Happy Monday, everyone! I nearly forgot it was Monday, despite having been looking forward to it, because I stayed up quite a bit past my bedtime to watch the Golden Globes after work, then allowed myself to sleep in a bit, and then realizing that this meant I had less time to try to get everything I needed to do before going back to work. And work is very work right now. My department is really small, there’s only four of us, and one of the two full timers of that four is out for about a month on medical leave, which means the other part timer and myself are temporarily full timers. It always bums me out a little that my writing time is being compromised, but I know it’s temporary, and the extra money certainly is a good consolation prize.
Work notwithstanding, I’ve had a pretty good first week in January, certainly an interesting one, setting the year off on a steady foot. Here’s what I mean:
Reading: I’m still trying to plow through the slush pile of unfinished books leftover from 2016, but I did crack open David McCullough’s 1776, which has been on my radar for a long, long time now. This means that, so far, the books I’ve started for 2017 have been nonfiction books, which I think is pretty sweet. I always feel I should read more nonfiction. Due to all the work stuff, I haven’t gotten as much reading in as I’d like, but I’m definitely getting in some.
Writing: So, I’m sure if you’ve been keeping up, you’ve heard me talk about the 100 Rejections a Year goal, and, let me tell you, if things keep up the way they have been, I’ll be pulling in 365 rejections this year. That’s right. As of yesterday, the eighth day of the year, I had already received eight rejections. That’s the equivalent of a rejection a day. In a way, it’s kind of impressive. A very big part of me really hopes the trend doesn’t keep up, but, if it did, I couldn’t even be mad because that’s just too incredible to be depressing.
On the upside of this, I may have received eight rejections, but I did get one acceptance in the meantime, and that little blip of a story can be found here on Fifty Word Stories. It was also chosen for their Story of the Week, which means it’s eligible to win Story of the Month, which would get me a little prize. So yay there!
I’ve been effectively starting and outlining a new story every week, but with my current time restrictions, I haven’t had much chance to finish anything, especially since I’m pouring most of what I have into getting Fearless finally finished. But I realized last night that what needs to happen is that I need to at least finish one story per week. I’ll have 365 stories started at the end of the year, and one story a week means at least 52 of them finished. Well, 51, because I thought of this last night and, though I tried, I didn’t have the brain capacity to get the story I set out to finish completed. It will be done by the end of this week, though, that I can promise.
So writing’s been going well, even if a little frustrating because I want more time to do it. And we’ve all heard that story before…
I’ve also updated the Submissions page for World Unknown Review Volume IV. Submissions are officially open for the 2017 edition, though, of course, we’ve got quite some time before the October 31st deadline. I’m also slowly updating the body of work presented in my Books and Short Stories page to include all the places you can find my short work, as well as the books published through Amazon.
‘Rithmatic: I want to start really focusing on cosplay for this year and making plans for C2E2. I’m trying to start small by finding a good pair of vegan-friendly work gloves for my character, but my searches so far have been futile. I might have to get a little more creative and spend a bit more time on it. Maybe this week I should just focus on the peasant top I’ll need, because that’ll likely be much easier.
The boyfriend and I have been talking about getting gym memberships, especially since we can’t really hike in the bitter Chicago winters. We could, but we’re not crazy. I’m trying to limit my caloric intake a little, too, because I’m back to the weight I was before I lost all the weight two years ago, and so I definitely need to rein all that stuff back in.
I made tofu wontons, both friend and in soup, for the first time the other day, and let me tell you, they were amazing. I think I have a new favorite staple.
And I think that’s about it. It’s been a solid, busy, interesting week so far; it’s hard to believe it’s only been one week. It feels like so much has happened, but, hey, if 2017 wants to take it’s time a little bit, I’m fine with that.
How about you? How was your first week of the year?
