I apologize that this month’s blog post is coming later than normal. I have good reason for the delay, seeing as I’ve been knocked on my butt by COVID. My whole family has/had it and it seems like I got dealt the worst hand. Ah well. After several days of on and off fevers and a hacking cough, I decided to take today off work to rest. And what better way to rest than to catch up on my other work? The non-paying, fun work, but still work.
So, updates. First, let’s go into my Killing Time short story magazine submissions. I’ve heard back from three magazines, all rejections. Not very surprising, especially considering I’ve never been published, I’ve never submitted anything to be published, and this is my first “professional” piece of writing, so to speak. I’ve submitted to a fourth magazine, but this one is likely the longest wait time to hear back from, so I doubt I’ll have updates for a while. Besides, if I’m rejected from all the magazines, that just means I’ll get to share it with all of you subscribers! It’ll still get out there, one way or another.
Next up is talking about Soulformer 2. I did start writing again. However… I only got about 1,000 words on that this past month. I finished up chapter 16 which, for some reason I’m not entirely sure why, presented a block in my brain. I also started up chapter 17 and was really excited and ready to write. Then I had to turn my focus to something else (more below). I expect I’ll be able to get more writing done this month, but early March is going to be fun.
Finally, the reason why I didn’t get as much writing done on book 2. I have joined the Futurescapes writing workshop! Futurescapes is a somewhat smaller workshop for working with industry professionals on an excerpt of your book and to participate in writing groups with other fellow writers to get and give feedback. The workshop is happening March 4-6 (which means next month’s blog post will likely be delayed as well, as I would love to share some of the insights I’ll likely have after workshopping). I’ve submitted Chapter 1 of Soulformer book 1. There was a 3,000 word limit, so while I would have liked to also include the Prologue, it pushed my submission to almost 4,000 words which is a no-no. Besides, I think Chapter 1 is a better section for introducing one of the main characters rather than the villain.
This was the reason I was so low on my word count this past month with book 2. I was revising book 1 chapter 1 for submission as well as working on a 500-word synopsis and a query letter, both of which I’ve never done before. So, while I didn’t write much as far as book 2 goes, I did write something. Yes, yes, this is mostly an excuse because I could have easily done both. However, in my defense… ah, who am I kidding. It was just laziness. I promise to do better this month though. My goal for this month is to get to chapter 20 (which is a pretty big ask, considering each chapter is typically around 2,500 words). This is also a very busy time for my real-life day job, so we’ll see how that, combined with the tail end of COVID, is treating me for the next few weeks.
That was what I spent my time on writing-wise this past month. Not as much new, mostly polishing old, submitting some mid-life works. A little bit of everything. This month, with my Futurescapes submission completed and just waiting on news for my writing group, I want to focus more on book 2. I will have to provide feedback for the other 5 or 6 writing group members in Futurescapes once I get them, but that shouldn’t take more than a few hours.
Here’s to more substantial book 2 updates next month!