I somehow made it to the end of the April A2Z Challenge this
year. I must be mad, but I did it. Between my two pen names, I posted something
to my blog every day of April except for the Sundays. Boom.
This does mean, however, that submissions weren’t shooting
off through the roof.
You may remember last month I talked about rolling things
back a bit, changing my plans and taking on one project at a time? Well… at the
time of writing I have managed to finish the Slippers & Chains novella and
have since got comments back from beta readers. It’s now time to read through
those, let them simmer, then look at what/if things need changes.
I have also finished the last major edit on Silk Over Razor
Blades novel and I’m testing the waters for beta readers for that. *phew* Yes, it’s
been a mad month.
But submissions?
Well… I sent a short story to Martin over CreativeFrontiers. That should be going live early in May. I have a couple of other
ideas for him, so I may well send him something else later.
I’ve also sent three letters since my last check in and
entered a short story competition with Writer’s Forum.
Not too bad.
I also have plans to submit a piece of Silk Over Razor
Blades to Cornerstones (a literary consultancy) to see how I’d do working with
them. It would be a great investment, but an expensive one, so I want to see
how they work first. I’ll let you know how that goes as and when I have more
information.
In the meantime… I’ve found an open anthology looking for
short erotic stories. That something I should be able to write a piece for,
though the deadline on it is pretty tight. A shame I don’t have anything else
suitable for it, though the act of writing for a deadline is good practise.
Problem is, there are soooooooo many opportunities out
there, I spend too much time trying to decide which one to go for.
I decided, a few weeks ago, that rather than writing
something specific for an opportunity (not including the one above of course) I’ll
just write what I want. When I want to. That’s the best way to get the
cleanest, purest expression of joy (in the form of words) out of me. And then,
when it’s done I’ll find somewhere suitable to send it. That makes more sense
for the way I work right now. Maybe when my boys are in nursery/school and I
have more time, I’ll be able to structure my day to write for specific things,
but for now it feels too much like stress; trying to make those deadlines.
It’s a bit of a rambly post this month – sorry about that –
but I’m a bit scattered. It’s my birthday in a few days and I’m pretty much
stuck on how weird it’s going feel being thirty. O.o
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| Credit: jimyeh |
Catch you around!
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