May Status Check

Well, another month come and gone.

I've really been excelling with my new/revised goals. As a refresher they were to: 1, finish outlining one planned fantasy/alternate reality novella and 2, complete first draft of Sci-fi epic novel. And all in a 6 month time frame.

I did veer off a little when I dreamed a great revision for the beginning of an old story. That took about 3 days out of my timeline, but with 4 more months to go I think I can still meet the goal.

I did finish the outline for my alternate reality novella and start on the Part 1 (I'm estimating about 3 parts broken into unknown # of chapters right now). I'm about 20K short of my completed first draft on Sci-fi epic (still as yet not named – grrr).

Sooooo….being the anal SF chick I am, that means within 4 months (120 days) I need to write on average 167 words on my Sci-fi epic. This is totally manageable.

Well, that's what's what folks.

Good writing all!

March Status Check

Wow! That's the summary of March. All right! Let's get into the nitty-gritty that was March Madness. Let me just say, trying to write around flu, cold, and capital purchasing season - yes, it's a sickness...at my work, which hits about this time every year - was something of a challenge. I'm not sure I fully succeeded but I did get idea stuff into written format.

New Story Ideas by Length:
Flash Fiction: 0
Short Story: 0
Novella: 0
Novel: 0
Series: 0

(Was that a trend? I think that was a trend...yup, that was a trend. Dang it!)

Current Story Progress:
Outlined: 0 (that would've involved new story ideas)
In Progress: 1 (was 2, but I had to sacrifice one for the good of my sanity this month)
Halted: 1 (aka "The Sacrificed")
Completed: 0 (but the 1 is really, really close)
Archived: 0
Published: 1 (The Patient, Foliate Oak's April 2010 Issue)

Agent/Publisher Search:
Queries: 6
Requests for Partials: N/A (all publishing houses and they wanted full manuscript)
Rejections: 2*

*Couple nuances to note here. Of the 6, I've heard back from all but 1:

• 1 loved the manuscript, but just filled their purchases for 2010. Did state there might be an opportunity for 2011 if the book was still available. Personally, I'm really hoping not...but fall backs are good, I guess.
• 1 turned out to be a scam (see previous post titled Know Your Worth).
• And one was a submission to Harper Collins' slushpile, called Authonomy. My interesting journey through that will be noted in an upcoming post.

So, that leaves 2 full rejections, form and all.

Submission Status:
Submissions: 3 (running out of completed material here...I'm workin' on more)
Accepted: 1
Revise & Resubmit: 0
Short Listed: 0
Contests: 0
Rejections: 6 (2 were March submissions)
Waiting Response: 3 (1 sent back in December)

Okay, that's my claim to shame for this month. It's not as bad as it looks. I did get a lot of writing in but focused on one project that's due in June for an anthology. There was some research for my new novel tossed in there too.

Good writing all!

February Status Check

February was an interesting month with lots of ups and downs. One thing I realized as I was brainstorming, all classic sci-fi concepts, is that many of my ideas the last few months have not been pure science fiction but more speculative. I'm excited my muse has gone back to a more spacey place...it's comforting that I haven't forgotten my root love. (And was a little worried my creativity was maturing.)

New Story Ideas by Length:
Flash Fiction: 2
Short Story: 1
Novella: 1
Novel: 0
Series: 2

Current Story Progress:
Outlined: 6 (3 for each series idea)
In Progress: 2
Halted: 0
Completed: 1
Archived: 0
Published: 2

Agent/Publisher Search:
Queries: 0
Request for Partials: 0
Rejections: 0

Submission Status:
Submissions: 8
Accepted: 2
Revise & Resubmit: 0
Short Listed: 1
Contests: 1
Rejections: 2
Waiting Response: 5

Okay folks, that's all she wrote (literally). Good writing all!

January Status Check

Oh my goodness! I totally forgot to post my writing status for January - mark that as an "F" on my Blog Report Card. *Slaps forehead*

Okay, well, truthfully January was a very slow month in the writing department. Let's take a look at what amounts to my confession...

New Story Ideas by Length:
Flash Fiction: 0
Short Story: 0
Novella: 2
Novel: 0
Series: 0

Current Story Progress:
Outlined: 1
In Progress: 3
Halted: 1
Completed: 1
Archived: 0
Published: 2

Agent/Publisher Search:
Queries: 2 still out
Request for Partials: 0
Rejections: 0

Submission Status:
Submissions: 9
Accepted: 1 (yay! Pill Hill)
Revise & Resubmit: 1
Contests: 1
Rejections: 4
Waiting Response: 2

Okay folks, that's all she wrote (literally). Good writing all!

December Status Check

New Story Ideas by Length:
Flash Fiction: 0
Short Story: 1
Novella: 0
Novel: 0
Series: 0

(My focus this month has been to complete my novel. January should have more here as I'm starting to focus on my other pieces/outlines starting tomorrow.)

Current Story Progress:
Outlined: 2
In Progress: 4
Halted: 1
Completed: 2 (1 novel, 1 short story)
Archived: 0
Published: 0

(I think I could've lost a few short stories and outlines in progress or halted in the "Flash Drive incident" but since they're gone I'm just not going to fret.)

Agent/Publisher Search:
Queries: 2 still out (1 sent in December)
Request for Partials: 0
Rejections: 0

Submission Status:
Submissions: 8
Accepted: 0
Revise & Resubmit: 0
Contests: 1
Rejections: 5
Waiting Response: 9

Okay folks, that's all she wrote (literally). Good writing all!

Writing Update

The holiday overall has been a great writing time. It started a little rough when, through the natural clumsiness gene, one of my younger sons tripped and ran into my flash drive. This officially broke it and all the writing on it poofed away into the land of the lost.

After I restarted my heart, I thanked my blessings and my online writing group for kick starting my online backup habit. I easily retrieved everything but the last week's worth of work (about 2 chapters).

So today's writing update will seem like a lot more than usual, mainly because it's a little bit catch up from my recovery work.

Words Cut: 640
Words Added (above the cut amount): 5830
Chapters to Go: 4 (I merged two)
Estimated Time to Completion: 1 Week (hard goal but I'm determined to finish it during my vacation this week)

So, there ya go. Good writing all!

Quick Writing Progress

With the two short stories completed, I got back to work on Galileo. With about 1200 words cut and 350 put back in, I managed to finish two more chapters. Today my goal is to focus on two more. This should wrap up Nettie's story.

Okay, off to enter the world of Galileo.

Good writing all!

Monthly Status Check

I started my adventure of becoming a published author October of 2008. To help keep my momentum going I've decided to start a monthly status check of my submission and activity

There are some industry standard way of building your author name and your readership. Getting flash fiction, short stories, and novella's published in magazines and anthologies is one great starting point. This method also helps to learn and gauge your audience and story trends. In example, one thing I verified through this method is that Space Opera's are virtually nonexistent in today's market.

Okay, to kick it off here are my stats and progress to date. Then going forward I will only report on my progress for that month at the end of the month.

Story Ideas by Length:
Flash Fiction: 2
Short Stories: 14
Novels: 2
Novellas: 4
Series: 1

Story Progress Status:
Outlined: 9
In progress: 2
Halted: 3 (in queue to finish after "in progress" are completed)
Complete: 6
Archived: 2 (1 contest done, 1 not marketable/good)
Published: 1

Agent Search:
Queries: 33
Requests for Partial: 2
Rejections: 33
(Efforts halted until revisions complete and more magazine/anthologies published)

Submission Status:
Submissions: 24
Accepted: 1
Revise & Resubmit: 1
Contest Placed: 1 (2nd place)
Rejections: 15
Waiting Response: 6

There are my stats from October 2008 to date. Good writing all!