Week of: 7/18/26

Status quo. I'm reading far too many books right now -- with more on the horizon as I try to stay ahead of whatever's going to be due back at the library soonest. So, in addition to Middlemarch and Dungeon Crawler Carl (the first of which is plenty), I'm listening to Babel, reading The Philosophy of Freedom by Rudolf Steiner at the behest of a friend, Gwendy's Final Task, and The Judas Goat (one of Robert Parker's Spenser detective novels).

So what did I do this evening? Grab a few more books from the library, of course!

For writing, I'm working on editing a draft for a story that I hope to submit by the end of this month.

Week of: 7/11/26

A quiet week, not much to report. No rejections (knock on wood), but that's certainly balanced out by the week prior.

In reading news, I've been reading a lot -- maybe too much. Alongside my Summer Reading project, I've also taken up Dungeon Crawler Carl, which I understand to be the current hotness. With that project, I've begun upon Middlemarch. I'm sure I'll have more to say on it later, and after I've finished, but thus far I can simply report that... I'm not sure I quite get it. Oh, it's fine, I suppose. There are characters having conversations, etc., and it's fairly cozy. I'm not hating it. But at the same time, I'm not sure I yet understand its great and enduring appeal. Perhaps that's an insight yet to come.

Week of: 7/4/26

Lots of rejections this week, what fun!

Sometimes I feel a bit like Eleanor Rigby -- writing here, writing the stories I do, and sending them out. Who is it for, I wonder? Though that's a more negative energy than I'd ordinarily like to maintain.

In a slightly more positive light, I showed up to my one-time writing workshop group, the Wordos. It remains to be seen whether I'll keep that up, but it's a nice idea. I've been reading yet another how-to-write book, Bird by Bird. And speaking of reading, I've finished Anna Karenina (and then I started and finished Mother Night)! So even if nobody buys my stories, or gets to read them, hey, at least I'm doing my part by continuing to read!

Week of: 6/27/26

Hooray! I got my first rejection from Writers of the Future since I've taken all this up again! There's a real sense of accomplishment in that, like the soreness after a workout. A physical reminder that you're a true participant, once more. Sure, it would have been nice to have won instead. Of course. But we're being realistic, here, and patient, and we will take what we can get.

I'm still working on stories. I've picked up a bad habit over the last several weeks (or longer) of starting one story only to interrupt myself by starting a different one. Soon, I'm going to have to go back and put paid to all of them, in something like a recursive loop (it also calls to mind a sequence in Gaiman's Sandman comics). But let's not bury the lede here: I continue to write. Everything else, finishing my stories, submitting them, selling them -- they're all further down the line.

The fundamental matter is to write.

Week of: 6/20/26

A day late, today, though hopefully not a dollar short.

Well, that too, I'm sure.

Writing-wise, I didn't have my most productive week ever, though I did start work on a new short story... and I have plans for another, which I might have to try to bang out, first. I'm really leaning into my Summer Reading project, and trying to take big bites of Karenina -- the only way I feel I have a real shot at completing it.

Speaking of which, I'm going to wrap this up to go read so I can get that time in before the family wakes. Writing isn't just writing, you know? It's writing in context, the context of one's life. It's like in martial arts -- and how you can't (or oughtn't) throw an attack without keeping yourself balanced. Or maybe I don't know what I'm talking about and just need more sleep...

But that's just it. Sleep. Food. Reading. Family. Friends. Work. All of the things that come up on a day-to-day basis, all of the little challenges along the way -- that's the true test of writing, beyond whatever it is that makes it onto the page, and that the reader will never know, never see, except in the myriad ways it becomes transformed into plots and characters and the rest. The story is only the beginning of the story.

But I'm putting my reading off. Till next time.

Week of: 6/13/26

So far, so good where Summer Reading is concerned. Two books up, two books down. Today, I plan on starting one of the true behemoths: Anna Karenina, this list's requisite Russian Novel, lol.

In writing news, I wrote a short story that I expect will never get published anywhere. It's irreverent, anti-Christian, specifically, and angry. I'd be happy to be proven wrong, of course. I asked myself a few times near the beginning of writing it whether it was worthwhile for me to write -- or even, perhaps, unadvisable. Because of what it might say about me. That I'm angry, sometimes, that I'm a jerk (most or all of the time).

But then I kept thinking back to the Harlan Ellison quote that I look at most every day:

"Don't be afraid...don't let them scare you...the chief commodity a writer has to sell is his courage. And if he has none, he is more than a coward. He is a sellout and a fink and a heretic, because writing is a holy chore."

And that put me back on the path to writing the stories that call to me, even if I know they won't be... oh, well-received, lol. Maybe I shouldn't be taking advice from Mr. Ellison on how to win friends and influence people...? But what can I say? He remains one of my heroes.

Publication-wise, another week gone and more rejections. Settling in the groove of it again, and it feels nice. See you next time.

Week of: 6/6/23

Another birthday has passed. This is my last year of my 40s, and I'd like to try writing a novel before I hit 50. I've never done that before -- and I'm intimidated! I've been told (probably incorrectly) that it's just writing a number of short stories, strung together.

Well... I struggle with short stories, too! But still: I have my eye on that target. A novel before I turn 50.

This week, I did put in time on a short story or two. Not nearly so much time as I'd like; life keeps getting in the way, lol. I've also thrown myself in on my Summer Reading Project, beginning A Deadly Education. I need to move and keep moving, if I'm to have any earthly chance at all at hitting this target. And I might not make it, even then. People sometimes tell me that I'm a "fast reader," but I've been around enough to know that's not true. Not particularly slow, maybe, but certainly not fast. If I want this, I'm really going to have to fight hard for it.

And hey, I've been doing this fairly regularly. Maybe it's too soon to celebrate anything -- maybe I should save that for the year anniversary? -- but one thing I'm trying to do, something I think we probably all should do more, is celebrate the small victories along the way.

So here's to another week!