I have two new publications to point people to!!
My story, Moronar's Chosen, is appearing now in Flashing Swords Summer Special Edition!
and
My story, The Tomb of Setankan, is appearing now in Hadley Rille Books' Ruins Metropolis!
OK - I've made up my mind... I'm going to work on *all* my projects until one of them grabs me, shakes me, and won't let me go... So here's the tally and goals for the next several months....
To begin after the baby gets here of course:
Monday: Sparrow (Project w/Sparrow - novella length)
Tuesday: Vessel (project formerly called Will of Three - revolving around Indima)
Wednesday: Switch (project w/spider - probably novel/novella length)
Thursday: Ghost Men (project w/Defmal and the underground peoples of Asher)
Friday: Poetry & Shorts
Throughout the week: 3-4 crits for my various groups...
Saturday/Sunday are my leeway days - days when Hubby is home I will get next to nothing done so - I need to have days to make up for that... Looks like a doable schedule though in all likelyhood - I'll get hooked by something soon and the schedule will change for a while....
~S
I am obsessed with sending out my work... almost to the point of distraction. It's not just the work I obsess over - its the markets themselves. At the beginning of the year, I sat down and made a list of fiftythree markets I wanted to get into this year with the goal of actually finding myself in 5 of them. Well - it's now July and 4 of those markets are now dead markets, several are closed to submissions, and I have a new list of the frustrating markets that *I* love that do not love me back. The worst part is - these are my favorite mags and zines to read - I'm sure others out there feel the same way about them too. Actually, that's not the worst part - the worst part is that I *know* my work is going to get rejected before I send it out and the moment it's in the mail, in the ether - I'm checking for the next market. Someday the strangest thing will happen and one of these markets will send me an acceptance and I won't know what the hell to do ;)
~S
Allright.. so I made most of my goals... didn't get new poetry written but - got a good number revised and polished - not to mention a few that are about 700 times better than what they were only a week ago. I'm quite proud of myself actually...
Accomplished:
Poetry: 6 poems revised (Dambala, Charons Blade, Crimson Stains, Born Anew, For What Follows, Gardeners Flower, )
Short Prose: Beautiful Friendship - rewritten & polished. Sent Out , Sly SAHM - rewritten & Polished. Sent Out, Blur of Tiers (possible renaming...) - Rewritten. Out for Crits, One Nation (possibly renaming...) - in process, Puppets Wish - In process (NEW) , Moronars Chosen - Rewritten due to suggestion from rejecting editor, repolished... Sent Out
Strange Angels: Chapter 16 - rewritten & finished, Chapter 17 - rewritten & finished, Chapter 18 - rewriting
That is pretty good for only a week...
~S
Had a conversation last night and during the course of it, I discovered just how unorganized and unmotivated I have become with my writing so - I am going to change that. I should be doing better - getting better results by now. I should be polishing more work than I am... So, time to start keeping myself honest - which means that I'll be posting a better progress report that includes more than just submissions sent, rejections and acceptances... Maybe if I refocus - I'll start getting more in the acceptance category... On the downside, I can only do this with prose. Were I to attempt this with my poetry - it would take longer to make my lists than it would to polish a few of them.
Prose Published:
More Than Just A Card -600 -Published -To be Reprinted -Nonfiction
To my Other Mother -654 -Scheduled to be published -Nonfiction
Thanksgiving Day -391 -Published -Fiction
Fated -3070 -Published Fiction - Strange Angels
Blood on the Sands -5600 -Scheduled to be published Fiction - Strange Angels
Left Behind -738- Published -Fiction
My Redemption -1446- Published- Reprinted- Fiction
Prose In the Submission Process:
Cracking Facade 1300 In Submission Process Fiction
Hunter's Bride 295 In Submission Process Fiction
Ripper's Watch 748 In Submission Process Fiction
Switch 5300 In Submission Process Fiction
Summit 5300 In Submission Process Fiction - Strange Angels
Moronar's Vessel 3100 In Submission Process Fiction - Strange Angels
Bachelor's Downfall 286 In Submission Process Fiction
Fraudulent Princess 1550 In Submission Process Fiction
Blessed Denial 1500 In Submission Process Fiction
Eljahad's Daughters 3400 In Submission Process Fiction
Moronar's Chosen 5020 In Submission Process Fiction - Strange Angels
Four Hearts 1778 In submission Process Fiction
Damsel's Demise 1097 Ready to Go Fiction
Prose in Focus
Beautiful Friendship 560 Nonfiction Polishing
Breaking Tradition 988 Nonfiction Polishing
First Step 1700 Nonfiction Polishing
Housework on the Sly 240 Nonfiction/Humor Polishing
Forever Home 440 Nonfiction Rewriting
Insignificant 1230 Fiction Rewriting
Date Night 965 Fiction Rewriting
Jellyfish Justice 1200 Fiction Rewriting
Lost In Storage 1300 Fiction Rewriting
scared snow Angels 1200 Fiction Rewriting
blur of Teirs 4000 Fiction - SA Rewriting
One Nation 462 Fiction - SA First Writing
Sparrow Clause 4851 Fiction Rewriting
The Darkness 446 Fiction First Writing
Wastelanders 3142 Fiction Rewriting
OK. The list is longer than I thought it was... but - I've got a lot of work to do.
~S
The question was posed, I was tagged, whatever so, I am answering it....
I write because I must.
I have had stories circling through my head since I was a very small girl - always on to the next adventure in my head. As a girl, I read books - an uncountable number - and I knew that's what I wanted to do - I wanted to make other people see what was in my head. Besides - if Louisa May Alcott, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and about 17,000 other women writers could do it - and succeed at it - so could I. Even if I never put them on paper - my stories entertain me - as I drift off to sleep, I daydream my characters, my plots and twists.
I write because it's the only thing I am good at.
I've tried to be other things with no real success. So, I stick with what I know I can do.
I write because, if I didn't, everyone who ever told me I'd never make it as a writer would win. I can't allow that at all. I'm too competitive to allow that. I'm too stubborn to allow that. I spent half my life being told I was nothing and believing it and damned if I'll ever allow that again. So - they cannot win and I won't let them and, so long as I am trying, they are losing.
I write because it's the only thing I've ever wanted to do.
I could spend hours at the computer without pause. I could slip off into my own worlds and only come up to breath to eat - if not for my kids and husband who keep me grounded in real life beyond my own creations. It is the only thing that is not tedious. I enjoy it. I love it. It is me. It is in my blood, my soul, my heart. I write because I am Sarah Wagner. If I did not write, I would be someone else.
~S
go through this every year - evaluating the past year and setting my new writing goals. This year I hope to be even more ambitious than last year.
1. send a minimum of 100 submissions out for the year
2. Attain a 15% acceptance rate
3. Have SA prepped and ready for the shopping process by June 06
4. write roughly 15 new Angels' worlds shorts
5. Begin the revised version of Evolution of a Shadow
6. Find a home for The Imaginary Me (my poetry collection)
7. Get published in 5 of my top 50 markets.
8. Win one writers competition.
Overall, numbers wise it's not so ambitious but in the grand scheme - very ambitious...
~S
The November Imaginary Word is up and running and full of all the best places to read prose and poetry this month.
~Sarah
This year has been full of the closings of great markets - markets I loved and wanted in damn it! First would that it were, then Lenox, now SCI FICTION.
This just plain sucks.
~S
Well - I'm happy I hit 20K and super glad I started over - this story is unfolding well and I'm loving the process - as jumpy and scattered though my way may be. Now - only 30K to go... hopefully, I can get some real work done over the weekend and then next week. If I can hit 40k by next friday, that would be ideal - more would be even better of course but - I'll go where the muse takes me, like I always do.
~S
So - I'm either a blind fool or a driven woman... I'm hoping for the later. I've put Hajin-mate (the nanonovel I've started) on hold for another time and I'm going to write a different book. Fortunately, this one has my attention already - my devotion in its grip. I do not think that the four days will be any handycap whatsoever... I'll get into it's explanations another day... I've got to go write it now.
~S
Not quite finished with the day but, the current word count stands at 7036. I wanted to be over 8k by the end of today... there's still time I suppose and I'm going to give it a go but, overall, 7k isn't so bad. I'm not hating the story as much as I was... it's not up to my personal standards but it does have the potential to be - when I stop the writing and move on to the rewriting and editing.
~S
OK - not quite the end of the day but, I'm at 2803 words. That's not too bad a start. If I can keep the pacing 50,000 will get here well before the deadline.
~S
Nano begins today... so far, I've tallied a measly 169 words... that will change before the end of the day - but, I have begun.
~S
1997 - "Hope" and "My Singular Vice" two poems in the Spring 1997 issue of The Threshold.
1998 - "My Redemption" a short story in the Spring 1998 issue of The Threshold.
2004 - "A Night Out" a poem in Scorched Earth Publishing.
"Prelude to Morning," "Impatient," "Self Imprisonment," three poems in Penwomanship.
"Smoke Dragons" a poem in the October 2004 issue of Twilight Times.
"Thanksgiving Day" a short story, winner of the Thanksgiving 2004 contest at Dabbling Mum.
2005 - "More than Just A Card" nonfiction in the Front Porch in January 2005.
"Native Winter" a poem in the January 2005 issue of Twilight Times.
"Vow" a poem that placed second in Wild Child Publishing's "All For Love" contest in February 2005.
"Blind" a poem that placed second in DeSilva's News Valentines Day contest in 2005
"Reclaimed" a poem in the April 2005 issue of Twilight Times.
"Fated" a short story in the June 2005 issue of Lyrica.
A Letter to my Mother, nonfiction letter in Celebrations: Love Notes to Mothers - released 2005
"The IW Marks the Spot" nonfiction in Better Fiction Magazine July 2005
"In Dreams" a poem in Panic in August 2005
Coming Soon:
"Temptress" a poem to appear in Fantastic Stories of the Imagination
"Blood on the Sands" a short story to appear in ShadowSword.
It seems I'm just stuck in a rut... there are all sorts of interesting things running through my head but I can't seem to find the motivation to put them on paper or disc. I'm not usually like this and it is a little bothersome. I wish I knew how to break this barrier. I've toyed with some of the same ideas for weeks, playing with them, shaping them, expanding on them in my head and yet, nothing that doesn't pertain to the novel I am beginning on Nov. 1st, for Nanowrimo, has made it to paper. Rather agrivating as some of the ideas, I'm rather fond of. Every time I pick up my pen - the urge drains out of me. Every time I sit at my keyboard - there seems to be something else that needs my attention first. This blogging thing is a bit different - it's like any one of my journals except for the fact that this one is a public one. It should be easier to do this... Maybe tomorrow things will look different.
~S
Just a note to let anyone who happens by know that the latest edition of the Imaginary Word is up and running.
~S
When I first started writing with the goal of publication, I had more confidence than I probably should have. At the time, I was in high school and I had a friend who told me that everything I wrote was brilliant. A yes-girl is really no help at all to improve one's work but, my how nice it was to hear. It was because of her that I sent my first submission out to a real publication, meaning - one not focused on publishing highschool kids. I have to hope I recieved that acceptance on my own merits though. In the long run, it's because of her support then, when everyone else was telling me I would never get anywhere, that I am still plugging along. Not getting very far, but still trying.
In down cycles, I keep trying to tell myself that she would love whatever my current project is, but it's not really the same. Those are the days when I miss having a yes-girl, being patted on the head and told that I am wonderful. It doesn't help my work at all but it's a hell of a boost to the ego. I lost touch with her during a very rough patch in my life and by the time I came around again, she was long gone and, I don't blame her a bit. If she ever comes across this, and I hope that someday she does, she'll know who she is.
Enough of that I suppose - just my current train of thought getting the better of me.
~S