Monthly Roundup: May 2015

Rough month again reading-wise. Maybe I should just start adjusting my expectations? What with being an adult and all, with a job, classes, a house and now family (albeit small family, but still) to care for. Maybe I'll just mentally lower my goal to 60 books per year, averaging 5 books a month, which may be more doable. So in light of that... met my May goal! Hooray!

Forgot to mention in the April roundup that I had a small flash piece published at Flash Fiction Magazine. Unfortunately the copy-paste in the email submission stripped my formatting, and it ended up that way on the site too. Oops! I guess this whole submission process is something I'm learning more about as I go along. I wasn't even that hopeful about the piece to begin with, but the kind folks at FlashFic enjoyed it enough it seems, so thank you guys! I really appreciate the opportunity. The curious can find my piece The Dead Are So Pushy at the link.

I have another piece out for submission at the moment that I'm waiting to hear back on, but naturally, a day after I submitted it I end up with some ideas on how to fix what I now see as lingering problems. Figures. It's too late to call it back, so I'm waiting to see what happens: if it comes back, I certainly won't be heartbroken, as it'll give me an opportunity to fix the parts I'm thinking about.

Coming up in June: Nada. Zero. Zilch. June is going to be my month for buckling down and working on some shit. The piece I took to Writers in Paradise is still shelved and needs rampant edits and I've been putting it off, intimidated by the fat stack of edits from my cohort. I'm trying a post-it plotting method on my bedroom wall that I want to keep plugging away at, and I have another short story that needs some finessing. Additionally, I'm working through Burroway's Writing Fiction, and trying to do at least some of the writing exercises therein. Some of which have already helped me move a few pieces that I've been stuck on.

Unfortunately all that ambition has to be balanced with my other love: yardwork. Well, not the yardwork itself, only weirdos love mowing the lawn or raking. But I've got a yard and a vegetable garden for the first time and that takes time, yo. So while I don't have classes for the summer, yard and house maintenance calls a not-so-sweet siren song.

It'll all work out.

Here's some handsome motherfuckers who got married this month.