Alive complete

I completed a rewrite of my third book, Alive. It is a werewolf story that takes place on a fictional medieval island, where a young black man is recruited into an order by a woman who wants to create a black supremacist society.

The third book was the second project that I ever received a manuscript request for. The agent rejected the manuscript pretty quickly saying the pacing “did not quite work” for her. That motivated me to join a critique group, where the teacher was able to help flesh out that critique. I have since done a rewrite of my first, fifth and third book. The fifth is the one I’m shopping around the most, so I hope I can get an agent for it this year.

Alive is a two-part series, so I may start on a rewrite of the second part later this year, or do a edit/rewrite of my sixth book, “Memory Catcher” (which was spawned from a short story I wrote).

Alive Update

I’m 49,000 words into Alive now. I’ve been able to stick to 1000 words daily most of the days since I set that goal. Even though I have fallen off some days I still have got more writing done than if I was aiming for 500 words, which was the goal. I’m still on track for a draft by year-end. Afterwards, I may start with another project that’s been on my mind for a little bit. Maybe I’ll tackle the new idea as a short story first.

New writing goal

On Friday I committed to writing 1000 words of Alive per day, instead of my usual 500. I also committed to writing the 1000 even on weekends (I typically do 500 on weekdays).

While 500 still gets me through a book a year, I have been held up with writing projects with Trad and am now working on another short story for them. I realized my completion date would get pushed back from year-end to closer to March if I stuck with 500.

I stuck with the goal over the weekend and have 3000 more words to show for it. I am now at 43000 words. With my new goal I should be completed by mid-December.

 

Writing updates

I’ve been working as a “mentor” for a creator camp, where “mentees” submit their short stories for review with Trad. The polished short stories will be posted on Trad’s website and I’ll share the ones from my mentees when they are posted (likely in October). I haven’t been writing as much but between the camp and working full-time, plus getting back to the gym, I’ve been feeling a bit tired come end of day.

However, I wrote another 1,500 words of Alive have come together since my last blog post. My pace is slower than intended, but that is the purpose of setting a goal. Even if I fall a bit short, I can still make progress.

Alive Rewrite

19000 words into the “Alive” rewrite now. I was out of the country recently, and had limited computer access. Now that I’m back I still want to reach the goal of having another draft by year-end. Back to 500 words a day instead of just a page, and I’m liking where this new draft is going. I’m already getting some ideas that make it better than the previous one.

In the meantime, I am also hoping that “Hazard” gets an agent. It has been a long journey to try to get one and we will see if that happens by 2022.

The Beacons Are Lit

Props to anyone who gets the film reference in the title.

My girlfriend recently helped me set up a beacon page. All of my publications and social media links are now in one place, basically giving me a proper portfolio. Anyone who wants links to my socials or other works can now access that page, which I will update as necessary. The most recent works are at the top. “Pet Stalker” is currently in the top spot but hopefully my short story, “The Doctor” will join it by year-end.

If that happens the next writing goal I will focus on to land an agent, which I have been working on for numerous years.

First Horror Story Acceptance

Got some good news yesterday concerning a horror short story I wrote earlier this year. It will be published by The Literary Hatchet (I believe next month).

Ever have a night where it seems like your sleep is one continuous string of dreams? I remember having at least three different dreams while I was sleeping sometime back in February. The first one stuck with me the most. I could remember it piece by piece, and I put it to paper as soon as I could.

I’m happy to have experimented with a different genre and to get it published. I will be sharing the link to the work on here and I should also be receiving a hard copy of the published work, which will be a first for me.