Friday (Saturday) Update

Not a lot of news this week. Still enjoying a light work schedule because of clients’ vacations, so have had a lot of time to write. Was finally able to complete a new chapter for a piece of fanfic last updated ten months ago, and have been enjoying the influx of happy reader comments ever since. It’s really a nice psychological boost to get that much immediate feedback on a piece of writing, especially when my main project won’t see the light of day for years.

Inconveniently, the new “short story” I started last week is on track to become another monster. For some reason all my “short” pieces keep ending up snugly in the 10-12k range. I’ve got a whole list of them (“Wake Your Ghost,” “We Go Hiking,” “Coven”) waiting to be edited, and two more (“Summerweek,” “Spirits in the Dark“) that were published by JMS Books. But it’s a hard length to market. I don’t think it’s that readers don’t want them, but that most magazines can barely afford to pay for short stories that are actually short. I’ve thought of putting mine up for sale myself, but I’m not sure how to cut through the massive crowd of self-pubbed ebooks long enough to get anyone to look at them. If you’d like to read them, let me know.

Still reading A Suitable Boy. Also reading Cold Comfort Farm (because A Suitable Boy is too large for me to leave the house with). No one told me Cold Comfort Farm was a parody of a gothic novel! It’s kind of funny, though a little clunky at times. I always used to confuse the title with Cold Sassy Tree, which I suspect is a very different kind of book.

Here’s something that happened today: during my online Czech lesson I spilled water all over my laptop. It shut right down, and I’m not sure yet how it’s doing. My girlfriend Fran, though she had her second COVID jab yesterday and was feeling crummy, went out with me and bought a tool kit to open the case for more efficient drying, so fingers crossed. (Fran also let me borrow her laptop, and thus am I now writing to you. Fran’s the best. ♡)

Progress this week: About 3,000 more words on VOID. The new story, “Dreams Errant,” is also at about 3k, but who knows how long it will be.

Happy weekend!