Onward and Upward!

Before you get your hopes up, no, we don’t yet know where Andy’ll be going to school. BUT the interviews seem to be going well, so we can only wait now for some news. Should be hearing something within the next two or three weeks, but at least after today (Andy’s at his last interview now) we’ll be done with our part and it’ll be up to the schools. It’ll be so nice to know what’s what, whether we stay in the area or head elsewhere, at least we’ll be heading *somewhere* rather than stuck in the limbo we’ve been in since the summer before last. Who knew, besides pre-meds in college, that the med school application process was such a long one!

Writing is going well, too, which is a nice trend. There was a week there at the end of January where it seemed like I had to recreate the alphabet for each new word I wanted to put down. Typically, I can hammer out 500 words in about a half-hour, but I had one day that took me almost three times that long. Needless to say, I’m glad that week’s over! Plus, to add to the awesomeness of getting Andy’s interviews taken care off in one fell swoop, I got news on Wednesday that I sold my dark fantasy/clockpunk story “Mimicry” to a well respected market, but I’m going to keep that close to the chest until contracts are signed. But I’m still thrilled to bits! ^_^ I love that story, but was worried it was too long to place anywhere. So glad it found a home! This officially means I’ve sold as many stories this one year as I have all the previous years combined. Not sure what that says, but I hope to continue the trend!

“The Road to Ki’o Ahi” is still on hold at another market, and I’m crossing my fingers for that one. I would love to see it place there, but we’ll see. We’ll see. My luck’s been very good these past few months, so I don’t want to get my hopes up. Still, that’s another one I’d love to see find a home.

Edits for “A Shepherd of the Valley” are in, so that’s moving forward! I think The Zombie Feed Anthology is looking for a March release date, or at any rate a Spring 2011 date. “The Tinselmaster’s Extended Ten-Day” in Daikaijuzine is scheduled for a March release, too–pushed back a month, which is fine. I’m just so glad that one sold–it makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. It, too, is a pet story of mine–it just always makes me smile. ^_^ That’d be two stories releasing in one month! CRAZY!

Current projects are moving along at their stubborn paces:

“The Ghosts of Oldshore” is about mid-way to a rough draft, and alternates between giving me hell and high hopes.

“His Last and Second Chance” is well into its rewrite of the last fractured draft, and is dragging its heels a bit more than I’d like, though I definitely sense an improvement from the previous attempt.

“In the Shadow of the Mons” is picking its way forward, though it writes smoother than the other two, the visual aspect of the prose slows me down, making it harder to want to commit time to it for the 500 words a day, simply because the formatting will take extra time. But I do still like it–the beginning needs some smoothing out, but mid-way through I’m enjoying the mind-f**k of it.

“[Untitled]” novel is moving forward (finally!) too. This last three days I’ve managed to add about 1.5k to Chapter 4 (Day 2), and I think this one may stick. It’s the right POV, sets the relationship dynamics tolerably, sets up the tech, and what will come next. Could maybe use some work on the symbolism angle a bit–it’s a bit grounded–but with the next two scenes, that should pull itself up by the bootstraps, and then I can really drive it in during Apollo’s Chapter 6.

“[Untitled]” short story for an anthology invite is in the planning stages. I think I’ve got it outlined the way I want it, so I’ll probably start on that next week. Seeing how it turns out, I may try subbing it to one pedestal market first (they’ve got a fast turn around and a high pay rate, so if they reject it, no harm no foul and I can still submit it to the anthology), and I may write a second story for the anthology as a backup if I’ve got time. I’ve been warring with two concepts I really like, so it’ll be interesting to play with both of them. But clearly I’ve got plenty of other stuff to work on.

YIKES! It’s 11:02 and I haven’t gotten my writing or my work done, also I’m still in my PJs, and I’m meeting up with Kaku and Kayla for lunch. EEP. Time to get myself in gear!

Also: for anyone who asks what it’s like to be a writer, I recommend they watch Episode 33 (A Farewell to Writing) of the 4th season of the Dick Van Dyke show. That is *exactly* what it’s like being a writer. Though the ending varies. :-)