My mid-week report to you that covers the three major commitments I’ve made: to write, to edit, and to read.
Writing
Cedar Sanderson is doing N'inktober, so I decided to follow along and do what I've been trained to do by the Raconteur Press Postcard books: come up with a story to match her visual prompts. I’ve been publishing them here on Substack, but not sending out every story by email so as not to spam folks. Here’s what I’ve done so far this month:
N’inktober #1 - Scarcity Ammonite
N’inktober #2 - Callipygous Waltz
N’inktober #3 - Libram Seadragon
N’inktober #4 - Moose Beret
N’inktober #5 - Kerfluffle Scythe
N’inktober #6 - Zephyr Shrimp
N’inktober #7 - Freeze Prison
N’inktober #8 - Diamond Found
N’inktober #9 - Reunion Seapen
N’inktober #10 - Moist Celosia
Doing these stories have been great exercises for me. Every day I need to brainstorm, come up with characters, personality, problems, solutions, voice, point of view… and then cram that all into a scene’s worth of text. It’s the writerly equivalent of making sure I hit leg day. Sometimes frustrating, but well worth it!
Oh, and while I hate to vaguebook: I had a story accepted! :) More news as things develop. This was one of my favorites, and I’m really proud that it’s going to see the light of day. Still waiting to hear back on a couple of others that are out there.
I’ve let the outline for An Understanding simmer for a while. I’m going to try and revisit that in the coming week. I am also going to do my best to come up with a better title for that novel. Titles are hard. :(
Editing
Second draft on the autobiography Shari & I have been helping to edit was returned to the author. I expect that we’ll move on to line/copy editing on that project soon.
Reading
Finished Dragonesque, and read “The Deviltree” by Monalisa Foster (you can find her over at Monalisa's Musings). I recommend Deviltree - it’s a unique vision of a first contact story, and there were a few bits in there that made me go back and reread so I could understand how she set things up so nicely. You can find it in the September/October issue of Analog magazine.
I really enjoyed a bunch of the stories in Dragonesque, including “Lord Bai and the Magic Pirate” by Jean Marie Ward, which had a very Barry Hughart feel to it. However, the final story (“Reenactment”) by David B. Coe was my favorite by far. He had me at “dragons exist, and they do reenactments at renaissance fairs”. I enjoyed the characters, the setting, and I always appreciate urban fantasy that simply drops you into a strange world without trying to explain it too much.
I’ve also been doing my best to keep up with critiques in my writing group, the Alpha Mercs. I’m incredibly proud of this little group. I feel like we’ve all improved, and that it’s showing in our work - which is getting out there and getting published!
Other
This has been a week of meetings and speakings, and it’s not over yet. I’m grateful for the N’inktober challenge, since that’s keeping me limber, storywise. We had some problems with the log splitter, too - so we’re looking at replacing the engine on it before I can get to filling the woodshed. Not a real problem, as I honestly wouldn’t have had time to do so this week, but still something I’d like to get done before the weather gets really frosty!
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I'm glad to see your story published, Sam. All y'all have pushed me hard to catch up in the writing group, and I appreciate it. 🙇♂️