I didn’t write anything in December, really. A short 200 word story and a spell, which turned into a poem, both for a writing group challenge.
In November, I attempted NaNoWriMo once again. I managed 8k-ish words (almost entirely on my phone), then my phone caught a virus and I had to run a cleaning program which deleted all my writing. Losing 8k words was disheartening in a month where I’d already struggled with being sick and a family vacation, so I gave up. Not on the story – just on finishing in November.
My kids went back to school on Monday, and I hit the ground running. I found a poetry chapbook contest, and I figured since I already had a chapbook on progress, I might as well submit it! I went through the fifty-some poems I’d written for my “Burn (chap) Book” and did some editing and formatting, then cut them down to 37. I sent that set to my husband to read over, and he cut another 7 (5 of which I was prepared to cut already). My next step is to print the poems out and arrange them to make the book flow as best as possible. It’s a fun book, and I’m looking forward to submitting it. In any case, I’ll likely publish it on my own at some point.
Another thing in working on is my first novel: Zombie Love. One of my friends sent me an open call for novel submissions, only the deadline is very short – January 9. Luckily for me, I have a novel mostly-finished. It’s been thriving five rounds of edits, and honestly, in not sure how much better it can get. I went through the first ten pages yesterday and today, then sent them to my husband to look over. If he thinks they are presentable, I’ll write up my synopsis and query letter and send the submission off.
I also found a few calls for short stories, but those are at least a week away, so I’ll get to those when I can.
Hoping to be productive with writing again this year, and even more so, hoping to get into serious querying so I can get my books into readers’ hands.