Forward to February - Blog Schedule Changes & Goals

With the (possibly temporary) removal of the Dissecting the Short Story feature from my blogging calendar, I'm going to be making changes to when I post starting in February. My new schedule will be general posts every Monday and Thursday and then my weekly Links post on Sunday.

Also, looking forward to February, I wanted to plan out my goals for the month.

Blog Miscellany - Contest, Award, & More

I've been given a free copy of the eBook of Emily Casey's novel The Fairy Tale Trap to give away to one of my readers. If you're interested in possibly receiving this eBook then, in honor of the season, please leave a comment below with a favorite winter memory. I'll pick one of the winter-memory commenters to receive the code for downloading the free eBook.

[Edited to add: Deadline for this contest is 11:59 PM Eastern US Time on 12/27. I'll announce the winner in my 12/28 post.]

In other bloggish news, I'd like to thank one of the other #writemotivation people, jaggedwriter, who has bestowed upon me the Versatile Blogger Award. This award calls for the following:

1. In a post on your, blog, nominate 15 fellow bloggers for The Versatile Blogger Award.
2. In the same post, Add the Versatile Blogger Award.
3. In the same post, thank the blogger who nominated you in a post with a link back to their blog.
4. In the same post, share 7 completely random pieces of information about yourself.
5. In the same post, include this set of rules.
6. Inform each nominated blogger of their nomination by posting a comment on each of their blogs.

I've been fortunate enough to have people present me with this award in the past as well. You can see my random facts and bloggers who I thought were worth passing the award along to in my September 11, 2011 Sunday Links post and my September 28th post which touched on several topics. Between those two pages you can find 17 random facts about me to thrill and amaze. (Or, well, something like that...)

You can also find links to a total of eight bloggers to whom I passed along one or more awards. Today I'm going to add four more bloggers to the rolls. Linking to 15 at once seems a bit overwhelming, so I'll just say I'm doing this part of the award requirements on the installment plan.

• Natalie Whipple at Between Fact and Fiction
• J. E. Fritz at Still Writing...
• Wah-Wah Writer
• Yelena Casele

One more bloggy bit -- I received (and deleted) my first spam comment today. Umm.... Yay?

Finally, just a reminder that I'm taking a Christmas hiatus from blogging. I'll be back a week from today with a new post. I hope that all of my readers who are traveling this time of year have safe journeys.

Sunday Links: December 11, 2011 Edition

I got the second of my "Write 1/Sub 1" stories for the month out earlier this week. It was a short one, an entry into Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine's monthly "Mysterious Photograph" contest. I've been working on a couple of other stories this week, too, though so I've gotten quite a few new words written. I also went back and took a final pass through one of the stories I'd done preliminary drafts on pre-NaNo and got it out on submission.

A quick blog announcement, I'm planning to take a brief hiatus from posting over the Christmas weekend. So that will mean no Dissecting the Short Story post on 12/23, no Sunday Links on 12/25, and no Monday post on 12/26. I'll have Wednesday posts on both 12/21 (though it won't be a DtSS preview, naturally) and 12/28. And, of course, if I have a burning desire to share something between the 21st and 28th, I may pop on long enough to put up a quick post.

And now, on to the links...

Poll Wrap-Up and Dissecting the Short Story Preview

Last week, I ran a poll to see what features people might enjoy me adding to my blog over time. There weren't any runaway favorites. The most votes went to Flash Fiction entries (50%) with Contests, "Posts Highlighting Upcoming Contests and/or New Markets", and "Bringing an eBook To Market, Start to Finish" each getting 37%. (People could vote for more than one choice.) The only choice to get no interest at all was more frequent link roundups.

As I mentioned in the post introducing the poll, I'm mostly looking at working some new types of content in once December rolls around. The rest of October is going to be pretty busy with prepping for NaNoWriMo and then, of course, November is NaNoWriMo itself. I suspect the first thing I'll do once December rolls around is look at doing a periodic Flash Fiction posting, possibly on the Fridays alternate to the Dissecting the Short Story Fridays.

Speaking of Dissecting the Short Story Fridays... This week is one of them! This week's story comes from the December, 2011 issue of Analog Science Fiction. It is Susan Forest's "Turning it Off." If you have a copy of this magazine and want to read up on the story before Friday's posting, now's your chance!

Thanks again for the feedback both via the poll and comments on the post introducing the poll. See you all Friday!

Suggestions, Please?

I started this blog just about two months ago, mostly on a whim. I had just leapt back into writing with both feet and was constantly thinking about writing. Writing about that "thinking about writing" seemed like a natural thing to do.

I've been thrilled with the response. There have been over 400 comments left on the blog since I started, nearly 100 people are following it through Google Connect, and four of the posts have had over 100 views. On the one hand, that may not seem like a lot but I know that it takes a long time for a blog to build a following and this seems like a very good start for two months in.

Thinking about the future of the blog, I know that in November I'll be writing some about my experience with NaNoWriMo. I also currently plan to stick with the four posts per week schedule I've been on recently. I plan to continue the bi-weekly "Dissecting the Short Story" posts. What I'd like to know is what my readers would be interested in seeing more of and/or added to the rotation.

So, I've put up my blog's first-ever poll. It should appear at the right side of your screen (if you're using the Blogger/Blogspot interface) and it will be open (if I've done this correctly) through 12:01 AM (I think Pacific time) on 10/11. I would be very pleased if you'd provide your feedback on what you'd like to see more of on my blog. If you select "Other" it would be helpful if you left a comment below to clarify.

Thanks for a great two months! I've enjoyed reading your comments and getting to know you. And I hope that we continue the conversation into 2012 and beyond.

A Writing Blog

"A Writing Blog" -- such a descriptive title. And, really, does the world need another writing blog? Of course not; but apparently I think that I need one.

I'm currently in one of those cycles where I'm taking my writing a bit more seriously. I've got an idea percolating which I think may well work for this year's NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) though I will say that the idea of trying to write 50,000 words during the school year AND hockey season strikes me as being a sign of possible insanity. We'll see. At least I type quickly.

At the moment, I've got a half-dozen or so short stories which are in various levels of making the rounds of publishers of short fiction. The newest is still out to the first prospective publisher; one of the older stories has been through seven rejections and is back out for an eighth time.

I don't know how frequently I'll update this blog until the November NaNoWriMo season is more closely approaching. (And, really, the idea that I might decide to blog and churn out still more words while trying to produce 50,000 words on a novel all in 30 days... Did I say "possible" insanity?)

If you're interested in the fiction and non-fiction I've had published in the past, please look at my Publications page. Thanks for stopping by!