September Progress Report and October Goals (2016)

Well, September is over. As far as writing goes, it was a pretty good month. The biggest highlight was attending the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Colorado Gold conference, which I wrote a bit about here. Just like two years ago, it was an incredible experience. I met some cool people and came back completely on fire and ready to make it in this little game we call writing.

We had quite a bit of drama here at the house the week of the conference…for one thing, one of the people putting on the new roof feel through the ceiling two days before we left for Denver, and it was downhill from there. BUT we got there alive and had a great time.

And now on to other stuff.

WIP Novel.

So last month I said I wanted to be able to pitch the novel at RMFW. Well, I did pitch it, but it just wasn’t ready. For the scope of the story, it’s still too short. I pretty much suspected that going in, but (just between you and me) was hoping I’d still get a sample request and then I’d just work like mad to get it ready.

I’ll have another opportunity to pitch it this month, but we’ll talk about that in a bit.

In other novel news, however, I’ve had this idea for a different novel in my head for quite sometime. It’s a YA horror that I’m really excited about. I’ve got a decent outline, but part of the reason I had been putting off starting it was that I wasn’t entirely sure about the POV characters. It’s got one main protagonist, but the more I think about it, the more I’m going to need to show scenes that take place outside of her frame of vision. I think I have a good handle on how to go forward, so I really want to get a first draft of this pushed out by the end of the year.

We shall see.

Short Stories

Between shifting focus back onto this site and working on cleaning up the second novel to get it ready for the RMFW conference, I didn’t do a lot with short stories. I was fortunate enough to gain one acceptance, however, as my short story “Death Cat Saves Halloween” was accepted for reprint (and is available now) at Anthology Builder, just in time for Halloween!

Anthology Builder is a pretty cool concept. It’s a POD company that allows you to put together your own custom anthology by picking previously published short stories from hundreds of authors. Check out the cover I made for “Death Cat” and click on the link to hop over to Anthology Builder, read a sample, and give it a try.

Here are my submission stats for the month:

• Number of submissions: 4
• Number of rejections: 3 (2 personal, 1 form)
• Number of acceptances: 1
• Number still pending: 8, with one shortlist

Theme of Absence update

The Halloween Horror Flash Fiction Contest will remain open until October 10. We’ve had a few quality submissions, but I hope to see a few more, so be sure to send one in if you’ve got any unpublished frightening flash fiction sitting around. Tim Bougger will illustrate the winning entry.

Regular submissions were slightly up as I received fifteen this month. There were a lot of quality stories this month and sometimes it can be really difficult sending out rejection letters to good stories. But not everything is a good fit.

Goals

October is always a great month to write. I get so inspired by spooky stuff; the scary movies, the Halloween decorations…I love it all. So I really want to take in the mood this month and make a ton of progress on the YA horror novel. But I might also take a quick break from that and see if I could crack some horror flash just for the fun of it.

Another thing I have going on this month is the Nebraska Writers Guild Fall Conference. They’ve got some great speakers lined up as well as pitch sessions with a few different agents. If you’re in the Nebraska area, you should consider attending the conference. And, really, if you’re a writer in Nebraska, you should seriously consider joining the Nebraska Writers Guild. It can open up doors to plenty of opportunities.

So, always keeping busy over here. Hope you are as well. Have a great month, and get some freaking writing done. October is the best month to do that!

Feel free to leave a comment and share some of your goals for the month.