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Aug 10

Some Thoughts on Book Collecting

I woke up this morning thinking about Michael Hurley. If you’ve never heard of him, you are not alone. He was one of the greatest book collectors in the US (He died in the 80’s.) A while back I came across his name and saw a few articles that talked about him. My jaw dropped. Here was a guy who devoted his life to finding books (really amazing books). I can only wonder what they didn’t find and record before his stuff was auctioned off.

Who wouldn’t love to have a first edition Raymond Chandler, or a signed Stoker (!!). Wow!

One of my most popular posts was when I found my 1st edition Atwood book. That was an amazing day and I consider combing thrift stores and rummage sales to be modern day treasure hunting. There is nothing quite like the rush of finding a gem is the most unlikely of places.

Along with books, I have been lucky to finds some cute clothes (like a Maggie London dress for $3.50!) My cousin once found some Prada shoes for $2. And don’t even get me started on my couponing clearance finds…

I guess I had to remind myself that treasure is all around us. Magical, amazing things are out there waiting for you to find. Sure you may not want a Maggie London dress, but maybe you will find that perfect phone case, or stumble on the best ice cream you’ve ever had.

Let’s all go treasure hunting!

One of my best finds.

One of my best finds.

Aug 1

I Joined Twitter

After going back and forth about this, I finally decided to join Twitter. Feel free to follow me.

My handle is @shoutattheabyss.

Thanks!

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

3 Comments

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.)

May 31

End of May 2015 — Back to the Real World

Ok, take two of this post. Don’t you just hate it when you write the whole thing, only to have the computer freak on you and then you lose all the writing???

Yeah, I hate it too.

It’s the end of May 2015 and the end of a busy month. It began with me graduating from school and getting my MA. After the celebrating died down, I’m back into the grind of everyday life before school. For the first time in three years, I actually have the summer off.

But it doesn’t feel like it.

I’m still writing, submitting, and trying to move my writing career forward. The high of graduating has worn off and now I’m back to the REAL work of a writer. The writing. Here’s where the challenge stands so far:

Submissions: 4
Acceptances: 0
Rejections: 18

I submitted everything from my thesis (complete stories – I had one that was an excerpt.) Plus one story is a hold over from December. One story came back a few weeks ago and I am debating where to send it next. I’m in the process of looking over all my work and evaluating which I should keep submitting.

The writing of new material is slow. Last year I was able to finish quite a few, but I don’t know… Now I feel stuck. I start a new piece, but then I just loose interest. Finishing has always been tough for me and usually I can power through. Not the case this month. Maybe I need to put this concern aside. Finishing is good, but lots of writer have more than one story going at the same time. The story will be done when it is good and ready. Better to look at the total numbers at the end of the year.

Yikes, we’re coming up on the mid-point of the year and my rejection numbers are tiny! You can see why this summer is going to be a busy one for me. I have a lot to catch up on. June will be over before I know it.

May 20

Small Update Because I’m Writing

This is just a quick post to say I know I skipped my mid-month update on the challenge. I dove right in to a new story and forgot to update. I haven’t had a chance to do much, but I did make a mistake last month. I still have two stories out at market, not one.

So everything hasn’t ground to a halt. By the end of May, there should me a nice healthy amount of stories out. Maybe even some more new material written. I haven’t forgotten that goal.

The funny thing is how some things have changed and some have stayed the same since I graduated. After years of writing on my lunch hour and after work, I realize I am not a morning writer. Those writers who get up at 4am to write? Yeah, I’m not one of them. My alarm goes off at six (on weekends I get up about 6:30 or so naturally) and I have no inclination to write. Instead I found out I like getting my workout in morning.

I’m an evening writer. At 7pm, I have no problem dashing off a few pages. Heck, I’m writing this post at night now. So far so good. I know I can’t do this schedule everyday. Even the best routines get disrupted for life event. But most days should follow this routine.

 

 

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