September roundup

Rue is two now, and more settled.
He will allow me to write until about 11am before he says it's my turn now!

 So, here we are at the end of September. Where has the summer gone? The only thing about the months towards the end of the year is that I get writing more. With the rain we have been having, there is no excuse not to go back to those projects that have been left while I've been doing other things.

Several things have happened to make me re-think my writing life. The death of my cousin and the fact that I will be seventy next year have really brought a new focus to my work. If I don't get on with things soon, it might be too late. This has coincided with an 'up' mood and the desire to pull things together.

I currently have four projects on the go. That sounds a lot, but they are all at different stages and most have been lingering while I put off doing anything with them, due to my own lack of confidence. That negative voice always outweighs the positive one. Why is that? One can get lots of wonderful feedback, but that one piece of negativity still eats away inside ones head.

So what am I doing? Well, most of you will know that my Christmas novella is out on submission. Still no takers, but I will review this again next year and find a new direction to take it. I have sent the first 3,000 of my YA novella to Mslexia's competition, and just in case I get asked for the full manuscript, I am currently editing the rest of the manuscript. If it doesn't get asked for, it will not be wasted. My collection of flash fiction (some published and some new stories) is away being proofread, and in November I will be working with an editor on another novella. The last project was a spur of the moment decision and I am excited and terrified at the same time.

Talking about editors, I read this very interesting article on Substack, which really made me think. Do have a read. And speaking of Substack, I took a Zoom workshop recently to learn all about it and whether it would be worth my while using it. I found the workshop really interesting and took copious notes, but there was a download later, so I was able to keep the Powerpoint presentation. There was also a good article in Mslexia about Substack which I have kept. I interact with a couple of writers on there already, so have an account. Perhaps this would work for me, but I need time to learn all about it and how to approach it. Watch this space. Do comment if you use Substack or are considering it.

And while on the subject of the business side of writing, I have signed up for a couple more Zoom workshops in October. These Zoom classes are run by Jane Friedman, or through her website. I learned about formatting Word for Amazon KDP through her website. The classes are very professional and some you have to pay for. All I would say is they are worth it. I don't part with my money easily!

On the submission front, I have had a few rejections, and there is not much out there on submission now, but I did manage to submit two flash/short stories this month.

That's it for now. See you next month. Do leave a comment or question on anything I've spoken about here. It's lovely to hear from people.