Well, we’re already well into January and this is my first post. I’ve been pretty busy lately though, pretty tired too, and so it has been hard keeping up with everything. But that’s life I suppose. Ideally I would like to write a post every day, but, being realistic, I think I shall try to make it a weekly thing, for now anyway. I’m still busy at work, still busy at home, and still busy writing as well.
Last May I finished the first draught of a novel and put it aside. I have just decided to start working on the second draught and am already about 30 000 words into it. The first draught was about 53 000 words long. I had been shooting for about 80 000, which is apparently the desired length for a mainline publisher (horror genre). My hopes were that I could flesh it out a little on the second draught, and I have been adding little bits here and there, but I have also trimmed down a few paragraphs. I have no idea what the final word count will be when I finish this draught, but I am not going to worry about it too much because I anticipate there being several more draughts yet, probably with several months between each one. I’m not in a rush.
In November I mentioned that one of my stories had been short listed for the Read by Dawn III anthology. Unfortunately the story was not, in the end, one of the few to be accepted. Never mind I might do better next year (I am determined to get read by dawn at some point 🙂 ) I also mentioned in November that my story Spot Me had been accepted by The Written Word. I have a bad feeling though, that they are not going to use it after all. They initially told me that they would probably get back in touch with me in around two weeks time. They never did though and I have emailed them twice to see if they still want the story, but have received no reply to either email. I’ll wait and see, but my gut is telling me that this is a dead end.
On a more positive note, Necrotic Tissue has already sent me a cheque for my story The Living Proof. They also sent me a free T-shirt. It’s a pretty cool T-shirt too, and the story was accepted for the July issue. This is the first time that I have ever got paid before a story/article saw print. I have also just found out that my story The Flat has been accepted by Big Pulp
Anyway, that’s about it for now. I’m going to make a cup of coffee 🙂