[Writing Post] Story Sale and Even Keels
What a difference a week or two makes. We’re in the second full week of October, and I can finally say I feel like all the weight and stress of the past few months is lifting. And if not completely lifting, at least shifting back to normal stuff.
I SOLD A STORY! And not just a story, a dark SF story with no animals in it! I sold it to Mark Finn for an upcoming SKELOS issue! More details as they become available. Since it’s more a literary journal than a typical magazine, I’m really excited about this.
It’s kind of a big deal for me. One, it’s dark and creepy which I don’t do often – and less often without some type of absurd element to it (sentient crocodiles, zombie parrots, intergalactic call centers) – so this was a bit of a stretch. Then Mark came back with NOTES, lots of notes, the week before FenCon. I couldn’t even.
But I told him I’d have it for him in a couple of weeks (maybe mid-October), not sure which. I hit right in the middle of that. I lost some time recovering from FenCon AND its nasty little stomach bug, replacing our washing machine, and finally the water leak under the foundation. Because we don’t do ANYTHING halfsies. But it’s done. Finished. Sold. Boom. AND I managed to write a guest blog for a friend for some time in November, I think. More details when they become available.
So WORDS! I have committed WORDS! To paper. To pixels. To RIDICULE! (Well, maybe not that last one yet.) Beginning to end. Done. Now…now we return to the incomplete projects and the projects impatiently waiting their turns. The YA novel WILL. BE. FINISHED. I have trashed and restarted (and trashed the restart) of a story due by the end of the year.
It feels good to know there’s still a show out there – Marvelous Nerd Year’s Eve, y’all! – but for now, I’m floating along blissfully in a sea of NOTHING ON THE CALENDAR except a couple of social things. I can regroup, refocus, and get my house and blood pressure in order. And that’s all good. Even keels, baby. Even keels.