Monday Morning Reset [07/31].

Tomorrow is August. That’s so crazy to me, how did we get here so fast? But time is funny like that, especially when you start living your life with a pretty set routine day to day, so that it all just kind of blurs by you like cars on the highway. August is pretty big for me, though. It’s the month where I lament my complete inability to get Fearless out on time for another year, and when I start really turning my focus onto the World Unknown Review, to tempt in as many submissions as I can because the October 31st deadline will be here sooner than we realize, and it’s time to really start digging into the submissions I’ve received so far and making some tough decisions on the direction I’d like Volume IV to take. We’ve received a lot of stuff so far (very heavy on the poetry this year, actually, so I’d love more prose coming my way), so I’m excited to be switching into editor mode.

On the other fronts, here’s what I’ve got going on:

Reading: I managed to finally finish Brandon Graham’s Missing People, which I liked on quite a few levels though it really dragged toward the end. I also killed the latest volume of Pulp Modern, which includes my story “Lady of the Mask.” Honestly, though, it didn’t really do it for me. There were some good ideas and some stand-out stories, but most of it was really underwhelming and unremarkable, if I’m being completely honest. Kind of a disappointment. It was good to knock out not just one book, but two, after I haven’t managed to get through many. This week, I’ll probably try to finish up Wicked, or (more likely) Monstrous Regiment. And the book I’ve started this week is Scott O’Dell’s Island of the Blue Dolphins, which I’ve never read before and should be a quick one to help boost up my pitiful yearly total so far.

Writing: The last few days have been pretty quiet on the writing front, but the beginning of the week was marked with a deluge of rejections that kind of stung a little bit, especially since one was on a story I was really hoping would make some headway. No such luck. Four rejections in about three days. Ooof. But I’m at 75 now, the three-quarters mark, which seems fitting for heading into August. Acceptances still sitting at 8, which, at least if I don’t get anything accepted in the month of August, still keeps me in line for a new publication a month, which is a pretty decent track record at this point in my career.

I’m going to try to finish a story for 3Elements, since today is their deadline and I’m almost finished with a piece for them. I’m not going to let myself stress out about it, though, because I’ve vowed to not stress about deadlines for non-paying magazines. Missing paying deadlines for stories I’ve started? That I can feel bad about. I also started a story for another Less than Three Press anthology. The deadline for that isn’t until November, but they are a paying publisher, and they pay exceptionally well, and they’re looking for really longform stories, so I know if I don’t start now, I’ll probably not finish it in time. They picked up my story “Pipsqueak” last year, and I’ve really enjoyed working with them, so hopefully this is a solid start to another great story for their collection. I also really want to get “A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Misplace” typed up soon. The same with the tentatively titled “Hartson Manor,” but that story is going to need a lot of work before it’s ready to be sent out. I need to start typing Fearless in earnest, too. I’ve just been awful at time management lately. I’ve been really craving getting back to Serpent in a Cage, too. Ugh! So many stories, so little time. Well, okay, probably plenty of time, but so little time management!

‘Rithmatic: Speaking of time management, I mentioned this last week, but I have accepted a promotion at work that will be a little more demanding and put me back on full time, which, interestingly, I think will be beneficial to my work with words. I could be completely wrong, but I do know that when my full time stint ended and I went back to part time, I absolutely hated it. I didn’t utilize my time at all, I just got lazy, and I think it’s because I knew I had more time to squander away. I am definitely a workaholic, and I found myself to be way more productive when I was working full time, like even subconsciously I knew that my days off were precious and few so I had to make the most out of them. We’ll see. I’m starting full time again next week, but I won’t be taking my supervisor duties until September, so there will be a good adjustment period. My schedule’s going to change a little, too, but I’m okay with it. Maybe my routine is stuck in a rut, and that’s not helping. Shaking it up a little might be just what I need.

Also, today is my boyfriend’s first day working at the bar in our place of employment! He’s making the switch from a different department, and I’m so excited for him. He’s part of my team now, which is kind of cool (my team is the best team, but I guess I am biased. Seriously, though, everyone on that team is super cool), it’s a good raise in pay, he’s going to earn tips now on top of the raise (and the bar makes good tips, way better than we do at the coffee bar!), and I think it’s just a really good fit for him. He’s got a great personality for bartendering, even if all I can picture is Dennis Reynolds:

And that’s it for this morning! I have a few days off before having to go into an intense eight days on (ahhh, summer, when everyone takes vacations and the schedules get all thrown out of whack), so I’m determined to enjoy them and get lots done. Today I’ll probably stop by work to see how the BF is doing in his new digs and make him pour me a drink, and then it’ll hopefully be plenty of typing and cleaning and Breath of the Wild-ing. It’ll be a good day.

Happy reading, everyone!