I can’t believe we’re at the end of May already. I lost pretty much the first two weeks to influenza and let me tell you, that was a barrel of laughs. Anyway, I spent the rest of the month trying to catch up to all the things I was supposed to be doing while I was too sick to see straight.

Attend a writer’s workshop

Odyssey also sent me a rejection. And man it was a good one. I got onto a “very short waitlist” though so apparently there’s hope for me yet. In the meanwhile I signed up for K. Tempest Bradford and Nisi Shawl’s Writing the Other online class. I had been planning to go to Viable Paradise, stay with friends for a week and then head to World Fantasy. It turns out my partner has made some travel plans of his own right when I was thinking of staying with friends so I’ll have to pick either or and I haven’t quite decided yet which it’s going to be. Which means that the next action step is going to be to figure out whether I try to get to Viable Paradise or World Fantasy Convention.

Actions

  • Figure out the next move

Win Writers of the Future

The June deadline is coming up fast and I haven’t even started working on the next story beyond that first rush of story planning. I’m pushing hard to have the first draft of the novel finished next week which would leave me free to get the short story stuff done.

Actions

  • Write.
  • Revise.
  • Submit.
  • Write.
  • Revise.
  • Submit.
  • Write.
  • Revise.
  • Submit.

Get my second novel to the submission stage

The first draft is now at about 60,000 words and counting. I’m hoping to have it done by the end of next week, which seems slightly unlikely at this point, since I have maybe some 30,000 words to go but on the other hand I’m starting to get a hang of this writing full time thing now, so… maybe. Right now it feels like it’s going to need a lot of work in the second draft but that may change after it’s been sitting a while.

Actions

  • Write some more. (In Progress)
  • After the first draft is finished, let it rest for at least six weeks.
  • Edit.
  • Make people read it.
  • Edit some more.
  • Submit.

Get an agent

No replies yet. There are some agents for whom this means a rejection and some for some it means sending a follow-up. If it’s only rejections then I’ll have to do a second round toward the end of the year/beginning of next year when I have then next book ready for querying.

Actions

  • Wait. (In progress.)
  • Requery.

Queries sent: 11
Replies: 0