And we’re off! [A RoW80 Post]

Normally, I wouldn’t like having two of the “same type” of posts in a row on my blog (in this case, RoW80 updates), but I’m trying to be better about my weird little quirks and consistency, so I’m just going to suck it up and give you all my update. We’re only two days into Round 2, but I’ve made pretty good progress so far already, which I hope is just setting a good pace for me going forward.

Monthly Goal: Finish Fearless by the end of April. I’m currently getting about a page a day, which is not enough to get it finished by the end of April, but I know I’ll have some days of pumping out whole chapters coming up, so I’m not too worried about this one. …YET.

Weekly Goal: Read one book a week, write one new story a week. Yesterday, I finished The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway yesterday morning, and it was absolutely wonderful. For next week, I’ll be focusing on either Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes or Birth Offering by Anthony Hains, whichever seems to be coming along the fastest. As far as stories go, most of my scant writing time has been channeled into Fearless, so I haven’t been working on any short work. I’m tossing around an idea for an Old Man and the Sea inspired fisherman’s wife tale and a haunted train story, but I’m hoping to get this decided on by the end of the day.

Daily: At least one social media interaction/post every day. At least one story submitted per non-work day. Yesterday, I got to break the news about receiving my contributor’s copy of the Great Lakes Association of Horror Writer’s Ghostlight magazine, which features my story “Spring Thaw,” so that made the first part of this pretty easy. Today will be hitting up fellow RoWers a bit, but who knows or the upcoming days, as my schedule is shifting from closing to opening shifts for a short spell, which always throws me off. I never run out of random shit to post on Facebook, though, so there’s that.

I’ve also went ahead and covered the submission stuff for the week. Three non-work days means three stories: I’ve sent “Blue Light Special” to Bayou Magazine, “Gravedigger” to Belleville Park Pages, and “Couples Therapy” to the Saturday Evening Post. I think I was particularly set on getting some stuff back out into the ether, as I received the disappointing news that the story I hoped would be picked up by Apex was ultimately rejected. It hit me hard, but seeing Ghostlight really helped lift my spirits regarding that quite a bit.

So we’re off to a good start, and I still have a lot of confidence for this round. Here’s to hoping it sticks! How’s everyone else doing? Be sure to check in on my fellow Rowers here !