Haven’t done a progress post in a while, so here goes.

Finished a new story a couple weeks ago, “Even the Guppies.” It’s not a show-stopping piece of breathless speculation, but it does what I was trying to do with it, and I think it’ll find a home somewhere. It’s also, as far as I can remember, the first story I’ve written first-person with a female protagonist; was trying to stretch myself a little. My first priority was not going overboard with the XX perspective, and I know I pulled that off if nothing else.

Revised two stories, changing one from horror to sci-fi (that may deserve its own post) and just polishing something else some editors were split on.

While doing that, I stumbled on something I’d mothballed as not worthy of sending around, but which read pretty well nearly a year later. Made a couple minor changes and returned it to circulation.

Hauled in a few rejections: about 2/3 “No, but this is good and you should send us more later,” about 1/3 form.

I spent the early part of this week catching up with submissions. Checking my list, there are a couple stories I’ve had hanging for three months now, a couple in the 3-6 weeks stage, and five that were waiting to be sent out, again or for the first time. Did some market research and I’ve now got all nine unpublished stories on desks or hard drives somewhere.

My plan for the remainder of the year is to finish five more stories, bringing my total to 20, while threshing out the ground work for a novel. If I make enough progress on that, I’ll get started as soon as I feel able; otherwise, I’ll start it on the not-at-all cliched date of January 2. (January 1 is reserved for hangover recovery.)

I’d really like to have at least one pro publication before that novel’s completed and submitted, but that’s not entirely within my control, and at that point I’ll have spent the majority of the last two years of my fiction writing time on short stories, which feels like enough for the time being. Last time I sent a novel out, I had zero fiction writing credits. This time, I’ll have a minimum of six. We’ll see if the combination of credits and fresh experience makes a difference once I resume the agent search.

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I am a Science Fiction and Fantasy author, based in LA. Read More.
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