Another update thing

Okay I finished "The Sweet Scent of Blood" by Suzanne McLeod.

It wasn't quite what I expected from the beginning. I said I didn't like the world she invented but I might be able to live with it. In other words there's a chance I would read the next one, have to wait until it actually comes out and I can look it over. Suzanne is a great writer and story teller.


I think I finished the series of stories I was doing based on the hatrack challenge I mentioned earlier. I said, "I think," because I counted ten stories all together and there should have been eleven. Either I forgot one I was going to do or I miscounted. I will get around to counting them again. Now to decide what to do with them. Sounds obvious but my original idea was to sell them online as a set. 15,000 to 16,000 words with 11 stories but I may decide to try sending some out individually.

Worked on my next WotF story. I went back and added some background for the MC, reading Volume 27 they seem to like that in stories. (shrug) still my writing so who knows.

Have yet to hear about last quarter's WotF story. They might be getting close to deciding who gets to go to the next level. I have gotten Honorable Mentions- lately only with the help of the good people on hatrack- before so it is possible but it is also possible that I will last 'till the last cut. Or even go on.

Started next quarter's WotF story but I don't know. It's a different type of story for me and even though I know some of what happens in the opening and some of which happens in the end I need to come up with some of what happens in the middle. Well, all that happens that is. I will keep working on it but as I said I don't know. I have another story I might be able to add a bit to and I have a UF story I've sent out a few times but with help from the bunch at hatrack it might serve. Not sure if they like UF but so far no one has stated they don't.

Finally making some headway on that second chapter of New Mage or Two Struggles. Not much but at least it's going in the right direction. Now if I can figure out a more sophisticated title than Two Struggles but that would say the same thing.

Inner And Outer, maybe.  :)

Slight update and a surprise

Revised one mini story well, actually a flash.  What I mean by mini is less then 500 words. This one is 955.

I had forgotten I had one western almost written. I finished it, revised it a bit, spell checked it and sent it to Pedestal. I thought they took various genre and flash. I was right on both counts. But they change what the want every month or so. I just happened to hit them at the right time.

I had to check on my other western to see what my pen name is for that genre. Which I will reveal if the story gets picked up by any one or I e-publish it.

Probably should have spent more time on the revision- nitpicks. Probably left some in the way I go. But I hope the idea that I hit them at the right moment means something but we shall see.

I have another western but it's probably closer to 2,000 words if I recall correctly. I might send it to ZOETROPE next week. Their reading period opens on the first.

Oh, I am also slightly surprised that none of the online markets I sent a story to have sent a rejection yet. Some are pretty fast with one.

Kinda of update

Okay, got a rejection finally from Fantastic Stories. An anthology by Warren Lapine. I forget if I have mentioned sending in the story to him but I got the rejection today.

He- or more likely his secretary- spelled my first name wrong. And even though he has a check list like  Dean Wesley Smith with the SNW contest the only thing marked was "not for us" It has seventeen boxes, the very last item on the list would have been a good thing to know if you're going to get a rejection. "Close, very close"  but the second to the last would not be good to see check; "What were you thinking?"


I've have been working on only one short story this month and today since I have it off, I thought I might type out a couple of the stories that I hand wrote out but even though I gathered all my pieces of paper, I don't have time to do any. I'm too far behind on NaNo novel. Some of the stories are only a few hundred words long but still too far behind even for that.

But I need to print out three stories and mail them Saturday.

Update on mini stories

Thought I had finished the last one today at work, but I remembered there might be one more I haven't done. I say might be because I remember starting it on my computer but can't recall finishing it. I'm going to have to search for it. I might be remembering writing it out by hand.

There are also two to four of those stories still on paper I still need to type out. Since they are super short it won't take long. Then I'm going to have to revise them all. Of course the ones that are really minis won't need much revising. I may see if I can get a couple of people to crit them. Maybe a butch of them-- probably all of them are less than 6,000 words.


It's been fun and who knows I may not be done. Twice now I said I'm done but then remembered another story I had in mind to write. Some of these are a lot longer than I expected. One is a bit over 1,800 words, another a few over 1,700, a couple of others are over 600 but some are under two hundred. Not sure about the one I did today.

So far I have SF, fantasy and UF and two or three general fiction. I would like a couple of westerns and romances but that last could be hard to do even though I went over one romance idea today.

I may send the gen fic to ZZYZZA(whatever those letters are) and to Pedestal if they are not too short. If I haven't I will send two other general stories to those two markets too.

More updates

Been working on my mini stories. Some are hand written and I need to type them out but those along with the ones I have typed and those I have written over the years might be around 20.

But there are two problems, one is that for a book- even a flipbook- I want at least 22 if not 30 mini stories. Second is that some of them I want to send in to some flash mags. By the time I send all I want to all the markets that take flash I might end up waiting another year or two. But once I get them organized- which is a third problem finding the time to do that- I will see how it works out and exactly how many I want to send it.

One of those stories is a bit long at 1,800 words, no longer a mini story.


I may go with NaNoWriMo again this year haven't quite decided. I have half a dozen book ideas even though right now it could a certain space opera idea I've had for a couple of years.


I may have two people to finish going over Bright Lights, from the Strange New Worlds Yahoo group. That surprised me. But that's good.

And one correction. This last person who was in my group and
made the comment about the writing. I forgot English is his second language, he
does a good job of writing in it usually, and so when he made the comment he
made, he was talking about my writing in English not my writing which is the way
I think it sounded.