Well, this old blog has become a bit of a barren wasteland over the first few months of 2022, and while a lack of motivation shoulders most of the blame, it hasn’t been entirely because I haven’t been writing. Between a busier work cycle and a series of other projects, I just haven’t been able to devote time to writing content for the blog. So, I thought I’d report on a few things going on concerning my writing career.
- Earlier this year, I found out another one of my short stories will be published by a literary journal. My story entitled “String Theory” will be published in the spring edition of American University’s literary magazine FOLIO. I will let you know when that it is available for purchase.
- I have the next episode of the Pandemonium series wrote, but haven’t been happy with it. So, I am waiting for a bit of time and inspiration to tackle an edit. As I said at the beginning, this is based off a NANOWRIMO project from a couple years ago, and I encountered similar issues that time. I was hoping a different approach would open some avenues, but so far, traffic remains stalled.
- This week I received news that I placed second in the first round of the NYC Midnight Short Story contest. My story “What’s in a Name?” was created based off the prompts of Political Satire (Genre), Edutainment (Subject), and a Witch (Character). I hesitated making this story available to read publicly initially because I am generally uncomfortable in the political sector. I believe that political beliefs are like rear ends, everyone has one and all of them stink. This sort of attitude means that I almost always revert to a sophomoric sarcasm when confronted with political satire. The judges picked up on two of my inspirations in my style: Vonnegut and Orwell. I wasn’t sure I pulled it off, but they seemed to like it. Now, I have to consider if I want to take the edits they offered and pursue publication. If you want to read it, contact me directly and I’ll send it. I never publish potential publication pieces on the blog because oftentimes that disqualifies them from most professional publications.
- With my advancement to the second round, I will receive a new prompt on Thursday night and will have three days to write a 2,000-word story using said prompt. I have entered this contest three or four years in a row, and I have never advanced past the second round, so here’s to hoping for a good prompt and a visit from a profound muse. There are four rounds total in the short story contest.
- I have also started a new project that could turn into a larger work. I have workshopped the first 7,000 words or so with my writing group and have received positive feedback. The one drawback is that I tend to be a pantser instead of plotter, which means that I don’t write with an outline just by reacting to the whims of my imagination. While this tends to work for me in short spurts, I can often write myself into corners. (See Pandemonium bullet above). This project is more of a dystopian epic set it two different times in the future. One time feels like a time-travel Sci-Fi story, the other timeline is closer to a fantasy story. It’s too early to tell if I am going to be able to pull off a logical, meaningful and entertaining story. That’s the challenge, if I choose to accept it.
Well, I think that basically does it. I hope to get back on track to posting once a week or so. Sorry for making you wait, and thanks for reading.
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