Weeks of Writing: 4/26/21 to 5/9/21
Catching up the last two weeks of winterly endeavors. Here’s how I did.
Words to Write By
This week’s quote comes from Ray Bradbury.
“Just write every day of your life. Read intensely. Then see what happens. Most of my friends who are put on that diet have very pleasant careers.”
~ Ray Bradbury
I like this one because it gives me a goal to shoot for. I try to write every day, and for the most part, I’m successful. Now, to me, writing isn’t just writing narrative fiction. I do that a lot, but keeping something like this blog is flexing that same muscle in a lot of ways. Also, I don’t fret too much about how much I’m writing, though I do shoot for 2,000 words a day when I’m drafting a novel. If I can get 1,000 or even just 500 words done each day, I feel like I’m making headway. Where I sometimes struggle is the reading part. I do read a lot, but it’s not always fiction. Lately, I’ve been expanding my literary horizons and trying to read authors whose literary styles are COMPLETELY different to my own. It turns out that’s both rewarding and educational. 🙂
Short Story Submissions
A fair amount of submissions in the last couple weeks.
- Submissions Sent: 5
- Rejections: 2
- Acceptances: 1
- Publications: 0
- Shortlist: 0
- Pending: 9
- 2021 Total Subs: 36
Five subs is decent for two weeks, but I gotta get that number up. By the end of May, I need to be somewhere around 45 subs to stay on pace for 100. Doable, and I have some new stories ready to go that’ll pump those numbers up. Only two rejections in the last couple weeks (though I did get a third this morning). That said, I have some submissions that have been pending for a while, and I can smell rejections on the wind. 🙂 I did manage an acceptance a few days ago, so that gets me on the board for May and puts that first quarter rejection streak further in the rearview.
Media Tie-In
As some of you may know, I got my start in writing in the tabletop gaming industry. The first fiction I ever published was media tie-in related to RPGs and tabletop miniature games. If you were to take a gander at the Professional Credits page on this blog, you’d see hundreds of game related entries. Anyway, I’ve taken on a gig with my old pals and former employers at Privateer Press to write five short stories in their new Warcaster: Neo-Mechanika setting. It’s an exciting sci-fi world with a connection to the steampunk setting of the Iron Kingdoms (a setting I’ve written in extensively). I just finished the first draft of the third story, and I’m having a real blast with the material.
I’m planning a series of blog posts on writing media tie-in for gaming companies. It’s an interesting subject, I think, and I have a lot of experience and insight in that area. Keep an eye out for that in the near future.
Night Walk
My flash fiction anthology Night Walk & Other Dark Paths has been out for a couple of weeks. You can pick up a copy of your very own in print or eBook by clicking on the link below. If you were so kind as to purchase a copy, please leave a review or a rating. Those are always helpful to authors.
For an inside peek into the anthology and its stories, check out Night Walk Wednesday right her on the blog. I’ll give you all the juicy rejectomancy stats on individual stories from the collection.
- NWW: The Big Picture
- NWW: Things That Grow
- NWW: Do Me a Favor
- NWW: When the Lights Go On
- NWW: Where They Belong
- NWW: The Night, Forever, and Us
- NWW: Time Waits for One Man
Goals
More submissions and keep going on my commission work for Privateer Press.
Those were my weeks. How was yours?
Effectively Wild – A Baseball Horror Story
Night Walk & Other Dark Paths
Acts of War: Flashpoint
Acts of War: Aftershock
Acts of War: Stormbreak
Aeryn Rudel's Rejectomancy 