News and Notes from the Writing Desk: May Edition

It's been a busy week on the submission front. This week brought a rejection, but it was more of a relief than a disappointment. It was one that had been held for months, so it frees up those pieces to go out again. Which is a good thing, because I don't do simultaneous subs, and I really wanted to send a specific piece out, and I forgot was still in the hands of this publication.

I would love to say that I have a new project for May like I was supposed to, but I focused on getting these subs out so I didn't start on one. I really wish I could choose a project and see it to the end, but this seems to be one of those months where I work on a different project each week. That's not a bad thing, it just means a slower rollout for any individual project. They will all get to the finish line, I promise.

So what's on the agenda for next week? Who knows! I'm trying to get myself to finish up my two public projects (Love Bites the Big Apple and Pieces), but that may take some more time because I seem to have hit a creative wall on those.

Projects with Abandonment Issues

I've been immersed in my latest poetry project over the past couple of week. It's fun, it's challenging, and I'm finding constant inspiration. That's good, right? Because I'm trying to reign it in when I can, knowing poetry is low on the totem pole of professional success stories. Like a good investor, I need a diverse portfolio of work to make sure that success has a long-term reach. And that thought leads me to all of that other stuff I started working on and have yet to finish. Right now, I want to take time to acknowledge all of the projects I've put on hold.

Love Bites the Big Apple: My first foray into a story for the Episode app is still on my mind, it just hasn't been updated for awhile. I promise that when I get back to it, I'll do a major multi-chapter drop.

Completed first drafts such as Verses and Vows, In Another Life, 277 Miles: Hang in there, kids. We'll meet again--hopefully soon!

Numerous incomplete first drafts: I admire the dedication of these stories. They always come back to my mind in unexpected ways and at unexpected times. Usually right in the middle of NaNoWriMo, but what can you do?

And I can't forget the two other projects sharing my non-freelance time: Honorable mentions go to the draft of my current YA novel and to Pieces, which may have to take a short hiatus in a few weeks due to lack of new pieces to post.

Hopefully all of my projects with abandonment issues will come back to me at the right time to be completed. As always, you can be a part of the action: don't forget to join my journey on Patreon to get more details about my latest poetry project, exclusives, and much more.

New Poetry Project

This is one of those weeks where I just can't sit still. I know that I have tons of half-completed projects, but a new one seems to have pushed its way to the front of the line. It's a poetry project that's contained under a very specific theme. I only have two pieces written, but it looks like its heading for something that is chapbook length. It may expand to a full manuscript, but for now, I'm only concentrating on what ideas I've already come up with.

I'm also getting back on the submission cycle. Although there is one publication that I've submitted to twice already (one regular submission, one contest), it is now the one thing I want to conquer. I know that sending in poetry to a single publication more than once is just asking for rejection, but I'm still convinced that I know what they like, and I have pieces that they'll eventually publish. The key is in finding the right combination of pieces for my next submission. One of the publication's upcoming themes is Persona, and I have a stack of poems that meet this theme (from an unpublished manuscript entitled Personas, if you can believe it), so I should have something good that they haven't seen--or they have, just as a single page in a chapbook entry.

There are also a few other places where I'm looking to submit, including places that produce broadsides, which I've always loved. 

Outside of the poetry world, I'm almost finished with chapter five of Love Bites the Big Apple, I've been working on getting the diamond thief novel to a place where I can start revising it, and I've been thinking about putting together an editorial calendar for myself, but that seems like an impossible task at the moment.

That's what's on my desk right now. What are you working on?

PS: My Melody of Love novella series won't be around much longer! Make sure to pick up your copies from Amazon before they disappear.

Scribbling Away

I've been keeping my head down and concentrating on my work lately. I didn't think I would see any tangible results because I'm nowhere near a new release of any kind, but when it comes to my Episode story, I've been seeing some movement.

I honestly didn't think that I could get any chapter reads at all, because I haven't been advertising the story anywhere. But as of last check, I've got 35 reads across the four published chapters, so I think that's pretty good. Of course, I'm only 499,965 reads away from qualifying for the payment program. There's still a little work to do. Chapter 5 should be coming soon. I got sidetracked over the past two weeks, but I'm trying to get back on the chapter a week schedule I set from the beginning.

Other than that, everything is still chugging along. You can check out more of what I'm doing if you go to my Patreon page. Even if you're not ready to commit to a monthly subscription at one of the reward tiers, you can still follow the page to check out all of the public posts that are there.