Sending out submissions

I sent submissions for short stories and poetry this past week.  I need to attend more WUTA meetings and have my other short stories critiqued.  I also need to go back to Big Books and attend the month critiques for various novels.

I won't be able to that until January 2015.  I'd like to get back to WUTA next Tuesday evening at the Focal Point.  I have lots of material to read.  I finished a final edit of a novella.  I also got revision of Kepler Falling done.  I'll review it one more time before sending it out for a copy editor.

My next project is rewriting short stories and revising Redemption of Eden.  Those are some of my late summer/early fall writing goals....

Back to revising and editing Price of Command

Too much has happened lately.  However, I've gotten back into the revising/editing grind.  I'm currently working on Price of Command.  I had been working on Kepler Falling.  I want to have Price of Command submitted by October 2014.  That way, I can feel I've accomplished something.

Kepler Falling will be my next editing project after that.  Alas, I haven't been able to make WUTA meetings at all.  And it looks that way for the foreseeable future.

Regards and good writing....
Blake

What I call myself besides chronically unemployed....

I call myself a writer.  That's partly true.  However, I've been unemployed for nine years.  I used to work as an analytical chemist for a pharmaceutical company in Des Moines, IA.  After I became ill, I left that job.

But that company folded a year or two ago.  Now, I no longer have a verifiable work history.  The part-time jobs I've applied for have been courtesy clerks/baggers.  I've gotten nowhere with the two different grocery chains I've applied to in St. Louis, MO.

For kicks and grins, I reapplied to one of them electronically.  Several days later, I checked the status of the application.  It said, "No longer under consideration."  The company hadn't even filled the position.

So much for my bruised ego.  But that was to be expected given my outdated work history.  In this economy, if you're out of work for six months, no one wants to touch you.  I can't even imagine what an HR person would say for someone unemployed for ten years.

I've been dealing with my family's medical conditions too much to really work part-time.  I don't know from day to day or week to week what I'll be doing.  That would make it hard on a work schedule.  It's been even rough to find time to write with all the zaniness in my life currently.

I haven't tried looking for work in my old career since last year.  My scientific skills have atrophied.  I'm not current on the latest HPLC technology.  Most of the jobs I applied for are beneath my education or skill level.

Then again, in this economy, any job is a good job.  So I continue the charade of calling myself a writer and taking care of my parents...

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