Writing Progress Report – First Quarter 2023

Progress Report – First Quarter 2023

How was first quarter 2023 for writing? So I spent first quarter 2023 working on this blog and website. Then there was some editing as well. So there was that… But much like fourth quarter 2022, I focused on only a few things.

First Quarter 2023 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 on the WattNaNo profile and the Star Trek Fans profile, and nowhere else.

Milestones

Also, I have written over 3.4 million words (fan fiction and wholly original fiction combined). So right now my stats on Wattpad for wholly original works are as follows:

• Dinosaurs – 42 reads, 11 comments
• How to NaNoWriMo – 26,027 reads, 340 comments
• My Favorite Things (like kibble) – 983 reads, 133 comments
• Revved Up – 59,452 reads, 531 comments
• Side By Side – 20 reads, 2 comments
• Social Media Guide for Wattpad – 15,953 reads, 592 comments
• The Canadian Caper – 506 reads, 37 comments
• The Dish – 250 reads, 24 comments
• There is a Road – 189 reads, 28 comments
• WattNaNo’s Top Picks 2018 – 1,975 reads, 45 comments
• WattNaNo’s Top Picks 2019 – 1,848 reads, 10 comments
• What Now? – 2,812 reads, 104 comments

More Published Works as of First Quarter 2023

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

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

A True Believer in Skepticism, published in Mythic Magazine.

Almost Shipwrecked, a story in the January 2019 edition of Empyreome.

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.

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

Killing Us Softly, a short story published in Corner Bar Magazine.

Darkness into Light, 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.

Time Addicts – Nothing is Permanent – this is the second in this trilogy. What happens when time is tampered with and manipulated in all sorts of ways? It’s the ultimate in gaslighting, for one thing.

Time Addicts – Everything is Up For Grabs – as the timelines smack together and continue to diverge, it gets harder to tell the “real” timeline from all the newer fake ones. And what if some of the changes are for the better?

Prep Work

So currently, my intention, for 2024’s NaNoWriMo, is to write the third trilogy in the Time Addicts/Obolonks universe. But I need to iron out the plot! So a lot of this year has been spent on that. I have no name for this one yet.

For 2023 NaNoWriMo, I have decided to create a prequel for two or three more of the five main universes: Obolonks (while the Obolonks and Time Addicts are in the same universe, I just plain want to write two separate prequels!), Untrustworthy, The Enigman Cave, and Mettle.

If 2023 NaNo goes like 2022 NaNo did, then whichever one I do first will end up sticking to the script and complete relatively early, and then the second one will … meander.

If I had to choose two which would fill the bill in that fashion, it would either be Untrustworthy + Obolonks or Mettle + Enigman Cave. This is mainly because the first in each pairing are relatively well-defined, whereas the second of the pairings? Eh, not so much. But that could change.

So, I anticipate a lot of fun and perhaps a little confusion. But it’s all good! And if I play my cards right, I can do the final pairing in 2024 and put off prepare the third trilogy till 2025.

First Quarter 2023 Queries and Submissions

So here’s how that’s been going during first quarter 2023*.

Reprint

Coming right out of the blue, Mythic Magazine wants to do a second Best of Mythic and chose A True Believer in Skepticism!!! Yay!!!!

In Progress

As of first quarter 2023, the following are still in the running for publishing:

All Other Statuses

So be sure to see the Stats section for some details on any query statuses for first quarter 2023 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 never 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 were:

• 37 submissions of 12 stories (so 9 submissions carried over from 2019)
• Acceptances: 3, 8.11%
• In Progress: 7, 18.92%
• Rejected-Personal: 12, 32.43%
• Rejected-Form: 4, 10.81%
• Ghosted: 11 (so these are submissions where I never found out what happened), 29.73%

2021 Stats

So in 2021 my querying stats were:

• 5 submissions of 5 stories, 100% ghosted

2022 Stats

So in 2022 my querying stats are:

• 6 submissions of 6 stories (so 5 submissions carry over from 2020 and 2021), plus 1 reprint!
• Acceptances (reprint; still waiting on it): 1,14.29%
• Rejected-Form: 1, 14.29%
• Ghosted: 5 (so these are submissions where I never found out what happened), 71.42%

2023 Stats

So in 2023 my querying stats are:

• 6+ submissions of 65+ stories (so 5 submissions carry over from 2022), plus 1 reprint!
• Acceptances: 2, 33.33%
• In Progress-Under Consideration: 4, 66.67%
• In Progress: 0%
• Rejected-Personal: 0%
• Rejected-Form: 0%
• Ghosted: 0 (so these are submissions where I never found out what happened), 0%

It can be pretty discouraging and hard to go on when so little comes up which is positive. But I do need to work on promotions, too!

First Quarter 2023 – Productivity Killers

So it’s work, what else? I am working on a ton of things and since that is also writing, it can sometimes burn me out. Because First quarter 2023 will not be the end of that!