How’d I do?

• Keep my short stories on submission
• Reread An Excuse for Whiskey so me and Sandra can get to the end
• Get my WiP to my first readers

November did not cooperate. I spent entirely too much of my energy following the US election, and I couldn’t muster the concentration to revise a novel. I’d stare at chapter headings and do nothing.

November was also distracting for positive reasons, as I sold my novel Graveyard Mind to ChiZine Publications! Or as Brett Savory, co-founder of ChiZine put it, “New fam, y’all!” I spent a few days overwhelmed with the good news and thank you to everyone who made a point to say congrats, it was appreciated. Very stoked for people to be able to read this one, and to be sharing a publishing house with amazing writers like Michael Rowe, Gemma Files, David Nickle, and so many others whose work I admire tremendously.

It was looking like I wouldn’t get anything new done in November, and then mid-month I had a short story idea. I ran with it, drafting the story over three days, which is unusually fast for me, and then kept at it, to polish it up in time to submit to a themed anthology closing to submissions at the end of the month. It’s a Thunder Road ‘verse story–Loki making a new protagonist’s life “interesting” (as is his custom).

I also figured out how I wanted to fix an old draft of another story, and got it done in time to send off to my writing group for critique (they loved it! YAY!). This one is also a Thunder Road story, featuring the ravens Huginn and Muninn.

Finally, there was another themed anthology closing at the end of the month, and I had an existing story that was close, but not quite suitable, and so I revised that one as well. It was a near thing, but I got the story in (like an hour before deadline). I really wanted to stop working on it because that would have been easier. The revisions I set out to do made the story better (I think) but they were difficult, and I ran the danger of saying something I didn’t intend as I attempted to disentangle some of the tropes in the story. I think it worked out, and fingers crossed the editors feel the same.

I’ve never got two new stories sent away to two different anthologies in the same month, I’ve come close a few times in the past, and then gave up on polishing the second story, so I’m pretty happy about that. I paid for it the day after with a raging headache, but it was worth it.

I did finish my reread of An Excuse for Whiskey and I think I know what I need to write next to get the story going. Funny thing when you’ve got your head down, sometimes you forget you already wrote 7 pages of that next chapter. Hey, I’ll take it. Those seven pages mean I’ll be done sooner, and get to hand the job ball back to Sandra and bug her about finishing the next chapter. Of course, considering, She’s been waiting on my submission since the end of July, if I want to maintain my health I should probably not be too big of a jerk when I’ll get to read her next chapter.

Now’s the time to check back in with those yearly goals:

• 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

Not too shabby!

Not sure I’m going to hit the short story goals, but I’m a lot closer than I was the last time I checked in. I’ve revised or finished three old stories and submitted them, and finished drafting two new ones. I’ve also done revision passes on a novella, and another short story. So…doable, I think. I’m crossing off the keep short fiction on submission, because I’ve been consistent with that all year, and I generally don’t submit stories in December.

I have a new novel, drafted, and have done some revision passes, but it’s not ready to submit yet, but that’s still definitely doable. Unfortunately, I really doubt Sandra and I will finish our first draft of An Excuse for Whiskey this year, but we’re close. So close!

As for those stretch goals, yeah. No way they’re happening this time around. If I’d had the  new book done by November, I would’ve taken a run at NaNoWriMo, but given how the month shook out, I wouldn’t have got to 50K.

And for December? Every year, I try to do too much. Every year I think I’ll get more done during my holidays. I’ve gotta try and be more realistic than I have in the past, December always goes faster than I expect.

• Finish my WiP novel
• Clean and organize my office. (One of these years this won’t be necessary)
• Finish a chapter of An Excuse for Whiskey
• Finish revisions on three short stories, so that I hit my 6 new stories goal for the year

Shit. I did it again. That’s too much. But here I go anyway.

Write on!