Wow. What a lame title. But it's accountability time, peeps.
Progress Toward 2022 Goals
Complete a draft of my epic fantasy novel by summer - behind schedule
Word Count Goal: 90K
Words to-date: 63K
For several months, I was wordslinging like I've never wordslung before. I wrote about 50K of shiny new words. I was rolling. But life happened, as it tends to do, and I fell behind schedule. I lost momentum and then (Squirrel!) I shifted gears to complete a short story for an anthology submission.
Anyhoo, I'm back on track, and I need to write 30K words in May/June to meet my goal.
The good news is that I've already written Act III of this novel, so now I need to figure how how to finish Act II, which means putting my MC through the ringer.
Short Stories - on track
Number of stories out there: 6
Total submissions: 10
Number of acceptances: 1 (Hurray!)
Number of rejections: 5
Writers of the Future Contest: 2 entries, waiting for results
Middle-Grade Novel - on track
I started querying again. Querying is the worst.
Blog - on track
I’ve written at least one post a month, with a small number of views. I'm planning on writing a few new things that will be more interesting than a status report. Stay tuned.
What I’m Reading - on track
Goal: 25 Books
Read to-date: 9
Reading:
Luke Skywalker Can’t Read: And Other Geeky Truths by Ryan Britt
Whether it's an essay about literacy in SF universes or Barbarella and dinosaur sex, this collection of essays is tons of geeky fun.
The Handle by Richard Stark (aka Donald Westlake)
I love a good Parker novel. This one is about a casino heist on an island.
Finished:
The Gutter Prayer by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan
This epic fantasy/crime novel has fantastic worldbuilding -- a criminal underworld, cool magic, magical creatures/characters, soldiers made of wax, and ancient gods. While all the POV characters are interesting, my favorite is suffering from a magical disease, and I could read a series about him.
The Complete Western Stories of Elmore Leonard by Elmore Leonard
Yeah... the creator of Raylan Givens and Chili Palmer (and so much more) used to write westerns. I've picked at this collection before. This time, I found a story whose structure is worth studying. It's unusual, and it works well.
*Follow me on Goodreads for more info, and I'll follow you back.
Let's keep reading.