Lousy Smarch Weather...

It's kind of blowing my mind that it'll be April next week. Time sure can fly when you're wasting a lot of it. I guess it'll be nice to have more consistent temperatures soon; most of the month has been a snow/freeze/thaw cycle, which would be fine if the building staff adjusted the heat level accordingly. Alas.

On to the writing stuff !
I've been decently productive lately. The other day I finished judging 12 flash stories for a forum contest, which was a lot of fun. Great prompt. There were several top-notch entries, including a few that I feel are ready to be published, along with a couple which are close to that point. You simply love to see it. It makes me want to write better stories.

I also wrote a couple of brief articles for another writing forum about the submission process and self-publishing. They only need a little bit of editing before they're good to go. At this point, I consider myself a bit of an expert on these subjects! Might as well share what I've learned, and who knows, maybe some writers will find the information helpful.

A lot of magazines open up in the spring, so I've been sending off a few submissions to SFFH publications. I'll go through my lists again this week as a lot of places are closing on March 31. It'd be nice to get another acceptance or two, as I love to have upcoming publications. I have two coming up, and both are in April, but I don't have anything else going on after that (other than waiting to hear back from the full manuscript request).

I feel like I'm nearing a decision regarding my novel-writing (in)activities. Logically, I should be getting a sequel out there by the fall, one that works as a standalone and satirizes the other side of those satirized in the first book. I'm all set for self-publishing now, and I think I'd do a much better job with the second launch. It makes the most sense and I've been trying to convince myself to go this route.

But on the other hand, I'm still just not in a comedy-writing mood. If I try to be funny now, I bet it'll come off as way more cynical than intended. I want it to be more fun and positive. I'm leaning towards the opinion that now is simply not the time to write this book, and I should work on another project instead.

Yeah, I think I just had to talk it out. I'm going to get back to working on this hard sci-fi book I started last year. It's about 15% done and I left it at a place where it should be easy to pick up. In my head I know where the next big plot points are hitting. I just gotta fill in the pages between them. It's a good time for me to write some serious space drama.

Finally, Old Queen Mittens has had a good March. She's put on a little weight and seems to be doing quite well after a slight change in diet. Long live the Queen!
Til next time !