The World Keeps on Turning

It’s been an interesting week, Squiders. As I said last week, we were hit by a tornado, which is, in itself, interesting, since I don’t live in a place that traditionally gets tornadoes. I mean, we had tornado drills and everything as a kid, and some of the surrounding towns do have tornado sirens, though I’ve only heard them used as tests.

I looked it up, and we’ve only gotten 15 tornadoes in the last seventy years. So.

We’re okay, our house is okay. We did lose seven trees, all except one of which were at least thirty years old and about 50 feet tall. Four of them fell over in the storm, and the other three were so badly damaged they’ll have to come down. (One of them already has.)

We’re all still cleaning up, of course. The chainsaws start bright and early, and sometimes you can’t get through the neighborhood because it’s so clogged up with trucks. One of the news stations has picked our street as their street for their coverage, so every couple of days a new video comes out that includes my neighbors. Apparently FEMA is supposed to come by some time and take a look as well.

Here’s what our view from our patio was pre-tornado:

(It’s from autumn, obviously, but I don’t normally take pictures that direction so that’s what I’ve got.)

And here’s the same view now:

My poor trees. I miss them.

Enough of that. The world doesn’t stop just because you go through something traumatic, unfortunately. And dwelling doesn’t really help either.

I did end up having to edit and re-submit Chapter 3 for the critique marathon this week, and though I was annoyed at first, I think it’s for the best. The new chapter is MUCH stronger which is only going to mean good things in the long run. And my in-person critique group on Sunday got Chapters 1 and 2, revised from the critique marathon comments. That also went really well. Getting lots of good feedback and, even better, validation.

This is how the critique process is supposed to work. I’ve been more productive lately since…I don’t remember when.

Some stories for you guys to read:

My flash story “Coming Home” was published by Wyldblood Press today!

Tomorrow, the second part of “Across Worlds with You” comes out over at Turtleduck Press. Part 1 is here, and part 2 will be here (won’t work before midday on Sat, July 1).

See you next week! Stay safe!

Small Natural Disaster Hiatus

Hello, squiders. Hope you’re doing well.

We got hit by a tornado yesterday, so I’m going to take a hiatus of about a week while we deal with that.

Thank you!

Trucking Along

How’s it going, squiders? Busy busy over in this neck of the woods, but that seems to always be the case.

(We’re going to get new neighbors soon, which is always a bit nerve wracking.)

So far so good on the feedback. I spent yesterday transferring the marathon comments into an editing copy and then editing Chapters 1 and 2 (which I finished this morning), so that’s ready to send to the in-person critique group.

wheeee colorful

I put chapter 3 up yesterday for the critique marathon and was pretty pleased with how I updated it, but so far people aren’t into it, so that’s a bit of a downer. Oh well. However, the way the marathon is set up, if enough people don’t think it’s ready, I’ll have to redo the chapter and repost it before I can move farther in the story.

So I may have to skip a week, because I’m not sure I can fix it (also depending what people think is wrong) before next Monday. But we shall have to see.

I signed up for some sort of structure challenge at AutoCrit but I haven’t even touched it because of critique central over here. Oh well! I’m sure it would be helpful but you can’t do everything all the time, and I am getting work done toward my main goals, so it is what it is.

Also, when I went to work on Chapter 4 I discovered I’d switched chapters 4 and 5 in my notes. I can see why I did that, and I think it will work nicely, so good job past!Kit on properly documenting things.

Anyway, I hope things are going well for you! I’m feeling pretty great, like I’m actually getting somewhere. Getting up early to work has been a bit rough (not going to bed early enough) but it is paying off in the productivity.

Fingers crossed that chapter 3 passes muster!

Month of Feedback

Hi-ho, squiders! I’d forgotten how much a different summer camp every week messes with my routines. Blah. I’d better sit down and figure out how I’m going to deal with that.

Anybody had any thoughts about the summer series this year? I warn you, if left to my own devices, who knows what we shall come up with. (I’ve made a list! Bwhahahahahaha)

Anyway, last week the summer critique marathon started over on one of my online writing groups. This is a great resource–several members have recently gotten agents–and I wish I was always in a place where I had a story to submit, though it does take a lot of my time to keep up with critiques for other people.

I’m going to run through Book 1, which means I need to stay about a chapter ahead on my revision so I have a chapter ready each week. Should be doable, fingers crossed. Best laid plans of mice and men, and all that jazz.

Last week I put Chapter 1 up and got some interesting feedback. Half the people have seen the story before and half haven’t, so it was interesting to see what new people said vs old people. In general, the feedback has been more positive than I normally get for this particular story, so I’m calling that a win!

If I budget my time right, I’d like to take the feedback from last week and this week and revamp before sending the first two chapters to the new in-person critique group I joined.

This is both an exciting and a terrifying idea. I so rarely have so many opportunities for feedback, and being able to tweak not once but twice this month is an enormous task. But since the beginning is a lot of the problem, it’s definitely something I should try and hit.

Anyway, wish me luck!

So Long, May

Holy crap, squiders. May was one disaster after another. (And it’s lingering–my grandmother is in the hospital and it could be really bad.)

But, on the other hand, I actually sold two short stories. Hooray! Vindication!

Now I only have three stories in rotation, though. Time to write some more, I guess. Will need to ponder when/how the best way to do that is. Look for anthology calls? Troll my inspiration list?

I’m actually thinking about maybe trying my hand at some mystery short stories. Publish under a penname, give myself some credentials for when I get my cozy mystery series ready to go.

Should at least do some fantasy ones. All the ones that are left are horror. Maybe scifi. Maybe do a little of everything.

The first part of my serial that I wrote in April goes live today (not yet, because the news about my grandmother has derailed the last few steps on that, but check Turtleduck Press later this evening or tomorrow morning once I get my act together. It’s called Across Worlds With You.) so that’s also fun.

And we’re in chapter 3 of the Book 1 rewrite. Cpt 3 is going pretty well. I think I’ll give Cpts 1/2 to my critique group this month and maybe also run it through the critique marathon, which starts next week. The critique marathon people have seen the beginning of this story a couple of times so they can at least tell me if it’s getting better or not. Hopefully.

So. June.

Summer is always interesting when the small, mobile ones are out of school. May try to get up early and work before they wake up, because it’s very hard to concentrate around them, even if they’re doing their own thing. Constant interruptions.

But the plan is to continue the rewrite (and deal with feedback as we get it), poke SkillShare (I was planning on reposting the classes in May but, you know, May), and generally see how things are going. Maybe if things are going well I’ll add in some short story poking too. Options, options.

Will also need to ponder our summer series for the year and get that going soon too. If you have thoughts (something specific, or reading vs writing related), let me know! If you’ve been here for a while you know I love to absorb random knowledge and regurgitate it whenever possible, so I’m open to pretty much whatever would be helpful.

Fingers crossed that the life front for June is better! (The writing/publishing front for May was quite nice, no complaints there except I could have used more writing time.) Requests for the Summer Series? Random thoughts?

See you next week!

OH! I forgot. Hidden Worlds is part of the Adventure of a Lifetime bundle at Prolific Works this month! Swing over there to get a copy for free!