A Few Quick Things!

Hello, out there!  It’s been pretty quiet here, I know, but that’s just because my head has been in a real funk ever since the weather started to get cold.  In my “old” age, I’m starting to firmly believe that those of us in Northern climes were truly meant to start hibernating this time of year, so my productivity has basically been in the crappy.  My motivation seems to have hightailed it elsewhere for the winter, so I’m trying to muster myself back on track again to fight the spiral I’m threatening to disappear into.  As such, I figured a numerated post of a few details of interest might be called for.

1.  I have chosen eleven fantastic stories for the first edition of World Unknown Review, and I’m stoked to start the formatting and editing to get it up and running.  I’m shooting for December 15th as a publication date, so that they’ll be out by Christmas, but we shall see.  My computer has been giving me trouble when I try to run Sigil, which has been a big headache, but I’m determined to spend the train ride to Michigan tomorrow in mega format mode.

2. Speaking of train rides to Michigan, I somehow managed to get Tuesday through Thursday off, and I don’t work until later on Friday, which meant I was able to schedule in a trip home for Thanksgiving!  I’m really stoked to get to see everyone, especially since I didn’t imagine it was going to be a possibility.  Now I just have to decide what vegan dish to bring with me so that I don’t starve, since my family is pretty much the opposite of vegan.  I’m leaning toward chili, since I doubt I’ll be able to track down some Daiya in BFE Michigan.

3. I’ve had a story accepted somewhere!  Wha-hoo!  It’s kind of funny, because it was for New Wave and the Art’s Second Chances for Rejected Stories contest, and I also received a rejection letter for a different story this morning, too.  Either way, I was one of 10 finalists, and my story will be published on their website sometime in December, so keep an eye out for me to squeal about it later and bombard you all with links.  It’s a story that has been rejected multiple times, though my rejection letters thus far have mentioned that they still like the story.  It’s called “Shadow Wolves,” about a young woman in peril for her life when she starts to see these mysterious black wolves that only she can see.  It’s not a paying market, but, hey, it’s something!

4. NaNoWriMo is…going.  It’s not going well.  I’m way behind and there’s no way I’ll “win” this year, but I’ve got a good chunk of Heartless started, and it will definitely be finished and ready for transcribing by January.  Then it’s off to find betas and edit, edit, edit until August!

5.  As pleasant as it’s been these last few months to not live by the alarm clock and wake up “naturally,” I think I might need to go back to getting up earlier. Sigh.  It was lovely, but I’ve realized that most of my work truly does get done in between six and nine am.  After nine, my attention drifts, people wake up, etc, etc, etc.  Problem is that I’ve been waking naturally around eight, only giving me an hour of work time, and that’s just not enough.  So it might be back to the alarm clock for me. SIGH.

6. I need to get back into “professional writing mindset.”  It’s kind of left me these last few months, and then I threw away a really cool opportunity because I was too damn lazy, and I’m really regretting it.  I might have missed out on something there, and I can’t let that happen again.  So I’m really going to keep my ears and eyes open and, when I see an opportunity, I’m not going to chicken out or be too lazy to pull something together again.  I can’t let myself go like this.  I’m at a point in my life where I need to seize every opportunity available.  That being said, if you know of any cool projects or contests or calls for submissions you can share, please do!  I want to get back to making a list, checking it twice, and busting out some more work.

That covers most of it, I think.  How’s everyone else doing?  I’m going to try to squeeze out a little more work because work now. Happy writing!