Stalled

Confession: I must take a perverse pleasure in sabotaging my own attempts to accomplish things. Why else would I do it so frequently?

Reading:

• "L. DeBard and Aliette: A Love Story," by Lauren Groff
  
• The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton
  

Writing:

• "Ferian Fetlock Catches a Cold" - Outline 95%
  

Revising:

• "The Revenant"
• "Cora and the Sea" - Third draft 50%

Okay, it's been two days in a row with no progress of any kind. I feel like I've stalled out, and the best way I've discovered to get revved up is to come up with some good, short-term plans.

I mentioned before that I was heading to Greenport again this weekend for some Ferian writing. I've also decided to finish the "Cora and the Sea" revision, do the "Revenant" revision, and get at least one of those two stories, if not both, submitted to a magazine.

It's a three day weekend, after all, and I should be able to get at least that much done in three days--especially since the only other task before me is to figure out how to make a pumpkin cheesecake. (There's a trick to cheesecake, apparently--use dental floss to cut it while it's still warm. Huh.)

Beyond that, I want to do some reading, finish another sort story and maybe finally get through with House of Mirth. I've been poking along on it for weeks now, and I'm sick of seeing it up on my list.

Publication Status:

• Submitted: 5
  
• Accepted: 1
• Rejected: 1
• Pending: 3

Finding Markets

Confession: Having a clearn apartment makes me feel better, but I never seem to clean it until someone's about to come over. It's like I value their opinion more than my own comfort.

Reading:

• Someplace to be Flying, by Charles de Lint
• The Last Command, by Timothy Zahn

Revising:

• "Cora and the Sea"

This morning I accomplished a lot, as long as you didn't expect me to get any writing done.

Fresh from my weekend surprise, I decided that it would be a good idea to get a few more stories out. In the hour or so I spent working this morning, I found three good potential spots, one for "Illuminated," one for either "Pictures of the Old Port" or "The Revenant," and one for "A Cup of Coffee." Except the last one is for a magazine about tea, so I'll have to change it from coffee to tea.

That's the miracle of writing, right there. The entire point of the original was the coffee. But a couple of judicious edits later, the point of the story is tea. It was almost as simple as a find and replace. That was kind of cool.

What I did, though, was to exhaust the small circulation section of the 2008 Novel and Short Story Writers' Guide. I'd worry, but there are still plenty of wider circulation magazines to try. Plus dozens of the small circulation ones I've have submitted to yet.

My plan for tomorrow is to write cover letters for each of the three stories. I can put on them my brand spanking new publication credit, too. Heh heh heh. Dunno if it'll help, but it looks better than a blank bio.

Then later this week, I'll get them mailed off (I have to buy stamps first), and then I can update my submitted counter to 5. That'll be nice.

Publication Status:

• Submitted: 2
• Accepted: 1
• Rejected: 1