When Monday nearly passes you by…

Oh, shit. I was so wrapped up in the new story I started today that I just about nearly forgot to make my Monday post today! I might have completely skipped it out of negligence if I hadn’t received a rejection email and got up to mark it on the board, and it rushed back to me what day it was and all of the wild stuff I have to report to everyone because it’s been an interesting, fantastic week.

I’ll spare you the introductory babble and get right into it, then.

Reading: Though I certainly tried, I didn’t manage to finish Galápagos as I predicted, but I’m in the last part, which is my favorite, so I’m sure it’ll get done this week. I started up a little independant book set around the founding of the church in Scotland that I found in a nearby Goodwill, The Throne of Tara by John Desjarlias, and I’m interested to see how it goes. I’m always proud of my ability to clock an indie book from a mile away, and this one looked pretty interesting from a Chicago ‘burbs publisher.

Writing: As mentioned above, I’ve gotten some rejections this week, but only two, including the one this morning, which brings me up to 46. So close to fifty! The really exciting news, though, is that I’ve gotten to add another tick on my total of acceptances since August 15th, for a grand, shining total of three! I finally heard back from Less than Three Press about an anthology submission with some good news, but it’s still in the works, so I won’t say too much yet. But I will keep everyone informed. I’m really excited, though, because this story was a bit of a challenge for me, and I really grew to love the character, and it also takes place on Aryneth, my big bad epic fantasy world, so it’ll be exciting to start getting some of that world going again.

It’s also a little weird, though, because it’s kind of the biggest contract I’ve had so far, and I’ve only just sent the confirmation email, and so it’s not “official” yet and I worry that spreading the news is going to jinx the opportunity or something. Which is absurd. But that’s the weird thing about this business. It’s like you can’t even grasp that you’ve done something good until you have the actual printed product in your hands, which is usually months and months from the initial acceptance, and, even then, it doesn’t feel real, it doesn’t feel like the success that it is. It certainly has made me hungry for more, though it’s also made me doubt that I’ll ever be this good at anything ever again.

Writing is a dumb career. I fucking love it.

This morning, I took a break from my NaNo to start up a neat little story about an intergalactic battle royale sort of thing; five whole pages, which is a really staggering accomplishment for me. I was on a roll this morning! I almost didn’t want to stop the momentum, knowing I’ll be setting it aside for a while, but I know I’ll be able to pick it back up. I’m behind in NaNo (no big surprise there), or so I assume, because I’m still writing longhand and have no idea what my word count actually is. I’ve started Chapter Two, though, and the challenge of writing it without using any A words is really interesting. More often than not, it’s not as hard as I thought it would be, but, every so often, I write myself into a corner where I have to go back and approach something differently because the only way to write it in the original path is to use “and” or “than” or “about,” something like that. Still, it’s going along well, I’m absolutely loving Jenny and Simon and this little world that’s going to carry me through the next twenty-five books of the series.

Meanwhile, November not only means miring myself in NaNo, but it also means reading through all the World Unknown Review submissions. I’m still blown away by the fact that I’ve received more than 100 submissions for Volume III. I think I got 36 last year. That’s a huge surge, and really exciting, and very promising, and already I’m flailing my arms because there’s too many good stories and not enough spots. And I still have about 30 more to go. I’m hoping to have them all read and selected by November 15, which was a good goal to have when I had less than 40 stories to read, but I’ll be really proud of myself if I pull it off with more than 100.

‘Rithmatic: Not a whole lot to report on with other things, either. I’m kind of loving this warm November weather we’re having, I’m not going to lie, but that’s just because I’m okay with putting off Chicago winter for a bit longer. I’ve been wrapped up in sweaters a lot still, and enjoying some nice cinnamon apple cider! Money has been stressing me out like crazy; I may have mentioned this last week, where something got messed up with the tips we receive at work. Now, I never want to take my tip money for granted; I haven’t always had jobs where we can accept tips, so I’m really grateful to have them and I’d understand if, for whatever reason, we couldn’t do them anymore. But I’ve gotten into the habit for a year now of using that money for groceries, and my budget is always tighter than dick skin, man, so no tips means no groceries, no food, no meal prep, all scraping the bottom of the barrel and dipping my bank account below where I’d like it to be because, of course, this is the week where I run out of contact lens solution, cat food, kitty litter, and other bigger, more expensive items that I don’t have to get as often. But they’ve finally got it all worked out and I have money again so I can breathe and find something else to be super stressed out about, like my boyfriend possibly having to get an ingrown toenail taken care of. Eesh.

So, how’s everyone else been doing? NaNos going along nicely? Any particular successes or failures to share? I’ll just be sitting here waiting for Wednesday, which is my next day off that I fully expect to be filled with productivity and awesomeness!

Oh, and because it’s the start of the month, you’ll have to forgive me for including a wee bit of begging in today’s post. I’ve been lucky the past few months by having some sales right out the gate with my books, but November has not been so cooperative in that respect. So, if you haven’t already at some point, please hop over to My Books page and consider purchasing one of the lovely volumes you see there. All of the ebook versions are only 99 cents, though I hope the print versions are considered reasonable as well. I strive to sell one book per month (a lofty goal, I know!), so one click’s all I need. Thank you!

Happy reading!