21. May 2012 by admin.

Sorry for my absence the last couple of weeks. We had two family graduations plus I spent several days in Tennessee to celebrate my mother’s birthday. So, obviously, I haven’t spent a lot of time writing. I did get my paycheck finally—not very encouraging, I’m afraid.

Tomorrow I start teaching a new batch of students how to write stories. That’s gonna be fun.

And I am still working on my memoir, too.

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30. April 2012 by admin.

This week I kind of tortured myself. I didn’t have time to write. I didn’t have enough brain to write either, so it’s a good thing I didn’t try. What I did instead is start reading my unfinished novel at the beginning so it will be somewhat fresh in my mind when I finally get to work on it in June. The reason I consider it torture is that I have to wait so long to jump back into it, when all I want to do right now is lock myself in a room and not come out until I’ve finished all my writing projects.

Meanwhile, I did get some editing done on my memoir which should have been  done by now! I have a deadline of sorts now, though. I may actually try to go to my class reunion this year, and if I do I feel that I ought to have my memoir ready so that my erstwhile classmates can read it if they want to.

Oh—and I still didn’t get my royalty check from last quarter either. The suspense is killing me!

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23. April 2012 by admin.

This was another one of those good news/bad news weeks. The good news was that my kids’ story, Shooting Skeet, was published and I actually got paid for it. In fact I got paid $7 instead of $5 because I was willing to be paid via PayPal. It was fun to go to the website and see my very own name as author. Here it is, if you’re interested: http://www.kidsmagination.com/shooting-skeet

There were also two pieces of sad news. The first is that the mentoring program that has been so helpful to me will not be continued at all. I’m so grateful I got in for the one and only year they did it!

The other sad—or at least perplexing—news, is that I still haven’t received my royalty check for the first quarter of this year. What does it mean? Are the folks at Excellence in Writing just too busy to write checks? Or did my curriculum fail to sell a single copy during the first three months of this year? I’m afraid to ask!

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16. April 2012 by admin.

This week brought some bad news and good news. The “bad” news was that my story “Femme Fatale” came back for the second time. I will try to fine-tune my market research and see if I can come up with a publication that will actually want it. I may also go back and add in some details that I had to delete to make the word count. Rejection is just another rung on the ladder for me now.

The “good” news is that I received and signed the contract for publishing my short story “Shooting Skeet.” This is the first piece of fiction I have ever sold, and I’m thrilled even though the “pay” amounts to only $5. And remember, it took three tries. So I’m not particularly discouraged about stories coming back to me. It just means I haven’t found the right market yet.

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10. April 2012 by admin.

I got feedback on my story, Cameo, and am working on some improvements. I hope to be able to send it back out by sometime next week.

Meanwhile, I got some very disappointing news. I had applied for a scholarship to the annual American Christian Fiction Writers’ conference, but I didn’t get one. That means that I will have to persuade people to pay me to teach them something this summer so I can save up to go to the conference. I love teaching—but it sure cuts into my writing time, and summer is my big writing time!

Still, I think it’s important to make an effort to go to the conference since it’s going to be in my own state of Texas this year and I won’t have the expense of a plane ticket.

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2. April 2012 by admin.

This week I worked a little on revising that old story of mine. It’s going to need quite a bit of work, and I’m pondering what exactly I need to do to make it “sellable.” It’s the only story I’ve written in recent years that is not some form of speculative fiction, and the only one that is aimed specifically at children. Oh, and also the only one that’s overtly Christian. Not sure what to do with it!

Meanwhile, my story “Cameo” came back after only two days. That is a good thing, by the way. If my work is going to be rejected, I’d much rather have it rejected quickly so I can send it somewhere else. So anyway, rather than send it out immediately I have sent it to a couple of friends and asked for feedback. If I can make it better, then obviously that’s what I want to do.

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26. March 2012 by admin.

I spent the week in Georgia, hanging out in a hotel room and having a glorious lack of responsibility. On my first day there, I submitted a short story to an online magazine.  On my third day there, I received a very surprising email telling me that my story “Shooting Skeet” had been accepted by an online publication. The pay is all but nonexistent, but it is still a BIG deal for me, because it’s the first time I’ve sold a piece of fiction. Oh, so happy.

I was so encouraged by this success (it only took 3 tries!) that I went ahead and submitted my story “Cameo” also. Then I remembered a story that I had written a few years ago to entertain my students. I gave them a writing assignment and then did it with them. I remember thinking it was a really good story. I still think it’s a good story—but as I reread it, I realized that I am a much better writer now than I was three years ago. I’m going to spend some time with that story and see if I can’t make it better—maybe a lot better—than it was.

I still have one final short story planned for this, my “short story” year. I hope to write that during April, polish it up, and start sending it out by May. Then—dare I say it?—I can finally return to my languishing novel.

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12. March 2012 by admin.

The primary writing news of this week is kind of sad. Port Yonder Press decided to discontinue their mentoring program at the end of this month, rather than keep going through the fourth quarter. I already had my fourth quarter story planned out!

But seriously I am sorry to see the program end. It has been very beneficial to me in so many ways. I’ve been forced to work on writing short stories (a real challenge for me). I’ve been forced to research markets and submit stories to them. I’ve gotten great feedback not just from my mentors but from my fellow writers.

I think they pulled the plug because no one realized how big a commitment it was going to be for the mentors and the staff of Port Yonder Press. As the stories got longer, the time increased exponentially, and I can fully understand that it just became undoable on top of everything else they had to do.

That said, I am SO grateful that I squeaked in by the skin of my teeth back in June. It was worth backing off from novels for a year in order to focus on increasing my skills as a writer. Thank you so much, PYP.

I’m still going to write that last story, by the way. I’m very taken witlh it.

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5. March 2012 by admin.

As of four days ago, my Story Quest curriculum is now available as a hard copy as well as an e-book: http://www.excellenceinwriting.com/sq-b

I’m glad it’s available as a hard copy, because I think it will get more exposure which will generate more sales, but my royalties are much lower for the hardcopy, so I can’t help hoping that people will pick up the hard copy and look at it, but then decide to buy the e-book!

I revised Dragon Moon and sent it off for the final stage before I submit it to a publisher. Response has been very favorable. I’m still mulling over Cameo and haven’t sent it off. I’d really like a fellow writer to look at it and give me an opinion.

And here’s a weird thing. I was working on revising a test for my vocabulary curriculum, and my fill-in-the-blank section gave me a great idea for my final story for the PYP writing groups! The only drawback is that once again the story involves a dragon. What is up with that? I am NOT a dragon fan!

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27. February 2012 by admin.

First, the bad news. I got my second rejection for my story “Shooting Skeet” this week. It’s almost amusing how “thick” my skin has become in the last few years. Five years ago, a rejection—even of a short story like this—would have left me depressed and discouraged for days. This time, I barely flinched before resolving to send it out again as soon as possible. In fact, I plan to send out “Femme Fatale” at the same time also. I may even see if I can find a market for my “orphan” story, “Cameo.”

I continue to edit my memoir and cut out as much fat as I can. I wish I had more time to work on it! But I have vocabulary curriculum to work on also—a very different kind of writing. And in four more days, my Story Quest curriculum goes on sale as hard copy as well as an ebook! 

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