How in the hell is the year half over? I blame Loki. Yeah. That’s the ticket.

• Systematic finishing of the short stories I’ve started writing but not finished. I would like to get at least six new stories out the door this year.
• Draft, revise, and submit an entirely new novel.
• Complete first draft on An Excuse for Wolves.
• Revise 2015 WiP for submission to agents and editors.
• Keep my short fiction out on submission.

Stretch goals!

• Edit one of my fallow novel first drafts.
• Participate in NaNoWriMo

So, at first glance, not a lot of progress on the yearly goals, but I still have hope. I have drafted a new novel, so that’s one big one, and while Sandra and I haven’t finished An Excuse for Wolves, we’ve got maybe 20k left to draft. We’re pushing to have the draft done for When Words Collide so we can have a revision talk while we’re both in the same city. And…other than a final proof read, last year’s WiP is done! I just have to get my submission packages ready (YAY! Synopsis time! Yay./sarcasm). So that’s a lot of the big stuff on the list taken care of.

As for revising that new novel, it actually has a due date of November with the publisher, so I’d better take care of that next!

On the short story front, I’ve been good about keeping my stories out on submission, but the year’s only half over, so I can’t cross that one off yet. Still, off to a stronger start than last year. Maintaining that start will be harder, as a number of my older stories are running out of available markets. Which means I really do need to get some new short stories finished. This year has been less kind in that regard. I’ve only finished one of the six I’d hoped to have done. I’ve done revision passes on two more, but they’re not quite ready to submit. It’s almost half way to my goal, but still feels pretty far away from it.

Starting to think those stretch goals aren’t going to happen. If they do, it’ll be NaNoWriMo I try first. Having done revisions on two separate novels, I’ll want to write something new before digging into a third revision of the year (I do wish I enjoyed that part of the process more).

So that’s the big picture, what about June?

• Keep my short stories on submission
• Final edit on my previous WiP to incorporate first reader feedback
• Edit pass on my Illuminaughty novella
• Finish my next chapter of An Excuse for Whiskey
• Read a couple of books I’ve been approached to blurb
• See the goddamned sun, play some tennis, roll some dice (not writing related, but I need to hold enjoying the little things to the same account as my writing

Stretch goal!

• Work on my agent query package for my next book

Sweet! Another month with the deck cleared! Pretty happy about that.

I finished the final edits on a book while at a creator retreat with some folks I know from C4. Also managed to do an edit pass on my novella. Altered some structural things to the story, and wrote some new scenes, tidied up the prose a bit. Still a lot of work left before I’ll show that story to anyone, but it’s getting there. Also it’s my first novella, so a few learning curves in pacing, but all in all, I like that length. I should write more of them. You know, in my dubious spare time (that I reserve for watching Star Wars: The Force Awakens).

I wasn’t particularly happy with the chapter I sent Sandra this time out, but it’s done, and the plot moved forward, and the sooner we finish this draft, the sooner we can fix the book.

Both of the books I read with an eye for blurbing were really fun! Don Bassingthwaite’s Cocktails at Seven, Apocalypse at Eight, and S.G. Wong’s Devil Take the Hindmost. Check them out when they release, you won’t regret it!

I did get outside. Lots of walking. Not enough tennis. Not enough dice rolling. But I’ve started a new D&D game because I miss it and busy as writing keeps me, I think I need to have some creative pursuits that aren’t specifically geared to publication.

And here’s what I hope to accomplish in July:

• Keep my short stories on submission
• Proofread the book I finished editing in June and submit the finished book to agents
• First edit pass on the manuscript I finished in May
• Write a chapter for An Excuse for Whiskey

That should keep me busy!

Write on!