Progress Report – Second Quarter 2020
How was second quarter 2020? It was dominated by COVID-19 and our country’s conversation about race; that’s how it was. So I spent second quarter 2020 hunkered down. And working! There is so much out there on small business recovery. And man oh man, is it ever confusing.
Second Quarter 2020 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 finished posting fan fiction as I am not posting wholly original work there these days. That is, unless it’s for the WattNaNo profile. The only exception is anything which went through a ton of querying but never got anywhere.
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:
• Dinosaurs – 29 reads, 9 comments
† How to NaNoWriMo – 18,579 reads, 231 comments
• My Favorite Things (like kibble) – 972 reads, 133 comments
† Revved Up – 59,252 reads, 530 comments
• Side By Side – 9 reads, 0 comments
† Social Media Guide for Wattpad – 13,479 reads, 590 comments
• The Canadian Caper – 473 reads, 37 comments
† The Dish – 250 reads, 24 comments
• There is a Road – 188 reads, 28 comments
† WattNaNo’s Top Picks 2018 – 1,814 reads, 45 comments
• WattNaNo’s Top Picks 2019 – 1,124 reads, 7 comments
† What Now? – 1,949 reads, 48 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.
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 published in Mythic Magazine.
Killing Us Softly, a short story published in Corner Bar 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?
Time Addicts – No One is Safe – so this one is all about what happens in the future when time travel becomes possible via narcotic.
Prep Work
So, currently, my intention, for this year’s NaNoWriMo, is that I am writing the second novel in the Time Addicts/Obolonks universe. But I need to iron out the plot! So a lot of this year will be spent on that. This one will be called Time Addicts – Nothing is Permanent.
Second Quarter 2020 Queries and Submissions
So, here’s how that’s been going during second quarter 2020.
In Progress
As of second quarter 2020, 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 – Zooscape
• Blue Card – Salvage
† Darkness into Light – Corner Bar Magazine
• Gentrification – Minola Review
† I Used to Be Happy – Whiskey Island Magazine
• Justice – Protean
† None of This is Real – Journey Into…
• Soul Rentals ‘R’ Us – Pif Magazine
† The Guitarist – Gemini Magazine, The New Southern Fugitives
• The Student – Daily Science Fiction
† Who Do We Blame for This? – Short Story.me
All Other Statuses
So, be sure to see the Stats section for some details on any query statuses for second quarter 2020 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%
So, in 2019 my querying stats were:
23 submissions of 11 stories (so 6 submissions carry over from 2018)
† Acceptances: 4, 17.39%
• In Progress: 11 (so this includes 2 holdovers from 2018), 47.83%
† Rejected-Personal: 4, 17.39%
• Rejected-Form: 3, 13.04%
† Ghosted: 1 (so these are submissions where I never found out what happened), 4.35%
2020 Stats
So, in 2020 my querying stats so far are:
24 submissions of 12 stories (so 9 submissions carry over from 2019)
† Acceptances: 1, 4.17%
• In Progress: 11, 45.83%
† Rejected-Personal: 7, 29.17%
• Rejected-Form: 1, 4.17%
† Ghosted: 4 (so these are submissions where I never found out what happened), 16.67%
It can be pretty discouraging and hard to go on when nothing new comes up which is positive. It was a huge lift when Killing Us Softly got an acceptance!
Second Quarter 2020 Productivity Killers
So it’s work, and the whole social distancing thing, what else? Plus the country is in the midst of an upheaval over race. It’s .. a lot.
I am working on a ton of things and since that is also writing, it can sometimes burn me out. Because second quarter 2020 will not be the end of that!
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