Writing Newsletter Third Quarter 2024

 

This quarter I continued writing a story each month on my website, publishing, “Sink to Their Level,” “Hot Enough for Ya?” and “Other Means.” I also reposted “Choices,” “Same Old Line,” and “Flaunt It” on my Ko-fi profile.  I also reposted the story “Hot Heads” on one of my blogs.

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If I counted correctly, this quarter I posted seven microfiction stories, which can be found on my Untitled Works Page.  I also, if I counted correctly, posted 17 haikus.  The links to them can be found on my Haiku Page.

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I think the only other writing news from this quarter was a decision I made about my writing plans for next year.  I’ll write up a blog post about that around the end of December, which will explain everything, so you’ll just have to wait until then.

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Image from Pixabay.

Writing Newsletter Second Quarter 2024

 

In my last newsletter, I wrote that I had submitted a story for the first time in years, and I was waiting to hear back.  Well, I did hear back, and while they didn’t accept my story, they did say it was close and they hoped I’d consider them for another story.  Now I just have to write another story.

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This quarter I continued writing a story each month on my website, publishing, “When You Put it Like That,” “Let That Be a Lesson,” and “Die Trying.”  I also reposted, or posted, “Let it Rain,” “All the Money in the World,” and “A Whale of a Tale” on my Ko-fi profile.  I also reposted “I Just Write Stories” and “Ben’s Time Carriage” on two of my blogs.

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Two projects I’m slowly working on have me posting more microfictions and haikus.  In previous newsletters, I just had a link to each.  But that was somewhat tedious.  (If I counted correctly, I’ve published 18 microfictions and 16 haikus this quarter.)  I had made a page just for my microfiction, where I have the story with links to where it was published.  My haikus had been part of my poem page, but since I’ve been publishing so many of them, I decided to just make a new page for them. 

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I don’t really have any other writing news.  I’ve been busy getting our garden ready, and now I’m trying to keep the weeds from taking over.  So I haven’t had much time to write.  Will I get more time next quarter?  We’ll just have to see.

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Image from Pixabay.

The Uncapped Pen, at last!

 

Over a decade ago, I had the idea of putting together a collection of stories dealing with writing: authors arguing with their muse, or struggling with having too many ideas, or too few, or whatever.  But for reasons, I set it aside, until a few years ago when I figured I’d finish it.  Well, it took longer than expected, and just as I was about to put the final polish on, there was a writer’s strike.  While I’m not a member of the Writers Guild of America, it felt wrong to publish a book about writing during their strike.  But since the strike is over, I’ve now published The Uncapped Pen.  You can find it on Kindle for $3.99, or equivalent.

Writing Newsletter First Quarter 2022

 

To start 2022 off, I reposted the stories “No Shame” and “The Gift of Vomit.”

I published the story “Scratch Left” on my Mastodon page, as well as a poem on Instagram.

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The only big writing “news” I had this quarter is that I submitted my story “Being First.” That shouldn’t be big news, but it was the first story I’ve submitted in two years.  There are six sites I can submit it to, and just the other day I sent it to the third one.  If none of them take it, I’ll dig around to find some other sites to send it to, but if nothing else I could self-publish it with a couple other stories.  We’ll see.

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Image from Pixabay.

Writing Newsletter Fourth Quarter 2021

 

In the past three months I’ve republished 3 of my stories.  They are: “Rest in Peace,” “In the Victor’s Footsteps,” and “Memories.”

I also published the short story “A Christmas Miracle?”

Things are a bit less hectic, and I have managed to do some more writing.  Not as much as I want, but more is better.

I think the only news item is that yesterday I posted my writing goals for 2022.

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Image from Pixabay.

Writing Newsletter Fourth Quarter 2020

Way back in 2006, I began making a quarterly newsletter for my writing news.  At first, I emailed it to my friends, but part way through the year I switched over to putting monthly updates on my website.  It was a way to let people know what – if anything – of mine had been published, random updates, and I usually added a short story or haiku or something.  I continued for several years (I moved the posts to an old blog), but in mid-2013 I stopped.  And I don’t remember why.  My guess is that things were hectic at the time and I felt bogged down, and I took a break and just never got back to it.  Until now.   

I had been thinking of doing a year end wrap up blog, but it was rather depressing thinking of how little I did this year.  The only big thing happened in October, and after thinking for a bit I came back to the idea of a quarterly newsletter.  It will cover any writing news I have, or feel like sharing, and maybe a story or haiku or something.  I’m going to try to keep this version simple, so there’s less chance I’ll feel bogged down.

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In October, I self-published Useless Cogs.

It is a collection of forty, science fiction stories.  The stories range from only a few dozen words to a few thousand and are filled with time travelers, AIs, clones, aliens, even sexbots, although not often as you would imagine.  As examples, there’s a time traveler that’s always a step behind, an AI that’s late on rent, and a sexbot with bad software.  Some of the stories are humorous, some horrifying, and some … depend on your point of view. 

It can be found on Amazon for $1.99.

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In the last three months, I’ve also republished my short stories “For the People?” and “The Horror.” Over the years several of the sites my stories have been on have gone under, or the stories are still online, just on an old blog that nobody follows.  So I’ll occasionally repost them to keep them alive.

I also published a new “Christmas” story, “Too Good to be True.”

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I didn’t get around to writing a story for this quarter.  Maybe next year.

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Image from Pixabay.

Useless Cogs

I have just published my eighth short story collection.  “Useless Cogs” contains forty, science fiction stories that range from only a few dozen words to a few thousand and are filled with time travelers, AIs, clones, aliens, even sexbots, although not often as you would imagine.  As examples, there’s a time traveler that’s always a step behind, an AI that’s late on rent, and a sexbot with bad software.  Some of the stories are humorous, some horrifying, and some … depend on your point of view.  You can get it on Kindle for only $1.99, or the equivalent.

My ebook goals for the next year

In May of 2017, I put up a post about My ebook goals for the next year.  The idea was to let people know what I was working on, and to be a reminder for me to actually get to work on them.  So I wouldn’t forget about them, I put a link to it on my webpage.

My hope was to get three ebooks out in a year.  But thanks to life be complicated, I didn’t get any done.  I recently put out the first on my list, “Seventh Story Stockpile,” but it was about … seven months later than I had planned. 

The second ebook on last year’s list is “Travels Beyond Imagination,” and I have a hard deadline for that.  It contains stories set on the moon, and next July will be the fiftieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, which is kind of an ideal point to have such an ebook out.  My plan is to have a rough draft of it done by the end of this year.  The main reason is that if I don’t have it by then, then I’ll really have to get my ass in gear to finish it in time.

The last ebook from my list last year was Book I of my Pathfinder Saga, “Scars of the Blood Fire Valley.” I’m putting that on hold, for a bit.  I have a rough draft of it done, but it needs a lot of revising.  Especially since the original version was a standalone fantasy story which I didn’t decide to make a part of a series until I was pretty much done with it.  So there’s a lot that I need to rejigger.  I’m about a third of the way through Book II, “What is Found in the Wilderness,” and my current plan is that once I have them both done, I’ll put out “Scars” and then a month later put out “Wilderness.” Hopefully, there will be some excitement to get me working on Book III, “First Steps.”

The only new ebook I’m adding to this year’s list is a so far untitled collection of scifi stories.  I have a few stories I’ve submitted to a couple of places, but none have taken them.  I also have a bunch of stories I’ve self-published that have been pretty well lost on the internet.  It’s probably something I could whip together in a month or so, but I’m going to leave it on a back burner to focus on “Travels.” So depending on how quickly I get “Travels” done, we’ll see when I get around to this project. 

Stay tuned to see how I do.

My new story collection is out!

I’ve finally published my “Seventh Story Stockpile!” The reason I seem so excited is that I’ve been meaning to have this out for … about a year.  My plan had been to have it out last summer, but I ran into a few issues.  For example, some stories I had planned to include I couldn’t figure out how to end and had to replace.  But the main problem was trying to handle forty different projects, trying to help my parents around the farm, trying to have some me time, and working a practically full-time job that I didn’t want but needed the money.  I’d work on SSS for a bit, than set it aside to watch a movie or go to work, and the next thing I’d know it would be two months later.  I’d work on it some more, and then go to bed and the next thing I’d know it would two months later.

But now it’s finally here.  I know I should be trying to wow you on the stories you’ll find inside, but now I’m still a bit shocked that I finally forced myself to get it out.  I want to take a break, maybe catch up on my reading and some movies, but my next big project – another story collection titled “Travels Beyond Imagination” – is standing behind me annoyingly clearing its throat.