September Update: Progress and Deadlines

The past few weeks have been, as the upcoming ones will be, mostly dedicated to getting things ready for the wedding. We leave for our honeymoon in less than two weeks. We get married two days after we get back. We're mostly ready. I just have a dozen little small things to buy and do before the big day. I'm working on the wedding soundtrack today. It's making me want to write, honestly.

But as I was laying in bed making mental to-do lists this morning, I came to a couple of realizations. The first is that I've done a pretty amazing job reaching all of the writing and editing goals I set for myself at the beginning of this year. The other was that I could realistically take it above and beyond if I give myself some deadlines.

I have decided that I want to have my novel on submission by ConQuest next year. I mentioned that it only needs a few weeks of intensive edits to be ready. And then it just needs the query letter and synopsis and stuff for publishers and agents. I have been working on an agent list, and Rachel has promised to lend me hers, as well.

But with National Novel Writing Month coming up, and me both participating and being Municipal Liaison again, I am running out of time this year to pursue other writing endeavors.

So my goal is to have it edited before NaNo. I need to have it done by then so I can push it out the door and focus my energies on a completely different story. I don't want the pressure of my characters from Monster of Lawrence, asking when I'm going to pay attention to them. They do that enough with the next two pending books.

Between having an urban fantasy novel on submission, putting out a short story collection (I'll worry about that early next year), and having three collections and three novels worth of editing under my belt, I will actually feel worthy of participating at ConQuest next May. I felt like a baby with training wheels this year. And while I won't be a seasoned vet or anything, I will be able to rub shoulders with most of the people in attendance.

But that's only one reason. I use ConQuest as kind of a signpost these days. It's that time of the year where my creative energies get renewed, and I think about all of the things I have accomplished.

I've done a lot this year. I got MoL edited and sent to beta readers like I had planned. That was a huge step for me. Now I just need to take it this one step more. I need to get it out into the world by the end of this year.

The collection is something I can focus on early next year. I truly hope that next year I will continue to write short stories for the Cafe every month. But I also need to get back to novel writing and editing. I have a long list of books to write, and writing is just the first step.

I am still struggling with the idea that my writing isn't any good and that there's no point in putting my voice into the world, but I can't let that stop me. I need to keep trying to make progress, even if it's just going through the motions until I get the passion back. Editing is something I am good at. I can edit my own story into submission shape.

And then in November I will write.

August Update: Story Acceptance and Potential Collection

Good news! I did reach my Camp NaNo goal! Which led me to realize that even though it was fun to write, it's not really a very solid novel idea. I may go back to it when I'm bored just for fun, but I can't imagine when I'll have that kind of free time. It has a really interesting relationship dynamic--the protagonist and her rommate, and the protagonist and her not-so-love interest--so I may reuse elements of that at some point. But as a whole, it was mostly a rehashing of my time working at Wal-Mart turned into paranormal romance. I don't feel like anyone but me would enjoy it, so I'm shelving it for now to purse other projects that I feel have more potential.

So last month I started submitting short stories again, using Duotrope to find markets and track. I hadn't actively tried to get any short stories published for over a year, but in a flurry of cover letters and email queries, I sent out fourteen of my strongest short stories.

Then I sat back and waited. And got some rejections. And sent those stories back out. And finally, Jack said hey, there is this collection I think would be a good fit for one of your stories. So I submitted. And then, after about a month, my story got accepted.

A story I wrote for the Cafe, called "The Heart of Stone Monsters," will be in Wolfsinger's Misunderstood anthology that comes out on October 31 of this year. They are going to pay me five whole dollars. Woohoo!

I am excited about this. They've been extremely pleasant to work with so far. And as much as I love Halloween already, I have an even greater reason to be excited about it this year!

But. That is the only acceptance I've had so far. I still have about ten submissions out at the moment, but I'm getting rather discouraged. I've been through almost all of my stories once already. It's been a nice distraction, but I need to focus on more fruitful things. Writing short stories is a lot of fun, and I've gotten many a story idea for novels later down the line writing for the Cafe every month, so I don't plan on stopping writing them. But trying to get them published in magazines isn't really the best use of my time these days. It would be nice if I could recoup my Duotrope subscription costs, but even if I don't, that's been worth it to get my writing friends submitting, as well.

I think between Jack and Rachel, I've been talked into putting together a short story collection. Having written a short story a month for the Cafe this year, and all of my previous work, I'll have a pretty substantial amount of stories to collect. So I'm thinking about that. Brainstorming titles, trying to figure out who would edit it, how much I'd be willing to pay for a cover, stuff like that. I've been toying with this idea for about a month now, and I still haven't come down firmly on one side or the other as far as putting it out there. I think I'd probably aim for early 2016. Before Conquest, for sure, so I would have something to sell at the Bottle Cap Publishing table (if we get one).

I also really need to focus my energies back on the novel. Monsters of Lawrence is really close to done--A few weeks of intensive edits should make it ready for submission--but it's been in limbo since it came back from beta readers. I'm not sure if it's fear of failure or fear of success that has me stalled out at the moment. I'm also going through a phase of not feeling like my work is all that good, so what is the point of working on anything. I'd like to try to get back into it before the next book edit from Rachel. I have about a month at this point. Plenty of time. I just need to get my butt in gear and do it whether I'm in the mood or not. I've been putting it off for too long.

If anything, all of this short story submission has been a good warm-up for when I start submitting my novel. Helps thicken my skin and realize that there is a market for everything.

So that's me this month. Next month I will be in crazy last-minute wedding planning mode, and then Jack and I head to California for our honeymoon. We're hoping to do a bit of writing for the first half (since we were supposed to be at the Haunted Mansion retreat that got cancelled), and then drink a lot the second half in Napa. I'm looking forward to the time away. I'm sure I'll post update before our wedding, which is in early October.

October is shaping up to be a pretty awesome month for me. I just need to survive the rest of August and the first few weeks of September to get there!

July Update: Camp NaNo and Short Story Submission

The LFK Writers and I decided to participate in the second session of Camp NaNoWriMo this year. I'd say we've had about as much success this time around as we did in April. That is to say, some of us wrote a lot of words, some of us never even started our projects.

I will probably not reach my goal of 15,000 words, but I should hit around 10,000, and it's allowed me to explore a story idea I might otherwise not have revisited. The idea now has more of a foundation, and has the potential to become something, I think. Maybe something like a throw-away, self-published book I put out under a pseudonym, but also maybe something I can edit into a hot urban fantasy type book. Either way, I'm glad I did this round of Camp NaNo. I definitely got something out of it, even if I didn't reach my word count goal.

All of the LFK Writers have started to have similar feelings about NaNo. Not just Camp, but also NaNo proper. We're all outgrowing it a bit. We all know we can write a given amount of words in a month. We are now, most of us, in a place where we need to write good words in a month, not just any old words to reach an arbitrary word count goal. Having a deadline and the camaraderie for NaNo are still great things, but I think we've all grown past the point where we need NaNo to write.

I have never been so proud of my writing group as I have been this year.

We are all writing short stories every month that are published on our website. We've been going strong for seven months now. Rachel has just started a brand new books series, and she's actually doing really well without her publisher. The LFK Women Writers are beginning to submit stories to various publications. We've actually had a couple be published already. Jack continues to have stories published on a regular basis, and he is taking the GRE this very morning so he can apply to the KU PhD in creative writing program.

And that's just the start. Our group is expanding: we've had a couple of past members become active again. We've recruited several new members who are actually contributing their stories to the Cafe, as well. Several of us are getting close to finishing up full-length novels that we are actually serious about getting published.

It's amazing to be a part of such an amazing group of writers. Watching all of us grow as writers and gain the confidence to put ourselves out there along this journey has been incredible. I fought long and hard to get this group to where it is. And now, I feel like, if for whatever reason I stepped away from them, they would continue on strong. It's not like the days where if I didn't show up, there was no group.

I don't often get possessive or brag about this, but back in the day, with the help of one or two other people, I started this writing group. I had no idea, ten years ago, that we would have such an amazing group of people now. It makes me happy in ways I can't even put into words.

So that's my biggest news, I guess. I have an awesome writing group.

In other news, I finished editing my first full-length novel for R.L. Naquin. I have fourteen stories on submission right now, waiting to hear if anyone wants to buy one. I have written one short story a month for the last seven months. And...if all goes well...I will be starting edits on Monsters of Lawrence next month. Fingers crossed for me, friends. I am terrified about this project. It's so close to finished, but it still needs a ton of work before it's done. I know I can do it. I just need to jump in there and start getting my hands dirty.

Gotta get your hands dirty if you want things to grow. I'd say that goes for writing as much as it does for gardening. I've cultivated a lot of things this summer, from food to fiction. It feels pretty amazing.