Just finished re-reading and tweaking Chapter 17 yesterday – Chapter 18 today. I’m happy with the way it’s going! Oh, and I put two submissions (short fiction) in the mail this week! Yay! Plus, I had the opportunity to read a selection from “The Director’s Cut” at Pages Books on Wednesday night as part of a joint Tesseracts 14 / Rigor Amortis launch. It was fun, and we had 42 people present!
June is over!
Yes, I think the universe conspired to ensure that I would NEVER want to go back on my decision to retire from the day job. So, as much as I enjoyed it, leaving it behind feels very much like Heaven, right now. I revised a flash fiction this week and am getting it critted right now for submission to an anthology next week, and have just come up with an idea for a short story, which is a good thing, because I have a deadline for a short story workshop coming up in 3 weeks. Also, I was asked to judge the Robin Herrington Memorial Short Story Contest again this year, so got a start on reading stories for that. Then, there is the novella revision and submission, and the novel to have done by the end of summer . . . September? Lots to do! 🙂
Another Sale!
Okay, this one is non-fiction, and not speculative, but I still feel good about it — and I’ll still get paid! A friend who edits for Legacy Magazine said they were looking for essays about the province in Canada where I live — Alberta. At first, I thought I wouldn’t be able to do it because I don’t really write non-fiction. But there IS a place that means a lot to me because it reminds me of my father, who passed away five years ago. So it actually wasn’t hard to write the piece.
I wrote the essay Thursday and submitted a proposal. Based on my past sales, the publisher asked to see the piece so I did one final revision, had it beta-ed, and sent it in — still the same day. The next morning (Friday) I got a call from the publisher, buying it! Boy, was that fast! But she said the piece fit well with the intent of the column, and it will likely come out in October! Yay!
Writer Friends are Totally Awesome!!
So, Friday, I finished my agent query letter and showed it to my daughter, Heather, who is an incredible writer in her own right. She made a funny face, typed furiously and hit “send” on her email. I walked across the room, opened my email and read her version. To die for. (How does she DO that?!!)
Of course it contained a few blanks, so I tweaked it a little, then sent both versions to five friends who make up the current membership of the Kensington Writers’ Group. Went away for Thanksgiving and came back two days later to 5 crits and lots of supportive comments. Wow! Quick turn around!
So, along with my sister (she’s not a writer, but she reads fantasy) — who pointed out where I needed to really connected plot-dots for someone unfamiliar with the book — I got some great ways to pare back the wordage to the elements that really needed to be included. In addition, I got advice to make the whole letter more professional and more “punchy.” Thanks guys!
So, with their support — and the irreplaceable support of Rob Sawyer — the letter is in the mail. Wish me luck!
It’s Great to Belong to Groups
Perusing my favorites today, a friend passed on the following link: