environment for a story that already exists. I know what I need and I’m under pressure to get the geography just right. But I am enjoying it, despite this afternoon’s mapping session ending early because both kids decided they wanted in on the action. We all had our colored pencils and crayons and white paper out. It was fun, and I’ll map this evening instead.

I’ve been asking for feedback on two of the forums I’m on (one of which I’m part of a small but efficient and wonderful writer’s group). My critiques of late have been reflecting the same basic feedback regarding the story (4 different stories, actually) being part of a bigger picture, or asking if it was part of a novel, or stating they’d read on if it was a novel when it was evident from the submission format that it was a short story. I’m sitting here, mentally scratching my head at this feedback. Most of these people don’t get to see each other’s feedback since the two groups are mutually exclusive at the moment. Something is there. And I don’t want to submit another story for crit unless I figure that out. So I asked them what they meant, or what they thought it could mean, because damn if I couldn’t figure it out.

The feedback was varied, but the underlying issue seems to be conflict resolution (which I knew is an issue but I haven’t been able to work through), and very possibly a style issue. The writer who suggested the style issue (aside from catching me off guard with a big OH!)) suggested I take a novelist I like and find some of their short stories and compare them. Love the idea, dying to find the time. I have to research this first. My reading has changed in recent years because of the kids and I’m way behind on novel reading. I’ll figure out who to find because my hunch is it’s a combination of the two issues. If I can get past these… oh man, just thinking about it tickles me. If I can get past these instead of giving up.. my stories will improve. Maybe someone will like them enough to buy them. Or I’ll just be writing more crap with a different problem.  Time will tell, as will reading.

And the simplest lesson relearned? Baby steps get more done than freaking out over what I can’t do. A page per writing session will get this revision done in about 3 weeks, but imagine getting it done. 🙂

Guess what – I didn’t win the Writers of the Futures contest for quarter 2. Oh well. That story’s in revision.  No soup for me. Next!

July was mostly a loss. There were a lot of real life issues to deal with, plus a slight obsession over vp results, plus forcing my brain to work on a novel when it didn’t want to. I should have stuck with the shorts. So all I did in July was 4 critiques. Oh I tried to do much more, but each attempt resulted in some excuse or physical manifestation of the stress that nothing got done.  So I came up with a new approach.

Feed the monster what it wants.

The muse wants short stories: she gets 3 to revise, 1 to write, then I get to play with the novel. I don’t  have to give up the shorts. I’m hoping once I’m happy with the outline and the new race I need to build, that it’ll be easier to jump into the novel writing. But that’s something to deal with in September. Right now, short stories, and building blocks of a novel. And critiques of course. Many many critiques.

Onward and upward, my friends. Hope you had a better month than I did. 🙂  Good luck with August, because my job is not getting any easier, and my workouts are about to take center stage.

PS I read! does that count?

Routines are good. I’m back on mine, thanks to my spiffy little recycled paper notebook.  I’ve been receiving crits back and critiquing for other writers this week, and I think I’ve hit another realization/glimpse into my own writing. Setting has always been a character for me, and in these two stories I was focusing on voice and other things that I didn’t give setting the attention it needed for the story. In one, I had a thought in my mind that it was “just a valley” so of course it came across that way in my writing. In the other, I had a lot of learning to do about a very specific environment. The information hasn’t been easy to find (I really need a library afternoon), and that also has come across in the story. But in both of those stories, are unique voices, or a unique situation. It’s not enough to carry it right now, not for submitting, but I’m working on it.

Some days I feel like I need a checklist for making sure I don’t forget something a story requires.

Truthfully, I’m making strides. I’ll get there. And whle I’m striding along, here’s a little something for you: Routines for Writers

So I didn’t make it into the workshop. I’ve had my submission story critiqued at OWW, and I now see what the story is lacking. I also reviewed the letter I wrote them, and between those two items? I sound like a robot. So what did I do?

I applied fiction writing concepts of voice and character and wrote a new letter for VP15. Yes, that’s right. The submission period opens in January, but I’ll probably wait until around May to send it in so I have time to workshop and revise a decent story before the deadline.

I should probably sign the damn thing “Ms. Glutton F. Punishment”.

I bit the bullet today and dragged myself out of this pit of confusion I’d fallen–no, thrown myself–into. The answer is right in front of me: just finish the damn book. So I’m working on the Senkari, the long living race of magical people that Kelyn belongs to, and hasn’t seen since he was ten years old, and wouldn’t you know it, they aren’t who he hopes they are. How miserable to find your family and they’re really not interested in leaving their own backyard to lend you a hand? I know how they got that way, at least I think they do, but now I’ve got to incorporate that into Kelyn’s challenge.

Thanks for the support through this hiccup guys. 🙂

I despise how floundering over a problem kills productivity. I’m a list maker and I check things off as they get done. One thing done, and it was a completion item, something I’d been working on for two weeks. So, I’m working on Hunting the Red for the time being. I’ve had a few complaints over the setting, that they really couldn’t connect with it, and I was wondering why at first, because it was just a valley. Then it hit me. Just a valley to me, could mean something different to another person. I also have a hunch my visualization of this valley may be a little off from a typical valley, which is something Id need to point out in the story. Geography research? Earth science research? Yes, but probably not anything extensive today: 4th of July holiday. 🙂 That actually gives me another day to figure out which novel I’m supposed to work on next. I have a hunch I should dive into the Forgotten Star revision.

I wanted to read some YA before I got into that revision because I’m half afraid it’s venturing into coming-of-age stories, but I know other adult fantasy that starts with younger characters. There are some dark things that happen, including a mad king’s attempted rape of a character that I’m not sure I’d want to touch in YA. The second story hits a major dark spot for the character, inclding torture and a descent into evil magic. It feels like it’s too much. So if my issue is the characters’ ages, I could just make them a little older, right? Their society is not typical, and their coming-into-their own is triggered by an accident that results in the two lovers meeting.  I don’t think this will affect what currently needs fixing in the novel, but I’d rather not revise it twice…  time to look up YA guidelines?

See, damn it, I just want to write.

Maybe this should be a focus-on-short-stories month, and I’ll work out the issues while I’m getting the shorts into publishable quality.

I’ve decided that I’ll return to short stories while I mull the problem over. My brain tends to work better when it’s occupied by fictional characters and their problems. Makes my problems seem much simpler to deal with. 😀

I always promised myself that if I wrote past the first chapter in a novel, it was begun, and I had to get to the finish line and type THE END. I made it through three novels that way, but then novel # 4 came along all bright and shiny but got interrupted by two pregnancies. I picked it up again, read the story and admitted that at least 20k of the 40k just needs to be deleted, but I can move forward without deleting. I’m ok with that.

It’s the worldbuilding. So many of my notes don’t make sense. It’s like I threw them in there just because i found something neat in my research and threw it in the mix. For some reason, I came up with the concept that (yes you’re allowed to laugh) shoes had some status meaning, and that slaves weren’t allowed to wear shoes. Except that they live in a desert city and the sand probably gets pretty damn hot. Never mind they do all the physical labor. Okay, dumping the shoes thing. Then we have the second culture that shows up midway in the book, that I originally based on Japanese names/language, but it ends there. I didn’t even make a “Laws of Magic’ document which I always always always do. What the hell was I thinking??

Oh yeah, pregnancies. Gah.

What to do now? (I ask myself as my short stories creep up onto my shoulders and say ‘look at me, look at me!’ Down, down! Hush you…) What do I do with this novel? The two main characters interest me. I’ve created an interested story arc, and there’s a villain who is delightfully twisted, but is that enough? Do I create the worldbuilding on the fly, just so I can get this done and shove it in a drawer for five years and then rewrite it completely? Which is what I’d end up doing – the writing here is over five years old. I’m a different writer.

I promised myself completion. Will it kill me to finish it? No, but the revision is going to absolutely suck, and knowing that drags my writing spirit down hard. Throws it down and squashes it like a cockroach going crunch.

This is the hard part. Deciding.

One possible approach is to scrap the background I have and rewrite it from memory (mostly memory; I don’t want to waste details I researched to create a believable environment).  Rewriting my notes might at least bring the world to life for me again, and give me proper contrast for creating the second culture.

There’s also a third ‘culture’ that comes into play which I hadn’t figured on earlier, but they do affect things, so I need to come up with something for them.

I’m not ready to write this, but even as these letters fly across my screen I know I don’t want to give up. I guess this is the hard part, the blood, sweat, and tears moment.

I’m not giving up on the story. I think I just need a few days to work through these issues. At the very worst, it’s practice, right?

June Results

 Lots going on, but I did something writing related almost every day. I don’t feel like I have as much to show for my efforts, but they were really divided between multiple projects. I’m taking a different approach for July.

•  Forgotten Star reformat/print–done
• Forgotten Star / HTRYN lesson 1 (in prg)
• Shadow of Blood – 3 writing sessions
• Crits x6
• Short Story Revisions: x3
• Rejections and Resubmissions x3
• Submissions: 1 (Treischan Strength in subs for reprint publication)

July Goals

• Shadow of Blood: 1300w daily for JulNoWriMo
• Short Story Revisions x2 (Hunting the Red & Rise of the Tiger Princess; if time allows I can add more)
• Crits: 6 (3 on FM, 3 on OWW; aiming for about 2 weekly)

 How’s that for focus? At a rate of 1300 daily, I can finish this novel in a month.

I finished revising the tiger story, and it’s up for crit on OWW. I’m planning a few crits for tonight and tomorrow, and I’m going to tinker with Hunting the Red because it’s almost right. 🙂 Then it’s outline work for Shadow of Blood because baby, it’s getting done.  I’ll have a goals update shortly, but I have some pretty big wishes out there right now in the meantime. WotF is starting to respond to the 2nd quarter entries. I haven’t heard a peep yet, and I know the story isn’t perfect, so I’m hoping for another honorable mention. I have more hope in my Q3 entry. Then there’s the Parsec Short Story contest which has disappeared into the nether. I’m sure they’re just busy, but I have high hopes for that story and these guys are teaching a massive lesson in patience. 🙂 Then there’s the 6/30 deadline for Viable Paradise — to which I applied three months ago. So I’m really hoping for good news there.

I promise to stop checking my email every hour. I promise to stop obsessing over responses for which I have no control.

That’s the plan. 🙂 But I have to tell you, I’m pretty pleased at the Tiger Story. It’s almost there!

Sleep helped, and I even got up at 4;15, as difficult as that was.

In my mind, I’m a full time writer. It’s all I think about, even when I’m not writing. So it’s hard to give myself a limit on what I can do.  Limits are good, helpful things when used properly. They’re not a sign of weakness; rather they’re a sign that I want to do so much more. When I have the financing to back up full time writing, I have no doubt that I’ll be able to handle the mutliple novel schedule with miscellaneous projects included. For now though, limits.

Three writing sessions a day. One for novel, one for short stories, and one for miscellaneous (crits, market research, story research submission work, etc). So… since I’m not willing to abandon my short story work, I need to hold off on one of the novels. It’ll be quicker to finish the first draft (I’ve had to do a lot of work to get to this point), so I’ll finish that novel, then go edit Forgotten Star.

Limit: one novel at a time? I guess I can deal with that. I’ll just need to work a little faster on them. Right? 🙂

I have young children, a full time job, pets, and a house that all require different levels of my attention at various points throughout the day. I have a passion for writing which shows in the multitidue of projects I’m involved with, but my ressponsibilities conflict with my writing times. I can’t always get up at 4am for those novel writing sessions.

Current projects including writing one novel, revising another novel, and a short story revision, plus critiquing. I have short stories in queue, so when this short story revision is done, another short story project will takes it’s place.

Someone mentioned their participation in JulNoWriMo, and it would be a good outlook to get my novel in progress complete. I have about 40k remaining. But that means abandoning my novel revision or my short stories for the month. I suppose a month wihtout working on short stories won’t kill me, but I’ve been going strong on those since last September and really learning a lot. I’m enjoying thm. But it all comes down to career goals, doesn’t it?

The stories might help me make my way into novel publication, but the novels are more important for that, aren’t they?

The issue I’m looking at is that I’m resuming my lunch time fitness routine, so I’m losing that writing time. I have the 4am session (for 1 hour) which I’ve been making only once a week lately. I have the after work writing session for an hour which conflicts with errands on the way home, so I only get that 2 – 3 times a week. And evenings, well, they for whatever I can force out of my exhausted mind.

So this “NaNo” option would get me to finish Shadow of Blood and then I can focus on one novel project. Maybe I need one novel and one short story at a time. I don’t want to lose my momentum with Forgotten star (hah, one page revised, that’s freaking awesome momentum!). But I’ve got a few short stories on the verge of being ready for submission, not to mention I joined OWW and have been critting over there too.

I just want it all. 🙂

Something to sleep on, I guess.

I’m moving forward with the tiger story. My mutlipe project balance has died, but at least I’m making progress on this story. On other fronts, I’ve had two critical readers tell  me Calico is good. No issues. Nothing to improve. They liked it. I’m kind of stunned. This is only a version 2. I guess it’s technically a version 3 since I handwrote it and then kind of edited a little as I transcribed.

Submission news: no news from Paarsec, and another two weeks until I hear from VP. Calico is going out to Dreams of Decadence as soon as I get one more review confirming what the others have said. Then a quick clean up and then it goes out. 🙂  I’m doing it.

Lots going on. Last week, despite the sick family and dr/medical issues, I got quite a bit done. I made good progress before most of that hit, so I was able to do minimal writing and mostly keep up with my goals. I think the short story revision took a hit; I’d probably have been done by now. The big thing is that I figured out the voice/distance issue. I think I got it, and the short story is my test. When it’s done, I’ll be posting it for crit. This one will probably go up on OWW as I’ve got two up for crit on FM and one of them hasn’t gotten any response. I’m not sure why…

But onto bigger and better things: the revision for Forgotten Star and the concurrent taking of Holly Lisle’s How to Revise Your Novel is moving again. The first lesson is very slow as I sort it out, but mostly I want to write a big X on the page and say REWRITE because I’ve definitely gained enough distance to say the writing on the page doesn’t match the story in my head. I hope I can bring it there, because the story in my head is aweseome.

And since I’m actually up for my moring writing session, it’s time to get back into Kel.yn’s and Serena’s adventure. They’ve got some issues right now.