Okay, maybe I'm just not a blogger...

...you would think that I was, being a writer and everything.  But it's been months since I posted anything and I noticed I hadn't added some books to my bibliography and ebooks page.  Almost everything is now updated and (hopefully) all the links work properly.

Anyway, is there anything in particular you'd like to see me blather about here?  I will try to do better on keeping everyone up to speed.  Any writing news I will try to report as soon as possible.  Any other news I will also try to post.

In the meantime, explore the site, let me know what you'd like to see!

Moving right along...

The past few months have seen an upheaval in my life which I am still climbing out of.  My beloved father-in-law died after a long illness in March, and a lot of things, including my writing, was thrown into disorder.

I am very grateful for the number of friends who encouraged me, emailed me, sent cards, or just said a quick prayer for me during these months.  It is good to know how many people care.

Things are getting better.  I am slowly getting things back in order.  I've been writing on a regular basis again, not very much but it all adds up.  I epublished a new short story this weekend - "In the Bag."  It's a fun crime story that I hope you enjoy.

As I strive to get things back to normal I hope to do more with this blog then have it be a placeholder for my writing.  I'm sorry for the sporadic updates, and don't even know if anyone is still reading.  But as things return to, as a friend put it, "a new normal," I'm going to try to make this blog a part of that.

Thanks for reading.  Talk to you soon!

Speaking to high school students and general update

This Monday I will be speaking at the Forest Hill Community High School in West Palm Beach.  The topic?  Writing, specifically writing a mystery.  I'm looking forared to it but just a little nervous.  It will be a lot of fun talking to the kids.  You can see some information about it here: http://library-alexandria.com/Media%20Events.htm

Meanwhile I'm still plugging away at my current project, DEATH ON THE AIR.  I'm also busy reading stuff assigned to me for an upcoming short story workshop. 

Last month my father-in-law died after a long illness.  My family is still adjusting but we're progressing along. 

Hope all is well with my readers and I will try to keep you updated in a more timely fashion.  :-)

Looking back at 2011

It looks like I listed two goals for 2011: 200,000 new words of fiction and 12 short stories.

I didn't make either goal.

My wordcount for 2011 is 181,390 words.  While I missed the 200,000 word mark this counts as my second best year since I've started keeping track in 2007.  I'm hoping to do better this year.

As for short stories, I only wrote seven, little more than half of my goal.  I struggled with this goal, and I am not happy with my output.  If you read my other post on goals, I'm hoping to write as many as 25 short stories this year.  Yes, I set the bar way higher.

Sometimes in 2011 I found it hard to be creative.  That impacted the writing, especially the short stories.  One thing I hope to accomplish this year is to find ways to reignite my creativity.

I did epublish ten short stories, a short story collection, and a novel.  I'm hoping to have a lot more published this year.  And, of course, I plan to send things to magazines and publishers this year.

2011 saw me missing the mark on my goals.  I'm hoping that 2012 will have a different outcome.

Goals for 2012

I've decided to post my goals for 2012 in writing.  I can't remember if I posted my 2011 goals.  If I did, I promise I'll update how I did with them.  Short answer: I think I fell short of any goals I set.

Anyway, here, in no particular order, are my 2012 goals:

1) 200,000 new words in fiction.
2) Epublish 25 short stories/story collections/novels
3) Write at least 25 short stories this year.
4) Begin to epublish my old columns.  I'm hoping to gather them into collections as well.
5) Finish up two novels I started in 2011 and write two more.

That's what I hope to accomplish in 2012.  Wish me luck!

Busy busy

I've been a busy little writer the past few weeks.  In October I attended two writing workshops aimed at improving my epublishing skills.  They were excellent and I learned quite a bit from them, as well as making some great new friends.

Then November rolled around and it was National Novel Writing Month.  I decided to give it a go this year, even though my life was somewhat hectic and I wasn't sure I could crank out the required 50,000 words.  I'm happy to report that not only did I manage to do so, I finished a day early!

This month I took a big step in epublishing - I put up my first novel.  DEAD HYPOCRITES is now live and can be purchased at Amazon.com, BN.com, and smashwords.com.  I hope to have the blurb and the links up before too long.

My goal for December is to hit 200,000 words for the year in writing.  I will have to push myself a little to make it - I have written very little this week, for example - but I am going to try.  It would be a nice finish to a crazy year that has seen many ups and downs for me.

And if I don't get a chance to post again before the end of the year, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

On Falling Down and Getting Up

This month I'm coming back from a real poor couple of months writingwise.  I didn't get a lot of new words written, and barely sent out anything to publishers.  While I did upload my first ever short story collection ("Decisions, Decisions") I didn't do much with epublishing either.

There were a lot of reasons for this, some of them personal.  The bottom line is, when it came to my writing career, the past couple of months were not good.  I blew it.  Period.  End of story.

The question at the end of August was: What do I do now?

I could, of course, have let the inertia I'd built up continue.  I could have quit writing altogether, decided the dream wasn't for me, and gone on to consider a career in video gaming.

I could have beaten myself up over the fact that I blew it this summer.  Told myself I wasn't going to cut it. 

I could have had a pity party about poor me and felt sorry for myself.

I did beat myself up some about not writing.  I'm a writer.  I should be writing.  And there was a short pity party to go along with it.

But mainly I decided to try to make September different.

This meant getting back to work.  So far, that has meant focusing on the writing, even though I know things need to be sent out and uploaded.  I plan to get back on track for those things as well, but the important thing for me at the beginning was getting back into the habit of daily producing new words of fiction.

I've slipped up 3 days this month so far.  But I'm working on getting my daily groove back.  It helps that I am working on a new project with a fellow writer that I am enjoying.

And I remember what Kristine Kathryn Rusch says, "It doesn't matter how many times you get knocked down, or how long you stay on the floor.  What matters is you get up again."

That's what I did.  I got to my feet, dusted myself off, and started walking the writer's road again. 

There's no guarantee I won't fall down again.  But when that happens, I plan on getting up - again.  It's the only way to keep doing what I love.

Maybe you're working on a dream, and you've fallen down on it.  Maybe you're lying on the floor like I was, wondering what to do now.  If you aren't, at some point you probably will.  And if you're like me, you'll do it more than once.

Get up.  Get back on track.  Don't give up.  Falling down isn't failure.  Staying down is.