Month: September 2019

Progress Report –Third Quarter 2019

How great was third quarter 2019 for writing? So I spent third quarter 2019 doing a ton of editing and planning for 2019 NaNoWriMo. Then everything just sort of fell into place. So how awesome was that?

Third Quarter 2019 Posted Works

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 polishing them.

Then on Wattpad I posted some fan fiction as I am not posting wholly original work there these days. That is, unless it’s for the WattNaNo profile.

Finally, I wrote some quick flash fiction at home but kept it private. That stuff might (or might not) end up elsewhere. So I confess I’m unsure.

Milestones

Also, 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 – 12,327 reads, 137 comments
• My Favorite Things (like kibble) – 969 reads, 133 comments
† Revved Up – 58,729 reads, 526 comments
• Social Media Guide for Wattpad – 12,309 reads, 587 comments
† The Canadian Caper – 453 reads, 37 comments
• The Dish – 249 reads, 24 comments
† There is a Road – 188 reads, 28 comments
• WattNaNo’s Top Picks 2018 – 1,263 reads, 43 comments

More Published Works

Also, I am amassing quite the collection of published works!

Untrustworthy, which is my first published novel. So yay!

Almost Shipwrecked, a story in the January 2019 edition of Empyreome, a site which unfortunately is no more.

Canaries, a short story in the March 29, 2019, edition of Theme of Absence.

Complications, a story in the Queer Sci Fi Discovery anthology. So this is an anthology where the proceeds went to supporting the QSF website.

Cynthia and Wilder Bloom, stories in the Longest Night Watch II anthology.

Nothing Good Ever Happens at 3 AM, a story posted at Unfading Daydream‘s October issue (about possession) and their 2019 Anthology.

Props, a story in the Longest Night Watch I anthology. So this is an anthology where the proceeds go to Alzheimer’s research.

Surprises, a story in Book One of the 42 and Beyond Anthology set.

The Boy in the Band, a story in the Pride Park anthology. So this is an anthology where the proceeds go to the Trevor Project.

The Interview, the featured story in the December 14, 2018 edition of Theme of Absence. So they even interviewed me!

The Last Patient, a story in the Stardust, Always anthology. This was an anthology where the proceeds go to cancer research.

The Resurrection of Ditte, a story in the Unrealpolitik anthology.

This is My Child, a short story published in the April 8, 2019 edition of Asymmetry Fiction, another site which is no more.

Three Minutes Back in Time, a short story to be published in Mythic Magazine.

WIP Corner

So, my current WIPs are as follows:

The Obolonk Murders Trilogy – so this one is all about a tripartite society. But who’s killing the aliens?

The Enigman Cave – can we find life on another planet and not screw it up? You know, like we do everything else?

The Real Hub of the Universe Trilogy – so the aliens who live among us in the 1870s and 1880s are at war. But why is that?

Mettle – so it’s all about how society goes to hell in a hand basket when the metals of the periodic table start to disappear. But then what?

Prep Work

So, currently, I have been working on some writing prompts to keep me sharp and keep the words flowing. My intention, for this year’s NaNoWriMo, is to write a new novel in the Obolonks universe. But I need a plot! So a lot of this year will be spent on that.

Third Quarter 2019 Queries and Submissions

So here’s how that’s been going during third quarter 2019.

In Progress

As of third quarter 2019, the following are still in the running for publishing:

This list is the name of the story and then the name of the potential publisher.

† A Kitten – Dual Cost Magazine
• Blue Card – Gods Among Men podcast
† Darkness Into Light – Polychrome Ink
• Dinosaurs – Electric Spec
† Gentrification – Hecate
• Killing Us Softly – Strange Fictions
† None of This is Real – Mithilia Review
• Side by Side – Leading Edge Magazine
† Soul Rentals ‘R’ Us – Weekly Humorist
• Who Do We Blame for This? – Emerging Worlds

Some of those have been out for a while, so I’m not exactly hopeful. Dinosaurs is on its 11th query. And Side by Side is on its 9th query. Who Do We Blame for This? is on query #8, and Blue Card is on query #7. Assuming no one picks them up, at some point, I’ll throw in the towel on those, and just post them on Wattpad. For Dinosaurs, this is its last shot.

All Other Statuses

So, be sure to see the Stats section for some details on any query statuses for third quarter 2019 which were not in progress.

Stats

So, in 2018, my querying stats were:

† 68 submissions of 19 stories
• Acceptances: 4, 5.88%
† In Progress-Under Consideration: 3, 4.41% (so these don’t seem to have panned out)
• In Progress: 10, 14.71%
† Rejected-Personal: 14, 20.59%
• Rejected-Form: 24, 35.29%
† Ghosted: 13 (so these were submissions where I never found out what happened), 19.12%

And so in 2019 my querying stats are so far:

• 29 submissions of 13 stories (so 6 submissions carry over from 2018)
† Acceptances: 5, 17.24%
• In Progress: 12 (so this includes 2 holdovers from 2018), 41.37%
† Rejected-Personal: 8, 27.58%
• Rejected-Form: 3, 10.34%
† Ghosted: 1 (so these are submissions where I never found out what happened), 3.44%

So, particularly discouraging is the fact that I had no new acceptances in second quarter 2019. In the third quarter, one story sprang back to life and I got another acceptance. So those were helpful. But man oh man! It’s still pretty discouraging and hard to go on.

Third Quarter 2019 Productivity Killers

So, it’s work, what else? Furthermore, during third quarter 2019, I went away on business and also had a vacation.

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