I’d say that January was a big month for me and my writing, but then, so too has the last six months dating to when I started my mentorship program at Team PYP. I chronicle most of my writing updates on my New Authors Fellowship posts every Tuesday morning. Click (here) to see the list of most recent posts. In short, I finished the second draft of my novel, a rewrite almost from scratch, at the end of December, then took a week to make notes on chapter summaries. Lane Diamond gave some great advice in the comments of my post, “A New Years Resolution to Edit the Right Way.” The last few weeks have been centered around editing my short story “The Mess I’ve Made” (see WIP page), which is chronicled in my last two NAF posts.
I look forward to February, where Chila Woychik, managing editor of Port Yonder Press, is going to work closely with me to improve said short story. The goal is to submit the story to The Writers of the Future Contest by the March 31 deadline. The edits I’ve made in the past month have been a massive project, to the point where I could barely see straight as I looked at the critique comments (see last NAF post, “Productive Patience”). It’s hard to imagine what Chila has in store, but experience tells me the story, and my writing, will improve substantially. I have three short fiction pieces out in submission queues right now, and may find out in February if any get accepted.
Between editing “The Mess I’ve Made,” I have two projects: organizing the notes on my novel and adding a new level of what changes need to be made, then making them; and continuing to write “Campus Zombies.” Campus Zombies is in my WIP page as well. It’s at 8k so far, and could stretch beyond novelette length to novella, or even novel length. I worked on structure using Anatomy of a Screenplay, and am now just discovering as I write how I’ll find my plot points.
As for the podcast, AudioTim, I plan to release three episodes this month: on every other Wednesday starting on the first of February. I have an interview with Michell Plested on writing fast and outlining, an interview with Lane Diamond and D.T. Conklin of Evolved Publishing, and with Rebecca P. Minor, author of the new Fantasy book, The Windrider Saga. These were all recorded prior to my recent purchase of a Rode NT1A mic and new PreSonus Audiobox interface. I’m excited to introduce that new sound to upcoming shows, and to my fiction I hope to be published soon.
The website currently has a weekly Saturday Spotlight post, where I choose a five-star short story to highlight, along with news about the author. I am building content on my Bookmarks to Publishing series and a few new segments, one on podcast creation, and another discussing the topics seen on my 12 Days of Creepfest page.
That’s all for now. Thank you for stopping by, and if you haven’t already, you can subscribe by email, RSS, or like my Facebook page to keep up to date.