My mid-week report to you that covers the three major commitments I’ve made: to write, to edit, and to read.
Writing
I finished that short story (“Rescuing the Past”) for a charity anthology. 2500 words total, finished in a little over a week. I’m pleased with how quickly I was able to work this one up, as well as the story itself. I hope it gets chosen, but if it doesn’t, I’m happy with the story as it stands.
Next up, Im going to work on a short for the Raconteur Press Anthology, Or All Will Burn… I’ve got a pretty solid idea for this one. While I can take my time, I’m going to see if I can keep up the pace.
Editing
The folks at the Writer’s Cantina picked a couple of my pitch letters for their session! They were well received, too. So - yay me! I took a ton of notes there, too. Listening to three editors talk about what they liked, what worked, etc. was incredibly valuable. I definitely recommend taking advantage of any opportunity like this you might encounter.
I spent quite a bit of time on the plane to and from the Cantina working on reviews for my writer’s group. I got some solid comments in on two stories. We’ve also made some steady progress working on notes for a potential shared world project which is really exciting.
My wife has been helping me with editing lately, and doing a wonderful job. I am not going to lie - it’s hard getting feedback from complete strangers, and even harder from someone close to you. She does an amazing job, though. She’s looked over a couple of my shorts recently, and was a tremendous help to me with “Rescuing the Past” this week.
Reading
I’ve been bopping around a lot this week for Reasons. Still in the middle of Les Johnson’s first contact novel, Mission to Methonē. That got pushed down on the stack because I wanted to dip into The Cunning Man by D.J. Butler and Aaron Michael Ritchey. Which in turn got bumped by Annoyed with Lloyd by Christopher Woods, because Three Ravens Publishing issued a challenge for short (50k) novels set in that universe and I wanted to see if reading it stirred up any ideas.
So I’ve got a lot of reading to catch up on :)
Other
Our trip to the Writer’s Cantina pretty much occupied the entire past week. It was amazing, incredible fun. Highly recommended. My wife and I got the chance to hang out with friends, explore Utah, meet Ani (an incredibly sweet pupper) and generally have a wonderful time. They’ve already scheduled their event for next year at the end of June 2024.
We did some cool stuff in the Day Job, too, but unless you’re interested in massively parallel file systems, you’re probably not going to care about Microsoft’s Azure Managed Lustre offering. Which is a shame, because it really is cool stuff. Which my alarm is telling me I need to go work on now! So it’s time to sign off. Check in next week for more updates!
The end of June 2024? Ouch. That soon after LibertyCon will be rough. 😞 Oh, well, your after action reports may have to fill in for the real thing, Sam.
I was looking at the summary for Annoyed with Lloyed, and it looks nearly identical to Wild Cards (GURPS RPG), with the serial numbers lightly sanded. But, that might make it easier to write, being somewhat familiar with the theme. But, I have covers to create...so likely no writing for the wicked.