monthly writing progress, January

Words for month: 10,513. Split between new scenes to old work, new ideas, and short stories. I wrote 16 of 31 days, and averaged 339 words per day (counting all the days of the month).

Started outline for the next novel I want to write. Also did a fair bit of background reading, though no complete books yet. Organized notes for two other ideas so the background material is all in one place for me to outline from.

Short stories: Progress on several. Completed one. Wrote one article (book review). Did 27 submissions this month.

Crits: Made some progress on all three that I'm juggling.

Did not attend GSHW meeting this month. Won't be able to attend next month. Hoping for March.

Reading: 5 books completed this month. The Career Novelist, by Donald Maass; Destroyer of Worlds, by Larry Niven and Edward Lerner; The Burning Bridge, by John Flanagan; Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days, by Alastair Reynolds; Pushing Ice, by Alastair Reynolds

Other reading of note -- refreshed my brain on Getting Things Done and read bits of Making It All Work by David Allen, read more of Fire in Fiction by Maass, started Heirs of the Fisherman, read the first half of Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld, and read both the Motivation and Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing blog series by Dean Wesley Smith (which got me rethinking having dropped my mystery story rather than submitting it).

Editing/submitting: Well, in addition to work on adding subplots to the urban fantasy, I have been working on brush edits of the cozy mystery. I've also written a query letter, started a synopsis, and winnowed down a list of markets (not agents) to submit to, as a test of Smith's ideas.

This coming month will mostly be more of the same, but I want to write every day, even if it's just a single page. Also, I'm going to Boskone mid-month.

writing progress, January 24-30

Less juggling and more dropping of balls this week.

No critting got done at all.

Didn't make any further progress on the new short story -- which means, clearly, that it didn't get submitted for the deadline yesterday.

Did write 791 words on the longer idea. (Hey, that's almost consistent progress!) Still not sure whether it's a novella or a novel.

No progress on Sundered Sword's outline, but I did get more research and background notes.

Made some good progress on a short story I started back in December. If I can squeeze in a couple of word wars on it this week, I should have a complete draft.

Wrote down two new ideas for high fantasy novels.

No other writing.

Very good on the submission front: ten subs sent out, including one story that's never been out before. One's been rejected already, but if I can get it back out the door, I will have my entire inventory of short stories out to market.

As I mentioned before, lots of freelancing this coming week (started the first project yesterday, actually), so not expecting a lot on the writing front this coming week -- maybe another 790 words on that longer idea? ;-)

Writing Prompt: Dwarf in Time

Somewhat more whimsical this week.

Take a dwarf -- a Tolkien dwarf, a D&D dwarf, a fairy-tale dwarf, whatever your favorite type of dwarf is -- and plop him (or her) down into a modern metropolis. What does the dwarf do for a living? What thoughts does she have about the world around her? Is he making any plans to go back?

gathering the links, January 29

As promised, here are some good gatherings of links:

Jon Gibbs, an Englishman in New Jersey:
Interesting posts about writing – w/e January 29 2010 -- Be sure to check out the comments to check for other recommendations, such as mine to Crossing Genres, a post by Michael A. Burstein on Apex's blog.

Margaret McGaffey Fisk:
Friday's Interesting Links -- The writing and research links are especially good; I loved the semicolon comic.

SFSignal:
Free Fiction for 1/29/10
SF Tidbits for 1/29/10
SF Tidbits for 1/28/10
SF Tidbits for 1/27/10
SF Tidbits for 1/26/10
SF Tidbits for 1/25/10
SF Tidbits for 1/24/10
Free Fiction for 1/23/10
But you should be reading SFSignal for the many other posts they have as well -- Mind Melds, TOC, updates on what's going on in the world.

Jay Lake:
Link salad wishes it spoke every language
Link salad flows down the river of night's dreaming
Link salad stumbles into town, just like a sacred cow
Link salad has tire tracks all across its back

If you know of another site that does great collections of links, let me know in the comments! And if there's one of these sites that you enjoy, please let them know.

Bonus: Advice to Writers Great quotes about writing.

writing progress, January 17-23

Still trying to juggle, and this week the writing fell by the wayside.

I critted 3 chapters for one friend, 2 for another.

Started a new short story, as well as a longer one that I'm not sure whether it'll be a novella or a novel. This is highly unusual for me, as I always plan and outline, so it'll be a learning experience. I'm managing a page a day on the long idea, so I got 794 words on it this week, and about 200 on the new short story. That's it for the week.

I got a good start on the next novel's outline (Sundered Sword), and did some more background reading and research, too.

Did pretty well on the submission front this past week, too, with five sent out, including the one review (which counts as a "new" submission in my database as it's never been out before).

Hoping to do better on the writing front this week; next week I know will be a wash, as I have a few overlapping freelance projects booked. Also, since that newest short story is for a market that closes this coming Saturday, I need to get it done if I'm going to make the deadline!

gathering the links, January 22

As promised, here are some good gatherings of links:

Jon Gibbs, an Englishman in New Jersey:
Interesting posts about writing – w/e January 22 2010

Margaret McGaffey Fisk:
Friday's Interesting Links

SFSignal:
SF Tidbits for 1/22/10
SF Tidbits for 1/21/10
SF Tidbits for 1/20/10
SF Tidbits for 1/19/10
SF Tidbits for 1/18/10

Jay Lake:
Link salad heads for another day of chemotherapy
Link salad is a desperado under the eaves
Link salad hears the captains tell they pay you well

Writing Prompt: Childhood Memories

Think about your earliest memory. Now rewrite it as though it happened to you yesterday, at the age you currently are. Now try writing it as though it happened to a child fifty years from now. Now to a child fifty years before you were born.

What details changed? What stayed the same?

writing progress, January 10-16

I'm currently juggling completing my NaNoWriMo novel (Jim Bob), editing a previous novel (Pepper), planning my next novel (Sundered Sword), working on several short stories, and doing crits for 3 different friends. This is, perhaps, inefficient, as I'm not getting a lot done on any one thing at a time, but I am making good progress.

In the last week, I completed one short story and a book review, which will be submitted to Vision magazine. I also submitted six stories, including my novella that was short-listed for the Science-Fiction at the UPC award last year.

I added 3,516 words to Pepper in new scenes and 2,250 words to Jim Bob.

No progress on planning. Some work on the crits.

My plan for this week is more of the same, starting with getting a couple more submissions out today. Stay tuned next Sunday for the progress report. ;-)

starting off the new year a little late

New year, new goals, all that. Right? I'm going back to an earlier one -- trying to be more regular about updating my blog. I've got friends who, if nothing else, manage to post a link round-up on Friday so they're posting. Which is nice, and I might decide to do a link round-up. Or maybe I'll just post a round-up of link round-ups.

I want to aim for monthly consistency, and I'm going to be trying to do certain kinds of posts to do so. Some of my posts will be weekly, some bi-weekly, and some monthly.

• Where am I with my writing this week?


• Writing prompts (weekly)


• Every couple of weeks, a post of upcoming contests and anthologies


• Review series for writing books (monthly, most likely)


• A series I'm going to call "Digging Deep," about planning, organizing, control, and other things that might have an impact on where we plan to go as writers -- because those can't be things we do just once a year (monthly)

I'll also be writing posts as other topics occur to me, and I'll continue doing the occasional podcast review. (Watch for my review of "I Should Be Writing" -- I finally caught up with *all* of the back episodes!)

scheduling of days

This week, I tried -- well, not to do GTD, certainly. I looked at all I want to do with my time, and I tried to break up the time I have available in my working day to give me two concentrated sections of working on projects, split by dealing with stuff like e-mail, forums I frequent, and reading blogs. Then I roughed out what I thought I could fit into those slots each day.

It didn't work, of course.

The first day went okay, but I quickly realized I could either follow my time divisions *or* get the amount done on my projects that I wanted each day, but not both. The crit I'm working on is detailed enough that it's not 3 minutes a page, and the paying work (updating an index this week) took some time to find the most efficient method of working on it. So none of those blocks of time got used for writing.

By the end of the week, I was a bit cranky.

I still like this idea in principle, but the blogs and social networking and such -- that's going to have to be either early morning (before I'm dealing with getting kids out the door) or evening (while dinner simmers). That will give me larger chunks of time, in which I will be able to get more done. And I might have to discard the blog-reading on some days entirely to use that time for writing. Because as much as I want to know what's going on in publishing and with my friends and the people I find interesting in life, getting the writing actually done is more important.

Thus, there will be adjustments made. This week? Scheduling isn't going to work at all. Monday is going to be Christmas shopping. Tuesday, I've got stuff at my son's school. Wednesday, the next proofreading gig arrives. Oh, and I've agreed to beta read a book for another friend. So maybe next week, I'll give it a stab again.

I may wind up realizing I just can't do all I want to. If so, family, writing, and paying work take precedence.

time periods for a story

I've seen a few things lately denigrating horses-and-castles fantasy, anything set in medieval or pseudo-Dark Ages. Of course, my new idea, Sundered Sword, needs a historical milieu.

The idea started with the line from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. "[S]trange women lyin' in ponds distributin' swords is no basis for a system of government." Which got me thinking about Excalibur and wondering what would happen if two different people both got swords -- or part of the same sword.

I can't write about such a thing in a modern world or even post-Enlightenment. People don't believe in divine right to rule and haven't for centuries. That pretty much limits the sort of fantastical world I can create.

It won't be a strictly medieval world. I've been reading a lovely biography of a woman in early seventeenth-century Italy, and I'll be borrowing Renaissance and Baroque elements, probably including guns and cannon. But the absolutely critical point is at heart, people must believe in the right of kings (or queens) to rule, even if it has been generations since one has.

And that's my rationale for adding yet another horses-and-swords fantasy to the world.

on the setting of goals

Last week, my friend Bonnie wrote a post on impaired executive function, which focused on her knowing what her goals are but needing to figure out how to get herself to focus on them on a day-to-day level. We had a lot of back-and-forth in chat about setting long-term goals and how we translate that to actually working on them. I tossed off a comment about having monthly goals and drawing weekly goals from them, and then I realized that I don't, not usually.

Here's the way this year has gone:

• I came up with a short list of goals.


• I created a spreadsheet, with different writing areas as rows and months as columns, and plugged the anticipated work into slots, thus giving myself monthly targets. (I also marked off August as vacation time, though the actual vacation was mid-July to mid-August.) Some things got put on the spreadsheet that were not in my goals, such as "post to Random Walks T/Th."


• Every week, on the Daily Page & Word Count forum at Forward Motion for Writers, I would post a list of things I planned to work on that week -- including paying work, family events, and writing primarily determined by deadline. (Yes, the "Daily" forum is generally used on a week-by-week basis, with daily posting of progress. It's the way it has evolved.)


• At the end of each month, I looked at how I was doing compared to my initial annual goals. I also created an updated worksheet in the spreadsheet, showing what was actually accomplished through that month and changes to the plan coming up. Some things (such as the aforementioned blog posts) got carried over, even though I wasn't doing them.

Now, a few years back, I read David Allen's Getting Things Done. I implemented part of it (I'd never heard of a tickler file before, but it's been great for getting bills paid, as long as I'm good at checking it.), tried part of it (the brain dump of projects took too long . . . ), and said, "Are you out of your mind? I don't have time for that!" to other parts (the weekly review).

It dawned on me this week that I already do a weekly review. Every week, I sit down and figure out how I did on my goals for that week and write down what I plan to work on for the next week. I just don't implement it fully. I don't look at my monthly or annual goals to see what I should be working on if I want to get to where I want to go. I also don't look at the "Someday/Maybe" list to see whether there's something I should be adding in because it fits where I am at the moment.

Next Action (Okay, not really, but it's more GTD-speak than "now on my to-do list"): Review the section on weekly reviews in the GTD book and start implementing it more fully in my week.

Of course, this doesn't address Bonnie's original question. I've got a week's worth of things to work on (some from this week include crit for Myrrdin, write on Jim Bob or Sundered Sword or both, work on short stories) and no really good way to get myself to sit down and do any one of them at a given time. (And on weeks like this, broken up by family and personal illness, little inclination to do any of them.)

I do try, of course. Some things are dictated by deadline -- a lot of my paying work, for example. Some things I find go best if I consistently do a bit each day -- such as when I'm doing a crit -- I like to do enough each day to immerse myself in the story, but not so much that I'm not getting my own work done. I find about 30 pages a day is a good target (not that I did that this week).

So, in addition to working on that weekly review, which should help me break long-term goals down into more manageable chunks, I may be experimenting with weekly-to-daily translations during this next year as well. Check back for further updates.

2009 goals update

I took a look at my stated goals for the year, and although I've made progress on them, I'm certainly not going to get all of them met before this December 31.

Edit two novels and get at least one out to agents. I edited one, sent it out for crits, read the crits, and prepared a new edit plan for it. For the other, I've read through it and prepped an edit plan/outline. Nothing has made it as far as an agent.

Submit one novella and one novelette. Novella done, submiited, results as good as could be hoped for. Novelette was supposed to go to Nocturne Bites; I've decided to shelve that project indefinitely (i.e., trunk it), even though I am almost finished with the edits.

Outline NaNo 2007. Done as part of above editing plans.

And a new novel for NaNoWriMo? I certainly participated. I even won. What I did not do was write a complete novel, and Jim Bob is not going to be finished this month, either.

So the final score for 2009 goals? Actually, pretty good. I didn't get as much progress on novels, either writing or editing, as I wanted, but I did make progress.

What does this mean for 2010? I'll roll over the editing and writing, of course, as a minimum. However, I should get more done in the coming year. My youngest is in daycare now, which will give me mire time. Also, not taking as long a family vacation -- thus, expecting to get far more done and will be posting 2010 goals that reflect this.

posting for NaNo

Yes, it's that time of year again.

My co-ML (Hi, Nicki!) started a WordPress blog for us (http://lvpanano.wordpress.com/). I've put up two posts this week on preparation:

Plotting vs. Pantsing

Methods of Plotting

Feel free to check them out.

2009 goals update

Okay, I'm a bit behind on the "six month" update. I listed my goals for the year on December 31, and I'm doing pretty good so far.

I have:

• edited one novel and sent it off for crits
• submitted one novella (today)
• finished writing and editing one novelette and sent it off for crit
• reoutlined my 2007 NaNo (which will probably be my second novel edited for the year)

Still on the agenda:

• second novel edited
• one novel out to agents
• novelette submitted
• new novel for NaNo 2009

I'm hoping to send out the novelette soon, and then there's family vacation. A good reward for good progress!

Review of August/September issue of the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction

Toward the beginning of the month, I saw a note on Twitter about reviewing an issue of the Magazine of Fantasy & Science-Fiction, and I immediately went over to the magazine's site to volunteer. A free copy of a major genre magazine in return for sharing my opinions? What's not to like?

When my review copy arrived, I was startled. I knew the magazine had gone to a bimonthly schedule and had increased their page count in the process, but I wasn't expecting the full-length paperback in my mailbox -- 256 pages. (I think they count it as 260, counting the front cover as page 1; I'm only counting the pages between the covers.) Wow.

Not every story was to my taste, but I wouldn't have expected to enjoy them all equally. If I were picking this issue up in a store and started at the beginning, not knowing any of the authors, just starting at the beginning, I probably wouldn't have finished reading. However, having read the entire issue, I found more to enjoy than otherwise, and I recommend picking up a copy.

The seven novelettes, three short stories, two reprints, one poem, and various departments and cartoons cut a wide slice across the genres, in length, style, and sub-genre. The tales cover everything from magical realism to exploration of a foreign planet to traditional fantasy with wizards battling for a kingdom. Most people will find something in these pages that resonates with them.

Herewith, my commentary on the various stories:

"The Art of the Dragon" by Sean McMullen starts vividly, with a two-mile-long dragon eating the Eiffel Tower. The writing was beautiful, and the story developed well -- until we got to the climax. To me, it felt like the start of a dystopian world, and the narrator saying, "understanding what the dragon wants is not the same as agreeing with it" does not make the idea of the story any more palatable to me. (I realize a story does not necessarily reflect an author's views. I know that some people prefer stories that make them uncomfortable or that espouse ideas in conflict with their own. Knowing these things also does not help me to appreciate this story.)

The second story, "You Are Such a One" by Nancy Springer, is a bit of magical realism, lushly depicted in second-person present, that left me at the end saying, "So what?" By this point in reading the magazine, I was feeling disappointed -- two for two on good stories where the ending fell flat to my sensibilities. This is the point I might have given up.

I'm glad I didn't. Melinda M. Snodgrass's "A Token of a Better Age" captivated me. (Who says frame stories don't work?) It took a minute for the last line to penetrate, but once I got it, I laughed out loud. THAT was a story with a complete arc and satisfactory ending. I immediately put Ms. Snodgrass's Edge books on my list of things to look for. I want more by this author, in this world.

"Obsolete Theories" is a lovely poem that recaptures the spirit of "Some say the world will end in fire . . . " yet is original. Kudos to Sophie M. White!

Matthew Hughes' "Hunchster" is short -- possibly the shortest story in the magazine. I wouldn't say the prose is beautiful ("You'd think I'd remember the kid's name, but I never could" is how it starts.), but the voice is true throughout, and there's a completeness in its shortness.

There are two reprint stories -- one introduced by Gordon Van Gelder, one by Harlan Ellison -- and both are clearly memorable. "The Goddamned Tooth Fairy," by Tina Kuzminski, presents a wonderful view of scars and pasts and history and moving on. As someone with my own set of highly visible scars, I found this story resonated with me, even if I still hold on a bit tighter than I should to the past. "Snowfall," by Jessie Thompson, is vivid, poignant, perfectly crafted, and very horrifying. I can see why Mr. Ellison found it memorable; I don't believe I shall forget it, either.

Yoon Ha Lee created a singular world of necromancy and zombies in "The Bones of Giants." In many ways, it strikes me as classic fantasy, with undertones of fairy tales, but it moves beyond those boundaries. I enjoyed my time in Tamim's world.

Another story where the ending left me disappointed and feeling a complete lack of resolution was "Icarus Saved from the Skies" ("Icare sauvé des cieux") by Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud, tranlated by Edward Gauvin. The writing was beautiful, but I got to the end and said, "That whole build-up was for that? What's the point?"

"The Others," by Lawrence C. Connolly is, the introduction says, a direct sequel to "Daughters of Prime," which will be available on their Website (but was not yet when I looked, presumably because it's still June and this issue is supposed to be on the shelves in two months). I found this very engaging adventurous SF, with the caveat that I want to read a longer piece, as the story was complete but entirely new questions had arisen at the end. Wanting to read more of an author's work is far from the worst reaction a reader can have. This is, perhaps, the only story in the magazine where I hesitated at the end but felt unquestionably that I would read more by the author when given the opportunity.

The next novelette, "Three Leaves of Aloe" by Rand B. Lee, immerses the reader in an India of the future, yet one immediately recognizable to the people of today -- call centers purportedly in the United States, bullies at work and at school, a driving need to get ahead in life. This is a moving SF story. I don't know if I'll be on the lookout for more of Mr. Lee's work per se, but if given the opportunity to read it, I expect to enjoy it.

Albert E. Cowdrey's "The Private Eye" is filled with a strong narrative voice that brings small-town Louisiana of Jimmy John Link to life. This was another story that had me laughing -- and I plan to hit the local bookstore to get the June/July issue of the magazine before the end of this month, as it has another, but far different, tale by Cowdrey in it.

The best was definitely saved for last: "Esoteric City" by Bruce Sterling. Set in a Turin of Black and White magic, this story features an Egyptian mummy, a major automotive company, and a visit to hell. Entirely captivating, this story is going to stay with me for a while.

The Departments are also worth a mention: the books reviewed by Charles de Lint have given me a couple of items to add to my ever-growing TBR pile, while Elizabeth Hand's analyses gave me more to think about. I found Lucius Shepard's analysis of the movie Watchman patronizing with his assumption that all superhero comics have a "vision of history and . . . take on human relationships [that] are adolescent and simplistic." This is not the place for a long discussion of the pros and cons of superhero comics, but if a reviewer feels the need to make comments little different from "It's not bad for what it is," maybe he should find a different genre to review.

Also, there are comics scattered throughout. They vary in quality (I've seen much better Harris cartoons than the one on page 192), but they are all welcome breaks. (My favorite appears on page 212.)

Overall, I found three stories with endings that left me cold, a couple new authors whom I won't seek out but might enjoy seeing again, and a handful of stories, both fantasy and science fiction, that earned high marks all around. The true mark of how much I enjoyed this issue? I'm currently waiting on a check for a freelance job, and as soon as it arrives, I'm subscribing to the magazine. I want to see what their 60th anniversary issue holds, and I want to see where they go from there.

1,000 Words a Day

Debbie Ridpath Ohi, aka Inkygirl, has started the 1,000 Words a Day Challenge, a year-long challenge to keep yourself writing. She says she's open to having a 500 Words a Day badge, too, if enough people are interested.

The rules are simple: Try to write 1000 words a day, at least six days a week.

As long as you're honestly trying, it counts -- even if you don't reach it. How's that for cool?

I could do it now, but we're going on a long vacation starting next month, so I won't put the badge up until we get back.

If you want some motivation or encouragement, go check it out.

halfway there?

Almost a month ago now, I posted that I was going to be starting the revision of Witchy Woman. To refresh your memory (if you don't want to click on the link),

The anticipated process:

• read through the manuscript


• create outline of current state


• work through world-building and necessary plot expansions


• update revision outline


• hard copy edit (get rid of tics and add description at this stage!)


• type in edits


• have Word read manuscript to me while I follow along to make sure all edits complete

As of this morning, I have a completed revision outline, meaning I've completed the first four steps. Of course, that fifth step being the actual page-by-page edit plus writing of new scenes, it's going to take some time. It took me longer to get to this point than I'd hoped, but I didn't actually work at it every day. That changes now.

One edit down, on to the next

Yesterday, I finished my revision of The Christmas Tree Farm Murders and sent it off to be critted. I started working on the revision outline April 7, so that's just under a month. Not bad.

I'm going to be starting the revision of Witchy Woman next, and I thought I'd talk a little about my editing process here. I started off with Holly Lisle's articles on One-Pass Manuscript Revision and How to Revise a Novel. These are essentially the same process, just written up slightly differently.

Now, I knew I couldn't use her process as written -- as I mentioned in Making the writing pay, I feel the need to see the big picture first before I jump into cutting and making notes about adding scenes. So I added an extra pass through to create a revision outline and remind what the book as a whole looked like before I made any decisions. I actually got so caught up in the prose that I wound up stopping the outline to just read, then had to go back and page through again to create the outline. This turned out to work very well, since I could make notes on my index cards about upcoming scenes that I wanted to tie things to, or note that some scenes might work better pushed together.

Once I had my outline (a series of index cards, one scene per card), I went through and adjusted them all, removing the second POV, noting which scenes should be rewritten to the primary POV, tracing clues and planting new ones -- generally, making certain the continuity worked. I also noted dates and times to make sure the timeline worked.

Then I went through the hard copy and edited. Lots and lots of red ink all over the pages. Deletions, changes, additions. New pages written on the back of old ones. That took about a week.

Next up, the type-in. I'm odd -- I type in from back to front. This serves two purposes: the manuscript hasn't been repaginated by changes earlier in the manuscript, so the hard copy pages correspond to what's in front of me on the screen; and focusing on the sentences and paragraphs out of context gives me a separate proofreading check where I'm not seeing words because I expect them to be there.

I typed in the last four chapters and realized I was going to need another pass. I had entirely too many body language tics of the "she smiled," "she shrugged," and "he nodded" variety, and I needed to take those out and add in more actual characterization and setting description.

Thus, when I finished the type-in, I started through again, this time front to back, making those sorts of changes as I went -- and noting on my outline specific changes that would have to be propagated through later chapters.

Turns out, though, I wasn't quite done when I sent it off for crit. I'd left a wishy-washy sentence highlighted that I meant to come back to and fix. I sent e-mail about this and chalked it up as learning experience: Don't skip the final read-through before sending a manuscript to agents or editors.

That's the process as I just went through it. I'm hoping to streamline it for this next project -- sort of. You see, WW has about half the word count it needs, so I know I'm going to be layering in story-line and sub-plot.

The anticipated process:

• read through the manuscript


• create outline of current state


• work through world-building and necessary plot expansions


• update revision outline


• hard copy edit (get rid of tics and add description at this stage!)


• type in edits


• have Word read manuscript to me while I follow along to make sure all edits complete

I'm hoping to get through the read-through this week, and begin the rest next week. This time, I'm estimating closer to two months than one, but we'll see.

Where I stand

At the end of last month, I mentioned all that I had on my plate.

I already said that I didn't get anywhere with the Nocturne Bites pitch contest. Fortunately, I can still send in the full Bite per their normal submission guidelines.

Monday, I sent off my entry for the Knight Agency's Book in a Nutshell competition. Since then, I've finished my hard copy edits of The Christmas Tree Farm Murders and started typing them in. I'll probably have to do another clean-up pass after it's all in, but it should be fairly solid by the end of the month.

I did get a phone interview for the blog gig I applied for, but they decided my experience and skills didn't match their needs.

Looking ahead to May, I'm planning to finish up the edits on my Bite and get it sent off, work on a few short stories (maybe do Forward Motion's Story-a-Day!), and then work on two different outlines: the revision outline for Pepper (my NaNo 2007 story) and the writing outline for Ivory & Bone, which has been calling to me. I'm thinking that, even if I take more time with Pepper than I did the Christmas Trees, I can have her finished and ready to go to critters before we head out on our family vacation this summer -- and then maybe I'll work on Ivory & Bone longhand while we're on vacation. All plans, of course, are subject to change at any time.

By the way, in my New Year post, I listed getting two novels edited, submitting a novelette, and reoutlining my 2007 NaNo (plus a couple of other things) as my goals for this year. Editing The Christmas Tree Farm Murders puts me halfway to that first one, submitting the Nocturne Bite will get me the next one, and 2007 NaNo outline is up next, so I'm doing fairly well at sticking to my goals for the year. Yay, me! How are you doing, one-third of the way through the year?