Back At It (Writing)! Hello, 2021!

My featured image has books from people I met in Twitter. The writing community on Twitter has been one of my lifelines during the pandemic. I can’t express how thankful I am to everyone there.

The books above are:

Dragon’s Word WIP Update: 56,000/85,000

I’m at 56,000 words on my manuscript! I increased my goal to be 85,000, so I still have a long ways to go. Things are looking up, though!

I had editor Diane Callahan review my first 2,000 words. She offers a consultation of the first 2,000 words as well as line editing. She offered great insight to my book. She’s an amazing resource–both an avid reader and terrific writer. Check out her site and her YouTube channel for her amazing wisdom!

I had author Rin Chupeco (Bone Witch, The Never Tilting World) review my query letter and first 5 pages. They offered some great insight as well! This opportunity was provided by Kidlit for Luzon after donating money to those affected by the Ulysses typhoon in the Philippines back in November 2020. I donated to the Philippines Red Cross and hope that my donation made an impact somewhere.

NYC Midnight Micro Fiction Contest

I got the drama for genre, “drop” for word, and “rejecting an offer” for the action.

The feedback from the judges were great. Though, one feedback I didn’t quite agree with was when they commented on how I used the word “drop” to be too comedic. The comedic nature was actually my intention, but maybe I should have considered my audience and genre (drama). Overall, my story was a bit too generic and the judges felt they couldn’t connect with my character. And, honestly, I don’t quite blame them!

I met a few others on Twitter by tagging #NYCMicroFiction!

#vss365 Serial

I did a serial for #vss365. Thankfully, the host had some really useable words! 🙂 I hoped to inflect some character arc in the story.

You can read the serial here.

Wimmelbilder Tales

I’m hoping to launch Wimmelbilder Tales this year. It will be a web anthology. My inspiration comes from the hidden picture books. I’m aiming to have 10 short stories of mixed genres with 4 micro fictions in between. I was initially going to launch in August 2021, but life happens and I am pushing it to maybe November 2021. I’m behind on my schedule. So far, Tale One is nearly solid. Tale Two and Three need a lot more work.

You can read more about Wimmelbilder Tales here.

Short Story Submissions

I’m planning to submit to some markets such as Podcastle and DreamForge this year. I haven’t submitted much (anything?) last year and now I have some renewed energy. I’ll be spying on Diabolical Plot’s Submission Grinder often. I was reading an older story from a couple years ago and I am surprised by how good (not perfect nor great per se) it is! I need some little tweaks.

I’ve spoken to a friend about this, where I think I’ve improved in some areas (plot) but I might’ve lost some mojo in other areas (whimsy). I’m hoping to regain some of that whimsy back.

Final Fantasy XIV

My friends have convinced me to check out Final Fantasy XIV. I was intrigued to hear that a writer Natsuko Ishikawa had amazing storylines. I’m leveling at a glacial speed at the moment. I’m still in A Realm Reborn I’m looking forward to hitting these storylines!

Above is an image of my character Rowan (which, btw, is my current favorite name and the name of my main character in Wimmelbilder Tales: Tale One). I love the heterochromatic eyes!

Reads

I’m currently reading A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas and wow, it’s been amazing to say the least. Maas is just one of my favorite authors ever. I cried in Chapter 50 because that resonated so much with me.

I caved and bought an Amazon Kindle. I noticed there are many writers on Twitter who only have their books available on Kindle, so this is my effort to be able to cover all bases. I’ve also been buying waaaay (and I mean, waaaaaaaaay) too many physical books, so this will help curb that!