Wow, where did June and July go?

Just wanted to sort of look back over the past two months to see what's happened since the Oregon workshop. I feel like my time there was life-altering as far as my writing goes, where I learned how hard I was going to have to work to make it as a serious, professional writer of both novels and short stories, and I had some doubts at the time if I had it in me. I think I do, now, two months later, but there's a limit. I'm fairly close to burnout right now, and not sure what I'd do if we didn't have a week offf at the beach. As always, timing is everything. But, that being said... ;)

In a slightly-ironic twist, as soon as I got back from the Oregon workshop, I dove back into drafting my novel about the aliens landing in the near-future midwest. I've added over 25,000 words to it since coming back, getting it close to 2/3 done (the goal is to finish it all before WorldCon in 4 weeks!). It's been lots of fun, though I'm writing at night now instead of at 4 a.m. (that early-early morning shit didn't last long!)

I revised the heck out of all my unpublished stories as soon as I got rejections on 'em from editors. One of the skills I learned at the workshop was to make my openings as sharp as possible. So lots of words got cut from my existing stories to get to the heart of the openings.

I DID write one brand-new story about redneck surfing zombies that was lots and lots of fun. Sent that to the Book of More Flesh.

Let's see -- I've got a dozen stories out there to various editors right now, including a novelette to the Imaginings antho. Anyone heard anything from Keith DeCandido about this one? I know he's really busy with deadlines right now, according to his website. In this case, I'm hoping no news is good news... :)

Now I'm off to the beach for a week with Lizzie and our friends. After much deliberation, I'm leaving the laptop at home, and just bringing my notebook and hardcopies of my novel-in-progress and 5-6 stories (including my two sub-par stories I wrote at the workshop in Oregon). And 4-5 books to read for fun, including 2 romances by Nora Roberts Elizabeth wants me to read. Seems she has plans for me as a Romance Writer! She's got 3-4 ideas for romance novels, and even has a pseudonym picked out for me!!! Should be fun.

In close, just wanted to let you know that I just hit 85,000 words for the year today on my lunch break! Wahoo! See y'all in a week or so... :)

Now Playing:
"You've Come a Long Way, Baby," Fat Boy Slim

Reading for the Beach:
Harry Potter 2 and 3, JK Rowling;
Night Terrors, Drew Williams;
...Doomed to Repeat It, dgk goldberg;
2 Nora Roberts, um, ah, romances... (it's research, okay???)

Today's Words:
500

Novel Words:
73,600

Today's Quote:
They crept into town as the snow continued to fall and sun began to rise, turning the world bright orange and red. Without remarking on it, all the travelers marveled at the silence of the white city, bathed in early morning light. They were all too tired to say anything, especially the most obvious, painfully ironic comment: Iowa City looked like an alien world.

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