I’m trying to get back into a regular practice of writing. It’s been a depressingly easy habit to break so I’m pursuing almost anything that catches my fancy just to keep the momentum going. To those ends I’ve got several different writing and writing-related things going on:
Researching:
- 1970s glam rock fandom in America
- 19th-century underworld/alternative history (listened to Stephen Fry’s Victorian Secrets and compiling a list of sources he used)
- Joachim Gans
- Ghost boxes and other paranormal research tech
(Note, these are not all for the same book.)
Writing:
- Chupacabra short story
- “discovery writing” characters for both book ideas
- this blog post
Though I didn’t get a mentor through PitchWars I found some pre-revision “homework” that I’m applying to Fool’s Gold to uncover any glaring failings I missed because I didn’t know any better a year ago.
Regarding the next book: I’m going to have to pick one eventually as I find that I do my best work if I focus on one thing at a time. I don’t know what I’ll do with the short story – maybe just post it as a download on the blog because I can’t imagine where I’d submit it.
What have you got going this fall?
Darn! I was all psyched for those different research topics to be for one book.
Re the Chupacabra story, you might want to keep an eye on UFO Publishing for submission announcements; founder/owner/editor Alex Shvartsman is very big on including new authors as well as established ones in his anthologies. Plus he often tweets submission announcements for various genre magazines, print and electronic, mainly science fiction/fantasy/speculative.
I’m busily making more cold weather gear for my collection; gotta be prepared if a surprise glaciation rolls in.
! Thanks for the tip. Going to look up this guy on Twitter, as his website doesn’t appear super up to date.
And good luck with keeping up with the cold weather up there – it sounds like you’re going to have to knit around the clock to be prepared!
Good plan; I should have mentioned that Shvartsman is mostly active on Twitter and Facebook. The UFO website only changes when there’s a new submissions call or book added to it.
Supposed to be +6C tomorrow and stay that way until Tuesday, when we drop back to -7C again. This is why I like to have a huge wardrobe of knitwear in different weights, warmths, shapes, and sizes. 😉