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Jul 31

July 2015 – Refreshed and Writing

We’re 2/3 of the way through summer and this month I feel as if I have really got back on track. Not only have I been working on my novella (I think it is a novella, but that could change.), but I also managed to mail out more submissions!

And I even wrote a new short story.

Yes, I know. In my last post I said I was going to ditch the short stories this summer, but there were a couple of places I wanted to submit to and their deadlines are September 1. So I took a couple of days off and pounded out a new story. There is one more I need to write, but I will do that this weekend. So those will be off and submitted next month and then I can really concentrate on this longer piece. Also, I have two other stories that are ready to be submitted, but the journals don’t open until August 1, so those pieces are not included in this update. Here is my total so far:

Submissions: 8

Acceptances: 0

Rejections: 12

Still woefully low, but hey, if I’m going to fail at this, I’m going to fail. After all, the goal is to get myself submitting, writing, and (hopefully) published.

Also, can I say how wonderful reading is now that I am not in school anymore? One of the downsides to grad school is that I never seemed to have time to read for pleasure during the semester. I was either reading books for class, reading short stories for class, or reading my classmates work. It was only in those brief weeks during break that I could read for fun. This year between January and May (when I graduated) I read 3 books for fun.

However in July, I read 5(!!). FIVE books that have been sitting forever waiting for me to read them. Oh people, it is so nice to get back into the swing of things with my reading. Maybe in December I’ll do an end of the year post on all the books I read. But here are a few more that I’m working my way towards:

Stone Mattress – Margaret Atwood

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms – NK Jemisin

The Corrections – Jonathan Franzen

The Diamond Age – Neal Stephenson

Yep, this was a good month all the way around. I hope your July went well too. See ya in August!

 

Jul 5

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Tiny June 2015 Update (that spilled over into July)

Ah , that is what happens when summer hits. You get all distracted by warm weather, vacations, and daylight lasting well into early evening.

Anyway, not much else has changed. Stats are still the same as the end of May, so I won’t repost them. The only big change is that I am considering dropping my short story aspirations for the year. Originally I wanted to write 2 new stories a month, but that has been an epic failure. I’ve barely written anything this year. The stuff I have written has been for my longer pieces (novel or novella, not sure yet).

So this summer I am ditching the short story and setting my goal to finish my longer piece. I can bring back Short Story September, if I feel the need. I have to see how I feel at the end of the summer. For now, I’m working on the long piece, reading the rest of the Mistborn series (the ones that have been out so far), and getting back to healthy. (I indulged in some stress eating during thesis.)