Update: November 2021

Hopefully everyone had a good Thanksgiving! This month has been pretty good for me, so let’s get right to the update.

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After Halloween, I decided to set the horror story mentioned in last month’s post aside. I just wasn’t feeling it anymore. My target market doesn’t have a deadline, so turning my attention to some projects that do seemed like a wise decisions.

For most of November, I’ve been focused on revising “Enough”. First, I posted it on a workshop forum and got some feedback that was both positive and helpful. My subsequent revisions bumped the word count over 5000 and more heavily emphasized the “Happy For Now” ending, which should open up a few more publishers.

I sent a query letter to the best of those new publishers, and they’ve responded very positively so far. In fact, a full manuscript request came in over the weekend! Things look really good at the moment, but I’m trying not to get my hopes up.

Otherwise, this month has been spent working on all the supplemental materials I need to send The Silver Shrike out to agents. My query and synopsis should be ready to go by #PitMad next week, so I plan on pitching this novel again. Hopefully an agent bites!

I also submitted a few older stories. “A Helping Hand” is under consideration for the first issue of a magazine, while “The Death of Liberty” went to an anthology dedicated to hard-to-place stories. “Decisions” is also out at a couple places as a reprint submission. Fingers crossed at least one of them brings an acceptance.

Right now, I’m debating whether my next project should be a fantasy mystery story for an anthology with an end of the year deadline or if I should just start outlining the novelization of “Law, Love, and the Whippoorwill”.

Currently, I’m reading A Cold Dark Place by Toni Anderson. It’s an excellent romantic suspense, although its subject matter is heavy. You ever have those moments when you’re reading a book and it’s so good you have to set it aside for a bit? That’s how I feel about this title.

I also started The Stormlight Archive at long last. Almost two years ago, I picked up the first three books on sale as a sort of Christmas present for myself, but other stuff kept jumping over them on my reading list. So far I’m only on Chapter 6 of The Way of Kings, but I’m thoroughly enjoying the series.

Life has treated me well enough this month. The soreness from my booster shot has just about faded, we had an excellent Thanksgiving (even if I did get destroyed in our evening game of Monopoly), and Oklahoma State is headed to the Big XII Championship Game for the first time ever. Now, if the Cowboys can just win Bedlam, this month will end on a fantastic note.

Here’s hoping everybody had a wonderful holiday season! I’ll see you all again in December.