Back to Basics

Happy New Year! I hope your winter break was productive, and that you got a lot of writing done.

My family and I spent most of this winter break recovering from being sick, and then I was laptop less for a week because my cat dumped a glass of water on it, which has forced me to (a) stop eating around where I work and (b) set up a real desk. I got a refurbished laptop last Friday, but I didn’t get my novelette Wolf Trek done. I hope to work on it this week after I get my regular work done.

Outside of all these blocks, I am continuing with writing basics: writing, researching, and revising my work. I want to publish my debut novel The Harvested, this summer, but I don’t want to be hasty. In fact, I’ve been awfully slow in finishing that project, over 20 some years. Recently, I read two novels other writers published prematurely. The writing would have been outstanding. Rushing can also be the enemy for writers who are running the self-publishing rat race.

Oh, then, another project “Nail Shop Warriors” also got rejected. The co-author, Hector Cruz, and I are revising it, especially the ending, and sending it to other anthologies. It was a lot of fun to work with him, but we need to spend more time smoothing out the story. It is a great piece, though.

This year, I am not setting New Year’s writing goals. Well, maybe one writing goal. I have a mother of a time with the omniscient point of view. I write in the limited point of view, and then, slip up. The annoying part is that I don’t see the POV errors in my work, but I do in the work of others.

Does that happen to you? Do you miss your writing sins and see them in others?

Whatever your New Years goals are, I hope you exceed them. Keep writing! Keep reading. Keep on.

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