2013 Writing Goal – Week 11

Posted on Posted in Goals, Novelettes, Novels, Short Stories, The Pericles Conspiracy, Writers of the Future, Writing Progress Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Another week ended the other night.  Time to tell you guys how I did.

In a word, meh.  Observe:

Week 11Just 4,402 words.

But that’s ok.  I ran a freaking Triathlon last week!  Suck it, beeotches!  😛

Or something like that.

But seriously, not so good.  I didn’t hit the goal.  But I’m over 77,000 words on The Pericles Conspiracy now, and the end is in (close) sight.  I feel good about that.

On another down side, I heard back from Ellery Queen about my new Cop story: they don’t want it.  And I heard back from Writers of the Future about my first quarter entry: straight up reject.  That brings me to 5 rejects and 3 Honorable Mentions.  Not a horrible ratio but still, this whole R/HM trend is getting old.  How about a Semi- or Finalist or winner, Dave?  🙂

The story in question from WotF is called The Beast and the God-Woman, and runs at 16,500 words.  Given its length, most of the short fiction markets are out, but I decided to try one I’ve not gone to before: GigaNotoSaurus.  It’s a monthly web-zine that pays, but not at pro rates.  But they’ve pub’d some good folks, so what the heck?  We’ll see what happens.

And in the meantime, I’m working to finish up Pericles.  I’m actually to the point where I’m getting sick of it, so it’s a good thing I’m almost done.  Now don’t get me wrong, it’s a great story and I love it.  I’m just tired of writing it, want to move on to the next thing.  And I’m eager to see what other people will think of it once it’s (finally – and I mean really finally; I only wrote the first scene in May 2011, for Christ’s sake) finished.

Wow, the last couple paragraphs were rather depressing to read.  But no worries, I am not upset, angry, hurt, depressed or what have you.  My ego and feelings are far tougher than all of that.  It comes from the submarine life; you learn quickly how to focus on the mission and how to fend off being made fun of.  Making fun of each other is how we entertain ourselves underway, after all.  No room for emo wimps on a submarine, let me tell you.  So the idea of getting freaked out or all “Oh woe is me” over a rejection or two is just, frankly, stupid to me.  Every time I read some writer opining about how rejections are so hard, I have to stop myself from leaving a comment saying something along the lines of, “Seriously?  Grow a pair will you?  Stop being such a fucking crybaby wimp.  You are not the center of the universe, you know!”

So yeah.  Rejections don’t bother me.  It’s just business, and I can always post them myself.

That said, I guess I’ll get back to writing something.  Cheers, y’all!