Another month of 2015 down. How’d I do?

• Keycon is on the horizon (10 more days!), so I want to sort out what I’ll be reading during my reading slot. Chances are I will preview some of Too Far Gone, but I have an hour to fill, and will probably read at least one short story in completion (so let me know if there is anything you’ve a hankering to hear) in addition to a TFG teaser.
• Polish up and practice my presentation for The Writers’ Union of Canada.
• Keep plugging away at that WiP.

Everything got done, but I did kind of give myself a pass with a softball month after a couple of tougher months full of illness. I’m okay with that.

Even though the goals were light in May, it was my best writing month since January in terms of word count. I also topped 100,000 words for the year on the last day of the month, so I think tracking my word count more closely is paying off.

Keycon went relatively well for me. I had a good turnout at my reading. I read most of my story from Beast Within 4: Gears & Growls, “A Taste of the Other Side,” and an excerpt from Chapter Two of Too Far Gone, titled Burning Inside. Folks seemed to respond to the Too Far Gone piece, I think it will be a good one for future readings. And as has often been the case, my steampunk werewolf story went over very well with the crowd too. “A Taste of the Other Side” is a fun one to read, and always seems to make me adopt a bit of a cowboy drawl. The panel on Setting that I shared with David Annandale and Gerald Brandt was fun. Different approaches to the same discipline make for interesting conversation.

There was a post-Keycon writeoff hosted by Gerald, and a bunch of us invaded his home to sit in the same room and ignore each other. I did a lot of the final polishing for my presentation to The Writers’ Union of Canada while there, and made some headway on my WiP.

I felt good about my presentation for TWUC’s OnWords conference before the panel happened, although I feel I peaked with my rehearsal performance the night before, but there were some kind words after the fact, so I’ll take it. The panel “Time and Money” was hosted by Dennis E. Bolen, and I was speaking alongside Doreeen Pendgracs, and Katherena Vermette. I talked about using social media to be productive and creative, Doreen on crowdfunding, and Katherena gave her time management Top 10 list.

While there wasn’t as much forward momentum on the WiP novel in May as there was in April, I’ve always had trouble switching from non-fiction writing to stories, so I was kind of expecting that. I sweat the non-fiction a bit more, I suppose. Between Keycon, OnWords, and the Winnipeg launch of The Exile Book of New Canadian Noir with Keith Cadieux and Corey Redekop I also had three separate events to rehearse and prepare. Despite all that, I still locked another two chapters, and have got another three almost in shape, so baring surprises, I should have a good June with the WiP.

Speaking of June, what do I want to get done:

• Work in Progress, keep at it. Lock down four more chapters, which will take me to the last 50 pages of the previous draft, and make a plan for the revisions of those pages.

I’m going to take it a bit easy on the goals this month too. There’s a bunch of stuff that I need to get done around the house that’s not writing related (even if my office could use another scouring), as well as a wedding to attend, a surprise bonus ChiSeries to plan for, and some tennis to play to counteract some advancing “writer’s pudge”.

Write on.