Progress Report – Second Quarter 2018
Second quarter 2018 was another productive three-month period.
Finished Works
So first of all, I worked on a number of new short stories. A lot of these had been drafted on paper and so I spent some time fixing and really making them shine.
So here’s what I created and improved.
April
So first of all, by design, I did no writing. However, I posted The Badge of Humanity (Book 3 of The Obolonk Murders trilogy) and The Real Heart of the Universe (Book 2 of that trilogy) for review.
Also, I queried The Resurrection of Ditte twice and Darkness into Light one time.
May
So, I wrote well and regularly this month. All in all, it was great progress for second quarter 2018.
May 1 – 7
First of all, during the first week of May 2018, I wrote a piece every day. I also posted The Lark, Recovery, Flooding, Intolerable Behavior, Coping, Cultural Exchange, and Suspension of Disbelief.
So, in keeping with the dystopian scenarios that have been creeping into my works lately, The Lark, Coping, and Cultural Exchange are all pretty creepy, with the former two being post-disaster stories. Finally, Cultural Exchange is more of a first contact gone wrong short story.
Recovery is kind of odd, since I deliberately made it unclear whether the narrator was human.
Also, Suspension of Disbelief is almost the prelude to a whodunit. In addition, Flooding takes the perspective of (yes, really!) a worker ant. And Intolerable Behavior is a comedy; the main character is rather similar to the unnamed narrator of Revved Up.
So, I think I like Coping and Flooding the best, with the former having a commanding lead over the latter.
May 8 – 14
Next, in the second week of May 2018, I wrote a piece every day.
I also posted Side by Side, You Never Know, Taste, A Path Not Taken … Much, Coincidence, Succession, and Snub. Side by Side is another comparison of one timeline to another. Since readers said they felt one of the sides was like The Path (from the previous quarter), that was an issue.
You Never Know is another humans fighting back type of story.
Taste is another return to cave people. A Path … is a wry comedy about another first contact gone wrong. Coincidence is yet another creepy Twilight Zone-type piece where people seem to be disappearing. Succession is a sequel to Merciful.
Finally, Snub is a kind of wedding drama piece.
So this week, I like Side by Side, You Never Know, and Coincidence.
If I had to pick a favorite, I would probably go with either Coincidence or You Never Know. The former because I spent some time crafting it (rather than just reeling it off), and the latter because it’s ultimately got some hope in it (like Coping does, from the prior week).
May 15 – 21
During the third week of May 2018, I wrote a piece every day but the 19th (the day off was because a friend had died). So, I wrote Dinosaurs, The Panther, Chains, Freedom, The Seed, and Time Stretching.
So, Dinosaurs is about a race which has gone past physical bodies and moved onto mechanical ones. The Panther is another tale of cave people.
In addition, Chains is a kind of odd dystopian story. Also, Freedom is the defiant words of a prisoner. The Seed is yet another cave people story. Finally, Time Stretching is just a short tween thing.
So, this week, I liked The Panther the most, with The Seed coming in second.
May 22 – 31
Finally, in this ten-day period of May 2018, I wrote a piece every day. I wrote Just About, Captive, Your Planet Smells Like Wet Dog, A Touch of Gray Hair, Carney Crash Canyon, Separated, A Place, The Ridge, Placid, and also Treasures.
Also, Just About is a sonnet I wrote for my wedding anniversary. Captive is about a woman held hostage in the jungle. Finally, Your Planet Smells Like Wet Dog is a semi-amusing alien contact story.
Also, A Touch of Gray Hair is an amusing piece I wrote for a contest. But Carney Crash Canyon is a depressing story of a crash victim waiting to die. In addition, Separated is about children separated from their parents in America.
A Place is about a mentally ill or challenged person who is also being mainstreamed. The Ridge is a war story. In addition, Placid is about Nessie. Finally, Treasures is a strange story about witness protection.
So, I think my favorites from this period are Your Planet Smells Like Wet Dog, A Touch of Gray Hair, The Ridge, Placid, and Treasures.
For this month, my overall favorite is the last story I wrote, Treasures.
In addition, I queried Ditte again and Blue Card.
June
Also by design, I did no writing.
Second Quarter 2018 Milestones
Furthermore, I have written over two and a half million words (fan fiction and wholly original fiction combined). So right now my stats on Wattpad for wholly original works are as follows:
• How to NaNoWriMo – 6,196 reads, 75 comments
† My Favorite Things (like kibble) – 969 reads, 133 comments
• Revved Up – 58,341 reads, 524 comments
† Social Media Guide for Wattpad – 11,953 reads, 587 comments
• The Canadian Caper – 439 reads, 37 comments
† The Dish – 248 reads, 24 comments
• There is a Road – 188 reads, 28 comments
† WattNaNo’s Top Picks 2018 – 684 reads, 43 comments
WIP Corner
So, the current WIPs are as follows.
The Obolonk Murders Trilogy is a futuristic crime story where our society is divided into three parts. So, they are humans, semi-sapient and sapient robots, and aliens. So, I may end up writing a sequel trilogy. I’m not sure, so stay tuned.
The Enigman Cave takes place about a half a millennium from now. However, it also imagines a first contact. But this is where the aliens are at the level of Australopithecus.
The Real Hub of the Universe Trilogy takes place about 140 years ago and covers an Earth overrun by alien factions during the Victorian Era.
Mettle takes place only a few years from now and is also the story of how society crumbles when metals begin to disappear.
So I also spent a bit of time writing fan fiction, in order to finish up a series during second quarter 2018.
Prep Work for Second Quarter 2018
So currently, I have been working on some writing prompts to keep me sharp and keep the words flowing. After that comes this year’s NaNoWriMo. So, I will probably write the third novel in the Real Hub trilogy. But I need a plot!
So, a lot of this year will be spent on that. In addition, this quarter, I got closer to having a viable plot. So this is for what I now know will have the title of The Real Hope of the Universe.
I also have some ideas for a time travel series and maybe even young adult. But those didn’t happen during second quarter 2018.
Second Quarter 2018 Queries and Submissions
So here’s how that’s going as of second quarter 2018.
In Progress
This list is the name of the story and then the name of the potential publisher.
• A Kitten – Flash Fiction Online
† A Touch of Gray Hair – Owl Canyon Press
• Almost Shipwrecked – Not One of Us
† Blue Card – Cincinnati Review
• Darkness into Light – ServiceScape Contest
† Dinosaurs – Factor Four Magazine
• Side by Side – Strange Horizons
† The Interview – Kferrin.com
• The Resurrection of Ditte – AGNI Magazine, Slice Magazine
† This is My Child – Analog Science Fiction & Fact
• Who Do We Blame for This? – Apparition Lit Flash Fiction Contest
All Other Statuses
• Almost Shipwrecked — Clarkesworld Magazine; Spaceports and Spidersilk; Unidentified Funny Objects — all rejected
† Blue Card – Threepenny Review – rejected
• Dinosaurs – Fantasy & Science Fiction; Shimmer – rejected from both
† The Enigman Cave – Bolide Publishing – ghosted; RAB – back in play as of 6/14/18
• The Resurrection of Ditte – Apex Magazine – rejected; Metamorphosis Magazine – personal, encouraging rejection
† Who Do We Blame for This? – Daily Science Fiction; Freeze Frame Fiction – rejected from both
Second Quarter 2018 Productivity Killers
So, it was work, what else? Because yes, that includes second quarter 2018. So, the following quarter should be better. Because I would like to reduce the stress in my life!
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