Writing Journal Y5 Day: 217 The Return

Well.  I know it’s been a while.  I’ve been busy.  Plus, I really needed to take a break from blogging.  Feels like that break is breaking, if that makes sense, and the blog bug seems to be back.  What does this mean for you, gentle reader?  Why, more posts from me, of course!

Since these writing journals are supposed to specifically be about writing, I’ll probably have to write a separate post with some life updates here soon to fill in some of the blanks.  As for writing, well…

In the year (yes, it’s been a year – where have you been?) since I last updated the journal, I’ve written roughly 375,000 words.  That includes:

• 12 short stories
• 1.5 novels
• 7 story ideas (I flush these out now)
• 1.5 novellas
• And a serious amount of worldbuilding for a couple of projects I’m not ready to talk about yet

I don’t really count blog posts, reviews for Kirkus, etc, in my wordcount totals.

As you can see, I’ve been busy, if quiet.  Some of what I’m working on these days takes more of my mental energy than in the past, which translates to fewer blog posts.  Especially when the opportunities I have to write are fewer than before, so I tend to want to use that time for fiction projects rather than blog posts.

The short stories have been polished, repolished, rewritten, put through the critique group and repolished some more.  All have been rejected by various markets out there, which is okay.  I’ve also scrapped and restarted the long languishing untitled space opera.  One of these days I’m gonna have to give that thing a proper title…  Characters have changed, story has changed, format, too.  Lot’s of good feedback from the critique group already, so I want to finish that this year.  THIS YEAR, DAMNIT!

Big news for some of you – I’ve completed a new Cord Cahill story!  People were actually emailing me for one, so what are ya gonna do?  In anticipation of all the love I’ll get for that story, I’ve also re-outlined and started a third Cahill story.  There’s a structural format I’ve decided to use with Cord’s stories that lends itself to the serialized structure I want for him, so I hope people will like em.  The new story is called CAHILL’S UNFINISHED BUSINESS.  Take from that what you will 🙂

As with the previous Cahill story, CAHILL’S HOMECOMING, I’ll be releasing this one myself via Kindle and B&N.  I’m working on the cover for it.  Wanted to have it released in time for WorldCon, but the day job has been so stressful and busy lately, I’m not sure I can still meet that deadline – but I’m trying!

I may also release some of the other stories I’ve written recently just to see what people think.  Fully admit I get lost in my own head-space and focus too much on ‘making it perfect’, which is something I’ve decided to work on.  Releasing more stuff will be part of that.  Ya know, just getting the stories out there and seeing what happens.

Okay – that’s it for this update.  More soon!