She’s alive! ALIVE!

One week later…

It’s so good to scrape myself away from the most unproductive week I’ve had all year. I couldn’t even concentrate to read – boo! So rather than concentrating on what I didn’t do last week, I’m trying to focus on what I intend to do this week.

First off I want to finish the short story (Porcelain Dolls) that I started over a week ago and which has been languishing in fever-ville, and then I am going to start the second draft of ‘Theatre of Curious Acts’. Inspired by the first three productive weeks of November, I’ve printed out a calendar for next year and filled it in with a whole year’s worth of plans. No wonder my body had a nervous breakdown twenty-four hours after completing it. We have:

Redraft and finish Theatre by end January 2009; work on The Poisoned Apple/Strange Bones (big plans afoot – more about that later) during February and March; April 2009 is dedicated to my long put-off novella The Eurydice Satellite; May through July will be The Moth Maker (my ‘I can’t decide if it’s YA/MG project’ that I’ve started several times this year); then August thru October we have my next MG Timmy O’Leary & The Gentlemen who Haunt. Phew!*

*chances of success 41.2%

And that was January...

This should have been posted yesterday, but as I only thought of doing it today, it wasn't... Okay, this is my, what I achieved (or didn't achieve) last month post.

1. Completed 10,932 words of The Poisoned Apple - Catherine procrastinates way too much and must do better.

2. Submitted Lucy Baxter & The Evil Emporium to nine agents. Eight rejections received so far - The Gods must do better.

3. Completed a picture book (actually sent two out - but the first was written over the Christmas period) - sent to 5 publishers in all - 1 rejection - 4 submissions still out there.

4. Completed three short stories: -

The Shoes, The Giant and The Wizard of... Accepted by The Silly Fantasy Anthology - making me a member of the Silly Fantasy Club - hence picture top left.

If you go down to... This has amassed a grand total of two rejections (in the space of a month - I so love email submissions), and after a rewrite, submitted to 7th Dimension.

Frog & The Mail Order Bride. Submitted to Eneit Press' Voices Anthology. Won't hear back on this one until after May 1st.

5. Completed first draft of a short story - Little Frozen Timmy O'Leary - which I think may become something larger - ie my next Children's novel. I have a few ideas sketched out and a title (which I'm keeping under wraps for the moment), so we'll see...

6. And ended the month - 700+ words into another, as yet untitled, short story.

Must say, I'm glad I decided to post the above. I thought I hadn't achieved much - I entered January expecting to complete the redraft of The Poisoned Apple, but as you can see I got waylaid by other projects - but it seems I did.

Here's to a word-filled February.