I've previously blogged draft versions of my goals for 2013 and in the end, I've decided to make no real changes to the list. To have them in a nice, consolidated place I'm going to list them out here along with links to the original blog posts which covered each individual goal and the details behind them.
Monday, December 31, 2012
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Editing for Kazka Press
Several of my first published short stories ran at Kazka Press as part of their monthly flash fiction contests and also as the first longer-form story they ran online. Earlier this year, I guest-edited the "Love Beyond Death" flash fiction contest for the site. I'm very pleased to announce that starting with the first of 2013 I will be editing their flash fiction contests every month. (If you'd like to read the full announcement, it's available here.)
I'm very excited about this opportunity and pleased that publisher L. Lambert Lawson felt that I would be a fitting person to continue the work he began with that portion of the site.
The two submission calls already announced for January and February submissions will be the first two I will be editing. Those are:
I'm very excited about this opportunity and pleased that publisher L. Lambert Lawson felt that I would be a fitting person to continue the work he began with that portion of the site.
The two submission calls already announced for January and February submissions will be the first two I will be editing. Those are:
- January: An Undelivered Valentine (submissions due 1/20/13)
- February: Spring Training (submissions due 2/20/13)
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Story Sale: "Learning the Game" to Sidekicks!
A real quick note during my holiday hiatus. I'm pleased to announce that my short story "Learning the Game" has been accepted for Sidekicks!, an anthology of sidekick-themed stories edited by Sarah Hans for publisher Alliteration Ink. This book will be coming out in print and eBook in early 2013. I'll post more details as they become available.
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Letting Go Of The Chain
"Will I give up the chain someday even while continuing a daily writing routine? I suppose it's possible. But I know that if I did give it up and then realized I was having trouble keeping to a routine, I'd want to return to using the chain to help myself get back into a groove.
In the end, the chain is just another tool to help you reach your goals. Like any tool, you can use it when it's helpful and leave it in its toolbox when it's not."
I've been considering this for a while, off and on. But I've decided to make it official with the start of 2013. I'm no longer going to be formally maintaining a Daily Writing Chain.- A Time to Let Go of the Chain? (Chapter 11, Write Every Day)
Still Here...
Though pretty much completely out of it.
Five-sixths of my house has been struck by a hideous bug the past three days and I'm still feeling wiped out. I've gotten no writing done for the past two days and even being awake long enough to run my daughter (the one who DIDN'T get sick) to the orthodontist, run by the grocery store, answer a few emails and now type up this blog post has felt like a challenge.
The blog post which was going to run Monday will run later today or tomorrow (Thursday 12/20). Everybody else out there, stay well.
Five-sixths of my house has been struck by a hideous bug the past three days and I'm still feeling wiped out. I've gotten no writing done for the past two days and even being awake long enough to run my daughter (the one who DIDN'T get sick) to the orthodontist, run by the grocery store, answer a few emails and now type up this blog post has felt like a challenge.
The blog post which was going to run Monday will run later today or tomorrow (Thursday 12/20). Everybody else out there, stay well.
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Sunday Links: December 16, 2012 Edition
I had let myself get horribly behind on short story submissions. This is normally something I'm very good about, however over the last couple of months in particular, as I got rejections I wasn't getting around to sending stories back out to another market. I've made a major push to that end this week and I'm basically caught up now. The only things not currently out the door are stories which I'm considering making revisions to before submitting them again. As of tonight I have 36 submissions out, five reprints and 31 originals. It feels good to be back to where I've got a lot of stories on on submission and I'm going to make a concerted effort to not fall behind again.
As a side note, with this week's efforts I've crossed the 300 mark for 2012 submissions. There was a point where I thought I might have 366, which would have been neat, but my slacking off in recent months ensured that wouldn't happen. Still, 300 submissions is a lot and I'm quite pleased with what I have accomplished.
Something in early 2013 I'll do a Year-in-Review for 2012 with all kinds of statistics. For now, though, let's move on to the writing-related links I've come across this week which I want to share:
As a side note, with this week's efforts I've crossed the 300 mark for 2012 submissions. There was a point where I thought I might have 366, which would have been neat, but my slacking off in recent months ensured that wouldn't happen. Still, 300 submissions is a lot and I'm quite pleased with what I have accomplished.
Something in early 2013 I'll do a Year-in-Review for 2012 with all kinds of statistics. For now, though, let's move on to the writing-related links I've come across this week which I want to share:
Thursday, December 13, 2012
December Goals Progress and Holiday Hiatus
Usually, around the middle of the month I'll post an update on how my goals are going so far. After several months where things weren't going quite as smoothly, December has gotten off to a very solid start. Here's my goal progress so far:
1) Keep my Daily Writing Chain going. - No issues so far this month.
2) Write and submit four new stories. - My goal is to have a new story out the door every Friday in December. I have accomplished that for each of the first two weeks of the month. Two to go.
3) Revise and submit one story from my backlog. - This is not done yet, but I have an idea which story I might tackle first, so there's a bit of progress here.
4) Finalize my 2013 goals. - I finished up my "first draft" goals. Now I'm going to finalize the goals and put together the blog post on them.
At this point, I have no reason to think I won't go 4-for-4 here. There's always the chance of a challenging day or two for the Daily Writing Chain with the holidays, but I managed it last year and I'm optimistic that I'll do the same this year.
Speaking of the holidays, I tend to go on a blog hiatus around major holidays and this December will not be an exception. I'll have a post up on Monday the 17th, but I don't plan to do another post after that until Monday the 31st. As usual, there's nothing that says I won't decide to put up a bit of news or something else that strikes my fancy, but it's equally possible that there won't be any new posts from the 18th through the 30th.
Finally, I wanted to note that author and editor M. Bennardo put together a list of his favorite stories from 2012 which were not published in pro-rate-paying venues and he included my story "Twenty-Seven Rules for Coping" (originally published in Goldfish Grimm's Spicy Fiction Sushi and slated for Greek and French reprints) on the list.
Best wishes to all of my readers and friends as we head into the home stretch of 2012!
1) Keep my Daily Writing Chain going. - No issues so far this month.
2) Write and submit four new stories. - My goal is to have a new story out the door every Friday in December. I have accomplished that for each of the first two weeks of the month. Two to go.
3) Revise and submit one story from my backlog. - This is not done yet, but I have an idea which story I might tackle first, so there's a bit of progress here.
4) Finalize my 2013 goals. - I finished up my "first draft" goals. Now I'm going to finalize the goals and put together the blog post on them.
At this point, I have no reason to think I won't go 4-for-4 here. There's always the chance of a challenging day or two for the Daily Writing Chain with the holidays, but I managed it last year and I'm optimistic that I'll do the same this year.
Speaking of the holidays, I tend to go on a blog hiatus around major holidays and this December will not be an exception. I'll have a post up on Monday the 17th, but I don't plan to do another post after that until Monday the 31st. As usual, there's nothing that says I won't decide to put up a bit of news or something else that strikes my fancy, but it's equally possible that there won't be any new posts from the 18th through the 30th.
Finally, I wanted to note that author and editor M. Bennardo put together a list of his favorite stories from 2012 which were not published in pro-rate-paying venues and he included my story "Twenty-Seven Rules for Coping" (originally published in Goldfish Grimm's Spicy Fiction Sushi and slated for Greek and French reprints) on the list.
Best wishes to all of my readers and friends as we head into the home stretch of 2012!
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