I could whine and moan about how I never have time to update, but I won’t. It’d be real nice to pick up the pace here, and maybe I’ll actually manage to do it this year! I’m hoping 2011 will be a good year for my writing–at least the end of 2010 seems to have been picking up. I sold “A Shepherd of the Valley” to The Zombie Feed anthology, which I’m excited about (summary: air control tower, shotguns, remote controls, a father missing his daughter, a desperate attempt to find meaning in an increasingly degraded world, and–oh yeah!–zombies!)! Am also very much looking forward to “The Tinselmaster’s Extended Ten-Day” on Daikaijuzine in February, and have another story holding for further consideration at a very respectable e-zine. We’ll see, we’ll see.
I won’t talk about New Year’s Revolutions for writing this year, because since last May, I’ve started functioning (accidentally) on a June-May calendar. I have a writing fiscal year! The reason for this was simply that last year in May I set up some goals to reach by May 2011, and I’m still working on those for that deadline. Those goals–for those interested–are:
BASIC:
[ X ] Sell another short story
[ ] Finish Draft 1 (~50k) of the Novel
ADVANCED:
(all of the above, PLUS)
[ ] Have a novel/book project ready and waiting come May 2011
[ ] Polish & submit 2/4 “July Challenge” stories
PREMIUM:
[ X ] Sell 2+ stories
[ ] Write 5+ stories in addition to the 4 “July Challenge” stories
Ok, so of those goals, the only thing I’ve done so far is sell stories, but you know what? I’m okay with that. ^_^ But still, the novel is the big one I want to finish. I don’t have to achieve everything on the list, only everything in the BASIC field to qualify as not a complete failure for the year. The “July Challenge” stories are going to be tough, because only one of them is written to rough-draft so far. I’ve got two in the works still (one’s about 80% done but will need a complete rewrite, and one’s 20% done and kicking my butt), and haven’t even worked out the fourth one yet.
My only “New Year’s” goal is to write 500 words a day. My original goal was the slightly more ambitious 1000 words a day, but that’s just too tough for me to stick to, and I’m a big proponent for reasonable, reachable goals. 500 words I can do very comfortably, and that means I get more done overall. Also, I’m now banning myself from starting any new projects. I currently have six, all of which need to be finished once and for all, including a good edit right off the bat (which otherwise I won’t do for years). Need to work a good editing schedule into the mix, which is something that continually eludes me due to how hard it is to quantify progress while editing. And if I’ve learned nothing else about myself this past year, it’s that I need quantifiable proof that I’m not just wasting time.
So look for me to try to update here at least once a week, hopefully about more interesting things than this! :-D
Oh! Also check out Dru Pagliasotti’s new release from Apex, An Agreement with Hell. It just came out today! You may be familiar with Dru as the author of Clockwork Heart, as well as a bunch of short fiction circulating the print and web-zines. Here’s a little clip of the book’s description:
“In the divine struggle between good and evil, humans are hardly noticeable to the mal’akhim, but when an ancient seal is broken on the grounds of a California college campus, beings from dimensions beyond the balance of holy and unholy erupt from the earth.” – Apex Publications