BETA Short Stories

I spent the past two weeks revising several short stories for submission.  One story is complete and ready to go.  The other could stand more critiquing being I submit it.  I have several more short stories for the WUTA critique group.

But life has gotten in the way of me getting to the meetings on Tuesday evenings.  I'll make it next week (finally).  But I'm bringing poetry for a change.  The two short stories will be read over the next two months.  I'll start rewriting them as soon as I get feedback from WUTA.

Mad Dash for ebook purchases....

I've made the mistake of adding on to my reading lists.  I purchase about 6 books this weekend.  Several were pre-orders.  I spent yesterday reading a manuscript for WUTA Big Books.  I got done with the 141 pages and then wrote a brief summary of what I'd read.

But life has gotten in the way of my writing.  One of my parent's wrecked their cars.  I'm now involved with car shopping for them.  I wasn't able to make the session for my books.  Not that it'll matter.  I now have too many things on my plate...

1)  Revising poetry.  I've redone my older works and written newer pieces.  I'm waiting to submit them when the small academic press start taking submissions again in the late summer/fall.

2)  Short Stories.  I have about nine short stories.  Five that are part of the Kepler Cycle.  Two that are Desmon Singh shorts, and two that are stand-alone pieces.  I'm in the process of revising "The Scorpio Affair."  This work has seem major editing.  It'll need more work before I could in good conscience submit it.   "The Scorpio Affair" and the four other shorts will be part of a larger collection of Kepler Cycle stories when I get done with them.  I still need to revise "Polar Landfall," too.

3)  Kepler Falling.  Once I get all the short stories revised and ready for submissions, I'll then go back to Kepler Falling.  This story needs a lot of work.  More than I really dedicate to it, right now.  The poetry and short stories will keep me busy enough for the rest of 2014.

4)  Redemption of Eden.  That is my Big Books submission for 2015.

5)  Idea for another historical fiction/fantasy novel involving the Mongols.  To be developed more fully once i have revised the two Kepler cycle novels and have them ready for submission,

Revising my poetry

I'd originally got my poetry published in the late 1990s.  I spent yesterday and today reorganizing my poetry for submissions.  I refile and reprinted my older poems.  I then put them into file folders by date.  I found out organizing the individual poems by date is the easiest way to deal with them.

I have lots of poetry.  I weeded out the ones I thought were too weak.  I also organized files for poems being submitted for publication and poems that have been published.

My poetry has been my best work.  Alas, poetry pays in copies.  The press I used to submit, The Sunday Suitor Poetry Review, no longer exists.  I spent last night combing through Poet's Market 2012 looking for new places to submit poetry.  I'd look them up and then go to their website for submission guidelines.

Some of the addresses for websites didn't work.  One of the problems I found is that most academic presses only take submissions from September 1st to May 15th.  I'll have to wait to submit until the fall for several presses.  Fortunately, I have more poetry than I thought available for submission.  But part of the problem is that presses on want material that hasn't been submitted to other publishers.  In other words, they won't take simultaneous submissions.  Alas, small presses usually take months to respond.  Some case it could be as long as 18 months.

So I'm starting out small with my submissions.  I hope to hear back from the first place I submit to by August.  That way, I can reuse any poems that are rejected for submissions to other presses.  Speaking of rejections, I used to keep track of the places that rejected me.  The last time I submitted poetry was winter 2008.  So it's about time I submitted something...

Regards and good writing,
Blake

BETA Versions of my novels

As part of a larger effort to get my work published, I revised Kepler Falling to 54,000 words.  The second part of the Kepler cycle, Redemption of Eden, is now 54,000 words.  Each novel could be published individually or collectively as one work (about 108,000 words).

I now in the process of editing Redemption of Eden.  I think it should take about a month.  I'm also working on another Desmon Singh story.  I don't know if this one will be a novella or just a short story.

Now, I'll be waiting for feedback on Kepler Falling.  Though I've been busy with other things.  I'm supposed to take Finding an Agent seminar at St. Louis Community College later next week.  I put together summaries for Price of Command, Kepler Falling, and Redemption of Eden.  I'm also thinking about taking several short writing courses through STLCC Continuing Ed this summer.  One course is called "Reading Like a Writer."  The other is a "Writer's Workshop - Editing and Revising."

Those two courses looking interesting.  But I also have a backlog of reading to do.  I'm in the process of reading The Faded Sun Trilogy by C.J. Cherryh.  I'm about halfway through the novel.  I don't know when I'll get done with it.  I have a backlog of 10 other books to read.  I haven't managed my time as well I as should.  That's something I want to dedicate more time to do...

Until then, good writing,
Blake

Rough draft of Redemption of Eden completed.

My rough draft for the novella, Redemption of Eden, is complete.  I finished it this morning.  I'm disappointed it's only a novella, instead of a novel.  But I can start revising it tomorrow morning.  I just want to veg out this evening and do nothing.  I spent 8.5 hours writing and editing yesterday.  That's enough to fry my brain for one evening...

Regards and good writing,
Blake

First Revision of Kepler Falling completed

I spent the past several weeks revising my first novel.  I went through it and did the first revisions since I completed it.  I also put together a new character and chapter outline for a sequel.  I spent this week writing the first two chapters of the new novel.

I also revised my second short story for WUTA's peer review sessions next month.  That's it for now.
Regards and good writing,
Blake

Completed rough draft of Straits of Magellan/Kepler Falling

I wrote about 50 pages of the space of two days and completed the rough draft of Straits of Magellan.  It was only 200 pages/32,000 words.  Instead of writing anymore, I merged it onto my existing novel, Kepler Falling.  That work is now 86,900 words/558 pages long.

I'm in the process of making all my character names end in their proper surname.  I'm also correcting misspellings as I go.  I'm about 200 pages/20 chapters into the novel.  There are 82 chapters total.  I'd like to revise/edit the rest of Kepler Falling by the beginning of March 2014.  Once that's complete, I can then submit Kepler Falling to WUTA Bigbooks Group for a critique and review.

I don't plan writing a second novel.  Kepler Falling is a stand alone work.  I want to rewrite "Matter of Honor" this spring once I get back all the Kepler Falling critiques.  I'll wait three months before I go through them one by one.

There are things I had to do with Kepler Falling.  I had to make all the character references ended in surnames.  I also had to change POV from first person to third person in the last part of the novel.  There are other things I need to do.  But I'll work on that when I get around to reediting Kepler Falling this summer.

I want to get "Matter of Honor" rewritten into a short story/novella format.  I also have another idea for a one off short story using the evil empire of Texarkana motif.  That I can explore later on when I get feedback on my current cycle of Martian future history short stories at WUTA this year....

Regards and good writing,
Blake