Awaiting the leftovers of Hurricane Katia, not with any great expectations, just a sort of nagging feeling that something should be arriving soon, like a takeaway curry ordered late at night. Managed a walk in the Botanic Gardens but increasingly strong gusts of wind and rain have brought us back inside, which makes for a classic Sunday feeling, and a ripe atmosphere for creation.
The writing mojo does seem to be back – using the three-point plan I mentioned a few days ago. I’ve revised ‘Down the Back of Donald’s Couch’ to a final state and submitted it a couple of days ago. Now on to ‘Closer to Death’, which feels like one of my stronger efforts, and I have high hopes for it. That’s the revision material, but I have also finished ‘Farm Boy, City Girl, What do you Remember?’ – a weird SF story, which is still too confusing for its own good, but its drafted at about 6000 words.
While writing that I was working up another one to start, and I’m already 1800 words into it. This one is the sort of story I’ve wanted to write for a while – using some dream imagery once again in a story inspired by Eastern European literature – Russian in particular. Current title is “Today Mikhail Walks On His Own Two Feet”. Should be a short-ish one, and I’m probably about halfway through, so I need to promote one of my ideas to working status to keep the production line flowing.
No news on the submission front. Apart from the very recent submission, I have four stories out, with the youngest being 66 days old, and the oldest, 369 days. I may hopefully have some publication news at the end of this month, with a thing in the pipeline that’s been there for close to a year, but it’s getting near the allotted date and I still haven’t heard anything.
Since I started writing this post, the wind has dropped, I’ve consumed three jam doughnuts and a cup of tea. Time to proceed with some writing!
I’m going through a sticky patch at the moment but things even out. Glad to hear the mojo’s with you. Can I have it back when you’ve finished?
It’s always a tough time, Mike, but I’m sure you’ll get it back. Took me a few months. Sorry I’ve missed your last few chapters on OWW, but I’ve taken an extended time out from there so I could really concentrate on finding my enthusiasm again. Seems to have worked. I will return there very soon.
Cool thing to have several stories on the burners.
You should send cake to the editor who’s been sitting on your opus for a year!
I’m back to working like I was several months ago – with 2 or 3 stories on the go at any time. The one year+ folks are Tor.com, of course… I’ll be curious to see if they give me any comments when I finally receive a rejection.
According to Duotrope’s stats, Tor sends personal rejects when the (non-sim, thank you very much!) sub has been slushing for at least 400 days.
Hey mate, best of luck with the Tor.com submission. The epic response time is somewhat off-putting, but if you’re successful, it’s obviously an excellent venue for your work. Fingers crossed.
Hi Westy, good to hear from you. A publication with Tor would be phenomenal, but I’m not expecting much. It was worth a punt. I hope your writing’s going okay. I’ve been absent from OWW for a little while, but I’m trying to make a return there at the moment and have your stories bookmarked to look at.
Definitely worth a shot. My writing’s going okay – a little slow at the moment as the third year of uni has just started and there’s a lot to do in relation to that. As for OWW – no worries!