Writing summary for January

So, looking back over the month, in January I wrote 8,207 words.  That's not a lot, but Januarys tend to be light on word count for me.  I tend to catch up with the program as the year progresses.

A good portion of those words went into my wip (work in progress).  I've been working on a couple of short stories that I will finish in February.  One is for a workshop, and both will be done and hopefully in the mail by the end of the month.

I finished James Scott Bell's BREACH of PROMISE (which was a hard book to read emotionally but good nonetheless).  My stuff to read stack is very high but I admit that Stephen King's UNDER THE DOME seems to be calling my name the loudest at the moment.

Have a bunch of short stories to turn around and some decisions to make on a couple of novels that I need to send out. 

Looking forward to going to Oregon later this month for 2 workshops.  Lots of old and new friends to spend time with and a great opportunity to listen to great writers.  Good stuff.

So here's hoping for a lot of new words written and new books read to talk about on March 1st.  Have a good one, everybody.

An Article I Wrote for the OWN Blog

I recently wrote an article on "The Do's and Don'ts of Sending Out Manuscripts." It's my thoughts after a push to get a large number of stories back out in the mail.

You can read it HERE.

Let me know what you think!

Reading, writing, and a blog to check out

I devoured the Twilight saga last month. It held me and carried me through to the end. I know some people found BREAKING DAWN to be disappointing, but I liked it. It just demonstrates that different people like different things.

This goes for editors as well. A rejection doesn't mean a story's bad (it might mean that, but not necessarily); it means it didn't hit the editor's buttons. Or they'd just bought something like it. Or they don't have room or budget for it. All kinds of reasons.

This week I'm working on getting short stories out that have been sitting in my office for months. They won't sell sitting on a desk, so I'm working on getting stuff in the mail (or email).

Check out the OWN Writer's Blog, listed under my links on the right. The people penning these articles are professional writers, and worth checking out if that's what your goal is.